2021
NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
relocate to North Carolina from California to help his parents provide palliative care to his dying Aunt Linda. After Aunt Linda’s cancer diagnosis became more severe, Ollie and his parents rent a neighboring house at a lake in North Carolina because “she’d needed some time away, to chill out and see family and actually enjoy herself for once” (3). Ollie is quickly “appointed the unofficial, unpaid, uncomplaining” nanny to Aunt Linda’s young children. Although he is busy chasing around his cousins, who he describes as “so damn cute,” Ollie has a good summer, “Great, even,” largely thanks to his burgeoning romance with Will (4). When Ollie’s relocation becomes permanent, however, and he finds that Will is not just a summer fling but also his closeted classmate, Ollie becomes much more unsettled about being in North Carolina. Ollie, as a gay teen, is nervous
about being himself, much less “coming out” in his new North Carolina small town. On his first day at Collinswood High, Ollie realizes he will “have to ‘come out’ here sooner or later, if you could call it coming out” because he had been out for years back home in San Jose (23). Ollie feels frustrated for what this relocation to North Carolina means for his identity, because he had “already gone through all that awkwardness” of coming out and felt as though he’d paid his dues. While Ollie hoped “people would kind of figure it out” and “we’d all just know and act like it was normal,” his “coming out” at Collinswood was certainly not that straightforward (23). Throughout the novel, Ollie has to grapple with his sexuality and being “out” in the rural South, both what that means for himself and what that means for Will. While his transition to North Carolina was certainly not easy, Ollie eventually
DEBUT NOVEL BY MEG CANNISTRA WINS NC AAUW AWARD Awarded since 1953, the American Association of University Women Young People’s Literature Award recognizes the most significant work of original juvenile literature published by a North Carolina author within the preceding year. In 2020, Meg Cannistra of Charlotte received the honor for her debut novel, The Trouble with Shooting Stars, published in 2019 by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. Due to the pandemic, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources posted Youtube videos of the winners’ responses to the news of their awards. In her award acceptance remarks, Cannistra explains “the inspiration” for her novel comes from my own childhood growing up in an Italian American family. I really wanted to showcase a positive representation of the Italian American culture . . . and show that Italian American families and being raised in an Italian American family is pretty typical. There’s so much love, a lot of food. Occasionally, we are stepping on each other’s toes, but at the end of the day we all support one another and truly care about one another.
Hear Cannistra’s full remarks here.
makes his own way in the “good Old North State,” and by the end of the novel, Ollie is able to create his own type of happy ending, even if it is not the fairy tale he initially expected. In both Sparrow and Only Mostly Devastated, readers will find unexpected, unique stories that reach far beyond the loss of innocence saga typically associated with YA fiction. I once spotted a sign at my hometown public library in Enka-Candler, NC, that read, “Don’t be afraid to read Young Adult fiction! Young Adult books are not just for young adults.” Books like Sparrow and Only Mostly Devastated make this statement ring true. In these novels, readers find stories of strength, violence, grief, and renewal that are worth reading, no matter one’s age. From Sparrow and Lucas, Ollie and Will, all of us have much to learn about love and loss, grief and laughter, and above all else, how to create our happily ever afters. n
COURTESY OF SIMON & SCHUSTER
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