Dirty Wings

Starred review from May 15, 2014
Punk street kid Cass runs away with sheltered pianist Maia in the lyrical stand-alone prequel to All Our Pretty Songs (2013).The intimate third-person narrative perspective alternates fluidly between the two girls' voices, as well as between "Now"-as the girls take a breathless, speed-fueled road trip down the West Coast-and "Then"-as they become friends and Maia decides to leave her stifling, sterile home. Readers of All Our Pretty Songs will know that Cass and Maia retain their close bond as adults, that both have daughters and that Maia, after a tragedy, stays lost in a drugged haze. But these fates are only gently alluded to here. Instead, readers see a skeletal red-eyed Hades figure, grimly recognizable even to readers unfamiliar with Cass and Maia's futures. He haunts Cass' dreams, demanding a terrible bargain and waiting with an eerie patience until Cass is vulnerable enough to give him what he asks. The prose is exquisitely crafted, moving effortlessly from dizzying to heartbreaking. Each setting-an exhaustingly filthy punk house, the New York street where Maia's hermitlike father suddenly comes to life, the Mexican beach town where the girls' road trip ends-is vibrantly constructed through careful detail and spare but evocative prose.A breathtaking companion volume, fully readable on its own and devastating in the context of its predecessor. (Urban fantasy. 14-18)

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August 1, 2014

Gr 10 Up-In this lyrical and romantic coming-of-age tale of friendship, rebellion, and identity, McCarry has penned a prequel to her debut, All Our Pretty Songs (St. Martin's Griffin, 2013). Teenage Maia, a gifted pianist, has lived a sheltered life under the eye of her watchful mother, while Cassie, a free-spirited runaway, exists without rules or boundaries. When the two meet, an all-consuming friendship sparks between them, as Cassie urges Maia to shed her constricted existence in favor of Cassie's more decadent lifestyle: punk rock concerts, goth outfits, and boys. The narrative leaps forward and backward in time, focusing on two periods: Maia and Cassie as they first meet ("Then") and after they've run off together ("Now"). Though the book is presented as a retelling of the myth of Persephone and Demeter, it's a very loose reshaping that readers who aren't paying close attention to the clues-or who aren't familiar with Greek mythology-may easily miss. While the trope of the innocent girl longing for escape and adventure isn't new, the characters are well developed, and Maia and Cassie have strong voices. McCarry's hauntingly beautiful, darkly poetic language is her strength, and a sense of magical realism pervades the narrative throughout, hinting at danger lurking on the periphery. Fans of Francesca Lia Block's works, such as I Was a Teenage Fairy (1998), the "Weetzie Bat" books, and The Rose and the Beast (2000, all HarperCollins) will devour McCarry's sensual prose.-Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal

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