Lucretia and the Kroons

Aug 02, 2012 Isa rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: horror, netgalley, urban-fantasy, mystery, tearjerker, read-2012

Originally posted at Bookmarks.

"Being young doesn’t protect you. Horrors come for kids, too."

Okay, why have I never heard of Victor LaValle? If the rest of his work is like this novella, it should be on prominent display in every bookshop, and library, and topping lists everywhere.

I started this book expecting a horror story with all the trappings of the genre. Instead I was taken on a vivid stroll through the life of a little girl from Queens and how she was dealing with her best friend's immin...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Anacrasia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc

*I got this book from Netgalley for review*

When I saw that the genre is Horror,my first instinct was to avoid reading it.Even as a child I used to avoid reading Goosebumps (thought the reason can be attributed more to a rather insensitive beast who took great pleasures in terrifying his little sister..!).Anyway,I am going off the topic..Hey! No, I am NOT ! By now most of you think I am crazy..! Well, I am not! You see,this book fantastically reminded me of such incidents:Older brother narrating...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, supernatural

The opening paragraph hooks you in successfully, it starts off intriguingly and then gathers momentum the pace does not back down it becomes a see and feel adventure. The author successfully places you into an eerie sense of place with strange occurrences and creepy characters. It starts of with the main protagonist view on being a twelve year old that’s not quite blossomed as much as she wished. She expresses hows shes not fortunate like other girls who are showing more like a woman’s body. She...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Nick Turner rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, close-relations, present, advocacy, bad-trope

This novella takes you into the world of twelve-year old Lucretia Gardner - Loochie to her friends. Content spoiler: (view spoiler).

The narrative begins with birthday party drama. When Loochie is distracted missing her sick friend, her Mother must drag her to the party where three self-absorbed acquaintances await uninterestedly.

Loochie's elder brother Louis tells her why the top floor apartment has been boarded up for years. A family called the Kroons...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Sharon Tyler rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lucretia and the Kroons is a young adult novella by Victor LaValle. This novella is a fantasy tale with more than a little touch of horror. Lucretia, or Loochie, is struggling to understand and accept her friend Sunny's cancer and impending death. After a story told by Loochie's brother, hr preperations for a belated birthday party with Sunny, Loochie is drawn into a journey to protect her friend, and herself, from the legendary Kroons from apartment 6D. Can Loochie survive the surreal world of...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Jean rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-grade

Lucretia Gardner and her best friend, Zhao Hun Soong, have a lot in common. Both girls are twelve years old and have nicknames (Lucretia is “Loochie” and Zhao is “Sunny”). They go to the same school and live in the same building in Flushing, Queens – in fact Loochie’s apartment is directly below Sunny’s. But there’s one thing they don’t share: only Sunny has cancer. Loochie wants to celebrate her birthday with Sunny, but this is impossible because Sunny is out of the state getting yet another tr...more Lucretia Gardner and her best friend, Zhao Hun Soong, have a lot in common. Both girls are twelve years old and have nicknames (Lucretia is “Loochie” and Zhao is “Sunny”). They go to the same school and live in the same building in Flushing, Queens – in fact Loochie’s apartment is directly below Sunny’s. But there’s one thing they don’t share: only Sunny has cancer. Loochie wants to celebrate her birthday with Sunny, but this is impossible because Sunny is out of the state getting yet another treatment. When Sunny finally does return to Queens, she is so sickly that Loochie has to beg to spend time with her. The day they are supposed to hang out, Sunny disappears and a very creepy, deformed person comes to lead Loochie to her best friend – but it means going into apartment 6D, which is supposedly haunted by the shells of former crackheads. What Loochie finds in 6D can only be described as a horrifying nightmare, but she must fight through it to save her friend.

Author Victor LaValle has certainly created a dark world for his preteen characters to inhabit. LaValle does an excellent job portraying the strained friendship between Loochie and Sunny as well as the girls’ emotions regarding cancer and death. I can see readers who have watched a friend suffer through any serious disease relate to Loochie and her desire for her friend’s healing and for things to just go back to how they were before. But when the story turned more towards fantasy with the Kroons in apartment 6D, it got too dark and nightmarish for me.

