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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Now that there is a not-a-Hugo award for YA fiction, I will likely be reading more of it. I am not, you must understand, opposed to YA fiction or particularly disinclined to read it. It’s more that, having no actual young adults in my life, I don’t hear much about new YA fiction unless it gets a huge buzz and they sound interesting, as the Hunger Games novels did (and the Twilight novels most emphatically did not), or it’s written by an author whose work I enjoy under any circumstances, like Diane Duane or Nnedi Okorafor.
But I figure one place to begin this year is with the Nebula awards short list. And the first book from that list I picked to read is Kari Maaren’s Weave a Circle Round.
I found it very difficult to get into at first. Oh, it’s very well written. In fact, it’s the quality of the prose that kept me going, because initially the protagonist, a very self-centred and self-pitying teenager named Freddie, kept getting on my nerves. She still resents her parents for getting divorced, after four years. Her mother’s new partner has moved into the household with his deaf son, Roland, and not only is she obnoxious about it, she steadfastly refuses to learn sign language and snipes at him constantly. She is constantly angry with her younger sister, Mel, who seems to have adapted somewhat more gracefully to the changes in circumstances.
Admittedly, she has some valid reasons to be unhappy. Her mother seems quite feckless, and, along with her new husband, is almost never home - all three kids suffer from benign neglect in this sense, their physical needs taken care of, but no parental care or presence worth mentioning. Mel and Roland have bonded over a shared love of RPGs, leaving Freddie out. Her only friends at school have matured over the summer in ways she has not, and seem more interested in boys and being attractive than anything else. She’s quite alone. And she wants nothing more than to fit in, to be average and normal.
Then there are the new neighbours, Cuerva Lachance, a woman apparently in her mid-to-late 30s who says she’s a private investigator, and Josiah, apparently a teenaged boy, who is, he insists vehemently, not Cuerva’s son. Indeed, their relationship seems more collegial than familial, and both are decidedly strange in many ways.
Adding to Freddie’s woes, Josiah, who seems compelled to loudly and insultingly criticise everyone and everything around him, is in all of Freddie’s classes at school, and because he talks to her, all the others begin to associate her with him, adding to her inability to just quietly blend in and draw no attention. Between Josiah’s strangeness and Roland’s disability, Freddie feels tainted beyond saving within the social order of her school. We are treated to many examples of how viciously and violently children can treat those who are different, and how completely ineffective adults are at seeing and stopping the bullying. This wasn’t much fun to read if you were a victim of this sort of thing as a kid yourself.
It’s the growing mystery surrounding Josiah and Cuerva that finally engaged me. Who - or what - are they, why are they so very strange indeed, and why are they interested in Freddie and her family?
And then Freddie and Josiah start slipping through time. And Josiah begins to reveal parts of the mystery. This is when the story gets interesting and Freddie begins to become a character I felt more strongly about. By the end, I was quite completely involved with the mystery and the roles that all three teenagers - Freddie, Mel, and Roland - play in making things right again.
But I figure one place to begin this year is with the Nebula awards short list. And the first book from that list I picked to read is Kari Maaren’s Weave a Circle Round.
I found it very difficult to get into at first. Oh, it’s very well written. In fact, it’s the quality of the prose that kept me going, because initially the protagonist, a very self-centred and self-pitying teenager named Freddie, kept getting on my nerves. She still resents her parents for getting divorced, after four years. Her mother’s new partner has moved into the household with his deaf son, Roland, and not only is she obnoxious about it, she steadfastly refuses to learn sign language and snipes at him constantly. She is constantly angry with her younger sister, Mel, who seems to have adapted somewhat more gracefully to the changes in circumstances.
Admittedly, she has some valid reasons to be unhappy. Her mother seems quite feckless, and, along with her new husband, is almost never home - all three kids suffer from benign neglect in this sense, their physical needs taken care of, but no parental care or presence worth mentioning. Mel and Roland have bonded over a shared love of RPGs, leaving Freddie out. Her only friends at school have matured over the summer in ways she has not, and seem more interested in boys and being attractive than anything else. She’s quite alone. And she wants nothing more than to fit in, to be average and normal.
Then there are the new neighbours, Cuerva Lachance, a woman apparently in her mid-to-late 30s who says she’s a private investigator, and Josiah, apparently a teenaged boy, who is, he insists vehemently, not Cuerva’s son. Indeed, their relationship seems more collegial than familial, and both are decidedly strange in many ways.
