The Turning

Written by Emily Whitman

Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Does he belong to the land or to the sea?

Readers who loved Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon and Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Echo will be transported to the place where the water and land meet in this exquisitely crafted coming-of-age tale about a selkie boy.

Aran has never truly fit in with his selkie clan. He was born in his human form, without a pelt to transform him into a sleek, strong seal. Each day he waits, left behind while his selkie family explores the deep ocean. What if his pelt never comes? Does the Moon even see him? Is he putting his clan at risk?

When his mother undertakes a journey to the far north to seek help, Aran is left in the care of a reclusive human woman on remote Spindle Island. Life on land is full of more wonders—and more dangers—than Aran could have ever imagined. Soon Aran will be forced to decide: will he fight for his place on land, or return to his home in the sea?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9780062840912

Emily Whitman

Emily Whitman's first novel, Radiant Darkness, was praised for its "originality and flair" by BCCB and was a #1 IndieBound Pick. The author lives with her family in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews for The Turning

[bytheseabchcmbr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jack is to take care of to young children on a secluded island for the summer. Great ghost story, the ending is a bit different than I would have thought. The story is told by writen letters to his father and girlfriend, nice choice of story telling.

[angelina0justice · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't. The character building was fantastic, but the writing and delivery were all wrong for our modern setting and the social constructs that society operates under.

The neverending, almost formal, letter format via which the narrator tells the story is the killing blow for this novel.

Potential fantastic....delivery epic fail.

[abouttoread_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When I was in High School we had to read Turn of the Screw for my Gothic Literature class. I loved the novel because we had to figure out if the main character was crazy or if something paranormal was occurring (I thought she was crazy). I was so excited when I found out that Francine Prose was writing a retelling of the story called The Turning.The Turning posses the same qualities that makes the original story so awesome—the question of the character’s sanity. While I do still think that Jack from The Turning is out of his mind, I had a harder time deciding if he was crazy. While there are so many events that make me think he is a basket case, there were a few instances where I had to admit to myself that Jack might be right about the things that occurred on the island.It is so tempting to launch into a critical analysis of each spooky aspect of the book and explain why I think Jack is insane. However, it is obviously impossible to do that without ruining the book for those who have not read it. Suffice it to say that The Turning is an excellent novel and perfect for fans of unreliable narrators.

[thelonearranger_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Whelan, Gloria. The Turning. 224p. HarperCollins, 2006. Tr. $15.99. LC 0060755938Author Gloria Whelan, of the National Book Award Winning Homeless Bird, delivers a fourth book to her strong historical fiction series. The Turning is set in the Spring of 1991 in Leningrad, Russia. The book follows Tatiana, a dancer in the Kirov Ballet Company, who dreams about pursing her career by defecting to Paris. She constantly struggles with leaving her family and risking being caught by the ever-watchful KGB and actually becomes entangled in her country’s complicated politics. Tanya’s accidental involvement in the Moscow Parliament is sadly the weakest part of the book, as it is a major event of the time period and also marks what was supposed to be the major shift in the Tanya’s development. The back matter is also severely lacking, containing only a small glossary of Russian words and French Ballet terms, and a half-page author’s note. Despite these shortcomings, the graceful dance scenes and striking descriptions of 20th century Russia will have readers entranced and emotionally invested in the events of the time period. (Grades 5-8)

[tsutton_29 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A young man takes a job as a nanny to two young children at their family home on a remove island. He senses that something is not quite right with the house, or with the children. He begins to see shadows and figures on the grounds and in the house, but he is unsure if they're real or if they're all a part of an elaborate plot to drive him insane.This book reminds me of the Turn of the Screw in terms of plot, but little else. I know it's a YA book, but the writing was really bad. It's written in epistolary form, as the main character, Jack, writes letters to his girlfriend back home and, occasionally, his father. It failed, however, to match the dread and fear of the original. The characters fell flat and were simply one-dimensional copies of the original. This was, perhaps, due to the jocular tone of the letters. Jack's tone was one of dismissive nonchalance, half-joking and book-ending the incidents he experienced with unimportant details of his day, and questions about life back home. Perhaps this was Prose's attempt to imitate the voice of a teen boy, but it succeeded, at least for me, in removing the sense of terror and rapidly diminishing sanity that made the original so powerfulIt's hard to rate this book, because it really does read like a Y.A. book, and not a particularly well-written one at that. And the ending...gah...the ending.My advice: if you like The Turning of the Screw, do NOT read this book.

[roses7184_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Giving up on this audio book. Although the narrator works really hard to put emotion into the story, there's such a lack to begin with that it seems forced. I was bored for over a half hour of listening. Moving on to something new.

