THE FORESHADOWING

Long before WWI changes the world of privilege she inhabits, Sasha’s family tries to deny her ability to see death coming. Since her father is a doctor, Sasha persuades him that she can help in the hospital wards, but several experiences of knowing that a patient is not going to make it convince her that her power is real. Neither father, mother nor brothers want this to be true, and denial pervades the house as both brothers make their individual choices about participating in the war. The work feels long, but is actually full of white space, and reads quickly. Sedgwick uses grammar and word choice that convey a time past, yet the first-person narration carries an immediacy as readers see Sasha attempting to prevent that which she has foreseen, to a final devastating conclusion. References to Cassandra, who knew what would befall Troy, help to make the awfulness of knowing the future less personal and more mythic. Fighting against what Sasha knows to be destiny creates a plot that explores fate and manages to combine surprise and inevitability in equal measure. Brilliant. (Fiction. YA)