Adding to Freddie’s woes, Josiah, who seems compelled to loudly and insultingly criticise everyone and everything around him, is in all of Freddie’s classes at school, and because he talks to her, all the others begin to associate her with him, adding to her inability to just quietly blend in and draw no attention. Between Josiah’s strangeness and Roland’s disability, Freddie feels tainted beyond saving within the social order of her school. We are treated to many examples of how viciously and violently children can treat those who are different, and how completely ineffective adults are at seeing and stopping the bullying. This wasn’t much fun to read if you were a victim of this sort of thing as a kid yourself.
It’s the growing mystery surrounding Josiah and Cuerva that finally engaged me. Who - or what - are they, why are they so very strange indeed, and why are they interested in Freddie and her family?
And then Freddie and Josiah start slipping through time. And Josiah begins to reveal parts of the mystery. This is when the story gets interesting and Freddie begins to become a character I felt more strongly about. By the end, I was quite completely involved with the mystery and the roles that all three teenagers - Freddie, Mel, and Roland - play in making things right again.
I found the sentences to be clunky and distancing for most of the first third. I was still pausing to put a name to a face even at the end.
This book felt more like a misplaced and mis-styled middle-grader book. If that had been the editing process - take this version and transform it to really cool middle grade - I would have liked it much more.
I rarely like plot that forces the characters to accept not knowing what's happening, so if that's a large requirement of a story, I'm gonna struggle.
If the author called Mel fat or said she waddled one more time...I was going to throw the book across the room. This is not okay, and each time it threw me out of the story and into a fury. And it happened quite a lot. Why would you do this? Mel walked. Mel skipped. Mel moved. Mel wandered. Mel strode. I could go on. Did anyone else in the process of getting this book to print not pause and think, "Hey, maybe not characterize the smart sibling as fat and waddling?"
This book felt more like a misplaced and mis-styled middle-grader book. If that had been the editing process - take this version and transform it to really cool middle grade - I would have liked it much more.
I rarely like plot that forces the characters to accept not knowing what's happening, so if that's a large requirement of a story, I'm gonna struggle.
If the author called Mel fat or said she waddled one more time...I was going to throw the book across the room. This is not okay, and each time it threw me out of the story and into a fury. And it happened quite a lot. Why would you do this? Mel walked. Mel skipped. Mel moved. Mel wandered. Mel strode. I could go on. Did anyone else in the process of getting this book to print not pause and think, "Hey, maybe not characterize the smart sibling as fat and waddling?"
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Best part of the book is Freddy's little sister, Mel, but Mel's a minor character. Would've liked to see more active focus on figuring out the mystery of Josiah and Cuerva Lachance. The way it reads now it's more passive and didn't engage me.
Bailed at Page 80, or somewhere around 25% through.
I just didn't care. About the characters, about the plot, about the action.
I was mildly irritated. By the whole "LOL, so random," approach to the plot, the fact that Freddy came across like an eight year old and not a fourteen year old, Cuerva LaChance as some sort of, I dunno, Manic Pixie Dream Mom, and the fact that the parents were quite literally never seen. Some sort of tribute to Charlie Brown, perhaps?
And, yup, I feel a bit guilty. Maaren is in fact a very good nuts and bolts writer. Her prose is actually a cut above most works of genre fiction I've read over the past few years. Possibly that little voice in my head telling me I'm cutting and running too soon might in fact have a point. That quite possibly I've got the same attenuated attention span as most of us in the 21st century, and any failing with the book lies not with author but with Your Humble Narrator over here. But then I think about actually picking this one up again and...eh. No. Kind of like the way Dorothy Parker described Oakland, CA: "There's no there, there." This is supposed to be genre fiction. Give the reader something. Doesn't have to be sharks with frickin' laser beams (though that's kind of cool) necessarily...but SOMETHING.
But...would I pick up and consider reading something else Maaren might write? Yup. In a heartbeat. She's clearly got the technique down. Now all she needs to do is figure out how to engage the reader.
As is my usual practice I leave no rating with a book I DNF. Especially so in this case with such a conflicted sense as I walk off.
I just didn't care. About the characters, about the plot, about the action.
