REVIEWS: Two Meg Cabots
Nicola and the Viscount: Meg Cabot. Macmillan Children's Books, 2002.
There's an incident in the Chalet School series - bear with me - where a group of younger girls ask a prefect about books that are set in Regency England. Basically they want to learn old-fashioned slang to get around school rules. The elder girl suggests Georgette Heyer over Jane Austen - this always confused me, because I came to those two authors the other way around and happily so. Well, perhaps these days, if a similar situation arose (probably not under the same precise circumstances) there would be Cabot's Regencies. The sparkly pink (UK paperback) cover all but screams 'Regency! For 'Tweenies!'
The story goes thus, having just left school, Nicola Sparks is enthralled to discover that, for her first season, she has been invited to stay with a school-friend, whose brother, Lord Sebastian Bartholomew and the Viscount of the title, is a god in Nicola's dazzled and naïve eyes i.e. he is very, very, very good looking. So she turns down the slightly too late invitation from the family of her best friend, Eleanor. What our orphaned heroine has to recommend her is her beloved family home, enough cash to scrape by (according to the standards of upper class England in the early 19th century) and a pretty face and good nature. She gets into Almack's. But will she get the proposal that is the whole point of the Marriage Mart? And why does Eleanor's irritating brother Nathaniel have to disapprove of everything Nicky does, especially when Nicky accepts the god's proposal of marriage?
I'm a little flummoxed by this book. It makes me curious about reading the historical romances that Cabot wrote before becoming 'Meg Cabot' (the brand), and yet, I had many issues with it as a historical romance. In fact, when I was about the age at which this book seems to be aimed, I was reading Northanger Abbey and Sense and Sensibility, which it riffs off, and which have far more to offer. Certainly, a lot about those classic novels went over my head, but I'd recommend them to girls over this. I'll give Cabot credit for fizz and liveliness and an arc where a character gets to know herself and what she wants, or grows up, as happens to 16 year olds, with the romance as an adjunct to that, which are elements that Regency romances for adults dispense with but don't provide much in recompense (don't ask how I know. Go read 'Frederica' by Georgette Heyer instead, which this also reminded me of. Or 'Cotillion' by the same, because that's fabulous).
I'm just not sure why she bothered. Nicola Sparks isn't the name of a Regency heroine, and despite the nods to the period, she feels and thinks like a feisty, dipsy and warm-hearted modern heroine, or a heroine for a moral girl, whereas Catherine Morland is something more lasting. (And, as happens with a lot of Cabot's girls, I had a grumbling discontent that the hero could do better, although I dressed it up by deciding that Nathaniel - Henry Tilney, only more likely to do the family accounts, to which, AS IF - was a cat person and Nicola a dog person and thus they were basically incompatible.) Is she trying to point readers to Austen? Is it hero worship?
I am probably just too old for it - my favourite character was Lady Sheridan, Nat and Eleanor's wry and wise mother; I was also moderately amused by the running gag of Nicola remembering and usually breaking with the strictures of her teacher on how a lady should behave, but it has a touch of 'The Queen of Babble' goes back in time, because sweet Nicola has an eye for fashion. Although, come to think of it, QoB was surer on the class issues, and you can't write Regency England well without an awareness of class. So I'm tempted to say that either Cabot should work harder on writing a historical novel or that she should have set this in the contemporary milieu and idiom in which she's obviously more comfortable.
Teen Idol: Meg Cabot. Macmillan Children's Books, 2004.
This book features the Cabot heroine I've liked the most since Heather Walls. Jenny Greenley is the nicest girl at her school - the peace-maker. She's also so geeky that she doesn't realise that arguing over whether Asimov or Heinlen was the grandfather of science fiction is geeky. (What is it when you wonder if these crazy kids have not heard of Jules Verne?)
She's proved herself adept at keeping secrets, by letting no-one know she's the school newspaper's agony aunt, a cult and respected figure, and the book's gimmick, for Cabot likes her gimmicks. Excepts from the 'Ask Annie' column head up each chapter. So the teachers ask her to take care of Luke Striker, an actor (Chad Michael Murray crossed with Ioan Gruffudd, or something), who wants to attend a high school incognito for a bit in preparation for a film role. Perhaps he also wants to make up for having been taught on a set throughout his adolescence.
If you think you can guess what happens next, maybe I should add that, as with 'Nicola and the Viscount', the hero (as delish as Cabot's heroes always are) is not in the title. Luke and Jenny's relationship is platonic, though she is about the only girl in school who is happy to be just friends with him, especially when his identity is revealed. He, a little older and more objective, sees in her the potential to stand up to the cliquey bullying he sees going on in the school. He thinks she can do more than keep the peace (although it's more than anyone else does). Although it isn't ever explicitly stated, as such, the question is 'What Would Buffy Do?'
Of course, as she starts taking Giles/Jiminy Cricket/Luke's advice, life becomes far more complicated for Jen. Friendships and occasionally personal safety are risked, and can she get the boy she really likes to understand what's going on?
The book knowingly covers the Touchstones of Modern American High School Tropes - the Spring Fling is flung, there's even an Anti-Dance party, there's a fund-raising car wash that's more nice than naughty and did I mention the cliques, natural habitat: the school canteen. Apart from anything else, this is about Jenny realising she's in one, or rather, who her friends are, and making them see that they have influence and shouldn't just sit in the middle ground. Because Cabot knows this genre inside and out, this was a thoroughly enjoyable beach read over the summer. Literally picking both books up side by side for the publication details, I noticed that 'TI' is much thicker than 'NatV', and two years older, which may also contribute to why i preferred this one over the latter.
