A review by napkins
Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee
3.0
A truly solid 3.5, and while it was a quick read, I loved every minute of it.
The book, much like the entire Bay Area, can be split into two parts: before the quake and after the quake. However, it's a testament of storytelling that the first half is plausibly able to go in a different direction and on its own rails. Until that April morning when everything changes.
Mercy is a wonderful lens into 1906 San Francisco, and while we do dip into a rather tropey girl's boarding school narrative for a bit, the rest of the girls at the school are full characters themselves. As I said, it very easily could have just been a boarding school book and I still would have read it for Mercy.
However, it's April 1906, and this is San Francisco. Now, I'm San Franciscan, born and bred: I grew up with this history, hearing it, reading it, thinking constantly on what I and my friends and family would do if history repeated. The 1989 Loma Prieta quake is not a distant memory. My high school lay directly on top of a fault line. And yet, you never truly know what will happen or what you'll do. But it's encouraging to read of stories of borders being breached and communities coming together in the face of tragedy and to be reminded that we all have to have courage and stay true to ourselves. The post-quake section of the book never feels cheap in its actions or emotions; I'm not sure I would have loved it quite as much if it hadn't been set in my stomping grounds, but I would hope that a reader who didn't grow up steeped in it could still appreciate the melding of cultures and communities in San Francisco (and the distinct separations) and how much the earthquake changed things.
The book, much like the entire Bay Area, can be split into two parts: before the quake and after the quake. However, it's a testament of storytelling that the first half is plausibly able to go in a different direction and on its own rails. Until that April morning when everything changes.
Mercy is a wonderful lens into 1906 San Francisco, and while we do dip into a rather tropey girl's boarding school narrative for a bit, the rest of the girls at the school are full characters themselves. As I said, it very easily could have just been a boarding school book and I still would have read it for Mercy.
However, it's April 1906, and this is San Francisco. Now, I'm San Franciscan, born and bred: I grew up with this history, hearing it, reading it, thinking constantly on what I and my friends and family would do if history repeated. The 1989 Loma Prieta quake is not a distant memory. My high school lay directly on top of a fault line. And yet, you never truly know what will happen or what you'll do. But it's encouraging to read of stories of borders being breached and communities coming together in the face of tragedy and to be reminded that we all have to have courage and stay true to ourselves. The post-quake section of the book never feels cheap in its actions or emotions; I'm not sure I would have loved it quite as much if it hadn't been set in my stomping grounds, but I would hope that a reader who didn't grow up steeped in it could still appreciate the melding of cultures and communities in San Francisco (and the distinct separations) and how much the earthquake changed things.