Review: Lucretia and the Kroons
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 11, 2012
Lucretia and the Kroons had a very "Alice in Wonderland" feel to it, but with a very dark twist to it.  I actually had a hard time determining what the target demographic was for this one.  Generally, with the main character being 12 years old, it would land in the middle-grade genre.  However, I am not so sure that would be the appropriate demographic for it, either, because the story gets very dark.The main character, Lucretia Gardner, is a 12-year-old girl living in New York City who has to deal with a very serious illness in her best friend.  The story really is about the value of friendship and how far one would be willing to go for their friends, and in that regard it is a very touching story.  The author talked in an interview on another site (and regrettably, I cannot find the link), that this is loosely based on his own sister's experience as a young girl.I did quite enjoy the ethnic diversity in the story, and you hear some things about different backgrounds.  It seems like there are so few authors who are willing to go there, making their characters raceless to avoid offending anyone, and it is about time that that starts to change.Some parts of this story were utterly frightening, maybe in a good way, but frightening just the same.  Still, the story was well written and I will be awaiting the next work, The Devil in Silver, from Mr. LaValle.