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A review by nssutton
The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
5.0
Absolutely darling. Meloy has been on my radar since I put Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It -- that's a sentiment I can get behind, even if I haven't gotten around to reading that short story collection yet. That should change shortly -- if she writes for adults as well as she writes for kids I may not make it through the rest of this BEA stack without breaking for it. She creates a beautiful cast of characters and has created a page-turner that kept me up against my will late into the night. Janie is a fantastic narrator and her letter on the first page is a fantastic tease that you quickly forget about until the very last chapter, when the inevitable piece of information she reveals suddenly comes to a sad, beguiling reality.
I love the way the fantastical elements are approached from a scientific point of view. Each character connected to the Pharmacopoeia has a skill that could easily sound too spell-book-shtick, but are made to sound like science, real science (or how I imagine real science to be). The prose has a cinematic feel to it -- the time period lending to a picturesque background, the Pharmacopoeia containing tricks so rich with visuals I can't wait to see which studio gets the movie rights. I liked reading the fact that it was a friend's movie idea first, before Meloy nabbed it and ran with it, producing a hell of a story.
Anticipated release October 2011. A must-read for middle school librarians, adults who wish they could turn into birds and adventurous children at heart.
I love the way the fantastical elements are approached from a scientific point of view. Each character connected to the Pharmacopoeia has a skill that could easily sound too spell-book-shtick, but are made to sound like science, real science (or how I imagine real science to be). The prose has a cinematic feel to it -- the time period lending to a picturesque background, the Pharmacopoeia containing tricks so rich with visuals I can't wait to see which studio gets the movie rights. I liked reading the fact that it was a friend's movie idea first, before Meloy nabbed it and ran with it, producing a hell of a story.
Anticipated release October 2011. A must-read for middle school librarians, adults who wish they could turn into birds and adventurous children at heart.