Other Words for Smoke

December 15, 2018
A teacher could get an entire unit on grammar and sentence construction out of this horror novel.Some sections of the book are written in the second person ("Your scream is caught in your throat as you stare"), others have eccentric capitalization ("there are children in the house and i am hungry"), and many pages include footnotes that argue with the main text and deflate the characters' illusions about life. When a character is told, "You will forgive your parents," the footnote reads, "Almost." Arrested Development fans may be reminded of Ron Howard's dry, matter-of-fact narration. Some readers will find all the different speech patterns distracting, and the story--about love and rivalry in a family of magicians--is puzzling enough as it is. In one chapter, a supernatural being tries to bring a young witch under his thrall by showing her all the wonders he can offer. He guides her into a secret chamber where she sees...a room filled with moths. Many people will find entomology less than tempting. There are too many sorcerers' voices in the book, and the stakes of their battles are too abstract. (The characters are white but often queer.) Some passages are also overwritten. "Love is the realest thing" almost demands a comment from Ron Howard.Ardent grammar students may enjoy parsing the language. Other people may suspect the author is having more fun than they are. (Fiction. 14-19)

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March 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-This weird, atmospheric, haunting novel begins at the end, with a burning house and twins Mae and Rossa left as the only survivors. Readers are then taken back to a summer in the past. The beautiful and mysterious Bevan is living with the twins' tarot card-reading aunt Rita. When the cat starts talking, they realize this won't be any ordinary vacation. Unbeknownst to the twins, Bevan is feeding the owl that lives in the walls of the house. But he won't be satisfied with chicken bones for long, and Bevan will stop at nothing to please him. Characters with slippery motives and real-world problems juxtapose nicely with the lushly described magical setting. VERDICT Hand sell this quietly unsettling book to fans of Laini Taylor and Nova Ren Suma.-Mandy Laferriere, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX

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Starred review from March 1, 2019
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* Griffin (Spare and Found Parts, 2016) spins a surreal and haunting tale in her account of twins Mae and Rossa Frost, who at the story's outset are found by the side of the road covered in ash and traumatized to silence. Told over a series of summers, the twins' story begins three years prior when, at the age of 14, they spend the summer with their Great Aunt Rita; her cat, Bobby; and her mesmerizing boarder, Bevan. Mae's first taste of the bizarre lurking in Rita's home occurs when Bobby speaks to her, a shock that leads Rita to reveal that she is, in fact, a witch and Bevan, her apprentice. Meanwhile, unsettling events manifest in Bevan's chapters, uniquely narrated in the second person. It is here that readers first encounter Sweet James, an owl-shaped being whom Bevan can summon and who feeds on people's pain. As Sweet James' power over Bevan grows, Bevan is nearly lost to his insatiable demands. Short chapters follow the events of this first summer, jumping in time to fill in Rita's backstory and return all the players to the house, three years older but not necessarily wiser. Family problems and adolescent trials tether the narrative to reality, while heightening the otherworldly threats surrounding its characters. Griffin's hallucinatory novel creeps under the skin, unnerving readers while urging them onward.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)