Belated Book Blurbs
Nov. 29th, 2004 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daemonlunaHmm, been way too long since I got around to this. Just a few for now, as I play catch-up:
How the Light Gets In - M.J. Hyland
First off... this is not a YA book. It was published as adult fiction, and was nominated for the Giller prize, which I think is why I put it on hold, hoping it would be one of those adult-appeals-to-YAs books. Anyhow. Sixteen-year-old Lou (never Louise) has been accepted for a student exchange, escaping from her white-trash family in Australia to a well-to-do middle-class suburb in Chicago. Her elaborate daydreams and expectations of the perfect family are nothing like the restrained, superfical Hardings, and her own destructive behaviour and compulsive lying begin to take their toll on everyone involved. In the end... well, there is no end. The lack of resolution isn't nearly as much of a cop-out as it could be, given Lou's constant storytelling and self-delusions. I didn't like this one because I really didn't like the main character. It wasn't that she constantly kept screwing up, but that she was completely, totally self-absorbed, and her detachment from everyone else kept me from caring what happened to any of the characters. Maybe that's why the open ending didn't bother me--I really didn't care by that point. Some interesting language and imagery, neverif the narrative was a bit aimless, but not on my list of recommended reads.
A Thief in the House of Memory - Tim Wynne-Jones
Declan Steeple's got it pretty good--good grades, a wealthy (if eccentric) father, an adoring little sister and good-natured stepmother, good friends, and a plan to become an architect. Then he hitch-hikes home one day with the guy driving the water truck, and sets a convoluted, twisted string of events into motion. Yeah, here's where the summary starts to sound cliched and predictable, but let me assure you right now that no-one gets kidnapped or abused and Declan makes it home safe and sound. It all comes back to his mother, Lindy, who left when he was ten, and the ancestral family home. The large house has stood empty, maintained like a museum or shrine, since Declan's father remarried. There's a death, a court case, but self-identity and a complex knot of imperfect but strong family ties is at the heart of it all. Tim Wynne Jones doesn't disappoint--the characters are a rich and varied bunch, and the adults have as much depth as the teens. Declan's friends, though they're all secondary and background characters, are a wonderfully, realistically quirky bunch of "smart kids," and there's a truly charming bit of romance going on, too. There are definite similarities to some of Wynne Jone's other books--especially The Boy in the Burning House and Stephen Fair--but he's not merely retreading new ground. As always, a treat to read, and a fine balance of light and dark.
Flux by Beth Goobie
In this dystopic possibly-other-planet, Nellie is essentially a street kid. She and her mother left the rigidly controlled Interior for the frontier communities of the Outbacks, and after her mother's disappearance several months before, she's all on her own. However, her isolation has opened her mind to flux, the ability to alter her molecular vibratins and travel between different levels of reality. When a local gang of boys, the Skulls, retaliate against an earlier attack and shave her head, they expose a strange network of scars on her scalp. A string of events is set into motion, Nellie is reluctantly befriended by the leader of the skulls, and a quest for his missing brother leads them through many layers of reality and into the Interior itself. Beth Goobie's done better. The sheer strangeness of this one reminds me of The Colours of Carol Molev. The plot is vaguely muddled, strangely metaphysical, and never really quite came together, though it is the first book of a planned series. However, Nellie's emotions run strong and true through the loss of her mother and the onset of adolesence. Strong, believeable characters, muddled plot--I'll take that over the reverse any day.
How the Light Gets In - M.J. Hyland
First off... this is not a YA book. It was published as adult fiction, and was nominated for the Giller prize, which I think is why I put it on hold, hoping it would be one of those adult-appeals-to-YAs books. Anyhow. Sixteen-year-old Lou (never Louise) has been accepted for a student exchange, escaping from her white-trash family in Australia to a well-to-do middle-class suburb in Chicago. Her elaborate daydreams and expectations of the perfect family are nothing like the restrained, superfical Hardings, and her own destructive behaviour and compulsive lying begin to take their toll on everyone involved. In the end... well, there is no end. The lack of resolution isn't nearly as much of a cop-out as it could be, given Lou's constant storytelling and self-delusions. I didn't like this one because I really didn't like the main character. It wasn't that she constantly kept screwing up, but that she was completely, totally self-absorbed, and her detachment from everyone else kept me from caring what happened to any of the characters. Maybe that's why the open ending didn't bother me--I really didn't care by that point. Some interesting language and imagery, neverif the narrative was a bit aimless, but not on my list of recommended reads.
A Thief in the House of Memory - Tim Wynne-Jones
Declan Steeple's got it pretty good--good grades, a wealthy (if eccentric) father, an adoring little sister and good-natured stepmother, good friends, and a plan to become an architect. Then he hitch-hikes home one day with the guy driving the water truck, and sets a convoluted, twisted string of events into motion. Yeah, here's where the summary starts to sound cliched and predictable, but let me assure you right now that no-one gets kidnapped or abused and Declan makes it home safe and sound. It all comes back to his mother, Lindy, who left when he was ten, and the ancestral family home. The large house has stood empty, maintained like a museum or shrine, since Declan's father remarried. There's a death, a court case, but self-identity and a complex knot of imperfect but strong family ties is at the heart of it all. Tim Wynne Jones doesn't disappoint--the characters are a rich and varied bunch, and the adults have as much depth as the teens. Declan's friends, though they're all secondary and background characters, are a wonderfully, realistically quirky bunch of "smart kids," and there's a truly charming bit of romance going on, too. There are definite similarities to some of Wynne Jone's other books--especially The Boy in the Burning House and Stephen Fair--but he's not merely retreading new ground. As always, a treat to read, and a fine balance of light and dark.
Flux by Beth Goobie
In this dystopic possibly-other-planet, Nellie is essentially a street kid. She and her mother left the rigidly controlled Interior for the frontier communities of the Outbacks, and after her mother's disappearance several months before, she's all on her own. However, her isolation has opened her mind to flux, the ability to alter her molecular vibratins and travel between different levels of reality. When a local gang of boys, the Skulls, retaliate against an earlier attack and shave her head, they expose a strange network of scars on her scalp. A string of events is set into motion, Nellie is reluctantly befriended by the leader of the skulls, and a quest for his missing brother leads them through many layers of reality and into the Interior itself. Beth Goobie's done better. The sheer strangeness of this one reminds me of The Colours of Carol Molev. The plot is vaguely muddled, strangely metaphysical, and never really quite came together, though it is the first book of a planned series. However, Nellie's emotions run strong and true through the loss of her mother and the onset of adolesence. Strong, believeable characters, muddled plot--I'll take that over the reverse any day.
