Horn Book (starred review)
“Lynch guides the reader through this complex internal journey with a remarkably light touch.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Lynch successfully takes the reader into the soul of somebody isolated by grief.”
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"Lynch's control over Will's narration is superb...There's a real Holden Caufield echo."
Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)
“Lynch remains one of young adult literature’s most intriguing writers.”
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Lynch's control over Will's narration is superb...There's a real Holden Caufield echo.
Horn Book
Lynch guides the reader through this complex internal journey with a remarkably light touch.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Lynch successfully takes the reader into the soul of somebody isolated by grief.
Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)
Lynch remains one of young adult literature's most intriguing writers.
Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
Despite the redemptive themes suggested by its title and its division into three sections expansively entitled "Faith," "Hope" and "Charity," Lynch's (Whitechurch) latest novel focuses on the dark and murky corners of its main character's psyche. Unraveling as an interior monologue in which 17-year-old Will refers to himself as "you," the narrative cryptically sets forth this teen's plight. Against his will, the tellingly named protagonist has been enrolled in a woodworking program at some kind of vocational high school populated with lost souls. He lives with his grandparents because, as the boy discloses midway through the story, "My dad drove off the road.... Into the water. With my stepmother." Water plays a chilling role in the morbid goings-on, which include the mysterious drownings or suicides of several teens; with each death, one of Will's wood sculptures is found near the site. Will says he is responsible, but is he indeed a murderer or even a "carrier pigeon of death"? Clarification comes slowly and obtrusively via advice from Will's grandfather and encounters with two of Will's troubled classmates, all of whom fit familiar stereotypes. Filled with such self-addressed comments as "She doesn't understand you. Nobody understands you," this airless novel does not reward the effort required to penetrate it. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Publishers Weekly
Will, a 17-year-old enrolled in a vocational woodworking class, falls under suspicion when his wood sculptures are found near the site of several teens' mysterious drownings or suicides. According to PW, this novel, narrated by Will in the second person, "focuses on the dark and murky corners of its main character's psyche." Ages 13-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature
Lynch's latest book is a foray into the mind of a confused adolescent who remains on the fringe of his peer group. Will lives with his grandparents and attends a school that the locals call Hopeless High, a vocational school for kids who have problems. There, instead of learning to become a pilot, which is his dream, Will is enrolled in the woodworking program. He is able to carve beautiful objects, but he finds himself creating strange totems that later appear at the sites of several teen suicides. Throughout the book, Will grapples with the notions of freewill, understanding people and being understood, and what the purpose is in each action he takes. There is little real action in the book, as most of it takes place inside Will's head, and the dialogue is difficult to follow, since Will speaks of himself in the second person. I found myself constantly looking for quotation marks, which detracted from the story. All in all, this is a disappointing book that is difficult to follow and understand. 2001, HarperCollins Children's Books, $15.95 and $15.89. Ages 14 up. Reviewer: Elizabeth Pabrinkis
VOYA
Lynch remains one of young adult literature's most intriguing writers, delving deeply again here into the mind and heart of his character, Will, who like many troubled teens, is in danger of being lost for good. In this stream-of-consciousness narrative of a boy living inside himself, Will struggles to understand how he has come to be placed where he feels he does not belong. In a special program school with "the dead enders—stupid, dangerous or hanging out," Will senses he was meant instead to be a pilot, soaring free and clear of all the murky humanity below. Slowly readers come to understand Will's background—how he landed with Gran and Pops, his talent in woodworking newly revealed, and his tentative reaching out to classmate Angela. His growing fear is that he is some kind of Jonah, a "carrier pigeon of death," when his original, eerily beautiful sculptures begin to turn up at the scenes of a rash of teen suicides. Readers are drawn as if by a whirlwind through the air of death and loss that envelops Will, who struggles to stay connected and make the messages he means to convey find an understanding heart. Lynch asks the essential adolescent query about autonomy and choice, self-definition or preordained roles: Can I become who I mean myself to be, and where will that self belong in the world? Will's story is profound, and sensitive readers will persevere through Lynch's literate style. Recurring water and wood motifs keep Will connected to the natural world, while the title and section headings frame the theme of spiritual renewal after a dark night of the soul. Elliptical revelation through a series of interior dialogues and questions, questions, questions graduallydissolve Will's detachment and draw the reader in to share his redemption. PLB $15.89. VOYA CODES: 5Q 3P S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Will appeal with pushing; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2001, HarperCollins, 160p, $15.95. Ages 16 to 18. Reviewer: Mary Arnold SOURCE: VOYA, August 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 3)
School Library Journal
Gr 5-8-The power of childhood friendships and generous spirits to overcome ethnic hatred is the theme of this moving story of an 11-year-old Albanian victim of the civil war in Kosovo. As Zana Dugolli and her family attempt to escape an attack, her father and two brothers are killed, and Zana is severely wounded. Hospitalized in Belgrade for three months, the terrified child encounters kindness on the part of a Serbian surgeon and, helped by the Red Cross, returns home on crutches. Her recovery is complicated by recurring infections, but the attentions of a British doctor and the revival of a friendship with Lena, the Serbian girl next door, help the healing process. When infection flares up, her mother convinces Lena's father to take her back to a hospital where she waits out the NATO bombing. In the end, she is reunited with the family she thought she had lost. When the villagers, including her older brother, want to take revenge on Lena's family, Zana saves their lives by standing with them. The contrasts in the protagonist's world are clear. Their television plays Venezuelan soap operas but food is cooked on a wood stove and water pumped by hand, outside. However, there is little to anchor this story in a specific setting or culture. Zana could be an American child, Lena is not developed at all, and readers never witness their former friendship. Mead's sympathy for children caught in adult conflicts is evident, and readers will likely come to share that sympathy but are unlikely to develop a better understanding of the complexities of the Balkan world.-Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
