When the World Tips Over
by Jandy Nelson
High School    Dial    528 pp.
9/24    9780525429098    $21.99
e-book ed.  9780698195042    $10.99

Nelson (Printz Award winner for I’ll Give You the Sun, rev. 11/14) begins with definitions of a fantasia—one of which is “a literary work composed of a mixture of different forms or styles.” This fantasia features the author’s use of magical realism, along with lyrical prose, an epic plot, and the kind of flawed characters who are essential in stories of dysfunctional family relationships and the resultant themes of loss, betrayal, and redemption. The novel opens with the rotating third-person viewpoints of a trio of siblings: twelve-year-old Dizzy, a supernaturally gifted girl muddling through prepubescent friendship issues; seemingly perfect seventeen-year-old Miles, who struggles with depression and coming out as gay; and nineteen-year-old Wynton, the violin virtuoso who is still haunted by their father’s abandonment. Each has an early encounter with a mysterious rainbow-haired girl named Cassidy, newly arrived in Paradise, California, who eventually largely takes over the narration. Her first-person perspective provides the backstory, alongside the plethora of letters, emails, transcripts, and newspaper articles interspersed throughout. It’s a lot to take in, but patient readers will eventually feel the pull of Nelson’s carefully woven storytelling and succumb to her special kind of magic. Not every subplot is resolved, and not all that are resolved have happy endings, but there’s catharsis in the realization that “when the world tips over,” there is still joy to be experienced.

From the January/February 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.