Anne-So “Echoes of Words”, blogger, bookstagrameuse et contributrice of the reading group 20 Minute Booksrecommend you Grand Passage by Stéphanie Leclerc, published on September 8, 2022 by Éditions Syros and selected among the Nuggets for the best teenage novel (12-17 years old) at Book and youth press fairfrom November 30 to December 5 in Montreuil.
His favorite quote:
The dead are there, everywhere, always. They accompany us. They talk to us. And even without paying attention to them, we hear them, we listen to them, we receive their messages. And me, now, I saw them. Anyway, I saw one. He was in front of me, sitting on a chair in the kitchen. – Hi you, said my grandfather.
Why this book?
- Because Grand Passage is a fantastic novel with thriller accents, both poetically dreamlike and painfully down to earth. The reader will meet Lauris, a teenager living alone with his mother and hiding a very strange secret. Indeed, since childhood, Lauris’ path has regularly crossed paths with the ghosts of dead insects and animals. When it’s the spirit of his grandfather himself, regarding whom he doesn’t know much, who invites himself into his life, Lauris doesn’t know how to react.
- Because our hero finally has only a short time to look into the subject because something is going on in Grand Passage: in a short time, two young girls disappear and are found dead, brutally murdered. The community is worried and surveillance rounds are being set up while parents are watching their children, especially their daughters, more closely.
- Because a bewitching atmosphere emerges of this novel and a mysterious haze seems to envelop the reader as he progresses through the plot. If the mystery of the disappearance of the girls can remain intact until the end, the search for the murderer does not seem to be the focal point of the story following all. Grand Passage tells us above all regarding the life of the hero and his gift that he does not understand, his first steps in a romantic relationship but also, and above all, his quest for identity, he who knows nothing regarding this great father who haunts him nor on his father whose identity he does not know.
- Because Grand Passage is a novel full of mysteries, populated by terrifyingly human characters in whatever beautiful, pathetic or dark that may entail. The pen of the author, Stéphanie Leclerc, is imbued with a touching sensitivity that gives a particular and bewitching aura to her characters as well as to the environment in which they evolve. A nice discovery.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot. Lauris lives in Grand Passage with his mother and has been hiding a secret since childhood: he is able to see animal ghosts come to life around him. One day, it is the spirit of his grandfather who comes to make him fast. When her friend Lali is found murdered, Lauris’ life will become complicated.
Characters. Lauris, 14, is the hero of this story. He lives with his mother and stepfather whom he loves dearly.
Places. The novel takes place in the quiet little town of Grand Passage.
The time. The story takes place today.
The author. Stéphanie Leclerc is a French author living in Hérault. Grand Passage is his third novel. She is also the author of a play, Le Parasol de Robinson, published at the Ecole des Loisirs.
This book was read with pleasure by Anne-So Echos de Mots, blogger specializing in children’s and teenage literature. “For me, reading can be as much a personal pleasure in which one runs to take refuge as an excuse to discuss and meet other readers. I am a lover of words always interested in new discoveries. »
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