RaveSpectrum South... a dreamy road trip story with modern flairs of magical realism. The book’s West Texas landscape oscillates between fantastical and familiar, and the characters will have you rooting for them to the very last page ... teems with quiet growth and emotional friction ... The mystery of the novel is two-fold. Readers will race through the pages to find out both what happened to Bea and what the agents are hunting ... Along with nailing the emotional beats of trauma and grief, Walden perfectly captures the surrealism of West Texas. The endless stretches of road, the horizon-to-horizon rolling hills, the vast nothingness between the infrequent gas stations and diners—Walden has rendered it all on the page. The landscape becomes a character of its own as the book dips in and out of magical realism ... From the first page to the last, this book works. The explosive colors, the taut emotional energy, and the fantastical landscape weave a beautiful story of how running away can actually run you headlong into your problems—and, ultimately, into healing. Both the artistry and the storytelling strike their chords, turning this book into a symphony of illustrated literature. Bea and Lou’s journey is sure to stay with readers long after they’ve turned the final page.
