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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Gill, D. 2009 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Girl meets boy at a car wash.
"Dog," she says.
"Dude," he says.
And probably this would have been a sweet teen romance. . . .
If Beals hadn't been sitting next to her in the car.
If Beals hadn't been a supernatural repo man looking to repossess her car.
And to possess her.
David Macinnis Gill delivers the whole enchilada. With a side of soul.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-On her own and struggling to make ends meet, 18-year-old Eunice "Bug" Smoot has one cherished possession: the 1958 Cadillac Biarritz left to her by her grandfather. When she discovers that he offered not only his soul as collateral for the car, but also hers and that, somehow, his spirit has managed to evade repossession, she realizes she is in grave danger. With the aid of a cute boy who happens to be an aspiring agent of the International Supernatural Immigration Service; his mother, a spiritual advisor and witch; and an ancient lawyer specializing in conflicts between the earthly and spirit realms, Bug battles an evil djinn for her soul. Set in the Spanish-speaking neighborhoods of El Paso, Soul distinguishes itself from other recent supernatural farces such as Jonathan Bernstein's Hottie (Penguin/Razorbill, 2009) by giving voice to ethnic and economic minority characters. Indeed, Bug's first-person narration is feisty and knowing in the ways of class and prejudice ("Growing up half Tejana and half-African American," Bug claims, "I learned real quick that folks were going to put you down because of the color you were, no matter what color they were"). However, the increasingly dramatic confrontations and competitions pitting Bug and company against the djinn and the recurring discovery that yet another El Paso citizen is, in actuality, a demon or is demon-possessed threaten to derail the willing suspension of disbelief that novels like these demand.-Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Deep in El Paso, Tex., Eunice "Bug" Smoot is behind on the rent and in danger of losing her job delivering pizzas, but at least she's got a smooth ride-a 1958 Cadillac Biarritz bequeathed by Papa C., her grandfather. Then the repo man shows up. Turns out Papa C. financed the car with his soul but disappeared upon death. Bug's got till midnight Halloween to produce grandpa's soul or turn over her keys-and her free will. To Bug's aid comes hunky Pesto, a car wash manager who moonlights for ISIS, the International Supernatural Immigration Service. Gill's debut features hilarious dialogue-Bug and Pesto don't talk; they sling witticisms at each other. And Bug is easy to love, a tough-talking teen whose life has been riddled with loss. But some readers may tire of the grosser details of demon warfare-lots of vomiting, maggots, even vomiting of maggots-and the story goes on past several natural stopping points. Still, this updated spin on deal-making with the devil shows that Gill, president of ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents), knows what will make teens laugh. Ages 14-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(High School) Eunice Smoot, a.k.a. Bug, has had a hard life. A mixed-race teenager, she has been orphaned three times, first by the death of her Latina mother, then by the deaths of her African American great-aunt and paternal grandfather. But now it's gone from bad to worse. Since her grandfather sold his soul to the devil, literally, for a vintage Cadillac, and somehow managed to renege on the deal from the afterlife, the demonic repossession agent is now after the car -- and Bug's soul. Bug loses her job and her apartment but finds a friend in Pesto, a cute guy who has the supernatural connections to help her. Through a series of proposals, counter-proposals, wagers, and double crosses, Bug emerges victorious. She is a tough, sassy heroine, and her first-person narrative, accented with Spanish and black vernacular, is one of the novel's strongest points. So, too, is the regional Southwestern flavor of El Paso, Texas. Though Gill does not delve too deeply into the philosophical implications of the plot, he offers up a veritable menagerie of genre elements (comedy, romance, sports, and the supernatural), and his delightfully wacky debut novel should find a broad teen audience. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Broke-down pizza-delivery heroine Eunice "Bug" Smoot's snake of a granddad sold his soul to the devil for a 1958 Cadillac Biarritz. When he flies the coop, Satanaka Scratchand his crony Beals (short for Beelzebub) chase Bug down for her soul faster than she can say "repo." Before she knows it, Bug is trapped in a satanic smackdown to save herself, her friends and her Cadillac. Convoluted? Completely. Bizarre? Absolutely. Hilarious and accessible? Totally! Gill scores big in this action-packed, power-punch of a debut. His dialogue slam-dunks with sass and clever wit that eases the reader into the strange, interlocking chain of events that befall Bug in the first few chapters. His characters are fully realized, intelligent, believable and lovable. The odd, Paradise Lostlike plot probably carries the least appeal of all the elements, but the dialogue and characterizations gently pushor shove, actuallythe reader's suspension of disbelief over the edge. Seances! Hairspray! Basketball! Satan! All readers can do is buckle their seatbelts, close their eyes and take the plunge. (Fantasy. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Eunice Bug Smoot is a recent high-school graduate with all sorts of problems: she's about to get evicted from the flophouse apartment she rents, she's just been fired from her pizza-delivery job, and it seems like every day some idiot is giving her crap for being half-African American and half-Tejana. The only light in her life is her dead grandfather's classic 1958 Cadillac Biarritz and even that goes down the tubes when a demon named Mr. Beals materializes in the passenger seat and demands repossession of the vehicle. Turns out, her grandfather financed the car by selling his soul. Luckily, Bug's crush, a car-wash attendant, just happens to moonlight for the International Supernatural Immigration Service and he's got some ideas about how to deport this Illegal. Gill's debut has weirdness to spare: there's insect-puking villains, pizza-delivery contests with Satan, and some very high-stakes basketball. At times it can all be too much to swallow, but Bug is a refreshingly gutsy female protagonist with an attitude that will win over readers searching for something different.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2008 Booklist