by by Cat Winters Book list *Starred Review* Winters' debut ropes in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, WWI shell shock, national prejudice, and spirit photography, and yet never loses focus from its primary thesis: desperation will make people believe and do almost anything. Mary Shelley Black, 16, has been sent to live with her aunt in San Diego, a city crawling with gauze mask-wearing citizens fearful of catching the deadly virus. Loss is everywhere, which means booming business for spirit photographer Julius, the older brother of Mary's true love, Stephen, who is off fighting in the trenches. Stephen's death coincides with Mary suffering electrocution, an event with strange aftereffects: Mary sends compass needles spinning, can taste emotions, and begins to see and hear Stephen's ghost, in torment over the maniacal birdmen that tortured and killed him. Mary believes his spirit will rest when she uncovers the truth about his death a truth more horrifying than most readers will expect. A scattering of period photos, including eerie examples of spirit photography, further the sense of time and place, but the main event here is Winters' unconventional and unflinching look at one of the darkest patches of American history. More than anything, this is a story of the breaking point between sanity and madness, delivered in a straightforward and welcoming teen voice.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. Publishers Weekly Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black lives up to her striking name-she's a curious girl fascinated by science, living in 1918, "a year the devil designed," as Mary puts it. With WWI raging on and Mary's father on trial for treason, she goes to live with her Aunt Eva in San Diego, Calif., even as influenza sweeps across America, devastating the population and rendering those left behind paranoid and weary. Grieving for her childhood beau Stephen, who died while fighting overseas with the Army, Mary goes outside during a thunderstorm and is struck dead by lightning-for a few minutes. When Mary comes to, she discovers she can communicate with the dead, including Stephen. Winters's masterful debut novel is an impressively researched marriage of the tragedies of wartime, the 1918 flu epidemic, the contemporaneous Spiritualism craze, and a chilling love story and mystery. Unsettling b&w period photographs appear throughout, a la Ransom Riggs's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, greatly adding to the novel's deliciously creepy atmosphere. Ages 12-up. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Agency. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved |
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