AUGUST 9, 2018 // 23
BOOKMONGER
Young adult romance seeks
illumination in dark times
In her latest book, “Love-
ly, Dark, and Deep,” Seattle
author Justina Chen throws
together an unlikely combi-
nation of ingredients to spice
up the tried-and-true Young
Adult romance formula of
girl-meets-boy, etcetera.
Chen’s recipe includes
solar urticaria (more on that
in a minute), gastrodiploma-
cy (you’ll have to read the
book for that), parents who
run a crisis management
firm, a widowed aunt who
runs her own garage, a new
superhero and radiant mete-
or showers.
She inserts playlists with
songs ranging from The
Velvet Underground to Ed
Sheeran.
And she provides a smor-
gasbord of food throughout
the book: red bean baos,
Hawaiian poke, pecan-cin-
namon elephant ear cookies
and caramel rum banana
bread pudding, for starters.
As for the girl and the
boy?
Viola Li has just returned
from a trip to Africa with
her aunt and is about to be-
gin her senior year of high
school when she succumbs
to the swift and severe onset
of solar urticaria, a rare
condition also known as sun
allergy.
Inconveniently, she
collapses at Seattle’s Bum-
bershoot Festival where she
has just set up a bake sale
to benefit one of her many
social justice causes.
On the plus side, she
faints onto a stranger, her
first customer of the day
— a “broad-shouldered,
ridiculously blond, young
Thor-gone-lumberman in
jeans and flannel shirt.”
“Lovely, Dark,
and Deep”
By Justina Chen
Arthur A. Levine Books
352 pp
$18.99
Author Justina Chen
Josh is an aspiring comic
book artist who has de-
veloped a new bikini-clad
heroine, “Persephone from
Planet X.”
He also has a highly
developed sense of respon-
sibility. When Viola comes
out of the emergency room
at the hospital, she finds
him waiting to make sure
she’s all right.
In fact, she isn’t. Viola’s
case is severe enough to
warrant no-holds-barred
protection from the sun and
other light sources. Her
parents — who are crisis
management professionals,
remember — load her up
with high SPF sunscreen,
specially treated clothing
and a super-sized hat. They
change out the light bulbs
at home and put film on all
the windows to screen out
UVA rays. When that isn’t
enough, they remodel the
basement into a perpetually
dark bedroom where she
can take refuge.
And when it becomes
clear that her school cannot
accommodate her condition,
they homeschool her.
All of this drastically
interferes with Viola’s
expansive dreams for life
beyond high school.
One saving grace is the
relationship that grows
between her and Josh.
Early on, when she criti-
cizes the scanty clothing of
the female superhero Josh
is developing, he invites
Viola to work with him to
improve the project. Friend-
ship blossoms into some-
thing more, but not without
bumps along the way. Josh
is struggling with some
demons of his own.
Chen has created smart,
articulate characters, and
she loops in teen social
norms that seem right up to
date.
The plot does include
one key coincidence that
seems unlikely.
But overall, “Lovely,
Dark, and Deep” is gener-
ously infused with details
— whether about Viola’s
condition or crisis man-
agement or the fascinating
properties of light — that
illuminate how to persevere
even in the darkest of times.
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael, who
writes this weekly column fo-
cusing on the books, authors
and publishers of the Pacific
Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com.
PHOTOS COURTESY SCHOLASTIC INC.
The cover of Justina Chen’s “Lovely, Dark, and Deep.”
You are invited to help
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