Sad Sadie

Sadie by Courtney Summers 

New York : Wednesday Books, 2018. 

311 p. ; 21 cm.

I think I picked up this book after a student returned it last month and said they liked it. It's a thriller dealing with a dead girl and a her missing older sister. The novel is woven from two strands. The narration from the missing older girl - Sadie - and the transcripts of a fictional podcast "The Girls." The podcast is one that was set in motion when the producers heard of the murdered young girl and her missing older sister. We follow the podcast host as he tries to figure out - through visits, research and interviews - what happened to Sadie.

In the narration from Sadie we figure out that her young sister was probably raped and killed by someone she may know and she has taken off in a car to see if she can find him. Along the way she interacts with people and tries to figure out who killed her sister and where he lives. We also learn that Sadie has been the victim of pedophiles and is in search of revenge for both her sister and herself. You might be wondering about parents. Her father has never been in the picture and her mother is a long-time addict who abandoned Sadie and her little sister.

So the novel is a mystery, a road trip, a podcast, and a revenge tale - one that will leave you with as many questions as answers when you finish.

I think Sadie is a good novel and I'd recommend it for someone wanting a thriller/mystery dealing with murder/family troubles/ and sexual abuse. However, I just never really found myself taken with the book. I think there were too many times where the plot felt a little overwrought and many times where I got confused about who was who (after all there are several abusive men involved and one of the villains has several aliases). The who podcast set-up also didn't resonate with me, but it might with other readers. I'd say it's a solid read, but one that just didn't appeal so much to me.       

Art Lives!

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older 

New York, NY : Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., c2015.    

297 p. ; 20 cm. 

I had been wanting to read this book for quite a while. I was going to read it during Hispanic Heritage Month, but a students checked out the copies we had (which is great!). So when they came back in I checked it out to myself and read it.

Shadowshaper is the debut novel writers dream of - it was a "Top Ten" on ALA and YALSA lists, a "Best Book of the Year" at NPR and Publishers Weekly, and received stellar reviews, etc. The praise was not undeserved. It's a wonderfully creative novel - undergirded by concerns of ethnic heritage, sexism, gentrification, cultural appropriation - that manages to be a supernatural thriller, urban fantasy, and coming of age story all at once.

At the heart of the story is Sierra a Puerto Rican teen artist/muralist living in Brooklyn. As the story unfolds she learns that her powers are not just artistic, but connected to an age old spiritual power that allows her to bring spirits into her works of art - literally bringing them to life.  This of course would be a ho-hum story without an evil force that seeks to destroy shadowshapers like Sierra so as to gather all that power into himself.  It is a life-and-death danger and Sierra must confront it head on with the help of a another shadowshaping artist - Robbie - and her friends and brother.  The battle between the forces of Sierra and her allies and their nemesis provides the action of the novel.

For some this action will be what draws and holds them in the story.  For me this was the weakest part of the novel. The climactic battle scenes feel like they owe too much action movie staging. I found the most moving parts of the novel were the beginnings of Sierra's understanding of her powers and the descriptions of the art works coming to life, and her meeting with her grandmother's spirit.  But that's me, and I recognize that the gruesome creatures and the bone-crunching fights will be what keeps many readers going right to the satisfying end.

No American Dream

American Street by Ibi Zoboi 

New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2017]

324 p. ; 22 cm. 

American Street is a super book. I'm glad to see it got a lot of recognition - starred reviews and a finalist for the National Book Award. The book is the story of Fabiola, high school aged young woman who was born in the US, raised in Haiti and has returned to the US with her mother so they can rejoin the mother's sister and her three girls in Detroit. Of course, nothing goes smoothly: the mother (not a US citizen) is detained at the NYC airport by ICE while Fabiola is sent on to Detroit and tries to fit in to her aunt's family - a family full of love - but also serious troubles (debts, drug dealing, a dead father, and a crumbling neighborhood). 

The novel follows Fabiola as she tries to navigate the huge, strange country that is the United States, the dicey/lively city of Detroit, and the complicated relationships of her three cousins, who both form a formidable front, though each young woman has a striking and different personality.  

There are many sources of dramatic tension in the novel. Fabiola desperately wants to get her Mom out of ICE detention, she also falls hard in love, and she has to prove herself to her streetwise cousins, etc. In her desperation to get help for her mother, she makes the mistake of becoming an informant to a narcotics detective and things get VERY complicated and VERY dangerous. 

I won't give away the twists and turns of the plot, but after the first chapter things get very interesting. Readers are also easily introduced to the worldview of vodou through the perspective of Fabiola who believes in it and sees the world through that lens - to the point where there is a blurred boundary between the real and the magical/spiritual in many scenes.  In a lesser writer these could be a real weakness, but in this novel they add to its richness.

As you can tell, I'll definitely be recommending this book to readers.

Nothing About Everything

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

New York : Kokila, [2019]

323 p. : maps ; 22 cm. 

I know I ordered this book for the strong reviews it received, but what finally made me grab it off the shelf to look at one more time is the captivating cover.  So, yes, covers matter! But there is so much more to this book.  I think it is one of the best YA books I have read in a long time.

So what makes me hold this book such high regard? I think what I love is that it manages to do so many things at once and never condescends.  What is Patron Saints of Nothing about?  So many things: letting a friendship drop, family secrets, political violence, drug trafficking, the immigrant connecting with the home country, American naivete, the complexities of the truth, and growing up. Let me offer an example.

In the middle of the novel, the main character, high school senior Jay confronts his reactionary, violent uncle about the situation in the Philippines. The confrontation between them rings so true.  The uncle who knows so much more about the Philippines than Jay, cuts him down to size as nothing but a spoiled, arrogant American coming back to the country he left as a baby.  Jay knows the moral truth he is committed to, but is no match against the harsh and cynical adult and loses that argument.  I've never read such a well conveyed interchange that captures this dynamic. 

There is so much more.  The novel is a coming of age novel, it's a murder mystery, it's a family conflict drama, it's a bit of a romance - and yet it manages to weave all these strands together without feeling forced.  

I will recommend this book to our students and hope I can find someone who likes it as much as I did.

  

Two Days by the Sea

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 

Boston : Mariner Books, [2005], c1955.

xii, 209 p. ; 21 cm.     

I decided to read To the Lighthouse during the stay at home time this spring since I haven't read Virginia Woolf in a long time and it seemed like a short read and a chance to catch up on a "classic." 

This is not a novel you read for the narrative.  Most of the book happens on two single days separated by an interval of ten years. Within those ten years Europe is ripped apart by WWI and one of the central characters of part one dies.  However the novel is more interested in the impressions of various characters and the complex inner life of the characters. Instead of narrative being the engine of the novel, the movement of the novel is driven by impressionist and poetic writing.

There is much to admire in Woolf's writing, but I have to say it took me longer to read than I expected.  It's a book one savors for its stylistic accomplishments.  I think reading it during the pandemic, made it harder to truly enjoy the rich artistry of the writing.  With all that said, it's not really a book I would recommend to a student, unless they are really interested in literature as an art form.  In that case, I would recommend it as a significant milestone in English fiction, one that charted new territory for the genre.