Review of Edna in the Desert by Maddy Lederman
Maddy Lederman’s work has appeared in The Huffington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Her short films were on the Independent Film Channel and screened at festivals across the U.S.A. She works in the art department for films and t.v. shows. A native New-Yorker, she loves to travel – particularly into the desert.
First of all massive apologies to the author for taking so long to review this paperback book which she posted to me ages ago. I will admit that the cover didn’t particularly grab me, and it has sat in my to read pile for an eternity until one day I idly picked it up…and then couldn’t put it down!
Told from the heroine’s point of view, Edna in the Desert is the most hilarious and realistic Young Adult book that I have read in a VERY LONG TIME. As a parent of a 16 year-old son, and a 9 year-old daughter who thinks she is a teenager, the precocious but incredibly loveable Edna really struck a chord with me. From the moment her desperate parents dropped her off with grandma and grandpa at their somewhat basic home in the Mojave Desert for the summer, right up until her final few moments waiting to be picked back up, I was completely gripped by her journey.
Stuck in the desert with her least favourite and uncool Grandma who spends all her time caring for her grandpa (A war veteran, who is suffering from some kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) Edna has a lot of growing up to do, and while the process was at times incredibly painful for her, it was beautiful as a reader to read.
It is very rare for an author to actually get inside the head of a teenager – and Lederman pulls this off spectacularly. Most Y.A. books have that adult writing as a teenager feel about them, but Edna’s voice is so strong and compelling that I definitely felt as if I was being given a tour of the teenage mind.
All of the characters are beautifully written and there is something for everything in this book, and I will be keeping hold of my copy and passing it onto my daughter when she is old enough to appreciate it. The only downside to the plot was that I couldn’t quite understand why given how they knew how hard life was for Edna’s grandma, why her parents didn’t do a lot more to help her out…
Edna in the Desert is definitely now on my list of all-time favourite Indie author books. (Currently up there with Floats the Dark Shadow, by Yves Fey)
You can find more at https://www.maddylederman.com
