Catch & Release

December 19, 2011
When 18-year-old Polly reflects on the idea that what doesn’t kill one makes one stronger, she’s not thinking about herself. She’s referring to a local staph outbreak that killed five people and maimed two, including Polly. “It ate my eye and part of my cheekbone. It left behind a mess of bumpy pink scars that twists the corner of my mouth up on one side like I’m a half-finished Joker.” Her future plans (and her former boyfriend) now belong to the “Polly-That-Was,” and she spends her days watching TV until she hears from fellow survivor Odd Estes, who lost a leg to the infection. A fishing trip in his old Cadillac becomes a road trip to Portland, Ore., as Polly tries to understand the twist of fate that has scarred her inside and out, while she attempts to keep an erratic Odd in check. Morris Award–winner Woolston (The Freak Observer) forces readers to re-evaluate life’s random cruelties and the idea of “survival,” as she brings her characters to the brink of death, then tosses them back in the water. Ages 14–up.

March 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Polly Furnas, 18, and Odd Estes, 17, both disfigured survivors of a MRSA outbreak, feel rejected in their small Montana town. Both had typical teenage dreams for their futures, only to find themselves unlikely friends bonded by the infection. Odd, who lost a leg, invites Polly on a road trip, promising adventure and lots of fishing. Polly, wanting to get away from her mom and to escape the rejection she feels because of her facial disfigurement, opts to go along. While readers might hope for plenty of action, there is very little, leading to a character-driven novel with no plot. Odd is an unlikable character who eases his pain with medicinal marijuana and carries a gun. Polly and Odd are honest teens with strong opinions. Their interactions are interesting, but some readers will have trouble connecting with either one of them. Mature teens who finish the story will see that this is a novel about acceptance and moving on when life throws a curveball.-Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2011
Eighteen-year-old Polly recounts her road trip with Odd, a fellow survivor of the disease that killed five others from their small town, in D'Elegance, his Gramma's old baby-blue Cadillac. Fishing is ostensibly the purpose of their outing, and it symbolically charts the way the two teens process their disabilities. Polly once had a boyfriend and a sense of a normal future, and she now calls her former self "Polly-That-Was," since Bridger has vanished with the disfigurement of her face and loss of an eye from MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Odd Estes lost a foot as well as some football buddies, and although the two barely knew each other before, they both now struggle to accommodate their good fortune in surviving and their misfortune of disability. Swearing, booze and weed are along for the journey, which takes them from their hometown somewhere near Yellowstone toward Portland, Ore. Neither teen is particularly articulate, but Polly's first-person narration is as snarky and devastatingly honest as she is. Odd and Polly move from isolation to a mutual connection that helps them deal with their pain. This is not a romance, but a tale of two people thrown together after their world has been turned upside down. Each is unique, vividly complicated and true. Engaging writing and characters lift this above the typical clichéd story of disabled teen. Heartbreakingly honest. (Fiction. 14 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2012
Grades 10-1 Polly has physically recovered from the flesh-eating bacteria that attacked her face near the close of her senior year. She has lost one eye and that side of her face is now deeply distorted. Much more brutal than the physical scarring, however, is the fact that the boyfriend with whom she had planned a happily-ever-after future dumped her while she was hospitalized. He just couldn't stand the imperfections that New Polly boreaesthetically, psychologically, and socially. While in the hospital, however, Polly strikes up an acquaintance with another bacteria survivor, Odd Estes, who lost his foot to the disease and has been outfitted with a robotic prosthesis that he learns to work quite well. In addition to sharing the adjustment to life as bacteria survivors, they both love fishing, and Odd takes Polly on a road trip outfitted with some nearly Kerouacian moments. Woolston's novel offers intriguing characters, contemporary ethical questions, and a story that will have appeal to a wide range of readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)