Flower Moon by Gina Linko, 2018

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Tempest and Tally Jo Trimble are mirror twins—so alike they were almost born the same person—and they've been inseparable since birth. But it's the summer they turn thirteen, and it seems like everyone can tell something is changing between them.

Pa Charlie, whose traveling carnival is the best part of every summer, is watching them closer than ever. Digger, who sneaks poor kids onto the carnival rides for free and smiles faster than anyone, seems to be fixing for a fight. Even Mama is acting different, refusing to travel with the carnival this year even though her own twin, who she hasn't seen since childhood, will be there.

And Tally and Tempest are the most different of all. There's a strangeness between them, a thickness to the air, an unseen push and pull, and it's getting stronger. It starts as a feeling, but soon it's sputtering and sparking, hurling them backwards, threatening to explode.

When Tally learns that she and Tempest may not be the first twins in their family to be separated by whatever this force is, she realizes she'll have to find a way to stop it—or she might lose not only her sister, but everyone she loves.

(256 pages)

In the last few years, there has been a surge of quirky quasi-magical books featuring tweens who, more often than not, grow into themselves over the course of the story (often go on a trip) and learn something about themselves/their family that they'd never known before. These books also, for reasons I have yet to comprehend, often have a southern twang to them.

This budding sub-genre of books has been very popular, and I've read many of the books and liked them, but I'm the first to admit that I've never really bought entirely into it: I find many of the books (with the notable exceptions of Sheila Turnage's incredible Mo & Dale Mysteries, Ingrid Law's Savvy series and Kathleen Van Cleeve's Drizzle) are pretty vanilla, really, and largely forgotten as soon as the last page is turned.

When I requested Flower Moon, I figured it fell squarely into the niche of books I've just described–but I'd seen good reviews of it, so I hoped it would be one of the great ones. After reading it, I have to report that Flower Moon is a good book–and it ticks all the boxes for the magical realism genre–but it somehow doesn't really seem to match the other books in the subgenre. Maybe it's because the characters are much more down-to-earth and realistic than the protagonists of most books: true, most characters are reduced to one or two personality traits, but Linko narrates with a frank and honest eye for detail and the setting of a traveling carnival is plausible enough that it's easy for the readers to imagine that we are in place of the main characters.

I enjoyed the book, and I rooted for the girls to figure out a solution to their growing separation, but I struggled at first to relate to Tally, because she was such a jerk to her twin. I suppose this is part of the realisticness of the book, since real-life siblings are often cruel to each other, but it was hard to read; at the same time, though, I found it difficult to understand Tempest's insecure worries that Tally wanted to be free of her forever. Surely most functional sibling relationships are strong enough that this would never come into question?

Anyway, as for the magic system itself, I thought the premise was interesting. Linko could have gone into more detail in showing us its effects on past generations, and perhaps its origins. It also seemed like the ending was a little too easy, though I can't go into it much because of spoilers. And everything was made like five times harder by the decision of every single adult to keep the past this big dark secret from the girls, which seems odd since they should have known better (and they should have recognized what was going on way before they did!).

All in all, Flower Moon was a good book and a nice afternoon read, but it wasn't the powerhouse read I was hoping it would be. I do recommend it for those of you who are interested in it, though. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.