Fortune Falls

Reviewed by: Sheila Dube - Springvale Public Library, Springvale, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: November 6, 2016

Review

Life for the inhabitants of Fortune Falls is dictated by four leaf clovers, making sure you don't step on a crack, the seven year doom of breaking a mirror, the high price of a rabbit's foot and being lucky or unlucky. Tenacious sixth grader Sadie has always seemed to be unlucky and now any amount of joy her life holds seems to be swept away because she most certainly will be deemed an unlucky during the mandatory luck test on her twelfth birthday. If she is labeled unlucky, then she will be sent away from her family and friends to a school that will protect everyone else from her bad luck. During an anticipatory week before the test, Sadie develops friends who will accept her, and she learns to depend on herself instead of luck. This positive message is overshadowed by the questions left about the town in general. Initially the premise of the world Goebel has built is intriguing with the magic bits of surface luck and unlucky, but it quickly dips into the tedious and depressive. Another misstep is the book jacket art that pictures a black cat with a tail, which is contrary to the pivotal black cat character of Jinx who has a short tail.

Overall Book Score: fair