An incredible slice of life. I love the gritty realism of the setting and characters, and the authentically childlike fantasies and rationale of Jeliza-Rose. The whole story takes place after she has already arrived in What Rocks, and presumably ends when she leaves with the nice woman from the train accident. I would almost call this one of my favourite books, but there are some things I would change if I could.

While I love how we get inside Jeliza-Rose's head and become a young child again, the writing vocabulary took me out of the fantasy at first. Her speaking vocabulary is spot on, just as a kid her age would speak, and although the internal dialog in spirit is also spot on, the words and phrases themselves are far beyond what it should be. If this is a reflection on her childhood as an adult, that would make sense, but that is never indicated.
My second issue is the ending. It's so abrupt, and we never know what happens to her Captain, or what might be waiting for Jeliza-Rose after she leaves What Rocks. Granted many events in real life are like this, we often lose people and have no idea what happens to them after we have moved on from them. Still, I wish there had been some hints. It left me wanting more! ( )

What in the blazes did I just read? I have no idea how to describe it...or what to say about it. It was well written, but bizarre. Thanks bookclub! ( )

This is a dark but well written book featuring a very memorable character and voice. Jeliza-Rose is a young girl living in a run-down house on the Texas plains and adrift, mostly, in her own imagination. That imagination includes, for example, her friendships with several severed Barbie doll heads. The supporting characters are quirky, to put it mildly, and in a way that perfectly supports Jeliza-Rose's expectations of life. The writing, here, is hypnotic and compelling. This novel is essentially a reverie on the lengths a young mind may go to to escape from misery and sadness. I know there's a movie of this book, but I won't be seeing it, as I doubt it could do justice to this fine work. ( )