Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2024
304 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Magical realism meets Southern Gothic in this commanding young adult debut from Ciera Burch about true love, the meaning of home, and the choices that haunt us.
Welcome to Coldwater. Come for the ghosts, stay for the drama.
Jericka Walker had planned to spend the summer before senior year soaking up the sun with her best friend on the Jersey Shore. Instead she finds herself in Coldwater, Maryland, a small town with a dark and complicated past where her estranged grandmother lives—someone she knows only two things about: her name and the fact that she left Jericka's mother and uncle when they were children. But now Jericka's grandmother is dying, and her mother has dragged Jericka along to say goodbye.
As Jericka attempts to form a connection with a woman she's never known, and adjusts to life in a town where everything closes before dinner, she meets "ghost girl" Kat, a girl eager to leave Coldwater and more exciting than a person has any right to be. But Coldwater has a few unsettling secrets of its own. The more you try to leave, the stronger the town's hold. As Jericka feels the chilling pull of her family's past, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead.
"Burch lovingly explores forgiveness and memory in this novel centering Black characters that has something―from paranormal discovery to queer romance in a small town―for everyone. A moving story about home with a supernatural twist, exploring what happens to those who leave and the ones left behind." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Black, bisexual Jericka is an appealing and empathetic character, and her flirtatious romance with Kat builds naturally. In an otherwise realistic tale, Burch insightfully uses the echoes to highlight how trauma must be seen and acknowledged to begin healing." ―Booklist
"A double exposure of heartbreaking beauty and electric prose, Something Kindred tenderly beckons you to a town haunted by memories and asks you to stay awhile." ―Jas Hammonds, award-winning author of We Deserve Monuments
This information about Something Kindred was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ciera Burch is a lifelong writer and ice cream aficionado. She has a B.A from American University and an MFA from Emerson College. Her fiction has appeared in American Literary Magazine, Underground, the art and literary journal of Georgia State University, Stork, and Blackbird. While she is originally from New Jersey, she currently resides in Washington, D.C. with her stuffed animals and far too many books.
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