A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“It was a fine night to die.”- A Death-Struck Year, Makiia Lucier

A deadly pandemic, a budding romance, and the heartache of loss make for a stunning coming-of-age teen debut about the struggle to survive during the 1918 flu.

For Cleo Berry, the people dying of the Spanish Influenza in cities like New York and Philadelphia may as well be in another country--that's how far away they feel from the safety of Portland, Oregon. And then cases start being reported in the Pacific Northwest. Schools, churches, and theaters shut down. The entire city is thrust into survival mode--and into a panic. Headstrong and foolish, seventeen-year-old Cleo is determined to ride out the pandemic in the comfort of her own home, rather than in her quarantined boarding school dorms. But when the Red Cross pleads for volunteers, she can't ignore the call. As Cleo struggles to navigate the world around her, she is surprised by how much she finds herself caring about near-strangers. Strangers like Edmund, a handsome medical student and war vet. Strangers who could be gone tomorrow. And as the bodies begin to pile up, Cleo can't help but wonder: when will her own luck run out?

Riveting and well-researched, A Death-Struck Year is based on the real-life pandemic considered the most devastating in recorded world history. Readers will be captured by the suspenseful storytelling and the lingering questions of: what would I do for a neighbor? At what risk to myself?
An afterword explains the Spanish flu phenomenon, placing it within the historical context of the early 20th century. Source notes are extensive and interesting.

My library copy didn't have this cover and, not going to lie, I'm a bit bummed. Also, I apologize in advance if I misspell Ms Lucier's name anywhere. I will do my best to spell it correctly, but alas, I am not perfect and there's always apt to be at least one spelling error. Now that I've said that, let's get on with the review.

I'm going to get out my fine-toothed comb and do some nitpicking here. This is likely going to be common whenever I review historical fiction, because I believe strongly that all these little nitpicks added together can impact my rating of this book. So just bear with me. First complaint: Cleo is not a very common name for the time period it took place. While it was more popular then than it is today (likely due to the rise of the study of Ancient Egypt), it still felt very jarring and out of place. Also, Mateo should have two ts (making it Matteo) since his family was of Italian ancestry. Mateo, with one t, is Spanish. Other than that, the Italian was very good- Lucier even used the correct form when Elena was addressing Cleo!

That does bring me to my next issue, and this is definitely a research issue. Immigrants, and especially immigrants during wartime, did not speak their native language and especially not teach their native language to their children in the early 1900s. Assimilation was far more important than any ideas of preserving culture, and due to the rise of American Nationalism during WWI, all new immigrants wanted to learn English and become true Americans. Anyone who didn't speak English, in fact, was regarded as being suspicious. Which reminds me, later on in the story Cleo notices a bunch of books written in German being taken away. She asks why, and the man taking them away was rude to her in response. My question is: How the hell did she not know why those books were being taken away? The German language was practically forbidden, and German immigrants were pressured to speak only English for fear of being arrested on accusations of spying. Did Cleo never pick up a newspaper? This felt especially out of place given that she seemed aware of anti-German sentiment earlier and was pretty okay with it.

As far as the writing went, I did like it, even though it seemed very simplistic and debut-y. There was some slight heavy-handedness while trying to get in the research, but far less than most debut historical fiction authors. Well done. I also think that this book suffers from "include everything" syndrome. It's a common historical fiction error when the author, in an effort to really hammer home the time in which the book takes place, throws everything that happened during that particular period in her story, regardless of whether it truly fits or not. While period pieces can get away with this, I'd advise most authors to stay away from including too many events. It's okay to leave some things out of a story if it isn't relevant. Where this is most evident in A Death-Struck Year is when Cleo and Kate are talking and Kate randomly brings up the subject of birth control. This conversation reappears a few times throughout the book, and each time it doesn't really work. Now, I agree with the necessity of birth control and all that, but it doesn't belong in a story about the Spanish Influenza. Just because Margaret Sanger lived and wrote during that time doesn't mean she's relevant to the story.

I also didn't feel as impacted by the Spanish Influenza as I should have been. Maybe it's because the way Cleo narrated made me feel distant from the actual events. I didn't feel as affected as I should have. Of course, this could just be my fault (curse my stone-heart!) but it could also be the fault of the writer just not having enough experience yet. I also thought that a lot of events in the last 50-25 pages felt super rushed, and maybe that is the reason for my lack of emotion while reading. 

Still, I didn't hate this book. It was a quick and enjoyable enough read and it did give me a fabulous author's note to read with some great information on something I didn't know much about. Plus, it did take place during one of my favorite time periods, and choosing to set the book during the Spanish Influenza made it feel more unique, especially compared to all the other recent YA historical releases. I also liked how realistic for the time period the heroine was- I felt she could have actually been alive during the 1910s. And I did love the portrayal of nurses, since I come from a family of them. My great-grandma (Nana) was training to be a nurse before she dropped out to marry my great-grandfather (in fact, it would have been right around this time). My aunt was a nurse. My mother is a nurse. My cousin is a nurse. So I liked the spotlight placed on nurses and just how important and brave they are, especially during times of disease and epidemic. While I did think the romance could have been cut entirely and it wouldn't have impacted the book at all, it still seemed like a realistic relationship during that time.

Bottom line? This is the perfect representation of the kind of book I would recommend to a historical fiction newbie- well researched, with an interesting setting and a believable heroine, but for someone well-versed in the genre, this debut falls on the mediocre side. Still, Lucier's got talent, and I think she has a bright future in the genre.

6.5-7 out of 10