The Chaos of Standing Still

September 1, 2017
A snowstorm on New Year's Eve closes Denver International Airport, canceling flights and stranding passengers; for Ryn, immobilized by grief since the death of her best friend, Lottie, a year ago, getting stuck might be just what she needs to move on.Ryn has a meet-cute with Xander, a fellow stranded passenger and the attractive, biracial son of celebrity psychologists (white mom, African-American dad), when they accidentally exchange cellphones. Once the white teen has verified her phone still contains Lottie's last, unread message, the two wander the airport, eat, talk, separate, and meet up again. In between, Ryn rescues Troy, a 13-year-old white child prodigy and Harvard grad student who's on a mission to locate clues said to be secret code predicting an Illuminati-generated apocalypse. The three attend an impromptu party in an airport hotel room that their airport-employee hosts, Siri (black) and Jimmy (white), have decorated creatively with airport gleanings. As night wears on, Ryn and Xander probe each other's secrets with interesting results. An assault of flashbacks to Ryn's friendship with Lottie weighs down the briskly entertaining plot. Unlike the lively, multicultural airport employees, denizens, and strandees, Lottie's a stock character, the wild white party girl, maddening but lovable, beautiful and rich, now tragically deceased. Readers, like grounded travelers, are stuck in the past with Lottie or, later, in glum therapy sessions with Ryn when they'd rather be checking out Illuminati clues with Troy or playing Stranded Passenger Bingo with Siri and Jimmy.Enjoyable light romance with emotional baggage--call it an early winter beach read. (Fiction. 13-16)

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Starred review from September 25, 2017
For months 18-year-old Ryn has been struggling to accept the car crash that killed her best friend Lottie. As the anniversary of the event draws near, an anxious and withdrawn Ryn plans to spend the day at home, far from other people. Instead she gets stranded at a crowded airport during a blizzard. Spanning less than 24 hours, Brody’s psychologically taut novel examines the internal and external crises of a grieving teen who is unable to express her emotions. Haunted by images and the voice of vibrant, capricious Lottie, who had always been her guide, Ryn just wants to find a place to hide but is distracted by strangers: a child genius who needs her to pretend that she’s his sister, a sassy waitress who invites her to a party, and a teenage boy who coaxes her out of her shell and inspires her to take a hard look at herself and the friend she has lost. Absorbing from first page to last, Brody’s novel gradually unveils Ryn’s complicated history and celebrates her most profound moments of truth. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

October 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Ryn Gilbert's life changed irrevocably a year ago when her best friend, Lottie, was behind the wheel of a T-boned car. Ryn has held onto many things ever since, including one text message that allows her to keep Lottie near- it has gotten to the point that she questions her own sanity, and even keeps her therapist from knowing that she still sees and speaks to her friend. Now Ryn is stuck in the Denver Airport on the night before the anniversary of Lottie's death due to a blizzard with Xander, a boy she meets when they accidentally swap phones. The airport setting allows Ryn to open up to Xander, who is connected to her by circumstance and weighed down by his own issues. It also allows them to interact with other unique characters, including a child prodigy and the slightly older airport workers Siri and Harvey, who throw an illicit New Year's Eve party, while helping Ryn work out problems that she has been unable to face in her own life. This will appeal to fans of Jennifer E. Smith's books and Nicola Yoon's Everything, Everything. VERDICT A solid choice for contemporary romance collections in public and school libraries.-Betsy Fraser, Calgary Public Library, Canada

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