The Earthquake Machine

The Earthquake Machine
by Mary Pauline Lowry

326 pages
Published September 2011

The Earthquake Machine tells the story of 14 year-old Rhonda. On the outside, everything looks perfect in Rhonda's world but at home Rhonda has to deal with a manipulative father who keeps her mentally ill mother hooked on pharmaceuticals. The only reliable person in Rhonda's life is her family's Mexican yardman, Jes s. But when the INS deports Jes?'s back to his home state of Oaxaca, Rhonda is left alone with her increasingly painful family situation. Determined to find her friend Jes s, Rhonda seizes an opportunity to run away during a camping trip with friends. She swims to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande and makes her way to the border town of Boquillas, Mexico. There a peyote-addled bartender convinces her she won't be safe traveling alone into the country's interior. So with the bartender's help, Rhonda cuts her hair and assumes the identity of a Mexican boy named Angel. She then sets off on a burro across the desert to look for Jes s. Thus begins a wild adventure that explores the borders between the United States and Mexico, adolescence and adulthood, male and female, English and Spanish, and adult coming-of-age and Young Adult novels.

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Okay, I admit it. I've been putting off writing this review. The book wasn't exactly what I expected, but then, I hadn't looked too closely at what it was before I started it. Unfortunately, I probably wouldn't have read it if I'd looked at it more closely. (Doesn't help that I don't care one bit for the cover. Sorry.)

Yes, the book was very well-written. Creative. An adventure. Those are great things, things I love in the stories I read.

However. This just isn't my kind of book. I think I'll leave it at that.

If you're considering reading this, please be aware that it is very sexually explicit.