SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Reba Buhr delivers the first-person narrative of 17-year-old Cassie Blake, a lonely teen whose spirit has been weighed down since her mother’s desertion. She sees herself as the caretaker of her family and has become an insomniac. Buhr voices the heaviness of this overly responsible middle child whose sense of belief amid the fervor of her religious small town is waning, even as her melancholy grows in the face of worsening climate change. Buhr vividly portrays Australian-accented Elias, whose spirit of adventure, magic, and caring introduces Cassie to lightness and possibility. Buhr deftly expresses their connection, which Elias ignites and nurtures until Cassie is ready to take the risks necessary to improve her life. S.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
08/08/2022
Cassie Blake always wanted to be a nun, but she struggles with her faith after witnessing a horrific accident, in this spiritual tale. Cassie was 11 when she and visiting friend Elias Jones watched a train crossing the bridge into exurb Green Valley, N.J., plummet into the reservoir, killing six people. Seven years later, Cassie—still processing the trauma of what she saw—has lost her faith in God, is coping with chronic insomnia, and ignores Elias’s letters from Australia. But suddenly Elias is back in Green Valley for the summer, preparing to attend college. Hoping to reconnect, he invites her to help him look for ghosts; though Cassie agrees, she’s skeptical that his high-tech gear, which includes an infrared sensor to uncover ectoplasm, will bear fruit. When Elias pulls a prank on Cassie’s contentious priest that backfires, and a harrowing incident threatens to upend his future, Cassie must contend with looming disaster, both internal and external. Though the disjointed plot occasionally stalls forward momentum, Anderson (Midnight at the Electric) uses Cassie’s contemplative and resilient voice to detail a true-to-life exploration of one teen’s shifting relationship with faith. Most characters read as white; Elias has a Bangladeshi grandparent. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
"With searing prose, Anderson lays bare Cassie's heart, documenting one girl's growing understanding of the fragility of the world and calculating as she does the equal dangers of living in it and of failing to. Tender and wise." — Booklist (starred review)
"Religious imagery sits beside cinematic descriptions of environmental tragedies, and readers are left to consider the unsolvable tension between faith and fatalism, and whether the fight for spiritual salvation is worth anything in a dying world." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
"Cassie’s despair, rage, and courage in the face of seeming hopelessness are lyrically chronicled in quiet prose... A thoughtful read about grappling with faith while learning to take a stand." — Kirkus Reviews
"Anderson uses Cassie’s contemplative and resilient voice to detail a true-to-life exploration of one teen’s shifting relationship with faith." — Publishers Weekly
School Library Journal
★ 01/27/2023
Gr 9 Up—Cassie Blake wanted to become a nun when she grew up. This all changes when she and the new boy in her New Jersey town, Elias Jones, watch a horrific accident that changes her entire belief in God. This is three books packed into one. The first part focuses on Cassie's struggle with faith and the conflicting emotions she feels about being the main caregiver for her younger brother, Gabe, after her mother's departure. The second part questions Cassie's relationships with her town and church after Elias, a visitor from Australia, unveils the town's prejudice and racism. Finally, the third section brings even more turmoil when a massive natural disaster comes to town and sweeps away everything. In what will feel relatable to teens today, Cassie's story is a rollercoaster of emotions, change, and facing the real world outside of the comfort of one's hometown. Cassie is white, Elias is described as having brown skin and black hair with a grandmother from Bangladesh. VERDICT A unique story that captures every angle of being a teen in today's world, this is a must-read.—Anna Taylor
SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Reba Buhr delivers the first-person narrative of 17-year-old Cassie Blake, a lonely teen whose spirit has been weighed down since her mother’s desertion. She sees herself as the caretaker of her family and has become an insomniac. Buhr voices the heaviness of this overly responsible middle child whose sense of belief amid the fervor of her religious small town is waning, even as her melancholy grows in the face of worsening climate change. Buhr vividly portrays Australian-accented Elias, whose spirit of adventure, magic, and caring introduces Cassie to lightness and possibility. Buhr deftly expresses their connection, which Elias ignites and nurtures until Cassie is ready to take the risks necessary to improve her life. S.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-06-22
A teenage girl longs to believe again, despite her skepticism.
Seventeen-year-old Cassie Blake, a high school senior in Green Valley, New Jersey, once wanted to be a nun. But her faith died after her mother left her family and she witnessed a tragic, fatal train crash when she was 11. She was with Elias Jones, an Australian boy in town visiting relatives; afterward he sent letters that she ignored, and their contact ceased. Now Cassie suffers from anxiety and insomnia and has a complicated relationship with religion and God. She dotes on little brother Gabe while feeling alienated from her complacent father and sister. Cassie also feels alone in pushing back against Father James, the local demagogue priest. When Elias returns to the U.S. for college, he invites Cassie on a quest that shakes up her stifling existence. Their worldviews conflict: For Cassie, the world has felt inherently unsafe ever since the accident, while for Elias, it has felt full of magic. Their love blossoms despite challenges ranging from small-town prejudice to devastating climate change events. Cassie’s despair, rage, and courage in the face of seeming hopelessness are lyrically chronicled in quiet prose that belies the magnitude of the personal and global crises the teens face. The book follows a White default. Elias has one Bangladeshi grandparent and three who are presumably White; his characterization feels racialized and underdeveloped.
A thoughtful read about grappling with faith while learning to take a stand. (Fiction. 13-18)
