A Crack in the Line (Withern Rise) [Hardcover]

Michael Lawrence (Author)

Book Description

Series: Withern Rise | Publication Date: July 27, 2004

The mystery has begun

Alaric

It's been two years since his mother died in a terrible train crash, and Alaric's life continues to unravel. He and his father are barely on speaking terms, and Withern Rise, their Victorian mansion, is in shambles. Trapped at home during a blizzard, Alaric stumbles into a parallel world; a reality in which his mother is still alive. There's only one problem ... someone else is living his life.

Naia

Naia tries not to dwell on the horrible accident two years ago that nearly took her mother away. Now that life with her parents in Withern Rise has returned to normal, Naia thinks the worst is behind her. But during a freak snowstorm she's confronted by a stranger. Why does this boy look like her? Why does he have the same thoughts? The same memories? Who is he?

Alaric's and Naia's discovery of each other sets off an electrifying chain of events. And as their lives - and lifelines - entwine, the two teenagers uncover a truth with the power to rearrange, or even erase, their very existence.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10–Alaric and Naia, both 16, have nearly identical lives in parallel worlds. Their parents, their house, and their circumstances are the same, with one major difference. Alaric's mother was killed in a train wreck, while Naia's mother survived. This story of alternate realities raises questions about how one's life might be changed forever by a certain turn of events. Alaric's home is dreary, dirty, and joyless and he misses his mother terribly. Naia lives in a world of light and privilege, with a clean, nicely furnished house and two loving parents. Through an association with a tree in the garden of their mutual home, the two teenagers travel back and forth from one world to the other. Working together, they try to make sense of what has happened to them and why. This is a very engaging tale at the outset. Lawrence vividly describes the same house under radically different circumstances and it becomes the focal point of the story. The dialogue contains some British slang and humor but is not difficult to follow. Ultimately Alaric and Naia trade places irreversibly, so that it is now Naia who is motherless. Readers may be left wondering what all this means, but will need to wait for the next volume in the series for a possible explanation.–Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 8-12. On the second anniversary of his mother's death, Alaric Underwood still grieves, but by placing his hands on his mother's small, beautiful handcrafted replica of their home, he can transport himself to the alternate reality his mother now inhabits, where he meets Naia, a girl who could be his twin. As similar as the teens' worlds are, chance has forced change. Naia's house is warm, orderly, and cared for; Alaric's is cold, chaotic, and unkempt. Alaric has a batty Aunt Liney who is missing from Naia's life, and he works an M. C. Escher jigsaw puzzle, one of the author's references to the artist's work, which includes chapter numbering that both descends and climbs. The first in a trilogy, this complex story of choices, fate, and acceptance is demanding. Teens will want to reread it to piece together the clues and connections. Sequels will likely clear up some of the mysteries, such as that of the teens' ancestor Aldous, but rich sensory details and acerbic secondary characters bring the multiplying realities to life in spite of the unsolved puzzles. Give this to older readers who enjoyed Jane Yolen's The Wild Hunt (1995) or Neil Gaiman's Coraline (2002); the book's conclusion, with its shocking metamorphosis,^B is sure to spark passionate discussion. Cindy Dobrez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (July 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060724773
• ISBN-13: 978-0060724771
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #796,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Since his first novel came out in 1995, Michael Lawrence has published over forty books for children and young adults, plus a personal memoir, Milking the Novelty, which covers a year in his life as a young photographer in London, Paris, and at a holiday camp in Wales.

His fiction includes The Aldous Lexicon, a trilogy about chance and reality (published as The Withern Rise Trilogy in the US), which he has issued as Kindle ebooks. He has also re-edited the three volumes into one extensive ebook (equivalent to around 700 printed pages) under the title The Realities of Aldous U, a trailer for which can be viewed on YouTube.

