Devil and the Bluebird

Infused with bluegrass and blues, Jennifer Mason-Black's first novel takes readers on a melodious road trip through a dark but magical American landscape.

One night, 17-year-old Blue Riley waits at the crossroads to make a deal with the Devil: her soul in exchange for finding her big sister, Cass, who left after their mother, a talented alt-country musician, died of cancer two years ago. However, the woman who appears that fateful night in "a red dress that dripped off her hips" wants a game, not a trade--she grants Blue six months to find Cass, but takes her voice in exchange. If Blue fails, she forfeits her soul and Cass's. Blue hits the road in rural Maine with no one and nothing on her side but the guitar she loves to play, her mother's. Now mute, she hitches her way west cross country, encountering kind strangers, dangerous criminals and the occasional ghost as her path twists in and out of reality. In true devilish fashion, "the woman in red" persists in changing the rules, keeping Blue constantly on the move.

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." --Jaclyn Fulwood, lead librarian at Del City Public Library, Okla.

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