I was mildly irritated. By the whole "LOL, so random," approach to the plot, the fact that Freddy came across like an eight year old and not a fourteen year old, Cuerva LaChance as some sort of, I dunno, Manic Pixie Dream Mom, and the fact that the parents were quite literally never seen. Some sort of tribute to Charlie Brown, perhaps?
And, yup, I feel a bit guilty. Maaren is in fact a very good nuts and bolts writer. Her prose is actually a cut above most works of genre fiction I've read over the past few years. Possibly that little voice in my head telling me I'm cutting and running too soon might in fact have a point. That quite possibly I've got the same attenuated attention span as most of us in the 21st century, and any failing with the book lies not with author but with Your Humble Narrator over here. But then I think about actually picking this one up again and...eh. No. Kind of like the way Dorothy Parker described Oakland, CA: "There's no there, there." This is supposed to be genre fiction. Give the reader something. Doesn't have to be sharks with frickin' laser beams (though that's kind of cool) necessarily...but SOMETHING.
But...would I pick up and consider reading something else Maaren might write? Yup. In a heartbeat. She's clearly got the technique down. Now all she needs to do is figure out how to engage the reader.
As is my usual practice I leave no rating with a book I DNF. Especially so in this case with such a conflicted sense as I walk off.
I don't want to say anything about this book because it's better to go in unspoiled, but it's a strong contender for my favorite book of the year.
Excellent YA fantasy in Diana Wynne Jones vein. School stuff is excruciating tho.
AMAZING. I loved the time travel and the characters and the growth, ugh everything was just so enjoyable that I finished this in a day. Just thinking about it again makes me want to reread my favorite parts xD
The Homeward Bounders, but diluted and confused about itself.
It took me a little while to warm up to the main character but once this story is rolling, it was a hell of a lot of fun.
This book was unexpected. I picked it up because the premise intrigued me and I heard it compared to a Wrinkle in Time. Whatever you think this book will be, it probably isn't. I personally loved the direction it took, unexpected though it was, but other people may not. I thought the plot moved at a good pace and there were all sorts of weird and wonderful turns. I did feel like the ending didn't quite fit in with the rest of the book, but that's my only real complaint.
The characters do feel sort of young at times. This is definitely at the younger end of YA. I didn't mind it because Freddie was similar to me when I was 14, and being bratty at times is a part of being 14. I really enjoyed how the book explored families and Freddy's sister and step-brother were also enjoyable characters with their own flaws and personalities. One of the characters is deaf and this is one of the only times I've encountered a deaf character in a book, but I thought it was interesting to see how his deafness affected his everyday life in school and at home. Cuerva Lachance and Josiah were kind of like morally ambiguous versions of Mrs. Who, Which and Whatsit from a Wrinkle in Time. I liked that you didn't know their loyalties or motives throughout much of the book and their banter was fun. I did find some aspects of Freddy's relationships with her parents and step dad unbelievable because adults were so removed from her life, but it didn't really impede on my enjoyment of the story.
I don't want to say too much about the sci-fi elements of this book because I think a big part of the fun is the ride. Some things weren't fully explained, which wasn't a huge issue for me, but it may bother some other readers. It also felt very different from a lot of the other YA sci-fi books I've read and that was really refreshing.
Overall, this is a quirky but enjoyable read and I'll definitely follow the author to see what else she puts out.
The characters do feel sort of young at times. This is definitely at the younger end of YA. I didn't mind it because Freddie was similar to me when I was 14, and being bratty at times is a part of being 14. I really enjoyed how the book explored families and Freddy's sister and step-brother were also enjoyable characters with their own flaws and personalities. One of the characters is deaf and this is one of the only times I've encountered a deaf character in a book, but I thought it was interesting to see how his deafness affected his everyday life in school and at home. Cuerva Lachance and Josiah were kind of like morally ambiguous versions of Mrs. Who, Which and Whatsit from a Wrinkle in Time. I liked that you didn't know their loyalties or motives throughout much of the book and their banter was fun. I did find some aspects of Freddy's relationships with her parents and step dad unbelievable because adults were so removed from her life, but it didn't really impede on my enjoyment of the story.
I don't want to say too much about the sci-fi elements of this book because I think a big part of the fun is the ride. Some things weren't fully explained, which wasn't a huge issue for me, but it may bother some other readers. It also felt very different from a lot of the other YA sci-fi books I've read and that was really refreshing.
Overall, this is a quirky but enjoyable read and I'll definitely follow the author to see what else she puts out.