Wild Swans

Gr 10 Up—Seventeen-year-old Ivy Milbourn feels just adequate. For the past three generations, young women of the Milbourn family have been blessed—and cursed—with sparkling artistic talent. A poetess, an artist, and a vocalist—they lived and died tragically short lives. At least, Ivy thought her mother was as good as dead after she abandoned Ivy as a toddler. Raised by her loving but unknowingly overbearing grandfather, the teen is beginning to feel the demands of the Milbourn legacy. And now, her mother Erica comes home, bringing Ivy's two half sisters with her. Erica could not deal with the pressure to become the next amazingly talented Milbourn—she is nasty, hurtful, and awful. The protagonist's perfect no-pressure summer comes to a screeching halt as she now has to navigate some serious emotional waters. Ivy gets to know her sisters, has her first serious boyfriend, and begins to assert herself in her interactions with others. She may not be an artistically talented Milbourn girl, but she has emotional strength to be envied by all who know her. She knows she is not okay yet, but she "will be." The language is very frank and the discussions of sexuality even more so. Underage drinking is viewed as expected and inevitable. Ivy's incredibly loyal friends are realistic, but some traits seem contrived to help support other characters.