The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead

Starred review from February 21, 2011
Loosely based on true events from the early 20th century, Elwork's first novel poignantly depicts the desperate need of people to believe in life after death. In 1925, at her family's suburban Philadelphia estate, 13-year-old Emily Stewart discovers she can make a loud rapping noise with her ankle. With her sly twin brother, Michael, Emily entertains gullible schoolmates with "knockings" that spirits purportedly make to answer questions about the afterlife. When adults who have suffered the loss of loved ones start consulting her as a spirit medium, her efforts to give them consolation begin to seem increasingly like cruel deceptions. Interweaving Emily's experiences with those of several generations of family and friends devastated by tragic loss, Elwork paints an unforgettable portrait of individuals traumatized by death and unhinged by grief. The subtle and moving portrayal of people in the grip of powerful emotions that overwhelm rational thinking will haunt readers long after they put the book down.

February 1, 2011

A debut novel about 13-year-old twins, Emily and Michael, who live on a large estate that borders the Delaware River.

The year is 1925 and the twins' father, a wealthy doctor who was something of a hero, is dead. He died in the service of his country while in France, trying to save the lives of American troops injured in battle during the war. The two children thrive on stories of their father, doled out by their mother, Naomi, and the family's only live-in help, Mary. The twins want for nothing but perhaps a little excitement, which they find in an odd and disturbing way: Emily discovers a talent she cannot explain. She can make an odd sound using her ankle bones. Soon, she and Michael employ her talent; they pretend that Emily can talk to the spirit of one of their ancestors. Regina, who died mysteriously from drowning in the Delaware while still a teenager, becomes the focus of the twins' séances, to which they invite impressionable young friends. Their sessions soon grow increasingly elaborate and before they know it, they are performing for adults, a feat Michael savors, but Emily finds more and more uncomfortable with each lie she tells. In the meantime, Emily has been piecing together her own family's history, reaching back to the days when her forbears moved from a plantation in Virginia to their present home, and discovering family secrets planted along the way. While her mother reacquaints herself with an old friend, Emily digs into the past and finds a family she never knew existed. Meanwhile, the ghost sessions become more serious and disturbing, leaving Emily with the uncomfortable impression that she and Michael have been opening doors that should have remained closed.

An intricate yet beautifully told story that is less about ghosts and more about secrets and how destructive they can be.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2011

In the summer of 1925, 13-year-old Emily Stewart discovers a bizarre physical quirk that allows her to create an otherworldly knocking sound. As a diversion, Emily and her twin brother, Michael, use her ability to convince other kids that they can communicate with the dead. They create a cast of "ghosts" from family ancestors and local soldiers who were lost in the recent Great War. Word spreads in their Philadelphia neighborhood, and soon they are performing not just for their peers but for a circle of adult spiritualists. Real and imagined ghosts catch up with the twins, as they are overwhelmed by the sorrows and secrets of their neighbors. VERDICT Elwork's debut incorporates elements of World War I and early 20th-century spiritualism that will appeal to history enthusiasts, but it is his somber tone and emotional evocation of loss and heartbreak that will win over readers of literary fiction.--Catherine Lantz, Morton Coll. Lib., Cicero, IL

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2011
In this elegantly written debut novel set in Philadelphia in 1925, privileged 13-year-old twins Emily and Michael come up with an elaborate plan to convincingly demonstrate Emilys ability to commune with the dead through a practice called spirit knocking, which is akin to a s'ance. In the doll-like teahouse behind their mansion, they practice on the neighborhood children, who are so entranced they soon pass the word to adults. What started out as a lark soon becomes much more complicated as the twins are called back repeatedly to a circle of lonely, even desperate old women, all of whom long to return to a past that was far richer than the gloomy present. Emily, now burdened with the responsibility of reconciling her clients with their mistakes, recriminations, and grievous losses, begins to sense that she has left her childhood behind and might not be up to the task of bringing these people any sense of closure. Family secrets, a love triangle, and a duplicitous magician add to the darkening atmosphere of a thought-provoking novel that blurs the boundaries between faith and trickery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)