Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2009
208 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Remy Walker has it all: he found the love of his life at home in crumbling little Dwyer, West Virginia, deep in his beloved Appalachian Mountains where his family settled more than one hundred and sixty years ago. But at seventeen, you’re not supposed to already be where you want to be, right? You’ve got a whole world to make your way through, and you start by leaving your dead-end town. Like his girlfriend, Lisa. Lisa’s going away to college. If Remy goes with her, it would be the start of everything they ever dreamed of. So when a fascinating young artist from out of state shows Remy his home through new eyes, why is he suddenly questioning his future?
The author vividly depicts a rich and beautiful place in this powerful novel about a young man who, over the course of a summer, learns how much he has to give up for a girl, and how much he needs to give up for a mountain.
"Readers will identify with Remy and his feeling of being torn between a comfortable past and uncertain future." - Booklist
"Starred Review. Wyatt’s prose is tautly evocative throughout; her plot is a welcome departure from the stale conventions of the hero’s journey. Ages 12+." - Kirkus Reviews
"Wyatt creates a vivid sense of place where nobody has much, but the land is an organic and awesome presence in the lives of people with ties to it. Grades 9+" - School Library Journal
"A great look at reasons to leave home versus reasons to stay (without involving any abuse, death or depression) and also has an environmental angle involving mountain top removal ... Very well done." - ChasingRay.com
This information about Funny How Things Change 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.
Melissa Wyatt fell in love with the landscape of Appalachia on trips "home" with her husband, whose family is from West Virginia. Wyatt lives with her husband and two sons in York, Pennsylvania, where she was born and raised.
Visit Melissa at http://www.melissawyatt.com/
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