Crossing Into Brooklyn

May 1, 2015
Morgan's world is rocked when she discovers that the grandfather whose passing she is grieving was not her biological grandfather; her mother's long-estranged father is in fact alive in Brooklyn. Angry at her mother's deception and anxious about the distance she feels growing between her parents, the privileged 16-year-old becomes obsessed with this new grandfather. She surreptitiously travels from Princeton to Brooklyn, becoming friends with Clover, an old woman who mediates this newfound relationship. Both Clover and her mother hint darkly at her grandmother's reasons for leaving her husband, and even Morgan finds herself hesitant to trust the man. Her best friends, Ansel and Sarah, also warn her about pursuing the relationship, but Morgan persists even as she finds herself falling for Ansel-who seems ready to reciprocate. McGuigan tries to pack a lot into this slim novel: class consciousness, a child's passage into adulthood, the complexities of relationships, and the difficulty of leaving past misdeeds behind. It stutters and stops, shifting modes abruptly and never fully cohering. The temporal setting is frustratingly indistinct. Though Morgan carries a cellphone, she and her friends never text one another, and they seem quaintly dependent on landlines; the gritty Brooklyn Morgan bravely explores is a far cry from the gentrified borough it's become. Troublingly, a subplot about the sexual past Morgan is deeply ashamed of is never resolved or even mitigated. An ambitious rumination that fails on several fronts. (Fiction. 12-16)

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May 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Sixteen-year-old Morgan has lived a comfortable life, though her successful parents pay more attention to their careers than to her. When her adoring grandfather passes away, Morgan becomes suspicious that her mother has been keeping something from her, so she snoops until she discovers a mysterious letter. A trip to a run-down area of Brooklyn to investigate reveals that her mother has kept an important truth from Morgan her whole life: her "real" grandfather, an Irish immigrant, was an abusive alcoholic whom her mother disowned. Morgan feels cheated not knowing the truth and is disappointed in her mother's unwavering conviction not to see her father again. The teen channels her anger into helping her grandfather and his neighbors, especially when his building is condemned. Her tenacity is admirable and the author succeeds in relaying Morgan's discomfort and fear when confronting poverty. Unfortunately, readers do not learn much more about Morgan, except that she hides her own secret past regarding sexual experiences. A secondary plot of her budding romance with one of her best friends feels creepy, as the young man seems attracted to her because he incorrectly believes she is "unspoiled goods." The ending is plausible as some of the plotlines are not tied up too neatly. VERDICT An additional purchase; good for fans of realistic fiction.-Sherry J. Mills, Hazelwood East High School, St. Louis, MO

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