TRIBUTE TO ANOTHER DEAD ROCK STAR

A teenager confronts a stomach-churning change in living arrangements in this thought-provoking tale from Powell (Dean Duffy, 1995, etc.). Three years after Grady’s rock star mother fatally overdoses, his grandmother and her new husband are about to trade in their house for an RV; he is facing the prospect of moving into the conservative Christian household of his beloved, mentally retarded half-brother Louie. A history of radical antagonism between Grady and Louie’s domineering stepmother Vickie makes this prospect unappetizing to him; deeply resentful of Vickie’s insistent efforts to distance Louie from anything that might remind him of his biological mother, Grady loses no opportunities to get under her skin. Ushering Grady past his reluctance, as well as ample self-doubt and residual grief, is his genuine affection—which is reciprocated—for Louis, a boisterous, not entirely naive character who leads a strong, nonstereotypical supporting cast. By the end, though the skies are far from clear, Vickie and Grady are headed toward a truce, each recognizing in the other a sincere will to give it a try. Although Powell occasionally indulges in overt psychologizing, he allows readers to see for themselves what drives a set of engaging, often surprising characters. (Fiction. 12-15)