Quietly thrilling
Frances is taking a break from her troubled family life and spending some time with cousins in a coastal English village.
The blackouts that she’s had off and on for years are becoming more frequent. What she hasn’t shared with anyone is that following each blackout, she creates drawings that are beginning to unnerve her. She meets a man in his 20s named Peter who sells postcards from his beach hut in Helmstown and who recognizes her as someone like him: a messenger of death. Peter also has blackouts, after which he paints minutely detailed scenes of someone dying. Within two days he must deliver the painting to that person or risk harm coming to someone he’s close to. Frances decides to take a different approach by trying to change events to prevent the deaths her drawings depict, but that has its own consequences. This unusual story’s strength lies in the depth of characterization that the author teases out of Frances’ introspection about her brother, who’s on the run from the police, as well as strong dialogue that reveals Peter’s struggle with the effects his strange power has had on his personal relationships. The premise is a bit thin, but it neatly serves as the vehicle by which Frances comes into her own.
Quietly thrilling . (Fantasy. 12-17)Pub Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7112-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
An original twist on the modern fairy tale amplified by sisterly affection and a poignant sense of place.
Seventeen, studying journalism, and living with her sisters in the City of Angels, Ava Granados believes only in that which she can see. She’s about to see a lot more.
The women of the Granados family have the gift of blessings: Upon her death, a matriarch like Ava’s beloved Nana has the chance to bestow blessings upon her female descendants. When a freak storm keeps Ava from reaching Nana’s bedside in time and disrupts the passage of her blessing before Nana dies, Ava is faced with an unlooked-for challenge, unbelievable new companions, and a boy she has no intention of falling for. Intertwining past and present, stories already told and stories yet to be discovered, debut author Cervantes carries Ava through the tumultuous summer before her senior year of high school with style, charm, and wisdom. This novel will especially resonate with any young person whose formative years have been paved with stories of fierce and industrious ancestors. The Mexican American Granados sisters sit at the junction of Hollywood affluence and immigrant grit, their perspectives adding a vibrant thread to the contemporary tapestry of Latine fiction. And Los Angeles, a city of bold dreams and glittering destinies, is a character all its own: Each lovingly described neighborhood, canyon, and beach brings new emotion to the narrative.
An original twist on the modern fairy tale amplified by sisterly affection and a poignant sense of place. (Fiction. 12-17)Pub Date: April 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-40445-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
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