Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

 

Inland

by Kat Rosenfield

hitting shelves June 12, 2014 from Dutton Juvenile

description:

The psychological labyrinth of a young woman’s insidious connection to the sea, from the Edgar Award nominated author of Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone.

Callie Morgan has long lived choked by the failure of her own lungs, the result of an elusive pulmonary illness that has plagued her since childhood. A childhood marked early by the drowning death of her mother—a death to which Callie was the sole witness. Her father has moved them inland, away from the memories of the California coast her mother loved so much and toward promises of recovery—and the escape of denial—in arid, landlocked air.

But after years of running away, the promise of a life-changing job for her father brings Callie and him back to the coast, to Florida, where Callie’s symptoms miraculously disappear. For once, life seems delightfully normal. But the ocean’s edge offers more than healing air … it holds a magnetic pull, drawing Callie closer and closer to the chilly, watery embrace that claimed her mother. Returned to the ocean, Callie comes of age and comes into a family destiny that holds generations of secrets and very few happy endings.

 

My thoughts: After the bizarre tale that was Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, I couldn't wait to read more from this author.  Now it's almost here...and it looks even more up my alley.  Cool cover, too. :)

 

Becky's View: Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone
by Kat Rosenfield
♦publisher: Dutton Juvenile
♦release date: July 5th, 2012
♦hardcover, 279 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult (recommend for 16+)
♦source: from publisher for honest review

An arresting un-coming-of-age story, from a breathtaking talent

Becca has always longed to break free from her small, backwater hometown. But the discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt road sends the town--and Becca--into a tailspin. Unable to make sense of the violence of the outside world creeping into her backyard, Becca finds herself retreating inward, paralyzed from moving forward for the first time in her life.

Short chapters detailing the last days of Amelia Anne Richardson's life are intercut with Becca's own summer as the parallel stories of two young women struggling with self-identity and relationships on the edge twist the reader closer and closer to the truth about Amelia's death.

Review: Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone has the feel of the old classics that have stood the test of time.  The writing is exceptional.  Beautiful, haunting, and truly exceptional.  The story is dark and not at all lacking in grit, as anyone should be able to guess from the subject matter. The mystery of Amelia's death unravels slowly and hauntingly, but with Rosenfield's writing, every word seems to have been carefully chosen to really sink the story and the imagery right into your heart and your gut.  Amelia's death is all the more grueling, Becca's emotions hit home all the more heavily, and the small town of Bridgeton seems to practically breath with a life of its own. 

The story flits back and forth between Becca and James' past and present, and then little bits of Amelia's story leading up to her death are thrown in.  The investigation plods on, fingers are pointed, and we get little tidbits of the town's back story that gives us a feel of how the town and it's people work.  I loved how the small-town gossip and the tragedy itself were practically characters in their own right---something tangible that slips through the front door and sits at the family table for dinner. 

While, for me, this story did start out a little slowly after the initial shock of the body being found, and the explanations of "this is how it works in a small town" became a little redundant at times,  there was a point about half way through where I stopped being able to put it down. The oncoming reveal starts rushing at you like a freight train as suspicions go horribly awry, Becca seems to be eaten up by her doubt and fear of her own future,  and the truth of what really happened on the night Amelia died eerily surfaces. 

A haunting and intense read.  I can't wait to read more from Kat Rosenfield. 

 Find Kat Rosenfield online: Website  •  Facebook  •  Twitter

Purchase Amelia Anne is Dead on Gone:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  BookDepository  •   Indiebound