gods with a little g

June 15, 2019
More misfits from the author of Girlchild (2012). Being a teen is tough on everyone, but Helen Dedleder has it particularly hard. She lives in Rosary, California, a tiny refinery town so conservative that internet access is circumscribed. What knowledge she has of the outside world comes via radio broadcasts from Sky, a nearby city. She lives with her devoutly evangelical father, but she works at the shop where her Aunt Bev tells fortunes and offers other, more intimate, services. She is infatuated with Bird Doncaster, a classic bad boy who also happens to be her potential stepbrother. She is best friends with Winthrop Epsworthy, until Win falls in love with her. At every turn, Helen is pulled between irreconcilable opposites. Sometimes this tension propels her to make bad decisions. Sometimes she makes bad decisions without any help at all. It is, perhaps, easier to appreciate this novel by not thinking of it as a novel. It's written in the first person, there's a lot more telling than showing, and there are vast narrative territories that are barely explored. Read as a collection of very short fictions, though, the book coalescences as a melancholy, triumphant, slightly magical coming-of-age tale. Hassman creates a world that seems to be defined through stark dualities, but the story tends toward chaos in the sense that no certainty, no opposition, goes unquestioned. Things fall apart. Insiders and outsiders trade places. The powerful become powerless. At the same time, the story--the collection of stories--moves toward unity, self-actualization, and transcendence. Helen learns who she is and what she wants. She lets the people who love her help her. And she and her loser friends become something much more than the sum of their parts. Weird and uncomfortable and glorious--just like adolescence.

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August 12, 2019
Hassman’s charming and funny second novel (following Girlchild) takes place in Rosary, Calif., a contemporary town controlled by the religious right, who censor media and block internet access, fearing evil influences. Living there is 16-year-old Helen Dedleder, who spends her time working at her Aunt Bev’s frowned upon Psychic Encounter Shoppe and drinking beers with other rebellious teens at the local tire salvage. Her mother died from cancer six years ago, and her father, the town’s postman, begins dating the mother of Bird, a bad boy Helen has a crush on. Along with friends Winthrop and Rainbolene, Helen charges through a series of misadventures, clashing with “Bible Thumpers,” volunteering at a nursing home, testing her own psychic abilities, reading porno books, and tuning in to radio stations from the nearby free city of Sky. Using the first-person point of view and brief chapters, Hassman taps into Helen’s confused and maturing mind, and bounces between scenes to construct a loose plotline. This coming-of-age tale honestly and strikingly encapsulates the teenage experience.

Starred review from July 1, 2019
In a dusty, sort-of present, Rosary, California, is divided by a long bridge and a whole lot of religion from its science-focused neighboring town, Sky. There was a rupture, and now "there are no metaphors left for all the ways that Sky is done with Rosary's bullshit." After school, Rosary teen Helen drinks beers with her fellow Dickheads, who call her Hell, and keeps the books at her aunt's psychic-encounter shop, a place as often relied-upon as hated-on by locals. Mostly, Helen avoids her religious mailman dad, a shell of himself since her mom died. As she did in her striking debut, Girlchild (2012), Hassman imaginatively parcels out her second novel in titled chapters, like "Beat Cute," in which Helen meets new kid Winthrop when bad boy Bird bashes their heads together in the school hallway. Helen pines for sexy Bird, a longing complicated by the new relationship between her dad and his mom, and takes Winthrop at first for a Thumper, an assumption proven swiftly wrong. Irreverent, wise, heartbreaking, and heart-mending, this is about nothing less than the everyday challenges of love, belief, and existence. In Hassman's dazzlingly original style, sweet-sour, wicked-tender Helen's entrancing narration casts a remarkable spell.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

August 30, 2019

Rosary, CA, is a dead-end town where residents can't catch a break unless they leave. Few make it farther than the neighboring village of Sky, with the Internet, movie theaters, and a real skyline. Rosario folks are doomed living next to the Rosario Bay Oil Refinery, which gives off constant smoke and flame. Helen Dedleder makes the best of her life with fellow teen outcasts who call themselves the Dickheads. On the cusp of turning 18, they drink beer, experiment with sex, and hang out at Fast Eddie's Tire Salvage, owned by the unsavory Eddie with a sad past, who provides beer in exchange for a quick look at the girls' breasts. Helen keeps the books at Aunt Bev's Psychic Encounter Shoppe and knows her aunt's behind-the-curtain services bring in more money than the front-room palm readings. Helen's friends are a constant source of drama. Mo tries to hang herself in Fast Eddie's garage. Rainbolene needs hormones to make her transition. The law catches up with Winthrop for his past in Alaska. Helen isn't sure what the future holds when her dad marries Bird's mother, Iris, but knows they are all in this together. VERDICT Hassman's second novel, after her award-winning debut, Girlchild, is witty, irreverent, inventive but above all hopeful with memorable characters who remain with readers long after the novel is finished. [See Prepub Alert, 2/4/19.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 30, 2019

In this follow-up to Girlchild, an ALA Alex winner, the denizens of Rosary, CA, dominated by evangelicals, live practically off the grid--much to the dismay of teenagers such as Helen, who can't wait to get out. Now the Psychic Encounter Shoppe run by Helen's Aunt Bev is under attack.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.