The Love That Split the World

October 5, 2015
Henry debuts with an intriguing story of two lovestruck teenagers who appear to live in different versions of the same world. Natalie Cleary is about to finish high school, attend Brown University, and leave her small Kentucky town (and her complicated ex-boyfriend) for good. However, her visions—middle-of-the-night ones that involve a wise, storytelling woman she calls Grandmother—are now occurring during the day and revealing glimpses of a different town and a gorgeous stranger named Beau. With the deadline in Grandmother’s last ominous warning looming (“Three months to save him”), Natalie hopes that Beau can help her solve the mysteries of Grandmother’s vague words and of their separate worlds. Henry’s story captivates, both as a romance and as an imaginative rethinking of time and space. The relationship between Beau and Natalie sizzles while also reflecting the innocence of first love, and the unfolding mystery of their changing realities is enough to keep readers turning pages. The complicated final explanation may require rereading, but Henry delivers a story with depth, originality, and complexity. Ages 12–up. Agent: Lana Popovic, Chalberg & Sussman.

December 15, 2015
Time-slips on a time crunch give a teenage girl a long shot at love. Natalie had thought therapy had banished her favorite hallucination, a mysteriously knowing old woman who calls herself Grandmother and tells Natalie world creation tales and Native American legends. But now she's returned, with a cryptic message: Natalie only has three months to save an unknown "him." Before Natalie can puzzle this out, she starts experiencing strange time-slips into an alternate reality where small things are different, centering on a handsome boy who disappears and reappears, a boy to whom Natalie feels an immediate connection. But these moments are unpredictable and disturbing, and Grandmother's warning hangs overhead, forcing Natalie to spend her last summer before college trying to solve a mystery rooted in suppressed trauma from her past. Natalie, a Native American adoptee, already deals with identity issues that parallel the split worlds she finds herself bouncing between. Moments of introspection are balanced by fully realized secondary characters and occasional moments of hilarity. The story begins slowly but picks up speed and intensity as the clock runs out, ending in a conclusion of intricate twists. Natalie's specific tribal heritage is unknown, and her search for identity informs the plot in artful ways; although issues surrounding the ethics of cross-cultural adoption and cultural appropriation are carefully touched upon, it's still hard not to see Natalie's background as a plot device more than anything else. While the love is so at-first-sight as to be cliched and the cultural issues problematic, this debut is otherwise sensitive, lyrical, and deftly plotted. (Speculative fiction. 12 & up)

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March 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-Natalie is a teenager on the cusp of growing up in this romantic/sci-fi story of love in a small town. Her adoptive parents believe that preparing to leave for college may be to blame for the recurrence of "visitations" they thought therapy had put an end to. However, when Natalie meets Beau, an attractive boy she's never seen before, she must rush to uncover the truth behind the visitations and her new ability to slide between two realities in order to save him. While the romance and sci-fi aspects will feel reminiscent of many other teen novels, an original plot and likable characters will win over readers. The author weaves in elements of Native American folktales that give the novel impressive depth for a debut effort. Complicated family relationships and complex coming-of-age emotions will offer young adults much to relate to. VERDICT A first purchase for YA collections looking for a nuanced romance.-Sunnie Scarpa, Wallingford Public Library, CT

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 Most people grow up hearing stories, and Natalie Cleary is no different. Except that hers came from a mysterious woman she calls Grandmother, who has appeared in her bedroom since she was small. Adopted, halfNative American Natalie is off to Brown soon, and it's been years since she saw Grandmother. But one night at the beginning of summer, Grandmother appears and tells her cryptically, You have three months to save him. Soon Natalie finds herself entangled with Beau, a boy who, despite the smallness of her town, she's never seen before, a boy who sees the world differently, just like Natalie. This is a lovely, if complicated, debut; Henry tries to do a lot here, and much of it succeeds. Natalie's relationships with her family and friends ring truer than her romance, and despite a dubious ending, the inclusion of Native American legends and history lend unexpected depth. A well-written piece of magic realism about the price we pay for daring to love, and the price we pay if we don't.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)