Kaethe

Cadence spends every summer on her grandfather's private island with her mother, her two aunts, and her cousins. Two years ago, the summer before the eldest cousins, the Liars, turned sixteen something bad happened, and Cady suffered a traumatic injury that has left her with debilitating migraines and few memories of that summer. This summer she's back on the island and trying to find out what happened then.

This is a beautifully crafted story: the voice is good, the characterization crisp, the sense of place is overwhelming almost. The conversations between the Liars range back and forth between the big issues of life and silly insults, and those feel so apt. The pacing is compelling. It's all very, very good.

My only disappointment with the book is that I wanted more of it. It could have been five times as long and I might still have wanted more. I loved seeing what books Cady read and loved as a child, I loved the Martha Stewart menues the aunts plan for meals, I loved the descriptions of the cottages on the island, and trips to town. I was fascinated by the family, all of them, and would have loved more. And the use of fairytales was perfect: trying to make real life fit into an appropriate story.

Library copy.