Format: E-Galley, 336 pages
Release Date: July 9, 2019
Publisher: Tor Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: YA / Thrillers & Suspense
A dark, romantic YA suspense novel with an SF edge and plenty of drama, layering the secrets we keep and how appearances can deceive, from the New York Times bestselling author
In this tiny, terrifying town, the lost are never found.
When Araceli Flores Harper is sent to live with her great-aunt Ottilie in her ramshackle Victorian home, the plan is simple. She'll buckle down and get ready for college. Life won't be exciting, but she'll cope, right?
Wrong. From the start, things are very, very wrong. Her great-aunt still leaves food for the husband who went missing twenty years ago, and local businesses are plastered with MISSING posters. There are unexplained lights in the woods and a mysterious lab just beyond the city limits that the locals don't talk about. Ever. When she starts receiving mysterious letters that seem to be coming from the past, she suspects someone of pranking her or trying to drive her out of her mind.
To solve these riddles and bring the lost home again, Araceli must delve into a truly diabolical conspiracy, but some secrets fight to stay buried...
Ann Aguirre's Heartwood Box is a cross between fantasy, and science fiction, and speculation. Thanks to her parents spending time in Venezuela covering a story, because why not? Araceli Flores Harper is sent to her great-Aunt Ottilie's home on Long Island to spend the summer before she attends her final year of High School. Ottilie's husband disappeared 20 years ago. She still lives in the run down Victorian home she's always lived in. But, that's not the real story.
Upon arrival, Araceli sees dozens of missing persons posters. It seems that people have disappeared and are never heard from again. In fact, it's gotten really bad with 11 disappearances in 10 months. Araceli is warned to stay away from the lights in the woods but nobody has any idea what they are. She is told there is a top secret government research facility known as Fairhaven Labs.What do they really do at said lab, and are they to blame for what is happening?
Araceli becomes part of a group which includes Kimala, Tamsyn, Jackson, Derek, and Logan. Araceli has spent a lot of time in various countries, including Mexico. She speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Mandarin. She is also supposed to be a decent dancer and tries out for the dance team. But, according to Araceli, she is worried that white folks with pitch forks and white hoods will suddenly show up to kidnap her. In New York.
She's scared that ICE will take her away to some secretive location where she will disappear without a trace. She claims the town is more dangerous than the entire country of Venezuela which is tearing itself a part at the seems! She's apparently never been to Venezuela, and I'm pretty sure neither has the author or she wouldn't have made such an ugly and unfounded claim. The
town where the story takes place was founded by German immigrants. If
you know where I am going with this fact, you'd be correct. Therefore,
the author tells you about the towns history without naming it.
Anyway! Araceli stumbles her way across a mystery box. The aforementioned heartwood box. In the box there is a letter from someone named Lucy to Oliver. This letter was dated 1918. After putting her homework in said box, it disappears. This sets off an interesting two way communication across time between Aracelli and Oliver who is a GI sent to fight the Germans in World War I. The next curiosity is discovered when Aracelli learns her Tia is leaving food for her husband and that food is always gone the next morning. Weird, right?
I think it was curious the connection between Oliver and Logan. While Oliver is pretty much catching Araceli's heart strings, and she's falling hard for the him, Logan is disappearing right before our eyes into the background. What's humorous is the author mentions the movie Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. In the movie, they each leave letters in the mailbox. So, twist it just a bit and Araceli and Oliver leave their letters in the mysterious Heartwood Box instead.
Honestly, this part was the best part of the story for me. You can tell that Araceli was falling for Oliver, and vice versa. When she falls asleep, she is able to see who Oliver is, and what he is doing. He thinks she's an angel, or a bruja. She's just a girl whose family is off gallivanting across the world trying to find the next story while she tries to decide her future. There are certain elements of the Butterfly affect in this book. How can there not be? After all, once you start messing with actual time and history, things must change as well.
There
have been some wrong claims about where this story is told. Trust me,
it's on Long Island, not Upstate New York. I lived in New York for most of my life, except the last 20 in Florida, and the 4 years spent in the military. It is also true that the town was
where the Army had a training camp for soldiers from New York City. If
you love history like I do, look up the Lost Battalion, 77th Division
which was exclusively New York City poor men.
That sounds like an interesting read. I'll admit I was curious about it before, but also hesitant and my hesitancy still kind of remains. It sounds more like a romance novel with a hint of mystery. Not sure it's for me. Glad you seemed to enjoy it despite a few geographical type errors. Nice review!
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