Feathered by Laura Kasischke

You can’t watch a morning talk show, watch the news, or read a magazine without coming across the horror stories: teen girls, away on their dream spring break, gone missing or coming home having been through traumatic experiences because of letting their guards down or drinking too much. Feathered by Laura Kasischke is a cautionary tale but is wrapped in incredible layers, imagery, and symbolism.

Three high school girls, Anne, Michelle, and Terri, hop a plane from their Chicagoland suburban home to their first spring break alone in Cancun, Mexico. All three expect to have a fun break, and all are acutely aware of what can happen being alone in a foreign country on spring break. Michelle’s mother repeats the warnings prior to the trip and as she drops the girls off at the airport; while Terri soon develops an itch about something going wrong, Anne and Michelle are confident that their intelligence and common sense will keep them safe. Interspersed in these cautionary conversations are Michelle’s mother’s stories about visiting the historical ruins of the Mayans, and all of the girls develop an interest in seeing the mythical Chichen Itza when not enjoying their time on the beach surrounded by hordes of other young students.

As a reader anticipates, something indeed goes terribly wrong. Anne and Michelle’s trip to Chichen Itza changes the tone of the entire trip. Although three girls boarded the plane in Chicago, only two will come back to their safety in suburbia. Will it be Terri who quickly turns to partying on the beach and meeting strange boys? Will it be Michelle, born of artificial insemination and thus in search of a father figure in her life? Or will it be Anne, the one who came up with the idea to go to Mexico?

Feathered is a predictable story. Any reader with a little knowledge about the world knows precisely what could and might happen on this trip; however, Kasischke does a marvelous job of twisting the predictable. The plot is simplistic, fast-moving, and relatable.

What Kasischke does that it worth delving into, though, is layering the story. First, the story is told through two different narrators: Anne and Michelle. Though there are three girls on the trip, we never hear Terri’s perspective; more interestingly, Anne’s perspective is told through first person and in the past tense. Michelle’s perspective is told in limited third person and is told in the present tense. Although I would have loved to hear Terri’s perspective and debated with myself during and for a couple days after finishing the story, I think I’m satisfied in not hearing her side.

Perhaps most stunning to me was Kasischke’s use of imagery and symbolism throughout. The story draws upon the idea of the past and the present, juxtaposing modern Mexican resort life and the historical ruins of the indigenous. Within even that there is the drawing upon ideas of the phoenix and feathers to describe and symbolize girlhood, exposure, and rebirth.

Though the storyline is rather simplistic, this book is smart. Kasischke initially disappointed me, as I finished the book thinking that it was a predictable story, despite some of the twists. I wanted there to be more, and I thought that the entire story was given away within the first few pages — I mean, come on, three girls who are in high school going to Cancun alone and one of them has a bad feeling about it? We’ve heard it. I stepped away for a bit, then reopened the book, drawing the ties between the symbols and images, and I unearthed something entirely different within the multiple layers. This book just yearns for a good discussion.

Indeed, this book is a cautionary tale, but it’s much more than the cautionary tale you will hear from your parents or from the news. It goes deeper, and it’s rooted well into history. Target age readers will not have trouble understanding these lessons, either, particularly as they let this story sit and begin to think about what the point of certain aspects of the plot were. Feathered does not have a superfluous detail.

If anything bothered me at all throughout the book, it was some poor editing. It seems to me that copy editors are pushing these books out too quickly and overlooking the grammatical details. I found the overuse of commas tiresome and frustrating, as they really and truly slowed the story down. I was also hoping to hear more from Terri in the story; however, I think there is ample opportunity for Kasischke to tell the story from Terri’s perspective.

I would love to see this book get some sort of nod from ALA this year. It is well-deserving because it is quite deceitful in its simplicity. It is a great book group book, as it begs to be discussed. I’m looking forward to seeing what Kasischke does after Feathered, as her writing is intelligent and refreshing.