Windswept

All the Wind in the World by Samantha Mabry

There is so much wind in the world.

All the Wind in the World, Mabry's second novel for young adults transports readers to The Real Marvelous, a Texas ranch where jimadors toil countless hours in the blazing desert sun harvesting maguey. Lopping out the hearts of this cactus is soul-numbing, back-breaking, hope-stifling labor.  Sarah Jac Crow and James Holt have a plan to escape their fates in Chicago, work as jimadors, and earn enough money to move to a home of their own on the East Coast.
But the desert and particularly Real Marvelous have a power over its inhabitants. There are witches and curses, death and plagues. And the ever present wind.  Always the wind.
The story is brimming with evocative language that casts its own spell on readers.  There are numerous references to Biblical literature: Sarah posing as a cousin to protect her relationship with James, the escape after killing an overseer of the field workers, and a series of plagues including a devastating attack of bees. The book's mystical elements are rich in symbolism.  Enter a world of heat and pain, longing and loss. The images remain long after turning the final page.

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Images from Texas

​We wait for weather or disease or bees or a sudden accident to come and pick one another off..

I learned later that desperate people turn, like an apple gone to rot from the inside out.
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​The stars in the night sky are overwhelming in number and in their random patterns. Some are glowing. Some are dim. Some are clustered, and other seem to stand apart. Someone has to be the first to point out how they connect. Constellations aren't obvious until the moment they are.

I worry that my heart is not very hard anymore. It's getting tired and worn out, like maybe its fibers are coming undone.

I don't believe in signs and symbols, but in reality, facts, and things I can see with my own eyes. A freak storm of bees is just that: a freak storm of bees.

James and I have always had our plans, but plans are different than expectations. Expectations are firm. You expect the stars to appear at night because they've always appeared at night...Plans are more like half dreams.
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