Jane Vandermaker-Cook would like her mother back. As Jane's mother tours the world to support the family, Jane lives and goes to school in a Victorian mansion with her younger brother and their mendacious father who confines Jane's mother to a system of pneumatic tubes whenever she's at home. And then there's weirdly ever-present Aunt Finch, Milorad the gardener, and his rat, Brutus. For Jane, this all seems normal until she suddenly gains access to the files for a lifetime of security-camera videos--her lifetime.
A.S. King's latest surrealist masterpiece follows Jane's bizarre and brilliant journey to reconnect with her mother by breaking out of her shell and composing a punk opera.
"Rendered with prodigious imagination and raw emotion, King's surrealistic world is not too far from our own."--The Boston Globe
★ "Printz Award-winning King has written another remarkable, character-driven book that dazzles with its originality. With that and its employment of magic realism, it is sui generis, and at 400-plus pages, it is one of King's most ambitious, and most successful, books. And that, God knows, is no lie."--Booklist, starred review
★ "A worthy literary heir to feminist novels like The Stepford Wives, updated and recast for a new generation, this is a much-needed, thought-provoking tale of survival and triumph."--BCCB, starred review
★ "Cathartic."--Horn Book, starred review
★ "A young adult feminist anthem that thoughtfully addresses issues of abuse."--SLJ, starred review
★ "Three-time Michael L. Printz Award-winner A.S. King employs her signature surrealism to portray the emotional reality of domestic abuse through an unflinching feminist gaze. [B]eathtakingly successful."--Shelf Awareness, starred review
"A.S. King always leans into the weaird and surreal (think Vonnegut with a 16-year-old girls at the centre).... This strange, ambitious novel takes its young readers--and their pain--seriously."--The Irish Times
"Helmed by Jane's penetrating commentary, this unconventional narrative melds punk anthems and bewildering interludes from a shape-shifting rat with King's quirky blend of present-day issues and mind-bending twists to unlock complex, thought-provoking insight."--Publishers Weekly
An NPR Best Book of the Year
A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare Book