Robin and her misfits A novel

Jacobson (Tink and Wendy) reimagines Robin Hood as 18-year-old Robin, fearless leader of the Merry Misfits, a band of queer teens, in this rousing heist adventure. While the five teens know nothing about each other's pasts, choosing to keep their personal histories hidden, they live together at secret Florida hideaway Nottingham, supporting themselves by committing daring highway robberies. When one such job brings Robin face-to-face with parts of her former life, the repercussions cause the group to split up, each member pursuing her own destiny. Five sections featuring alternating perspectives follow Robin, Shakespeare-quoting Daisy Chain, Robin's best friend Little John, getaway driver Skillet, and hacker White Rabbit. Each girl struggles to break free from individual traumas and outrun dogged pursuers, until they reunite for one last job. The characters' distinctive voices provide intriguing variety--White Rabbit's perspective is rendered exclusively via lightning-paced emails--especially as later segments provide new context for earlier goings-on. Jacobson's take on the well-known tale, told through a cinematic plotline, centers themes of found family and queer love. Most characters read as white. Ages 14--up. (Apr.)

Robin and her Merry Misfits steal from the rich and give to themselves. All five of the Misfits, including Robin, keep secrets about their lives before Nottingham, the home they built on an overgrown, foreclosed lot in Florida. The world rejected them, but they found each other. Together, they steal watches, televisions, diamonds, and more for Uncle Frank, a brutal mob boss who recruited Robin off the streets when she was 16. Their cherished life at Nottingham comes to an end when someone puts a $500,000 bounty on Robin's head. In this modern reimagining of the legend of Robin Hood, a cast of queer girls fight to free themselves from the control of powerful crime families and their own pasts. The fast-paced action and high stakes offer initial appeal, but the story suffers from bland characterization and sudden plot twists that rely heavily on after-the-fact flashback sequences to explain the events. Robin's flat personality makes the nonlinear plot more difficult to follow. Both Robin and her best friend, Little John, fall for Daisy Chain, a White, culturally appropriating Manic Pixie Dream Girl who speaks in Shakespeare quotes. Their messy love triangle is resolved by the hasty introduction of a new character. Most of the cast is presumed White; Robin's surname is Ramirez, but her characterization includes no significant indicators of her ethnicity. A heist with no payout. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.