To open this month’s theme of all things young adult, or YA, fiction, I have a book review of Smoking Flax by Jennifer Hallmark, which released this past January.
Here’s the back cover blurb:
Almost nineteen-year-old Read Anderson wants to belong in a world where he hasn’t always fit. Three days after graduation, he decides to ride a bus back to Louisiana and deals with the events of his thirteenth summer once and for all. Back then, he’d stood up to his abusive Pa, protecting Momma and his sister, taking control of his life. But who was the faded image of the child he saw that day? Aunt Lula predicted his life would shift and change. Something about space-time-continum and the fourth dimesion. He tucks her words in his heart. If he survives the shift, this could be his chance to start over. But the ghost child haunts his dreams. Even though six years have passed, does he want to confront the lies he’s always believed?
My Review
Jennifer Hallmark does the two things that almost always keeps me reading: she builds sympathy for her main character, and she lets me live the setting.
Reed is trapped in a very tough situation. The plot deals with racism and child abuse, and a rape from the past is mentioned. None of these are written in explicit ways.
I love how Jennifer makes you feel like you are living in the 70’s. It isn’t heavy-handed but written very much like how a book written in that decade would refer to current events and customs, so her descriptions are very natural. I also liked how she describes a southern summer. I could feel the heat. And if you want to know why I put Star Wars toys in my photo, you’ll have to read the book.
The ending surprised me and was very dramatic, which is fits very well with all the serious problems that have coursed through the story.
If you like speculative fiction mixed with history and realism, pick this one up.
For another recommendation of a YA book, click here.
To read guest blogs by author Jennifer Hallmark, click here.
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