Starred Review Seventeen years younger than the twin sisters who raised her in Dublin, Deena Rys has always lived a life filled with questions. When, the day she turns 17, Deena comes out to her steadfast sister Rachel, she is unaware that their absentee father is within earshot; his poor reaction drives her to the home of her second sister, Mandy, the family's uncontrollable bad apple. Mandy warns her that the Rys family isn't kind to its bad apples, and then she disappears. The police rule it a suicide, but Deena is sure Mandy's still alive, and when she starts receiving letters from her tters that detail the history of the Rys family women and the curse upon them e becomes determined to find her. With the help of friends and family, Deena criss-crosses Ireland, uncovering the stories of the women in her family and the children that, willingly or not, they bore. But among the ghosts of the past and the ruins of Magdalene laundries, Deena's own fate becomes increasingly uncertain. Fowley-Doyle (The Accident Season, 2015) travels through generations, examining the power women possess, the things that have been taken from them, and the things they fight to reclaim. Though the story loses an ounce of its tautness when the magical realism moves into the foreground, it remains an astonishingly potent offering to women who break the mold.

In one day, Deena comes out as gay to her sister Rachel, she's overheard by their intolerant father, and her beloved sister Mandy disappears off a cliffside. Has the infamous family curse come around? Deena is certain Mandy's alive and crisscrosses Ireland with three others on an exploration of her family's troubled past. This is a harrowing and ultimately empowering story of characters who reject the shame and stigma others try to impose on them.

Seventeen-year-old Deena, bullied at school for her perceived lesbianism, sets off on a journey across Ireland in search of her beloved older sister Mandy, who is believed to have recently committed suicide.Deena's breathless first-person narration propels readers into the action and drags them across the country and through time. Deena picks up a few companions along the way, including her bisexual, black best (male) friend Finn and Cale (short for Michaela), a possible romantic interest. Cale's great-great-great-great aunt's lesbian relationship with Deena's great-great grandmother is just one of the stories revealed in mysterious letters detailing the lives of Deena's ancestors. The missives provide information about the past and clues about where to look next. Hints of magic, from a family curse to a banshee's wail, amplify the sense of mystery—and the possibility that readers, like Deena's fellow travelers, will find themselves frustrated and confused at times. While the gradually revealed, multigenerational abuse of women, girls, and those who deviate from the norm certainly deserves to be exposed (and, ideally, repudiated), the author's message and the (very) complicated plot overwhelm her narrative—and her main character. As a result, despite evocative writing, eerie details, and intense emotional content, the novel may fail to reach an appreciative audience.A compelling diatribe but not entirely successful as either realistic fiction or folkloric fantasy. (Fiction. 14-18)