Transcendent
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
In this timely contemporary magical realism novel, the world is plagued by violence and one girl is called upon to be its hero.
“Lovely and lyrical and frighteningly believable. This book will stay with me for a good long time.”—Jenn Marie Thorne, author of The Wrong Side of Right
Can one girl repair a broken world?
Terrorists have just bombed Disney World. A thousand miles away, a stranger shows up on Iris Spero’s stoop in Brooklyn. He brings with him a shocking secret about Iris’s birth, throwing her entire identity into question.
Suddenly, the press is confronting Iris with the wild notion that she might be the miracle the world now so desperately needs. Families all across the grieving nation are pinning their hopes on her as if she is some kind of saint or savior. She’s no longer sure whom she can trust—except for Zane, a homeless boy who long ago abandoned any kind of hope.
When no one knows her but everyone wants a piece of her, who is Iris Spero now? And how can she—one teenage girl—possibly heal a broken world?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A young woman struggles with matters of faith and destiny in the wake of a horrifying terrorist attack on American soil. Seventeen-year-old Iris Spero discovers that she is the product of an immaculate conception (her mother is Mina, from 2015's Immaculate), and possibly the next messiah. As she reels with the idea that her family has lied to her all her life, resisting the notion that she has divine powers or purpose, Iris's identity is leaked to the public, forcing her to hide even as the world clamors for her to prove herself and heal those wounded by the attack. But Iris lacks faith in herself, let alone a higher power, and her road to self-realization is fraught with danger and doubt. Detweiler again presents an intriguing contemporary riff on Christian themes, but her heroine's insecurity and indecisiveness grow tedious as she repeatedly rejects friends, family, and the truth. Iris's drawn-out path to actually do something productive and an incidental romantic subplot lessen the impact of the emotional journey and actualization at the heart of the story. Ages 14 up.
