The Careful Undressing of Love

October 31, 2016
Lorna’s Brooklyn street is great—everyone looks out for each other, especially in hard times. But it’s also cursed: when a woman on Devonairre Street loves a man, he dies young. Lorna and her friends only half believe in this curse, even though all of their mothers are widows, but when Lorna’s best friend Delilah’s boyfriend is killed, they can’t make light of it any longer. Haydu (Making Pretty) sets this story in a slightly counterfactual version of New York City, with Times Square as Ground Zero and a lingering focus on memorializing the victims and their families, rather than a retaliatory war. Lorna’s father died in “the Bombing,” as did the father of her friend and neighbor Cruz. She was 11, he was 12, and now—nearly seven years later—their friendship is starting to feel like love. There is a lot of dramatic potential, but it never fully pays off. Is the curse real? Can it be averted? By what sacrifices? Haydu offers no answers or resolution, and after a long buildup, the ending is both sudden and unsatisfying. Ages 14–up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Literary.

To be loved by a Devonairre Street girl is to be sentenced to death--or so says the neighborhood curse. Narrator Julia Whelan packs emotional punches with her narration. Set in a reimagined New York City with an alternate history, the audiobook follows Lorna and her teen friends as they come of age. The small group of girls is focused on grief and made famous by its victim status. Whelen ensures that all the gasps, sobs, and heartache are heard in the emotional conversations of the teens after they lose one of their own to a sudden death. She steadies the tragic story with her strong, melodic voice as the story asks the question: Can Lorna choose between an uneventful life without love and a life punctuated by a short-lived love that is soon replaced by agony? A.L.C. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine