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A review by jonathanwlodarski
My Diary from the Edge of the World by Jodi Lynn Anderson
4.0
Maybe I'm overthinking it: I was having a hard time with the world-building, because the face of American history post-Civil War is radically different in this universe, and yet the characters can go to TJMaxx or Applebee's, and Meryl Streep is still a famous, Oscar-winning actress, even though Hollywood doesn't exist. I was having a hard time just grafting these two sets of information together.
But the book was fun. I guess I'd liken it to a middle-grade version of The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac. Once I learned to ignore the contradictory stuff, I was still hesitant to go along with some of the story. So many things happen so quickly, without ever giving one event or another enough of a chance to be dramatic or suspenseful. Maybe we can pin that down to the way a young girl conceptualizes and records the events around her, but even so: when the Dad wagers his soul to a genie, there is about three paragraphs of tension before the problem is resolved. The events are so exciting if I present them to you in list form: an encounter with a fleet of ghost ships, a run-in with a magical creature zoo, buying the services of a guardian angel. But these conflicts, which have serious potential, are waved away time and again.
Which brings me to the ending. No spoilers, but I had a hard time connecting to it for the same reason--the twist happens so fast, is waved away so quickly, that it doesn't give us the emotional impact it so easily could have.
3.5/5
But the book was fun. I guess I'd liken it to a middle-grade version of The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac. Once I learned to ignore the contradictory stuff, I was still hesitant to go along with some of the story. So many things happen so quickly, without ever giving one event or another enough of a chance to be dramatic or suspenseful. Maybe we can pin that down to the way a young girl conceptualizes and records the events around her, but even so: when the Dad wagers his soul to a genie, there is about three paragraphs of tension before the problem is resolved. The events are so exciting if I present them to you in list form: an encounter with a fleet of ghost ships, a run-in with a magical creature zoo, buying the services of a guardian angel. But these conflicts, which have serious potential, are waved away time and again.
Which brings me to the ending. No spoilers, but I had a hard time connecting to it for the same reason--the twist happens so fast, is waved away so quickly, that it doesn't give us the emotional impact it so easily could have.
3.5/5