The Anatomy of Wings by Karen Foxlee
Knopf (Feb 2009)
The house grows still and quiet after Beth dies. Jennifer’s mom doesn’t curl her hair anymore. Her parents don’t talk to each other. Nanna is told to stay away from the house. And Jennifer has lost her singing voice. But Beth’s death wasn’t really the beginning of the bad times. First there was the lake. Then there was Miranda, the bad girl. Then all the boys started paying attention. And then there were too many secrets for Jennifer to keep for her older sister, who was only thirteen but caught up in a life beyond her years.
There are different kinds of secrets. But, to Jennifer, all secrets are terrible things. She says, “The secret grows until you feel like all you are is a skin that covers it, a thin skin, easily split, ripe.” The secrets don’t end after Beth dies, and Jenny has lost her ability to sing in her grief and confusion. Her songs have piled up until all she could feel were the outlines of songs unsung.
A poetic novel about a family in a very difficult time that ends in a tragedy. About keeping secrets and saving people (and how sometimes we can’t). Though the narrator is only eleven, this is not likely a book to hand to eleven-year-olds. In the year before her death, Beth drinks, smokes pot, and has several sexual encounters as she loses herself more and more. Jenny is helpless as she watches. Her only weapon: “I’m telling Mom,” which falls flat as their parents have less and less control over Beth. Hand this one to fans of Francesca Lia Block, and point out the blurb by Markus Zusak on the back cover.
Related Lists: Read Around the World, Secrets, Losing Virginity
Honors: Booklist Starred Review
Review Copy Courtesy of Publisher