Devil and the Bluebird

by Jennifer Mason-Black

Overview

Blue Riley has wrestled with her own demons ever since the loss of her mother to cancer. But when she encounters a beautiful devil at her town crossroads, it’s her runaway sister’s soul she fights to save. The devil steals Blue’s voice—inherited from her musically gifted mother—in exchange for a single shot at finding Cass.
 Armed with her mother’s guitar, a knapsack of cherished mementos, and a pair of magical boots, Blue journeys west in search of her sister. When the devil changes the terms of their deal, Blue must reevaluate her understanding of good and evil and open herself up to finding family in unexpected places.

In Devil and the Bluebird, Jennifer Mason-Black delivers a captivating depiction of loss and hope.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613128961
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	05/17/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Jennifer Mason-Black has published short stories in The Sun, Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, and Daily Science Fiction, among other publications. Devil and the Bluebird is her debut novel. She lives in Massachusetts. jennifermasonblack.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/29/2016
In an exquisitely crafted celebration of music and magic, a young woman ventures across a haunted, unpredictable, and occasionally wonderful America to find her missing sister, who vanished after making a deal with the Devil. In order to save her sister’s soul, 17-year-old Blue Riley likewise makes a wager: the Devil gives her six months to locate Cass or both sisters’ souls are lost. Blue forfeits her voice as part of the bargain, and so, armed only with a guitar and a pair of enchanted boots, she sets out, encountering a diverse range of people, both helpful and dangerous. But the Devil moves in mysterious ways and constantly changes the rules, forcing Blue to keep moving and to think on her feet. As Blue encounters the ghosts of the road and of her past, she gradually comes to understand herself and her complicated, fractured family. First-time novelist Mason-Black delivers a subtle, delicate tale reminiscent of the work of Charles de Lint, a magical realist journey of self-discovery and hidden depths, with fascinating characters and a captivating narrative. Ages 13–up. Agent: Alice Speilburg, Speilburg Literary Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

The odd and intriguing concept, the southern gothic backdrop, and the inclusion of nontraditional families and LGBT characters will endear this to many. Mason-Black’s writing, lyrical and woven through with song and warmth, marks her as one worth watching.”

Booklist

"Old-school Weetzie Bat fans will be enthralled with this musical, meandering book brimming with magical realism and all sorts of ways to find and give love."

BCCB

"Debut author Jennifer Mason-Black's prose is fittingly lyrical, and her narrative always takes the most devilish of turns."

Bookpage

**STARRED REVIEW**
"In Devil and the Bluebird, the universal question of a soul's worth feels uniquely American, drawing on the folk legend of the devil and Robert Johnson. Mason-Black's story lives on society's fringes, tangling around small-time musicians, lost souls and street kids, highlighting the beauty and brutality of wandering the world alone. Older teens will especially appreciate this allegory for finding one's voice, finding one's own kind of family, and the danger of playing "a tune that's not your own.""

ShelfAwareness

"Expressive prose draws the reader into an overall enjoyable YA novel."

School Library Connection

Songwriter Blue is alone. She has just split with her best friend, her musician mom is dead, her other mom left, and her sister Cass has run away. While Blue has a home with her aunt, she desperately misses Cass and decides to sell her soul to the devil to find Cass and make her safe. The devil agrees, but takes Blue’s voice, including her ability to sing. Blue then embarks on a cross-country trip with her mom’s guitar from Maine to California to find Cass with only a notebook for communicating. She meets other travelers, each on their own journeys of discovery and pain. Blue learns that you can help others the most by taking care of yourself first and listening to your own inner song. This debut novel is a beautiful and lyrical story of discovering your own voice. After each of her encounters, Blue gains understanding of the wider world and comes to learn and accept her responsibilities in both the wide world and her own smaller world. As Blue owns her own power, she understands that some things are not taken from us; we give them away. While this is a standard message in books for teenagers, this treatment is readable, engaging, and engrossing. The glow of Blue’s success lingers. Give this to readers interested in the music industry and music in general. Reviewer: Sharon Martin; Ages 12 to 18.

VOYA, June 2016 (Vol. 39, No. 2) - Sharon Martin

04/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—An eclectic mash-up of contemporary fiction and fantasy, Mason-Black's premier effort follows Blue Riley as she strikes a deal with the devil: her voice in exchange for the opportunity to find her runaway sister, Cass. Fueled by perplexing hints from the devil, Blue journeys across the Northeast searching for clues from her sister. As deals with the devil so often are, Blue's agreement is fraught with deadlines and catches. Along the way, Blue meets and occasionally travels with a medley of characters who steal the spotlight in this narrative: hippy-dippy Amy, whose soul the devil eats; an unnamed kind librarian paying her father's debt forward; Steve, a stranger-turned-great friend who hitches a ride with Blue to Chicago; criminal-minded Rat, who kidnaps Blue and Steve; abused mother Andrea, who leads Blue to an underground safe shelter; frenetic Tish, Blue's mom's old music partner living on a farm in Wyoming; and romantic interest Dill, who teaches Blue how to hop freight trains. Through all of this, the heroine hangs onto her trusty guitar, learning to "speak" through its strings. The ending is relatively satisfactory, although many questions remain about Blue's fate. VERDICT Teens will enjoy this work for its colorful and memorable cast of transient characters. Fans of Andrea Seigel and Brent Bradshaw's Everybody Knows Your Name and David Arnold's Mosquitoland will enjoy this debut.—Amanda C. Buschmann, Atascocita Middle School, Humble, TX

School Library Journal

★ 2016-03-02
Cass and Blue made a deal after their mother died of cancer: they would always talk on Mama's birthday. Last year there was only a voicemail from Cass, and this year the call didn't come at all. Blue, 17, knows she must find her older sister. This urgency drives the white teen to meet the woman in the red dress at a crossroads at midnight and make a deal—her soul in exchange for her sister. But the woman in red is more interested in a gamble than an even trade, so she steals Blue's voice and sends her off on a surreal all-or-nothing quest in which the rules of the game, and sometimes reality itself, shift and bend. Hoping to find Cass along the way, Blue re-creates the journey that decades ago brought together her mother and Tish, her partner in music and life. Blue meets an assorted cast of characters on her odyssey, all wandering for their own diverse reasons. The woman in red is never far away, compelling Blue to keep moving toward the family secrets she must uncover in order to rediscover the voice that is authentically her own. Mason-Black's poignant debut novel takes Blue from small-town Maine, "where lesbian musicians were an oddity, and gay kids still suffered at the hands of their peers," on a tour of America's marginalized, her mutism eliciting confusion, confessions, and sympathy along the way. A magical-realist adventure laced with folk guitar and outcast drifters unpacks the bonds of family—those we are born into and those we choose. (Magical realism. 14-17)

Kirkus Reviews