Plague in the Mirror

August 5, 2013
Back home in Vermont, May's parents are splitting up and waiting for her to decide where she'll spend her last year of high school. Here in Florence, she should be eating gelato, hanging out with her old friend Liam, and helping his travel writer mother research her next book. But what's meant to be a pleasant distraction gets complicated when Cristofana, May's ghostly double, comes to visit. Cristofana has created a portal between her worldâFlorence during the plague yearsâand May's. What does she want? A trade: her world for May's. There's no reason for May to say yes, exceptâas canny, willful Cristofana knowsâin May's first brief foray into old Florence, she fell under the spell of a handsome artist. Noyes (The Ghosts of Kerfol) has hold of a rich and haunting premise, but as May and Cristofana argue about what will or won't happen, the book starts to feel like all concept with little payoff. The problem is compounded by the fact that Cristofanaâold before her time, with a complicated family and witchlike powersâis much more interesting than the under-characterized May. Ages 14âup.

July 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-The summer before May's senior year, she goes to Florence with a friend of her mother's and her son, May's childhood best friend. May's parents are getting a divorce, and she needs to decide which one she will stay with once she returns. Liam, whom she has always thought of as a kind of brother, is showing signs that his feelings for her are far warmer than she's prepared to deal with. To compound her confusion, a haunting figure appears at the foot of her bed during the night. Her ghostlike twin has come to lure her into a desperate trade: May will go to 14th-century Florence, while she, Cristofana, takes her place in a world free of the plague. May visits ancient Florence with Cristofana and becomes obsessed with a handsome young artist named Marco. Will her passion lead her to choose what is clearly the more dangerous option? Although the premise should make Noyes's first YA novel an absorbing read, the dissonance that May experiences is the same that readers encounter while attempting to put a picture together of what this book is trying to be. Is it historical fiction? A horror story? A romance? A book can certainly be all three, but in this title, the history lessons are too forced, the horror is too unbelievable, and the romance so nonsensical that readers will be frustrated.-Kathy Kirchoefer, Henderson County Public Library, NC

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
May's trip to Florence with family friends takes a frightening turn when she wakes in the middle of the night to find her ghostly twin standing at the foot of her bed. Determined to forget her parents' divorce and their request that she decide with whom to spend her senior year of high school, May travels with her childhood friend, Liam, and his travel-writer mother, Gwen. But her study of history becomes supernatural when her ethereal doppelganger appears, inviting her back in time. May becomes a ghostly version of herself as Cristofana leads her through a time portal into the middle of the Black Death. However, when Cristofana slips back into the future, May is left very human and very vulnerable in the past. Clever and dangerous, Cristofana lures May away from her life using Marco, a handsome artist. Historical details, opulent settings and awakening passions paint a rich landscape. The gritty reality of pre-Renaissance life comes alive set against the relative ease of modern times. Unfortunately, the setting is the star, overshadowing the characters. Noyes' story lacks mystery and dread, becoming more a study of the Middle Ages than an evocative ghost story. An informative tale, but it lacks spark. (Ghost story. 14 & up)

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July 1, 2013
May is visiting Florence for the summer with friends of the family: travel writer Gwen and her teenage son, Liam. It's a pleasant diversion from her parents' disintegrating marriage. But something mysterious happens: she is visited repeatedly by Cristofana, a sinister, inscrutable Florentine girl from the past who resembles May enough to be her identical twin. Cristofana has found a portal to the present day and would like nothing more than to switch places with May permanently. May must weigh the benefits (a handsome painter) and disadvantages (the deadly plague) of medieval Florence, and while she visits the past as an observer, Cristofana makes mischief in the present, complicating May's evolving relationship with Liam. Writing in the third-person present tense, Noyes creates an eerie mood and limns a hauntingly vivid landscape; against this rich backdrop, her characters explore and test the bounds of their identities and their relationships. Noyes's esoteric novel may not have the widespread appeal of the latest, trendiest paranormal book, but there are enough elements of romance, fantasy, and horror to please discerning readers. jonathan hunt

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2013
In Florence for the summer, May is visited repeatedly by Cristofana, a sinister, inscrutable girl from the past who resembles May enough to be her identical twin. Cristofana has found a portal to the present day and would like nothing more than to switch places with May permanently. Writing in the third-person present tense, Noyes creates an eerie mood and limns a hauntingly vivid landscape.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)