Dark Water [Hardcover]

Laura McNeal (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 14, 2010

Fifteen-year-old Pearl DeWitt and her mother live in Fallbrook, California, where it’s sunny 340 days of the year, and where her uncle owns a grove of 900 avocado trees. Uncle Hoyt hires migrant workers regularly, but Pearl doesn’t pay much attention to them . . . until Amiel. From the moment she sees him, Pearl is drawn to this boy who keeps to himself, fears being caught by la migra, and is mysteriously unable to talk. And after coming across Amiel’s makeshift hut near Agua Prieta Creek, Pearl falls into a precarious friendship—and a forbidden romance.

Then the wildfires strike. Fallbrook—the town of marigolds and palms, blood oranges and sweet limes—is threatened by the Agua Prieta fire, and a mandatory evacuation order is issued. But Pearl knows that Amiel is in the direct path of the fire, with no one to warn him, no way to get out. Slipping away from safety and her family, Pearl moves toward the dark creek, where the smoke has become air, the air smoke.

Laura McNeal has crafted a beautiful and haunting novel full of peril, desperation, and love.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up–The catastrophic wildfires that ravaged Southern California in 2007 serve as the backdrop for this compelling story of a forbidden romance with tragic consequences. In the inland farming community of Fallbrook, 15-year-old Pearl tells her story through a leisurely voice. She deals with her parents' divorce; her cousin's anger at his father's suspected adultery; and, most significantly, her undeniable attraction to the alluring undocumented Mexican migrant worker Amiel, whose damaged vocal chords limit his speech but not his communication. Disaster is referred to throughout the narrative, filling readers with a sense of foreboding as Pearl's persistence overcomes Amiel's trepidation and the two draw together in an intense secret affair. All of this leads to a heart-pounding final act when the wildfire breaks out and Pearl must choose between family and romance, safety and uncertainty. The ramifications of the ill-fated decisions made by both Pearl and Amiel will surely spark strong discussion among readers. Both the plot and setting are grounded in rich, realistic detail; the author's love for the town of Fallbrook shines vividly through lyrical descriptions of avocado groves and orange blossoms. While Amiel remains a somewhat mysterious figure, Pearl's relationships with her family and friends are fully realized through her nostalgic recollections of simpler times. Drawn in by the appeal of clandestine love and looming disaster, teens will also be rewarded with much thought-provoking substance in this novel's complex characters and hauntingly ambiguous ending.Allison Tran, Mission Viejo Library, CA
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review

"This debut solo effort after several collaborations with husband Tom McNeal (The Decoding of Lana Morris, 2007, etc.) stands out in the crowded coming-of-age field. The affecting narrative springs believably from the first-person thoughts of Pearl DeWitt as she recalls her 15th summer, when, entranced by a nearly mute, illegal Mexican migrant worker, the beautiful and gifted teenage Amiel, Pearl makes choices that lead to tragedy. Evocative language electrifies the scenes between the pair, as they develop a relationship both complicated and deepened by their limited verbal communication. Her warnings to readers of impending disaster amplify rather than diminish the impact of the misguided, wrenching decisions she makes when a raging wildfire sweeps through their rural California community. Besides her poignant relationship with Amiel, Pearl navigates her father’s recent abandonment of her and her mother and her complicated relationship with her cousin Robby as he blunderingly deals with his father’s apparent infidelity. Notable for well-drawn characters, an engaging plot and, especially, hauntingly beautiful language, this is an outstanding book."
-Kirkus Reviews, starred review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (September 14, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375849734
• ISBN-13: 978-0375849732
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,034,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laura Rhoton McNeal grew up in a series of Air Force towns, including Clovis, New Mexico, Sumter, South Carolina, and West Point, Utah. In none of these places did she feel appropriately dressed. When her father, a pilot, was assigned to do air surveillance during the cold war, she lived briefly in Keflavik, Iceland, but she was a baby then and didn't have to worry so much about fashion.

After earning a master's degree in fiction writing from Syracuse University, she taught 8th, 9th, and 11th grade English in Salt Lake City, giving everyone way too much homework, for which she apologizes sincerely. She then married Tom McNeal, with whom she collaborated first on a picture book called The Dog Who Lost His Bob and then on four young adult novels published by Knopf. Her first solo novel, Dark Water, was published in 2010 and was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Tom and Laura live with their two boys in southern California, where they are now being punished for Laura's over-zealous teaching: hours and hours of homework every night.

Note: Photo copyright Jeff Lucia

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Like the back cover says, "Beautiful, haunting" September 6, 2010

By sanoe.net VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I picked up Laura McNeal's Dark Water because of the setting: Fallbrook, California.

Fallbrook was one of those magical places of my childhood. A place where my memories are faded yet still triggers feelings of happiness.

As such, I got the book and I'm pleased that I did so.

