Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #878405 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-21
• Released on: 2007-08-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780374349851
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Brooks's (True Confessions of a Heartless Girl) keenly observed novel interweaves the lives of three generations of women overshadowed by secrets. While the narrative focuses on Odella, whose mother leaves the family (and the country) with a lover, then unexpectedly dies, the author also rotates through the perspectives of other characters. It falls to Odella's great-aunt Gloria as much as to Odella, the oldest of three sisters, to give readers a sense of Sally, Odella's guilt-ridden mother. Mistik Lake plays an important role: Sally alone survived a tragic accident on the lake as a teenager, and the small Canadian community, where both Gloria and Sally grew up, serves as the backdrop for the major revelations in the book. Readers may have trouble tracking all the ways various characters connect; the grandfather of Odella's first love, Jimmy, tells her, We are all related, one way or another, if you go far enough back, and it certainly seems to be the case given how the characters' histories intersect. But all of the characters seem distinct and real, thanks to the author's exceptional skill with details (Odella watches Jimmy's grandmother prepare breakfast: She begins to move around her kitchen—silently, like a ship with sails. I can see the ancestors in her face). Everyone suffers, but the momentum remains steady and, in the end, it is the author's ability to convey the characters' love for one another, as complicated as it often is, that floats to the top. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up—In a prologue, readers learn that in 1981, three teenagers died while joyriding on frozen Mistik Lake in Manitoba. Sally was the sole survivor. The story then alternates between Odella, Sally's oldest daughter, beginning when she is nine; Sally's Aunt Gloria, Odella's beloved great-aunt; and, later, Odella's boyfriend, Jimmy. Summers are spent at Mistik Lake, where Gloria has a cottage that she never uses. There, Odella, a perceptive girl, becomes attuned to her mother's sadness and alcoholism. Sally leaves her husband and daughters for an Icelandic filmmaker when Odella is 15, and the devastated family struggles to function without her. However, they continue to vacation at the lake, where Odella meets Jimmy, leading to a romance that helps sustain her in the aftermath of her mother's sudden death. Much of the mood is pensive as characters suffer but eventually break through. Gloria, whose homosexuality has been kept a secret, eventually brings her partner to meet Sally's girls; and Odella starts to forgive her mother and begin an adult life. Jumps back and forth in time and perspective make reading somewhat bewildering at times, but they do allow more intimate characterization. Smooth writing contributes much to a story that will enable readers to care about Odella's coming of age. Readers seeking a love story situated in family difficulties will find a realistic choice here.—Suzanne Gordon, Peachtree Ridge High School, Suwanee, GA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Readers will be rewarded."?VOYA

Customer Reviews

Too many things going on
Mistik Lake by Martha Brooks is about a Canadian teenage girl who is trying to cope with a myriad of issues. One of Odella's parents struggles with alcoholism and abandons the family. Odella, the oldest of her siblings, tries to maintain order for the rest of her household while also dealing with the typical trials of the teenage years.

While I did enjoy certain aspects of the story, particularly the discussions on the characters' Icelandic heritage, I'm afraid this book suffers from what I call `everything AND the kitchen sink' syndrome. With themes of guilt, identity, alcoholism, abandonment, and homosexuality -- just to name a few, this book just had too much going on with the story in order for it not to feel a bit contrived. I just really believe that young adult novels, particularly short ones, are more effective when they deal with only one or two major issues. That is probably just a personal preference, though. Your mileage may vary.

Read It
I really liked Mistik Lake. I liked the character Odella a lot and could feel for her. There was A LOT going but it all meshed together well. I would recomend Mistik Lake to anyone.

Good, but keep a bottle of Prozac handy
Reading "Mistik Lake" is like watching "Requiem for a Dream" on a day when you're really happy- You feel like crap for the after-approaching day. Not that Requiem for a Dream is necessarily a bad movie, in fact I like it a lot, but you only view it once. And the same thing can be applied for "Mistik Lake". Geez, talk about depressing. But then again, not everything can be happy-go-lucky, Disney entertainment, right? I mean after all, the world has problems going on, so after all, not everything is gonna be happy.

Mistik Lake is well written, but to an extent. I must say that I read it rather fast, since it's only 200+ pages. It did have an interesting style of writing and the events that come do get told in an interesting way. However, like I said, this book is a HUGE downer, and I would not be surprised if Prozac sales boosted after a classroom read it.

Sally is a woman who once was a happy woman, until one fateful winter night when she and a bunch of drunk friends went out for a little Sunday drive, and ended up on the ice of Mistik Lake. The car fell through the ice, and only one person survived: her. Now, ever since that fateful night, her life has been haunted. She constantly walks around, in a depressed stupor. People, including her own family, can't look at her the same anymore. Her daughters are not even feeling safe around her.

However, one night, she meets an Icelandic filmmaker, whom she starts having an affair with. She falls in love with him, keeping it secret from her down-in-the-dumps husband. Not ever telling her husband about the affair, she leaves him and flees to Iceland with this secret lover. However, an unfortunate incident occurs- she dies. The family back at home hears this, and is completely devastated. For the rest of the book, we focus on the family trying to get through the tough times and fully come to reasoning as a family.

I must say that while I enjoyed the book and thought it was very well written, I will say that I did not feel the desire to read it again. It is indeed very depressing and devastating. I have read three YRCA books so far- Mistik Lake, Deadline, and Twisted- I'd have to say that Mistik Lake would be my least favorite thus far. It's really good but you, the reader, at some times begin to wonder why you're even reading it. I felt the same way, and really, in that mindset, it is a chore to read.

Overall, like I stated, I enjoyed the book, but that's unfortunately where it stops. I do have a plan to read all the YRCA books this year, and so I had to read it some time!