Time Slip Tuesday-- The Time of the Fireflies

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.