The Careful Undressing of Love

October 31, 2016
Lorna’s Brooklyn street is great—everyone looks out for each other, especially in hard times. But it’s also cursed: when a woman on Devonairre Street loves a man, he dies young. Lorna and her friends only half believe in this curse, even though all of their mothers are widows, but when Lorna’s best friend Delilah’s boyfriend is killed, they can’t make light of it any longer. Haydu (Making Pretty) sets this story in a slightly counterfactual version of New York City, with Times Square as Ground Zero and a lingering focus on memorializing the victims and their families, rather than a retaliatory war. Lorna’s father died in “the Bombing,” as did the father of her friend and neighbor Cruz. She was 11, he was 12, and now—nearly seven years later—their friendship is starting to feel like love. There is a lot of dramatic potential, but it never fully pays off. Is the curse real? Can it be averted? By what sacrifices? Haydu offers no answers or resolution, and after a long buildup, the ending is both sudden and unsatisfying. Ages 14–up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Literary.

November 1, 2016
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)

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November 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-Lorna Ryder is a Devonairre Girl, identifiable by her long hair and the keys she wears around her neck. It's 2008, and she and her mother live in Brooklyn, on Devonairre Street, which has supposedly been cursed ever since World War II, when none of the street's men returned home. Women living on Devonairre are warned from childhood that loving a man or boy will doom him to an early death, and this seems to have come true for Lorna's mother as well as for the other Devonairre women who lost husbands in The Bombings, anonymous terrorist strikes on New York City much like those on 9/11. The accidental death of Jack, the boyfriend of one of the Devonairre Girls, seems only to prove the curse's validity. The young women are told that they must perform certain rituals and behave in certain ways (thus the long hair, the keys, and more) in order to mitigate the curse's effects. But as Lorna and her mother both fall in love, they begin to question whether the curse is real, and they dare to defy the expectations of how they should behave. This is an often lyrical reflection on love, sexuality, death, mourning, and how human beings attempt to rationalize and control tragic events. The elements of magical realism and the beautifully detailed descriptions of an alternate version of New York City make this a standout. VERDICT This complex novel would be a good choice for a book discussion group or for those looking for a substantive, poetic YA read.-Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2016
Grades 9-12 Haydu's reimagined 2008 New York City houses Brooklyn's Devonairre Street and the urban legend that women living on this street, especially girls, will bring death to any male they love. When Times Square was destroyed in a bombing seven years ago, narrator Lorna lost her beloved father; since then, she and best friends Delilah, Charlotte, Isla, and Cruz have shared rituals (wearing necklaces of keys, not cutting their hair, drinking lavender tea) in an effort to overcome the curse. It's an eerie world where magic runs headlong into reality, as the girls both court and flee the rituals that have sustained them. Death is constant throughout, both in the girls' histories and present-day events, inspiring Lorna's mother to cut ties to Devonairre Street. The title is taken from Carol Ann Duffy's poem Valentine, and beautifully foreshadows the delicate revealing of Lorna's secrets. Both straightforward and lyrical, this is a compelling read and a decidedly ambiguous portrayal of love that will resonate with those tired of formulaic romances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2017
In Haydu's alternate 2008, 9/11 never happened, but a deadly Bombing in Times Square did. Throughout Brooklyn, the Bombing deaths of men from Devonairre Street are considered validation of a rumored Curse: any boy loved by a Devonairre Street Girl will die. The current generation of Devonairre Street Girls, narrator Lorna and her friends Delilah, Isla, and Charlotte, alternately revel in their spooky reputation and resent the street's restrictive rules and traditions. Then Delilah's boyfriend Jack does die, another Bombing is perpetrated, andunder the sway of street matriarch AngelikaDelilah and their neighbors become even more insular and superstitious, convinced beyond doubt that the Curse is real. Lorna and her mother are the lone holdouts against this cultish mentality, causing a profound rift on the street. During one hopeless night, the Devonairre Street Girls make a suicide pactand one girl actually follows through. Along with Lorna's question of how and when it's right to heal from tragedy, Haydu (OCD Love Story, rev. 9/13; Life by Committee, rev. 7/14) explores such themes as differing expressions of grief, destiny versus free will, the unexamined expectation that a girl will love a boy, and the interrelation (or lack thereof) between sex and love. The slight magical realism and parallel-world setting add to this wrenching novel's lyricismand make the pain somewhat easier to bear. katie bircher

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)