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A review by lenoirleon
The Anatomy of Curiosity by Brenna Yovanoff, Tessa Gratton, Maggie Stiefvater
4.0
As I started reading, and finished the first portion of this book, I decided to do separate reviews for each story. Therefore...this:
LADYLIKE
This story-the story of Geraldine and Petra-made me first think of the parts of To Kill and Mockingbird and the Book Thief where the young protagonist is forced into reading to an older lady. However, the resemblance stops there, as neither of those ladies were literally human eating creatures whose species were going extinct.
Petra is a blusher. At least, any time she interacts with others. However, she’s part of the oratory club and even with her uncontrolled reddening of her face, she does well and seems to enjoy it. At some point, someone important hears her and requests that she become a companion for an older woman-Geraldine. And so Petra goes, taking the exhaustive stairs of a six story building each time, and becomes a companion and reader to Geraldine. Over the days and weeks, Petra grows in her skills and confidence, but, eventually, Geraldine starts to decline.
Even if you don’t read the intro and notes that precede the story, it’s obvious that something is not quite kosher in Geraldine’s apartment. Even Petra notices the dark red stains on occasion. Yet, she continues to visit, growing fond of the old lady. The conclusion of the story, in which Petra finds out the truth, is bittersweet, but made me happy. Not only has Petra been able to become a confident young woman who advocates for herself, we find out that Geraldine has been showing amazing strength and willpower all these months. I said the resemblance to those other works stopped with the story reading...but now I’m very much reminded of how Scout found out that the lady she read to had been an addict of some sort and the reading and companionship had helped her to go without. Honestly, this would be a neat story to read in comparison to that book, if someone was willing to do that in a high school English class.
DESERT CANTICLE
I’m uncertain how I feel about this story. I think that, as it had so many unfamiliar things to me in it, it was a struggle to relate to the characters for a majority of the narrative. Rafael starts out well enough-a soldier doing his part, an exemplary finder of rebels. I couldn’t quite connect with the killing portion, but I do know that can be a soldier’s obligation. He goes home after the war, but returns for another tour, one that will hopefully bring peace between the two formerly warring groups.
Rafael is placed with Dinah Aniv, the best mage in the Star tribes, to rid areas of flower bombs. They work together, gradually building a bond and trusting one another. It is evident that Rafael has feelings more than soldiery camaraderie, but is trying not to act on them. Yet, a night of celebration leads the two to dance and share a moment, which leads to Rafael being told a secret that rattled his worldview much in the way as the magical IEDs have done.
More than anything, I wish that we wouldn’t have been given the heads up-right near the first of this story-that things were not quite what they seemed. When the big reveal came, it wasn’t a shock so much as an “oh. Okay. That’s why that line was thrown in.“ And while I get that this was supposed to be some akin to Rafael’s diary after the war and second tour, I feel like he would have either given more hints throughout the telling, or not mentioned it at all.
DROWNING VARIATIONS
Of the three stories in the book, this was my least favorite. I think, more than anything, because we went back and forth between the author telling us about the story and the variations of the stories. Which, I get, was the point of this section, if not the entire book. Yet, in the other sections, with the side notes, it could be ignored. In this section, it couldn’t. I’ve rarely enjoyed books with multiple narrators, as I have trouble keeping track. And while I understand that there really weren’t different people telling the story, but the same one, only drafted differently, it still led to a disjointed narrative that I had trouble getting through.
LADYLIKE
This story-the story of Geraldine and Petra-made me first think of the parts of To Kill and Mockingbird and the Book Thief where the young protagonist is forced into reading to an older lady. However, the resemblance stops there, as neither of those ladies were literally human eating creatures whose species were going extinct.
Petra is a blusher. At least, any time she interacts with others. However, she’s part of the oratory club and even with her uncontrolled reddening of her face, she does well and seems to enjoy it. At some point, someone important hears her and requests that she become a companion for an older woman-Geraldine. And so Petra goes, taking the exhaustive stairs of a six story building each time, and becomes a companion and reader to Geraldine. Over the days and weeks, Petra grows in her skills and confidence, but, eventually, Geraldine starts to decline.
Even if you don’t read the intro and notes that precede the story, it’s obvious that something is not quite kosher in Geraldine’s apartment. Even Petra notices the dark red stains on occasion. Yet, she continues to visit, growing fond of the old lady. The conclusion of the story, in which Petra finds out the truth, is bittersweet, but made me happy. Not only has Petra been able to become a confident young woman who advocates for herself, we find out that Geraldine has been showing amazing strength and willpower all these months. I said the resemblance to those other works stopped with the story reading...but now I’m very much reminded of how Scout found out that the lady she read to had been an addict of some sort and the reading and companionship had helped her to go without. Honestly, this would be a neat story to read in comparison to that book, if someone was willing to do that in a high school English class.
DESERT CANTICLE
I’m uncertain how I feel about this story. I think that, as it had so many unfamiliar things to me in it, it was a struggle to relate to the characters for a majority of the narrative. Rafael starts out well enough-a soldier doing his part, an exemplary finder of rebels. I couldn’t quite connect with the killing portion, but I do know that can be a soldier’s obligation. He goes home after the war, but returns for another tour, one that will hopefully bring peace between the two formerly warring groups.
Rafael is placed with Dinah Aniv, the best mage in the Star tribes, to rid areas of flower bombs. They work together, gradually building a bond and trusting one another. It is evident that Rafael has feelings more than soldiery camaraderie, but is trying not to act on them. Yet, a night of celebration leads the two to dance and share a moment, which leads to Rafael being told a secret that rattled his worldview much in the way as the magical IEDs have done.
More than anything, I wish that we wouldn’t have been given the heads up-right near the first of this story-that things were not quite what they seemed. When the big reveal came, it wasn’t a shock so much as an “oh. Okay. That’s why that line was thrown in.“ And while I get that this was supposed to be some akin to Rafael’s diary after the war and second tour, I feel like he would have either given more hints throughout the telling, or not mentioned it at all.
DROWNING VARIATIONS
Of the three stories in the book, this was my least favorite. I think, more than anything, because we went back and forth between the author telling us about the story and the variations of the stories. Which, I get, was the point of this section, if not the entire book. Yet, in the other sections, with the side notes, it could be ignored. In this section, it couldn’t. I’ve rarely enjoyed books with multiple narrators, as I have trouble keeping track. And while I understand that there really weren’t different people telling the story, but the same one, only drafted differently, it still led to a disjointed narrative that I had trouble getting through.