Sunday, September 11, 2011
A Northern Light
by Jennifer DonnellyThis is one of those books I had heard about for years, from many people whose opinions I respect immensely, but never seemed to get to, until just now. It's a period piece, which is not always my style, and it's a weighty read, which for a slower reader like myself can be off-putting when my reading pile is so very tall, but I"m glad I finally took the time to delve into it.
The book opens with Mattie Gokey working at a summer holiday spot in upstate New York, where a body has just been pulled from the lake. The victim had given Mattie some letters to destroy before she went out on the fatal boat ride, and now Mattie has some choices to make as she uncovers some truths in those letters. This story unfolds in chapters that alternate with the chapters about how Mattie came to work there, despite the wishes of her stern father and an engagement that should have seen her home.
Mattie, we learn, is a bright girl who should, in the opinion of her teacher and best friend, be bound for a scholarship she has won at Barnard College with the assistance of her inspiring (but, it turns out, scandalous) teacher. She wants it so badly she can taste it, yet the money to get there seems impossible and worse, her father won't give her permission to go and leave him and her younger sisters behind. She is already torn between wishes and responsibility when Royal gets in the mix, asking her to marry him, and she is pulled in yet another direction by his handsome, solid self. Add to this the trials of her dearest friend, who sees the dreams he longs for fiercely go up in smoke, and in the end, she learns a few hard truths about men and women, about love and duty and destiny.
Mattie is one of those great girl characters, the ones full of spunk and longing and fight, the ones who we root for the whole way, whose frustrations are our frustrations, and she is the core of what makes this book great. There's a lot here, though. A lot about girls and position, a lot about what we want and why, a lot about living in another time, when you were defined by what you looked like and were told not to fight it.
All this, the experience, the realness of it, and the depth of the characters make for a read that pulls you in and stays with you well after you've closed the cover. Highly recommended, and a Printz Honor Book, to boot.
Labels: 2003, family, friendship, growing up, historical fiction, issues, loved it, teen
Monday, May 19, 2008
Publisher Review: A Great and Terrible Beauty
by Libba Bray. Reviewed for Random House. For more information on this title, see here.
(about publisher reviews on kittenpie reads)
Though largely set in Victorian England, this book open with Gemma chafing to leave her home in India and go to London. She is now 16, after all. Her journey to England is set in motion when a strange vision comes over her, and she sees her mother kill herself rather than be claimed by some mysterious creature while in the company of an unknown man. This shadow cast over her family, she is to go off to finishing school at Spence to be made marriageable. This is not quite what happens there, however.
Instead, Gemma learns more about the strange amulet her mother gave her, and about the visions she continues to have.It turns out that she is a conduit to another place, a centrepoint of the next generation of a group of women known as the Order who can access this land and the magic therein. It isn't all as beautiful as it looks, though, because there is a dark side, and someone known as Circe wants control.
As she learns more about the past from a diary, it seems that it is a hunger for power that caused things to go astray when the last generation of girls entered this other land, the Realms, and that they had been sealed to prevent Circe from crossing into our world. Which means that there is current danger of repeating history or allowing Circe to manipulate one of the girls in Gemma's circle by opening the portal again.
The ending does wrap things up fairly nicely, though there are sequels, which I appreciate. I don't love to be left hanging! I am curious about the sequels, though.
Although a substantial read at over 400 pages, the book moves along fairly quickly and drew me in enough that I read it in a few days, even as a slower reader. I loved the language in many places, and enjoyed that while it has a Victorian setting and some Victorian conventions, it moved faster than your average Victorian novel, and had enough rebellious sentiments among the girls to appeal to a modern girl's sensibility, particularly in the slightly naughty pranks and the horror at Pippa's being forced into a marriage with a much older and quite unappealing man.
All in all, I'm not surprised that this has been a big hit. It had a long holds list at the library for some time, and was much-requested in-branch, with lots of girls wanting to read it. It was one with great media push at the outset, as well, but unlike some books, I think this one has substance behind all of that. It's a great read for a teen girls, with its gothic and fantasy elements being well-handled, but not the whole story, and the characters being very strong and relateable.
Now off to reserve the next one in the set...
(about publisher reviews on kittenpie reads)
Though largely set in Victorian England, this book open with Gemma chafing to leave her home in India and go to London. She is now 16, after all. Her journey to England is set in motion when a strange vision comes over her, and she sees her mother kill herself rather than be claimed by some mysterious creature while in the company of an unknown man. This shadow cast over her family, she is to go off to finishing school at Spence to be made marriageable. This is not quite what happens there, however.Instead, Gemma learns more about the strange amulet her mother gave her, and about the visions she continues to have.It turns out that she is a conduit to another place, a centrepoint of the next generation of a group of women known as the Order who can access this land and the magic therein. It isn't all as beautiful as it looks, though, because there is a dark side, and someone known as Circe wants control.
