Scan barcode
A review by librarianinperiwinkle
The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge
2.0
Maisie wakes up on the morning of her 10th birthday to find herself alone and an encroaching black void outside her house. Maisie wakes up on the morning of her 10th birthday to find everything as it should be, with party preparations underway.
Told in alternating chapters, Maisie experiences two different realities & struggles to discover what is going on.
What I loved: having a 10-year-old girl genius as the lead in a story full of math and science. The plot revolves around some complex, mind-bending concepts and also a complex sibling relationship.
What I didn’t love: the random sexual harassment scene about 3/4 of the way in. A nameless boy on a bicycle wolf whistles & demands Maisie’s sister Lily smile, and eventually she smile/grimaces at him to get him to leave, which he does while muttering something at her. Because...why?? It’s just dropped in there with nothing connecting it to the rest of the story. True, every woman I know has a story like that, but we need that crap to STOP HAPPENING. So why put it in a story for tweens when the resolution does nothing to teach girls how to stand up for themselves or boys how to NOT sexually harass anyone?! Did Christopher Edge miss hearing about the #MeToo movement, or did he intend to do something more to develop that subplot but forgot, or...? It’s pissing me off so much, my rating is dropping from 4 to 2 stars.
To be fair, my copy is an ARC I received at ALA Midwinter a year and a half ago & took an insanely long time to get around to reading, so I guess it’s possible the final version that was published is different?? The book is very short, so there isn’t time to develop much of anything.
Told in alternating chapters, Maisie experiences two different realities & struggles to discover what is going on.
What I loved: having a 10-year-old girl genius as the lead in a story full of math and science. The plot revolves around some complex, mind-bending concepts and also a complex sibling relationship.
What I didn’t love: the random sexual harassment scene about 3/4 of the way in. A nameless boy on a bicycle wolf whistles & demands Maisie’s sister Lily smile, and eventually she smile/grimaces at him to get him to leave, which he does while muttering something at her. Because...why?? It’s just dropped in there with nothing connecting it to the rest of the story. True, every woman I know has a story like that, but we need that crap to STOP HAPPENING. So why put it in a story for tweens when the resolution does nothing to teach girls how to stand up for themselves or boys how to NOT sexually harass anyone?! Did Christopher Edge miss hearing about the #MeToo movement, or did he intend to do something more to develop that subplot but forgot, or...? It’s pissing me off so much, my rating is dropping from 4 to 2 stars.
To be fair, my copy is an ARC I received at ALA Midwinter a year and a half ago & took an insanely long time to get around to reading, so I guess it’s possible the final version that was published is different?? The book is very short, so there isn’t time to develop much of anything.