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songwind's review against another edition
4.0
This book was several kinds of wonderful.
It's several different things, as most good books are. It's a love letter to 70s-80s SF. It's a school and coming of age drama. It's a bit of romance. And it's a fantasy, about what happens after you defeat the Big Bad and have to live with the fallout.
Morwena's mother is a witch, and at least half-mad. She and her twin sister stopped her plots and protected the fairies of south Wales from her, at great cost. To get away from her, Morwena had to run away.
The story picks up after she's been placed with her father. Daniel had run away when the girls were just babies, and never met them. Mor doesn't blame him, really, but doesn't know him either. On top of that, he and his sisters are sending her away to an upper class boarding school. The only thing she has to bond with him over is their mutual love of science fiction and fantasy.
At school, she has to learn to fit in, to find her "karras" (she loves Vonnegut), and figure out who, exactly, she's going to be.
And her mother still isn't done with her.
It's several different things, as most good books are. It's a love letter to 70s-80s SF. It's a school and coming of age drama. It's a bit of romance. And it's a fantasy, about what happens after you defeat the Big Bad and have to live with the fallout.
Morwena's mother is a witch, and at least half-mad. She and her twin sister stopped her plots and protected the fairies of south Wales from her, at great cost. To get away from her, Morwena had to run away.
The story picks up after she's been placed with her father. Daniel had run away when the girls were just babies, and never met them. Mor doesn't blame him, really, but doesn't know him either. On top of that, he and his sisters are sending her away to an upper class boarding school. The only thing she has to bond with him over is their mutual love of science fiction and fantasy.
At school, she has to learn to fit in, to find her "karras" (she loves Vonnegut), and figure out who, exactly, she's going to be.
And her mother still isn't done with her.
bookeen_la_rouquine's review against another edition
4.0
Une magnifique découverte qui a allongée de beaucoup ma wish list.
Mori est absolument fascinante. Sa façon de voir le monde, d'évoluer, d'interagir avec le monde est complètement géniale. Elle est forte, indépendante et droite. Une héroïne telle que je les aime.
La seule qui m'a manquee, c'est que l'univers des fées soit un peu plus approfondi.
A lire absolument pour les fans de SFFF.
Mori est absolument fascinante. Sa façon de voir le monde, d'évoluer, d'interagir avec le monde est complètement géniale. Elle est forte, indépendante et droite. Une héroïne telle que je les aime.
La seule qui m'a manquee, c'est que l'univers des fées soit un peu plus approfondi.
A lire absolument pour les fans de SFFF.
tonyleachsf's review against another edition
3.0
A love letter to science fiction. I ordered quite a few more books to add to my list after reading this.
stephxsu's review
4.0
You don’t need to be an SF fan—or know much at all about SF history, really—to love Mori and AMONG OTHERS. This is a book that everyone who has been or is still a bookworm can relate to and delight in.
Mori represents the kind of bookish teenager you want to be, your best friend to be, your teenage daughter to be. She drinks up books like water and then writes about them in her journal—not in-depth academic analyses, but the kind of meandering way that most bookworms do naturally. I admit to knowing hopelessly little about SF, but I could definitely relate to Mori’s somewhat scattered comments on the books she’s finished. She’s not trying to write a SF novel or be a SF expert; she’s just enjoying herself wholeheartedly as an avid reader, and you can’t help but love that.
Due to its diary format, AMONG OTHERS is filled with bits and pieces of the sort of things that teenage girls wonder about: sex, their sexuality, people they meet, their future. It makes the book so genuine that there is no one primary plotline. Because it’s like life in that way: we have many interests and thoughts and curiosities, and they all make up a part of who we are.
I loved the bookish aspect of AMONG OTHERS so much that I was rather put off by its fantastical element, which I felt was almost unnecessary. The main plot, if you must name one, is Mori’s relationship with fairies and her crazy mother. I have no problem with how fairies work in Mori’s world: like other things that Mori writes about, the fairies are just a part of her life, just a part of her. But I do feel like the magical aspect was not the driving force of this novel, and so, in making it a significant part of the ending, I felt…unsatisfied.
AMONG OTHERS is classified as fantasy, and Mori loves SF, but it doesn’t mean that SFF fans should be its only readers—nor, perhaps, its most significant. AMONG OTHERS is, in my opinion, above all other plotlines, a love letter to books as salvation, and so if ever you love books, you should check this one out.
Mori represents the kind of bookish teenager you want to be, your best friend to be, your teenage daughter to be. She drinks up books like water and then writes about them in her journal—not in-depth academic analyses, but the kind of meandering way that most bookworms do naturally. I admit to knowing hopelessly little about SF, but I could definitely relate to Mori’s somewhat scattered comments on the books she’s finished. She’s not trying to write a SF novel or be a SF expert; she’s just enjoying herself wholeheartedly as an avid reader, and you can’t help but love that.
Due to its diary format, AMONG OTHERS is filled with bits and pieces of the sort of things that teenage girls wonder about: sex, their sexuality, people they meet, their future. It makes the book so genuine that there is no one primary plotline. Because it’s like life in that way: we have many interests and thoughts and curiosities, and they all make up a part of who we are.
I loved the bookish aspect of AMONG OTHERS so much that I was rather put off by its fantastical element, which I felt was almost unnecessary. The main plot, if you must name one, is Mori’s relationship with fairies and her crazy mother. I have no problem with how fairies work in Mori’s world: like other things that Mori writes about, the fairies are just a part of her life, just a part of her. But I do feel like the magical aspect was not the driving force of this novel, and so, in making it a significant part of the ending, I felt…unsatisfied.
