THE CAREFUL UNDRESSING OF LOVE

Smelling of lavender tea and sporting long hair and skeleton keys around their necks, the Devonairre Street Girls have grown accustomed to the stares and whispers that follow them through the streets of New York.

It’s not surprising. After all, Lorna, Charlotte, Delilah, Cruz, and Isla are beautiful and different—and cursed, for legend holds that any boy who is loved by a Devonairre Street Girl will die. But it isn’t until Delilah’s boyfriend is suddenly killed that the curse becomes real for the girls, and for the first time, the inseparable friends must decide for themselves if they will allow it to determine their futures. Told through quiet Lorna’s eyes, the lushly written first-person narrative is sensuous and rich, perfectly capturing the conflicting feelings of joy and fear that often accompany true love and meticulously laying out the peculiar terms of life on Devonairre Street. Haydu further enriches the novel with a diverse cast of compelling secondary characters, including Delilah, Lorna’s African-American best friend, and their Puerto Rican friends Isla and Cruz (Charlotte is also white). However, it’s the subtle yet powerful way that the novel addresses Lorna’s struggle to find herself when others have defined her for so long that will especially appeal to teen readers grappling with their own issues of identity.

A carefully layered exploration of the age-old question, “Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?” (Fiction. 14 & up)