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INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Wolk, Lauren

Candle Island

352 pp. | Dutton | April, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9780593698549 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780593698556 $10.99
(2) 4-6 After the accidental death of Lucretia's father, she and her mother move to an island off the coast of Maine, where they buy a small farm. Their first summer there is full of drama -- tensions between locals and summer people, Lucretia's adoption of an injured osprey chick, a suspicious fire that destroys the town's wharf, the inexplicable hostility of a local girl toward Lucretia, mysterious operatic arias that seem to have no source, the theft of a valuable artwork -- and, tying it all together, a secret that Lucretia and her mother are keeping from the islanders and, indeed, from everyone. Lucretia is a child prodigy in painting, and Wolk believably inhabits a gifted character who experiences the world (sounds, relationships, emotions, textures, smells) in distinctive and specific colors. The contrast between the year-round islanders (wise, close to nature, hardscrabble, competent) and the seasonal visitors (rude, arrogant, rich, entitled) is a bit on the nose, but the examination of a highly original mother-daughter relationship, with a unique power dynamic, is intriguing and thought-provoking. Their big secret is deftly revealed, prompting members of this multifaceted community to re-evaluate their judgments concerning one another.
Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

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