A superb read and quite unique. Wagner is a beautiful writer and inhabits her main character, Magdalie, with a sureness and compassion that doesn't suffer from any pity or condescension. Wagner is an anthropologist who was actually in Haiti (and buried for a day) during the earthquake. But (and?) she's also a superb and emotionally connected writer, who charts the pop culture and particular life-ways of poor Haitians (and aid workers and journos) with a sure and sometimes wryly funny hand. People looking for diversity in YA fiction need to read this book!

Magdalie is a great character -- tough, gentle, lost, loving, but determined to do something for herself even in the midst of post-earthquake chaos. After her half-sister and best friend leaves for the US, she has to figure out a way to manage and get out of her poverty in the refugee camps. A rather sheltered 17-year-old she thinks she might have found a friend in Jimmy, a young man she knows. The scene is merciless and beautifully drawn as Magdalie slowly realizes that his offer of help comes with a sexual price tag:

His zozo is hard and swollen and hot against me; I can feel it through his jeans. All my mind can come up with is a bunch of words with little thought attached to them: Heat. Closeness. Zozo. Cologne. Sweat. Dim grey sunlight. No emotion or thought, only panic. Run. Run. Run.

Wagner brings in no saviors or deus ex machina devices to rescue her heroine. The conclusion is both satisfying and open, since Magdalie's wish -- to go back to school -- is realized even as we know the obstacles she will continue to face in modern Haiti are considerable. But if anyone is going to build a better Haiti in the future, it's going to be girls like Magdalie.

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RGG: Gritty story of a seventeen-year-old's re-building of her life after the 2010 Haitian Earthquake. The experiences and emotions described are appropriate to the age of the main character. The use of creole is authentic and helps establish the mood. And even though, this is an historical event, the story feels contemporary. Interest Level: YA.

Two teenage cousins, that are raised as sisters, survive the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The girls find themselves in a refugee camp where life changes drastically. Nadine's father, who lives in Miami, sends for her. The story is about never forgetting and finding your true self.

RGG: Gritty story of a seventeen-year-old's re-building of her life after the 2010 Haitian Earthquake. The experiences and emotions described are appropriate to the age of the main character. The use of creole is authentic and helps establish the mood. And even though, this is an historical event, the story feels contemporary. Interest Level: YA.

RGG: Gritty story of a seventeen-year-old's re-building of her life after the 2010 Haitian Earthquake. The experiences and emotions described are appropriate to the age of the main character. The use of creole is authentic and helps establish the mood. And even though, this is an historical event, the story feels contemporary. Interest Level: YA.