As she learns more about the past from a diary, it seems that it is a hunger for power that caused things to go astray when the last generation of girls entered this other land, the Realms, and that they had been sealed to prevent Circe from crossing into our world. Which means that there is current danger of repeating history or allowing Circe to manipulate one of the girls in Gemma's circle by opening the portal again.
The ending does wrap things up fairly nicely, though there are sequels, which I appreciate. I don't love to be left hanging! I am curious about the sequels, though.
Although a substantial read at over 400 pages, the book moves along fairly quickly and drew me in enough that I read it in a few days, even as a slower reader. I loved the language in many places, and enjoyed that while it has a Victorian setting and some Victorian conventions, it moved faster than your average Victorian novel, and had enough rebellious sentiments among the girls to appeal to a modern girl's sensibility, particularly in the slightly naughty pranks and the horror at Pippa's being forced into a marriage with a much older and quite unappealing man.
All in all, I'm not surprised that this has been a big hit. It had a long holds list at the library for some time, and was much-requested in-branch, with lots of girls wanting to read it. It was one with great media push at the outset, as well, but unlike some books, I think this one has substance behind all of that. It's a great read for a teen girls, with its gothic and fantasy elements being well-handled, but not the whole story, and the characters being very strong and relateable.
Now off to reserve the next one in the set...
Labels: 2003, girly, good stuff, growing up, historical fiction, Publisher Reviews, suspense, teen, witches and wizards
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Boy Meets Boy
by David Levithan
Levithan is one of the big bright lights in teen lit these days, and I loved his parts of Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, so I wanted to try seomthing of his own. plus, the cover is cute, and I haven't read a lot of teen gay lit - seriously, it's like chicklit for boys who like boys.
The story was cute, the writing wonderful, the emotions exactly the kind of gut-wrenching up-and-down-ness of new maybe-love. My only real issue was the fact that the whole town and school and setting was obviously SO fictional. A town where the star quarterback is also the homecoming queen? Where there are no issues with being gay in any corner, it seems? Where the main character has never had a tough time because of it? He has one friend from a neighbouring town who has religious parents who have trouble with his sexuality, but otherwise, everything is tickety-boo. Hmm. It's like the most idealized, hazy-focused vision of what life could be like if no one had problems with any form of sexuality or its expression. Which is lovely and all, but still sadly far from realistic, and I think most gay teens would know that pretty well already. Still, I suppose, if you are going to lose yourself in sweet fiction, why not escape all the way?
Levithan is one of the big bright lights in teen lit these days, and I loved his parts of Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, so I wanted to try seomthing of his own. plus, the cover is cute, and I haven't read a lot of teen gay lit - seriously, it's like chicklit for boys who like boys.
The story was cute, the writing wonderful, the emotions exactly the kind of gut-wrenching up-and-down-ness of new maybe-love. My only real issue was the fact that the whole town and school and setting was obviously SO fictional. A town where the star quarterback is also the homecoming queen? Where there are no issues with being gay in any corner, it seems? Where the main character has never had a tough time because of it? He has one friend from a neighbouring town who has religious parents who have trouble with his sexuality, but otherwise, everything is tickety-boo. Hmm. It's like the most idealized, hazy-focused vision of what life could be like if no one had problems with any form of sexuality or its expression. Which is lovely and all, but still sadly far from realistic, and I think most gay teens would know that pretty well already. Still, I suppose, if you are going to lose yourself in sweet fiction, why not escape all the way?
Labels: 2003, fluff, good stuff, love story, teen
Friday, June 01, 2007
Acceleration
Graham McNamee.
Duncan's dull summer working at the transit commission's lost and found takes a turn for the twisted when he finds a diary detailing crimes past and plans for the psycho's move into hunting a woman. He starts to try to find the guy or the women or somehow stop this, and is convinced by a friend to turn the diary in to the police, let them handle it. The police, however, are busy, or convinced he's just a kid looking for a laugh, and take the whole thing with a grain of salt. So he sneaks the diary and picks up the case again himself, enlisting his friends.
The risk-taking behaviour makes the mom in me clench, but this totally works as a taut novel of suspense, and I hel my breath through the whole scene where he and the would-be killer he's nicknamed Roach go head to head. The ending is satisfying, while believable. A great read.
Duncan's dull summer working at the transit commission's lost and found takes a turn for the twisted when he finds a diary detailing crimes past and plans for the psycho's move into hunting a woman. He starts to try to find the guy or the women or somehow stop this, and is convinced by a friend to turn the diary in to the police, let them handle it. The police, however, are busy, or convinced he's just a kid looking for a laugh, and take the whole thing with a grain of salt. So he sneaks the diary and picks up the case again himself, enlisting his friends.
The risk-taking behaviour makes the mom in me clench, but this totally works as a taut novel of suspense, and I hel my breath through the whole scene where he and the would-be killer he's nicknamed Roach go head to head. The ending is satisfying, while believable. A great read.
Labels: 2003, good stuff, suspense, teen
