A 2015 Morris Award Finalist
It's 1993 and sixteen-year-old Maggie's life is being upended. Her mom, who has gone through a string of men ever since Maggie's dad left, has finally seemed to settle down. Now that they're married, Maggie's mom and new stepfather have decided to move her and her little sister Ronnie all the way from their Chicago two-flat to Bray, a small town on the Irish coastline where their new stepfather hails from. Bray features a rusty carnival, near-continual rain, and one of the oldest living inhabitants of Ireland, Dan Sean. What it doesn't feature is her beloved uncle Kevin. At 26, Kevin is a wannabe rock star and grunge music expert, who took Maggie to see the Smashing Pumpkins when their album Siamese Dream came out, and has a huge influence on her life. The relationship between Kevin and Maggie's mother (his older sister) is rocky, and becomes even rockier after a disastrous Christmas celebration in Bray. But Maggie's world is rocked when Kevin suddenly dies, and things explode even further when she finds a letter from him with two tickets to a Nirvana show in Rome. Taking along new boyfriend Eoin, she follows her beloved uncle's advice to ask for permission later and sets off on a pilgrimage of sorts in honor of Kevin.
Like The Scar Boys, this book has a pretty heavy musical influence. With a time setting of the early 90s, how could it not? And given that Maggie and Kevin's favorite band is Nirvana, it's hard to not see Kevin as a stand in for Kurt Cobain. That's probably intentional, but it doesn't necessarily detract from the story. Maggie's relationship with Kevin and her mom is complicated; in many ways, despite everyone thinking Kevin is a screw up, it's Maggie's mom who seems less like an adult, given her rocky romantic past. Jessie Ann Foley does an excellent job making Maggie seem real, striking the right balance between her need to find a place to belong and her desire to follow her heart, even if it means running away to Rome for a concert. It's a good story that will still resonate with the smart phone and social media teens of today, even if the musical references might go over their heads. And it's also great for anyone who might be feeling nostalgic for the 90s, or at least the music.
(Read as part of YALSA's Morris/Nonfiction Challenge.)
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