Review by Booklist Review
Saskia Kreis has finally returned home, but this isn't the homecoming she had planned. A former piano prodigy, Saskia had a tempestuous relationship with her mother, Evie, now dead before they can reconcile or even say goodbye. At least she will inherit her ancestral home, the once grand Elf House on the Milwaukee lakefront. However, Saskia is shocked to learn that Evie willed the house to her colleague Patrick, a man with whom Saskia shares a secret past. Pursuing legal options, Saskia attends a photographic exhibition that shatters the illusion that she was unique in her relationship to Patrick. She was one of many underage girls Patrick groomed, and the idea of giving him her home is unthinkable. Questioning whether anyone would believe her story, Saskia wrestles with moving forward. Kapelke-Dale's (The Ballerinas, 2021) absorbing novel delves into the repercussions of sexual abuse, interspersing tantalizing extracts from Evie's feminist fairy-tale retellings and fragments of Saskia's teen years with present events that crescendo to a stunning conclusion.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Aptly compared to Kate Elizabeth Russell's much-buzzed-about My Dark Vanessa (2020), The Ingenue is poised to garner similar attention.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Saskia Kreis, the 37-year-old heroine of this exceptional psychological thriller from Kapelke-Dale (The Ballerinas), was once a child piano prodigy, but her career petered out in her late teens. She now makes a mediocre living in New York City as a computer coder. Upon the death of her mother, author and illustrator Evelyn Harper Kreis, Saskia returns to Milwaukee, Wis., for the funeral, staying at Elf House, the mansion that had been in her mother's family for generations and that she hopes to inherit. She's shocked when she learns that her mother has willed the house to Patrick Kintner, director of development at the University of Wisconsin. The narrative switches between Saskia's present-day fight to retain what she believes is rightfully hers and sections revealing dark incidents from her adolescence. The plot builds to a conclusion that's inevitable but still surprising, exhilarating but also disturbing. Chapters often start with excerpts from Evelyn's 1990s book series, Fairy Tales for Little Feminists. These add substance to Saskia's own plight and her decision on how to continue her life's journey, and will resonate with readers in the post-#MeToo era. This suspense-filled tale of revenge and redemption is hard to put down. Agent: Sarah Phair, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (Dec.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
What happens when the very things that make you special are taken away? That is the dilemma facing Saskia Kreis when she returns home after the death of her mother to find her legacy has vanished. Saskia used to count on three things that made her special: being a piano prodigy, being heir to the gothic mansion Elf House, and being adored by a man named Patrick. Now she no longer plays piano, and her estranged mother has left Elf House to Patrick. These present events are complemented by the novel's dual narratives of Saskia's life as a child and as a teen. Growing up in a fairy-tale environment, raised by a mother who wrote a series of books titled Fairy Tales for Little Feminists, Saskia traveled the world playing piano and knew that one day Elf House would be hers. But the fairy tale turned dark when at 14 she fell under the spell of Patrick, a colleague of her mother's. In the present, as Saskia begins to realize the truth of her relationship with Patrick, she becomes more determined to keep Elf House from him. It all leads to a shocking ending. VERDICT Kapelke-Dale (The Ballerinas) crafts a twisted suspenseful tale of expectations and identity, of love and vengeance, that will leave readers breathless.--Catherine Coyne
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