Unwritten by Tara Gilboy (review)

Stories are real for twelve-year-old Gracie, quite literally: she and her mother are both characters from a book, and, when Gracie was a baby, they managed to escape their fictional realm of Bondoff for the outside world, avoiding Gracie's foretold death in the story. Gracie's never stopped wondering about the book, and when she tracks down the author, Gertrude Winters, to get some answers (mainly, how and why did Gracie die), she ends up being drawn back into Bondoff (along with Gertrude, Gracie's mother, and their neighbors). There she learns that she's actually alive and quite well in the story—she's a princess, in fact—but her role in the tale is far different from what she imagined. Tension builds as Gracie first tries to figure out who she is in Bondoff and then how to escape both the place and her fate there. However, the true emotional impact comes from Gertrude and her confessions of the heartbreaking reality behind her choices for her characters and Gracie's fate. Gracie's desperation to get her mother and herself back to the outside world amps up the action, and Gilboy carefully balances tension with thoughtfulness, creating an intriguing tale that explores our desire to be the heroes of our own stories. KQG