The Altered History of Willow Sparks
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
What happens when you can finally get everything you ever wanted?
Willow Sparks and her best friend Georgia Pratt are at the bottom of the social ladder at Twin Pines High School, just trying to get through each day relatively unscathed. But when Willow finds a mysterious book that allows her to literally change her life, it feels like her luck is finally turning. As she becomes more and more popular with each entry into the book, her old life, including her friendship with Georgia, seems miles away. Yet as Willow will discover, every action has a reaction, and the future has unusual—even dangerous—ways of protecting itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Willow Sparks just wants to get through high school without students in popular cliques harassing her and teachers embarrassing her. After bullies show up at the library where she works and push her down a flight of stairs, she discovers a secret underground wing and a book with her name on it. By writing in the book, she can reshape her future, and soon she's ditching her best friends Georgia and Gary to hang out with the cool kids. The pale lavender-gray coloring of O'Connor's two-tone cartooning fits the eerie, brooding atmosphere of this magic-inflected cautionary tale. But although O'Connor's talents as an artist aren't in question the torments that Willow and her friends face in gym class, school bathrooms, and elsewhere feel painfully real the overall story is rushed and too-tidily resolved. Even considering the influence of the magical book, the speed with which Willow drops her friends is jarring, and their own subplots get short shrift (Georgia is moving out of town, and Gary is nervously starting to come out to family and friends). It's an intriguing story that doesn't have enough space to reach its full potential. Ages 13 up.
