Things That Happened Before the Earthquake

June 19, 2017
Barzini’s moving and provocative coming-of-age novel follows a character charging headlong into the chaos of adolescence. Uprooted from her home in Rome by parents with stars and dollar signs in their eyes, Eugenia is forced to forge a new life for herself in Van Nuys, Calif. They arrive destination shortly after the 1992 L.A. riots; the city and Eugenia’s psyche are fragile and unsettled. After her only friend is killed in a gang-related incident, Eugenia becomes transfixed by a mysterious girl named Deva and the allure of Topanga Canyon. Feeling overlooked by her movie-making family, she reaches out for acceptance through experimentation with sex and drugs, crushing and rebuilding her identity as the days pass by. While Eugenia has normal teenage issues, her maturity and the collision of cultures and personalities she encounters make this novel richer and darker than a typical teen-angst story.

June 15, 2017
An Italian teenager discovers sex, drugs, and decadence in Los Angeles.In May 1992, while shooting a commercial in Rome, director Ettore gleefully tells his family they will be moving to Hollywood, "where it's always summer," so he can pursue his dream of making a horror movie. His daughter, Eugenia, is horrified, especially after she watches news footage of the Los Angeles riots; the reality, she soon discovers, is as dispiriting as she feared. In a city still reeking of fumes, the family settles into run-down Van Nuys, furnishing their house with yard-sale purchases; Eugenia is thrust into a huge high school where students are warned not to wear gang colors, and no one, including teachers, has ever met an Italian. Barzini (Sister Stop Breathing, 2012) skewers Hollywood pretensions and Southern California teen culture--vacuous, self-absorbed, insular--and conveys, in graphic detail, Eugenia's strategy for dealing with her unhappiness: meaningless sex. Cloaked in a metaphorical "rubber suit" to ward off emotional involvement, she fills her life "with the presence of sex, as much as I could, as hard as I could," easily seducing classmates and adding to her conquests a depressed goth screenwriter hired by her father. Barzini invents a cast of disturbingly odd characters: embittered, misanthropic Henry, who supplies Eugenia with drugs and is missing an ear; a volatile, alcoholic former rock star; a hippie drug dealer who offers scream therapy; Eugenia's grandmother, who tongue-kisses her; two bored Valley girls who wind up abetting a murder; and many others. Eugenia idealizes Italy until a summer trip reveals a culture beset by misogyny, superstition, and violent cruelty. Back in California, she becomes enchanted by the canyons' natural beauty, where she feels "something primal"; has sex with a mysterious girl who may be having an incestuous affair with her father; and takes more drugs. Finally, in a rushed climax, an earthquake shatters her father's illusions about filmmaking and draws the dysfunctional family closer together. A coming-of-age novel that fails to delve beneath the surface.

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January 1, 2018

Despite the distinctly 1990s setting, Barzini's dryly funny, sophisticated tale of angst and alienation will resonate with today's teens. Eugenia's parents relocate from Rome to the San Fernando Valley, where her father hopes to make it as a screenwriter. Absorbed by their own ambitions, Eugenia's parents leave her to fend for herself in a city still reeling from the 1992 riots. Finding it difficult to fit in (in part because of her limited knowledge of English), she resorts to casual sex to seek out companionship and power, choosing her male conquests carefully. But it is the beautiful Deva, from the isolated Topanga Canyon, who captures Eugenia's imagination and, eventually, her heart. Topanga Canyon is a magical, beguiling respite from the concrete wasteland where Eugenia lives, but the canyon is an insular community with a code of its own, and Eugenia is trespassing. Barzini's characterization of Eugenia is vivid and immediate, while the protagonist's parents offer welcome comic relief. VERDICT Though sex, drugs, and alcohol figure prominently, this novel brilliantly portrays the teen experience-perfect for those who love coming-of-age stories.-Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2017
Eugenia is a teenager looking for her place in the world. This has been complicated by the fact that her hippie parents have decided to relocate from Rome to Los Angeles, chasing her father's dream of being a famous filmmaker. It is 1992, just after the Rodney King riots, and the family lands in Van Nuys, which is replete with gangs, drugs, and crime. Eugenia declares it the wrong place at the wrong time and sets out to make her way in a new school while vowing to return to Rome. She finds an escape through sex until she meets Deva, a mysterious and charming classmate. The novel has a strange juxtaposition of drama and leisure, reflecting Eugenia's inner and outer worlds. There are sex and drugs aplenty but also sweet, tender moments of first love and self-acceptance. Los Angeles is dirtily yet lovingly depicted. Though a stronger sense of time besides the bookends of the riots and an earthquake would enhance the novel, Barzini's is an impressive debut with a distinct point of view.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)