Strange creatures / Phoebe North.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780062841155
- ISBN: 0062841157
- Physical Description: 532 pages ; 22 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2021]
Content descriptions
Summary, etc.: | "Tells the story about a girl whose brother mysteriously disappears, the family and friends he leaves behind, and the stories, real and imagined, that they tell themselves to fill the empty spaces"--Provided by publisher. From the moment that Annie was born, she and her older brother, Jamie, were inseparable. Facing the challenges of growing up different in suburban America, they created their own space in the woods behind their house: a fantasy world of their own making, where no one else could find them. But as they grew, Jamie grew dark and distant. He found new friends, a girlfriend, and a life away from Annie and their shared world. By the time Annie was in eighth grade, it was as if she hardly knew the brother who was her other half. One day, he disappears. As days turn into months turn into years, Annie comes to believe that Jamie, somehow, has entered the world they created... and she is the only one who can bring him back. -- adapted from jacket |
Search for related items by subject
Genre: | Young adult fiction. Detective and mystery fiction. Magic realist fiction. Novels. |
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oliver Wolcott Library - Litchfield | YA FIC NOR (Text) | 36123148061961 | Young Adult Fiction | Available | - |
BookList Review
Strange Creatures
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
North's quietly devastating novel about a family coping with trauma, seen through the lenses of two vulnerable siblings and the girl they both love, is beautifully written but emotionally difficult. Annie and Jaime, born a year apart, use fantasy to escape the expectations of parents and peers. In the real world, brash Annie feels invisible next to Jaime, who is popular and their parents' favorite, while poetic Jaime, to all appearances happy, is being crushed by their father's enforced masculinity. In Gumlea, accessed through the woods behind their house, they are free and powerful, swimming with mermaids, battling harpies and pirates, and always, always together. Gumlea becomes a wedge between them as they grow older, but it takes on new significance when Jaime disappears at age 13. Sure that he is waiting in Gumlea, Annie dives back into the fantasy, recruiting Jaime's once-girlfriend Vidya and falling for her, too. Narratively, events in Gumlea mirror their real lives but in an increasingly fractured way, its magic not enough to defeat real-world horrors. This juxtaposition isn't always successful, but it creates some heartbreaking, cathartic moments. This bildungsroman is layered, imaginative, and compelling; with its contemplative tone, especially as the characters reach adulthood, it's also a strong adult crossover.
Kirkus Review
Strange Creatures
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Annie turns to childhood make-believe to cope with devastating events. When they were small, Annie and her older brother, Jamie, invented the fantastical world of Gumlea where Annie became the Emperata Annit and Jamie was first Prince Jamin and, later, the Nameless Boy, the one who was different--in this made-up world as well as in reality. Gumlea soon became an escape as Jamie struggled with parental gender expectations and Annie felt a void growing between them. Thirteen-year-old Jamie's sudden disappearance leaves Gumlea as 12-year-old Annie's only link to her brother--and it functions for her as a coping mechanism as she holds out hope over the years that she can find him. Gumlea's role as a reflection of the main plot seems disjointed at times: The epilogue (which appears at the beginning of the book) and prologue (which comes at the end) are both set there, but they have no clear connection with the main plot, unlike other scenes which clearly serve as mirrors to events taking place in this world. Gumlea is fleshed out well enough that it could serve as the focus of a stand-alone story, but in this context, it never really gets its time to shine. The central storyline, meanwhile, stretches past its natural cathartic endpoint, feeling stretched thin by the finish. Annie and Jamie have a Jewish mother and Christian father; main characters default to White, and there is queer representation in the book. An ambitious novel that doesn't quite coalesce. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
School Library Journal Review
Strange Creatures
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Gr 9 Up--Fantasy, trauma, abuse, and grief are explored through the lives of white Jewish siblings who feel they are a soul shared between two bodies, their lives and minds braided together in ways that seem otherworldly. Annie and Jamie live the truest versions of their lives in Gumlea, a safe, sacred fantasy world in the woods behind their house, where they encounter harpies, mermaids, and feral children. In the real world, they don't fit right. Jamie learns to turn off his feelings and go along to get along. Annie doesn't mind being abrasive and strange, but worries she's losing Jamie. When Jamie disappears as a young teen, Annie's world is shattered. She becomes consumed with the idea that Jamie must somehow be trapped in Gumlea--she can see him there, with ships and pirates and ropes, their sanctuary now a prison. After Annie begins to date Indian American Vidya, Jamie's ex-girlfriend, she descends into what looks like madness, gathering supplies for a ritual to open the Veil and bring Jamie back so she can be whole again. The story follows them from birth through Annie's college years. Chapters begin with bits of their Gumlea stories, which serve as allegory and revelation. Narration is shared by Jamie, Annie, and Vidya to powerful effect. Readers will puzzle over just where the reality is in all the fantasy as they delve deeper into the siblings' richly imagined paracosm. VERDICT A devastatingly tragic and deeply immersive masterpiece.--Amanda MacGregor, Parkview Elem. Sch., Rosemount, MN