| Young women -- Fiction. |
| Fathers and daughters -- Fiction. |
| Social isolation -- Fiction. |
| Forests and forestry -- Fiction. |
| Bildungsromans. |
| Daughters and fathers |
| Exclusion, Social |
| Isolation, Social |
| Social exclusion |
| Forest land |
| Forest lands |
| Forest planting |
| Forest production |
| Forest sciences |
| Forestation |
| Forested lands |
| Forestland |
| Forestlands |
| Forestry |
| Forestry industry |
| Forestry sciences |
| Land, Forest |
| Lands, Forest |
| Silviculture |
| Sylviculture |
| Woodlands |
| Woods (Forests) |
Available:
Library | Shelf Number | Shelf Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Taunton Public Library | FINE, JULIA | 1ST FLOOR STACKS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Attleboro High School | FIC FIN | Material being cataloged | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Fairhaven-Millicent | FIC FINE JULIA WHAT | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Foxboro - Boyden Library | FIC FINE, J. | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mansfield Public Library | FIC FINE | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mattapoisett Free Public Library | FIN | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... New Bedford Francis J. Lawler Branch | FIC FINE | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Norfolk Public Library | F FINE, J. WHA | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Seekonk Public Library | FIC FINE | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
"Delightful and darkly magical. Julia Fine has written a beautiful modern myth, a coming-of-age story for a girl with a worrisome power over life and death. I loved it." --Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry
Finalist for the Bram Stoker Superior Achievement in a First Novel Award * Shortlisted for the Chicago Review of Books Best Novel Prize * A Bustle Unmissable Debut of the Year * A Popsugar Best Book of the Year * A Washington Post Best Fantasy Book of May * A Refinery 29 Best May Book * A Chicago Review of Books Best May Book * A Verge Gripping Fantasy Novel of May
In this darkly funny, striking debut, a highly unusual young woman must venture into the woods at the edge of her home to remove a curse that has plagued the women in her family for millennia--an utterly original novel with all the mesmerizing power of The Tiger's Wife, The Snow Child, and Swamplandia!
Cursed. Maisie Cothay has never known the feel of human flesh: born with the power to kill or resurrect at her slightest touch, she has spent her childhood sequestered in her family's manor at the edge of a mysterious forest. Maisie's father, an anthropologist who sees her as more experiment than daughter, has warned Maisie not to venture into the wood. Locals talk of men disappearing within, emerging with addled minds and strange stories. What he does not tell Maisie is that for over a millennium her female ancestors have also vanished into the wood, never to emerge--for she is descended from a long line of cursed women.
But one day Maisie's father disappears, and Maisie must venture beyond the walls of her carefully constructed life to find him. Away from her home and the wood for the very first time, she encounters a strange world filled with wonder and deception. Yet the farther she strays, the more the wood calls her home. For only there can Maisie finally reckon with her power and come to understand the wildest parts of herself.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Maisie Cothay has never known the warmth of a hug, a kiss from a parent, or even a firm handshake. The slightest touch of Maisie's skin will kill the living and resurrect the dead. Her father, an anthropologist, has kept her away from society in order to experiment with and track her abilities. The Cothays live in a secluded family estate surrounded by cursed woods. When Maisie's father goes missing, a clue points to the woods, and when she enters the cursed forest, a mystical world awaits beyond the safety of the estate. This fast-paced, imaginative, and intriguing tale will grip readers. VERDICT Libraries will find this realistic fantasy novel hard to keep on their shelves.-Amanda LeMay, Neptune Township Public Library, NJ © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fine's stellar debut is a mystical combination of curiosity, curses, and compassion. Maisie Cothay possesses the ability to slay and bring back to life with just her touch. As a fetus she kills her mother, Laurie, early in the pregnancy, though Laurie's body remains functional until Maisie's birth in 1990. Maisie's father, Peter, is an anthropologist fascinated by the myths surrounding Laurie's bloodline, which includes a history of disappearing women. At the center of the mystery is Urizon, an estate next to a magical forest. At 16, Maisie is painfully aware of the secret she must contain, obediently following her father's rules, such as avoiding touching living beings and staying away from the forest. Her sheltered life is shattered when Peter goes missing, leaving Maisie to embark on a rescue mission into the woods with Matthew, the nephew of a family friend. Within the forest's dangerous, tangled maze is a group of women trapped in limbo, hoping for passage to the next world, as well as a shadow person waiting for Maisie. Fine creates an entirely new twist on the familiar setup of a young woman facing supernatural obstacles while trying to balance her own blossoming youth. This is an inventive and fascinating modern coming-of-age fairy tale. