Review by Booklist Review
Sixteen-year-old budding violinist Ilana Lopez, who has disappointed her parents with poor grades and SAT scores, is sent to Prague to stay with her aunt, an artist living near an abandoned Jewish cemetery. Reneging on a promise to study over the summer, Ilana tends the neglected graves, meeting Benjamin and several children (all ghosts), as well as Rudolph Wassermann, a man with no shadow who asks her to move in with him and his ghostly hostages. After Benjamin and Ilana fall in love, he divulges that Wassermann is actually a vodnik (folkloric river monster) who lures dead children to his house to eat them. Ilana vows to free the ghosts, but will she "survive / because she can be / just as ruthless / as the monster / who wants / to destroy her?" Romero's novel in verse combines Judaic tradition with fantasy and is divided into movements like a classical musical piece. The vodnik is appropriately creepy, and while his physical details don't match Czech folklore exactly, he makes a perfect foil for the innocent Ilana.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
An intoxicating blend of the contemporary and otherworldly, Romero's (The Dollmaker of Krakow) layered novel in verse interlaces romance and ghost story with an exploration of cultural identity, folklore, and history. The parents of Miami Beach--born Ilana each fled from communism: her father from then-Czechoslovakia, and her Jewish mother from Cuba following her own family's flight from Spain. Ilana's passion for the violin and social life worry them, so they "exile" the 16-year-old to Prague for the summer, to stay with her artist aunt, Žofie, and study for the SAT. Instead, Ilana finds and begins tending a deserted Jewish cemetery on the hill behind Žofie's cottage, where she meets--and falls in love with--the blue-eyed ghost of 16-year-old Benjamin, who is Jewish. Wandering Prague with him, Ilana deepens her understanding of "what it's like to be Jewish/ in Europe./ Every beautiful thing/ has horror buried under it." Lured back to the violin by a mysterious older German musician who cares for Benjamin and three younger ghosts, she strengthens her commitment to her art--and grows tempted by an invitation to remain in Prague. In lyrical, immersive language that's both contemporary and ageless, Romero brings vivid life to the teenagers' powerful romance. Ages 14--up. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency. (May)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Her father escaped oppressive politics in the former Czechoslovakia. Her maternal ancestors survived Spain's religious persecution, landed in Cuba, then fled Castro's communists for Miami Beach. "So the last thing I expected/ was to be exiled/ by my own parents," 16-year-old Ilana laments when she's separated from friends, parties, but most importantly, her beloved violin. She's banished to Prague to stay with artist Aunt Žofie who promises, "Prague is a place/ where a girl your age/ can find herself." Ignoring the SAT-improving studies demanded by her parents, Ilana finds an abandoned Jewish cemetery, falls in love with a ghost, vanquishes a monster, and sets trapped souls free. Cuban American actor Carla Corvo commands Romero's lyrical novel-in-verse, becoming that rebellious teen discovering her autonomy, seeking justice where evil lingers. VERDICT Corvo proves herself an effective, complementary enabler of Romero's empowering coming-of-age tale.
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Review by Horn Book Review
In this verse novel, Cuban American Jewish teen Ilana Lopez spends a summer with her aunt in Prague. She finds an abandoned Jewish cemetery and, while cleaning it up, encounters Benjamin, the ghost of a long-dead boy her age; and Wassermann, a man with no shadow. Accustomed to hearing stories from her family's past ("I'm Jewish / we're good at remembering"), Ilana is unbothered by Benjamin's ghostly state, and a romance blooms between them. But something sinister is at play: Wassermann is a vodnik, a folkloric river spirit who consumes souls, and it will ultimately be up to Ilana to defeat him. The straightforward free-verse poetry is infused with Ilana's embrace of her background (most explicitly her Jewish background) and her awareness of her people's transient, precarious history (does her heritage "mean / moving across borders / like water / moves across stones / Or does it mean knowing / the Wassermanns of the world / are always one step / behind you?"). Creepy though the premise is, the thought-provoking novel is more fable than horror, as its protagonist finds a balance between past and present. Shoshana Flax May/June 2022 p.153(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A magical realist romance told in verse explores the many transitions of life: from homelands to new homes, from childhood to adulthood, from life to death and back again. The daughter of two immigrant legacies, Ilana Lopez knows what it is to live with ghosts of the past. On her mother's side, there is a 500-year-long Jewish journey from Spain to Cuba to Miami Beach, and on her father's side, a flight from 20th-century totalitarianism in the former Czechoslovakia. It's the phantom of her family's struggles that sees her exiled to Prague the summer of her 16th year: Separating Ilana from her friends and her beloved violin, her parents hope she will turn her attention to preparing for a stable, successful, American future rather than dreams of music. In Prague, she stays with her wild Aunt Žofie and stumbles upon a long-abandoned Jewish cemetery on the hill behind her house. Lonely and longing for understanding, Ilana learns about the heavy Jewish history of Prague as the ghost of a blue-eyed boy with dark curls wends his way into her beating heart. The past is alive in Ilana's Prague, and it's alive in this story that combines modern adolescent concerns, magical realism, and religious themes in pristine verse. An ode to the Diaspora and to the many folktales and myths populating Ilana's mixed heritage, Romero's luscious work dives into dark, painful caverns and emerges in sprays of enthralling hope. A must-read for lost souls everywhere. (Verse novel. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
