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juushikaTitle: Strange Grace
Author: Tessa Gratton
Narrator: Amy McFadden
Published: Tantor Audio & Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2018
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 405
Total Page Count: 314,945
Text Number: 1084
Read Because: reviewed bymrissa, audiobook and ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Every seven years, the residents of Seven Graces send their brightest and best young man into the woods to face the devil, and in return live without death or disease. This time, the demand for a martyr comes four years early. This is chock-full of elements that speak directly to my id: an interrogation of gendered curses/prophecies in fantasy; an indulgent aesthetic of witch girls and uncanny forests, leaning hard on organic body horror and satisfying that desire to run directly towards that which awes us; a polyamorous relationship featuring prickly and dynamic characters which has tension and payoff. Thus the middle is utterly absorbing—it's a playground for great concepts and pulls a clever narrative bait-and-switch with the rising action, putting it off page where it maintains its mystery and unknowable magics.
But the ending can't quite see those elements home. It faces an almost-impossible task of trying to explain the mystery and maintain the magic and the fable-like tone and build to a climax that addresses three character arcs and themes of communal responsibility. Other than leaning too hard on the YA fallacy that one's first and formative romantic relationship(s) should (must) also be lifelong, there are no obvious flaws; it's not a bad ending. But perhaps it balances too much in too many pieces, without the moment of brilliant coalescence it requires—compare (and it's an unfair comparison, but) how Diana Wynne Jones writes endings. Some books capture my id so completely that I don't care about even their objective flaws; this comes very close, but it's not quite that good—but I still love it, and I imagine I'll like it more on reread, when I know how to balance my expectations.
(Another that I started on audio and finished on ebook; the fairytale vibe reads as stilted in audio, and I wanted to retain the indulgent descriptions via print.)
Title: The Garden of Abdul Gasazi
Author: Chris Van Allsburg
Published: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 314,975
Text Number: 1085
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: "Maybe magic is real" is a go-to ending for a picture book, but I'm not sold on this version of it. The humans are weirdly drawn—they're usually where Van Allsburg struggles but here in his first book they feel like they're being viewed on a monitor set to the wrong resolution. But the garden is beautiful, sharp inorganic geometry contrasting intricately detailed foliage. If I'd read this as a kid, I imagine I might have imprinted on the concept of a magical garden; but all the magic turns out to be located elsewhere, secretive and a little humorous but far less evocative.
Title: Jumanji
Author: Chris Van Allsburg
Published: Houghton Mifflin, 2011 (1981)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 315,005
Text Number: 1086
Read Because: reread/reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This doesn't hold up to my memory, or, rather, it relies entirely on the reader's imagination. Each strange event on the page is brief and without repercussions, but the potential of organic chaos overwhelming the stiflingly suburban home is delightful. It's ripe for adaptation (although I can't recall having seen the movies) and the sort of thing that a child's imagination might latch on to—but coming back to it as an adult reader, it feels hollow.
Title: The Ascent to Godhood (Tensorate Book 4)
Author: J.Y. Yang
Published: Tor, 2019
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 120
Total Page Count: 315,125
Text Number: 1087
Read Because: reading the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: 2.5 stars. The rest of the Tensorate series is a fascinating combination of worldbuilding, particularly technological/magical and sociological, and plot, particularly character journeys explored through diverse narrative styles and set within larger political conflicts. So while this provides background to the series and ties together the disparate novellas, its failure to engage any of the series' strengths renders it unremarkable. It's a political coup that could be interchanged for any other coup if the fantasy elements and names were switched around; the central character dynamic is great, but the book shies from the second half of the narrator's life which is where the repercussions and worldbuilding elements should be. (And the drunken monologue style is unconvincing.)
Author: Tessa Gratton
Narrator: Amy McFadden
Published: Tantor Audio & Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2018
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 405
Total Page Count: 314,945
Text Number: 1084
Read Because: reviewed by
mrissa, audiobook and ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County LibraryReview: Every seven years, the residents of Seven Graces send their brightest and best young man into the woods to face the devil, and in return live without death or disease. This time, the demand for a martyr comes four years early. This is chock-full of elements that speak directly to my id: an interrogation of gendered curses/prophecies in fantasy; an indulgent aesthetic of witch girls and uncanny forests, leaning hard on organic body horror and satisfying that desire to run directly towards that which awes us; a polyamorous relationship featuring prickly and dynamic characters which has tension and payoff. Thus the middle is utterly absorbing—it's a playground for great concepts and pulls a clever narrative bait-and-switch with the rising action, putting it off page where it maintains its mystery and unknowable magics.
But the ending can't quite see those elements home. It faces an almost-impossible task of trying to explain the mystery and maintain the magic and the fable-like tone and build to a climax that addresses three character arcs and themes of communal responsibility. Other than leaning too hard on the YA fallacy that one's first and formative romantic relationship(s) should (must) also be lifelong, there are no obvious flaws; it's not a bad ending. But perhaps it balances too much in too many pieces, without the moment of brilliant coalescence it requires—compare (and it's an unfair comparison, but) how Diana Wynne Jones writes endings. Some books capture my id so completely that I don't care about even their objective flaws; this comes very close, but it's not quite that good—but I still love it, and I imagine I'll like it more on reread, when I know how to balance my expectations.
(Another that I started on audio and finished on ebook; the fairytale vibe reads as stilted in audio, and I wanted to retain the indulgent descriptions via print.)
Title: The Garden of Abdul Gasazi
Author: Chris Van Allsburg
Published: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 314,975
Text Number: 1085
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: "Maybe magic is real" is a go-to ending for a picture book, but I'm not sold on this version of it. The humans are weirdly drawn—they're usually where Van Allsburg struggles but here in his first book they feel like they're being viewed on a monitor set to the wrong resolution. But the garden is beautiful, sharp inorganic geometry contrasting intricately detailed foliage. If I'd read this as a kid, I imagine I might have imprinted on the concept of a magical garden; but all the magic turns out to be located elsewhere, secretive and a little humorous but far less evocative.
Title: Jumanji
Author: Chris Van Allsburg
Published: Houghton Mifflin, 2011 (1981)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 315,005
Text Number: 1086
Read Because: reread/reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This doesn't hold up to my memory, or, rather, it relies entirely on the reader's imagination. Each strange event on the page is brief and without repercussions, but the potential of organic chaos overwhelming the stiflingly suburban home is delightful. It's ripe for adaptation (although I can't recall having seen the movies) and the sort of thing that a child's imagination might latch on to—but coming back to it as an adult reader, it feels hollow.
Title: The Ascent to Godhood (Tensorate Book 4)
Author: J.Y. Yang
Published: Tor, 2019
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 120
Total Page Count: 315,125
Text Number: 1087
Read Because: reading the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: 2.5 stars. The rest of the Tensorate series is a fascinating combination of worldbuilding, particularly technological/magical and sociological, and plot, particularly character journeys explored through diverse narrative styles and set within larger political conflicts. So while this provides background to the series and ties together the disparate novellas, its failure to engage any of the series' strengths renders it unremarkable. It's a political coup that could be interchanged for any other coup if the fantasy elements and names were switched around; the central character dynamic is great, but the book shies from the second half of the narrator's life which is where the repercussions and worldbuilding elements should be. (And the drunken monologue style is unconvincing.)
