Starred review from June 24, 2024
In this multigenerational epic sprinkled with magic, Nelson (I’ll Give You the Sun) tackles grief, love, and the ways in which history commingles with the present. Fall siblings Dizzy, 12; Miles, 17; and 19-year-old violin prodigy Wynton—named by their winemaker father for his favorite trumpet players—live with their chef mother in paradisial Northern California wine country. Dizzy has never known her father, who’s been gone since before she was born. His absence has taken its toll on the whole family: Miles has been navigating depression (and an inexplicable ability to read dogs’ minds), Wynton and Miles’s relationship is in ruins, and Dizzy—who can see ghosts—longs to feel loved. Salvation, Dizzy believes, comes in the form of Cassidy, a rainbow-haired 19-year-old who saves Dizzy from being hit by a truck. As Cassidy gradually becomes an integral part of the siblings’ lives, she sets them on a path toward healing. This intricately rendered unfolding of a family’s past is lengthy but never dull. Via myriad alternating perspectives interwoven with magical elements and textured narrative interstitials, Nelson takes readers on a whirlwind journey toward a profound and satisfying destination. Major characters read as white; the Falls are Jewish. Ages 14–up. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties.
August 1, 2024
A mysterious stranger is the key to unraveling decades-old family secrets. Twelve years ago, winemaker Theo Fall drove away from Paradise Springs, California, leaving behind his pregnant wife and two young sons. Now, the three Fall children carry scars from their father's abrupt disappearance. Twelve-year-old Dizzy is perpetually afraid of losing people. Her older brothers have their own struggles: 17-year-old Miles is hiding a fathomless chasm of sadness beneath his perfect facade, and 19-year-old violinist Wynton is brilliant but broken, chasing the sound of his father's trumpet at the bottom of a bottle. But the arrival of rainbow-haired Cassidy at the precise moment each sibling is at a pivotal crossroads sets everything in motion for the members of the Fall family to discover the truth behind the fraternal curse that seems destined to destroy them. Miles and Dizzy embark on a wild pilgrimage, aided and abetted by Sandro, a dog who communicates telepathically, and Felix, a dreamy bisexual sous chef. Composed of multiple interwoven timelines, the story is part folktale and part epistolary novel. It's also 100% Nelson's signature fabulism and evocative, lyrical prose, which rewards those who stick around through the slow start and occasionally overwrought language. Readers will be satisfied by the emotional collision of the various plotlines and the richly drawn main and secondary characters. Main characters read white. A Technicolor fever dream offering readers a sensory feast.(Fiction. 14-18)
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Starred review from August 1, 2024
Gr 9 Up-Another sweeping sibling drama filled with romance and hints of magic from the Printz winner. Dizzy, Miles, and Wynton Fall are each struggling with the aftermath of their father's abandonment. Intense Dizzy, 12, loves researching random facts, but her best friend recently left her for a new friend group. Beautiful Miles, 17, feels the weight of his perfect looks, grades, and sports feats while keeping his sexuality a secret; he writes unsent emails to his father. Gifted Wynton, 19, plays his violin with an otherworldly skill, hoping their dad will hear and come home. They each encounter Cassidy, a mysterious girl who borders on manic pixie dream girl and changes them in indelible ways as they try to uncover a centuries-long curse that seems to hang over their family. When a tragedy strikes, the siblings embark on a road trip to find their father, who they think is the key to unlock the many conflicts they're facing. The saga is presented through the alternating points of view of each sibling and Cassidy. Interspersed through the present-day story are their mother's unsent letters to them, her wayward husband, her long-dead brother, and others. Readers are also treated to excerpts from Cassidy's fairy-tale-like retelling of the Falls's ill-fated history, which is filled with fratricide, forbidden romance, and magical vineyards. There are many threads to keep track of, but Nelson expertly weaves them all to create a splendid and complex tale. Her writing is magnetic, and teens will fall in love with her characters. Patient readers will be rewarded with a satisfying and soul-thrilling ending. VERDICT This long-awaited follow-up to I'll Give You the Sun is well worth the wait.-Shelley M. Diaz
Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 Nelson (I'll Give You the Sun, 2014) returns with another complex family saga about self-understanding, relationships, secrets, and passed-down family trauma. Focusing on the Fall family, this title introduces readers to Dizzy, who is hurt that her best friend seems to be interested in everyone but her; Miles, who is struggling to turn his comfort with his sexuality outward; and Wynton, who has made his outsider feelings reality by removing himself from his family. When the rainbow-haired Cassidy crash-lands in the Falls' lives, it's not long before tragedy strikes and generational secrets come pouring out of old wounds. Nelson achieves a quilt-like story both in its warmth and in its patches coming together to make a beautiful narrative. Traversing a wide range of topics and emotions through multiple perspectives and formats, Nelson's novel contemplates each with due attention and nuance, making sincere a story that in lesser-adept hands would be clich� and superficial. Hand to fans of Mitali Perkins' You Bring the Distant Near (2017) and Deb Caletti's The Epic Story of Every Living Thing (2022).
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
January 1, 2025
Nelson (Printz Award winner for I'll Give You the Sun, rev. 11/14) begins with definitions of a fantasia -- one of which is "a literary work composed of a mixture of different forms or styles." This fantasia features the author's use of magical realism, along with lyrical prose, an epic plot, and the kind of flawed characters who are essential in stories of dysfunctional family relationships and the resultant themes of loss, betrayal, and redemption. The novel opens with the rotating third-person viewpoints of a trio of siblings: twelve-year-old Dizzy, a supernaturally gifted girl muddling through prepubescent friendship issues; seemingly perfect seventeen-year-old Miles, who struggles with depression and coming out as gay; and nineteen-year-old Wynton, the violin virtuoso who is still haunted by their father's abandonment. Each has an early encounter with a mysterious rainbow-haired girl named Cassidy, newly arrived in Paradise, California, who eventually largely takes over the narration. Her first-person perspective provides the backstory, alongside the plethora of letters, emails, transcripts, and newspaper articles interspersed throughout. It's a lot to take in, but patient readers will eventually feel the pull of Nelson's carefully woven storytelling and succumb to her special kind of magic. Not every subplot is resolved, and not all that are resolved have happy endings, but there's catharsis in the realization that "when the world tips over," there is still joy to be experienced. Jonathan Hunt
(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)