Undine

March 6, 2006
Australian author Russon's supernatural thriller succeeds thanks to an engrossing, off-kilter mystery and a cast of adolescent characters rendered through pitch-perfect dialogue. Sixteen-year-old Undine begins to have bad feelings, the kind she hasn't had since her beloved stepfather was killed in an accident almost four years prior. She had premonitions before that tragedy, and now she is feeling uneasy again—and begins hearing a voice telling her, "It's time to come home." A stanza from The Tempest
, written on a paper bearing her name as its watermark, ends up on her doorstep, and she and her best friend, Trout, become convinced that her father (whom she had been told died before she was born) is alive and reaching out to her. Undine sets off to find him, leading to an intelligent and thoughtful showdown of sorts between the heroine and her parents, both of whom harbor deep secrets. The narrative gets a bit too clever in places (her father, who sent her the Shakespeare verse, is named Prospero Marine) but the atmosphere is involving. Undine and Trout, two-thirds of a romantic triangle, make a compelling and believable pair, grappling with the equally daunting burdens of newfound magical ability and of ordinary high school. Ages 12-up.

Starred review from February 1, 2006
Gr 7 Up -Undine isn -t your ordinary teenage girl. She doesn -t like Tuesdays, has a best friend named Trout, and can cause storms to form out of thin air. She comes from a tight-knit family that includes her mother, brother, and aunt. She has always been told that her father died before she was born but a mysterious whispering voice convinces her that he is still alive. Trout, thanks to his love of Shakespeare, links the words that the voice is speaking with "The Tempest". After the book itself appears in her house, Undine figures out where the voice is calling from and goes to meet her father. Teens will empathize with this girl who has magical powers that she can -t control and a desire for a father who loves her for herself, not the powers she possesses or what he can gain from them. The strength of Russon -s writing and the intensity of the story itself will draw readers to "Undine", but they will also find some familiar themes, such as unrequited love, reflected in her best friend, Trout. Australia creates an interesting backdrop and readers will enjoy some of the unfamiliar slang. This novel offers readers a new and interesting magical twist as well as a surprise ending." -June H. Keuhn, Corning East High School, NY"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2006
Gr. 9-12. The messages, "trickling through . . . her consciousness," start arriving when Undine is 16: "Come Home!" At the same time, she begins to feel a potent, frightening force within her, "something " extra "to herself." When her anger sets off a violent weather storm, her fierce, bewildering power is confirmed, and as more messages appear, she starts to link them with questions about the father she has never known. Moving between remote shores and modern cities of Tasmania, Russon's debut novel is, like Undine's magic, wild and difficult to define. There are heavy ties to Shakespeare's " The Tempest," which, along with other connections, sometimes feel contrived, and Russon's ambitious questions about morality, love, and the relationships between parents and children, science and magic, occasionally overwhelm the story. Anchoring the book, though, are spot-on depictions of mundane, contemporary teen anxieties ("Am I boring?" she worries during a lapse in conversation with a sexy guy), and scenes of gripping fantasy that will utterly capture readers. An impressive debut from a writer to watch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2006
Like so many fairy-tale heroines, Undine lives in the in-between: between different streets on floor 21Z2 of a "crooked little house" in Tasmania, Australia; between land life and sea dreams; between childhood and adulthood. In a quietly surreal coming-of-age narrative that borrows from several incarnations of the titular myth, Russon depicts Undine's transformation into a sexually aware and dangerously magical young woman. When the cryptic delivery of a quote from Shakespeare's The Tempest suggests that, contrary to her mother's affirmations, Undine's father may not be dead, she goes in search of him, hoping to discover the origins of her disturbing dreams and emergent powers. Her quest threatens both her innocence and her relationship with best friend (and unrequited admirer) Trout, ultimately endangering their lives when Undine's fascination with her new abilities begins to submerge her sense of self. Russon taps into the deep well of archetypal feminine identity, retaining the darkness inherent in the original fairy-tale expression, enriching it with well-developed characters (Undine's overprotective mother and manipulative father are particularly notable), and never allowing the modern setting to overwhelm the fundamentally mythic pull of this fable of female power.

(Copyright 2006 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2006
When a cryptic note prompts Undine to search for her presumed-dead father, she begins to transform into a sexually aware and dangerously magical young woman. Both a coming-of-age narrative and a fable of female power, "Undine" taps into the well of archetypal feminine identity, retaining the original myth's darkness and enriching it with well-developed characters and a modern-day Australian backdrop.

(Copyright 2006 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)