2018 School Spending Survey Report
Chasing Shadows
illus. by Craig Phillips. 320p. Knopf. 2013. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780375863424; lib. ed. $17.99. ISBN 9780375963414; ebk. $9.99. ISBN 9780375895272.
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Gr 8 Up—Teen twins Holly and Corey, children of a Chicago police officer, are fast friends with Savitri, who is also Corey's girlfriend. One night after the three complete a challenging freerunning session, Savitri witnesses a hooded shooter targeting Corey and Holly in their car. Corey is killed and Holly is hospitalized in a coma. Devastated, Savitri diligently attempts to revive Holly and tries to identify the shadowy murderer, perhaps someone seeking revenge against the twins' father. When Holly finally awakens, Savitri realizes that her friend has changed. She refuses to accept her brother's death and slips into a downward spiral of delusion through which she believes she can rescue him from a fantasized Shadowlands, inspired by the Hindu myths she learned from Savitri. Savitri, determined to heal Holly, even considers turning down her acceptance to Princeton to stay close by. When Holly's deteriorating mental health begins to directly impact Savitri and puts her very life in jeopardy, Savitri must make important choices between friendship, loyalty, and survival. Fans of Cecil Castellucci's Year of the Beasts (Roaring Brook, 2012) will especially appreciate this book's themes and its hybrid format that alternates chapters from Savitri's and Holly's points of view in both compelling text and adept black-and-white graphics-graphics that ultimately deliver a sad and powerful twist.—Diane P. Tuccillo, Poudre River Public Library District, COSavitri's boyfriend Corey is killed and her best friend, Holly (Corey's sister), is injured by a seemingly senseless shooting. With the killer at large, Holly teeters on the brink of sanity. The narrative alternates among Savitri's voice; a second-person narrator; and Holly's perspective, told through first-person text and dramatic graphic novelstyle interludes. Avasthi delves deeply into the pysche of both girls.
An intense, emotional novel that incorporates graphic-novel-like illustrations to tell a unique story about friendship and loss. The narrative alternates between Holly’s and Savitri’s perspectives, illuminating their distinct and affecting responses to Corey’s death, the result of a seemingly random act of gun violence. Readers will follow with interest as the effects of the tragedy strain and forever alter the girls’ friendship. Craig Phillips’s artwork adds a convincing otherworldliness to Holly’s dreams of the afterlife and evokes the girls’ surreal, slow-motion memories of Corey’s murder. The visuals also play off of Holly and Savitri’s enthusiasm for a (fictional) feminist superhero called The Leopardess. When Holly and Savitri team up to find Corey’s killer—and Holly begins to imagine she is The Leopardess—Phillips’s illustrations show how fantasy and reality have, dangerously, started to blend. In the poignant, empowering conclusion, Holly and Savitri find a way out of their anguish and take steps toward recovery.
Savitri's best friend, Holly, and her boyfriend, Corey, are fraternal twins. The trio is into free-running, using the urban Chicago landscape as their own personal acrobatic obstacle course. Following one of their runs, Corey is killed and Holly is seriously injured by a man who, seemingly senselessly, sprayed bullets into their car. Savitri, headed to Princeton, had been on the verge of breaking up with Corey but now feels obligated to help Holly recover, even if it means sacrificing her own dreams and studying at a local college. While Corey's killer remains at large, a grief-stricken Holly teeters on the brink of sanity. The narrative alternates among Savitri's voice, the voice of a second-person narrator ("You're told there's nothing you can do but wait and watch"), and Holly's perspective, told through both first-person text and dramatic graphic novel-style interludes interspersed throughout the story. Avasthi delves deeply into the pysche of both girls, and in less capable hands the juggling of the magical realism of the comic panels, the adrenaline rush of the plot, and the staccato cadence of the second-person narration would be too gimmicky. It not only works here but seems like a natural fit for this visceral story of love, grief, and madness that is both action-packed and psychologically acute. jonathan hunt
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