Bound To Stay Bound

Other - 12/16/2024 A nondescript, nearly 50-year-old apartment building named the Odenburgh helps narrate this gentle novel about grief by Millington (Olivetti). The Odenburgh knows better than to become attached to its tenants. Yet it can’t help but listen when 11-year-old Prue Laroe performs what she calls the Tub-Night Show into her apartment’s landline. Prue used to host the imaginary comedy routine with her older sisters Fifi and Lina-and then Lina was killed in a traffic accident in front of the building. Now Prue uses the disconnected telephone to chat with her deceased sister and avoid her family’s mourning. When Prue learns that the apartment building has been sold and is set for demolition, she’s heartbroken and furious. Her anguish prompts the Odenburgh to flick its lights on and off in solidarity, a phenomenon that Prue believes is Lina communicating with her through the structure. She joins forces with Lewis, an anxious boy from across the street, and resolves to unite the other tenants to save their home. Chapters swiftly alternate between the perspectives of the Odenburgh, Prue, Lewis, and other apartment dwellers, imparting a bustling tone. Flowery language occasionally detracts from the story’s emotional core. Main characters read as white. Ages 8-12. Agent: Kristen Terrette, Martin Literary. (Mar.) - Copyright 2024

School Library Journal - 03/28/2025 Gr 3–7—The Odenburgh, a crumbling apartment building on a block facing gentrification, has been watching its tenants for years, trying not to get attached since it knows, "pigeons or people. There's no point in getting attached. They all leave anyway." But still, the building can't help but feel for certain occupants, particularly 11-year-old Prue from apartment 4C. Every night Prue puts on a talk show in the bathroom, interviewing her sister Lina in what Prue thinks of as the "Tub-night Show" by talking for hours into a landline with an endless dialtone. Told in very short chapters that alternate between the building, Prue, a mysterious neighbor, and various tenants, this quirky story chronicles a a family's grief at Lina's absence (the reason for it is slowly revealed), through unusual means: bringing the Odenburgh's tenants together in order to try and save their beloved home. The unique premise highlights how grief can fracture a family, the value of community, and the impact of gentrification. Wholly original and brimming with empathy, the short chapters and alternating points of view can be disorienting and hard to follow at times; until the mystery of Lina's absence is revealed, then the various strands begin to come together. Readers who enjoyed Millington's heartfelt debut, Olivetti, will be thrilled with this moving follow-up, also told from the perspective of an inanimate object. VERDICT A rich cast of characters and a surprisingly lovable building will tug at readers' heartstrings in the best possible way. Highly recommended.—Rebecca Kirshenbaum - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.