I did enjoy the author’s writing. He used some good descriptive phrases, such as describing the cool girls at school as “clumped together like socks that had just come out of the dryer.” I also liked the idea he proposed of hell and heaven as places we could access from earth. He has Loochie wonder about hell and ask, “why couldn’t [it] be located in a sixth-floor apartment […]?” And he presents heaven as a baseball stadium. Sunny describes it like this: “Everyone who makes it inside is at peace. It’s bright and warm all day. You can take a seat in the stands or run around with other kids down on the field. There’s no pain in there. No need for hospital visits. Doesn’t that sound nice?” This passage is particularly heart-wrenching coming from Sunny and seeing what her life has degraded into due to her cancer. For her, heaven is simply living a normal childhood. And the author’s descriptions of the horrors Loochie encounters are truly the things of nightmares, with a playground full of abandoned toys left by vanished children, people with slack faces and no jawbones chasing after her, and mud so thick and deep that she nearly drowns in it.

I guess that was the author’s point in writing the story – to scare the reader – but I didn’t enjoy that part of the story. That doesn’t mean the intended audience won’t like it, but hopefully they will be prepared for the darkness they are getting into when reading this novella. I would definitely recommend it for the older middle-grade reader due to the subject matter.
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Sep 17, 2012 Maxine McLister rated it 2 of 5 stars

Twelve-year-old Lucretia is force to celebrate her birthday without her best friend, Sunny, who is away receiving cancer treatments. When she returns, Lucretia has saved a piece of cake for her and they plan a party just for them. However, Sunny is kidnapped by some zombie-like creatures in the apartment above Looch's. Lucretia sets out to save her friend only to find herself in a world that is like a spoiled copy of her own.

I wanted to like this novella. I liked the metaphor for illness and the...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Julie G rated it 5 of 5 stars

In an apartment in Flushing, Queens, Lucretia (Loochie) Gardner is about to celebrate her twelfth birthday. But her best friend can't be there; Sunny's in Memphis getting treatment for her cancer. And the three girls who do show up, are no friends.

As a beginning to a youth-fiction novella, this was not even remotely what I'd expected. But it struck so close to home, I found myself zipping through the next few pages - desperately hoping for retribution. Suddenly, I was a wounded 12-year-old girl...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Sara Thompson rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley

Warning - Spoilers included
This is the wonderful description that snagged my attention: Lucretia's best friend and upstairs neighbor Sunny-a sweet pitbull of a kid, even as she struggles with a mysterious illness-has gone missing. The only way to get her back is for Lucretia to climb the rickety fire escape of their Queens tenement and crawl through the window of apartment 6D, portal to a vast shadowland of missing kids ruled by a nightmarish family of mutants whose designs on the children are u...more Warning - Spoilers included
This is the wonderful description that snagged my attention: Lucretia's best friend and upstairs neighbor Sunny-a sweet pitbull of a kid, even as she struggles with a mysterious illness-has gone missing. The only way to get her back is for Lucretia to climb the rickety fire escape of their Queens tenement and crawl through the window of apartment 6D, portal to a vast shadowland of missing kids ruled by a nightmarish family of mutants whose designs on the children are unknown. Her search for Sunny takes Lucretia through a dark fantasyland where she finds lush forests growing from concrete, pigeon-winged rodents, and haunted playgrounds. Her quest ultimately forces her to confront the most frightening specter of all: losing, forever, the thing you love the most.

Lucretia and the Kroons is a dazzlingly imaginative adventure story and a moving exploration of the power of friendship and the terror of loss. This all-new novella serves as the perfect companion piece to The Devil in Silver, a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror that continues the story of Lucretia.

I have never read The Devil in Silver nor have I heard of Victor LaValle so maybe I was the wrong audience but I was shocked. The writing is not only terrible but the story was beyond disturbing. I expected a ghost story and some bumps in the night. I'm not a horror light weight. I have read some disturbing stories but there was always something about them that was intriguing.
Lucretia and her friend are twelve and the story feels YA as you start reading it. Lucretia's friend Sunny has cancer - if I remember correctly they were pretty clear about her illness, if not I didn't feel like it was a mystery. She was sick and dying.
The apartment 6D supposedly has decomposing crackheads that like to snag children and do horrific things to them.
Lucretia gets a visit from a Kroon (crackhead from 6D) and she is lead to believe that Sunny has been taken by them. She climbs into the apartment to rescue her friend only to find that the rooms change into a park near their house. There was no real mystery here because Lucretia kept clarifying that she knew she wasn't dreaming and at one point Sunny tells her this is how you get to heaven.
The conclusion throws a line in about Lucretia eventually being diagnosed with Bi-polar because no one believes her. To be honest - I was appalled. This is an insult to those with Bi-polar since one incident as a child would be discounted as imagination not a diagnosis. Now perhaps there's more to the story but I'll never know because I'm not reading any more of LaValle's works. I don't know how he got published if this is how he puts together a book. If this is just a crappy example of his work then the publisher is foolish to let this be the sample they put out there.

