Josie and Jack

December 20, 2004
Braffet's creepy, captivating debut has a quote from Hansel and Gretel as its epigram, but the novel owes as much to Flowers in the Attic
as it does to the fairy tale. Josie and Jack Raeburn are inseparable teenagers virtually raising themselves in a decaying Pennsylvania mansion. Intermittently and bizarrely home-schooled by their abusive father, a mad physics professor who lives at his college during the week, the isolated siblings are left mostly to their own vices—drinking, smoking and sleeping in the same bed. It's a weird but almost innocent existence, until Jack persuades Josie to seduce the pharmacist's son, Kevin, so they can score some drugs. When Josie falls for Kevin, Jack beats him senseless because he can't bear to share her. But because gorgeous, brilliant, magnetic Jack is the only person who's ever shown Josie love, she persists in her blind devotion to him. After a startling betrayal of their father, Jack and Josie leave home and leech off a string of women whom Jack easily, cruelly charms. But the women grow suspicious of the siblings' relationship, with good reason. Things can only end badly, of course, which happens when Lily, Jack's latest victim, confronts him about their atypical relationship. Braffet's sharp portrait of an asphyxiating love and a legacy of madness is darkly gothic and supremely readable. Agent, Julie Barer. (Feb. 4)

Forecast:
Booksellers can recommend this to fans of Donna Tartt and other writers of dark coming-of-age dramas. A blurb from Peter Straub will snag a few readers, too.

October 15, 2004
Isolated teenager Josie worships brother Jack. Alas, he's controlling and ultimately dangerous. First-timer Braffet's dark novel is a hit with Houghton, which has already signed up her second work.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2004
The siblings Josie, age 16, and Jack, 18, in Braffet's haunting debut are unusually close. Their mother is long dead, and their arrogant father is a university professor who rages and fumes about the ills of mankind. Josie sees Jack as her whole world, but gradually he forces her to go out in the world, first to seduce Kevin, the son of a local pharmacist. But Josie starts to develop real feelings for Kevin, and Jack reacts with a powerful rage and envy. When a confrontation with their father causes Jack to take off, Josie is devastated. She feels as though she's lost her anchor, but it isn't long before he comes back for her, to take her to live with him in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he is staying with a girl named Becka. But Josie and Jack's relationship has never been one to permit outsiders for long, and soon the pair is adrift and headed for disaster. Braffet's first novel packs a powerful punch, and readers won't soon forget the chilling, unexpected ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

January 15, 2005
The debut novel opens with an epigraph from the Grimm Brothers's "Hansel and Grethel," neatly indicating the plot's mesmerizing trajectory. This modern-day adaptation retains all the frightening Gothic qualities of the original tale of mistreated siblings losing their way, getting trapped, and cunningly breaking free -though Braffet allows only one of her characters such redemption. Growing up half-abandoned by their scientist father in a ramshackle house, nursing hangovers and learning Greek instead of attending school, Josie and Jack are no ordinary siblings. Jack is fiercely proud of their uniqueness and fiercely protective of his younger sister. After running away from home, the two have a series of well-cast misadventures spurred on by Jack's self-destructive appetite and all-encompassing possessiveness of Josie. Things escalate in New York City, where they live like "cockroaches" with a socialite. "Happily ever after" does not concern the Grimm Brothers or Braffet, who is more interested in depicting the harsh reality of her characters' situation. A dramatic and horrific resolution is countered by Josie's subtle maturation throughout, and we emerge from the book's spell feeling almost hopeful. Recommended as an accomplished if disturbing read. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 9/15/04.] -Prudence Peiffer, Cambridge, MA

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.