What Stays Buried

A scary middle grade read about an older sister whose birthday is also her deadline to save the entire town from being consumed by an evil force especially focused on her baby sister. You know, kid stuff.

Calista Wynn is kind of like Rudolph in that “deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable” meme. People are creeped out by her, as if associating with her and her family will taint their normalcy and wellbeing. But in desperate moments, they readily turn to her to find answers. And when they do, the Wynns are there.

The poor communication trope gets to me, and this book has plenty of it. However, I find it a little more excusable here because I think Calista is mirroring the adults in her life.

When we are trying to survive the throes of grief, sometimes we ask things of ourselves and each other that are not fair or sustainable. We keep the most obvious truths bottled up, because of how much it hurts to share them, to unleash that floodgate. We scramble for any sense of control in a world that has proven we have none by what it has already taken.

It makes sense to try to protect loved ones from what's really going on and how we feel, if we think it might hurt them. Calista sees how her father, aunt, and grandmother do not share everything with her mom. She uses this to guide how much she lets her mom in, not realizing you can hurt feelings by NOT sharing hard things, too.

I do wish the book itself had spent maybe 15 more pages reckoning with how much was being asked of Calista and how challenging their home life was. Have Aunt Freya move in, have Thomas' mom and Calista's mom become friends who lean on each other, something. Talk more overtly about how many times Calista was explicitly told she was not allowed to be weak or the center of attention. On top of the natural responsibilities that come with being the oldest, there was a lot of parentification happening. The focus and pacing sometimes felt off, in ways that had us skirt or gloss over some of the most important messages the story could have conveyed.

Some of the exposition felt unrealistic, as well. For example, the principal sharing news of a missing child in great detail to an entire class while a cop stood silently next to him.. Highly in favor of any kids book sharing, “don't talk to cops” messaging, but this abruptly petered out. I also pictured Aunt Freya as Christine McConnell, despite myself.

In all, I would recommend this to fans of [b:The Clackity|59365597|The Clackity (Blight Harbor)|Lora Senf|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1654100019l/59365597.SX50.jpg|93536958], A Series of Unfortunate Events, [b:Small Spaces|36959639|Small Spaces (Small Spaces, #1)|Katherine Arden|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1539180297l/36959639.SY75.jpg|56656020], [b:The Benefits of Being an Octopus|35890044|The Benefits of Being an Octopus|Ann Braden|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522849548l/35890044.SX50.jpg|57406781], and the Nevermoor series (specifically book #2).

Also, I can't wait until the next time I burn myself to try the “dishcloth wet with cold water drizzled with honey” trick. I'm not saying I'm going to purposefully burn myself. Just, whenever it happens next.

Why do middle grades books have to be SO SAD!?

I think I started crying in the first chapter and then here and there throughout the book. I purposely didn't read it while waiting at the dentist because I didn't want to cry in public!

What I thought would be a fun, baby scary book ended up being a book about how to deal with grief and the permanence of loss and that was a lot!