Martha Brockenbrough is the author of two books for adults and five books for young readers, including The Game of Love and Death, which earned four starred reviews and was a Kirkus Prize finalist, Devine Intervention, and The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and their two daughters. Visit her online at marthabrockenbrough.com.
"Brockenbrough devises a devilishly clever narrative, alternating
Jerome's first-person account with Heidi's tightly focused
third-person perspective...As the clock ticks down on Heidi's soul,
readers will be rooting for both Jerome and Heidi with all their
hearts." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Jerome's bumbling logic and wickedly funny observations are what
make Brockenbrough's first book for teens so much fun. Underneath
the occasionally risqué humor and unexpected plot twists (including
the possession of multiple animals' bodies) is an insightful story
about seizing life for all it's worth while you have the chance."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Brockenbrough's droll style delivers some laugh-out-loud moments.
Reluctant readers will find the Heidi-Jerome dynamic entertaining
and heartrending." -- School Library Journal
"This is a love story. Not a romantic love story, but a story of
the development of a deep caring relationship with another being.
Humorous and sad at times, it brings us to ask ourselves what we
think about heaven and how we get there. Believable and fast-paced,
it keeps us reading to the end." -- Library Media Connection
Publisher's Weekly
Heroes don\u2019t get much more unlikely than Jerome Hancock, who
met an early demise
courtesy of an arrow to the head. In the 16 years since, Jerome,
frozen at age 17, has been
laboring through afterlife rehab, trying to make it into heaven.
He\u2019s not promising
material, but he\u2019s game, sticking close to Heidi Devine, the
soul he\u2019s been assigned for
guardian angel duty. \u201cHow much work could a baby be?\u201d he
says. \u201cAlso, her mom was
hot, so I didn\u2019t mind hanging around one bit.\u201d Heidi
grows up to be an awkward, selfconscious
teen, who thinks motormouth Jerome is just the voice inside her
head until she
accidentally falls through pond ice and drowns, discovering that
there is a soul that goes
along with that voice. But is Heidi really dead? Jerome\u2019s
bumbling logic and wickedly
funny observations are what make Brockenbrough\u2019s first book
for teens so much fun.
Underneath the occasionally risqu\u00e9 humor and unexpected plot
twists (including the
possession of multiple animals\u2019 bodies) is an insightful story
about seizing life for all it\u2019s
worth while you have the chance. Ages 12-up. - Jill Corcoran, the
Herman Agency
Review: 'Devine Intervention' shows there's life in afterlifeMartha
Brockenbrough's young adult debut is a snarky but sweet tale of
teen angels in training.
By Susan Carpenter, Los Angeles Times
June 11, 2012
In Martha Brockenbrough's heaven, old people show too much leg
playing leap frog, and the church choir covers classic rock.
Clearly, Brockenbrough is not a follower of the New Testament.
That's good news for heathen readers who will delight in the
author's absurdist take on the after life in her devilishly riotous
young adult debut, \u0022Devine Intervention.\u0022 Steeped in the
heavenly tropes of guardian angels and lost souls, \u0022Devine
Intervention\u0022 is a satire in the vein of Libba Bray's
\u0022Beauty Queens, \u0022 only with a decidedly sacrilegious
twist.
It opens with a page from a handbook that is sent, upon death, to
select members of SRPNT--the Soul Rehab Program for Nefarious Teens
(Deceased) -- in an effort to combat the \u0022growing problem of
crowding in the lower levels of Hell.\u0022 One of those teens is a
17-year-old named Jerome, who had the misfortune of being punctured
in the forehead by a friend's wayward arrow and finds himself at
the pearly gates that are festooned with motivational posters and
guarded by a man with \u0022a mustache the size of a
harmonica.\u0022
Jerome reacts as any dead teen would when denied immediate entrance
and given specific rules to follow to reclaim his soul. He
misplaces the handbook and proceeds to violate its Ten Commandments
for the Dead.
Among his soul rehab assignments was playing guardian angel to
16-year-old Heidi, but the one time he was really needed, Jerome
was too busy yukking it up with a fellow SRPNT member to prevent
Heidi from walking across a frozen pond and falling through the ice
to her death. Now Heidi and Jerome are both in soul limbo.
The two are quite the odd couple. Heidi is a \u0022not hot ...
cross-dressing lumberjack, \u0022 according to one of the book's
uncharitable bit players. Jerome is a sexually frustrated virgin.
But in death, their relationship is like an old marriage -- more
familiar than romantic, as well as conflicted, especially once
Heidi realizes Jerome may have jeopardized her soul through sheer
laziness.
They do have one thing in common that's likely to resonate with the
book's intended audience. Neither Jerome nor Heidi felt loved by
friends or family or were especially true to themselves when
living. Death allows them to witness loved ones from another plane
like a scene from Charles Dickens' \u0022A Christmas Carol.\u0022
Seeing others grieve their absence builds the self esteem of these
troubled souls and brings some emotional heft to a story where
comedy dominates.
\u0022Devine Intervention\u0022 is told in chapters that volley
between a third-person perspective on Heidi and first-person
narratives about Jerome. While both perspectives are written with
searingly inventive humor, it's Jerome's voice that will have
readers flipping pages as quickly as they can turn them to see what
he'll have to say next.
Brockenbrough is a gifted writer who finds amusement in focusing on
life's minutiae and who captures the slow-mo drama with which teens
experience them, such as the time when Heidi's \u0022tongue felt
like a lump of nasty cotton living in the armpit of a bum who has
an apartment at the dump and not even the good kind of dump with
busted car parts. The kind with fish heads ... and old transvestite
wigs.\u0022
It is a pleasure to read a writer who so delights in language, and
who writes so captivatingly in a teen voice with such imaginative
description.
The story isn't without its flaws, however. The timeline of certain
scenes is confusing, including the lead-up to the book's
conclusion, which sees Heidi's fading soul morph in and out of a
dog's body. But for readers who appreciate an apocryp
Ask a Question About this Product More... |