Under the Dusty Moon
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
2016 Junior Library Guild Selection
2016 VOYA Top Shelf Fiction Selection
CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2016) — Commended
She’s with the band, whether she likes it or not.
Victoria Mahler is the sixteen-year-old only daughter of rocker Micky Wayne, whose band, Dusty Moon, took the world by storm when Micky was just a teenager. The band broke up under mysterious circumstances, but, after years spent off the road being a mom, Micky’s solo career is finally starting to take off.
When an offer to tour Japan falls into her mom’s lap, Vic is left to spend the summer under the care of her distant grandmother, and without her built-in best friend. Fortunately, a boy with a secret geek side and a group of feminist game-makers save the season, and Vic starts to see herself as her own person, out from under her mother’s shadow.
But when Micky finally comes home — with a poorly chosen boyfriend in tow — all bets are off. Will Vic be able to maintain her newfound sense of self amidst the building thunder of Micky’s second chance at stardom? And through it all, will Micky still really be her best friend?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Minor dilemmas cause major angst for the 16-year-old daughter of a grunge-era rocker. Vic lives in a small Toronto apartment with her free-spirited single mother, Micky, whose band, Dusty Moon, was "Canadian-famous" back in the day. Over the course of a summer, Vic tries to prevent the guy she's dating from learning her mother's identity, has a fight with her best friend, and nurses her resentment of her mother, especially when Micky heads to Japan to play a few shows and starts dating a journalist all problems that loom larger in Vic's head than anywhere else. ("Things were happening, kind of," muses Vic at one point, inadvertently giving a fair description of the book.) The relationship between Vic and Micky is the heart of the story, though their Gilmore Girls style banter can sound more sitcommy than realistic. Sutherland (Something Wiki) skillfully evokes Vic's libidinous longings as her relationship with Shaun heats up, but readers may lose patience with Vic's general whininess, and her near-total attitude reversal in the final pages only adds to the sense of her summer struggles being overblown. Ages 12 up.
