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OLDER FICTION
Heppermann, Christine

What Goes Up

166 pp. | Greenwillow | August, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-0-06-238798-1 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-06-238800-1 $9.99
(2) YA Jorie wakes up in the Star Wars–branded bedroom of a random guy ("Craig? / Christopher? / Cormorant?") and, in free verse, contemplates how she got there. There was a party, at which she got drunk and kissed a stranger in front of her ex-boyfriend; but before that, her dad cheated on her mom, and Jorie is still hurting. The poems are full of metaphors connected to the natural world (Jorie's dad is the director of a natural history museum); she refers to the woman Dad cheated with, for example, as the "Invasive Species." But our protagonist is particularly passionate about mushrooms; by the time she escapes Conor's room (that's his name, she eventually remembers), readers may share her mycophilia. We learn new vocabulary (mycorrhizal, mycophobe), including the names of different varieties of mushroom ("Amber jelly roll / Birch polypore / Comb tooth") and what prize morels resemble ("like stretched-out shrunken brains, / like shriveled troll caps"). Heppermann's spare, short verses, with precise attention to line length and spacing, smoothly weave together art and biology; Jorie's spore-print poems ("Safe"; "Foraging While Female"), written in small handwriting extending out along gill lines (as she explains), provide an additional, striking visual element. The protagonist's unique perspective enhances this story about pain, connection, and forgiveness.
Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020

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