Book Review: Thirteenth Child
So let me start off by saying, it’s about three hours after my bedtime, but I couldn’t go to sleep without telling you about Patricia Wrede’s Thirteenth Child. I’d actually planned to post this sometime later today, on release day and all, but I can’t wait. I'm writing this in a bit of fit of passion, so you'll forgive me for that. (My class tomorrow might not, but they'll just have to learn around my snoring.)
I’d picked it up again earlier today to reread the second half because I wanted to give it a far shake before reviewing it, and ended up reading the entire thing in more or less one sitting. (Much to my understanding husband’s dismay. I think he remembers what my eye color looks like.) Okay, okay, without further distraction, the review.
How I Found This Book: This was actually an ARC sent to me by the lovely Laura Anne Gilman. She was looking for, as she put it, galley slaves to read galleys and ARC copies, I posted on her LJ I was interested, and I got free books out of the deal. The internet is a beautiful place. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I signed up, because frankly I would have been mad at myself for the rest of my life if I’d never read this book. I cannot wait to see more in the Frontier Magic series, YA or not YA, good writing is good writing.
The Good: So the good, where to start really? Strong but still believable and sympathetic female lead? Check! Beautiful World Building full of neat touches I hadn’t seen before and ideas I’d wished I’d dreamed up? Check! A vast and believable alternate history that unfurled before me without ever feeling like info dump? Double Check! Characters with language all their own? Check and check. Without giving anything away, this is, simply put, the best coming of age western steampunk fantasy adventure I’ve ever read, and I’m a big fan of Weird West. Wrede does an amazing job of giving the reader the feeling that Eff, the first person narrator speaks with a dialect from the times, without it ever getting in the way of the reading. Beyond that, her pacing is just brilliant. As I commented to my husband while reading, “Ten years just flew by for this little girl, more or less, and I don’t feel like it was rushed, that I missed anything, or that it wandered around like I so often do with time spanning fantasy.” He said something like, “yes dear,” and let me get back to my studious reading. As a mother with a daughter myself, I couldn’t be more excited to know I’ll be able to hand this book to my budding frontiers’ woman some day and know that the main character Eff is someone she can look up too without me worrying about it. At a pivotal moment in the book, when Eff decides what she wants to do with her life, making a huge step in her development, I felt this motherly swell of pride as if Eff were my awkward teenage girl, and now, she’d grown up and made a good choice, so I didn’t have to worry about her anymore. What a great feeling to get out of a book. Ms. Wrede, seriously, when do I get more of this story?
The Bad: In the interests of fairness, I’d have to say there was a time or two when Eff’s worrying and fretting got to be a little nerve racking. Sometimes it seemed it was just an endless cycle of her worrying over nothing, being reassured by someone she respected, but then going back to worrying a few pages later. Of course, just as soon as that feeling flared up, I remember back to when I was an awkward teenage girl, how I worried about everything and was just so sure I would ‘just turn out wrong’ and Eff’s worries seemed less silly. I’d say that’s about the only thing that stood out as why this book was YA instead of just fantasy. I still want to give props to Wrede, however, for remembering the sentiments of that age in a way I hadn’t even without been all that far removed from my teen years myself.
Who Will Like This Book: If you know a tween or teen girl who’s nervous but special, only she doesn’t know she’s special, get her a copy of this book immediately. If you know any youngin’ who likes Harry Potter but isn’t all that into the sheer Britishness of the Potter series, get them this book. Get this book for women you know with daughters, I’d be curious to see how many other moms got the same swell of pride I was hit with. And most importantly, if you like the Weird West, you ignore the YA category and go get this book for yourself. No, really. Go ahead. I’ll wait right here.
Who Won’t Like This Book: Some of Eff’s more unreasonable girly traits and worries might turn off a young boy, but I think so much of the story is just so adventurous, it might not matter to them. Other than that, I can’t come up with any good examples. No really, read this book.
Next Up: I’m going to try to finish up Mark Henry’s Roadtrip of the Living Dead, (best sex scene ever, I’m not even kidding,) we’ll see what happens from there.
I’d picked it up again earlier today to reread the second half because I wanted to give it a far shake before reviewing it, and ended up reading the entire thing in more or less one sitting. (Much to my understanding husband’s dismay. I think he remembers what my eye color looks like.) Okay, okay, without further distraction, the review.
How I Found This Book: This was actually an ARC sent to me by the lovely Laura Anne Gilman. She was looking for, as she put it, galley slaves to read galleys and ARC copies, I posted on her LJ I was interested, and I got free books out of the deal. The internet is a beautiful place. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I signed up, because frankly I would have been mad at myself for the rest of my life if I’d never read this book. I cannot wait to see more in the Frontier Magic series, YA or not YA, good writing is good writing.
The Good: So the good, where to start really? Strong but still believable and sympathetic female lead? Check! Beautiful World Building full of neat touches I hadn’t seen before and ideas I’d wished I’d dreamed up? Check! A vast and believable alternate history that unfurled before me without ever feeling like info dump? Double Check! Characters with language all their own? Check and check. Without giving anything away, this is, simply put, the best coming of age western steampunk fantasy adventure I’ve ever read, and I’m a big fan of Weird West. Wrede does an amazing job of giving the reader the feeling that Eff, the first person narrator speaks with a dialect from the times, without it ever getting in the way of the reading. Beyond that, her pacing is just brilliant. As I commented to my husband while reading, “Ten years just flew by for this little girl, more or less, and I don’t feel like it was rushed, that I missed anything, or that it wandered around like I so often do with time spanning fantasy.” He said something like, “yes dear,” and let me get back to my studious reading. As a mother with a daughter myself, I couldn’t be more excited to know I’ll be able to hand this book to my budding frontiers’ woman some day and know that the main character Eff is someone she can look up too without me worrying about it. At a pivotal moment in the book, when Eff decides what she wants to do with her life, making a huge step in her development, I felt this motherly swell of pride as if Eff were my awkward teenage girl, and now, she’d grown up and made a good choice, so I didn’t have to worry about her anymore. What a great feeling to get out of a book. Ms. Wrede, seriously, when do I get more of this story?
The Bad: In the interests of fairness, I’d have to say there was a time or two when Eff’s worrying and fretting got to be a little nerve racking. Sometimes it seemed it was just an endless cycle of her worrying over nothing, being reassured by someone she respected, but then going back to worrying a few pages later. Of course, just as soon as that feeling flared up, I remember back to when I was an awkward teenage girl, how I worried about everything and was just so sure I would ‘just turn out wrong’ and Eff’s worries seemed less silly. I’d say that’s about the only thing that stood out as why this book was YA instead of just fantasy. I still want to give props to Wrede, however, for remembering the sentiments of that age in a way I hadn’t even without been all that far removed from my teen years myself.
Who Will Like This Book: If you know a tween or teen girl who’s nervous but special, only she doesn’t know she’s special, get her a copy of this book immediately. If you know any youngin’ who likes Harry Potter but isn’t all that into the sheer Britishness of the Potter series, get them this book. Get this book for women you know with daughters, I’d be curious to see how many other moms got the same swell of pride I was hit with. And most importantly, if you like the Weird West, you ignore the YA category and go get this book for yourself. No, really. Go ahead. I’ll wait right here.
Who Won’t Like This Book: Some of Eff’s more unreasonable girly traits and worries might turn off a young boy, but I think so much of the story is just so adventurous, it might not matter to them. Other than that, I can’t come up with any good examples. No really, read this book.
Next Up: I’m going to try to finish up Mark Henry’s Roadtrip of the Living Dead, (best sex scene ever, I’m not even kidding,) we’ll see what happens from there.