A Prestigious Review of Maa-Ghut by Kirkus Magazine July 2025

 

 

Two teenage girls from alternate worlds inexplicably switch places as encroaching danger threatens them both in Litherland’s YA supernatural novel. Life changes for 14-year-old Evie when she opens the door to what appears to be her house and discovers nothing inside is as it should be. Where did the posh furnishings come from? Why does her geeky younger brother now have blond hair and blue eyes, wear designer duds, and call her “Eva”? Her ordinarily liberal mum is now raving about “ridiculous left-wing socialists” and her bearded, vegetarian dad is now outfitted in executive chic, working for the government. Her room is spotless, not her usual trash heap, and her now extensive wardrobe is expensive and trendy. The biggest shock: The girl looking back at Evie in the mirror is “fair-haired, blue-eyed, [and] elegantly groomed,” nothing like her usual skinny, mousy self. This is the intriguing beginning of a novel touching on issues of self-identity, hatred of “the other," and the systemic marginalization and dehumanizing of the “have-nots” by the “haves,” whose rampant consumption poisons the planet and contributes to suffering around the globe. In Evie’s new reality, the “have-nots” are the Maa-Ghut people, referred to by the wealthy as “Maggots.” Evie realizes that the real “Eva” is one of the heartless “haves,” and she bucks the cruel system in her place, confusing Eva’s in-group and finding support in unexpected places (Evie’s first-person narration eventually alternates with Eva’s; an enigmatic little boy with a pivotal part to play in the girls’ fates is a periodic, deeply moving third narrator). Litherland’s compelling narrative is fueled by big ideas. The threat of a demonic fog that crawls over rooftops “drawing its putrescence like black slime behind it” and foments a human mob bent on destroying the Maa-Ghut has no clear resolution, and the ambiguous nature of the ending is deliberate, according to the author’s concluding “Discussion Points.” “There are many unanswered questions which linger like a breath in cold air,” Litherland writes, asking readers for their opinions about the book and the real-world issues that inspired it. Not for those who prefer tidy endings, but eerie, thought-provoking, and worth the rideI'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.