It sounds like such an overdone cliche to call any book the coming-of-age story of a young girl. It especially sounds banal in reference to Allison Baggio’s “Girl in Shades,” as her heroine is anything but commonplace. Coming from a completely warped family fraught with lurid secrets, Maya Devine is a girl who becomes a woman before the reader’s eyes, and her story is one of growing up in an utterly ridiculous world.
At the start of the book, 11-year-old Maya’s mother is diagnosed with cancer and refuses treatment, choosing to spend her final days in a teepee in the backyard. But that’s not where the peculiarities end. Maya, who narrates, can see auras surrounding people, and she can usually hear their thoughts. Whether this talent is a curse or a gift, Baggio never really intimates, but Maya handles it as if it’s just another predictable ability, like being good at math, even if she shares it with very few people.
By the end of “Girl in Shades,” teenage Maya has transformed into something else. She takes a life-altering trip to India in search of her identity and continues to enchant the reader with her strength and endurance. Over the course of her childhood, there are questions left unanswered, both for Maya and the reader, and irreversible injustices committed, but she soldiers on.
Her one downfall is her constant pursuit of acceptance, especially from the males in her life. There is no doubt that a sense of abandonment is the reason for those feelings, but her final self-discovery leaves the reader hopeful that she’ll shed that debilitating need once and for all.
The vibe subtly changes over the course of “Girl in Shades.” Yes, characters come and go, and the scenery shifts, but the change is more than that. Baggio manages to give Maya a voice that starts out as a young girl and develops into a woman, and that is no small feat, especially because it isn’t noticeable until after the last page has been turned.
Baggio’s colorful writing and quirky imagery give life to the story as a whole, propping up even the direst of circumstances. And the absurdity of Maya’s situation lends it a comical tinge. It’s not outwardly funny, but quietly humorous, like the whole thing is an inside joke between the reader and the author.
Even in her most unsettling, pathetic moments, Maya never inspires pity in the reader. She tells her story in a blunt way, and though she’s often sad, even morose, she doesn’t come across as someone for whom the reader should feel sorry. Instead, she rises from the ashes of her former self like the proud woman she should be.
Rating: W W W W
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