Feathered by Laura Kasischke
Feathered by Laura Kasischke is the story of two high school seniors, Michelle and Anne, who with their parents blessing and trust are about to head off to amazing Cancun, Mexico for a spring break like no other. They’re not dumb though. They knew about Girls Gone Wild, the overflowing alcohol, boys, not to go off with strangers, date rape drugs and more. They promised their parents that they would have fun but that they could be trusted. It was a test. Their first “adult” vacation without their parents – out of the country even!
Michelle and Anne are looking forward to laying out in the sun, snorkeling,and hanging out with some cute guys. They’ve even promised to check out the ancient Mayan ruins which are surrounded by myths and legends of virginal sacrifices upon the temple alters.
While Michelle is becoming more enthralled with Ander, the tour guide they picked up at their hotel, Anne is becoming more leery and distrustful and turns to a few familiar high school boys for help. The girls are swept up into a mess that is literally life or death.
I had no idea where the story of Feathered was going to take me. It was slightly slow to get there but once it hit the crisis, the momentum was huge. I think at one point my mouth was hanging open from disbelief of the crisis and it’s aftermath.
Feathered is told in two different viewpoints. One is that of Michelle which is third person present and the other is Anne’s which is first person past tense. It took a little bit at the beginning of the book to get used to the back and forth but I found myself liking this set up because it worked well for where the story was ultimately going.
The Mayan flair added a lot of depth to the story and is what made it so beautiful. I felt as though Cancun itself was a third character, with it’s gorgeous blue water and Mayan ruins. A third character that the book could have done without was that of Terri, a third friend of the group. I honestly haven’t the faintest idea of what she added to the story.
Albeit, slightly heavy handed with the metaphors, Feathered, is a great mystery with a mix of magic realism. I was on my toes the entire book anticipating what I thought was the inevitable, but yet, I had no idea what would happen. Feathered will make you sit back when you’re done and think to yourself, “Hmmm . . . “ Because to tell you the truth, I’m still thinking about the drama of the story. Recommended. I liked it.
And speaking of spring breaks. Am I the only one who graduated from a high school where nobody went anywhere cool on spring break?
Links of Interest: More book blogger reviews.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Harper Teen. April 8, 2008
Hardcover, 272 pages. ISBN: 0060813172
Feathered available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.
Feathered is competing in the Nerds Heart YA book tournament and is paired up against I Know It’s Over in which I’m the judge. I’ll be posting my decision today.
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Tags: E-H Title, female author, Fiction, I-L Author, Mexico, Nerds Heart YA, published 2008, Publisher: Harper Teen
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I’ve been so excited about reading this one, I really hoped it would be in my bracket so I could have an excuse to read it (I bought it and my bought books have to take a backseat to my review books at the moment since they are taking over my life).
Can’t wait to see what your decision will be! (I’m rooting for this one…)
on June 21st, 2009 at 4:56 pmWow, this sounds like an interesting book. I think I want to read it. I love books where the setting is essentially a character.
on June 21st, 2009 at 5:00 pmI’m intrigued. I’m curious about what the title signifies.
on June 21st, 2009 at 5:11 pmMy high school drew from several very wealthy neighborhoods, and several very poor ones. (My neighborhood was the only middle class neighborhood that went there.) Anyway, a lot of kids from my high school went cool places for spring break, but I wasn’t one of them.
on June 21st, 2009 at 5:26 pmSounds like a good read.
I’m not even sure we even *had* such a thing as spring break at my high school let alone kids going to cool places. I don’t remember anyone talking about going on spring break trips until I started college. So I guess I’m in your boat there!
on June 21st, 2009 at 6:13 pmI think I know which of these two books is moving on…
on June 21st, 2009 at 6:19 pmOoh, this one sounds very interesting. At first, I was like… Hmm, sounds like the movie Taken (Which I loved), and then the unpredictable twist and turns… I’m going ot have to grab this one
on June 21st, 2009 at 7:05 pmI never even thought about going on a Spring Break trip when I was in high school, and I can’t think of any kids I new in hs who went on cool trips, either. Even in college my Spring Break trips weren’t that exciting. I did go to Italy for Winter Break in college once, though–that was probably my coolest break trip.
on June 22nd, 2009 at 1:46 am[...] Feathered versus I Know It’s Over. Decision [...]
on September 13th, 2009 at 12:55 am