the thing with feathers
Maya has been thinking of what to be when she grows up. She’s only 17, so she still has some time before she has to have it all figured out. But she has a very specific skill that could come in handy as, say, a bartender. Or an acrobat in the circus. Or as a god. Because when she meets people, she can read their minds. She knows what they’re thinking in the present moment, but she also knows their past. When she is in public, she is constantly hearing the voices of other people, which is how she ended up in the Whispering Pines Psychiatric Facility.
She’s not really crazy. She just knows things. She doesn’t know where the gift came from. And she doesn’t know how to get rid of it. But after taking a break from the public at large (her Grippy Sock Vacation, as she calls is), Maya is ready to go back home. And she’s ready for a new school. She had a bit of a meltdown at her old school, jumping into the pool fully clothed at a swim meet, just to get a moment of silence from all the other voices in her head. So she needs a new school. And Bobby will be there, at New Town High. She can keep an eye on him. He had been at Whispering Pines too, crying for a week, as they tried to regulate his meds.
At her new school. Maya was introduced to room 143, a place where kids could hang out when they’re feeling overwhelmed. And that is where she meets Tyler. Tyler is a Buddhist and known at the school as something of a slut, but he knows how to meditate. He teaches Maya how to meditate, and she tries to use it when the noise of the world gets too much for her. At school, Maya makes friends. She tries to fit in. And when she meets with her therapist Amy, Maya decides it’s finally time to let someone in on how she can read minds. And she finds her purpose.
Well, she’s not entirely certain that it’s her purpose. But it’s something that can help her. She’s going to save the bobcats. There are some wild bobcats around town that the local hunters want permission to kill. Maya is going to start a club to save the bobcats. But she’s also going to use the club as a way to save the Bobcats, the students of New Town High, whose mascot is, obvs, a bobcat. Now Maya can take her ability t read minds and put it to use helping people. Some tasks are easy, like getting the shy girl who just wants to be kissed into a room with the boy who has a crush on her. Some take some more work, like helping her friend acquire thousands of dollars to create a pop-up store for her sneaker designs.
But fixing everyone else takes a lot out of her, and one rescue attempt goes horribly wrong, with Maya breaking her arm, ending up in the hospital, and then back to Whispering Pines. She feels like everything she had learned, everything she had put her energy into, had all gone wrong. She had failed. She’s not a god after all. But she may find out that there are others in her world who care for her and will go to bat for her when she can’t do it for herself.
Mysterious Ways is a stunning book about the ways we come together and hold each other up in difficult times. It’s a coming-of-age story that is studded with sparks of pop culture, music, and Gen Z rage. Author Wendy Wunder brings together fears of climate change, rage at the patriarchy, pop music, first love, bullying, friendship, mental health, and umami to create this story of healing and hope. Maya is a genuinely unique character who struggles not with wondering what others are thinking about her, but of knowing exactly what they think of her. She has wisdom and naivete, maturity and youth, and a the weight of finding balance in a life no one else can completely understand. She is funny and smart and caring, and listening to her monologue throughout this book is an inspiring experience.
I listened to the audio book for Mysterious Ways, narrated by Georgina Sadler, and I thought she had the perfect voice for Maya. The way she dramatized Maya’s story was perfection. I couldn’t imagine a better narrator for Maya’s story, and that made an interesting book a phenomenal listen.
Egalleys for Mysterious Ways were provided by Wednesday Books, and an early copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks.
