THE MORNINGSIDE by Téa Obreht

4 stars

In a dystopian future where climate change has turned much of the coasts into wetlands and people have turned into climate refugees constantly on the move, Silvia and her mother Ena arrive via a repopulation program at a run-down, mostly flooded Island City one assumes is New York.

As true impoverished immigrants, they take a job maintaining a former glamorous high-rise for menial pay and board. Ena speaks only broken English and constantly admonishes Silvia to hide their original country of origin out of fear of reprisals or recrimination. No school has room for Silvia as a student, so she both assists her mom in the constant fixes the crumbling building and attends to its former uppity residents’ needs, all the while being swept into Old World folklore and stories shared by her mother’s sister.

Silvia obsesses about one of these stories involving an all-powerful and vengeful female spirit Vila, whom she’s convinced has come to life in the building’s penthouse resident, the mysterious Bezi. She’s also convinced that the woman’s three huge dogs are actually men magically imprisoned by her and let free to assume their human forms at night. You just have to just accept this magic realism as the story unfurls, as a way that Silvia copes with their displacement and her mother’s refusal to talk at all about their past.

As Ena undertakes dangerous underwater salvage work, and Silvia befriends Mila the only other teen in the building, danger presents on all fronts. Silvia ultimately seeks a way to reconcile their past with the future she wants to create for herself.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.