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The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs | 
| Author: Jack Gantos
Publisher: Square Fish
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $1.80
You Save: $6.19 (77%)
New (35) Used (10) from $1.80
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 423151
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0312380526
EAN: 9780312380526
ASIN: 0312380526
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
On an unseasonably warm Easter Sunday, a young girl named Ivy discovers a chilling secret in the basement of the Rumbaugh pharmacy across the street from the hotel where she lives with her mother. The discovery reveals a disturbing side to the eccentric lives of family friends Abner and Adolph Rumbaugh, known throughout their small western Pennsylvania town simply as the Twins. It seems that Ab and Dolph have been compelled by a powerful mutual love for their deceased mother to do something outrageous, something that in its own twisted way bridges the gap between the living and the dead. Immediately, Ivy’s discovery provokes the revelation of a Rumbaugh family curse, a curse that, as Ivy will learn over the coming years, holds a strange power over herself and her own mother.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Ugh... September 20, 2008
I, too, cannot see this book appealing to a general audience of young adult readers. For starters, they would get bogged down with the time-swapping nature of the novel. I also think that the pure-blood, genetics, science flavoring of the story becomes slightly confusing and boring in parts. Also, the underlying feel of incest begins, by the end, to feel a bit icky. It wasn't scary. I can't imagine anyone comparing it to Frankenstein. If teens are really interested in literature that has a more gothic flavor, I suggest something by Libba Bray. For me, this one just wasn't a keeper. I am going to donate it to the local library on Monday.
 Difficult to match with the right reader April 30, 2007
I adore Jack Gantos (specifically A Hole in My Life). This is a beautifully crafted story BUT I don't know any readers to match to it. (And I meet a new batch of 100+ teen readers every year). It was beyond creepy to me and my favorite show of all time is "Six Feet Under." My skin crawled more than it does when I read Poe, Faulkner, Dahl's "Landlady," etc. The prose is perfectly executed but I felt nauseated for most of the tale.
 Macabre January 10, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's hard to imagine this book, marketed for a teen audience, ever having wide appeal with its target audience. The language is too rich and possesses a gothic lilt. The story is Faulkner's A Rose for Emily meets the Bates Motel. We have a small town with a family secret.
Whenever a story shows characters who are into taxidermy, I know we're going to find that the dearly departed probably haven't...departed, that is. This story didn't let me down. Stuffed mothers appear around ever corner, building up to the most macabre ending I've ever come across. I wanted Ivy, the story's protagonist, to rise above the Rumbaugh curse of extraordinary mother love, but she didn't. Throughout the story, her mother urged her to leave the small town where they lived and go off to college. The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs demonstrates that family weirdness doesn't just go away, it adapts.
 Creepy September 20, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I was torn on how many stars to give this book. On one hand, this tale of too much mother-love, taxidermy and eugenic theory is extremely well written and oddly compelling.
On the other hand, it is so well written that it's exteremly creepy to a point where reading it just made my skin crawl.
Ivy's always enjoyed spending time in the local pharmacy run by the Rumbaugh twins, but that fateful Easter Sunday when she stumbles across their dead mother, stuffed and mounted in the basement near her play area, everything changes. That is when she is drawn into a long-running family curse of mother-love. From then on, she switches between worrying about the inevitable death of her own mother and how this curse is effecting her life and if there is any possible escape.
A dark, creepy tale that's done so well that it should probably be saved for older readers.
A bizarre and unusual book June 5, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Ivy was born with the only kind of love she ever wanted, a mother's love. She doesn't know who her father is and has no desire to find out (though Ivy's mother reveals the truth on her sixteenth birthday). But Ivy's mother does let slip that Ivy has inherited the love curse. The curse entails obsessive love of a mother accompanied by constant worry that she will die. Ivy also develops an unusual hobby: taxidermy. She is aided with this pastime by her quirky neighbors, the Rumbaugh twins, who run the pharmacy across the street. The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs chronicles Ivy's battle between overcoming the curse and letting it consume her, and uncovering the secrets of the Rumbaugh twins.
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs was a bizarre and unusual book. The novel presented different viewpoints on free will, love, and the concept of "superior genetics" which I found interesting. But the book took the taxidermy hobby and obsessive love of a mother a bit too far. Also, the time skipped around, which I found confusing. Overall the book peaked my curiosity but was somewhat morbid; it was interesting but not an attention grabber for me. I would recommend this book be read only by young adults or older due to some of the content.
Reviewed by a student reviewer for Flamingnet Book Reviews.
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Preteen, teen, and young adult book reviews and recommendations.
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