mixed bag
Apologies to those who keep catching these entries between when I put them up and when I once again realise I've used smart quotes and thus broken all the cut-tags. I've just finally changed the defaults in the word doc I use for draft reviews.
Kathleen Duey, Skin Hunger. This is the first in a YA series (I presume trilogy), and is dark, powerful and effective. It also has the most appalling unresolution-not-actually-an-ending I’ve read for some time, and although the second one is now out I am holding out for a complete series, because I don’t trust the author not to do it again.
It’s a two pov story - a girl in a land where magic has been outlawed gets involved with people who are working to restore it is one, and the other is a boy learning to become a wizard, at a training academy run by people who thought Ender’s Game was an educational model that dangerously pandered to the feelings and welfare of children. Actually, make that “men” rather than people, in both sections; there’s an undercurrent of gender issues here that isn’t fully developed, but may be later.
The connection between the two points of view is made more explicit in the blurb, but I skipped this (if I’ve already decided to buy the book - in this case, from a review - the blurb doesn’t help and often gives away too much) and found wondering about the nature of the connection a useful source of tension. I’d have to give it a re-read to see how well this holds up, but there’s more than enough interpersonal tension going on to pick up the slack. Vivid description and having stuff happen (especially in Sadima’s point of view, which runs a lot faster than the other), as well as taking on interesting ideas made this one of the best YA I’ve read this year; however, the cut-off conclusion means I can’t really fairly judge this as a book without the rest of them.
Neil Gaiman, The graveyard book. Child survives murderous attack on his family by taking refuge in graveyard; is brought up by ghosts, educated by the undead, befriended by a human girl and, ultimately, must leave the graveyard to seek revenge and make a life for himself. Some nice moments (I did like the villain(s)) and very readable, but I felt that the female characters were undercut and never more than plot necessities, particularly when one of them gets used as bait. Also, wiping character memories at the end of children’s fantasies never works well for me (or manga, actually - still bitter about Hands Off!). Bod’s (foster) parents are also oddly underdeveloped and, really, writing this is just making me think I should totally re-read Eva Ibbotson’s The Great Ghost Rescue instead, which has amazing active character moments and touching moments involving feeding starving baby vampire bats. Feel free to read this in the knowledge that I really think Gaiman writes infinitely better comics than prose, with the exception of Good Omens, and may therefore be biased.
Christina Hardyment, Dream Babies. Nonfiction overview of the change in trends in advice books for parents/on care of babies, from 1800s to now. Fascinating - reassuring, in the sense that obviously there is no one true way, and disturbing when you look at what some people have actually done, or at least advocated. The field is obviously crying out for well-designed double-blind studies ☺ . I was most taken by the woodcut of a cleric - pastor? Vicar? I always get these wrong - from the mid1800s, rocking the baby’s cradle with his foot, hearing his young son’s homework, supervising the explorations of another child and peeling a potato simultaneously.
Kathleen Duey, Skin Hunger. This is the first in a YA series (I presume trilogy), and is dark, powerful and effective. It also has the most appalling unresolution-not-actually-an-ending I’ve read for some time, and although the second one is now out I am holding out for a complete series, because I don’t trust the author not to do it again.
It’s a two pov story - a girl in a land where magic has been outlawed gets involved with people who are working to restore it is one, and the other is a boy learning to become a wizard, at a training academy run by people who thought Ender’s Game was an educational model that dangerously pandered to the feelings and welfare of children. Actually, make that “men” rather than people, in both sections; there’s an undercurrent of gender issues here that isn’t fully developed, but may be later.
The connection between the two points of view is made more explicit in the blurb, but I skipped this (if I’ve already decided to buy the book - in this case, from a review - the blurb doesn’t help and often gives away too much) and found wondering about the nature of the connection a useful source of tension. I’d have to give it a re-read to see how well this holds up, but there’s more than enough interpersonal tension going on to pick up the slack. Vivid description and having stuff happen (especially in Sadima’s point of view, which runs a lot faster than the other), as well as taking on interesting ideas made this one of the best YA I’ve read this year; however, the cut-off conclusion means I can’t really fairly judge this as a book without the rest of them.
Neil Gaiman, The graveyard book. Child survives murderous attack on his family by taking refuge in graveyard; is brought up by ghosts, educated by the undead, befriended by a human girl and, ultimately, must leave the graveyard to seek revenge and make a life for himself. Some nice moments (I did like the villain(s)) and very readable, but I felt that the female characters were undercut and never more than plot necessities, particularly when one of them gets used as bait. Also, wiping character memories at the end of children’s fantasies never works well for me (or manga, actually - still bitter about Hands Off!). Bod’s (foster) parents are also oddly underdeveloped and, really, writing this is just making me think I should totally re-read Eva Ibbotson’s The Great Ghost Rescue instead, which has amazing active character moments and touching moments involving feeding starving baby vampire bats. Feel free to read this in the knowledge that I really think Gaiman writes infinitely better comics than prose, with the exception of Good Omens, and may therefore be biased.
Christina Hardyment, Dream Babies. Nonfiction overview of the change in trends in advice books for parents/on care of babies, from 1800s to now. Fascinating - reassuring, in the sense that obviously there is no one true way, and disturbing when you look at what some people have actually done, or at least advocated. The field is obviously crying out for well-designed double-blind studies ☺ . I was most taken by the woodcut of a cleric - pastor? Vicar? I always get these wrong - from the mid1800s, rocking the baby’s cradle with his foot, hearing his young son’s homework, supervising the explorations of another child and peeling a potato simultaneously.