ALA Booklist (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

It's the eve of 1994, and the grunge movement has reached its fevered height. On Ireland's east coast, 16-year-old Maggie, disgruntled and displaced from her native Chicago, after her flighty mother's recent marriage, listens to Nirvana and misses the uncle in America who snuck her into rock concerts. Her plan is to keep her head down and wait for her mother's relationship to implode, but she finds herself drawn into her new town of Bray and its generations of inhabitants. When her first real loss comes on the heels of her first love, she undertakes a pilgrimage to the mecca of grunge music: a Nirvana concert in Rome. Rock-savvy readers might recognize the time line as the story hurtles towards that infamous April of 1994, but, with or without that knowledge, they will be drawn into the sometimes seedy, sometimes madcap atmosphere of this first novel. A mostly fleshed-out cast of supporting characters and rich storytelling make this appealing both to teens and to the contingent that still has copies of Nevermind on vinyl.

School Library Journal (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Gr 9 Up-This promising debut, set in the heyday of grunge, tells the story of Maggie Lynch, a displaced Chicagoan and grunge music fan, living in a quiet town (Bray) on the Irish Sea. Maggie was uprooted from her friends, her music scene, and her beloved Uncle Kevin when her romantically fickle mother married her latest boyfriend, resulting in a move to his hometown. During her time of difficult adjustment to Ireland, Maggie falls in love with Eion the very moment a devastating loss hits her family, leading to rebellion and a journey to Rome to see Nirvana and fulfill Uncle Kevin's wish for her. Foley sets the scene vividly, writing that Bray has a "soggy sort of grandeur" and weaving in the tiny cultural differences that Maggie has to navigate as an American. The narrative voice is clear and compelling, but Maggie often makes decisions that feel incongruous to her character. She has an independent spirit, but Eion only joins her on the journey because she needs a rescue. A self-professed Nirvana fan, which is critical to the plot, she never seems to like the band as much as she is trying to impress Uncle Kevin. However, the secondary characters are complex and sympathetic: Foley has also populated Bray with a host of quirky, loving, and memorable background characters, which enriches the story. Recommended for teens who enjoy travelogue romance stories or novels about rock music. Susannah Goldstein, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

Voice of Youth Advocates (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

The cover design of The Carnival at Bray, depicting frayed denim fabric in the shape of Ireland and studded with safety pins, perfectly matches the content and grunge-era setting. In 1993, sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch moves from Chicago, Illinois, to the seaside town of Bray, near Dublin, Ireland, with her mother, younger sister, and new stepfather. Maggie is traumatized by the death of her cherished Uncle Kevin, a troubled musician and the type of godfather who takes a girl to a Smashing Pumpkins concert when she should be home with a fever. When Maggie finds Nirvana concert tickets Kevin sent her before his death, she runs away from Bray on a short "pilgrimage" to Rome, Italy, with her new boyfriend, Eoin. The rebellion puts them in violation of their Catholic schools' rules.With evocative details, Foley's debut novel truly makes readers feel they are in Ireland in the mid-1990s. However, the close third-person narrative perspective sometimes veers away from the teenaged protagonist and sounds like an adult. The literary style is more akin to "Araby" or another story out of James Joyce's Dubliners than to a young adult novel, and this is both a good and bad thing. Also, Maggie's sister, Ronnie, remains a flat character, although other characters are quite vividly rendered, such as Dan Sean O'Callaghan, a friend and advisor to Maggie whose one-hundredth birthday party brings the community together. This romantic and original book will be long remembered by its readers.Amy Cummins.