Under the Dusty Moon

November 30, 2015
Minor dilemmas cause major angst for the 16-year-old daughter of a grunge-era rocker. Vic lives in a small Toronto apartment with her free-spirited single mother, Micky, whose band, Dusty Moon, was “Canadian-famous” back in the day. Over the course of a summer, Vic tries to prevent the guy she’s dating from learning her mother’s identity, has a fight with her best friend, and nurses her resentment of her mother, especially when Micky heads to Japan to play a few shows and starts dating a journalist—all problems that loom larger in Vic’s head than anywhere else. (“Things were happening, kind of,” muses Vic at one point, inadvertently giving a fair description of the book.) The relationship between Vic and Micky is the heart of the story, though their Gilmore Girls–style banter can sound more sitcommy than realistic. Sutherland (Something Wiki) skillfully evokes Vic’s libidinous longings as her relationship with Shaun heats up, but readers may lose patience with Vic’s general whininess, and her near-total attitude reversal in the final pages only adds to the sense of her summer struggles being overblown. Ages 12–up. Agent: Maria Vincente, P.S. Literary Agency.

November 15, 2015
Over the course of one summer, the daughter of a Canadian indie-rock goddess grapples messily with all of her relationships. Vic, nearly 17, and her mother, Micky, nearly 38, have always been a unit of two. When Vic was a baby in the 1990s, they toured Canada and the United States with Micky's band, Dusty Moon. Dusty Moon broke up when Vic's father, Dennis, left the band and promptly disappeared. With Dennis presumed dead, the mother-daughter pair eventually settles in Toronto. Self-reliant and sometimes forced into the uncomfortable position of mothering her own mother, Vic longs for more autonomy and chafes at Micky's selfish insistence on continuing to chase her dream of artistic stardom. Vic's critiques of her mother are legitimate, and Sutherland doesn't shy away from letting Vic's own self-centeredness and age-appropriate immaturity show, as when she ignores her best friend and the video game they're developing together in favor of spending time with her dream boyfriend. Daughter and mother make plenty of mistakes, including keeping secrets, drinking too much, oversharing, making terrible jokes, and throwing temper tantrums. Thankfully, their deep mutual affection is never truly in doubt. A final confrontation at a music festival leads to believable (if tenuous and prickly) reconciliations for all. Both the disgusting steaminess of a Toronto summer and the indie-music world are particularly well-realized. Readers will cringe at Vic's failures and cheer for her triumphs. (Fiction. 14-18)

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