The Hole in the Wall: 01/31/14

The Hole in the Wall by Lisa Rowe Fraustino is about a town suffering in the wake of uncontrolled strip mining. Those who can leave, have, creating a devastated ghost town.

Sebby (Sebastian), his twin sister and family are among the few families sticking it out. Soon, though, things start getting even weirder — eggs have turned to stone, Sebby's stomach is rock solid, his seems to be magnetized and he is seeing unusual colors. He's convinced that the strip mining is the source of all these odd events and he decides to do something about it.

Somewhere in the middle of these oddities is the titular hole in the wall and the eden like garden that's untouched by the mining or by the town. This little and magical oasis should be the main focus of the book, or at least more grounded in the over all flow of the plot (such as the hole in the wall that makes Stardust by Neil Gaiman possible). It could have also gone the direction of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Unfortunately, the hole in the wall garden gets buried in all the other strange stuff that happens to Sebby. There are too many unexplained events all screaming for attention.

Three stars

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