clown girl by Monica Drake

clown girl
by Monica Drake

Finished: 08/18/10

A delightful story I dreaded finishing. That doesn’t happen very often, but it did with Monica Drake’s beloved Clown Girl. Yes, there really is a Clown Girl in it, who has all kinds of misadventures in the bad side of town, also called Baloneytown. The reader is immediately hurdled into a world where balloon tying can be high art and can become the Sistine Chapel before one’s eyes. I admit, I cheered for Clown Girl and was also dumbfounded by her naïve choices, which got her in so much trouble. I would read a sequel if ever one could be hatched. And because of the style in which Monica Drake wrote this tale, the high-spirited, overly creative while also standing square on the ground so as not to lose the reader, I would instantly take up her next book with excitement. She is a weaving sort of writer, a very convincing soothsayer, and an original voice, so appreciated in a world preoccupied by texting and blackberries.

4 stars out of 5
Review written: 09/26/10, 6:18 PM