Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Reviewed by: The Ballad of Darcy & Russell by Morgan Matson Jessie Maimone Matson, Morgan The Ballad of Darcy & Russell. Simon, 2024 400p Trade ed. ISBN 9781481499019 19. 99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781481499033 10. 99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad Gr. 9-12 It's the final weekend before Darcy moves across the country for college, and she's spent it happily celebrating at a music festival. But the weekend sours on her return trip home, as the bus breaks down and she's stranded at a bus station in the middle of nowhere with a quickly dying cell phone, no charger, and very little money. Russell, one of the few passengers stuck waiting at the station, doesn't have a charger either, but convinces Darcy to walk into town to buy one. Darcy is a hopeless romantic and falls for Russell immediately, even when it becomes apparent that some of the things he's saying aren't completely adding up. The two have a few flirty whirlwind hours, but reality crashes in hard when Darcy finds out the truth about who Russell really is. Told over a couple of days, this narrative quickly builds romantic tension in Darcy and Russell's blossoming relationship, but after a seemingly obvious reveal, the story becomes sluggish as it crawls toward a happily ever after. The novel is somewhat saved by the complexity of the issues it brings up, but it perilously toes the line of falling into the magical Negro trope. Readers interested in a faster-paced, more nuanced love story might appreciate Albertalli's What If It's Us (BCCB 11/18). Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Jessie Maimone (Thu,) studied this question.