Sometimes author pairings work while other times they clash. This one worked spectacularly. Both Sepetys and Sheinkin brought their individually immense talent to the table and seamlessly integrated their writing styles to create an intriguing, fast-paced mystery adventure story set with the backdrop of the highly secretive code breaking work of Bletchley Park. A brother and sister pair end up working together to
find their mother, recently declared dead. The brother works at the Park as one of the cogs in the code breaking machine while the sister sneaks away from her escort so she won’t get shipped off to live with their American grandmother. I really enjoyed this.
I approached this book with great trepidation after my massive disappointment with her Al Capone Washes my T-Shirt series. (For more details, see my review of book 2.) I ended up completely blown away by the story which by the end had me deep in my feels. Similar to Shark Teeth, Hank has an unreliable mother who has, at the start of the story, not been home for quite a while. He also has to care for his adorable little sister. Then comes the
inciting incident, the landlord pounding on the door and warning of an impending eviction notice. Desperate, Hank manages to find the name of an emergency contact listed on a field trip permission form and gets the two of them to this woman’s house. Then comes an extended limbo period of still trying to find his mom while constantly walking on eggshells around this woman who – because of her own trauma stemming from her own son’s behavior – believes that Hank can do nothing right. I kept wanting to shake some sense into that woman even though I understand where her actions came from. By the end, Choldenko got me all choked up and any book that can do that is a winner to me.
This book felt odd to me, never really settling into a coherent flow. I wonder if Hoffman’s veering away from her tendency to write adult fiction with some magical realism played a part of the issues with this book. I also always hesitate with historical fiction based on a real person, in this case Anne Frank, even though this novel took place before the events of the diary. Hoffman struck an odd balance throughout the
narrative weaving from contemporary (to Anne and Margo) perspectives to an omniscient retrospective narrative without clear distinction. Although the novel may have great significance to the author, I cannot recommend this book.
I did not like ending my reading for the month with this book. The main character has an arch-rival for everything at school and a mother who works as a ghost writer for romance novels. Her world gets turned upside down after a disastrous 13th birthday party when she wakes up and soon discovers that she has Cupid-like powers because – surprise, surprise – her dad is Cupid. No, the world building makes no sense. The supposed underlying romance between her and her arch-rival also makes no sense, at least with how Janes wrote it. On top of that, the main character is not exactly likable. I do not recommend this one.
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