Wild Awake

April 22, 2013
Kiri Byrd’s plan for the six weeks her parents are away involves practicing for the upcoming International Young Pianists’ Showcase, practicing some more, and then practicing with Lukas, her bandmate and crush, for their Battle of the Bands gig. She isn’t worried about being home alone: she’s 17, she’s responsible, and she’s got a schedule. But when someone calls to ask if Kiri will come pick up her dead sister’s belongings, things change in unexpected ways. Kiri’s life picks up speed and gets frighteningly close to flying out of control as she bikes to the rough side of Vancouver; meets Skunk, a musician and bicycle repairer; and finds out exactly how her sister, a troubled artist, died. In her YA debut, Smith (Welcome to the Jungle) handles Kiri’s grief and joy well, then takes these emotions and amps them up. When people around Kiri—including Skunk, who has his own mental health problems—and Kiri herself begin to think that she “might be having a Thing,” it’s believable, worrying, and relatable. Ages 14–up. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

May 1, 2013
Seventeen-year-old rocker and classically trained pianist Kiri is looking forward to practicing her art over the summer. These plans go awry when she receives a mysterious call to pick up some of her long-deceased older sister's belongings in a bad part of town: everything Kiri thought she knew about Sukey's life, her death, and their family begins to unravel. Kiri forms relationships with Sukey's troubled neighbor and with a boy named Skunk that change the way she sees the world -- and herself. At first it seems that Kiri is simply coming into her own, gaining wisdom, and accepting life's unpredictability, but soon it becomes clear that Kiri is also losing control. As her narration grows more frantic and less lucid, readers will suspect that there is more going on than just spiritual awakening. Aligned with this regression is her developing romance with Skunk, whose mental health is also questionable. Despite Skunk's paranoia and Kiri's apparent mania, however, what is never in question -- thanks to convincing dialogue and moving characterizations -- is the authenticity of their love for each other. Most fascinating in this stirring coming-of-age novel are the blurred lines between perception and reality, genius and madness, peace and turmoil. Debut author Smith embraces the complexities of grief, family dynamics, creativity, mental illness, and love and pens them with a thoughtful, subtle hand. katrina hedeen

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