There's an incident in the Chalet School series - bear with me - where a group of younger girls ask a prefect about books that are set in Regency England. Basically they want to learn old-fashioned slang to get around school rules. The elder girl suggests Georgette Heyer over Jane Austen - this always confused me, because I came to those two authors the other way around and happily so. Well, perhaps these days, if a similar situation arose (probably not under the same precise circumstances) there would be Cabot's Regencies. The sparkly pink (UK paperback) cover all but screams 'Regency! For 'Tweenies!'
The story goes thus, having just left school, Nicola Sparks is enthralled to discover that, for her first season, she has been invited to stay with a school-friend, whose brother, Lord Sebastian Bartholomew and the Viscount of the title, is a god in Nicola's dazzled and naïve eyes i.e. he is very, very, very good looking. So she turns down the slightly too late invitation from the family of her best friend, Eleanor. What our orphaned heroine has to recommend her is her beloved family home, enough cash to scrape by (according to the standards of upper class England in the early 19th century) and a pretty face and good nature. She gets into Almack's. But will she get the proposal that is the whole point of the Marriage Mart? And why does Eleanor's irritating brother Nathaniel have to disapprove of everything Nicky does, especially when Nicky accepts the god's proposal of marriage?
I'm a little flummoxed by this book. It makes me curious about reading the historical romances that Cabot wrote before becoming 'Meg Cabot' (the brand), and yet, I had many issues with it as a historical romance. In fact, when I was about the age at which this book seems to be aimed, I was reading Northanger Abbey and Sense and Sensibility, which it riffs off, and which have far more to offer. Certainly, a lot about those classic novels went over my head, but I'd recommend them to girls over this. I'll give Cabot credit for fizz and liveliness and an arc where a character gets to know herself and what she wants, or grows up, as happens to 16 year olds, with the romance as an adjunct to that, which are elements that Regency romances for adults dispense with but don't provide much in recompense (don't ask how I know. Go read 'Frederica' by Georgette Heyer instead, which this also reminded me of. Or 'Cotillion' by the same, because that's fabulous).
I'm just not sure why she bothered. Nicola Sparks isn't the name of a Regency heroine, and despite the nods to the period, she feels and thinks like a feisty, dipsy and warm-hearted modern heroine, or a heroine for a moral girl, whereas Catherine Morland is something more lasting. (And, as happens with a lot of Cabot's girls, I had a grumbling discontent that the hero could do better, although I dressed it up by deciding that Nathaniel - Henry Tilney, only more likely to do the family accounts, to which, AS IF - was a cat person and Nicola a dog person and thus they were basically incompatible.) Is she trying to point readers to Austen? Is it hero worship?
I am probably just too old for it - my favourite character was Lady Sheridan, Nat and Eleanor's wry and wise mother; I was also moderately amused by the running gag of Nicola remembering and usually breaking with the strictures of her teacher on how a lady should behave, but it has a touch of 'The Queen of Babble' goes back in time, because sweet Nicola has an eye for fashion. Although, come to think of it, QoB was surer on the class issues, and you can't write Regency England well without an awareness of class. So I'm tempted to say that either Cabot should work harder on writing a historical novel or that she should have set this in the contemporary milieu and idiom in which she's obviously more comfortable.
Teen Idol: Meg Cabot. Macmillan Children's Books, 2004.
This book features the Cabot heroine I've liked the most since Heather Walls. Jenny Greenley is the nicest girl at her school - the peace-maker. She's also so geeky that she doesn't realise that arguing over whether Asimov or Heinlen was the grandfather of science fiction is geeky. (What is it when you wonder if these crazy kids have not heard of Jules Verne?)
She's proved herself adept at keeping secrets, by letting no-one know she's the school newspaper's agony aunt, a cult and respected figure, and the book's gimmick, for Cabot likes her gimmicks. Excepts from the 'Ask Annie' column head up each chapter. So the teachers ask her to take care of Luke Striker, an actor (Chad Michael Murray crossed with Ioan Gruffudd, or something), who wants to attend a high school incognito for a bit in preparation for a film role. Perhaps he also wants to make up for having been taught on a set throughout his adolescence.
If you think you can guess what happens next, maybe I should add that, as with 'Nicola and the Viscount', the hero (as delish as Cabot's heroes always are) is not in the title. Luke and Jenny's relationship is platonic, though she is about the only girl in school who is happy to be just friends with him, especially when his identity is revealed. He, a little older and more objective, sees in her the potential to stand up to the cliquey bullying he sees going on in the school. He thinks she can do more than keep the peace (although it's more than anyone else does). Although it isn't ever explicitly stated, as such, the question is 'What Would Buffy Do?'
Of course, as she starts taking Giles/Jiminy Cricket/Luke's advice, life becomes far more complicated for Jen. Friendships and occasionally personal safety are risked, and can she get the boy she really likes to understand what's going on?
The book knowingly covers the Touchstones of Modern American High School Tropes - the Spring Fling is flung, there's even an Anti-Dance party, there's a fund-raising car wash that's more nice than naughty and did I mention the cliques, natural habitat: the school canteen. Apart from anything else, this is about Jenny realising she's in one, or rather, who her friends are, and making them see that they have influence and shouldn't just sit in the middle ground. Because Cabot knows this genre inside and out, this was a thoroughly enjoyable beach read over the summer. Literally picking both books up side by side for the publication details, I noticed that 'TI' is much thicker than 'NatV', and two years older, which may also contribute to why i preferred this one over the latter.