Here So Far Away

January 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-It's the beginning of George's senior year of high school and things are getting complicated. George's dad's health is in trouble; complications from diabetes have lead to his leg being amputated, and he isn't healing, physically or psychologically, like he should be. His inability to work adds financial stress on the family, which might change George's college plans. And to top it all off, George has a falling out with her best friend. But then she meets Francis and kisses him, and they start to fall in love. The problem is that Francis is 29 years old and the town's new constable. George is 17, and her dad used to be on the police force. The impropriety of George and Francis's relationship will both frustrate and exhilarate teens. The narrative unfolds as the two try to live normal lives while stealing time away for one another. When tragedy strikes, George must put the pieces of her life back together while grieving a broken heart in secret. Quiet and subdued, with gentle doses of humor, Francis and George's love story has emotional weight. The author explores the problematic love affair with nuance. VERDICT A deeply felt romance constructed with equal respect to both sides, this love story is bittersweet like a Joseph Monninger novel, and equally hard to forget.-Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2018
A girl whose eyes have always been on her future is forced to look at herself.It's the early 1990s in an apparently predominantly white small town--exactly where is not specified, but some readers will begin to realize it's probably in the Canadian Maritimes. Scorning her first name, Frances, George is the girl who will say anything--but not everything, as her best friend, Lisa, says. With her Mountie father on medical leave and changes percolating within her group of friends, George wants to get out of the valley and go to school in the city. But then she meets Francis, a guy who sparks feelings George isn't able to ignore. But Francis is a cop like her dad--and a dozen years older than George. Their romance can never be anything but a secret, and it makes George pull back from her friends and lie to everyone. When tragedy strikes, George realizes how lost she's let herself become and struggles to find a way to carry on. While the physical setting is meticulously described (and George's desire to leave it emphasized), its lack of specificity leaves readers unanchored, with the result that neither it nor the early-'90s historical period feels organic to the story. Narrating from the future, George and her hard, coldblooded nature take time to warm up to, and the meandering pace of the novel doesn't help. But the writing is evocative and literary, and readers who persist may find that's enough.Patient readers might find a minor reward. (Historical fiction. 16-18)

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December 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Dyer returns with a book about risking everything, even yourself, for a forbidden love. George (real name: Frances) Warren has senior year all planned out: partying with her friends, keeping the underclassmen in check, and maintaining her reputation as the unattainable girl every guy wants to sleep withdespite her heart of stone. But a huge argument with her best friend creates a deep rift in her social circle. Worse, an injury that may leave her father out of work forces George to rethink her plans of attending a university far away from her uninspiring small town. Then she meets an oldermuch olderguy who not only shares her name (Francis) but her sarcastic sense of humor, and suddenly nothing else matters but him. George's flaws and lack of direction are what make her such a relatable character. With unpredictable plot twists and an entertaining streak of sarcasm, Dyer explores the blurred lines between right and wrong and the risks and dangers of an all-encompassing love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)