Gr 9 Up-Alice is the survivor of a traumatic brain injury inflicted after she was brutally raped. The attack has left her unable to articulate her thoughts verbally. She instead writes beautiful poetry and creates gorgeous fishing lures that transcend utility and become a form of art. Manny is a refugee and a soccer player who shares very little about his disturbing time when he was forced to be a child soldier. When he picks up one of Alice's poems, he becomes intrigued and seeks to know her. The two, sympathetic of each other's trauma, find comfort in one another, demonstrating strength, resilience, and heroism. The translation of this story to an audiobook format presents some interesting challenges. Poetry that might make more sense when read on a page feels random and disjointed despite Candice Moll's otherwise well-executed narration of Alice's character. Those who are patient will be rewarded with memorable performances by Moll and Ron Butler, two top-notch narrators. VERDICT This is a superb and moving purchase for libraries where titles like Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon are widely circulated.-Jodeana Kruse, R.A. Long High School, Longview, WA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

When she was 12, Alice was badly broken. Although she was sewn up on the outside, her words remained trapped on the inside. Now at 15, Alice finds a way to allow her words to sail free: she captures them on paper in tiny poetic creations and leaves them in unexpected places around town. This is how Manny, a former child soldier, discovers Alice. To the outside world, these are two damaged souls, but to each other, they are precious and whole. Millard relates their love story in a dreamlike, fractured style that emulates the schism between the tenderness of their relationship and the threats of the outside world. Alice's first-person narration is bereft of capital letters, which adds a sense of fragility and nicely contrasts with Manny's third-person perspective. An additional romance between Alice's brother and Tilda, a girl with dangerous connections, comes off a bit contrived; indeed, everything outside the core story feels tangential. Still, this is an original and gritty love story that will appeal to fans of Ellen Hopkins.--Colson, Diane Copyright 2018 Booklist

Traumatized Alice and Manny find love and healing with each other.Alice Nightingale, age 15, was sexually assaulted at 12, a story which emerges in pieces over the course of the book. Due to resultant brain injury, Alice is stuck in "twelveness" though she questions the doctors' prognosis. Alice's thoughts are presented without capitalization and often as beautiful, fragmented poetry, giving her character a unique voice. The Nightingales are poor, but Alice is content with her faithful dog, caring for her ailing grandmother, and spending time with her loving brother, Joey. Endearing, sweet 16-year-old Manny James, the book's second voice, is a black immigrant from Sierra Leone who sees Alice ("her hair was red as fire and her skin was pale as bone") while running one night. Thus begins a disappointing pattern of fetishizing Alice's long hair and paleness. As a former child soldier, Manny has suffered trauma too painful to recall, just like Alice, and though they find solace and healing in each other, it seems unlikely that traumatized Alice could "shed [her] twelveness like a skin" by having sex. It's a shame that such lush writing and solid character development in a book that explores important themes like trauma, healing, bullying, and classism is marred by a tired trope and a random, rather unbelievable ending that includes Alice's seemingly sudden cure.A flawed but beautiful and tragic story of hope. (Fiction. 14-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Millard's quiet, piercing novel, told in two voices, is full of brokenness-broken people, broken families-but also love. The predominant voice is 15-year-old Alice's-in an arrested state of "twelveness," having been brutally assaulted at that age and left with an acquired brain injury. Alice lives with her ailing grandmother; protective 14-year-old brother, Joey; and Bear the dog; the love among them all is fierce. The other voice belongs to 16-year-old Manny, a brutalized refugee from Sierra Leone, who has been taken in by a local couple. Alice makes beautiful fishing lures and writes anonymous poems, which she scatters about town, hoping a kindred spirit will find them. Manny is that kindred spirit, and, in spite of ugly opposition from some in the community, the two come together. Alice's chapters are presented in all lower-case letters, and though this device is initially off-putting, it slowly draws readers into the singularity of her struggling yet strikingly poetic mind. Manny's hair, for example, is "row-on-row of tight french knots," and Alice's grandmother "took my face in her hands and my heart by surprise." The lyrical narrative's unhurried pace demands careful attention as it builds to a dramatic climax and bittersweet ending. Ages 12-up. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.