The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. Hopkins’s incisive verses sometimes read in several directions as they paint the beautiful Nevada desert and the consequences of both nuclear testing at Yucca Mountain and Pattyn’s tragic family history. Bereaved and desperate with nowhere to turn, Pattyn plans a brutal revenge. But a heart-sinking pregnancy (Ethan’s condom broke once) prompts an escape attempt that goes horribly wrong. Alcoholic Dad now beats the children (rather than just Mom) Pattyn, badly whipped, tries to hang on until she can leave home. But at summer’s end, she returns home to a situation even worse than before. Will she burn in hell? Exiled (for punishment) to a desert ranch, Pattyn blossoms under the respectful care of Aunt J and finds storybook love with neighbor Ethan. An entrancing sexual dream and a non-Mormon boyfriend make Pattyn feel giddy but guilty. Her Mormon church dictates that women grow up powerless. In cutting free-verse, 16-year-old Pattyn offers first-person narration of religious oppression and physical violence.
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