Current mood:

ecstatic

A ROOM ON LORELEI STREET
I am so relieved I don't have a dog in the hunt this year. Translation for you non-southerners--I don't have a book out this year. Because I've already read some knock outs. Mary E. Pearson has already written a couple of terrific books but she swings for the bleachers in A ROOM ON LORELEI STREET. I had the privilege of reading this book early in manuscript and it's grown in depth and layers since then, but even in early stages, I couldn't shake the characters. I couldn't get it straight after a while if Zoe was someone I had taught or met and then I'd remember, she was Mary's character. I love an author that's brave. Debbie Garfinkle was certainly brave to take such a serious theme in her book STORKY and draped it in a cloak of humor. BUt Mary Pearson's bravery comes at us in a different way. We, the reader, love Zoe, we bond with her right away. We hurt for her and want her to have that room on Lorelei street, that haven of sanity and peace and something clean and unsullied. And when we see what's going to happen, what's just inevitable, we don't want it to happen to our Zoe, it's going to break out heart. Most authors would flinch. Intrude. Give us what we want and save Zoe from herself. But not Mary. Zoe does what Zoe is destined to do. She breaks our hearts and her own. And the room on Lorelei Street becomes not her salvation but her destruction. This book does for teens what few authors allow their books to do: gives them total honesty. It hurts. It's gut wrenching. But it's real.

There are YA books out there that purport to be edgy and they start that way, but they pull back at the end. And they are popular. The kids eat them up like popcorn. But, I don't think they are remembered after the feast. There's not much discuss or argue. Honest books like this one will be remembered, discussed and held close to the heart for a long time. I certainly won't forget it. I won't forget Zoe. She sings a sad song, but she how she does sing.