Pearl DeWitt is a 15 year old whose father has left her and her mother. Both of them are reeling in different ways. They've gone to live on her mother's brother's avocado ranch. It is clear that Pearl admires her Uncle Hoyt. He employs migrant workers to pick the avocado trees. From Pearl's description of him, the reader knows that her Uncle Hoyt is a good man.

Now 15 is a transition age and Pearl is right in the middle of that transition. Her best friend has become some guy's girlfriend while she's still being ignored by most boys. She has a normal relationship with her mother but given how her father exited their lives, it is under stress.

Into her life comes a boy who is different from her in ways that makes her push the boundaries that surround her.

Amiel is a migrant worker. He's not a big talker but he has a way about him. Enough that Hoyt picks him up to work.

Pearl becomes intrigued by him and eventually, they form a friendship.

It isn't hard to see where this is going. He's 17, she's 15. Both are in need of a friend and perhaps a little more.

In this day and age, one would think that a relationship between Pearl and Amiel would be a 'Romeo & Juliet' scenario but McNeal reminds the reader of why it is.

In fact, McNeal does so many things right with Pearl, her mother, Uncle Hoyt, Amiel and even the secondary characters of Robby, Agnes and Mary Beth. Even Pearl's father is given a balanced portrayal in that he's a selfish man but he's not an unrecognizable one. We've all known a person like Mr DeWitt.

Each character is given a care so that as the reader heads toward the climax of the novel, the impact hits as if the reader were part of the affected community.

Unlike Romeo and Juliet, the inevitable obstacle that will challenge them is not their families but a force of nature. And as we all know, nature can kick our butt any time she feels like it.

What happens in the aftermath is portrayed so simply yet so evocatively that it is as haunting to me as the ending of Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona.

Before anyone think that gives away the ending, it doesn't. Dark Water in many ways reminds me of the classic Ramona in its setting and struggle of young love, but make no mistake, Dark Water is its own story, done without extra fluff or melodrama. McNeal's prose is linear and clean with no extra padding.

An excellent novel. The kind of Young Adult novel that reminds me why I still read YA even though I'm long done with my YA years.

As the back cover rightfully notes, it is "a beautiful and haunting novel full of peril, desperation and love."

And I highly recommend it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Just keep in mind it's not a forbidden romance type of story as the book blurb implies March 16, 2011

By YA book lover

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I just don't get it, why is it necessary to sell every YA book as some romance story, regardless of its actual content?

Just take a look at "Dark Water's" publisher provided description: "Fifteen-year-old Pearl DeWitt and her mother live in Fallbrook, California... where her uncle owns a grove of 900 avocado trees. Uncle Hoyt hires migrant workers regularly, but Pearl doesn't pay much attention to them . . . until Amiel. From the moment she sees him, Pearl is drawn to this boy who keeps to himself, fears being caught by la migra, and is mysteriously unable to talk. And after coming across Amiel's makeshift hut near Agua Prieta Creek, Pearl falls into a precarious friendship-and a forbidden romance."

Seriously, doesn't it sound like another "Perfect Chemistry" white girl/brown boy, wrong-side-of-the-track type of story which "Dark Water" absolutely is not?

Instead, this is a beautifully written, quality literary YA fiction about one girl's confusing summer when she has to deal with many difficult things - her father's infidelity, her mother's unraveling and her cousin's obsessive revenge plans. Yes, there is Amiel, but is it romance between them or a misguided infatuation that ends up costing Pearl way too much?

A combination of flawless writing, descriptive and atmospheric without being overwrought and over-ornamented by flowery adjectives and laughable similes, complex relationships and realistic characters, is what makes this novel worthy of its National Book Award acclaim, and definitely not the "forbidden romance" aspect of it.

If you, like me, are a fan of Sara Zarr's quiet, introspective novels rather than Simone Elkeles's get-in-her-pants-on-a-dare/sex-in-the-garage romances, "Dark Water" is a book for you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars It grew on me. January 20, 2011

By Just_Karen VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I have to admit, I have such a loathing for mimes that I almost couldn't continue reading the story of a romance between Pearl, a white California girl, and Amiel, the migrant boy who relies on pantomime to communicate. But I set aside my early trauma at the hands of Shields and Yarnell and went on to read what turned out to be a very endearing, sad story.

Relationships are beautifully etched in this book--the difference between the kind of family intimacy based on years, shared blood and common humor, and the romantic intimacy that springs up out of nowhere and consumes our lives. I thought the portrait of her parents' divorce was perfectly done, how pulled she was, and how angry, even while it's clear that each side indeed had a point. But I felt the denoument was unnecessarily harsh, which I've noted happens quite a bit in YA books. The writers really go for the biggest, most melodramatically improbable event for the finish. Still, there is hope in here.

I especially liked the sly, dark humor in this book. Of particular note to young readers might be the examination of how precarious the lives of migrant workers are; their vulnerability to any kind of legal, medical or physical catastrophe.