Thursday, August 20, 2015

Tiffany Tumbles - Kristine Grayson

Tiffany Tumbles
Kristine Grayson
WMG Publishing, Aug 18 2015, $14.99
ISBN: 9781561466306

Tiffany VanDerHoven knows how fickle her father is when he fired the Fates; promoted her and her half-sisters (Crystal and Brittany) to replace them; and in turn canned the interims.  No longer residents of Mt. Olympus, thanks to the intervention with their father Zeus by Los Angeles-based Dr. Megan; each sibling resides in the United States with their moms and without their left behind magic.  Whereas Tiffany lives in Eugene with her mother Serena the Oregon University Professor of Greek and Mediterranean Studies; Crystal is in Manhattan; and Brittany exiled to some unheard of place with the unlikely name of Superior, Wisconsin.

Fearing she will not adapt without magic or her support sisters, Tiffany panics over attending Central HS as her knowledge of this vicious subculture comes from teen movies.  Serena explains to the principal that her daughter’s father had custody for fifteen years and home schooled her overseas.  On her first day Tiffany meets Josh and Jenna.  No one else thankfully talks to her; as she tumbles her way through mortal adaptation and liking Josh in spite of her dad’s program to end true love.  Meanwhile Dearest Daddy asks Tiffany to come home even if it is only during school vacations; while the Fates struggle to understand why she left.

An offshoot of the charming Fates "fractured fairy tales" (nod to Jay Ward), the first Interim Fates teen contemporary is a breezy humorous satire about fitting in by an outsider who fell from the top of the Pantheon to the bottom of an American high school.  Summed up by Serena explaining to her daughter the magic of aspirin, fans of the original series and young adults will appreciate Tiffany’s firsthand account of being Clueless.


Harriet Klausner

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