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Aug 19, 2012 Ann Sloan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Don’t go near 6D. Not if you value your life. That was where the Kroons live, and they’re crackheads. That’s the advice Loochie’s brother, Louis, gives her, and he was ten years older than she, so he knows.
However, when your best friend, Sunny, who has cancer, is supposed to come play but doesn’t, you take chances, venture up the fire escape and find out whether the Kroons have Sunny.
Loochie meets monsters and enters a dark fantasyland where she finds lush forests growing from concrete, pigeon-...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Patti rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'm an adult who occasionally enjoys reading young adult fiction with a strong fantasy element. Mainstream fantasy for adults sometimes has too much emphasis on either warfare or romance for my taste, when I'm really just looking for escapism in a well-crafted fantasy setting. Lucretia and the Kroons looked like it would be exactly the sort of ebook I'd love but I found myself plodding through it to get to the end.

The story follows a pretty common fantasy theme. A kid who is dealing with the fe...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Darryl rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novella, which serves as a prequel to LaValle's latest novel The Devil in Silver, is about Lucretia ("Loochie") Granger, a girl who lives with her mother in an apartment in Queens, NY at the turn of the millenium. Her 12th birthday party was ruined by three mean girls from her school who were unwanted guests invited by Loochie's mother. Her best friend Sunny, a girl who lives in the same building, was undergoing treatment for cancer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis at tha...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, net_galley, urban-fantasy

Lucretia and the Kroons is considered literate horror and is an excellent piece of novella length writing. It is also a touching story as it examines the relationship between Lucretia and her best friend Sunny.

Victor LaValle manages to paint an accurate picture of what it's like to be a 12 year old girl. From the beginning with her social concerns about her friends who she sees later "clumped together like socks that had just come out of the dryer" to her personal concerns about appearance and w...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Elvina Barclay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle, Spiegel & Grau for Random House, 2012, 164 pages. ARC, eBook
For twelve year old Lucretia “Loochie” Gardner a perfect birthday party would be to have all her best friends come to her party. But her very best friend, Sunny, is in Memphis at St. Jude’s Hospital getting treatment for cancer. Three of her other friends have come the small, two bedroom apartment that Lucretia shares with her mom for a small party. Loochie, as she is known to her family, s...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Christy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had never read any of Victor Lavelle's work before reading about Lucretia. Just for the record, I now want to read more. This story is enthralling. It pulled me in from the beginning and I didn't want to put it down.

Lucretia is a young girl who only wants to spend her birthday with her sick friend. We meet Loochie and her mother at her birthday party where, unfortunately, her best friend has been forced to miss because of her sickness. Needless to say, this doesn't put Loochie in much of a...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Celine rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: children, horror, short-stories, zombies

Lucretia and the Kroons is the story of twelve year-old Lucretia (Loochie) dealing with her best friend Sunny dying. It also features under-age smoking, zombies and flying rats.

Even though this novella is quite enjoyable, it just doesn't work for me. I don't see for what audience Lucretia and the Kroons is written. I wouldn't let my kid read this: at one point Loochie exclaims "Thank God for cigarettes!". At no point in the story it is even remotely made clear that smoking is unhealthy and that...more Lucretia and the Kroons is the story of twelve year-old Lucretia (Loochie) dealing with her best friend Sunny dying. It also features under-age smoking, zombies and flying rats.

