3 out of 5 hearts.
Another random find at my local library. After reading the blurb on the back, I chose to read it because it has...magic! Being a little kid at heart, I had to read it.
Rudy and his family moved to an island in the middle of nowhere. His 5-year old brother Dylan has cystic fibrosis and the island is home to Enki silver fish, which have magical healing powers. As a middle-class family, they could not afford some of the other treatments for Dylan and this is his last hope of survival. The island is inhabited by other ill persons and their family members, everyone clinging on to the hopes of recuperation.
Rudy is the only teenager on the entire island and he is submersed in a sea of loneliness trying to erode the selfish thoughts of freedom that circle his brain. He meets Teeth, who is half human and half fish. He also meets Diana, who is the daughter of the woman that discovered the island. Instead of giving in to his hormonal impulses, he spends all of his energy befriending Teeth. As their friendship flourishes, the secrets of the island come crashing out.
I finished this book pretty quickly. I was really looking forward to the magical realism aspects and they proved to be okay. As I read through Rudy and Teeth's relationship, there were sometimes that made me think this was a LGBT book. Even when I finished it, that question was left unanswered. I suppose this notion came about because of the manner Maskowitz describes Rudy's feelings and the way he touches Teeth.
Besides that, I liked the fact that Maskowitz wrote the character's thought in realistic terms. With fiction, there are many cases that authors write in the character's thinking/emotions as they should be, but Maskowitz writes them as they are. One of the key struggles that Rudy has is that he wants to live for someone else and feels selfish and guilty if he doesn't. Even though the language may seem immature at times, it fits with the characters and their stage in life.
There wasn't anything that had me clinging to it for dear life. It was okay, definitely a fluff read.
-Mariela
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published January 1st 2013 by Simon Pulse
ISBN 1442465328 (ISBN13: 9781442465329)
Edition language: English
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