Several of Michael's books have won awards or been shortlisted for awards in England and America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A suspenseful and engaging tale about alternate realities, September 17, 2004

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Crack in the Line (Withern Rise) (Hardcover)

Alaric is a sixteen-year-old boy who lives with his father in a crumbling old Victorian mansion that has been in his family for years. His mother died two years earlier in a horrific train crash, and his life has been going downhill since then. One snowy day, while alone, Alaric becomes reacquainted with the mansion he knows as his home. Once in a room that he has not sat in forever, he reaches for a familiar object. In a spilt second he is met with searing pain and the walls around him seem to come down. He opens his eyes to find himself lying in what appears to be the room he was just in, only it is cleaner and there is an unfamiliar girl standing before him.

Sixteen-year-old Naia and her parents live in a mansion that was named Withern Rise by one of her ancestors. Naia's mother faced a near-death experience two years ago, but Naia has tried her best to forget about it. It is certainly the farthest thought from her mind one snowy day when she finds a strange boy sitting on her living room floor. She can't figure out why he is there, why he is claiming it is really his house, or why he looks almost identical to her.

Can it be that two different realities exist at the same time --- one where Alaric lives with his father in Withern Rise and another where Naia is the only child to Alaric's father and the mother he lost two years ago? Alaric and Naia's discovery of each other brings about many startling events and realizations. Will Alaric and Naia be able to use each other to find out the truth about their own lives?

Michael Lawrence has written a suspenseful and engaging tale of two teenagers living the same life. There is even an alternate ending that gives another outlook to the story's conclusion, along with a surprising twist. This gripping novel --- which is the first volume of a trilogy --- cannot be put down until the very end.

--- Reviewed by Sara Cole

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, thought provoking, February 22, 2008

By 

Haley "knutty knightingale" (West of the Horizon) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Crack in the Line (Withern Rise) (Paperback)

"At sixteen, Alaric and Naia were as alike as any two people of opposite sexes can be...They shared a history, a lineage, memories, and had lived all their lives in the same house, Withern Rise, where they had occupied the same room, done the same things, more often than not had the same thoughts at the very same instant. And yet...

They had never met."


Interesting way to start a novel, isn't it?

Alaric and Naia are closer than siblings, closer than twins. They are alternate versions of the same person, living in alternate dimensions, and when their lives are suddenly and inexplicably brought together by a carved model known as Lexie's Folly, they are forced to rethink everything they know about the universe, everything they know about their families, and everything they know about themselves.

Alaric's mother, Alex Underwood, was involved in a terrible train crash when he was fourteen. She had a fifty-fifty chance of dying. She died.

Naia's mother, Alex Underwood, was also involved in a train crash when she was fourteen. This Alex also had a fifty-fifty chance of dying. She lived.

Because of this difference, Alaric and Naia's temperaments are drastically different. Naia is joking and carefree, much like her mother, while Alaric is sullen and withdrawn, living an almost speechless life with his father in their old, drafty house. The only spark of light is his aunt Liney, who comes as a sort of babysitter while his father is away, and Alaric rejects her as well, still bitter over his mother's death.

This book, by itself, feels incomplete. It is. The story is so connected with the sequels, SMALL ETERNITIES and THE UNDERWOOD SEE that they are inseparable; but together, they form a thought-provoking, intricate, and ultimately tragic story about choices and unalterable consequences - even in a world where choices and actions can be relived, over and over again.

Rating: Masterpiece

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFULL!, August 30, 2004

By 

K. Kantola "Gamer/reader/sleeper!" (MASSACHUSETTS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Crack in the Line (Withern Rise) (Hardcover)

Good ol' Mike L. did a GREAT job on this book. It's written wonderfully. I only have two complaints:
1. I had planned on having a book to read for a while. This one got me so involved I finished it in three days! *laughs*
2. At the end there is an 'alternative ending'. Does this mean he isn't sure which one he is going to use? Or did he put the other one in just to show us what the other one is? *confused???*

Wonderful job! I loved it!It was a fun read!
-KK