November 18, 2024
Nineteen-year-old Elisabeth Amos, who is still navigating complications following a major surgery for fibular short congenital femur and fibular hemimelia at age 11, decides to forgo college. Now she lives alone in a secluded cabin in Fish Creek, Wis. Beyond her job at a local store, she keeps to herself, until a power outage during a snowstorm forces her to confront her fear of authority figures and rely on her neighbor, Sheriff Noah Harmon, for assistance. Elisabeth opens up to Noah and, with his help, grapples with her long-buried memories of her various medical procedures and the pain she’s endured, as well as the neglect she experienced from her doctors and mother. In this semi-autobiographical debut, as addressed in an author’s note, Grant moves back and forth in time, highlighting the trauma Elisabeth experienced in white-knuckled detail (“The friction of bone and flesh and blood and steel. It feels sticky and hot, like oil on fire”). Through Elisabeth’s poetry, integrated throughout, Grant artfully showcases the complicated back-and-forth between keeping oneself safe and staunching one’s own growth. Elisabeth and Noah’s dialogue crackles with tension and sincerity, and depictions of Elisabeth’s harrowing struggles with her narcissistic mother are cathartic. Most characters read as white. Ages 12–up.
January 1, 2025
After enduring harrowing medical treatments, a young woman retreats, seeking isolation. It's 1999, and Justine Elisabeth Amos, who graduated high school about a year ago, has left her family and best friend behind and cloistered herself in a cabin in the isolated Wisconsin town of Fish Creek. She goes by her middle name, reads, writes poetry, and works at a local store. Above all, she avoids getting close to people. But when she gets stuck in a snowstorm and 25-year-old Noah, the local sheriff, helps her out, personal complications re-enter her world. Justine is running from the aftermath of medical abuse. Diagnosed with fibular hemimelia and congenital short femur in childhood, she underwent excruciatingly painful surgeries and other procedures. Grant provides a complex look at insidious torture in the name of medical treatment. What ultimately broke Justine's spirit were the thoughtless, cruel moments during which her consent was continually disregarded. Each time someone--a medical professional or family member--should have supported her but didn't, this choice was, in their minds, defensible. Justine's strained relationship with her mother is another realistically complicated source of pain. While her connection with Noah would have benefited from being more fully developed, their romantic attraction rings warm and true. Her struggle to reclaim her identity and ability to connect in the face of aggressive dehumanization is raw yet ultimately hopeful. The main cast reads white. An honest and almost unrelentingly bleak look at an underdiscussed source of trauma.(Fiction. 14-18)
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Starred review from February 1, 2025
Grades 10-12 *Starred Review* As she tumbles into adulthood in a remote Wisconsin town, 19-year-old Elisabeth can't quite move past a childhood medical trauma. When Fish Creek is buried in snow that further isolates her with a power outage at her cabin, Elisabeth finds plenty of time for self-reflection and the opportunity to connect with Noah, the town's young sheriff and her neighbor. Grant's YA debut emerges with a captivating sparkle that mirrors the atmospheric quiet a snowstorm brings with its introspective and rhythmic prose. Tension rises with alternating time lines as Elisabeth looks back on her younger years, slowly revealing the source of her anxiety and desire for self-reliance, all while yearning for a lost friendship. In this outstanding character study exploring themes of pain and acceptance, in which a complex character is paired with a timeless internal struggle inside the intimate setting of a small town, the location serves to further highlight the contained and limited perspective Elisabeth struggles with. Occasional poems by the narrator serve as further translation of her thoughts to a powerful effect. Grant also infuses this powerful work with references to Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, introducing additional literary themes and allusions that further illustrate and develop Elisabeth's character. Hand to readers who enjoy moving, penetrating narratives.
COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.