The Way We Bared Our Souls

November 17, 2014
In Strayhorn’s debut, high school junior Consuelo “Lo” McDonough is beginning to show symptoms of multiple sclerosis—something that terrifies her, since the disease recently took the life of her aunt. After a mysterious stranger with a coyote offers to take Lo on a healing journey, she sets out to gather four other suffering companions to participate in the ritual with her. The four classmates she enlists are either virtual strangers or abandoned former friends—party girl Ellen, dependent on increasingly dangerous drugs; Kaya, who cannot feel physical pain due to a rare neurological condition; Thomas, a former child soldier from Liberia with a bloody past; and Kit, who is mired in mourning for his dead girlfriend. In the deserts outside Santa Fe, the five magically swap their respective burdens, leading to revelations, fresh perspectives, and tragedy. Rather than deal with one momentous challenge in depth, Strayhorn’s efforts to do justice to five of them results in superficial treatments all around. Similarly, the vague mysticism in which she wraps the characters’ journey feels spiritually thin. Ages 12–up. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins Loomis.

November 1, 2014
Five New Mexico teens undergo a soul-cleansing ritual, with varied results.Consuelo "Lo" McDonough is struggling with a likely diagnosis of early-onset multiple sclerosis, which also took the life of her beloved aunt Karine. When a mysterious but oddly comforting stranger named Jay offers to perform a healing ritual, Lo jumps at the chance, quickly gathering the four similarly damaged friends she needs to complete the group for the ritual. The five teens-grieving Kit, former child soldier Thomas, drug addict Ellen, impervious-to-pain Kaya and Lo herself-discover that though they no longer suffer from their original ailments, their problems have been swapped. Kit receives Ellen's addictive personality and uses it to embrace life again, nearly a year after his girlfriend's tragic death, while Ellen's experience of Lo's neurological symptoms forces her to be physically and mentally present in a way she hasn't been in ages. The most spiritually significant transformation is also the most cringe-inducing: When Kaya takes on Thomas' emotional trauma, she taps into supposed historical memories of white soldiers attacking her American Indian ancestors, with tragic results in the present. Although specific references to legends of and historic atrocities against the American Indians of the Southwest are sprinkled about, there is no attempt to authenticate Kaya's experience. The ultimate lesson-of having empathy for oneself as well as for others whose wounds may be invisible-is well-taken though sadly heavy-handed. (Fiction. 12-15)

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November 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-A ninth grader with symptoms of a mysterious disease, Consuelo "Lo" McDonough reaches out to four estranged friends, each one also in crisis. Lo and neighbor Kit were an item last year; Thomas conceals a hot body under a perpetual hoodie; Kaya's grave illness obscures a great beauty; and Ellen's spark could find its match if she could only stop using methamphetamines. Their collective traumas-addiction, illnesses real and imagined, grief, and the impact of war-are supersized. When by chance Lo meets Jay, a middle-aged shaman with a pet coyote in the desert outside their native Santa Fe, New Mexico, she warily decides to trust him. Around a bonfire in a sacred underground Pueblo kiva, he leads the party of five toward a magical pact: for one week, they will switch problems, reclaim their capacity for empathy, and begin to heal themselves. This melodramatic tale strains credulity with one tragedy after another. An additional purchase only.-Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2014
Grades 9-12 Strayhorn's debut tweaks the old saw of people exchanging bodies. In this case, a Native American shaman of sorts gathers five New Mexico teens in pueblo ruins so that they might rid themselves of their burdens. Lo, our narrator, is suffering the first pains of MS; Thomas, a former Liberian child soldier, is haunted by those he killed; Kaya, afflicted with a disease that blocks physical pain, longs to feel; Ellen's drug addictions have expanded to meth; and Kit's grief over his girlfriend's death has become paralyzing. It's a lot of trauma, all right, but one mysterious ritual later, it's all gone. Well, not gone exactlyrather, the teens have traded burdens. Lo, for example, now has Kaya's physical endurance, though she finds that true pain runs much deeper. The physical shifts are somewhat harder to swallow than the psychological ones, but despite the fantastical premise, it plays out in a realistic fashion, with Strayhorn effortlessly distinguishing the five voices and making a strong case that empathy and healing are powerfully linked.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)