Hardcover, 256 pages
Rating: ★★★★
I had a lot of fun with this book. First off, a bit of background: Sojourner 'Scotch' Smith is a regular 17 year old biracial girl living in Toronto; she doesn't quite fit in anywhere, she's fighting with her best friend, and she's desperate to win an upcoming dance battle so she can afford the deposit to move into an apartment with her brother.
Normal issues. For a normal world. Except things aren't exactly normal. Scotch has a thick sticky blackness growing on her in places. And strange monsters visible only to her float around her at the most inopportune times. It only gets weirder from there.
Scotch and her brother Rich, an aspiring rapper-poet with stage fright, head downtown to an open-mic night at a bar. She befriends a truly great character, Punum, in the bathroom at the bar and then her brother is absorbed by a glowing ball, a volcano appears in the middle of Lake Ontario, and trippy things start happening. This is the part where everything got original. It was a truly trippy experience reading this book, mixing multicultural Toronto with Jamaican legends and LSD.
Scotch was a great protagonist. She's a typical teenager - disagreeable, impulsive and occasionally says stupid shit she doesn't mean -, but she's also compassionate, loyal and smart. She's complex and that makes her entirely endearing. I'd read an entire series about her, paranormal or not. The supporting characters are fun and fully characterized as well, each with their own personalities. I particularly liked Punum, an out-spoken Sri Lankan butch lesbian punk in a wheelchair, and the way she challenged Scotch.
I hope this is the future of YA because smart, well-written and diverse is just what I want.
