ALA Booklist

This is an intriguing novel, though certainly not an easy one to follow. Mixed-race Ginny, 16, is astonished to discover that she is illegitimate and that her father has another child, a legitimate son, just Ginny's age, who will be coming to live with her and her dad. Unable to get her dad to talk much about her own mother, whom she'd been told is dead, or about these strange developments, Ginny determines to find out the facts for herself. Her search leads her to a trendy art gallery, to the home of a sleazy con man, and finally to her estranged grandparents' home, where an even greater shock awaits her. Unlike Pullman's Ruby in the Smoke , this is a contemporary novel, set in present-day Wales and with fewer atmospheric touches. It's more puzzle than mystery in the strict sense, evolving slowly at first, then building in pace as Ginny approaches the truth about her heritage and about her own character. The weird fantasy Ginny spins about a jacket owned by a local con man is not credibly integrated into the plot, and Ginny's flashback memories, which head a few chapters, add little to the whole. Yet readers will be swept into the vortex of curious events, and though they won't come away completely clear about what occurs, they'll come away satisfied. (Reviewed Feb. 15, 1992)

Horn Book

The child of a black Haitian artist and a white British father, Ginny Howard, at sixteen, is faced with a number of nagging questions about her background. Skillfully manipulating the conventions of the mystery and the problem novel, Pullman constructs a story of a girl who comes of age by uncovering the secrets of her past.

Kirkus Reviews

Ginny's peaceful life in a Welsh village with father Tony is disrupted when it's revealed that she has an older half brother, Robert, also 16. Her mother, she's been told, was a Haitian artist who died soon after her birth; now Ginny also learns that Robert's recently deceased mother—not hers—was Tony's wife, a discovery that casts doubt on the little Tony has said about her origins. Already struggling for self-identity as a teenager, a gifted artist, and almost the only dark-skinned person she knows, Ginny is drawn into a search for a past now gradually revealed as far more convoluted than she imagined, with enough woe to explain Tony's reticence and enough surprises to keep readers guessing. Master storyteller Pullman (The Ruby in the Smoke, 1987) provides an engrossing plot and a richly varied cast, including Robert (who becomes an unexpected ally); some painfully believable uptight grandparents; and a thug called Joe Chicago, who plays an important role in resolving the image of the broken bridge—a local site where a tragic misadventure is said to have taken place. Ginny is less concerned with being black than with realizing herself as an artist; as such, she is sharply realized, an intelligent and creative observer. She's also committed to finding a personal balance between qualities a friend polarizes as sexy'' (charismatic and original) andkind'' (but often boring); in the end, she survives the many dramatic revelations with the best of both. Almost impossible to put down. (Fiction. 12+)"

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

PW commented that the author deftly interweaves strong themes'' in thismoving'' tale of a half-black teenager growing up in rural north Wales. Ages 12-up. (Dec.)

School Library Journal

Gr 8-12-- Ginny, 16, has always felt somewhat an outsider in her Welsh village. Her Haitian mother is dead, but Ginny has always derived security in her relationship with her English father, and in the creative talent inherited from her artist mother. Then she discovers she has a white half-brother who is about to join the family; suddenly half-remembered scenes from her childhood begin to take on meaning. Step by step Ginny begins to peel back the mystery of her life, drawing on hitherto untapped resources of courage and resilience to raise the questions that need to be asked, and then to search out the answers, however painful that process may be. Her past and present are filled with ``broken bridges'' needing repair or rebuilding before she can cross them and move on with her life. As Ginny herself comments, nothing is what it seems, whether memory, event, or character. Haitian cultural details, and the influences of art in Ginny's life are clearly but unobstructively incorporated. Pullman moves as comfortably in this contemporary small town setting as he did in Victorian London in his previous novels, without sacrificing richness of plot or character. Unfortunately, the usual absurdity of translating British into American English is also maintained, while phrases in French and Welsh have been retained. The unusual setting; plot twists; and touches of pathos, humor, contemporary social concerns, and even voodoo, combine to make this an original treatment of concerns familiar to teenage readers--Who am I? How do I fit in? --Barbara Hutcheson, Greater Victoria Public Library, B.C., Canada