Ava Morgyn begins her debut novel with abundant problems for seventeen-year-old Cat when her adored grandmother dies. Ten years before, her unstable mother had dumped Cat off with the grandmother with nothing but a deck of tarot cards – minus one. Now, her mother returns, taking only enough time to determine that the college fund Cat’s grandmother had promised her does not exist and to put the house on the market before she heads to New Orleans with Cat in tow.
In New Orleans, Cat must become the mature one in the relationship as she tries to sort out the real and the unreal with her mother’s bipolar disorder and the eccentricity of the city itself. Dark family history shows up first in a picture she discovers of her mother with a baby that is not her and then in a newspaper clipping from generations past. Strange characters haunt her dreams and reappear in the daytime until she begins to wonder if the family heritage of madness has become her own. Answers seem to lie in finding the missing tarot card. Her friend Daniel contributes a stable influence and helps her look for the card and sort out relationships as Cat learns her beloved grandmother wasn’t all that she seemed.
Normally, magical realism isn’t my first choice for settling down with a good book, but I make an exception for this one. I had to check if I remembered correctly that it was listed as young adult fare. I would label it as crossover as a good read for both adults and teens. My one word of advice is that if you begin the book, dusting and dirty dishes will need to wait until you are finished. If dinner must be cooked, just stir the pot with one hand and hold the book with the other.