Andromeda Klein

Deidre Lovejoy delivers the smart and sassy voice of Andromeda Klein. This intelligent high school junior has a voracious appetite for all things occult and has acquired a wide knowledge of its traditions. Lovejoy lives up to her name, loving the character's voice and translating it joyfully from the page to audio. However, the story lacks the strength of Portman's first novel. Its mystery is lackluster, and Andromeda herself is mourning the death of her best friend and feeling sad about a boy who dumped her. The story's strengths are character and voice, and Lovejoy maximizes these. She's inspired in her delivery of Andromeda's humor, word play, and punchy dialogue, and she also convincingly conveys Andromeda's loneliness and longing to fit in. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

July 27, 2009
Portman's second novel (after King Dork
) offers the story of Andromeda Klein, a tarot and occult–obsessed loner contending with typical teenage challenges—a cruel social order, being summarily dumped by her crush—as well as with the recent death of her best friend, Daisy; the possibility that her occult practices are having real-world consequences; and her library's decision to purge its shelves of little-read books that happen to be her favorites. Andromeda is also hard of hearing, and her ongoing misinterpretations give the book its appealing, idiosyncratic voice and unique lexicon (discombobulated becomes “action-populated,” and “bacon” means pagan). Portman's depiction of Andromeda's struggles in her claustrophobic world is skilled and affectionate; despite her strangeness, readers will identify with her feelings of isolation. The frequent references to the occult make for a slow, intricate and arcane journey and are likely to limit the book's audience. However, those up for the challenge will find plenty of food for thought. As Portman writes, “Most magical writing is deliberately obscure, designed to hide crucial matters from the uninitiated yet reveal them to those who know how to read the texts properly.” Ages 14–up.