Publishers Weekly
★ 07/20/2015
Wynne-Jones (Blink & Caution) deftly blends realism and fantasy in this eerie tale featuring Evan, a high school student mourning his late father, and Griff, the crusty grandfather Evan meets for the first time. Evan always knew that his ex-Marine grandfather and draft-dodger father never saw eye to eye, but he wasn’t aware of his grandfather’s unearthly encounters during WWII until he discovers the mysterious diary of a Japanese soldier. When Griff shows up at Evan’s door, Evan is immediately put off by his grandfather’s controlling tendencies, but his curiosity is piqued. Could this be the same man mentioned in the diary, who visited an island filled with flesh-eating monsters and the ghosts of unborn children? Readers will be swept up quickly in the tense relationship between Evan and Griff, as well as the unlikely friendship between enemy soldiers fighting for survival in a surreal landscape. Without spelling out the metaphoric significance of the story within the story, Wynne-Jones provides enough hints for readers to make connections and examine the lines between war and peace, as well as hate and love. Ages 14–up. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Dual stories of strength and resilience illuminate the effects that war has on individuals and on father-son relationships, effects that stretch in unexpected ways across generations as Evan and Griff make their way toward a truce. An accomplished wordsmith, Wynne-Jones achieves an extraordinary feat: he eliminates the hidden depths of personalities and families through a mesmerizing blend of realism and magic.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Readers will be swept up quickly in the tense relationship between Evan and Griff, as well as the unlikely friendship between enemy soldiers fighting for survival in a surreal landscape. Without spelling out the metaphoric significance of the story within the story, Wynne-Jones provides enough hints for readers to make connections and examine the lines between war and peace, as well as hate and love.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Wynne-Jones writes with a sure hand and a willingness to take readers into uncharted territory. The main characters in both time periods are complex and vividly portrayed, while the stories, both supernatural and realistic, quietly take note of nuances that standard narratives overlook. A riveting, remarkable novel by a reliably great Canadian writer.
—Booklist (starred review)
Offering a unique take on the World War II period, this intergenerational tale is an excellent addition to most YA collections.
—School Library Journal (starred review)
There’s a whole lot going on here: Evan’s and Griff’s shared heartbreak, exhibited in very different ways, and their own increasingly complicated relationship; the stark contrast between the mainly nondescript “Any Place” of Evan’s suburban Ontario and the horror of the desert island; and the unlikely friendship between enemy soldiers in the story-within-a-story. All these seemingly disparate parts come together in fascinating ways, resulting in an affecting and unforgettable read.
—The Horn Book (starred review)
English-Canadian author Tim Wynne-Jones (The Uninvited, Blink & Caution) crafts a truly spellbinding novel in which the mystical, desert-island, wartime chronicle is as riveting as the modern-day story... and the ways they begin to fuse together are breathtaking.
—Shelf Awareness (starred review)
The layers of intergenerational strife, savage warfare, lingering suspicion and gradual healing are quilted into a warming narrative that is both uncompromisingly tragic and holistically redemptive. Readers will carry this haunting story with them for a long time.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
Literary master Tim Wynne-Jones has penned another outstanding book for adventurous readers, combining history and horror to grip the imagination.
—BookPage
...the historical aspect combined with the supernatural will draw readers of varying interests.
—School Library Connection
Canadian YA master Tim Wynne-Jones keeps two fires burning equally, and with seeming ease, in his signature taut style.
