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Loading... Larkby Tracey Porter
  
None No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) sarahlh | Mar 6, 2021 |   ) CarpeLibrum58 | Jan 17, 2016 |  ) Sullywriter | May 22, 2015 | Part of the fast read is that the characters are engaging. The three points of view made everything even sadder by how close they were to what was happening. There is very little in the way of extras. We learn about Lark's relationships with Eve and Nyetta, what they were like together, what drove them apart and ultimately how they really felt about each other. Nyetta's perspective was especially moving because she is younger and struggling with something that the adults in her life can't even begin to comprehend. Listening to Lark relive her death and her relentless efforts to get Nyetta to help her move on was heartbreaking. The idea Porter builds around what happens to girls who die in the woods was really interesting. I don't want to say more for fear of giving away too much, but this is definitely worth a read. ( ) AngelaFristoe | Aug 1, 2012 | I’m starting this review not really knowing what to say. I’m so infrequently rendered speechless, and, yet, LARK by Tracey Porter blew me away to the point that I’m not really sure what I can say about it other than this: Wow. I’m thinking that I could tell you it’s the story of a girl, but it’s not…not quite. It’s the story of three girls: One who died, and two who survived. When Lark was murdered she left behind friends and family. But perhaps it was the girl she used to babysit, Nyanna, and her ex-best-friend, Eve, who are most touched by her absence. 12-year-old Nyanna is visited nightly by Lark, speaks to her, scaring her mother who takes her to a therapist. Nyanna believes that Lark is turning into a tree, that her soul is being trapped there, that she will never escape without her help. Of course, this makes her crazy, right? But she knows she’s not. And Eve, whose falling out with Lark in middle school has already left her feeling a strong sense of loss, doesn’t know how to deal with the grief. She can’t even cry, even though all the girls at school seem to be freaking out. And of course there’s Lark, whose violent death has left her stuck between planes of reality. This book was blurbed by Francesca Lia Block, and Tracey Porter‘s writing is remeniscent of her work — fluid, lyrical, sparse, brilliant. I can’t recommend this book strongly enough. It’s haunting, beautiful, and leaves a mark. Still, I don’t think anything I have to say could possibly do right by LARK. I hope you’ll read it for yourself and find out why. ( ) EKAnderson | Dec 23, 2011 |
 April Spisak (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, June 2011 (Vol. 64, No. 10)) After a sixteen-year-old girl is kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and left in the woods, where she dies, a whole town in Virginia mourns. Eve and Nyetta, two girls who knew Lark better than most, are not ready for the counselors, teachers, and their peers to forget their friend and go back to talking about everyday things. Nyetta seems literally haunted by Lark, who begs her to just look at her ghostly wounds so that she can be acknowledged and set free, placing a huge weight on Nyetta, who is already burdened by the difficult divorce of her parents. Eve’s anguish is a bit less supernatural, though she also carries a great deal of guilt, wondering if she could have been a better friend. It is from Lark herself, who narrates a portion of the novel, that readers learn exactly what happened to her, and who she actually was in the world. That’s an intriguing idea, and Porter perceptively captures the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone. Eve’s own pain that made her feel rejected by Lark, Nyetta’s unconditional adoration, Lark’s harsh self-evaluation, and the clipped tones of newspaper articles all combine to simultaneously show and obscure Lark’s true self. Unfortunately, the ambiguity over the book’s magic realism (is this a book where tortured girls hallucinate and employ wishful thinking to find resolution, or a novel where ghosts and tree girls can be released through symbolic gestures?) is frustrating, leaving the book teetering between two very different meanings and overcomplicating the understanding of the two living protagonists. Nevertheless, readers may find compensation for the conceptual muddiness in the spare, lyrical writing and the shakily defiant girls who rail against tragedy even while it threatens to consume them. Review Code: Ad -- Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2011, Geringer/HarperTeen, 192p.; Reviewed from galleys, $15.99. Grades 9-12 Notable Lists
When sixteen-year-old Lark is murdered, she, her childhood best friend Eva, and a girl she used to babysit, Nyetta, find themselves facing hard truths about their lives and seeking a way to move on. No library descriptions found. |
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