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• A Escavação Surreal do Privilégio

  Vencedora do prestigiado prêmio Michael L. Printz, esta obra é uma crítica mordaz e alucinógena ao privilégio branco e à toxicidade familiar. A.S. King utiliza o realismo mágico para entrelaçar a história de cinco primos distantes, usando a metáfora literal e figurada de "cavar" para expor como o racismo e a ganância envenenam gerações. É uma leitura desconfortável, estranha e necessária, que desafia a estrutura narrativa tradicional para entregar um soco no estômago sobre o que escolhemos ignorar em nossas próprias origens.

• Thought provoking Page Turner

  I loved how the author keeps the audience hanging at the end of every chapter. Even after the serpentine road ends, we are still left with questions, even if they are only of ourselves. Highly recommend for adults and older teens.

• Brilliant!

  Fantastic complex book. While it took me a while to read I couldn’t stop thinking about this book.

• Wonderfully engaging story that looks at number of societal and mental issues.

  Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I bought for my Kindle. Thoughts: This is a weighty book (subject wise) and not necessarily a comfortable read. It also takes some time to process. The story follows five individuals (they end up being cousins but you don’t know that at the beginning of the book). Each of them lives in less than ideal situations; one has a dying father and no mother, one lives with a single mom who is obsessive about stealing, one lives with an abusive father, one lives with a very aggressively racist white pride mom, and one seems to be able to flit about the world at her will. I just now read the synopsis here and it is kind of spoiler filled in my opinion. Part of the fun of reading this was the journey of trying to figure out how all these five teens were connected. At first the story seems a bit random, jumping from one character to the next, but I love how it all came together. Then there is the Freak, who is able to fade in and out of different locations at will; I love the magical realism this added to the story and found the premise behind this intriguing (although it remains a mystery for most of the book). There are a lot of social issues tackled here too. Racism is the most prevalent theme, as is the ever present benefit that being a white suburbanite gives you in society. However, there are also strong discussions around abuse, anger/hate issues, mental health, and sexism. In addition to that this book takes a good look at that white privilege suburban culture and picks it apart. Is this class actually happier because of their privilege or are they as much of a mess as everyone else? Through Gottfried and Marla we get a look at an older couple’s perspective as well; they made money and stability for themselves (not their family) their top priority. However, does that make them responsible for their kids' decisions? Should they have supported their kids better in the past and can they make amends by supporting them better now? What about their mental health issues (especially Marla’s) and the way that is reflected in their kids? As I said there’s a lot going on here. It’s very well written and very engaging. I had a lot of trouble putting this book down, I just had to know how things were going to unfold. The way the story came together was amazing. Given the nature of the story it is fairly open ended, however, I thought it ended perfectly. I have read almost all of King’s books (I haven’t read Switch yet) and this is definitely one of the strongest ones. It’s not as whimsical as some of her other stories and is less ambiguous as well. My Summary (5/5): Overall I absolutely loved this. I am a huge A.S. King fan anyway but I thought this was one of her strongest novels yet. This takes a look at such a wide breadth of societal and mental issues and does it in such an engaging way. I loved how the whole story came together. This is an uncomfortable read at points (there is self harm, abuse, rape, hate crimes) but everything was very relevant to the story. I would recommend to those who don’t mind a heavier, thoughtful read that makes you take a hard look at our society.

• Great book, but unfortunate misprinting

  I loved this book. However, some of the pages are printed out of order, and it was like a treasure hunt trying to find the next page to read. Luckily, this only lasted for about 20 pages. Because the book is written in a way that you're hunting for information and not sure what is going on, it wasn't until my book club discussion last night that I confirmed that this is not intended and not in other people's copy of the book. However, my return window closed yesterday. I managed to read the book, but just a warning to others to check your page numbering when receiving your book. If the pages are out of order, that's not intentional.

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