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Title details for Under the Heron's Light by Randi Pink - Wait list

Under the Heron's Light

by Randi Pink
Ozzie Jacobs
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks
On a damp night in 1722, Babylou Mac and her three siblings witness the murder of their mother at the hands of the preacher's son—so Babylou kills him. With plantation dogs on their heels, the siblings breach the treacherous confines of the Great Dismal Swamp. Deeper and deeper into Dismal they delve, toward a refuge where they can live freely within the swamp's natural—and supernatural—protection.
Three-hundred years later, college student Atlas comes home to North Carolina for the annual Bornday cookout and hog roast: a celebration of the fact that she and her three cousins were all born on the same day nineteen years ago, sharing a birthday with their Grannylou. But this Bornday, Grannylou's usual riddles and folktales about a marvelous paradise deep in the Great Dismal Swamp start to take on a tangible quality.
When Dismal calls, sucking Grannylou in, it's up to Atlas and her cousins to uncover the history that the black waters hold. Centuries of family tension are about to be dug up. Because Babylou and Grannylou are one and the same, and the power she helped cultivate hundreds of years ago—steeped in Black resistance, familial love, and the otherworldly mysteries of the Great Dismal Swamp—is bubbling back up. But so is a bitterness that runs deep as the swamp's waters. And some are ready to take what they feel they're owed.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 12, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9798855568790
      • File size: 338710 KB
      • Duration: 11:45:38

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 5, 2024
      Alternating between Black 19-year-old Atlas’s first-person POV in the present and her ancestor’s third-person perspective in the 1770s, Pink (We Are the Scribes) offers an expansive intergenerational portrait that uses a fantastical lens to highlight the importance of family and knowing one’s history. While enslaved on a Virginia plantation in 1722, Babylou and her siblings are devastated by their mother’s violent murder. After Babylou uses supernatural powers to kill the white boy responsible, the siblings escape to the Great Dismal Swamp, a living entity that allows them to create a new home for themselves. In preparation for a present-day celebration, Atlas returns to her home near the Great Dismal Swamp in North Carolina to celebrate her grandmother Grannylou’s birthday. When Grannylou disappears into the swamp, and Atlas discovers that she has the ability to guide others through the marsh, she and her cousins band together to unravel the family secrets embedded in the bog. Mesmerizing storytelling brings together myriad backdrops, characters, storylines, and themes. Pulling inspiration from real events and places, Pink imbues this beguiling dark fantasy with striking texture,
      adding human elements to the eerie setting via fiercely wrought familial relationships. Ages 13–up. Agent: Marietta B. Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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