Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Here Lies Linc by Delia Ray - OPTIONAL


Ray, Delia Here Lies Linc, 294 pages. Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. $16.99. Language: G; Mature Content: PG; Violence: G.  Lincoln Crenshaw has spent all of his life hanging around cemeteries. His mom’s work as a professor who specializes in burial customs has taken them to more graveyards than Linc can count. When an assignment in American Studies has Linc and his classmates “adopting graves”, Linc will find his choice of the Black Angel monument revealing more than he intended. Linc’s decision to investigate the infamous Black Angel Curse will lead to him uncovering mysteries long forgotten and changing the lives of those he cares for most.  The book is presented as a mystery, but spends little if any time exploring the secrets of the cemetery and its graves. Linc is a typical young boy with the typical anxieties of middle school regarding girls and fitting in. The book spends the majority of its pages setting up numerous plots that are resolved at lightning speed in a dissatisfying blur. The dialogue at times feels forced and the behavior of the character more the work of a middle-aged author trying to remember what it is to be a teenager rather than the true words and actions of a 12-year-old boy.  EL , MS—OPTIONAL. Reviewer: AB

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