AMONG OTHERS is classified as fantasy, and Mori loves SF, but it doesn’t mean that SFF fans should be its only readers—nor, perhaps, its most significant. AMONG OTHERS is, in my opinion, above all other plotlines, a love letter to books as salvation, and so if ever you love books, you should check this one out.
xeyra1's review
4.0
This was a rather beautiful coming of age book about finding your place in the world, family, love and friendship, and, well, books! Which is why it was such a great read for me. It's rather enchanting in both its setting and the magical nature of it, but also a thoroughly enjoyable for a reader because of the many book references.
It's also a bit of a strange novel that seems to take place in completely different universes: the one where Mor sees fairies and does magic and has just lost her sister and her mom is an evil witch trying to get to her, and the mundane reality of her boarding school with all its 'normalness' and the SFF book reading and book club and libraries and just reading what was the popular or new fiction of the late 70s. And though I enjoyed it a lot, the different tonal shifts could get a little jarring.
You do wonder by the end, though, if Mor's fairies and magic and everything was actually real or not. The abrupt way things ended can be read as a rejection of the fantastic represented by the fairies and her sister for new found greater maturity, which would actually make it better than if it was taken at face value.
The issue with the novel was that many of the mysteries are never really addressed, which makes you think if Mor is a terribly unreliable narrator that is just trying to hide behind magic to give meaning to the real tragedy of losing her twin sister. Then there's the fact that she assumes her sister's name but this is never really addressed; it's just something she drops twice in the narrative without any other mention of why.
One thing I did come out of this novel feeling inspired to was to add a bunch of novels to my wishlist. So beware, reader!
It's also a bit of a strange novel that seems to take place in completely different universes: the one where Mor sees fairies and does magic and has just lost her sister and her mom is an evil witch trying to get to her, and the mundane reality of her boarding school with all its 'normalness' and the SFF book reading and book club and libraries and just reading what was the popular or new fiction of the late 70s. And though I enjoyed it a lot, the different tonal shifts could get a little jarring.
You do wonder by the end, though, if Mor's fairies and magic and everything was actually real or not. The abrupt way things ended can be read as a rejection of the fantastic represented by the fairies and her sister for new found greater maturity, which would actually make it better than if it was taken at face value.
The issue with the novel was that many of the mysteries are never really addressed, which makes you think if Mor is a terribly unreliable narrator that is just trying to hide behind magic to give meaning to the real tragedy of losing her twin sister. Then there's the fact that she assumes her sister's name but this is never really addressed; it's just something she drops twice in the narrative without any other mention of why.
One thing I did come out of this novel feeling inspired to was to add a bunch of novels to my wishlist. So beware, reader!
grayjay's review
5.0
Among Others is a fantasy novel about a girl who loves science fiction.
After a traumatic incident involving the death of her twin sister, Mori runs away from her mother and is placed in the care of her father whom she has never met.
Mori's mother is a mad witch and Mori can see fairies and do magic, but what she really wants is to belong to a group of friends who talk seriously and look out for each other. After doing magic, she finds this group in a science fiction book club at the local library.
I loved the way magic worked in this book. Always plausibly deniable, magic rearranges chains of coincidence so that things are and have always been the way you wanted them. This makes it so that throughout much of the book you cannot tell whether there really is magic or if it's just something Mori is telling herself.
I also loved how deeply she and her friends discuss science fiction novels and authors. I read this at the right time in my life—when I already knew most of the authors mentioned even if I hadn't read all the stories.
After a traumatic incident involving the death of her twin sister, Mori runs away from her mother and is placed in the care of her father whom she has never met.
Mori's mother is a mad witch and Mori can see fairies and do magic, but what she really wants is to belong to a group of friends who talk seriously and look out for each other. After doing magic, she finds this group in a science fiction book club at the local library.
I loved the way magic worked in this book. Always plausibly deniable, magic rearranges chains of coincidence so that things are and have always been the way you wanted them. This makes it so that throughout much of the book you cannot tell whether there really is magic or if it's just something Mori is telling herself.
I also loved how deeply she and her friends discuss science fiction novels and authors. I read this at the right time in my life—when I already knew most of the authors mentioned even if I hadn't read all the stories.
neverfruitt's review
5.0
I really loved the book. It felt as fantastical as it felt real. I do not know if there is a right way to interpret this book. As someone who spent all my teen years suicidal and lonely mor was such a relatable character who felt more real than not.
manuphoto's review against another edition
emotional
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This is probably the worst well written book I have ever read.
Let me explain.
This story is elegantly written, well paced, and has some very interesting elements in it. The main character, Mori, is actually very relatable. But the whole thing feels like a bragging effort by the author to talk about her knowledge of Science Fiction and fantasy. The plot is never really there and serves as an excuse to chat about reading books and being a nerd.
I am certain that I would enjoy a conference given by her. Or that I would greatly appreciate a talk with her about the genre. I can relate with Mori, I’m a book nerd myself. But in this case, we are talking about a work of fiction, and I don’t think it works.
It is a love letter to Science-fiction fans, but I would rather have that in a short story or novella than in a full-fledged novel. Here, it seems like 300 pages about almost nothing, or at least not much.
Hence the low rating, which is quite rare for a Hugo and Nebula award winner. It gets them for the quality of the writing and for touching on a subject matter that I care about, but overall it was a very underwhelming read. Walton quotes Louis XVI’s diary on July 14th 1789 a couple times in this novel and I’m going to do the same: “aujourd’hui, rien”. Quite appropriate.