—The Globe and Mail
School Library Journal - Audio
★ 02/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—While going through his deceased father's belongings, Evan, 16, finds an unpublished manuscript and begins to read. His estranged grandfather, Griff, is a retired Marine and wants nothing to do with the book, which turns out to contain two different stories: one from the point of view of a Japanese soldier and one from an American soldier—both set on Kokoro Jima, the Heart Shaped Island. At times the stories are surreal and feature ghosts of the unborn, the Jikininki, or eaters of the dead, and the most intriguing character, Tengu—also known as "the monster." Todd Haberkorn proves to be a talented reader as he navigates three different stories, the past and present, and characters who are different ages, ethnicities, and genders. Haberkorn keeps the tone steady, and there is no doubt about which characters or time period he is voicing. Listeners will want to know if the creatures are real and if Evan and his grandfather reconcile. VERDICT An essential purchase that tells a different story from World War II within a realistic framing. ["This intergenerational tale is an excellent addition to most YA collections": SLJ 10/15 starred review of the Candlewick book.]—Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI
School Library Journal
★ 10/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—An ambitious treatise on grief, war, memory, and the bonds between fathers and sons. Evan is 16 when his beloved father dies suddenly at home. Evan has no other family, so his estranged grandfather, Griff, whom he has never met, flies in to help him settle the affairs. The source of the family schism was the Vietnam War, when Evan's hippie father moved to Canada to dodge the draft, infuriating his father, a lifelong Marine. While going through his father's belongings, Evan happens upon a Japanese diary detailing a marooned soldier's account during World War II, a book that he knows he must keep from his grandfather at all costs. The narrative contained in this secret book unfolds throughout the course of the novel as readers meet Lance Corporal Isamu Oshiro of the Imperial Japanese Army through his own words and learn how his story ended up in the hands of Evan's father. This work is at its best when it is mired in death—seen in Oshiro's self-appointed job as island undertaker, as well as in Griff's stoic refusal to discuss his son's death—and Wynne-Jones is spot-on in his writing on grief, especially from Evan's point of view. The book-within-a-book plot is less successful, as Oshiro's account is a bit lengthy, and the suspense of Griff's involvement ends quickly and conveniently, without much satisfaction for readers. However, the high points of this tale make it worth a first purchase. VERDICT Offering a unique take on the World War II period, this intergenerational tale is an excellent addition to most YA collections.—Susannah Goldstein, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City
NOVEMBER 2015 - AudioFile
Narrator Todd Haberkorn transitions between characters, times, and places in an audiobook that weaves two narratives. Evan, a high school student, is stunned by his father’s sudden death and confused about a newly arrived book that seems connected to it. Haberkorn contrasts this somber numbness with a sarcasm that barely contains Evan’s fury when his caustic grandfather arrives. Haberkorn’s portrayal of the cantankerous 90-year-old ex-Marine is laced with unexpressed grief, a subtlety missed by his grandson. Evan finds comfort in the mysterious book, which recounts the story of a Japanese soldier and an American soldier who are stranded on a small Pacific island during WWII. Haberkorn gracefully enacts this story’s complexities, shifting between lightly accented Japanese and the soldiers’ fearful reactions to supernatural beings. Author and narrator bring the novel’s two strands together in a poignant climax. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2015-07-22
After the shock of his father's sudden death and the arrival of a grandfather he was taught to hate but never met, Evan must unravel a family mystery. His father, Clifford, had been reading a peculiar, leather-bound memoir of a Japanese soldier who was marooned on an island during World War II. An accompanying letter suggests that it's somehow connected to Evan's grandfather Griff, a military man with "steel in [his] backbone." Evan knows that his father never got along with Griff, whose very presence irritates Evan as well, especially when he calls him "soldier." Not wanting to reveal anything to Griff, Evan starts to read Isamu Oshiro's memoir and finds himself mesmerized by the haunting, sad journal addressed to Isamu's fiancee. This book within a book, with its monsters, ghost children, and mysterious glimpses of the future, is as tightly written as Evan's modern-day story. Evan's resistance to his grandfather, colored by his father's poor relationship with him, slowly adjusts the deeper he gets into Isamu's memoir. Dual stories of strength and resilience illuminate the effects that war has on individuals and on father-son relationships, effects that stretch in unexpected ways across generations as Evan and Griff make their ways toward a truce. An accomplished wordsmith, Wynne-Jones achieves an extraordinary feat: he illuminates the hidden depths of personalities and families through a mesmerizing blend of realism and magic. (Fiction. 13-17)
