The Magnolia League

March 21, 2011
In this suspenseful YA debut, the death of 16-year-old Alex's mother thrusts the teenager into the rarified corners of Savannah, Ga., high society, far from her former home in a Bay Area commune. Adult author Crouch (Girls in Trucks) handily conjures the significant culture shock Alex faces after moving into the grand, historic home that belongs to her formidable grandmother, "a ninja with brass knuckles, dressed for a tea party." Layers of intrigue build as Alex learns more about her grandmother's highly regarded but feared Magnolia League, a coterie of upper-crust beauties. The majority of the story is delivered through Alex's authentic first-person narration, though Crouch sometimes uses a chatty omniscient narrator to clue readers in to the powerful forces swirling around Alex; in all, the author evokes an atmospheric Southern setting while taking readers through Alex's discovery of, seduction by, and repulsion to the League's dark secrets to beauty, wealth, and power. Though some characters come across as one-dimensional, dreadlocked Alex is a funny, likable, and stubborn outsider, and the cliffhanger ending should leave fans of romantic fantasy eager for more. Ages 15âup.

April 15, 2011

A Southern take on the ever-popular supernatural thriller.

Sixteen-year-old Alex Lee, who has been raised on a communal farm in California, loses her mother to a car accident and is sent to Savannah, Ga., to live with a wealthy grandmother she's never meant. Hippie, über-socially-conscious Alex is told that, by birthright, she belongs to an exclusive social club, The Magnolia League, comprised of rich, beautiful and fashionable women. Two other girls in the League are given—and actually begin to make progress on—the herculean task of transforming Alex into a true Magnolia before the upcoming debutante ball. The slow pace of the novel's first half may cause readers to lose interest, but those who persevere will discover the answer to some building questions. For starters: How do the women in the league become and stay so perfect, and why don't any of them leave Savannah? And who is the hauntingly beautiful Sina, the only person who seems to scare the Magnolias? Once she begins to understand the darker side of the League's magic, Alex agrees to flee Savannah with her boyfriend Thaddeus while she still can. She makes a run for it, but her grandmother might have one more trick up her sleeve guaranteed to make Alex stay.

Though it probably won't win any converts, this one will please current fans of the genre; expect sequels. (Supernatural thriller. 12 & up)

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

July 1, 2011

Gr 11 Up-After the sudden death of her mother, Alexandria Lee, a 16-year-old hippie, moves from the communal farm in California where she was raised to live with her flawlessly beautiful and suspiciously young-looking grandmother in Georgia. There Alex learns that she is the heir of a legendary and powerful society called "The Magnolia League"-a group of gorgeous, powerful, seemingly perfect women and girls. Alex is not sure she fits in: she is hardly skinny, loves environmental causes, and sports vintage rock T-shirts. As she becomes more involved in the secretive society, she inexplicably extinguishes a wildfire without touching it and, after drinking a vitamin water spiked with a strange mixture of herbs, she gets over her ex-boyfriend overnight. Eventually she learns the Magnolias' secret: for years the order has employed a powerful local family of hoodoo practitioners to cast spells that keep the ladies beautiful and flush in wealth and status-so long as they never leave Savannah. Alex struggles to remain true to her convictions as she transforms into a slim and breathtakingly beautiful Magnolia. A newfound love leads her down a path of temptation to employ hoodoo tricks to keep the romance alive, even though she knows it is wrong. Everything comes to a head on the evening of Alex's coming out in Savannah society, when she learns a dark secret her grandmother has kept from her since her mother's death. The book offers a compelling story with likable and well-developed characters. Moreover, with the perfect mix of humor, romance, mystery and the supernatural, it provides ample entertainment yet leaves room for a sequel. While some readers might find the switch from first person to third person between chapters awkward, the technique helps explain secrets to readers while Alex remains in the dark.-Tara Kehoe, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.