Grim
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A fantastic debut from the winner of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards novel contest.When Erika wakes up after a horrific car crash, she finds herself somewhere between earth and heaven, between life and death. She doesn't want to accept help from Jeremiah, who she's not sure she can trust, even as she finds herself drawn to him, following him into a grim city of souls. She's not sure who wants to help her and who wants to hurt her. And she's desperate to get back to her children.Shawn's never thought about having to shoulder the responsibility of caring for his young sister Megan and his reckless older sister. And he never imagined that the three of them would find themselves in a haunted wood, sometimes chased, sometimes assisted, never sure where they're headed.With Grim, the terrifically talented Anna Waggener delves into the place where myth becomes reality, where family can distort you as easily as it cares for you, where death and eternity meet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Waggener won the 2008 Scholastic Art and Writing Award for an early version of this debut novel. It's easy to see what the judges liked brooding atmosphere, fresh descriptions, and an unusual and compelling rogue, Jeremiah. But prod those descriptions, and it becomes a question what their purpose is. Readers are told that the Stripling siblings Rebecca, Shawn, and Megan are grieving their mother's death in a car accident; that Erika, the mother, is stuck in Limbo and longs for her children; that a bastard son would break every law of the afterlife to gain legitimacy. But particularity, insight, and emotional realism are lacking in these relationships and events, weakening their resonance and urgency. The characters are two-dimensional and schematic, defined by family relationships that have the static, predestined quality of dead myth. (Erika is a mother, and as a mother she wants her children back. That's all readers really get from her.) The novel becomes an exercise in technique and allusion, with only glimpses of story. Ages 13 18.
