#SneakPeekSunday - All the Wind in the World by Samantha Mabry

Title: All the Wind in the World
Author: Samantha Mabry
Genre: YA Magical Realism
Published: October 10, 2017
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Pages: 288
Goodreads

Synopsis

Sarah Jacqueline Crow and James Holt work in the vast maguey fields that span the bone-dry Southwest, a thirsty, infinite land that is both seductive and fearsome. In this rough, transient landscape, Sarah Jac and James have fallen in love. They’re tough and brave, and they have big dreams. Soon they will save up enough money to go east. But until then, they keep their heads down, their muscles tensed, and above all, their love secret.

When a horrible accident forces Sarah Jac and James to start over on a new, possibly cursed ranch called the Real Marvelous, the delicate balance they’ve found begins to give way. And James and Sarah Jac will have to pay a frighteningly high price for their love.

Sneak Peek Review

I received a copy of this sneak peek from Algonquin Young Readers through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

I hate that all I had for this was a sneak peek! I still have so many questions about what the heck is even going on in the world portrayed in this story. To me, it seems to be a near-future dystopian (basically everything west of the Mississippi is desert apparently), but the feel of society is a bit like during the Great Depression as portrayed in East of Eden by John Steinbeck. So maybe it's not a dystopian at all and is actually set in the not so distant past. I'm just not sure and haven't seen enough of the story to make a final conclusion. 

Then there is the relationship between Sarah and James. I would apparently have understood it better had I read the blurb before starting the sneak peek (one of these days I'll learn my lesson, I really will). It seemed like they were a couple, but they kept telling us that they're cousins, so that confused me. Based on the blurb, they clearly really are a couple and for some reason it's important for everyone else to think that they're cousins, which makes no sense to me at this point in the story (and is one of the biggest reasons why I wish I had the whole thing). 

In the sneak peek they had just gotten to the Real Marvelous ranch and because I have a decent understanding of foreshadowing and what it typically means for the future of a story, I know that stuff is going to get bad for them at Real Marvelous, like really bad, and probably really strange and almost unexplainable. And all of that worries me because these are kids and I don't want bad things to happen to them, and I need to know that they are okay. 

So, I'm going to have to buy this book at some point to make sure that Sarah and James ultimately survive and find their happy for now at the very least, because that is what I hope for them. - Katie 

Buy the Book

Amazon

About the Author

Samantha Mabry grew up in Texas playing bass guitar along to vinyl records, writing fan letters to rock stars, and reading big, big books, and credits her tendency toward magical thinking to her Grandmother Garcia, who would wash money in the kitchen sink to rinse off any bad spirits. She teaches writing and Latino literature at a community college in Dallas, Texas, where she lives with her husband, a historian, and her pets, including a cat named Mouse. She is the author of the novels A Fierce and Subtle Poison and All the Wind in the World. Visit her online at samanthamabry.com or on Twitter: @samanthamabry.