Even though this novella is quite enjoyable, it just doesn't work for me. I don't see for what audience Lucretia and the Kroons is written. I wouldn't let my kid read this: at one point Loochie exclaims "Thank God for cigarettes!". At no point in the story it is even remotely made clear that smoking is unhealthy and that it kills people. Who advocates smoking in a children's book? On the other hand, it doesn't seem written for adults either. The writing is terribly stilted and simplistic:

Alice grunted with the exertion but she made it. All the way across. Where Sunny crouched. (at about 69%)

This would have been excusable had the novella been written from the viewpoint of Loochie, but it isn't. There is absolutely no reason to simplify your language when you're talking about children.

Because Lucretia and the Kroons seemed to have no purpose, I wasn't gripped by the story and didn't very much care about Loochie's perils. If you get killed by some hallucination you got from getting stoned while you're twelve, well, I'm not sure I care that much.

This paragraph contains spoilers for the ending.

(view spoiler)

I wouldn't know who to recommend this to. You could pick it up if you're bored and you're looking for some zombie action? Or maybe this novella is meant to "push boundaries" and be "groundbreaking", which I don't see personally, but maybe you will. (less)

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Oct 07, 2012 Carrie Ardoin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-netgalley

Lucretia is 12 years old and losing her best friend to cancer. Since Sunny is her only friend, dealing with this is not something she's doing well.

One day when Sunny is supposed to come over to visit, Lucretia finds out she has been taken by the creepy upstairs neighbors. Her older brother told her they were called the Kroons, and they have been living forever. Lucretia sets out to save her only friend in this world.

This was a very creative story of a young girl just trying to work out her feel...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Meganm922 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a short novella, but full of adventure. I really enjoyed it.

Lucretia’s brother tells her a story about the people upstairs in apartment 6D that frightens and intrigues Lucretia. Her best friend Sunny is struggling with cancer and is supposed to hang out for 2 hours in Lucretia’s apartment. When she doesn’t show up, Lucretia discovers she may have been in apartment 6D and embarks on an adventure to find her....more

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Aug 18, 2012 Jaidis Shaw rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lucretia "Loochie" Gardner is your average twelve-year-old living in Queens. While her best friend Sunny is away receiving treatments for her illness, Loochie is left feeling alienated and alone. She struggles with issues that all young girls go through: fitting in at school, puberty, appearances. So when Sunny finally returns home, Loochie is determined to have fun to make up for their lost time together. That is, until Sunny goes missing and Loochie must find the courage to face the Kroons in...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novella is a surreal story of Lucretia, a 12-year-old girl who is a late bloomer. Her mom tries to have a birthday party for her, but it doesn't go well and Lucretia decides to save the cake until her best friend Sunny is home. Sunny has been in the hospital getting cancer treatment.
It is a couple months before Sunny comes home, and the day of the delayed birthday celebrations arrives. Lucretia's mother goes out to lunch with Lucretia's older brother Louis, and Sunny is expected soon. Inste...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Bia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks-i-have, netgalley

Well, it's more like a 2.5 stars for me...

“Being young didn’t protect anyone. Horrors came for kids, too.”
“It’s amazing what a person can do when her life depends on it”.

I don’t think this book is for me and that is sad because while I was reading the summary I thought it had a good concept and it seemed like a great read…

This is the story of Lucretia (Loochie) and her friend Sunny. They are both 12 year-old girls that are best friends forever. Sunny has been fighting a cancer and couldn’t...more Well, it's more like a 2.5 stars for me...

“Being young didn’t protect anyone. Horrors came for kids, too.”
“It’s amazing what a person can do when her life depends on it”.

I don’t think this book is for me and that is sad because while I was reading the summary I thought it had a good concept and it seemed like a great read…

This is the story of Lucretia (Loochie) and her friend Sunny. They are both 12 year-old girls that are best friends forever. Sunny has been fighting a cancer and couldn’t spend Loochie’s bday with her (since she was in a hospital at the time). After two months, Sunny is finally home, but not doing much better. Loochie’s brother, Louis, told her all about the Kroons (some family that was crack addicted and lived at the apartment 6D in the 80’s) and their “disease”.

There was an ambulance (and I really thought Sunny was not ok at that moment) and suddenly there was a female Kroon at Loochie’s window and Sunny had to be rescue from the Kroons. From this point on there is a loooooot of fantasy and creative imagination.

It’s an analogy to how an adult should explain to a child things like heaven, death and bad things, as well as how a psychology disease can manifest in everyone.

My favorite quotes were:

Sunny: “If I understand her and she understands me then maybe you’re the only one who’s in the wrong place.”

