Little, Kimberly Griffiths. The Time of the Fireflies
July 29th 2014 by Scholastic
E ARC from Netgalley.com
Larissa family is struggling with their Bayou Bridge
antiques store. Her mother is having a difficult pregnancy, the store is not
making enough, and the family needs to deal with a decrepit house at the edge
of town that they have inherited. When Larissa gets a call on one of the
antique phones in the shop, she hears a familiar voice telling her to trust the
fireflies and save her family. Sure enough, when she goes out to the house, a
swarm of fireflies magically take her across a decrepit bridge, and she finds
herself back in 1912, watching her ancestors. She begins to realize that a
family doll has been involved in all of the family tragedies, and when her mother
goes missing with the doll, she tries to change things before more tragedies
occur.
Strengths: This had a very nice of sense of place, even
though I am not usually fond of stories set in the south. The derelict mansion,
the generations of women, and even the evil doll are intriguing. Larissa’s own
accident, and her growing relationship with the girl she thinks caused it, adds
another level to the story. This is a bit creepier than this author’s When the
Butterflies Came, and I think will go over well with readers who like things
like Alender’s Bad Girls Don’t Die or even the addictive Phoebe Rivers Sara
Normal series.
Weaknesses: For some reason, I was really upset about the
role of the mother, especially when she runs off with only five weeks to go in
a problematic pregnancy. This made the book much scarier, especially for
younger readers.
As usual, an excellent review. I am featuring this one next week, and was spooked by the doll. (I must have some childhood trauma associated with dolls. Will have to ask my mother.)
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