Waiting

Starred review from March 19, 2012
First-person stanzas convey the emotions and memories of high school student London as she grieves over the suicide of her older brother, Zach. Initially, London is overwhelmed by loneliness and the quietness that permeates her house. Her father, a missionary, has barely spoken to her since the tragedy, and her mother’s silence, laced with hostility, is even more painful. (“When I step in the house, I feel the emptiness, feel me/ the only person breathing in here./ For a moment I think of my mother being here every day/ by herself/ thinking of her dead son and the daughter she hates”). The cause of her mother’s resentment and the circumstances of Zach’s death gradually unfold as London reaches outside her family, welcoming the support of her ex-boyfriend, Taylor, and two newcomers who know little of London’s past. Exposing the heartbreak of a broken family, the complexities of denial, and the healing power of friendship, Lynch’s (Miles from Ordinary) writing is characteristically gritty but also inspirational as London challenges her mother’s misplaced anger and creates her own route to recovery. Ages 14–up. Agent: Stephen Fraser, Jennifer DiChiara Literary Agency.

Starred review from April 1, 2012
A girl copes with the death of her beloved brother Zach, and the devastation it has wrought on her family. London clearly has sunk into despair. She goes to school but doesn't interact with her friends. At home, her mother refuses to speak with her at all, eventually becoming openly hostile to her. Her father does his best to hold the family together on his own, but he has his own limits. London does find herself strongly attracted to Jesse, a new boy in school, but he's in a relationship with London's former best friend. Another new student, Lili, manages to penetrate London's mental fog with her inexhaustible energy, apparently on a mission to make London her friend. London finds herself caught between the old and the new as she delves ever more deeply into the chaos that her brother's death has caused. Williams, as always, keeps her prose, this time arranged on the page as prose poems, sensitive, intelligent and completely absorbing. She slowly peels back the veils on London's, her father's and her mother's psychology, eventually revealing the strong and the weak and, ultimately, how Zach died. The family she depicts are former missionaries, giving the book strong spiritual undertones that should appeal to religious as well as general audiences. Exceptional. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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Starred review from June 1, 2012

Gr 8 Up-Told in first-person stanzas, Williams's novel in verse is gut-wrenching in its portrayal of a family that implodes under the strain of tragedy and loss. Since the death of her older brother nine months earlier, London Castle has felt like a pariah. Her father, a former missionary, spends most of his time in his church office, and her mother, who blames her for what happened to Zach, completely ignores her. No one at school, not even her former best friend, talks to her. Grief-stricken and alone, the teen is understandably cautious when Lili, the new transfer student, approaches her. Is she truly interested in becoming friends, or does she merely have a morbid curiosity about how Zach really died? London initially rejects her attempts at friendship but eventually finds herself opening up. She renews her relationship with her ex-boyfriend Taylor, but she's also infatuated with Jesse, Lili's brother. The two guys, together with Lili, provide her with the strength she needs to begin her recovery. While London's anguish and her father's detachment are typical responses to tragedy, her mother's outright animosity seems extreme, making it difficult for the audience to feel any sympathy for the woman. When the truth of her role in Zach's death surfaces, her continued condemnation of London makes her more of a caricature than a real person. Although there is no happy ending here, the appearance of an unexpected character at the end of the book offers London hope for herself and her family's future.-Audrey Sumser, Cuyahoga County Public Library-Mayfield, OH

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2012
Grades 8-11 Almost a year after the death of her older brother, Zach, London's loss and guilt are just as palpable. Her mother's refusal to talk to her only intensifies the emptiness of their home. As she did in Glimpse (2010), Williams uses hard-hitting free verse, in this case to depict London's grief process. The teen misses the sensation of touch, and she finds it in both Taylor, her former boyfriend and Zach's best friend, and recent transfer student Jesse. She knows she can't hide two relationships for long and must choose between these two different yet alluring guys. As London gradually reveals the details of Zach's accident, as well as her and her mother's roles in his demise, she must also choose how she will go on with her life without Zach. Although religion is present in London's decisions and her missionary father's own guiding principles, the redemptive story will appeal to a wide audience. A realistic hope rather than a tidy happiness wraps up London's heartrending path to healing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2012
London's family is splintering after the death of her brother. The free-verse novel's poetic structure allows London's powerful emotions to come through unfiltered; her grief and anger are palpable, but so are her glimpses of hope and redemption. Williams has created a complete picture of the effects of suicide on those left behind and of the way love endures after death.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2012
"I want more. / I want him back. / Why does death have to be so final?" wonders London in this stinging free-verse novel. Her family is splintering after the death of her older brother, Zach; her father is distant, and her mother, who blames London for what happened, ignores her completely. No one talks to her at school, either, until she meets gregarious Lili ("She runs / her mouth and never takes a breath, I don't think") and Lili's handsome brother, Jesse. With their friendship, and the support of her ex-boyfriend (and Zach's best friend) Taylor, London begins to cope. And as she gets stronger, readers learn more about who Zach was and how he died. While the sequence of events veers toward melodrama, the novel's poetic structure allows London's powerful emotions to come through unfiltered. Her grief and anger -- at her checked-out parents, Zach, herself, and God (because her parents are missionaries, she has an especially complicated relationship with Him) -- are palpable, but so are her glimpses of hope and redemption. All in all, Williams has created a complete picture of the effects of suicide on those left behind and of the way love endures after death. "I loved him from the moment I was born until the / moment he died," London writes. "I love him still." rachel l. smith

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)