Sunny: ““Right after I gave you those cigarettes I leaned out and watched you go into your apartment. You were moving so fast! Then my grandmother came and got me. I wasn’t feeling too good when I leaned back in, like I couldn’t really breathe, so gon-gon took me to my bedroom. She put me down in bed and went to call the ambulance.
"I was on the bed and my chest started hurting, a lot. I knew you were waiting for downstairs so I tried to get up anyway but I all I did was roll off the bed. It feels like I’ve been here a couple months, but I’m not sure. I knew you were going to come. I felt it. And I felt like I had to see you before I could go. It was almost like I had to wait for you, or else I couldn’t go to Shea.””

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book...(less)

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Aug 05, 2012 Claire McAlpine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Wasn't sure quite who this book was aimed at when it was suggested to me by the publisher and since it is a 120 page novella and a new author who I note has written some excellent articles and essays on narrative perspective and voice I thought I'd download it to kindle and read.

Its clearly a young persons book and an interesting take on a 12 year old dealing with growing up and the pain of separation from her best friend who has a terminal illness. Rather than get sentimental LaValle's flourish...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, horror, net-galley

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was sent an invite from Random House to download a free ARC of this book through NetGalley.

This book is fairly fast-paced and drew me right in. I sped through reading it, and it's a quick-read due to writing style, intrigue, and novella length.

I found it to be enjoyable, and perfect for something quick and easy to read. The story isn't very graphic, and I'm not sure what the age group is for it, but I'm guessing perhaps a teen book.

The main character is 12 years old, and is attempting to cop...more I was sent an invite from Random House to download a free ARC of this book through NetGalley.

This book is fairly fast-paced and drew me right in. I sped through reading it, and it's a quick-read due to writing style, intrigue, and novella length.

I found it to be enjoyable, and perfect for something quick and easy to read. The story isn't very graphic, and I'm not sure what the age group is for it, but I'm guessing perhaps a teen book.

The main character is 12 years old, and is attempting to cope with her best friend who is dying from cancer. It is an interesting look into a middle-schooler's life in Queens NY. It's not written too seriously, so you can tell it's going to be a bit odd, once you get going with it. All in all, it's a rather bizarre tale, that makes sense at the end once you realize that her trip down the rabbit hole is due to Lucretia's mental illness.

I felt that the ending describing her mental illness as the cause of this weird journey to an alternate world from apartment 6A, could have been much longer, and told much more of a story. I got a little distracted by all the action happening once Lucretia entered the alternate world park. Some parts were hard for me to visualize, and it seemed long in comparison to the more interesting part of WHY she was having this journey. A bigger focus on her mental illness would have been more intriguing to me, but it wasn't the focus of this story. Lucretia meeting these mysterious Kroons was the focus.

After getting to the end, I was happy to find out that there was a reason for her suddenly screaming "Whores!" at her friends and sending them away, her dressing up like a 6 year old at her 12 year old birthday party, and her general oddity. Exploring this aspect in more detail, even in a short story, would have been awesome, in my opinion.

Something that bothered me, besides the too-quick wrap-up at the end of the story, was her alternate world imaginings being explained as being bipolar. It sounds more like schizophrenia to me, but I'm not an expert. I just think it sounds a little off as a reason for her behavior, and it's always hard for me to buy into a story that seems like it has facts that don't match up.

Overall, it was a good read. The author has a great imagination, and it was well-written. I could see this as an episode of Twilight Zone or some odd mini-series. Kind of gave me that early Stephen King feeling.
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Oct 11, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Lucretia and the Kroons had a very "Alice in Wonderland" feel to it, but with a very dark twist to it. I actually had a hard time determining what the target demographic was for this one. Generally, with the main character being 12 years old, it would land in the middle-grade genre. However, I am not so sure that would be the appropriate demographic for it, either, because the story gets very dark.

