Reviews

• ZOMG!!! Excellent read! I was sucked in from the first page and killed this in two nights (would have been one if I didn't have to work). This is a contemporary novel that combines issues, history, ghosts, local pride, and first love to make a can't-put-it-down read. Told in first person by two narrators, teenagers in their junior year at Brookline High: Law Walker, son of a prominent African American Harvard history professor and a white architectual historian and preservationist, and Katie Mullens, a orphaned white girl--her dad was killed in Afghanistan when she was an infant, her mother by a driver on a cell phone the year before--from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks who is convinced she's crazy and doesn't see ghosts, The Other Side of Dark is an engrossing snapshot of two teens trying to save not only a historic building, but their own souls. OK, a bit melodramatic a description, but Law and Katie put everything on the line, including their lives both in a physical and emotional sense, to save Pinebank and find the truth. Law is torn between his two races. His father is at the forefront of the reparations movement--scion of a family that can trace itself back to Walker, a slave given his name because he could never successfully run away who refused to surrender his real name, a man who became a preacher and business owner--and a burning critic of the white man's world. His mother is the daughter of a privileged Brattle Street family (for non-Bostonians, Brattle Street is the very refined street in Cambridge which begins in Harvard Square and runs down through the poshest neighborhood in Cambridge, where many Harvard notables, wealthy families, and historical luminaries reside; the well-known prep school, Buckingham, Brown & Nichols is on one of the tributary side streets off of Brattle. The street is lined with beautiful houses from the Colonial period on) who has dedicated her life to preserving historic buildings and worshipping landscape designer Frederick Law Olmstead. His parents battle constantly over history which stands for the issue of race between them, and both stand on opposite sides of the battle to save Pinebank, the stately mansion built overlooking Jamaica Pond by Thomas Perkins, a patriot and businessman who made his money in the Triangle Trade. Katie is a mess in the aftermath of her mother's death. Her kind if helpless stepfather has retained custody of her and does his best to give her as normal and supportive a life as possible. She's a talented artist--the art teacher, Lucy Rosen, encourages her talent, even though she finds Katie's drawings disturbing since Katie lost her mother. Katie draws dead people, in the moment of their death, and ghosts find Katie. Law is dealing with the legacy and reality of being a light-skinned African American male in contemporary America. Katie brings his anger, confusion and frustration to a boiling point. Katie is of Irish-American descent with a family history that stretches back to the Potato Famine; her family history recalls the times of NINA (No Irish Need Apply) and when a black man could get a job far easier than a white man of Irish descent. She reminds him that many people have been exploited, not just because of the color of their skin, but because of where they came from. The other protagonist in the story is Pinebank. Once a majestic mansion that Frederick Law Olmstead made a centerpiece in one of the jewels of the Emerald Necklace of parks Olmstead designed for the city of Boston, built of terracotta brick, and victim of three fires, at the time of the story, Pinebank is a dilapidated shell, condemned and the center of a fight to save the building. Homeless people camp there; teenagers vandalize it; and George, grandson of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, haunts it, guarding the treasure entrusted to him by his grandfather. Sarah Smith has written an amazing novel that deals with the reality of race from all sides, as well as the legacy of slavery. The South has always been vilified for slavery; this book--like the non-fiction Ten Hills Farm--reminds us that slavery began in the North and was funded and managed by Northern businessmen. Her teenagers are real--utterly believable, caught on the cusp of childhood and adulthood and all of the demands both make upon you. Well-researched without being didactic, this book is also a love letter to Boston and all its wonder and silliness--a snapshot of the passion Bostonians have for their history and their neighborhoods, instilled from childhood. I loved this book--it kept me on the edge of my seat, moved me to tears, and was just a joyful reading experience. I am recommending it for my library's collection and hope to have Sarah Smith come and speak at some point.

• Sarah Smith's first YA mystery has it all. First, and most important, it is about two teenagers searching for their own identities. Brilliant, with many friends, Law has two intelligent, well-known parents who have excelled in their fields. His challenge? one is black, one is white, and he is being pressured to follow in the footsteps of the one society says he looks like - his African-American father -- when his heart is pulling him toward the world of his mother's scholarship. And then there is Katie, who is essentially alone. Her parents both died violent deaths, and Katie is living with her well-meaning stepfather, and seeing a psychiatrist because she "sees people." She also talks to these people, and draws them, and this scares her teachers, and her peers. Clearly she has problems. But then Law and Katie find each other, and the people Katie sees turn out to be ghosts, most of them from the 19th century ... and there is a landmark home that Law wants to save, and a ghost with Down Syndrome who tries to help them ... The Other Side of Dark is intense, but always emotionally true -- whether telling the story that took place in the past, or the one taking place today. It is a page turner. And it is by far the best YA book I have read in a long time, unafraid of dealing with issues (past and present) of race, identity, heritage, and, most important, of young people taking what they need from history and genetics and then discovering who they are and can become. It is a book for today's young Americans. A+

• Sarah Smith has a rare writing talent. I have read her four print books and none can be easily pigeonholed. This might prove a problem for marketing, but not for the reader longing to find a well-crafted book in a sea of mediocrity. Being a half century beyond YA, I may not be the targeted audience, but I could not put the book down. The voices of each main character are so distinct, no identification was needed. Smith's choice and use of detail is just one example of her superior craft. The story tension is perfectly paced, the tale is full of surprises, and I was on edge to the very end. And to add to the delight, the historical subject was fresh, not a rerun of some current trend. For those who might be put off by the idea that someone can see ghosts, and I would be one, let me say that Smith's handling of this shows her deep understanding of the complexity of human psychology--as does her portrayal of a teen whose parents have died and a teen who is coming to terms with being biracial. The author presents no pat answers, but her profound comprehension and compassion result in a thoughtful and satisfying character presentation.

• I learned alot from this book. Mr. Walker, Law's dad was one of my favor character next to Law because although his advice and opinion were hard to swallow at time, he still made both me and Law think beyond. Mr. Walker and Law clashed most if not all time, I believe that he was the catalyst that really help Law be his own person outside both his father's expectations and that of society. I also appriciate how the writer focused on the ghost slaves and how they names were erased which in turn erased their African history (no name, no village, and no family). Katie's gift was really good with how it captured the story of every picture that she painted. But outside the gift I feel the she was not fleshed out like Law. I wanted to know more about her mother and her life before her mother died. I also wanted to see her really be conflicted with the stories that she was learning like how Law was. All in all this a good story and also a reminder of how schools tend to filter the history being taught.

Purchase links