English language
Published Nov. 18, 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Small town teenage summer before the internet, feeling like an outsider in a place that is the same as everywhere else and always a half-beat in the past, making something weird and making something out of nothing, and holding on to that for feeling alive. At half-way I wondered, and the story pulled on ahead where it needed to go.
What a storyteller Kevin Wilson is. Everything in its right place. As a reader, you can just flow along.
"The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives and the law is skinny with hunger for us." So pens Frankie, odd but lovable teen narrator, on a poster illustrated with her friend Zeke's artwork. No one knows they have created the cryptic poster, and they literally slather the town with copies, tucking them in mailboxes, and taping and stapling them to every surface they can find. Their actions transform the town of Coalfield, as well as their own lives, forever. Frankie keeps her secret for a very long time, like a talisman of childhood she needs to hold onto to grow.
I find it odd that I just finished a coming of age book about a boy who grows up in Appalachia (Demon Copperhead by Kingsolver), followed by this coming of age book about a girl who grows up in Appalachia, not too far away. …
"The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives and the law is skinny with hunger for us." So pens Frankie, odd but lovable teen narrator, on a poster illustrated with her friend Zeke's artwork. No one knows they have created the cryptic poster, and they literally slather the town with copies, tucking them in mailboxes, and taping and stapling them to every surface they can find. Their actions transform the town of Coalfield, as well as their own lives, forever. Frankie keeps her secret for a very long time, like a talisman of childhood she needs to hold onto to grow.
I find it odd that I just finished a coming of age book about a boy who grows up in Appalachia (Demon Copperhead by Kingsolver), followed by this coming of age book about a girl who grows up in Appalachia, not too far away. But that's where the comparison ends. Wilson's book is funny, engaging and quirky. His strong connections to popular culture and regional geography make the story relevant and real, and Frankie Budge's evolution from a gawky, lonely young girl to a successful mother and wife is exciting and believable, rather than predictable and banal.
I like this book a lot and if you're looking for a story about adolescents growing up in Appalachia, or anywhere for that matter, I recommend this one.
3.25, rounding to 4 because I like coming of age stories about misfits who find their thing. While I enjoyed this book, I didn't feel deeply connected to any of the characters. There were some fun and clever moments, and some sentences that really showcase Wilson's skill as a writer. My challenge is that I still felt arms-length to the players, rather than fully immersed in their story.
