Teen Fiction

The She

Name: The She
Author: Carol Plum-Ucci
ISBN: 9780152054533

by Carol Plum-Ucci

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Overview

On a rainy night eight years ago, Evan Barrett's parents were lost at sea. In horror, he listened to their frantic Mayday calls on the ship-to-shore radio, to his mother's cries for mercy—and to the deafening shrieks that answered her back.

Now seventeen, Evan has gone in search of answers to his parents' strange disappearance. The only explanation that makes any sense to him is that they were swallowed up by The She, a legendary sea creature that devours ships. But when Evan's quest for the truth uncovers shocking allegations against his parents, he must deal with the possibility that everything he knows about his family is a lie.

Includes a reader's guide.

After his parents are lost at sea, Evan Barrett and his older brother leave their seaside home in West Hook to escape bad memories, but years later even worse questions emerge when Evan is asked to help a fellow student deal with another sea-related tragedy.

Synopsis

A haunting search for truth from a Printz-Honoree

Publishers Weekly

A nine-year-old boy who loses his seafaring parents in a storm finds himself at 17 confronting the same suspicions about The She, a fabled dark force that lurks off the Jersey shore. PW said, "This chiller at one moment resembles a mournful dirge, the next a supernatural thriller, the next a tightly woven mystery." Ages 14-up. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, Carol Plum-Ucci

CAROL PLUM-UCCI is a graduate of Purdue University and has received numerous awards and citations in entertainment and business writing. She is the author of The Body of Christopher Creed (Harcourt, 2000), which was named a Michael L. Printz Honor book and was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. She lives in New Jersey.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

From The Critics

After his parents were killed at sea, 9-year-old Evan Barrett and his older brother move away from their seaside home in West Hook to live with their Aunt Mel in the city and escape painful memories. Now 17, Evan is a popular prankster at his private Catholic high school, but he is forced to revisit the past when he is asked to help a classmate confront memories of her own boating accident. In helping his classmate, Evan is drawn back to West Hook where his theory, that his parents were swallowed by a mythical sea witch known as The She, is challenged by his brother's research and a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation. When everything he thought he knew about his parents is threatened and nobody but an emotionally unstable girl and a mysterious Vietnam veteran believe him, Evan is forced to decide once and for all if he will be able to confront The She and accept the truth about his parents. This story touches on the alienation many teens feel from their parents and peers, and readers will be captivated by the vibrant characters, realistic relationships, and mystery throughout the novel. 2003, Harcourt Books, 280 pp.Ages young adult. Reviewer: Ashley Marrinan-Levy

Children's Literature

There is a She-devil of a hole in the sea canyon off the Jersey coast where fish are caught, a place where seamen go and some do not return. Eight years ago, Evan Barrett's parents disappeared over the canyon, and Evan is convinced that "The She," as he calls it, has eaten his parents. Evan's older brother, Emmett, has become a realist of the most tiresome kind; his explanations for the loss of his parents include their involvement in drug running, and the possibility that their disappearance was a sham staged with the intent of eluding the Feds, a sham which went horribly awry. Recent events have made Evan's scarce memories return with an all-too-chilling clarity, including the awful shrieking of The She that only a few people are able to hear. Meanwhile, Evan is unwillingly paired with Grey Shailey, the most loathsome girl at school. Like it or not, Grey and Evan share a common bond: each of them has heard "The She" as it took someone they knew, and each of them has spent time at St. Elizabeth trying to get mentally "well." There is never a doubt in the reader's mind that sooner or later Evan is going head-to-head with "The She." Yet Carol Plum-Ucci sews together this and other plot threads in a seamless manner. Plum-Ucci is on top of her game here: a great sense of story, diverse and interesting characters, good pacing, an ear for dialogue, and a great setting. Put it all together and you have a nicely layered, suspenseful novel. 2003, Harcourt, Ages 14 up.
— Christopher Moning

KLIATT

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, September 2003: Seventeen-year-old Evan Barrett comes from a long line of men and women who have lived, and died, by the sea. Eight years ago, both of his parents disappeared off the Jersey coast in an unexplained accident shrouded in the mystery of The She, a jealous sea hag rumored to dwell deep in a sea canyon and suck ships into its depths. After experiencing terrible flashback memories of the night his parents dropped off the face of the Earth, including shrieking that only he could hear, Evan is determined to head back to his childhood home and find out once and for all what could have happened to his parents and their 300-foot freighter. Complicating his quest is his involvement with Grey Shailey, a popular girl who has landed in a mental hospital following a tragic drowning. She reveals her secrets, which he could never have imagined. Together, they search for answers using both science and sea lore, and calling on the shore's bizarre characters, Bloody Mary the fortuneteller and Edwin Church the loner. Logic and myth collide when Evan's older brother reveals a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation that may call into question everything he ever believed about his parents. Plum-Ucci pulls her readers into a whirlpool of seafaring superstition and gives them only a captain's prayer to take with them as The She begins to shriek again. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2003, Harcourt, 354p., Ages 12 to 18.
—Michele Winship

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-This gripping story revolves around the sea, shipwrecks, drug smuggling, and a mythical creature known as The She. Haunted by his parents' disappearance at sea years before, 17-year-old Evan forms an unlikely alliance with a troubled, ill-tempered girl his own age. Like Evan, Grey claims to hear the terrible shriek of The She on stormy nights. Drawn together by this unique sense and their tragic pasts, the teens begin to investigate the incidents surrounding Evan's parents' disappearance. What results is a science-versus-supernatural dispute that eventually pits Evan's spiritual quandaries against his older brother's stoically scientific logic. The She delivers results similar to Plum-Ucci's previous efforts: plot, character development, and action sequences all seamlessly gel into an intriguing and structurally sound mystery novel. And, Plum-Ucci, as per usual, draws upon the supernatural to blur the boundaries between fact and fiction. However, her treatment of the mythical beast becomes less and less subtle with every page and at times interferes with important plot developments and pacing. Still, as in The Body of Christopher Creed (2000) and What Happened to Lani Garver (2002, both Harcourt), the author has created a moody, spooky page-turner that juggles profound philosophical debate with the everyday tribulations of teenage life.-Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Evan's parents died in a tragic accident at sea eight years before he's asked to visit Gray Shailey at the "nuthouse" as part of a helping-hands program; she's been involved in a boating accident, too. Evan has concentrated on practical jokes and trying to forget the sounds he heard ("the She") over the ship-to-shore radio the night of his parents' death, but Gray slipped him some acid at a party and sent him on a bad trip that revived the memories. Evan's slow journey toward discovery of the reality of the events is grippingly suspenseful and Gray's gradual revelation as a pawn in her own right is equally intriguing. Few authors can combine the elements of supernatural possibilities and mystery detection without making their own bias known, yet Plum-Ucci manages to keep readers balanced on a see-saw between rationality and the powers of the dark. Gray, who is early on termed the "queen of the bitch patrol," becomes central to the discovery of the truth and to Evan's strength in dealing with his family and his fears. A seagoing thriller. (Fiction. YA)