Kirkus
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Poetry and plots unfurl in the Bay. Twins Sabine and Blythe’s father is dead. Their mother immediately strikes up an inexplicable relationship with a strange man named Charlie, who is somehow entwined with their family. The family moves with Charlie to a creaky old mansion in the secluded community of Thornewood in the San Francisco area, and Sabine soon meets a cute boy called Kai. Typical high school and first-love drama plays out against the mystery of the twins’ father’s life and death; he was bisexual, polyamorous, and planned on moving in with Charlie after the girls left for college. His death was caused by an implausible infection made fatal by his HIV status (despite having access to medication making his viral load undetectable). This, combined with Charlie’s attempt to create a safehouse for LGBTQ+ people, is at best lackluster queer representation. Sabine’s love of poetry and habit of “poeting”—a compulsion to blurt out Emily Dickinson–inspired verse when anxious or overwhelmed—add to the highly melodramatic tone of the novel. The main conflict, around trying to save the mansion from a villainous grandmother who is staunchly dedicated to neighborhood preservation, provides the story with forward motion but doesn’t top the list of common teen interests. The twins’ family is coded as White; brown-skinned, blue-eyed Kai has Hawaiian ancestry and is multilingual yet misrepresents Hawaiian Pidgin. For readers with Dickinsonian tastes. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.