Alone, in the middle of the Utah desert, lies the Hotel Africa. Anything is possible here. A world of joy, heartache, and friendship has traveled through its doors. Follow along with Elvis, our narrator, as he brings the history of this desolate hotel to life, weaving tales of his widowed mother, an unlikely pair of vagabonds, and a strange hotel guest...
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up–In the present, mixed-race musician Elvis lives with his friends July and Ed as they struggle to make it big in the entertainment biz. While the three of them strive toward success, Elvis reminisces about growing up in a hotel in the middle of Utah, where he watched permanent guest Geo romance his single mother while a variety of people wandered through and tried to find focus or personal connection in their own lives. These memories provide a genuine heart to the book, as well as the bulk of its content, but their power is undercut by how disconnected they feel from one another and from the present. The volume itself has a pleasing solidity to it, a height, heft, and page count that seem to promise substantiality beyond some of the attenuated debuts of long-sprawling manga serials, and the art surpasses classic shojo atmospherics for detailed, if feminized, depictions. Readers will certainly enjoy following the burgeoning relationship between Elvis's mom and Geo, which is heightened by an early investment in the paternal bond between suitor and son, but the scenes with Elvis as an adult lack direction. Initially a framing vehicle for each chapter, they grow increasingly less frequent as the book meanders on. That leaves readers with a sequence of vignettes involving whichever patron arrives to stir up melodrama. A pleasantly emotive experience, but lacking the necessary cohesion to inspire readers to pursue future volumes.–Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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