Wider than the Sky

October 15, 2020
Poetry and plots unfurl in the Bay. Twins Sabine and Blythe's father is dead. Their mother immediately strikes up an inexplicable relationship with a strange man named Charlie, who is somehow entwined with their family. The family moves with Charlie to a creaky old mansion in the secluded community of Thornewood in the San Francisco area, and Sabine soon meets a cute boy called Kai. Typical high school and first-love drama plays out against the mystery of the twins' father's life and death; he was bisexual, polyamorous, and planned on moving in with Charlie after the girls left for college. His death was caused by an implausible infection made fatal by his HIV status (despite having access to medication making his viral load undetectable). This, combined with Charlie's attempt to create a safehouse for LGBTQ+ people, is at best lackluster queer representation. Sabine's love of poetry and habit of "poeting"--a compulsion to blurt out Emily Dickinson-inspired verse when anxious or overwhelmed--add to the highly melodramatic tone of the novel. The main conflict, around trying to save the mansion from a villainous grandmother who is staunchly dedicated to neighborhood preservation, provides the story with forward motion but doesn't top the list of common teen interests. The twins' family is coded as White; brown-skinned, blue-eyed Kai has Hawaiian ancestry and is multilingual yet misrepresents Hawaiian Pidgin. For readers with Dickinsonian tastes. (Fiction. 14-18)

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December 1, 2020

Gr 7 Up-Sixteen-year-old Sabine Braxton and her identical twin sister, Blythe, are sifting through a lot of secrets. Nearly a week after their father passed away from a sudden illness, their emotionally distant mother, Maryann, moves them to Thornewood, a San Francisco suburb, with a stranger named Charlie. Their new home, a crumbling but historic mansion, raises more questions about Charlie's relationship to their parents' past and the twins' present. Sabine's inability to find a center in her new life challenges her definitions of home and family, often highlighted by impulsively quoting lines of Emily Dickinson's poetry. Sabine soon meets Kai, a local boy who quickly steals her heart, and Emma, a teen with an equally complicated family history. Drama ensues as Emma and Sabine compete for Kai's attention, juxtaposing the reveal of their father's past; he was bisexual and in a polyamorous relationship with Charlie and their mother. In their father's memory, Charlie plans to convert their mansion into transitional housing for displaced members of the LGBTQIA+ community, but finds himself at war with a city official who is aggressively dedicated to maintaining historic preservation at all costs. Rothschild's story showcases how secrets impede a person's ability to see the world clearly and that self-acceptance and honesty are the keys to a happy ending. Kai is Hawaiian and Sabine and her family's background is not stated. VERDICT While the story occasionally fumbles with drama, themes of forgiveness and accountability result in a satisfying ending.-Elise Martinez, Racine, WI

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December 15, 2020
Grades 9-12 Change comes suddenly to the lives of 16-year-old Sabine and her identical twin sister, Blythe, when their father dies unexpectedly, prompting their mother and a strange man named Charlie to move the girls to the small town of Thornewood. There they will live in a dilapidated mansion, half of which had been owned by their dad and half by Charlie, who, it is revealed (spoiler alert), was the lover of their father, who was bisexual and polyamorous. Meanwhile, Sabine has met and quickly fallen in love with Kai, a Hawaiian boy in her class. But there's a complication: Sabine's new friend, Emma, is in love with Kai, too, and feels she has a previous claim on his heart. Rothschild's first novel is accomplished and nicely plot-rich with some interesting quirks, chief among them being Sabine's deep-rooted love for Emily Dickinson's poetry and her compulsive need to recite it. Hopefully readers will be inspired to investigate Dickinson's timeless work on their own.

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