100 Books, #13: Alyzon Whitestarr
If I had to recommend one Isobelle Carmody book, it would be without doubt Alyzon Whitestarr. I couldn’t put hand to heart and swear it’s the very best thing she’s written, because how could I ever decide between all the good things she’s done? But it does have the unconquerable benefit of being a standalone, which, as Carmody has completed none of her four series to date - four! four! FOUR! unfinished series! - is an important consideration for a fulfilling reading experience.
Reason #1 to read Carmody: she has a lovely, rather old-fashioned voice; I think might appeal to Sutcliff fans especially. It works wonderfully in her fantasies but might seem like an odd fit for a book about a contemporary teenager. However, it didn’t bother me a bit when I first read the book at seventeen, and honestly I think adult people getting snitty about teen books because “teenagers don’t talk like that” is rather silly.
Reason #2, and really at the heart of it: Carmody has a wonderful way with characters, and particularly with creating a feeling of good-fellowship which simply makes her books wonderful to slip into. There’s a sense of richness to Alyzon’s social world, the feeling that there are lots of layers to her life.
“It starts with my family,” Alyzon begins the book, “and in a way, that’s the whole story.” It’s a big family, four teenagers and one baby: and the way that they band together to take care of Alyzon’s baby brother, as well as Alyzon’s mother, who isn’t quite well - she’s physically fine, but she doesn’t seem to be quite all there emotionally - is gently lovely.
Alyzon herself starts off as an average Australian teenager (assuming Australian teenagers are pretty generally delightful, which is the impression I get from Australian teen fiction anyway). Then she gets conked on the head, goes into a coma, and comes out of it with the ability to smell auras.This sounds like a rather odd power, but it becomes enthralling. Also, if you are the kind of person who likes to sort people into Hogwarts houses or contemplates what daemons your friends might have...this is similarly good for hours of entertainment.
With her new essence-smelling ability, Alyzon is so drawn to her classmate Gilly’s sea-scent that they become best friends, and they chat about saving the world and the nature of evil, like you do. (One thing I like about Carmody books is that they dive headlong into the big questions, even if they are sometimes heavy-handed with the answers.)
And they meet Gilly’s friends, who become Alyzon’s gang as well. Not only does Alyzon have a large and splendid family, but she also gets this great group of friends, with whom she eats homemade pizza by candlelight in a conservatory and tests computer games and chats about the nature of evil and how to defeat it.
Even quite minor characters become vivid and interesting. Carmody’s ability to juggle so many characters, to make them vivid and distinct so that you remember who Sylvia Yarrow is even though two hundred pages have passed since we last saw her - and not just remember, but care about her story - is something I admire intensely and attempt to emulate in my own writing. I count every comment about a tertiary character as a minor victory.
Reason #1 to read Carmody: she has a lovely, rather old-fashioned voice; I think might appeal to Sutcliff fans especially. It works wonderfully in her fantasies but might seem like an odd fit for a book about a contemporary teenager. However, it didn’t bother me a bit when I first read the book at seventeen, and honestly I think adult people getting snitty about teen books because “teenagers don’t talk like that” is rather silly.
Reason #2, and really at the heart of it: Carmody has a wonderful way with characters, and particularly with creating a feeling of good-fellowship which simply makes her books wonderful to slip into. There’s a sense of richness to Alyzon’s social world, the feeling that there are lots of layers to her life.
“It starts with my family,” Alyzon begins the book, “and in a way, that’s the whole story.” It’s a big family, four teenagers and one baby: and the way that they band together to take care of Alyzon’s baby brother, as well as Alyzon’s mother, who isn’t quite well - she’s physically fine, but she doesn’t seem to be quite all there emotionally - is gently lovely.
Alyzon herself starts off as an average Australian teenager (assuming Australian teenagers are pretty generally delightful, which is the impression I get from Australian teen fiction anyway). Then she gets conked on the head, goes into a coma, and comes out of it with the ability to smell auras.This sounds like a rather odd power, but it becomes enthralling. Also, if you are the kind of person who likes to sort people into Hogwarts houses or contemplates what daemons your friends might have...this is similarly good for hours of entertainment.
With her new essence-smelling ability, Alyzon is so drawn to her classmate Gilly’s sea-scent that they become best friends, and they chat about saving the world and the nature of evil, like you do. (One thing I like about Carmody books is that they dive headlong into the big questions, even if they are sometimes heavy-handed with the answers.)
And they meet Gilly’s friends, who become Alyzon’s gang as well. Not only does Alyzon have a large and splendid family, but she also gets this great group of friends, with whom she eats homemade pizza by candlelight in a conservatory and tests computer games and chats about the nature of evil and how to defeat it.
Even quite minor characters become vivid and interesting. Carmody’s ability to juggle so many characters, to make them vivid and distinct so that you remember who Sylvia Yarrow is even though two hundred pages have passed since we last saw her - and not just remember, but care about her story - is something I admire intensely and attempt to emulate in my own writing. I count every comment about a tertiary character as a minor victory.