Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review Sam and Miel have always been inseparable. Pakistani Samir and his mother moved to town first, painting ornamental moons and carrying secrets, but Miel appeared out of the water tower, with roses growing out of her wrists. As they grow, their friendship deepens into something more; after all, it's Miel who's the keeper of Sam's secret, who realizes he used to be different, and who understands why he is drawn to bacha posh, a Pakistani practice where families without sons allow a daughter to live as a boy. But Sam and Miel have caught the eye of the four Bonner sisters, whom people say are witches, and Miel knows their attention could destroy everything. This is a careful, close look not only at gender identity but at what it is to possess a body r Sam, of course, but also for Miel (whose roses are viewed with suspicion) and for the almost mythical, red-haired Bonner girls as well. Love, family history, and things unsaid are forces to be reckoned with: Miel's guardian cures lovesickness, and people believe Miel's roses cast a love spell. With luminous prose infused with Latino folklore and magical realism, this mixes fairy-tale ingredients with the elegance of a love story, with all of it rooted in a deeply real sense of humanity. Lovely, necessary, and true.

School Library Journal Starred Review

Gr 9 Up-Love bests every opponent in this surreal exploration of familial bonds and sexual identity. Teens Sam and Miel have been best friends for years, ever since Miel appeared, sodden and terrified, amid the flooded ground around an overturned water tower. As their friendship unfolds into romance, long-repressed secrets and rumors clamor for air. Sam is reticent and obsessed with painting moons on paper and metal. Miel and her guardian, Aracely, are thought to be witches—Miel because roses grow beautifully and painfully out of her wrist one at a time, and Aracely because she cures lovelorn townspeople with potions she creates. Until recently, the four haughty, gorgeous Bonner sisters held mysterious sway over the hearts of the town's young men. Now that their power has gone, they believe Miel's roses are the fix they need, and they have no scruples about using physical cruelty or blackmail to get what they want. Amid the ordinariness of the small-town setting, McLemore winds arabesques of magical realism. This imbues the narrative with the feel of a centuries-old fairy tale, while the theme of sexual identity gives it the utmost relevance. Some teens might be put off by the frequent descriptions of egg and pumpkin varieties and their associated shapes, colors, and uses. VERDICT Readers who stick with this novel will be rewarded with a love story that is as endearingly old-fashioned as it is modern and as fantastical as it is real.— Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

As she did in The Weight of Feathers, McElmore blends magical elements with a culturally vibrant cast to create a haunting modern fairy tale. At its heart are two best friends turned lovers: Miel, a girl rumored to be born of a water tower who grows roses from her forearms, and Sam who, in keeping with the Pakistani tradition of bacha posh, has been raised as a boy, and now has no interest in living as anything but. Magic, myth, and legend are woven into the fabric of their town, and Miel and Sam-s relationship is complicated when the four Bonner sisters, who are rumored to be witches, come to believe that Miel-s roses will help restore their influence over the town-s boys. Lush, reverential language remains a hallmark of McElmore-s work, and while the story-s momentum can suffer as a result, readers interested in gender identity and the pull of family and history will find this to be an engrossing exploration of these and other powerful themes. Ages 12-up. Agent: Taylor Martindale Kean, Full Circle Literary. (Oct.)

Voice of Youth Advocates

Miel, whose name means honey in Spanish, needs answers to bitter questions. Town lore says she appeared with the trash that spilled out when the old water tower was torn down. Even town lore cannot explain the roses that grow from her wrist or why she cuts them off and leaves them in the river. Samir, her one friend, quickly becoming much more than that, has secrets of his own. Their nemeses, the four beautiful Bonner sisters, have always figured out how to get what they want. To hang onto that power, they threaten to reveal what they know about Samirunless Miel gives them her roses, believing the roses will help them keep control. It seems they have their own secrets.As in The Weight of Feathers (Macmillan, 2015), McLemore mixes magic and mystery in ways that work. The surprises unfold as beautifully and inexorably as Miel's roses, revealing what each character has to hide. Magic realism provides an effective framework for grappling with gender identity, situating it in an "otherwhere" while orchestrating it in an emotional reality where it feels as natural as breath and as tangible as Samir's man-made moons. Its portrayal of the Middle Eastern tradition of bacha posh invites teens to consider the issue from yet another angle. Finally, the author's note invites readers to consider the craft of working between fact and fiction to create something that is at once neither and both.Donna L Phillips.