The Other Side of Dark

October 18, 2010
What good is being able to see and speak to the dead if it doesn't help solve a mystery surrounding them? Fifteen-year-old Katie Mullens can interact with ghosts, including that of her father, though not of her more recently deceased mother. Law Walker is the mixed-race son of activists—an academic father who's a prominent advocate for slavery reparations ("Even in pajamas, standing at the top of the stairs and saying, ‘Susan, I have lost my toothbrush,' his voice quivers with the weight of four hundred years of injustice") and a mother struggling to save a historic Boston building. Forging a friendship as outsiders—their classmates have written off Katie as crazy, and Law is a self-described geek trying to escape his domineering father's shadow—Katie and Law dive into a thickening tangle involving slavery, a treasure, and an old cabal that has modern-day repercussions for living and dead alike. Alternating between the teenagers' distinct and searching first-person narratives, and combining real history with quests for identity both personal and national, adult author Smith's YA debut is much more than just a ghost story. Ages 12–up.

January 1, 2011

Gr 7-10-Law Walker and Katie Mullens couldn't be more different. He's the son of a wealthy African-American historian and a white architectural historian. She's a talented artist from a poor family who, after the death of her mother, begins to draw what she sees: ghosts and the horrific ways they died. Katie and Law are drawn together by Pinesbank, an estate that Law's father wants destroyed because of its ties to the slave trade, his mother wants restored because of its place in Boston history, and that Katie knows is important because of her new friendship with the ghost of a boy who lived there. While the premise may seem like that of many other supernatural romances, there is a depth to this title that others are lacking. Law is torn between his mother, whose passion for architecture he shares, and his strident father, who has built his career on working toward reparations and expects his son to follow in his footsteps. Katie is trying to hang on through her grief. Details of her visions and conversations with the dead will haunt readers, even as they're thinking about how race shapes actions and relationships, and how the past can change the present. Recommended for fans of paranormal romance and historical fiction alike.-Karen E. Brooks-Reese, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2011
Since her mother died, fifteen-year-old Katie has been able to see and speak to ghosts by channeling the circumstances and emotions of their deaths into drawings. Near Boston's historic Pinebank Mansion, Katie meets George Perkins, an earnest young boy who's been dead more than a century. George claims that a "treasure" remains in dilapidated Pinebank, which is slated for imminent demolition. Katie's first-person narration alternates with that of Law, an acquaintance from school. Law's father is an imposing Harvard professor of African American history. But rather than his father's passion for black history and reparations, Law has inherited his white mother's deep love of historical architecture. Law is almost as fascinated by Katie's sketches of George and of Pinebank in its glory as he is by Katie herself. "What sort of person draws the past like that? Like it's alive and pains her?" When imperious ghosts of slaves begin haunting Katie, the teens suspect that the so-called treasure is blood money, meant to finance the illegal importation of slaves by George's grandfather (and respected Boston Brahmin) Thomas Handasyd Perkins. Their discoveries challenge assumed Boston history and enrich the story of the Underground Railroad. Smith approaches the intricate racial politics in her characters' community, families, and consciences unflinchingly; well-researched historical detail weaves seamlessly into a contemporary mystery that's also a head-on confrontation of the ongoing repercussions of racism and slavery. katie bircher

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

October 15, 2010

With both biological parents dead and a loner reputation, 15-year-old Katie's life is complicated enough even before she begins communicating with the dead. Law Walker, meanwhile, walks between his parents' political passions: His African-American father wants to destroy a slave trader's historic house (the now-demolished Pinebank, in Boston), while his Caucasian mother seeks to preserve it. When Katie and Law cross paths in front of Pinebank, they begin working together to solve the house's mysteries. The narrative is unashamedly didactic; what with Law's conflicted racial identity, the reparations debate and a random-feeling scene in which Katie psychically names deceased African slaves, the author's hand dominates the tale. Propelled forward by force rather than genuine character development, the plot is bloated and unwieldy. An historical note with information on Pinebank, the family that owned it and its designer would have been enormously helpful to readers in parsing this narrative, especially due to its reimagined ending of the Pinebank facility. Smith's attempt to use the historic home's story to explore identify conflicts creates a sadly jumbled mess. (Paranormal. YA)

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 15, 2010
Grades 8-12 Crazy Katie sees and draws ghosts of real people who were killed in horrid circumstances. Law Walker, the son of a black Harvard professor and white landscape architect, dreams of becoming an architectural historian. His father believes in reparations; his mother, historical preservation. All the characters collide in the planned demolition of Pinebank, a historic house central to Frederick Law Olmsteads Emerald Necklace park system in Boston. As Law begins to realize that Katies visions hold the key to saving Pinebank, he falls for her, despite her oddities. Well-known adult author Smith, who confesses to have loved ghost stories since childhood, has written an intricate YA debut that weaves complicated racial issues into a romantic, mysterious novel based on a controversial event in recent Boston history. Both adult and teenage characters are likable and authentically complex. Katies visions of slavery and Laws fathers address to the Boston City Council make for challenging reading that will prompt readers to reconsider the burden of history we all carry, regardless of race or origin.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)