Lovely writing but a bit of a missed opportunity.
A synesthete in a medieval priory confronts the plague.
Edyth, 16 in the year 1348, is sent by Lord Geoffrey, to whom she’s bound, to Saint Christopher’s Priory after her family dissolves. As a lay sister, she’s expected to work for the nuns, not take vows, but she’s not permitted to leave, even when a young man from her village comes in hopeful pursuit. Edyth’s talent for drawing lands her first in the scriptorium, preparing pigments, and later illuminating manuscripts. Edyth feels, smells, and hears in color with overwhelming intensity. Her unusual abilities caused her to be distrusted in her village, and now she’s seen as a possible prophet by the nuns—or, perhaps, cursed. When the plague reaches Yorkshire, locals flock to the priory in desperate waves, seeking medical aid. Then the story veers from grounded reality to mysticism, as Edyth finds a magic spring of healing water. Stamper illustrates the novel with her own spare, evocative, full-color drawings, bringing Edyth’s synesthesia to vivid life. The story starts out strong but falters—many details dwelt upon in the beginning fade to nothingness, and the magical realism seems out of place: Since Stamper goes to lengths to show that Edyth’s neurodivergence is a normal variant, later developments feel disingenuous. Some of the side characters come across as caricatures, and the plot doesn’t quite hold together.
Lovely writing but a bit of a missed opportunity. (glossary, author’s note, translations, maps) (Historical fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-0041-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.
A devastating tale of greed and secrets springs from the summer that tore Cady’s life apart.
Cady Sinclair’s family uses its inherited wealth to ensure that each successive generation is blond, beautiful and powerful. Reunited each summer by the family patriarch on his private island, his three adult daughters and various grandchildren lead charmed, fairy-tale lives (an idea reinforced by the periodic inclusions of Cady’s reworkings of fairy tales to tell the Sinclair family story). But this is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters’ slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady’s fairy-tale retellings are dark, as is the personal tragedy that has led to her examination of the skeletons in the Sinclair castle’s closets; its rent turns out to be extracted in personal sacrifices. Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family’s foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying. Instead, she humanizes them (and their painful contradictions) by including nostalgic images that showcase the love shared among Cady, her two cousins closest in age, and Gat, the Heathcliff-esque figure she has always loved. Though increasingly disenchanted with the Sinclair legacy of self-absorption, the four believe family redemption is possible—if they have the courage to act. Their sincere hopes and foolish naïveté make the teens’ desperate, grand gesture all that much more tragic.
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74126-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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