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A debut novel spins a fairy tale about the power and terror of female desire.Sixteen-year-old Maisie Cothay leads an isolated existence. She was born with a rare talent: Her touch can kill living things and resurrect the dead. As a result, her mother died while Maisie was in utero, and she grows up at Urizon--her ancestral home, which has "a reputation for tragedy"--with only her academic father and a housekeeper for company. Maisie knows that something is cursed in her history: The portraits of her ancestors that line the halls come with legends and rumors about the "bedeviled family line." Many of these stories involve the nearby forest Maisie grew up fearing, warned by her father to never enter. But when Maisie's father disappears, leaving only a strange old map as a clue to his whereabouts, Maisie is convinced that the forest is the key to finding him. As Maisie ventures into the wider world for the first time, she must learn who can be trusted and, finally, via the mysterious woods, must reckon with the true nature of her own gifts and the cursed women in her lineage. Fine, too, looks to the past: Everything from the setting to the elegantly formal prose seems lifted from a 19th-century fairy tale--so much so that it can break the spell somewhat when characters refer to their sneakers or a recycling bin. The novel, with its mysterious forest and Maisie's creative/destructive powers, works well as an allegory of a certain kind of traditional womanly experience of burgeoning sexuality, knowledge, and growing up; though not all female-identifying readers may see themselves here, the poise and skill with which the story unfolds is an undeniable pleasure.Fine has written an old-fashioned book with contemporary resonances.
Booklist Review
Everything Maisie touches dies. She can, however, just as easily restore life, but Peter, her anthropology-professor father, keeps her sequestered in the Blakely mansion, with its portraits of Maisie's dead mother's ancestors, a bedeviled family line, and surrounding spooky forest. Mrs. Blott keeps house, while Peter clinically assesses his daughter's mysterious, cruelly isolating condition. When Maisie turns 16, Mrs. Blott dies, Peter disappears, and Maisie encounters Mrs. Blott's sweet-natured great-nephew Matthew. Instantly smitten by unworldly but determined Maisie, Matthew helps her search for her father, until Rafe, a dashing stranger, disastrously intervenes. As the action pitches into suspense and horror, Fine, a first-time novelist of exceptional imagination, interleaves supernatural scenes in the time-warped forest, where women of the past condemned to exile by war or violent punishments for womanly desires confront a black-eyed girl of malevolent appetites. With convincing intensity and a charming mix of wit, gruesomeness, magic, and romance in the spellbinding mode of Alice Hoffman, Fine offers a provocative fairy tale about womanhood under siege and one young woman's fierce resistance.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
[DEBUT] What if your touch controlled life and death? Maisie Cothay has this power, which confines her to a glove-wearing, emotionally void childhood on the grounds of an isolated estate after she, in utero, kills her mother. Peter, her father, is an anthropologist who studies Maisie more than raises her, leaving her unprepared, both practically and emotionally, when he suddenly disappears. To rescue him, Maisie must breach the forbidden forest line, which is when the story begins to alternate narrators and add flashbacks that explore the mythology of the Blakely women. Maisie is tested again and again by her friends Matthew and Rafe as she attempts to rescue her father, gain control of her powerful touch, and decide what place she occupies within the Blakely legend. Verdict Part fairy tale, part coming-of-age adventure, Fine's debut was written under the tutelage of Audrey Niffenegger, whose influence shows. This book is imaginative and haunting, a stylistic blend of Matthew Haig's How To Stop Time, Melissa Albert's The Hazel Wood, and Téa Obreht's The Tiger's Wife. Fans of all three novels will find something to savor. [See Prepub Alert, 11/11/17.]-Tina Panik, Avon Free P.L., CT © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.