[booktwirps · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jack has taken a job babysitting for the summer in hopes of saving up some money so he can afford to go to the same college as his girlfriend, Sophie. Babysitting doesn’t sound like much fun, especially when he has to spend his summer on an island cut off from civilization. Not only that, but the ferry only visits three times a week, he’ll have no phone, no internet and no television. The job seems a bit out of sorts — a wealthy man has asked Jack to watch his orphaned niece and nephew, the uncle will not be on the island, and if there are any problems, he expects Jack and the live-in housekeeper to take care of them. He doesn’t want to be bothered. Jack is tempted to say no, but the amount of money he’s offered is enough for him to agree to the job.When he arrives at the island, he’s happy to find that the housekeeper, Mrs. Gross, seems very normal and kind. The children, though, are slightly peculiar. They dress as though they’re from a different era and they are very quiet and reserved. He begins to sense something is off after a few days. There’s a locked room in the house, the children seem to share some unnerving secret and there are two people on the island that it seems only he can see. Is Jack imagining things, or is there something dark and dangerous lurking in the shadows?I’m a HUGE fan of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I’ve read it countless times, and we produced the stage version at the theatre where I work a few years ago. It’s a chilling tale of haunting and madness. Just thinking about it gives me the creeps. I had really high hopes for this one since it is a modern retelling of that book. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. The basic story was still there, even though Ms. Prose updated it to modern times and made the governess from the original into a teen boy. The ending was also changed, and while it was okay, it felt rushed and didn’t carry the same punch as the original.This novel is written as a series of letters, mainly from Jack to his girlfriend, Sophie. There are a few other letters peppered between the pages, but most are from Jack. I think my biggest problem was that Jack didn’t feel authentic. I just didn’t see a teen boy today speaking (or in this case, writing) the way Jack did. His phrases and word choice often didn’t work, and it really got on my nerves when he would call out Sophie by name in his letters. It would go something like, “Can you believe that, Sophie?” (This isn’t an exact quote, just an example). I wasn’t sure why that was necessary. He addressed her when he opened the letter, so we know to whom he is writing. It seems pretty trivial, but it bugged me.I did like the children in the book, and I felt they were just as “off” as in the original story. Sadly, they were the two most interesting characters, and I wanted more from them.This is a quick read at just under 300 pages, and if you’re not familiar with the original story, you may enjoy it more than I did. Maybe I was just too close to the original to really get into it.

[ajbraithwaite_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The epistolary style doesn't quite work in this story. Jack doesn't make a convincing teenage writer, and there is an awful lot of exposition in his letters to Sophie which would have been just weird in a real letter.

The complete lack of telecommunications on the island might have been needed as a plot device, but wasn't realistic. And as for the golf clubs...

[tfs93 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I still am not sure what the story was about?! I was left very confused. The format of the story was terrible. The letters did not work for this story. The story went off the beaten path way too many times. The only good thing I can say is that the story was short. I would not recommend this to anyone.

[shellypya · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A retelling of Henry James' Turn of the Screw. Jack decides to take a job babysitting 2 kids on an isolated island for the summer, to earn enough money to go to the same college as his girlfriend. As her writes letters to her, he reveals strange mysteries surrounding the children and the house; the children are often secretive and seem to be communicating with each other through glances, he finds out what happened to the previous babysitter, and he starts to see ghosts. This makes him increasingly paranoid about his relationship back home and with the kids. Eventually he falls into a fever, making it up to the reader to decide if he's just hallucinating or really interacting with a ghost.

[seasonsoflove_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In a modern take on The Turn of the Screw, Jack has been hired to spend the summer on an island, in charge of two children. But as Jack spends more time isolated from the outside world, with Flora and Miles and their strange ways, he begins to see things that don't make sense--things that seem to fit all too well into the ghost stories he's been told.The Turn of the Screw is one of my all-time favorite books, so I always excited to read any sort of take on it. This was a creepy read that had some very suspenseful moments.This book just didn't live up to what I was hoping for. This could definitely be due in part to my love of the original source material and how hard it would be for any other take to live up to the original story. But this book felt rushed to me, as if Prose was making up for the slow beginning by cramming the main events in too quickly. Character changes came so fast, and not in the creepy amazing way the original used to create paranoia of the paranormal. Jack's sudden changes didn't make sense, and the ghost aspect almost felt just thrown in at those parts to explain why Jack was so different all of a sudden. I don't think it was the physical shortness of the book either, as The Turn of the Screw is not a long book itself, and still manages to spin an incredibly complex and suspenseful tale.The ending also felt cliched, and didn't really live up to the build up.This is not a bad book, but it's not a great one. It's a quick and easy read if you're intrigued enough by the premise, like I was, but I wouldn't say it's urgent you go out and get a copy.

[edgoldberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

According to the author, The Turning is a re-do of the Turn of the Screw. I remember liking that book. The Turning is good. It kept my interest. However, it wasn't scary and was somewhat predictable. It just seems there was something missing.Jack takes a summer job on an island inhabited to Linda, the cook/housekeeper, and her two charges Milo and Flora. On the boat ride over, he sees some strange sights that become even stranger in light of incidents that have previously taken place on the island: two lovers died on the lake, a governess and handiman met an ill fate, etc.The book just needed a little more scare factor.

[librarybrandy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jack's summer job is to hang out with two eerily well-behaved children on an isolated island--no TV, phones, internet, cell service, nothing. Despite his early misgivings about the job (including the seagull screaming at him to turn back on the ferry over), he enjoys it--but there's still something weird. Then he starts seeing the man. And then the red-haired woman from the ferry. And then learns that they're both dead, and the mysteries keep on coming.

A retelling of The Turn of the Screw (which I haven't read), this has all the flavor of a gothic horror/ghost story, a good choice for the Halloween season. Easy read-alikes are the source material, Shirley Jackson, Long Lankin, and The Shining, as we see Jack uncover more and more of the island's history and his slow personality shift. Would recommend to 8th grade and up looking for something creepy for the gloomy fall nights.

[deankut · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an awesomely creepy book!!!!!

[seekayou · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Good concept and attempt at a retelling of The Turning of the Screw, poor execution. 2.5 rounding up.