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mgouker's review
4.0
This was quite pleasurable. I'm not really sure why I chose to read it with several hundred books on my to read list, but about a month ago I started it and promptly forgot. Today I found it again in the pile and a few hours later I'm sad it finished so quickly.
What's to like:
1. Wicca theme. It is drenched in the mood of the supernatural.
2. The faeries and gnomes were fun.
3. BEST of all: the seductive hook of dragging Jane in deeper each time she makes a choice. She becomes responsible.
4. I enjoyed the cat familiar and the fox villain.
5. I actually enjoyed the philosophical idea of multiple existences of now.
What's not to like:
1. Jane at 13 seems pretty naïve. That actually may be believable given her sheltered background.
2. The solutions to the problems are too close to the presentation of the problem.
3. I would have liked a more tragic end. It came off a little too well for the protagonist.
I finish every book I start and so when I found it was young adult fiction I was disappointed, but I vowed to make the best of it because maybe someday I'd like to try this genre too. I was hoping for some really horrific things to happen to Jane, but she (mostly) escaped injury. If I had written it her mom would be a brain-eating zombie that invades their house and eats her dad. Munch, munch... The End.
It's best I didn't write it. :-)
What's to like:
1. Wicca theme. It is drenched in the mood of the supernatural.
2. The faeries and gnomes were fun.
3. BEST of all: the seductive hook of dragging Jane in deeper each time she makes a choice. She becomes responsible.
4. I enjoyed the cat familiar and the fox villain.
5. I actually enjoyed the philosophical idea of multiple existences of now.
What's not to like:
1. Jane at 13 seems pretty naïve. That actually may be believable given her sheltered background.
2. The solutions to the problems are too close to the presentation of the problem.
3. I would have liked a more tragic end. It came off a little too well for the protagonist.
I finish every book I start and so when I found it was young adult fiction I was disappointed, but I vowed to make the best of it because maybe someday I'd like to try this genre too. I was hoping for some really horrific things to happen to Jane, but she (mostly) escaped injury. If I had written it her mom would be a brain-eating zombie that invades their house and eats her dad. Munch, munch... The End.
It's best I didn't write it. :-)
metaphorosis's review
3.0
Attanasio is one of speculative fiction's more cerebral authors, and I approached this young adult book with some trepidation. In that, I was partly right, and partly wrong.
Attanasio tones down both his vocabulary (some) and his customary ethereality to a level appropriate for intelligent youngsters. The story is fairly simple, though in some ways not credible. The protagonist, a 13 year old spelunker, thinks nothing of plunging immediately into a deep hole in the ground. Since she's otherwise moderately wise and rule-abiding, this seems unlikely. Unfortunately, that incredbility infects much of the rest of the plot. Many of the things that happen, and the choices the protagonist makes, just don't seem believable.
It's a shame, because the language is mostly smooth, the characters are likeable, and the general story is interesting. The reading level seems to vary sometimes between 8 and 15, but the mix is not really suitable for either.
All in all, a decent book (2.5, rounded up because it is a nice story), but not one you'd go back to. If you're looking for intelligent adult fiction, by all means, try Attanasio's other books. For the young adult in you, look further.
Attanasio tones down both his vocabulary (some) and his customary ethereality to a level appropriate for intelligent youngsters. The story is fairly simple, though in some ways not credible. The protagonist, a 13 year old spelunker, thinks nothing of plunging immediately into a deep hole in the ground. Since she's otherwise moderately wise and rule-abiding, this seems unlikely. Unfortunately, that incredbility infects much of the rest of the plot. Many of the things that happen, and the choices the protagonist makes, just don't seem believable.
It's a shame, because the language is mostly smooth, the characters are likeable, and the general story is interesting. The reading level seems to vary sometimes between 8 and 15, but the mix is not really suitable for either.
All in all, a decent book (2.5, rounded up because it is a nice story), but not one you'd go back to. If you're looking for intelligent adult fiction, by all means, try Attanasio's other books. For the young adult in you, look further.
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