Girl meets boy at a car wash.
"Dog," she says.
"Dude," he says.
And probably this would have been a sweet teen romance. . . .
If Beals hadn't been sitting next to her in the car.
If Beals hadn't been a supernatural repo man looking to repossess her car.
And to possess her.
David Macinnis Gill delivers the whole enchilada. With a side of soul.
January 26, 2009
Deep in El Paso, Tex., Eunice “Bug” Smoot is behind on the rent and in danger of losing her job delivering pizzas, but at least she’s got a smooth ride—a 1958 Cadillac Biarritz bequeathed by Papa C., her grandfather. Then the repo man shows up. Turns out Papa C. financed the car with his soul but disappeared upon death. Bug’s got till midnight Halloween to produce grandpa’s soul or turn over her keys—and her free will. To Bug’s aid comes hunky Pesto, a car wash manager who moonlights for ISIS, the International Supernatural Immigration Service. Gill’s debut features hilarious dialogue—Bug and Pesto don’t talk; they sling witticisms at each other. And Bug is easy to love, a tough-talking teen whose life has been riddled with loss. But some readers may tire of the grosser details of demon warfare—lots of vomiting, maggots, even vomiting of maggots—and the story goes on past several natural stopping points. Still, this updated spin on deal-making with the devil shows that Gill, president of ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents), knows what will make teens laugh. Ages 14–up.
January 21, 2010
Eunice "Bug" Smoot is at the end of her tether. She is about to lose her job delivering pizzas, her landlord is tired of overdue rent, and her beloved car is about to be repossessed.by Satan. Seems that Bug's grandfather sold his soul to buy his beloved 1958 Cadillac Biarritz and now Beals (short for Beelzebub) has come to claim Bug's in exchange. Enter Pesto, a hot car wash attendant with some mad supernatural connections. Love-o-meter: Spicy. The El Paso setting offers more than Tex-Mex food, as these two smart characters trade witticisms and hard-luck stories. Bug's history is full of loss and her economic situation all-too-real. You will root for this gutsy heroine and her demon-fighting beau long after turning the final page.-Angelina Benedetti, King Cty. Lib. Syst., WA
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
April 1, 2009
Gr 9 Up-On her own and struggling to make ends meet, 18-year-old Eunice "Bug" Smoot has one cherished possession: the 1958 Cadillac Biarritz left to her by her grandfather. When she discovers that he offered not only his soul as collateral for the car, but also hers and that, somehow, his spirit has managed to evade repossession, she realizes she is in grave danger. With the aid of a cute boy who happens to be an aspiring agent of the International Supernatural Immigration Service; his mother, a spiritual advisor and witch; and an ancient lawyer specializing in conflicts between the earthly and spirit realms, Bug battles an evil djinn for her soul. Set in the Spanish-speaking neighborhoods of El Paso, "Soul" distinguishes itself from other recent supernatural farces such as Jonathan Bernstein's "Hottie" (Penguin/Razorbill, 2009) by giving voice to ethnic and economic minority characters. Indeed, Bug's first-person narration is feisty and knowing in the ways of class and prejudice ("Growing up half Tejana and half-African American," Bug claims, "I learned real quick that folks were going to put you down because of the color you were, no matter what color they were"). However, the increasingly dramatic confrontations and competitions pitting Bug and company against the djinn and the recurring discovery that yet another El Paso citizen is, in actuality, a demon or is demon-possessed threaten to derail the willing suspension of disbelief that novels like these demand."Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 15, 2008
Grades 7-10 Eunice Bug Smoot is a recent high-school graduate with all sorts of problems: shes about to get evicted from the flophouse apartment she rents, shes just been fired from her pizza-delivery job, and it seems like every day some idiot is giving her crap for being half-African American and half-Tejana. The only light in her life is her dead grandfathers classic 1958 Cadillac Biarritzand even that goes down the tubes when a demon named Mr. Beals materializes in the passenger seat and demands repossession of the vehicle. Turns out, her grandfather financed the car by selling his soul. Luckily, Bugs crush, a car-wash attendant, just happens to moonlight for the International Supernatural Immigration Service and hes got some ideas about how to deport this Illegal. Gills debut has weirdness to spare: theresinsect-puking villains, pizza-delivery contests with Satan, and some very high-stakes basketball. At times it can all be too much to swallow, but Bugis a refreshingly gutsy female protagonist with an attitude that will win over readers searching for something different.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2009
El Paso teen Eunice (a.k.a. Bug) Smoot's grandfather sold his soul to the devil for a Cadillac then reneged on the deal from the afterlife. Now a demonic repossession agent is after the car--and Bug's soul. In his delightfully wacky debut, Gill offers up a veritable menagerie of genre elements (comedy, romance, sports, supernatural) that should find a broad teen audience.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
March 1, 2009
Eunice Smoot, a.k.a. Bug, has had a hard life. A mixed-race teenager, she has been orphaned three times, first by the death of her Latina mother, then by the deaths of her African American great-aunt and paternal grandfather. But now it's gone from bad to worse. Since her grandfather sold his soul to the devil, literally, for a vintage Cadillac, and somehow managed to renege on the deal from the afterlife, the demonic repossession agent is now after the car -- and Bug's soul. Bug loses her job and her apartment but finds a friend in Pesto, a cute guy who has the supernatural connections to help her. Through a series of proposals, counter-proposals, wagers, and double crosses, Bug emerges victorious. She is a tough, sassy heroine, and her first-person narrative, accented with Spanish and black vernacular, is one of the novel's strongest points. So, too, is the regional Southwestern flavor of El Paso, Texas. Though Gill does not delve too deeply into the philosophical implications of the plot, he offers up a veritable menagerie of genre elements (comedy, romance, sports, and the supernatural), and his delightfully wacky debut novel should find a broad teen audience.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)