March 25, 2024
Cashore (Seasparrow) examines themes of grief informed by the 2020 presidential election and the Covid-19 pandemic via a speculative narrative in this intimate read. High school graduate Wilhelmina Hart was raised by her aunts Margaret, Frankie, and Esther. Following Aunt Frankie’s death, Wilhelmina begins seeing bizarre visions that all seem to know her name and prophesize events before they occur. She soon realizes that she’s not the only one—her attractive friend James Fang, whose family owns a doughnut shop, is experiencing otherworldly events, too. As the 2020 presidential election draws near, Wilhelmina struggles to make sense of this new and strange magic and must come to terms with Aunt Frankie’s death if she hopes to find some peace amid tumultuous happenings. Via vulnerable and sensate third-person prose and chapters that move back and forth in time throughout the year, Cashore quilts together small, everyday moments that center family and healing. Though the punctuated nature of certain interactions can sometimes foster disconnection between the characters’ lives and relationships, distancing them from the reader, it all culminates in a nimbly braided slice-of-life tale. Wilhelmina reads as white; James is of Italian and Chinese descent. Ages 12–up.
April 1, 2024
The eight days surrounding the 2020 U.S. presidential election form the backdrop for one young woman's journey through grief. Wilhelmina Hart was supposed to spend the year after high school in Pennsylvania with her beloved aunts, a polyamorous trio she's summered with forever. Then her aunt Frankie, who "used to make the world shine," died, and now Covid-19 has her aunts Margaret and Esther crowded into Wilhelmina's family's suburban Boston apartment. Wilhelmina, who's short, fat, and experiences chronic pain, is reduced to running errands and overseeing her younger siblings' remote schooling. Julie and Bee, her best friends, are in a pandemic pod without her. And "the monster" is poised to win re-election. But Wilhelmina is suddenly having strange experiences, shared, inexplicably, with attractive classmate James Fang, who's of Italian and Chinese descent. In her customary meticulous prose, Cashore nails the grinding misery of the moment, with masks fogging glasses and tempers flaring. Scenes from summers past are interleaved with the day-by-day narrative, providing backstory. The climax is signaled at the beginning of each chapter, starting with the first: "On the Friday eight days before Wilhelmina stepped into her own, she..." Her own what? readers will wonder as Wilhelmina struggles against enveloping unhappiness. If the answer to what is a bit anticlimactic in its specifics, the emotional work it takes Wilhelmina to get there is honest and true. Aunt Esther is Jewish and Afro-Cuban, Julie is Black, and other major characters are white. A complex, deliberate examination of grief and recovery. (Fiction. 14-18)
COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
April 15, 2024
Grades 9-12 The world of 2020 is a chaotic one, and even in Wilhelmina's sleepy town, the upcoming presidential election combined with a once-in-a-century pandemic has placed everyone on edge. But Wilhelmina herself is more concerned with the strange visions she's having following a portentous visit to a local fortune teller. When she discovers that local boy James is seeing similar things, Wilhelmina and her friends decide to find out what these visions mean. While readers may expect a tale steeped in magic, Cashore instead opts to create an in-depth character study with wonder as a subtle but steady undertone. Wilhelmina's story is one of processing the grief of losing a close aunt just a few years before, as well as a story of finding the personal strength to stand up for and alongside others. This is a very patient story; the slow pace allows for extended flashbacks to fill out Wilhelmina's history with other characters. Some readers may chafe at the speed, but the rich language and thoroughly deep character work more than make up for it.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
July 1, 2024
Wilhelmina's beloved aunt Frankie died in 2018. Now it's 2020, and Wilhelmina's family and two closest friends still seem cut off from her in her grief; the isolating precautions of the pandemic and the chaotic state of the nation only make things worse. But on October 30, 2020, something changes, and Wilhelmina begins to see sights that can only be magical: an "owl lady," a cryptic golden message, a glow surrounding certain people. Against her will, Wilhelmina must confront the impossible -- but what if accepting the impossible also means accepting her aunt's death? Set during a tense nine-day period surrounding the previous U.S. presidential election and flashing back to summer visits with Wilhelmina's aunts (a loving, eccentric "throuple"), Cashore's novel is rich with a quality of observation and multifarious detail that suits adolescent angst, loss, and the limited stimulation of pandemic "bubbles." Tarot cards; smiles (teasing, ironic, or secretive); bathrobes; doughnuts (lots of good ones); hair; clothing; thoracic outlet syndrome (the afterword offers some startling news about that); birds; two warm, supportive constellations of trios (the aunts; Wilhelmina and her friends); and much more make their way into Wilhelmina's thoughts and feelings as she finally emerges "into her own." Although set in the recent past, this is a work of historical and magical realism with unsettling contemporary resonances. Deirdre F. Baker
(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
Starred review from December 13, 2024
Gr 9 Up-A fortune teller sets up a card table outdoors in a snowy Harvard Square. It's the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and business is slow. Relationships are also at a standstill: Wilhemina Hart's meetup with friends Bee and Julie is brief because they all have additional family responsibilities now. It's not the gap year between high school and college that Wilhemina anticipated. Compounding her isolation, she cannot get past the loss of her beloved Frankie, who died two years ago. Frankie and Esther were companions of her father's great aunt Margaret. As a child Wilhemina observed this magical, elderly trio intuiting each other's feelings from things left unsaid. But that closeness is gone now. When Wilhemina asks the fortune teller what will happen tomorrow, she sprouts wings and glitters with light, a hopeful sign that Bee and Julie don't see. Wilhemina can't believe it either until she meets cute-guy James Fang, who's started seeing things too. That's when the barrier she has constructed to protect herself begins to crack, and light comes in. Told over the span of two consequential presidential races, this fable's mysterious happenings are skillfully interwoven with the results of the 2020 election, as Hart family members stay tuned until every vote is counted. But it's Frankie who hovers over the novel, a visionary who believed in human hearts touching, and whose spirit lives in Wilhemina. There is diversity in the cast, including Julie, who is Black; Aunt Esther, who is Afro-Cuban and Jewish; and James, who is biracial. Wilhemina and other major characters are cued white. VERDICT Cashore threads fiction with fact in a three-generational story of love, loss, and friendship. For mature readers and a must for all collections.-Georgia Christgau
Copyright 2025 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2024
Wilhelmina's beloved aunt Frankie died in 2018. Now it's 2020, and Wilhelmina's family and two closest friends still seem cut off from her in her grief; the isolating precautions of the pandemic and the chaotic state of the nation only make things worse. But on October 30, 2020, something changes, and Wilhelmina begins to see sights that can only be magical: an "owl lady," a cryptic golden message, a glow surrounding certain people. Against her will, Wilhelmina must confront the impossible -- but what if accepting the impossible also means accepting her aunt's death? Set during a tense nine-day period surrounding the previous U.S. presidential election and flashing back to summer visits with Wilhelmina's aunts (a loving, eccentric "throuple"), Cashore's novel is rich with a quality of observation and multifarious detail that suits adolescent angst, loss, and the limited stimulation of pandemic "bubbles." Tarot cards; smiles (teasing, ironic, or secretive); bathrobes; doughnuts (lots of good ones); hair; clothing; thoracic outlet syndrome (the afterword offers some startling news about that); birds; two warm, supportive constellations of trios (the aunts; Wilhelmina and her friends); and much more make their way into Wilhelmina's thoughts and feelings as she finally emerges "into her own." Although set in the recent past, this is a work of historical and magical realism with unsettling contemporary resonances.
(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)