Review by Booklist Review
Eighteen-year-old Holi is spending the summer working for Elsie McAllister, an author whose claim to fame is a novel she published decades ago. Now in her nineties, McAllister has published nothing else since and leads an incredibly private life. Holi's job is to create an inventory of the many boxes in Elsie's attic and then go through them with Elsie to decide what to do with the contents. The work is hot and grubby, but as she receives nuggets of information about Elsie's life, Holi begins to develop an interest in the work and her employer. It also distracts Holi from the other issues on her mind, such as her brother Robin's recent suicide attempt, her ex-girlfriend/best friend Maya, or the substantial writer's block she's experiencing. Elements between Holi's and Elsie's lives start to come together, and both their tales reach a satisfying conclusion. Mason-Black's writing, expressed through Holi's first-person narration, is original and striking in its depth, putting a thoughtful spotlight on Holi and the people around her. An appealing and engrossing work.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A teen gets a job organizing and cataloging a chronically ill author's possessions, an experience that helps her find her voice as a writer. Pulitzer Prize--winning author Elsie McAllister has a "permanent A+" reputation thanks to her one novel, which is "read in every high school" in America. The recalcitrant and reclusive older woman has two goals: safeguarding her privacy and ensuring that the person she hires will do exactly as she wishes with her belongings. Holiday Burton's desire to earn enough to go to New Zealand and work on farms with ex-girlfriend Maya is an incentive to take the well-paid job. Both McAllister and Holi have been manipulated by male gatekeepers who had their own selfish reasons to stunt each woman's creativity. While sorting through McAllister's possessions, Holi discovers secrets from her past that were suppressed to make way for her "Great American Novel." Holi sees an echo of her own artistic self-doubts and vulnerability in the face of a similar exploitative power dynamic. Mason-Black's prose sparkles with poetic beauty as Holi engages in introspective musings about collective mourning and how individual healing is possible only in community. The stunning descriptions bring vitality to and convey the languid beauty of the Amherst, Massachusetts, setting. This striking work shows the power of intergenerational relationships to fortify queer artists against erasure. The protagonists present as white. Beautifully written and powerfully uplifting. (content note, resources)(Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