The main character, Lucretia Gardner, is a 12-year-old girl living in New York City who has to dea...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

Okay, so this is a pretty unique story. The first half is set in the real world with Lucretia, nicknamed Loochie, having a birthday party for herself. She loosely fits in with three girls who I have to say are real snots who her mother has invited to her house for a party. It doesn't end well. Loochie throws them out calling them whores. She puts her ice cream cake back in the freezer and tells her mom she'll celebrate her birthday when her bestfriend, Sunny comes home from cancer treatment in T...more Okay, so this is a pretty unique story. The first half is set in the real world with Lucretia, nicknamed Loochie, having a birthday party for herself. She loosely fits in with three girls who I have to say are real snots who her mother has invited to her house for a party. It doesn't end well. Loochie throws them out calling them whores. She puts her ice cream cake back in the freezer and tells her mom she'll celebrate her birthday when her bestfriend, Sunny comes home from cancer treatment in Tennessee. It did surprise me that Sunny was in Tennessee getting treatment when they lived in NYC with supposedly the best doctors and I always assumed the best facilities and treatments for cancer.

Months later, Sunny comes home and Loochie is in denial. She sees how frail her friend is, how hard she has to work to breathe, but she still thinks her friend is coming down to spend a few hours with her and they'll celebrate her birthday. While waiting her brother drops by to pick her mom up for lunch. He tells her about the Kroons in 6D who snatch little kids and burn them up. That they almost got him one time. He tells her, "Being young doesn't protect you. Horrors come for kids, too." Loochie's mind is focused on the Kroons as she listens to sirens wail up the street and stop at her building. She knows there are a lot of old people in her building and wonders who they came for. It never enters her mind that it could be for Sunny.

Circumstances lead her to the fire escape again where she sees Sunny's grandmother bent over with wracking sobs. The Kroons have Sunny and Loochie is on her way to get her back. In through the window she goes and immediately her belt and shoes are snatched off of her by a strange man with a dented face.
She gets loose and thus begins her journey into the strange land of 6D. There is a park there, the one she and Sunny always visited, Flushing Meadows. And though it's a bit askew, it is their park and she knows exactly where to find Sunny. She is chased by the Kroons but escapes several times and comes to the Playground for Lost Children. There isn't a child in sight. Just abandoned toys all over. And she wonders if this is where Sunny and all the other sick children go. But there are no bones. So she doesn't give up hope. And that is where she and Sunny are reunited. Sunny is fiesty as ever and they outrun and outsmart the Kroons with the help of one of the other Kroons.

Slowly, as they spend their remaining time together, Sunny explains that she is headed to the Shea, a stadium where kids spend eternity running around sitting wherever they want, never sick. She even thinks her hair might grow back and she'll never have to get more treatments. Loochie asks her to stay, asks her "Don't you love me?" And Sunny asks the same. It's a time of transition, of letting go of Sunny. There is a lot of symbolism in the novel even as they battle the Kroons.

It's a unique story, a prequel to The Devil in Silver, an adult novel, but I think it can stand alone. The last few pages seemed to be tacked onto the story as an after thought and felt a little jarring. Like it hadn't been written by the same author. Lucretia had been written so tenderly and carefully, her time with the Kroons so thoughtfully and symbolic, I just felt the last few pages could have had the same effort put into them.

There is some strong language in it, but only a couple of times and it does deal with death. Use your best judgement as to age appropriateness. This is not billed as YA but could definitely be.

I was asked to review this by Random House publishing. I received a copy for review from NetGalley. I was not compensated for my review. The opinions in my review are my own.

Heather(less)

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Aug 11, 2012 Jaclyn rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review also published on Literary Treats

Being young didn't protect anyone. Horrors came for kids too. [p. 163/4]

For twelve-year-old Loochie, the horror is that her best friend Sunny is dying from cancer, and no matter what she does, she is helpless to save her. I liked the beginning of this novella -- all Loochie wants for her twelfth birthday is to celebrate with Sunny. Unfortunately Sunny is undergoing treatment and so is unable to attend the party Loochie's mom throws for her. I like LaV...more This review also published on Literary Treats

Being young didn't protect anyone. Horrors came for kids too. [p. 163/4]

For twelve-year-old Loochie, the horror is that her best friend Sunny is dying from cancer, and no matter what she does, she is helpless to save her. I liked the beginning of this novella -- all Loochie wants for her twelfth birthday is to celebrate with Sunny. Unfortunately Sunny is undergoing treatment and so is unable to attend the party Loochie's mom throws for her. I like LaValle's delicacy in depicting the mother/daughter relationship — Loochie's unwillingness to believe that Sunny's condition is irreversible, contrasted with her mother's gentle suggestion that she make friends with other girls (somewhat insensitive, but still well-intentioned). I'm a sap for stories about people dealing with loss (I loved A Monster Calls), and LaValle's beginning made me think this novella would be emotional as well.

