Smart, quiet 14-year-old Loretta “Lolo” Wright struggles to stand up for herself until, on what should be a routine trip to a convenience store, her 16-year-old brother, James, is mistakenly accused of stealing by the police. Grammy Award–winning artist Keys co-authors a YA superhero graphic novel bearing the title of her hit song. Seekers of nitty-gritty magical details should look elsewhere, but the atmosphere and gratifying last chapter will please fans of romance and ambience. Alone and dissociated, “ike a drunkard swilling wine, a miser counting coins, she herself in magic.” Tomlinson’s strength is the “golden, drowsy landscape” with sensuous details like “the smell of flowering almond” and “ ‘crushed mint for a pillow.’ ” Her weaknesses are the repetitious dichotomy (“Woman or swan, wife or witch”) and a frustrating vagueness in the magic’s metaphysics. A sweet, tender suitor offers perfect love, but marriage seems to disallow freedom, so Doucette flees. When she discovers her own swan skin hidden under a mattress, she grabs her birthright of magical powers and flies off to learn sorcery. Doucette, in contrast, is treated coldly and trained to supervise a household. Her elder sisters are swan maidens: They practice magic, choose their own lovers and tauntingly relish their freedom. Doucette, a meek and envious youngest sister, progresses from sour to distant trying to find herself.
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