The Girl in the White Cape

The Girl in the White Cape

Barbara Sapienza

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

Fifteen-year-old Elena lives in a church attic in San Francisco’s Richmond neighborhood, where she is cared for by her guardian, a kind Russian priest named Father Al. Six days a week, Father Al sends her out of Our Lady, across the meadows and ponds of Golden Gate Park, and all the way to Baba Vera’s house on Taraval Street for Baba’s version of school.Unlike regular school, however, Elena’s learning is unnerving. Baba Vera’s preposterous demands, dizzying antics, and house—which is full of skeletons, brooms, strange implements, and guinea pigs, among other oddities—seem straight out of a Russian fairy tale Father Al used to read to Elena . . . not life in 2020. If not for her beloved doll, Kukla—bequeathed to her by the mother she never got to know, but of whom she often dreams—Elena would be overwhelmed. Yet she works hard at every task given her, understanding intuitively that there is a purpose to every one of her grandmother’s strange assignments.Frank, a young taxi driver, enters Elena’s world on the day he delivers a strange, witch-like woman named Anya to Our Lady. Upon meeting Anya and Elena, a dream-world begins to spin for him—and he feels a deep, protective pull toward Elena. In the days that follow, Frank devotes himself to saving her from the harm he is sure Anya intends toward her. What he comes to understand, as he enters more deeply into Elena’s story, is that she has magic of her own. He thought he was supposed to save her—but in the end, the two of them may just save each other.


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  • Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    I really enjoyed this book because I have heard of Baba Yaga before and it is really fascinating to read a quick, easy novel based around that folklore. There was something magical about how the author took nature & all its wonder and nestled in a big, loud city. Elena was so pure, so delicate but also so strong and so grounded in herself and trusting of the others she surrounded herself with. There were times where I would find myself asking why Elena was given the tasks/directions she was, but it all made sense in the end. And that's the point, right?

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