“Are you sure we can’t get busted?” My
brother nervously chewed on his fingernails. I rolled my eyes and threw my arms in the
air to demonstrate how annoyed I was at the
coward that was my older brother, John. “How many times do I have to tell you,
dummy, we can only get busted if she knows who
called. I know she doesn’t have caller ID.” John sat on his bed in old jeans and a
baseball shirt. He was scratching his long mane while he
partially listened as I talked about revenge and a harmless prank phone call. Now I know that I run the risk here of being totally biased and pandering, But I’m gonna attempt to write an honest and balanced review of Sage Adderley’s first novel, INVOKING NONNA. Here goes…
This is not the first book I would pull off a
shelf if I was in search of a new book to read, as its geared towards a younger
audience and definitely ain’t gritty
crime-noir or realism, my usual choices.
But being that I live with the person who penned this book (as the first
in a three-part series) and that I put a lot of time into helping her to get it
onto a shelf where it was available to be read, and that she’s an absolutely
intriguing and imaginative soul who I care deeply about, there was NO WAY that
I wasn’t gonna read it!
Right away, the storyline and depth of characters sucked me in. The antagonists are super easy to despise, the heroes are heroes, and there is an innocence and integrity that weaves its way through the entire book. Maybe its me, the embittered and jaded old punker, that thought that the actions and reactions of the women in this book on how they handle difficulties should be entirely different than the way the characters inevitably chose. And then the strangest thing happened! This book started to teach me a number of invaluable lessons about how I perceive situations in my own life, and how I could make MUCH better choices. Add to that the tapestry of multiple generations of the family’s long history in the art of witchcraft, how the author seamlessly winds through the parallel experiences that continue to recur in the woman’s lives, and the likeability of the key characters. This book is just cool.
