A Fast and Brutal Wing - Softcover

Grade 9 Up–Vaguely reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, Johnson's novel explores memory, fear, and imagination. Niki, her brother Emmet, and their friend Doug narrate the somewhat fantastical story via journal entries, e-mails, and newspaper clippings. What REALLY happened on Halloween night in the woods when all three teens awakened to find themselves naked and bloody? As the plot disjointedly unfolds, readers gradually learn that the siblings' father left the family two years earlier, supposedly with his mistress. When their mother begins dating the famous, secretive, and somewhat sinister author Nicholas Slanger, he disappears as well. Puzzle pieces begin to fall into place as readers realize that Emmet has since been institutionalized and Niki claims that she is able to transform into a cat, while her brother can turn into a hawk. They both have strange dreams of blood and hunting, but what is the reality? Whose story is reliable when even Doug, Emmet's psychiatrist, and Slanger seemed to turn into animals that fateful night? There are no absolute answers in this powerful and disturbing blend of fantasy/mystery/study of mental illness. Teens will either love it or hate it, but they won't forget it.–Susan Riley, Mount Kisco Public Library, NY
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