Praise for A WORK OF ART

[Starred Review] “Maysonet’s … prose is unflinching as it illuminates one girl’s traumatic experience with deeply felt compassion and brutal honesty, inviting readers into a very dark place that nonetheless has edges gilded with resilience and hope. An important book about endings, beginnings and the choice to move on.”

—Kirkus Reviews
(KirkusReviews.com)

“Beautifully drawn, convincingly flawed characters create a world in which Tera’s own childhood slowly moves from remembered happiness to dark understanding. This debut novel skillfully explores the consequences of self-deception, relationships, and the lengths we go to please the people we love.”

—Booklist
(BookListOnline.com)

“…Maysonet’s novel and its unreliable narrator Tera will make a better human being out of any reader. I love reading books that make your heart hurt, but few to no books are in the same league as A Work of Art… Absolutely one of the best dark contemporary novels of 2015.”

—YA Books Central, on naming it a best book of 2015

“I opened A Work of Art and had intentions of reading a few pages before I went to bed….I ended up reading the entire book in one sitting. I was mesmerized by the style of writing and how full of emotion this book was…. This is truly a phenomenal, intense book.”

—Curling Up With a Good Book
(curling-up-with-a-good-book.blogspot.com)

“One of the most heart wrenching stories I have read in a very long time… Tera’s story was heartbreaking but beautiful… [E]very chapter ended with me wanting more.”

—Jenn Renee Read
(jennreneeread.blogspot.com)

“This is an incredibly good book but also an incredibly hard one. I liked Tera immediately, and because of that I felt protective….She’s a heroine you can’t help but like and root for. Highly recommended.”

—KellyVision
(KellyVision.wordpress.com)

“Maysonet’s novel hooks you from the beginning and doesn’t let you go. With unflinching honesty, it explores the limits of loyalty and how far someone will go to find—or avoid—the truth.”

—Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Author of Gringolandia, Rogue, and Surviving Santiago (2015)
(LynMillerLachmann.com)

“A smart, deftly written novel about identity and self-determination. Maysonet’s page-turning debut is a brave exploration of Tera, an artist who discovers that ‘truth’ often belongs to the hand gripping the paintbrush.”

—Crissa-Jean Chappell, author of Narc, Total Constant Order, and More Than Good Enough
(crissajeanchappell.com)

“In this fast-paced debut, Melody Maysonet explores themes of family, identity, and the lies we tell ourselves when the truth becomes too painful to bear. Tera’s world crashes the day her beloved but manipulative father is arrested. In the aftermath, she falls prey to yet another master manipulator. Throughout Tera’s mistakes and struggles, her commitment to painting remains constant. A Work of Art is a compelling tribute to the healing power of creative expression.”

—Yvonne Ventresca, Author of Pandemic
(YvonneVentresca.com)

“With apt allusions to William Blake’s painting and poetry, A Work of Art portrays the complex loss of innocence of an exploited child whose only hope for redemption may come through the very art of painting [that] her father used to control her.”

—Laurie Gray, author of Maybe I Will
(SocraticParenting.com)