(no subject)
Life's decided to be rather hectic atm; had an examinatory seminar today, exam on thursday, two papers to hand in before the week is out, and next week spring term and my new course begins... (History of religion + religious psychology).
Haven't really studied, but I'm not feeling particularly worried either. I was so torn up about everything before Christmas, I have now passed into a zen-like state of Not Giving A Shit. Instead, I've been reading a lot; two weeks into 2014 and four books down already, which means that to everyone's surprise, I'm actually on schedule so far. And three of them have been in Swedish.
Speaking of books (and Swedish), I finished the second book in a very lauded Swedish YA trilogy (that's also done rather well internationally), the first of which is called The Circle. I honestly can't remember the last time I utterly devoured a book at this pace, ignoring almost everything else-- I finished over 600 pages in two days. And, as I think I mentioned in the book meme, I really don't go for YA lit most of the time. I was initially a bit dubious, seeing as the blurb on the back reads:
One night, when a strange red moon fills the sky, six school girls find themselves in an abandoned theme park, drawn there by a mysterious force. A student has just been found dead. Everyone suspects suicide. Everyone - except them. In that derelict fairground an ancient prophecy is revealed. They are The Chosen Ones, a group of witches, bound together by a power, one which could destroy them all. But they soon learn that despite their differences they need each other in order to master the forces that have been awakened within them. High school is now a matter of life and death. Because the killing has only just begun.
... which is a fairly clichéed summary and didn't really help (the British cover is also rather atrocious; luckily most editions go for the Swedish original). But I think this is one of those books where the execution of the premise makes all the difference; what could have been a very tropey and forgettable book aimed at teenage girls is actually a suspenseful read with memorable characters.
- Female characters. Just. A cast of varied, well-realised female characters. Female characters who read; female characters who like sports; reserved female characters; aggressive female characters; female characters who love sex (and aren't shamed for it by the narrative); female characters who don't have sex at all; sympathetic female characters; female characters who are quite despicable, really. FEMALE CHARACTERS.
- Female power fantasies that still don't shy away from exploring how and why to take responsibility for these powers (invisibility! mind control!! and more).
- A huge variety of different kinds of relationships are explored. I think one of my main bones of contention with lots of YA lit aimed at girls is that there is always a Romantic Subplot. Linear. The book leads towards Getting A Guy. The Engelsfors trilogy does have several romantic interests, but they don't take precedence over the plot; they feel organic, a part of the narrative without demanding too much attention. In a way, the books are about relationships, but it's many different kinds of relationships; established romantic relationships, wanting to have a relationship, budding friendship, childhood friendship, platonic relationships between girls and boys (why is this as rare as it is?) the protagonists' relationships with parents/siblings/grandparents.
- CANON QUEER ROMANCE I REPEAT CANON QUEER ROMANCE.
- Death and loss are major themes throughout the books.
- A strong condemnation of toxic, anti-individualistic small-town attitudes towards people with social or mental health problems, especially in the second book.
- Plot twists that don't feel contrived (well, there's one, maybe, but that's still a pretty good number considering how many there are).
- Bodyswap. Just. Fuck you, bodyswap.
- cHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
- The Token Mentor character has amnesia. Which kind of defeats the purpose of a mentor character - trope deconstruction at its finest.
- Probably a bunch of other stuff, but I can't list all of it.
- Fair warning: if this was a fic series, there'd be a heap of trigger warnings dumped at the beginning. It's a pretty dark series, that includes everything from drug use, mentions of suicide, threats of rape, cruel bullying and assault to Major Character Deaths. It somehow manages to include all these things without making it feel gritty or contrived.
TL;DR if you like YA, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a major source of inspiration for the authors, trufax), or just good urban fantasy, I recommend checking this book series out. I'll probably treat myself to the last installment in the trilogy after my exam this week.
This entry was originally posted at http://regndoft.dreamwidth.org/211760.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Haven't really studied, but I'm not feeling particularly worried either. I was so torn up about everything before Christmas, I have now passed into a zen-like state of Not Giving A Shit. Instead, I've been reading a lot; two weeks into 2014 and four books down already, which means that to everyone's surprise, I'm actually on schedule so far. And three of them have been in Swedish.
Speaking of books (and Swedish), I finished the second book in a very lauded Swedish YA trilogy (that's also done rather well internationally), the first of which is called The Circle. I honestly can't remember the last time I utterly devoured a book at this pace, ignoring almost everything else-- I finished over 600 pages in two days. And, as I think I mentioned in the book meme, I really don't go for YA lit most of the time. I was initially a bit dubious, seeing as the blurb on the back reads:
One night, when a strange red moon fills the sky, six school girls find themselves in an abandoned theme park, drawn there by a mysterious force. A student has just been found dead. Everyone suspects suicide. Everyone - except them. In that derelict fairground an ancient prophecy is revealed. They are The Chosen Ones, a group of witches, bound together by a power, one which could destroy them all. But they soon learn that despite their differences they need each other in order to master the forces that have been awakened within them. High school is now a matter of life and death. Because the killing has only just begun.
... which is a fairly clichéed summary and didn't really help (the British cover is also rather atrocious; luckily most editions go for the Swedish original). But I think this is one of those books where the execution of the premise makes all the difference; what could have been a very tropey and forgettable book aimed at teenage girls is actually a suspenseful read with memorable characters.
- Female characters. Just. A cast of varied, well-realised female characters. Female characters who read; female characters who like sports; reserved female characters; aggressive female characters; female characters who love sex (and aren't shamed for it by the narrative); female characters who don't have sex at all; sympathetic female characters; female characters who are quite despicable, really. FEMALE CHARACTERS.
- Female power fantasies that still don't shy away from exploring how and why to take responsibility for these powers (invisibility! mind control!! and more).
- A huge variety of different kinds of relationships are explored. I think one of my main bones of contention with lots of YA lit aimed at girls is that there is always a Romantic Subplot. Linear. The book leads towards Getting A Guy. The Engelsfors trilogy does have several romantic interests, but they don't take precedence over the plot; they feel organic, a part of the narrative without demanding too much attention. In a way, the books are about relationships, but it's many different kinds of relationships; established romantic relationships, wanting to have a relationship, budding friendship, childhood friendship, platonic relationships between girls and boys (why is this as rare as it is?) the protagonists' relationships with parents/siblings/grandparents.
- CANON QUEER ROMANCE I REPEAT CANON QUEER ROMANCE.
- Death and loss are major themes throughout the books.
- A strong condemnation of toxic, anti-individualistic small-town attitudes towards people with social or mental health problems, especially in the second book.
- Plot twists that don't feel contrived (well, there's one, maybe, but that's still a pretty good number considering how many there are).
- Bodyswap. Just. Fuck you, bodyswap.
- cHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
- The Token Mentor character has amnesia. Which kind of defeats the purpose of a mentor character - trope deconstruction at its finest.
- Probably a bunch of other stuff, but I can't list all of it.
- Fair warning: if this was a fic series, there'd be a heap of trigger warnings dumped at the beginning. It's a pretty dark series, that includes everything from drug use, mentions of suicide, threats of rape, cruel bullying and assault to Major Character Deaths. It somehow manages to include all these things without making it feel gritty or contrived.
TL;DR if you like YA, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a major source of inspiration for the authors, trufax), or just good urban fantasy, I recommend checking this book series out. I'll probably treat myself to the last installment in the trilogy after my exam this week.
This entry was originally posted at http://regndoft.dreamwidth.org/211760.html. Please comment there using OpenID.