In the new book “The Night Parade” by Kathryn Tanquary, setting things straight might be the hardest thing you’ll ever do, anyway.
What good was a vacation if you couldn’t spend it doing what you wanted? Saki Yamamoto grumped about that the whole way up the mountain to her grandmother’s house. All her friends got to stay back in Tokyo, but Saki’s parents insisted that she and her brother go to the Oban Festival and spend time with Grandma.
Though she promised her mother that she’d leave her phone off, Saki couldn’t resist catching up on texts.
And that — the whole missing-her-friends thing — was perhaps why Saki allowed a group of “cool” village teens to talk her into doing something very disrespectful. That was when she accidentally called a curse upon her family.
Her first indication of trouble was the cold hand that tried to strangle her in her sleep, waking her and sending her out into the forest with a four-tailed fox that explained to Saki that she had three nights to follow The Night Parade and lift the curse. The fox tricked her, but the tengu, a feathered spirit, took her as far as the gates to the Midlight Prince’s castle on the second night. That was where she met the Lady of Bells, who sent the tanuki, a raccoon-dog that was Saki’s third night guide.
Lifting a curse was not easy, nor for the faint of heart.
I don’t think I’ve ever quite read anything like “The Night Parade.” And that’s a good thing.
Tanquary’s story is unique enough to hold a reader’s interest, even on the pages that grow slow. The book has overall the feeling of a Japanese fairy tale, which keeps the story sweet, and there are allegories and life-lessons here, just like other fairy tales — but yet, the monsters and settings are quite a bit darker and more foreboding than anything you might’ve read in childhood, and they made me squirm. Readers will also find a bit of humor to move things along and though that can be sophomoric at times, it still fits.
Great for readers ages 12-to-15, I think a savvy preteen might like it and a fantasy-loving adult will appreciate it, too, so get in line. Start “The Night Parade,” and you’ll find it just right.
“The Night Parade,” by Kathryn Tanquary [336 pages, 2016, $16.99].
Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill with two dogs and 12,000 books.
