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The Shattering Karen Healey Little, Brown and Company, September 2011 ISBN 978-0-316-12572-7 Hardcover Summerton is a lovely resort town on the west coast of New Zealand, a town that’s perhaps a bit too perfect. While other small towns struggle to remain vibrant and appealing and they watch their residents, especially the younger ones, move away in search of better lives, Summerton just continues to attract tourists in greater numbers and few of its inhabitants ever leave for good. Seventeen-year-old Keri is struggling to understand why her beloved older brother, Jake, would have committed suicide, never having indicated that anything was wrong. One of the worst things for Keri is that she always had plans for every contingency, no matter how unlikely, and that made her feel safe; Jake’s death, this way, was something she had never even considered. She found him and, although she has blocked out the memory, the pain of not understanding is intense and she takes little comfort from the family gathering for the Maori celebration of his life. Then, an old childhood friend, Janna, approaches her one day and asks if she would like to know who murdered Jake and Keri immediately senses that this may not be a wild idea. Janna tells her a boy from Auckland, Sione, is on his way to town to show her his research indicating a string of suicides over a period of years, all older brothers living in scattered areas of the country but who had all been in Summerton on New Year’s Eve. Sione has identified a number of other odd patterns in these deaths and the three teens set out to find the killer and exact revenge. The perfect town of Summerton, though, may not let that happen. I’m a big fan of young adult dark fantasy and I’m always on the lookout for something a little different. The New Zealand setting of this story was what first attracted me but the first page hooked me thoroughly. I immediately “felt” who Keri was , what drove her, and Janna and Sione took equal billing. That’s partly because of the author’s style in having each chapter be from the perspective of one of the three but there’s more to it than that. All along, I believed these characters and experienced their emotions, their physical pain and their moments of happiness—even in the midst of great sorrow and anger, there will be happiness. I couldn’t help thinking I’d like to know these teens. Put quite simply, Karen Healey has created a mesmerizing tale and is a writer to watch. Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, September 2011.

2023-06-07 02:05