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Reviewed by:
  • A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty
  • Karen Coats
Moriarty, Jaclyn . A Corner of White. Levine/Scholastic, 2013. [384p]. (The Colors of Madeleine) Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-545-39736-0 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-545-51021-9 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 7-10.

In this genre-blending feat of stylistic energy, Moriarty moves between two palpably distinct worlds: the modern day environs of Cambridge, England, and the eccentric kingdom of Cello, where the citizens are menaced by colors that attack from the sky and cause severe physical and mental injury. Fourteen-year-old Madeleine lives in Cambridge, having moved there when she and her mother ran away from their obscenely wealthy but unhappy lifestyle to adopt a considerably poorer but not all that happier one; now Madeleine has decided it is time to contact her father to come rescue them, especially since it seems that her mother may be seriously ill. Fifteen-year-old Elliot lives in Cello, and he, too, is in search of his father, who may have been carried off by the nasty Purple that killed his uncle, or who may have just run off with a schoolteacher. When Madeleine finds a mysterious message on a slip of paper tucked in the base of a parking meter, she responds, and she and Elliot develop a correspondence across worlds. The large and small pieces of their lives intermingle with surprising and beneficial effects, despite the fact that Madeleine doesn't quite believe in Cello, and Elliot could be sentenced to death for not reporting the gap between the worlds. The plotting is as innovative and [End Page 430] riveting as the world-making here, and the characters are drawn with the same rich dimensionality you find in Pratchett's Discworld or one of Diana Wynne Jones's fantasies. Moriarty's wordsmithery likewise compares favorably with those two masters, delighting and surprising readers with quirky turns of phrase, evocative, synesthetic metaphors, and swift, effective shifts in register. Give this to readers who, like Madeleine, aren't quite sure of their commitment to secondary worlds but like to spice their realities with a little fantasy nonetheless, as well as to those who love secondary worlds with a healthy helping of reality on the side.

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