Summer of Salt

April 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 Twins Mary and Georgina have lived on By-the-Sea Island for all their nearly 18 years, helping their mother run their inn during the annual summer festival marking the arrival of a rare bird. It seems like a scientific oddity, but Georgina knows the truth: her family is magic, and the bird is really her ancestor Annabella, who's been returning to the island for 300 years. Georgina's worried about leaving for college, but that quickly moves to the back burner when Annabella is found murdered. As island-wide anxiety sets in, Georgina and her friends try to figure out who killed Annabella, while Mary mysteriously starts to crumble. Leno cultivates a dynamic atmosphere on the isolated island populated by quirky people. The setting is in compelling contrast to the increasingly dark plot, which eventually folds in topics such as sexual assault and rape culture. Georgina's struggle to find her own magic talents adds emotional depth, and her homosexuality is treated with refreshing frankness. Hand to fans of substantial magic realism who don't mind a healthy dose of twee whimsy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2019
On twins Georgina and Mary's small island home of By-the-Sea, "you could always smell two things: salt and magic." During the girls' last summer working together in their family's inn, which caters to bird-watchers, they prepare for a future without each other and discover how their magical lineage manifests itself. A gentle family story merges with a mystery involving a rare bird in this evocative, lyrical magical-realism novel.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from March 1, 2018

Gr 8 Up-The Fernweh family has lived on the island of By-the-Sea-where the two smells you can always be sure of are "salt and magic"-for generations. Almost 18-year-old twins Georgina and Mary are the latest in a long line of Fernweh women with magical gifts ranging from teleportation to potion-making (the sisters' mother Penelope can brew a mean hangover cure). Every summer, By-the-Sea also hosts 300-year-old Annabella, an Eastern Seaborn Flicker bird who may be a Fernweh herself, and the influx of tourists who come to see her. But when Annabella is found violently murdered, suddenly the island doesn't seem so magical, and more than one dark secret must be uncovered. A magical realist YA book is still a relatively rare sight, and Leno expertly crafts this example of the genre with atmospheric prose and subtle feminism. The real heart of the novel is the exceptionally well-written female characters and relationships. Leno's way of writing Georgina's blossoming first love with island visitor Prue Lowry is so sweet and purely devoid of the "problem novel" overtones that accompany so many LGBTQ+ relationships in fiction. Her examination of the trauma of sexual assault and the "imperfect victim" is sophisticated and complex. VERDICT A necessary novel that is, at the same time, so enjoyable to read that teens will have to fight the urge to crawl into the pages. Buy multiple copies.-Ann Santori, Cook Memorial Public Library, Libertyville, IL

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2018
On a small island called By-the-Sea, two young women discover their magical powers and resilience.Seventeen-year-old white girl Georgina Fernweh and her twin sister, Mary, have one more summer at home helping their widowed mother, Penelope, at their family's inn before they leave for college. Every year, bird enthusiasts flock to By-the-Sea for the arrival of Annabella's Woodpecker, dubbed the world's rarest bird and discovered and named by a distant Fernweh foremother about 300 years ago. Panic ensues when Annabella never appears, and the birders find her corpse in a barn, surrounded by her torn-up nest. The islanders superstitiously blame Mary, suspecting her of wielding magic, and Georgina promises Annabella that she will track down the murderer, even if it really is her sister. A tender, gentle romance between Georgina and Prue, visiting the island with her ornithologist brother (both are assumed white), accompanies the suspenseful murder mystery and is captured in lyrical prose. There is a clear distinction throughout between healthy relationships built on consent and harmful, uninvited attention. Along with romantic love, fierce bonds between family and friends play an important role in the story; Georgina's aromantic, asexual best friend, Vira, stands by her side to the end, and Georgina's mother supports her children by giving them the freedom to find their own ways into their magical gifts.Equal parts fantasy, romance, and mystery, this book shimmers with an irresistible energy. (Fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.