DEBUT Weiss's debut is a tale of Americana and the theater, narrated by Harriet Szász, one half of the "Siamese Sweets," a child vaudeville act posing as conjoined twins. Though the story is set during the First World War and the Great Depression, Harriet barely acknowledges these events, instead focusing on her personal drama navigating the theater, her complex parents, and the abrupt departure of her twin sister, Josie, for Hollywood. Harriet's tale is interwoven with accounts of her parents. While the transitions between these stories within stories--sometimes taking place in a single chapter--can be jarring, they serve to humanize Harriet and her family. There are deep, tragic elements to this story, but Harriet does not dwell on them. The members of the Szász family, while odd, are easy to like. As Harriet grows, from passive observer of her own life to woman capable of choices, the coming-of-age theme heightens the story's energy and focus. VERDICT This debut, by a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, is a multilayered celebration of female independence in the arts during an era that often demanded feminine conventionality. It should appeal to readers fascinated by women-centric takes on the theatrical world and the United States of the early 20th century.--Tara Kunesh, Georgia State Univ., Clarkston

In this slow-moving but imaginative debut, Weiss introduces readers to a desperate show business family. In 1918, Lenny and Maude Szász scheme to break the family back into the business after Maude was sidelined by an injury, and land on a plan that sees them disguising their twin five-year-old daughters, Harriet and Josie, as conjoined twins, and conceiving of a vaudeville act called the Siamese Sweets. For a decade, the girls are not allowed out of their home unattached, and as they become famous around the Midwest, it becomes clear that Josie is the star. When Josie abandons the family for Hollywood in a dramatic break from Harriet on stage at age 15, Harriet is left to discover her identity. Woven in are Lenny and Maude's backstories--his alcoholism and hardships as a set designer, and Maude's time in the spotlight as well as the baby she abandoned. Harriet, self-described as "the family dud, the tragically abandoned second fiddle, a nobody stunned by her sister's magnificence," is unfortunately passive, and while Weiss explores the intriguing theme of a woman understood only in relation to others, Harriet doesn't exactly catapult the plot forward. Still, there are plenty of rich details, and each scene is well drawn. Weiss is clearly talented, even if this isn't the perfect start. Agent: Rebecca Gradinger. C. Fletcher & Company. (Nov.)

In 1918 Chicago, five-year old twins Harriet and Josephine Szász debut their musical act, the Siamese Sweets, though they are actually bound together by a harness their father Lenny created, to which their mother Maude only reluctantly agreed. Harriet, the more serious sister, teaches herself to read and write and tries to behave. While Josie has more natural talent, her stubbornness and independent spirit are a dangerous combination. For eleven years they are a hit on the vaudeville circuit until their act comes to an abrupt, scandalous end. Josie redefines herself and launches a successful acting career, leaving Harriet with the hard work of keeping the rest of the family out of poverty. The sacrifices she must make threaten to keep her from finding her own path to fulfillment. This debut follows the Szász family into the early 1930s. Harriet's astute and descriptive narration is interspersed with flashbacks of Maude and Lenny's own ill-fated careers in show business. Readers who enjoy bittersweet, coming-of-age stories like Anna Quindlen's Miller's Valley (2016) or The Distance Home by Paula Saunders (2018) will root for Harriet.

The roller-coaster history of an early-20th-century showbiz family. In the prologue, a reporter arrives at the home of Harriet Szász to interview her following the death of her movie star sister, Josephine Wilder. In the reporter's eyes, as Harriet knows all too well, "I'm the family dud, the tragically abandoned second fiddle, a nobody stunned by her sister's magnificence." Harriet begins her story in the late spring of 1918, when she and her twin are 5 and their Hungarian-born father, a set designer and tailor, finally persuades their mother, a former showgirl, to reenter "the family business" by launching the girls as a singing act. Interposed between the chapters that follow the trajectory of that endeavor are flashbacks set in 1903, 1889, 1904, etc., which provide important background on key characters. These are at first intentionally mysterious, identifying people already introduced (mother, father, etc.) by proper names that haven't yet been revealed. It's kind of fun when you connect the dots and figure out who's who, but it makes for confusion in the first third of the book. The girls' career has barely begun when the Spanish flu shuts down the theaters and sends them back to their mother's dull family in Ohio, run by her brother-in-law, a priggish pastor with ambitious dreams of his own. Then Daddy has a brainstorm--they will reintroduce the girls as Siamese twins! The ruse goes gangbusters until what you know is going to happen, based on reveals in the prologue, finally does: Josie gets fed up with the sister act and runs off to Hollywood. The rest of the book focuses on Harriet, who maybe really is the tragically abandoned second fiddle, but maybe she can learn to defy all the people who control her and become her own person. Interesting characters and rich period setting balance structural flaws. A promising debut. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.