The Missing Piece of Charlie O’Reilly by Rebecca K. S. Ansari (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- The Missing Piece of Charlie O’Reilly by Rebecca K. S. Ansari
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-267966-6 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-267968-0 $7.99
Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8
On his twelfth birthday, Charlie wishes desperately for his little brother Liam back. Liam vanished a year ago, and only Charlie seems to remember Liam ever existed; he’s also troubled by strangely vivid dreams of being part of a family emigrating from Ireland in the 1800s. Only Ana, Charlie’s best friend, seems to believe him about Liam, and the two of them attempt together to figure out what happened. A mysterious note soon points the duo in the direction of their baseball coach Jonathan, who tells them of an asylum full of children erased from their lives by their regrets, and Charlie is determined to investigate what may be the answer to Liam’s disappearance. Ansari’s layered mystery is as supernaturally intriguing as it is realistically unsettling, as depression and loss seem to haunt Charlie and his family. A happy ending, although neater than the otherwise smartly but heartbreakingly messy story suggests, is well earned by each character’s acceptance that life, love, and family are necessarily complicated and will always be.
