Friday, March 29, 2019

The Magnetic Girl - Review

Idgie Says:
This is a fascinating story of a young girl who feels deep guilt over an incident that occurred with her baby brother.  She takes that guilt and turns it into intense "therapy" to be able to communicate and help her brother.  Her father sees this skill and hones it for his own personal goal of getting her into the public eye, and of course, earning money from her skills.

The novel tells the story of the father in his younger days and what drives him in the present to push his daughter in the manner that he does, and also tells Lulu's story of struggling with guilt, adolescence and the desire to be what her father wants her to be.

I recommend this novel. 

___________________________________

The Magnetic Girl
Jessica Handler
Hub City Press
April, 2019

Hub City Press announces the forthcoming publication of Atlanta author Jessica Handler's debut historical novel The Magnetic Girl in May of 2019.

In rural north Georgia two decades after the Civil War, thirteen-year-old Lulu Hurst reaches high into her father’s bookshelf and pulls out an obscure book, The Truth of Mesmeric Influence.  Deemed gangly and undesirable, Lulu wants more than a lifetime of caring for her disabled baby brother, Leo, with whom she shares a profound and supernatural mental connection.

“I only wanted to be Lulu Hurst, the girl who captivated her brother until he could walk and talk and stand tall on his own. Then I would be the girl who could leave.”

Lulu begins to “captivate” her friends and family, controlling their thoughts and actions for brief moments at a time. After Lulu convinces a cousin she conducts electricity with her touch, her father sees a unique opportunity. He grooms his tall and indelicate daughter into an electrifying new woman: The Magnetic Girl. Lulu travels the Eastern seaboard, captivating enthusiastic crowds by lifting grown men in parlor chairs and throwing them across the stage with her “electrical charge.”
While adjusting to life on the vaudeville stage, Lulu harbors a secret belief that she can use her newfound gifts, as well as her growing notoriety, to heal her brother. As she delves into the mysterious book’s pages, she discovers keys to her father’s past and her own future--but how will she harness its secrets to heal her family?

Gorgeously envisioned, The Magnetic Girl is set at a time when the emerging presence of electricity raised suspicions about the other-worldly gospel of Spiritualism, and when women’s desire for political, cultural, and sexual presence electrified the country. Squarely in the realm of Emma Donoghue's The Wonder and Leslie Parry’s Church of Marvels, The Magnetic Girl is a unique portrait of a forgotten period in history, seen through the story of one young woman’s power over her family, her community, and ultimately, herself.

Jessica is the author of Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Invisible Sisters: A Memoir, which was named one of the “Twenty Five Books All Georgians Should Read” and Atlanta magazine’s “Best Memoir of 2009.” Jessica writes essays and nonfiction features that have appeared on NPR, in Tin House, Drunken Boat, Full Grown People, Brevity, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and More Magazine. Learn more at [www.jessicahandler.com](http://jessicahandler.com/.