Still Life with Tornado
School year: Lower 6th, Year 10, Year 11
No. of pages 320
Published: 2017
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Sixteen-year-old Sarah can't draw. This is a problem, because as long as she can remember, she has "done the art." She thinks she's having an existential crisis. And she might be right; she does keep running into past and future versions of herself as she wanders the urban ruins of Philadelphia. Or maybe she's finally waking up to the tornado that is her family, the tornado that six years ago sent her once-beloved older brother flying across the country for a reason she can't quite recall. After decades of staying together "for the kids" and building a family on a foundation of lies and domestic violence, Sarah's parents have reached the end. Now Sarah must come to grips with years spent sleepwalking in the ruins of their toxic marriage. As Sarah herself often observes, nothing about her pain is remotely original--and yet it still hurts.
Insightful, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, this is a vivid portrait of abuse, survival, resurgence that will linger with readers long after the last page.
"Read this book, whatever your age. You may find it's the exact shape and size of the hole in your heart."--The New York Times
"Surreal and thought-provoking."--People Magazine
"A deeply moving, frank, and compassionate exploration of trauma and resilience, filled to the brim with incisive, grounded wisdom." --Booklist, starred review
"King writes with the confidence of a tightrope walker working without a net."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"[King] blurs reality, truth, violence, emotion, creativity, and art in a show of respect for YA readers."--Horn Book Magazine, starred review
"King's brilliance, artistry, and originality as an author shine through in this thought-provoking work. [...] An unforgettable experience." SLJ, starred review
This book is the winner of numerous awards
This book is aimed at children at US 9th grade+.
This book has been graded for interest at 14 years.
There are 320 pages in this book.
It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.
This book was published in 2017 by Penguin Putnam Inc .
A. S. King is the author of the 2011 Printz Honor Book Please Ignore Vera Dietz (Knopf, 2010) and The Dust of 100 Dogs (Flux, 2009). Her short fiction, poetry and nonfiction have been widely published, and several of her stories have won awards including a nomination for the Best New American Voices anthology
This book has been nominated for the following award:
Inky Award - Silver Inky International Book
This book was recognised in the Silver Inky International Book category of the Inky Award.
"Moving, unapologetically strange, skillfully constructed.... Read this book, whatever your age. You may find it's the exact shape and size of the hole in your heart."--The New York Times
"Fans of Perks of Being a Wallflower will love this powerful new release from award-winning A.S. King."--Buzzfeed
"Surreal and thought-provoking."--People Magazine
"You'll find Still Life's exploration of an artist's inner strength particularly enriching."--Teen Vogue
A 2016 New York Times Notable Children's Book
A News & Observer Best Book of 2016
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2016
A Booklist Best Book of 2016
Booklist Top of the List 2016
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2016
A BookPage Best Teen Book of 2016
A Bustle Top 30 YA Book of 2016
A Nerdy Book Club Best YA of 2016
A Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year
NAIBA Young Adult Book of the Year Award Winner 2017
"King's brilliance, artistry, and originality as an author shine through in this thought-provoking work. [...] An unforgettable experience."--SLJ, starred review
"A deeply moving, frank, and compassionate exploration of trauma and resilience, filled to the brim with incisive, grounded wisdom." --Booklist, starred review
"The presentation of the surreal as real, the deeply thoughtful questions she poses, the way she empowers her teenage characters to change the trajectory of their lives--King writes with the confidence of a tightrope walker working without a net."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Lack of original ideas is not something found in work by A.S. King, who blurs reality, truth, violence, emotion, creativity, and art in a show of respect for YA readers."--Horn Book Magazine, starred review
"Books about abusive families generally follow the problem-novel script of recognition, admission, and solution; in her inimitable style, King takes a totally different tack, exploring (through interpolated sections from Sarah's mother as well as Sarah's narration) the way abuse warps and gnarls a family over time into a thorny growth of anger and denial that becomes a daily norm, even for members who aren't direct victims.... Readers won't have to live with abuse firsthand to recognize the taut, invisible coils of family dysfunction and the difficulty of gaining perspective on it, let alone breaking free."--BCCB, starred review
"King's ingeniously crafted, deeply engaging Still Life with Tornado will have readers by the collar the whole time."--Shelf Awareness, starred review
"King understands and writes teen anxieties like no other, resulting in difficult, resonant, compelling characters and stories."--Kirkus
"A.S. King is known for crafting deeply sympathetic portraits of teenagers in crisis, and Still Life with Tornado is no exception."--BookPage
"A.S. King has always brought her unique touch to her YA novels, but she may have outdone even herself in Still Life with Tornado."--Bustle
"The payoff is great. King's surreal elements are balanced as always by the lucidity of her prose, and her generous, unflagging faith in her readers' ability to keep up with her mental fireworks results yet again in a book that's truly singular."--B&N Teen, "Best YA Books of 2016"
"Though touched with magical realism, this is otherwise a wholly contemporary story about a girl who needs to come to terms with her family's toxic and painful history before she can start dreaming of the future."--Bookish: "Fall 2016's Unputdownable Contemporary Young Adult Books."
Praise for Glory O'Brien's History of the Future (2014)
"Maybe there are writers more adept than King at capturing the outrageous and outraged voice of teenagers, but it's difficult to think of one." --The New York Times
Praise for Reality Boy (2013)
"Timely, incisive, compassionate. All of A.S. King's novels are must-reads." --Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock