LitPick Review
Sephora Golding has always thought she would be a minor character in her mother’s fairy tale life. As a child, Sephora preferred staying away from the spotlight unlike her mother. But at sixteen, Sephora’s fairytale is more Grimm than Disney, and she begins to want more. Then Sephora meets Felix, who turns her life upside down.
Opinion:
“The word. What does it mean?”
“Infandous?”
He nods
“It means something that’s too terrible to be spoken aloud."
Elana K. Arnold does an excellent job conveying Sephora’s story in the form of a fairytale. The book explores the ups and downs of teenage life, including depression and finding your identity.
Arnold alternates Infandous by weaving fairy tales written by the Grimm brothers. As the story continues, Arnold incorporates the fairy tales into Sephora’s life retelling the events of a night gone bad. The crude, yet truthful, writing of this piece is hard hitting. The story brings to life the raw pain that a teenager goes through every day in a different form.
I think my favorite thing about this novel is the title, Infandous. I do not know if Arnold picked the name, but if she did, kudos to her for selecting a word that conveys the undermining truth of her story.
I give this book a 5 out of 5.
