The truth, it turns out, can't always be covered over with flowers. And speaking of nature, McLemore uses sensuous descriptive language to convey it in all its dazzling, terrifying glory. Combining romantic, old-world storytelling and a contemporary sensibility, "Wild Beauty" incorporates ideas on class, race and sexual orientation as naturally as vines curl through a trellis. This sumptuous book-length original fairy tale is forged, as were Anna-Marie McLemore's two previous young-adult novels, in the Latin American literary tradition of magical realism. It's a convergence of events that forces Estrella to confront disturbing aspects of her heritage and re-examine everything she thinks she knows. Robin Benway, Far from the Tree 66 likes Like That’s what parents do. She missed being little, when they were the all-knowing gods of her world, but at the same time, seeing them as human made it easier to see herself that way, too. Then a mysterious boy rises from beneath the ground a stranger arrives with underhanded plans and Bay Briar, the girl whom the cousins all not-so-secretly love, disappears. The older she got, the more human her parents seemed, and that was one of the scariest things in the world. Estrella has always viewed La Pradera as a haven - her ancestors were persecuted for witchcraft - and the Briars, the family that owns the land, as her protectors. Estrella, her four cousins, their mothers and grandmothers must use their inherited magic powers to coax lush gardens from soil that would otherwise remain barren, and if they try to escape, to live somewhere else, the earth will reclaim them. For generations, La Pradera estate has provided refuge for the women of the Nomeolvides family, but at a steep price.
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