Dear Reader

March 6, 2017
Columbia-bound senior Flannery Fields is anxious to trade Connecticut for New York City. When her AP English teacher disappears, leaving behind her purse and a worn copy of Wuthering Heights, Flannery sets out on a whirlwind quest to find her. Flannery is stunned to find that the book has inexplicably transformed into Miss Sweeney’s diary, with new entries popping up as the teacher searches N.Y.C. for a young man named Brandon, who Flannery discovers has been killed in action in Afghanistan. As she chases an increasingly unbalanced Miss Sweeney through the city, Flannery is joined by Heath Smith, a charming boy on a gap year, who seems oddly similar to Wuthering Heights’s Heathcliff. O’Connell (The Sharp Time) neatly juxtaposes Flannery’s anticipation for the “adventure, reinvention, to become someone new” with Miss Sweeney’s journal entries, illuminating the complex chaos of life and love, demonstrating that seemingly inconsequential choices and people can have lingering effects. The use of Wuthering Heights intensifies the impact of Flannery and Miss Sweeney’s corresponding journeys; even readers who haven’t read the classic will find significance in the parallels. Ages 12–up. Agent: Lisa Bankoff, ICM.

March 1, 2017
After her English teacher misses class at her Connecticut private school, Flannery discovers the purse she left behind, containing a newspaper obituary for Brandon, a soldier killed in action, and a copy of Wuthering Heights that, when opened, tells not Emily Bronte's story but Miss Sweeney's own.Caitlin Sweeney's nourished Flannery's passion for Wuthering Heights and her dreams of becoming a writer, encouraging her to apply to her alma mater, Columbia University. Transformed into a first-person narrative, Caitlin's book becomes Flannery's guide as she anxiously pursues Caitlin, who's desperate to unite with Brandon, her deceased first love. Following Caitlin to Manhattan, Flannery's joined by a handsome, mysterious Englishman named (of course) Heath. As they seek Caitlin, she searches for Brandon. Despite some closely observed, skillfully rendered scenes, the awkward central conceit--Bronte's novel transformed into Caitlin's real-time narrative--remains unconvincing, either as fantasy or realism, lacking the conceptual infrastructure to support belief. Caitlin's elitist, judgmental tone distances readers. Flannery echoes Caitlin's disdain for her shallow classmates and welcomes frequent interruptions from her inner editor, a virtual Miss Sweeney, questioning and ridiculing Flannery's word choices (readers may feel less forgiving). Steeped, like Flannery, in white-privileged affluence, Caitlin regrets having failed to bridge the gulf between herself and white, working-class Brandon, who rejected community college and followed her to New York--but her remorse seems less Bronte-esque tragedy than justified payback. Ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful. (Fiction. 14-17)

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March 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Caitlin Sweeney, high school AP English teacher, is her student Flannery's idol. Flannery will even be attending Columbia, Miss Sweeney's alma mater, and looks forward to finding "her people" there, since Sacred Heart High School is home to more mean girls than literary buffs. When Miss Sweeney acts strangely in class one day and disappears the next, Flannery knows she needs to find her. She hands Miss Sweeney's purse over to the police but keeps her teacher's copy of Wuthering Heights. Flannery is stunned to find that the original words have been replaced by a diary of sorts from Miss Sweeney: of her actions at that moment and what led her away. Flannery strikes out for New York City to help and meets her own Heath(cliff) along the way. It is obvious that this story is as much about Flannery's journey as it is about Caitlin's, and what a journey it is. The city is treated like a familiar friend. Both female characters are engaging, and readers will likely become invested in the book's outcome. It is unfortunate, then, that the ending lacks clarity, and plot-driven readers may feel cheated. Fans of the classics are the obvious audience for this novel, especially those who have read Wuthering Heights. VERDICT Candy for the literary soul; give this title to strong readers and classics lovers.-Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJ

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