Unfortunately, it falls apart for me once the story really gets going. Lucretia and the Kroons is about Sunny going missing, and Loochie having to travel to the mysterious apartment 6D to rescue her. 6D is ruled by the Kroons, creatures who have reportedly used crack (according to Loochie's older brother) and have parts of their faces missing. The Kroons appear mostly as zombie creatures who, for some unknown (at least for most of the novella) reason, keep kids in their lair forever, and Loochie believes they now have Sunny.

There are several ways this story could have gone, and I was hoping for a masterfully crafted horror tale that also works as a metaphor for Loochie's fear at losing Sunny. Instead, I thought the story was a mess. It was confusing, unable to work either as a full on horror piece or a realistic story. As Loochie explores 6D, part of her wonders how a park or any of the other locations and structures she encounters could exist inside an apartment unit. Her confusion is understandable; unfortunately, LaValle never develops his world fully enough for the reader to grasp it either. I eventually just had to ignore all the references to 6D being an apartment unit (the entire "real"/realistic world) just to make sense of the story's geography.

Loochie's search for Sunny and her attempts to outrun the Kroons also felt very disjointed. I can understand Loochie not having a plan on how to locate Sunny, but there didn't seem to be a logical sequence either in her search. I could follow the thread up until she entered 6D, then the events just seemed haphazard. As well, because we didn't really understand anything about the Kroons, beyond the fact that they looked like zombies, there was never a sense of real menace about them. It is possible to make a frightening monster without much detail (again, see A Monster Calls), and I can understand Loochie not knowing exactly why the Kroons are scary. However, there just isn't enough about them for the reader to grasp, which makes this reader, at least, not care.

The story progresses as expected, and once we get touches of the real world, particularly about Sunny's condition, the story strikes some minor emotional notes. But it's difficult to lose oneself in the deeper layers of the story when the basic framework itself is so unclear.

The last couple of pages, giving a glimpse into Loochie's life at thirteen, make sense only to remind us that this novella is a prequel (or companion piece, as it's called in Goodreads) to LaValle's novel The Devil in Silver. Perhaps reading that one will give me a better appreciation of this novella. As a stand-alone, Lucretia and the Kroons may have some highlights, but the central action was just too problematic.

+

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for sending me the e-gallery of this book via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.(less)

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Sep 10, 2012 Lynn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lucretia is a bit of an awkward adolescent girl whose best friend, Sunny, is dying of cancer. Lucretia puts her birthday celebration on hold for Sunny, who is in the hospital undergoing another round of treatment. But on the day that Sunny is supposed to come over, a number of weird things occur. It starts with Lucretia's brother telling her the story of the Kroons who live in apartment 6D of their building. Louis tells Lucretia that the Kroons have been locked in their apartment because they ar...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Randa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-netgalley, scary-horror, mysterious

The cover:
This cover makes you wonder what will Lucretia uncover behind the fold?
It is simple and clear. A very well done cover for this particular book. And it proves that the saying “Never judge a book by its cover.” is true.

The storyline:
This story is full of intense moments, sadness, realistic facts and scary moments.
I do not won’t to spoil this book at all because you need to read this book for yourself to know what I’m talking about you, but here’s a short summary so you know what this is...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Jacquelyn rated it 1 of 5 stars

1.5 Stars

Victor LaValle

I received this ebook from Netgalley and I started reading it because the description of the book seemed to be interesting. When the book started it just seemed to drag and then as the story went on it picked up speed but it like threw me for a tailspin. I was so confused when Lucretia ended up in the apartment was that real or not real I understand that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but as far as I know bipolar disorder has no such delusions like schizophrenia....more

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Aug 21, 2012 Suzanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: net-galley

I was fortunate enough to receive this book through Net Galley. As always, I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to read and review this book, and I never allow receiving a book for free to alter my opinion.

I instantly connected with Lucretia. I am not sure if it was because her Flushing apartment was described so vividly, and I grew up in Queens/NYC (my grandparents still live in a Flushing apartment); or if it was due to the way she stood up so vehemently for herself against her...more

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