From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up In this bizarre tale entrenched in genetics and human history, familial love is unabashedly and horrifically skewed, twisted, and swathed, reminiscent of the works of Poe, Shelley, and Hawthorne. Readers are introduced to the young woman narrator when she is seven, trapped in a small town and a victim of a family's dark legacy: a maternal obsession so extreme that it preys upon the minds of its maligned descendants, forcing them to pursue any means necessary to keep their mothers with them always. Ivy and her devout mother live across the street from a pair of reclusive, elderly twin brothers who run the pharmacy. Her mother used to work for the Rumbaughs, and, over the years, Ivy comes to understand her connection to the eccentric men, their deep bond with their now-deceased mother, and their fascination with the art of taxidermy, which they share with her. Soon Ivy finds herself engrossed in embalming squirrels, kittens, chickens, and whatever else she can get her hands on. They become her tools and totems to assuage her maternal-loss anxieties. Readers can only fumble and squirm through her distorted yet straightforwardly told horror story with a combination of shock, disbelief, and dread of what no doubt will come. Gantos has written an eerie, nearly perverse gothic tale of love and devotion gone completely and frighteningly haywire. This thought-provoking story about free will and the arguments of nature and nurture will definitely stick with readers, no matter how hard they try to forget it.
Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From AudioFile
When 16-year-old Ivy learns that her father is one of the two aged, identical Rumbaugh twins, the surprise is overshadowed by her obsessive love for her mother. But if the Rumbaugh curse plays true in Ivy's veins, she may take her inherited knack for taxidermy too far. With skill, Lisa Datz brings the subtle, dark humor laced throughout the story to the surface. She also does an admirable job delivering various international accents and the Rumbaugh twins' clipped way of communicating. Datz's crowning achievement with this performance, however, is her projecting of a confidence and chilling intelligence in Ivy that leaves listeners believing in her dark destiny. J.M.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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