A New-Age tale of surrendering to God’s will packaged as a Hogwarts-like adventure.
In Cherubim’s debut YA novel, a young, abused girl discovers magic in her life as she inherits wealth and a position at a school for the spiritually gifted.
Mary Baker, who spends hours locked in a closet by her abusive mother, mourns when the kind grandfather she hardly knew dies. When Mary inherits Grandpa Hal’s haunted orchard, as well as his hidden wealth and an important stone, her mother takes the battle to court—and Mary begins a happier life in the custody of her grandfather’s friends, who run the orchard. Just as she adjusts to better circumstances, she is whisked off to the White Light Center, a New-Age school where she learns how to communicate with spirits and surrender to God. The plot’s long buildup means that most of the action—the loss of Grandpa Hal’s precious stone and the attempt to recover it—is crammed into the last half, and Mary’s new friends at the White Light Center are rushed in their character development. The supernatural subplots bear some similarity to the Harry Potter series, but those concerned about witchcraft in Rowling’s tales might appreciate the God-centered focus here (although the magic itself is divorced from religion and dependent on crystals). The magical practice—talking to good spirits, shunning evil ones and consulting the Holy Spirits—may attract readers itching for such adventures. Author Cherubim imaginatively renders key factors in her spiritual system—surrendering to the will of God—throughout the novel, initially in Mary’s first swimming lessons and later as a deus ex avis, when some of Mary’s problems are solved, just as she has given up solving them, by her parrot. While Mary and her friends and family have some depth, the villains—Mary’s wicked mother, an evil sorceress and the wicked Zad—are completely two-dimensional placeholders for bad deeds. Still, young readers may appreciate the world of spirits and strange creatures found at a magic school.
A New-Age tale of surrendering to God’s will packaged as a Hogwarts-like adventure.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482659696
Page Count: 284
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly...
In a radical departure from her realistic fiction and comic chronicles of Anastasia, Lowry creates a chilling, tightly controlled future society where all controversy, pain, and choice have been expunged, each childhood year has its privileges and responsibilities, and family members are selected for compatibility.
As Jonas approaches the "Ceremony of Twelve," he wonders what his adult "Assignment" will be. Father, a "Nurturer," cares for "newchildren"; Mother works in the "Department of Justice"; but Jonas's admitted talents suggest no particular calling. In the event, he is named "Receiver," to replace an Elder with a unique function: holding the community's memories—painful, troubling, or prone to lead (like love) to disorder; the Elder ("The Giver") now begins to transfer these memories to Jonas. The process is deeply disturbing; for the first time, Jonas learns about ordinary things like color, the sun, snow, and mountains, as well as love, war, and death: the ceremony known as "release" is revealed to be murder. Horrified, Jonas plots escape to "Elsewhere," a step he believes will return the memories to all the people, but his timing is upset by a decision to release a newchild he has come to love. Ill-equipped, Jonas sets out with the baby on a desperate journey whose enigmatic conclusion resonates with allegory: Jonas may be a Christ figure, but the contrasts here with Christian symbols are also intriguing.
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 978-0-395-64566-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1993
In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and...
A deliciously creepy page-turning gem from first-time writer and illustrator Brosgol finds brooding teenager Anya trying to escape the past—both her own and the ghost haunting her.
Anya feels out of place at her preppy private school; embarrassed by her Russian heritage, she has worked hard to lose her accent and to look more like everyone else. After a particularly frustrating morning at the bus stop, Anya storms off, only to accidentally fall down a well. Down in the dark hole, she meets Emily, a ghost who claims to be a murder victim trapped down in the dank abyss for 90 years. With Emily’s help, Anya manages to escape, though once free, she learns that Emily has traveled out with her. At first, Emily seems like the perfect friend; however, once her motives become clear, Anya learns that “perfect” may only be an illusion. A moodily atmospheric spectrum of grays washes over the clean, tidy panels, setting a distinct stage before the first words appear. Brosgol’s tight storytelling invokes the chilling feeling of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (2002), though for a decidedly older set.
In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and outward appearance. (Graphic supernatural fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59643-552-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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