SHADOWED SUMMER

"Where y'at, Iris?" In SHADOWED SUMMER, Saundra Mitchell immerses us into a Southern setting so rich we can taste it, describing summer-hot Louisiana by showing instead of telling, "My nightgown stuck to me, peeling from my skin with a tickle." She pegs small town life, "According to the sign out by the highway, Ondine was home to 346 good people and 3 cranky old coots and was a good place to live, but that was a lie," and small town people, "Mr. Ourso had a lot of time on his hands, so sometimes he'd stack the groceries alphabetical. Sometimes he did them by size - you never knew until you got there."

While Mitchell is a master at setting, she's a magician with characterization, sliding Iris's skin over the reader's. "Possibility prickled at the back of my neck; it made my heart beat fast in anticipation. A copper tang spread on my tongue, a taste that made me go all tight inside, waiting for something to happen."

Ondine definitely holds some secrets, and Iris's fourteen-year-old curiosity isn't willing to leave them hidden.

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