The Way We Bared Our Souls

Gr 9 Up—A ninth grader with symptoms of a mysterious disease, Consuelo "Lo" McDonough reaches out to four estranged friends, each one also in crisis. Lo and neighbor Kit were an item last year; Thomas conceals a hot body under a perpetual hoodie; Kaya's grave illness obscures a great beauty; and Ellen's spark could find its match if she could only stop using methamphetamines. Their collective traumas-addiction, illnesses real and imagined, grief, and the impact of war-are supersized. When by chance Lo meets Jay, a middle-aged shaman with a pet coyote in the desert outside their native Santa Fe, New Mexico, she warily decides to trust him. Around a bonfire in a sacred underground Pueblo kiva, he leads the party of five toward a magical pact: for one week, they will switch problems, reclaim their capacity for empathy, and begin to heal themselves. This melodramatic tale strains credulity with one tragedy after another. An additional purchase only.—Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY