Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 07/01/2019 During a school holiday, Joe Quinn won’t stop talking about the poltergeist that’s haunting his house: breaking windows, smashing dishes—typical ghost mischief. His latest update to Geordie and unbelieving Davie (the story’s narrator) ends with an invitation to dinner, so they can see the poltergeist in action. To Davie’s dismay, Geordie accepts, and the friends convene at the Quinns' table for an oppressively bizarre meal, where chips and slices of buttered bread periodically fly through the air and noises crash from upstairs. By the end of the visit, the pair’s positions have reversed, with Geordie convinced Joe is behind everything, and Davie feeling shaken and entertaining the possibility that the specter is real. This throws Joe into an existential funk, expertly rendered in McKean’s dark, mixed-media illustrations, where overlapping, scribbled sketches embody confusion and conflict, jarring collages evoke an unsettled atmosphere, and negative space echoes absence and haunting memories. Joe navigates his inner turmoil, including grief and religious confusion, forming earnest revelations about life’s poltergeists (i.e., disruptions) and finding peace. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 08/01/2019 Gr 6 Up—Almond and McKean's latest graphic collaboration, based on a previously published story by Almond, centers on Davie, a teenager living in a small English village, whose dull summer is disrupted when the obnoxious Joe Quinn claims to have a poltergeist at his house. Rumors about the Quinns abound—that Joe's father is a hit man and his mother is a Rolling Stones groupie. At the Quinn house, Davie witnesses dishes taking flight and breaking as he becomes involved in the family's domestic dramas. As Davie struggles to determine if the poltergeist is real, he must also come to terms with the death of his sister, his impending adulthood, and the realization that adults are often as clueless as children. The connection between adolescence and poltergeist activity is not new territory, but this book offers a fresh take on the subject, in large part thanks to McKean, whose mixed-media illustrations evoke the kinetic energy of supernatural activity and teenage angst. Most of the art is full page, but when McKean uses panels, they mirror Davie's confusion. Deftly exploring each sides of a seemingly supernatural scenario, Almond once again creates compelling characters torn between facts and beliefs in their search for the truth. VERDICT A visual delight and a witty approach to those adolescent moments that push past the boundaries of the rational world.—Jennie Law, Georgia State University, Atlanta - Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.