Izzy + Tristan

March 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-This modern retelling of Tristan and Isolde has all of the romance, tragedy, and melodrama of its source material. Izzy and Tristan cross paths and fall in love after her white family moves into his mostly black neighborhood in Brooklyn. Tristan is a quiet, sensitive chess whiz who has earned his standing in the neighborhood by playing and winning chess matches that his locally powerful bad boy cousin Marcus bets on. When Marcus sets his sights on Izzy, a chain of events is set in motion that cannot end well. And it doesn't. Race, class, gentrification, police violence, and mental illness are all handled in an up-front manner, though some of the conversations and conclusions drawn aren't delved into deeply enough. Izzy's brother's mental illness is a heavy subplot that never quite feels resolved. The story takes a left turn after the main plot is wrapped up, the romance fizzles, and the tragic, sensational ending may feel a bit tacked on to some. VERDICT A combination of a tale-as-old-as-time doomed romance and ripped-from-the-headlines action. A solid choice for medium-size collections.-Beth McIntyre, Madison Public Library, WI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2019
"Izzy" (short for Iseult), a white Irish-American aspiring future doctor, and Tristan, a Trinidadian-American chess prodigy, become caught up in a risky love polygon.Izzy moves to Brooklyn from Manhattan and has to adjust to her new life and the increased distance she feels from her twin brother. Tristan plays chess in the park at the behest of his cousin, Marcus, who makes money from Tristan's wins. Hours before the two lovers meet, complicated events lead Marcus to ask Tristan to be his wingman as he woos Izzy. Later, Tristan and Izzy end up hiding their relationship from everyone--or trying to. The consequences of their deception are broken relationships and body parts. Tristan has to make some tough choices, finding that sometimes events are set in motion that we cannot control. Flowery language does nothing to hide an unbelievable romance, and some characters feel flat, seemingly introduced purely for foreshadowing and plot advancement. The topic of race in this interracial romance is not explored sufficiently, and a scene (and subsequent conversation between Tristan and his aunt) in which Izzy's brother threatens Tristan with a knife following a chess match resulting in the arrival of the police shows a lack of understanding of the experience of black families with law enforcement.This updated version of the medieval classic disappoints. (Fiction. 14-18)

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December 15, 2018
Grades 9-12 It's not far from Manhattan to Brooklyn, but when Izzy's parents move her and her twin brother across the river and away from the Lower East Side, it feels like another world. Izzy, who wants to be a doctor and doesn't make friends easily, plans on keeping her head down and her grades up until graduation. But when she meets Tristan, everything changes. A soft-spoken chess prodigy, Tristan lives in the shadow of his cousin Marcus, winning games in the park and staying out of the trouble that Marcus seems to court. But when Izzy's and Tristan's paths cross, they embark on a journey that mixes star-crossed romance with old rivalries. This debut breathes new life into the epic tale of Tristan and Iseult?; instead of war, the game is chess. This modern tragedy-romance is deadly serious in its execution, placing teens on the front lines of today's headlines. With rich prose and a backdrop that draws on racial tensions in America, this is a fierce, smart reimagining of a timeless love story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)