Kate Racculia taps into the art and ideas of [Joseph] Cornell for inspiration and populates her charming, imaginative novel with found objects that speak to her characters’ past lives and ultimately their long-held secrets…[This Must Be the Place] makes for a lively read as it explores the themes of friendship, love, loss and forgiveness. Like Cornell, the author creates subtle moments of poetry by way of everyday objects and lives.
—S. Kirk Walsh, Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2010
[This Must Be the Place is] bursting with ideas about grief, choices and what it means to belong, anchored by the quirky, exquisite story of Mona Jones, baker of wedding cakes and young proprietor of an upstate New York boardinghouse, and her teenage daughter Oneida…[A] remarkably self-assured debut.
—Amy Scribner, BookPage, August 2010
The tone is funny and generous—youthful and hip without the trendy bite. Kate Racculia has put together an interesting mix of themes. Meditations on family, identity, romance, and creativity swirl around a compelling set of relationships, many of which come about by proximity rather than by design.
—Jennifer G. Wilder, BookBrowse, August 4, 2010
This often witty debut, with its cast of appealing characters, is a smart exploration of love, friendship, and the secrets we keep, even from ourselves.
—Karen Holt, O, The Oprah Magazine, July 14, 2010
This enchanting debut is part romance, part mystery—with a touch of coming-of-age tale thrown in…All three [characters] are confronted with larger issues of love and duty and learn that the essential question is not “How did I get here?” but “Where am I going?” Racculia’s whimsical details and flawed yet immensely likable characters make Place a magical journey. (4 stars)
—People Magazine, July 12, 2010
Kate Racculia’s first novel is an engaging read, a story of misfits who come together out of loneliness and who make, for a while, an offbeat family….Echoes of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth McCracken flit through this book, which is about the choices we make and the reasons we love.
—Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, July 10, 2010
This first novel carries within it collisions of every sort, not least of which are charming characters who collaborate to make wedding cakes and fall in love smack dab in a chillingly evil reality….[This Must Be the Place] takes us down high school memory lane and makes a serious stab at educating us in the works of Ray Harryhausen and, surprisingly, Joseph Cornell.
—Carolyn See, The Washington Post, July 9, 2010
This Must Be the Place is sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes comic; it’s a page-turner, a fun read with endless pop culture references that nonetheless digs into some elemental matters of human existence—identity, fear, and the most basic question of all—what is the point of it all? [Racculia] breathes such life into her people, lovably flawed characters, each with their own agency and motives, that This Must Be the Place seems to arise from merely having set them upon the stage.
—Mark Flanagan, About.com
(Starred Review) Accomplished and compelling debut novel…It takes Racculia just a few vivid setup chapters to sweep us into the thoughts and feelings of her appealing principal characters: smart, prickly Oneida; sexy, funny Eugene, who’s more vulnerable than he seems; nurturing Mona, still in Amy’s shadow…and grieving Arthur, who needs to understand that his wife’s past was darker than he realized….The author brilliantly captures teenage angst and uncertainty as she conveys some very grown-up truths about the choices we make and the prices we—and others—pay for them. Intelligent, warm-hearted and tough-minded—Racculia is a talent to watch.
—Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2010
(Starred Review) Boston-based Racculia has packed enough emotion, personality, and deft writing into her debut novel to power this small town. We are fascinated by Arthur’s quest and eager to uncover the secrets everyone is hoarding. By book’s end, readers will know they have unearthed a treasure. Highly recommended for discerning readers.
—School Library Journal, April 15, 2010
Racculia’s irresistibly charming debut is an artful mix of genres: oddball domestic (set in a boardinghouse, characters named Desdemona and Oneida), coming-of-age (high school loves and teen angst) and literary women’s fiction (love, loss, and friendship)….With its happy ending and rich trove of Gen-X references and humor, this is a thoroughly enjoyable first novel, both accessibly absurd and quite touching.
—Publishers Weekly, April 19, 2010
Never has it been more aptly presented than in this engaging novel that love can take us all on unexpected journeys–often when we least expect it. Here is a story that is part mystery, part meditation, part romance, part imperative. It is presented from different points of view: cake-baking Mona, mistress of a boarding house, for whom a long-ago act of love for a friend leads to a complicated romance. Mona’s teenage daughter, Oneida, whose tentative forays into love bring her far more than she anticipated. And Arthur, a man widowed too soon, on a path that will lead him to understand who his young wife really was. Kate Racculia has a strong and original voice, and a lot to say about the chances we take–or miss.
—Elizabeth Berg, author of THE LAST TIME I SAW YOU
What a lovely, utterly endearing book this is—effulgent and alive, peopled with originals, alchemically forging whole souls out of fractured hearts. Kate Racculia tells her tale with the rare, light-winged grace of a natural-born storyteller who finds meaning and beauty in the deliciously strange half-twist.
—Beth Kephart, author of UNDERCOVER and A SLANT OF SUN
In This Must Be the Place, Kate Racculia reveals herself to be a wonderfully witty writer whose vivid characters—young and not so young—are capable of endless surprises. Her absorbing plot and her deep understanding of the connection between past and present make this an affecting and deeply pleasurable novel.”
—Margot Livesey, author of THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET
