Our crooked hearts

Title:

Our crooked hearts

Author:

Summary:

On the way home from a party, seventeen-year-old Ivy and her soon-to-be ex nearly run over a nude young woman standing in the middle of a tree-lined road. It’s only the first in a string of increasingly eerie events and offerings: a dead rabbit in the driveway, a bizarre concoction buried by her mother in the backyard, a box of childhood keepsakes hidden in her parents’ closet safe. Most unsettling of all, corroded recollections of Ivy and her enigmatic mother’s past resurface, with the help of the boy next door. What if there’s more to Ivy’s mother than meets the eye? And what if the supernatural forces she messed with during her own teen years have come back to haunt them both? Ivy must grapple with these questions and more if she’s going to escape the darkness closing in. Straddling Ivy’s contemporary suburban town and her mother’s magic-drenched 1990s Chicago, this bewitching and propulsive story rockets towards a conclusion guaranteed to keep readers up all night.

Audience:

Ages 14-18. Flatiron Books.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

340 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Paranormal fiction.

Subject Term:

Mothers and daughters -- Fiction.

Witches -- Fiction.

Family secrets -- Fiction.

Suburbs -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Flatiron Books,

Publication Date:

2022

ISBN:

9781250826367

Publication Information:

New York : Flatiron Books, 2022.

Call Number:

YA ALBERT

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003623504	Young Adult	ALBERT	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * #1 INDIE NEXT PICK * 6 STARRED REVIEWS

Secrets. Lies. Bad choices. Dangerous magic. . . . From NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Melissa Albert comes OUR CROOKED HEARTS , a contemporary fantasy "so precise and enthralling that the only explanation is that Albert herself is a witch" ( Booklist , starred review)

On the way home from a party, seventeen-year-old Ivy and her soon-to-be ex nearly run over a nude young woman standing in the middle of a tree-lined road. It's only the first in a string of increasingly eerie events and offerings: a dead rabbit in the driveway, a bizarre concoction buried by her mother in the backyard, a box of childhood keepsakes hidden in her parents' closet safe. Most unsettling of all, corroded recollections of Ivy and her enigmatic mother's past resurface, with the help of the boy next door.

What if there's more to Ivy's mother than meets the eye? And what if the supernatural forces she messed with during her own teen years have come back to haunt them both? Ivy must grapple with these questions and more if she's going to escape the darkness closing in.

Straddling Ivy's contemporary suburban town and her mother's magic-drenched 1990s Chicago, this bewitching and propulsive story rockets towards a conclusion guaranteed to keep readers up all night.

Author Notes

Melissa Albert is the New York Times and indie bestselling author of the Hazel Wood series ( The Hazel Wood , The Night Country , Tales from the Hinterland ) and a former bookseller and YA lit blogger. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and included in the New York Times list of Notable Children's Books. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up--It's the beginning of summer, and 17-year-old Ivy (described as white) has been experiencing some weird and possibly supernatural encounters. On top of it all, her mother has been acting strange without explanation, and Ivy can't shake the feeling that she knows more than she should about the boy (also described as white) across the street. As Ivy tries to figure out what's going on, the story of her mother, Dana (again, described as white), unfolds from the past as she experiments with the occult. By the end, the two stories come to a head revealing the dark magic that the two women share and how they will bear this truth together. This is a multi-genre, coming-of-age story that explores diverse relationships that teens will relate to. Albert's fast-paced storytelling is both thrilling and accessible, with her descriptive similes, knowledge of the occult, and imaginative spells. Although the practice of magic is somewhat glorified in this fictional story, the risks and dangers of it are also discussed and acknowledged. Not recommended for younger teens due to underage drinking and smoking and coarse language. VERDICT Teens who enjoy drama, secrets, romance, and mysteries with a twist of magic will love this one. A great addition to young adult collections in public libraries.--Lacey Webster

Publisher's Weekly Review

Ivy Chase, 17, is on her way home from a party when the car in which she's riding nearly hits a naked young woman standing in the road. A bizarre encounter ensues, and unsettling events follow: a decapitated rabbit appears in Ivy's suburban driveway, and someone else's face flashes in her mirror. After Ivy discovers inexplicable inconsistencies in her childhood memories, she decides to confront her mother, Dana, and honorary aunt, Fee, both of whom seem capable of "unnatural things." Upon arriving at the women's herbal remedies shop, however, Ivy finds the business closed and a surface bloody. Albert (The Hazel Wood) skillfully interweaves Ivy's increasingly urgent search for answers with chapters from Dana's perspective, recounting her and Fee's 16th summer. While at the teens' fathers' fish fry, the motherless, rudderless girls meet Marion Peretz, a lonely 17-year-old who's fond of punk rock and dark magic. Tension and terror mount as the intelligently crafted, viscerally plotted story lines converge. Atmospherically tense prose and vividly sketched, true-to-life characters add depth, resulting in a tale both spellbinding and bingeworthy. Most characters cue as white. Ages 14--up. Agent: Faye Bender, Book Group. (June)