The Gallery of Unfinished Girls
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A beautiful and evocative look at identity and creativity, The Gallery of Unfinished Girls is a stunning debut in magical realism. Perfect for fans of The Walls Around Us and Bone Gap.
Mercedes Moreno is an artist. At least, she thinks she could be, even though she hasn’t been able to paint anything worthwhile in the past year.
Her lack of inspiration might be because her abuela is in a coma. Or the fact that Mercedes is in love with her best friend, Victoria, but is too afraid to admit her true feelings.
Despite Mercedes’s creative block, art starts to show up in unexpected ways. A piano appears on her front lawn one morning, and a mysterious new neighbor invites Mercedes to paint with her at the Red Mangrove Estate.
At the Estate, Mercedes can create in ways she hasn’t ever before. But Mercedes can’t take anything out of the Estate, including her new-found clarity. Mercedes can’t live both lives forever, and ultimately she must choose between this perfect world of art and truth and a much messier reality.
“A dreamy and subtle work of art, The Gallery of Unfinished Girls explores love, family, and the maddening, magical drive to create art.”—Adi Alsaid, author of Let's Get Lost
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Last year, 17-year-old Mercy Moreno won the county art competition with an interpretation of salmonella; the expectation that she'll come up with something brilliant for this year's competition is overwhelming. Coupled with her personal dramas she might be in love with her best friend Victoria, and her grandmother is in a coma in Puerto Rico Mercy wonders if she's an artistic hack. When a woman named Lilia moves in next door and encourages Mercy to join the Estate, a dilapidated condo converted into artists' spaces, Mercy once again feels the desire to create. Mercy is seduced by the power she feels there, but the Estate isn't exactly what it seems. The strength of Karcz's debut novel lies in Mercy's friendship with Victoria, relationship with her younger sister, and confusion over whether to confess her love to Victoria. Those strands are at times overshadowed by Mercy's insecurities about her art and the magical realism of the Estate, but the novel's mix of self-discovery, art making, and the unknown should resonate with fans of A.S. King's work, especially Still Life with Tornado. Ages 13 up.