Holly
and Corey are twins and Savitri, their neighbor, is dating Corey in this their
senior year at a private Chicago high school. They act like family and Savitri
who lives alone with her obstetrician mother needs those familial bonds. There
are barely any Indian families in their neighborhood so Savitri assimilates and
the Paxton twins become her family and the Hindu mythology she adds to their
mix seems to enrich them all. The
inseparable trio are “freerunners” who treat the surfaces of Chicago buildings
as their own gymnasium and obstacle course. They all live in Morgan Park, a far
southwest side Chicago neighborhood peppered with old homes and established families.
Savitri is a brilliant student who’s just heard that she’ll get into Princeton
but the plan has always been for the three to stay together in Chicago with
Holly at UIC for film and video, Corey at DePaul for computer science and Savitri
at University of Chicago or Northwestern for “thinking-too-much.” Princeton was
a long shot, a fantasy, but now it might threaten their carefully laid plans.
The
afternoon Savitri learns about Princeton is an unexpectedly balmy day so Holly celebrates
the false spring by dangling from the edge of a roof four stories above ground and
the trio then ricochet off the façade of a standard row of Chicago storefronts in
their own urban playground. Their “freerunning”
antics show the invulnerability teens often express. Later Savitri’s car trails
Corey and Holly’s Mini Cooper home and at a stoplight she watches a hooded gunman
step out of an SUV and shoot Corey and Holly through their window. Corey dies
immediately but Holly survives.
In
her coma and later, Holly dreams vivid scenes of a snake man who is keeping
Corey in an eerie world only she sees – a place called Shadowlands. When she
wakes up, Holly won’t move beyond her dreams and Savitri tries to help her by
ignoring her own grief and needs. Holly and Corey’s Dad, a cop, thinks Savitri
has the clue to the gunman’s identity and presses her to find it. How the two
girls and their parents work to overcome the enveloping grief and to learn the
difference between a friend someone needs versus a friend someone wants is the
beauty of this novel.
The
interspersed illustrated sections pack staccato punches just when simple prose
isn’t enough. They bleed the hurt onto the page. This is an amazing book that I had no idea
would sock me in the solar plexus and leave me in tears yet help me think about
how vulnerability is essential for growth. “we are all vulnerable . . . It’s terrifying this life. Its precarious
nature, its random un-design.”
Summing
it Up: Read this graphic fiction hybrid for an emotional ride that will have you
tearing through the pages as you live inside the real Chicago where Italian
beef, roti, neighborhoods, families, cops, and sometimes even random acts of
violence coexist. It’s too good for adults to ignore. Starred reviews in
Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal explore the excellence of
this genre-bending novel.
Graphic
fiction hybrid Ages 14 and up
Rating: 5 stars
Category:
Fiction, 5 Stars, Diet Coke and Gummi Bears, Book Club
Publication
date: September 24, 2013
Author’s
Website: http://www.swatiavasthi.com/index.html
Read an
Excerpt: http://www.swatiavasthi.com/chasing.html
What Others
are Saying:
Publishers
Weekly: http://new.publishersweekly.com/978-0-375-86342-4
School
Library Journal: http://www.slj.com/2013/11/reviews/pick-of-the-day/pick-of-the-day-chasing-shadows/#_
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