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juushikaTitle: Afternoon of the Elves
Author: Janet Taylor Lisle
Published: Open Road Media, 2013 (1989)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 125
Total Page Count: 363,825
Text Number: 1325
Read Because: When did we stop caring that elves aren't real? discussion post byrachelmanija, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A little girl is befriended by the secretive, unpopular outsider who introduces her to the elven village in her back garden. This is a memory from my middle school-ish years that I haven't touched since then; I still prefer that memory (wherein the elf houses are more aesthetic and play a rather more prominent role), but I'm surprised how well this holds up. It succeeds because the elves (who, of course, aren't real) are such a flexible metaphor—not just for making one's own magic or escapism, but for finding magic and beauty where others refuse to look for it: for reclaiming Otherness. The MG problem novel always feels like Newberry bait (and this won the medal of honor), but this is less hamfisted than most; I like the prickly, fickle characterization and the protagonist feels like a child, overwhelmed by the situation at hand, given no clean resolution, really only able to change and empower herself with the hope that that still counts for something.
Title: Horton Hears a Who
Author: Dr. Seuss
Published: 1954
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 65
Total Page Count: 363,890
Text Number: 1326
Read Because: see below; borrowed from OpenLibrary for expediency and the Multnomah County Library to see what the colors look like remasted/in modern editions
Review: I revisited this when it came up in context of cosmic horror, just to see if that framing would change my reading of a staple from my childhood. It doesn't, really; in fact, nothing penetrates. This is so familiar, but not in a personal or resonant way; so while I see what it's doing rather more blandly now, I don't see it with insight or depth. It's just ... there.
Except! The part I remembered best was the fluffy clover and the nightmarish but also fluffy field of a thousand million clovers, and that's still the only part I care about. The soft peachy-pink color, the improbable texture, that endless aesthetic-but-also-nightmare-fuel field in particular is 1) the real cosmic horror and 2) a permanent part of my internal landscape, apparently. The bits of books we latch on to as kids are weird and fascinating.
Title: Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children Book 6)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Published: Tor, 2021
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 175
Total Page Count: 364,065
Text Number: 1327
Read Because: reading the series; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When disclosing her intersex status brings her life crashing down around her, a horse-crazy young girl runs away from school—all the way into portal world peopled by hooved races. The plot is pushed to front and back, and the languorous middle is given over to domestic life within a centaur herd—pastoral (I mean, obviously), cozy, fulfilling. But not especially distinctive.* Later revelations diversify the worldbuilding, but it's never particularly magical or personal; it doesn't do much with the horse girl trope; the ending is rushed and doesn't engage the overarching focus on coming back from a portal world. This installment just breezed past me—where the modern-day half of the series makes for messy, hit-or-miss books, that not the issue here; it's perfectly pleasant, but nothing more: not personal, not evocative, not trope-engaged in the way I want the series to be.
* A moment of silence for the vision I had of the world when the concept was first introduced: all species, sentient or otherwise, of every size, are hooved! a totally different ecology! miniscule flying horses as pollinators! sea horses???? It feels more whimsical and engaging than the setting we're actually given.
Author: Janet Taylor Lisle
Published: Open Road Media, 2013 (1989)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 125
Total Page Count: 363,825
Text Number: 1325
Read Because: When did we stop caring that elves aren't real? discussion post by
rachelmanija, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County LibraryReview: A little girl is befriended by the secretive, unpopular outsider who introduces her to the elven village in her back garden. This is a memory from my middle school-ish years that I haven't touched since then; I still prefer that memory (wherein the elf houses are more aesthetic and play a rather more prominent role), but I'm surprised how well this holds up. It succeeds because the elves (who, of course, aren't real) are such a flexible metaphor—not just for making one's own magic or escapism, but for finding magic and beauty where others refuse to look for it: for reclaiming Otherness. The MG problem novel always feels like Newberry bait (and this won the medal of honor), but this is less hamfisted than most; I like the prickly, fickle characterization and the protagonist feels like a child, overwhelmed by the situation at hand, given no clean resolution, really only able to change and empower herself with the hope that that still counts for something.
Title: Horton Hears a Who
Author: Dr. Seuss
Published: 1954
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 65
Total Page Count: 363,890
Text Number: 1326
Read Because: see below; borrowed from OpenLibrary for expediency and the Multnomah County Library to see what the colors look like remasted/in modern editions
Review: I revisited this when it came up in context of cosmic horror, just to see if that framing would change my reading of a staple from my childhood. It doesn't, really; in fact, nothing penetrates. This is so familiar, but not in a personal or resonant way; so while I see what it's doing rather more blandly now, I don't see it with insight or depth. It's just ... there.
Except! The part I remembered best was the fluffy clover and the nightmarish but also fluffy field of a thousand million clovers, and that's still the only part I care about. The soft peachy-pink color, the improbable texture, that endless aesthetic-but-also-nightmare-fuel field in particular is 1) the real cosmic horror and 2) a permanent part of my internal landscape, apparently. The bits of books we latch on to as kids are weird and fascinating.
Title: Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children Book 6)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Published: Tor, 2021
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 175
Total Page Count: 364,065
Text Number: 1327
Read Because: reading the series; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When disclosing her intersex status brings her life crashing down around her, a horse-crazy young girl runs away from school—all the way into portal world peopled by hooved races. The plot is pushed to front and back, and the languorous middle is given over to domestic life within a centaur herd—pastoral (I mean, obviously), cozy, fulfilling. But not especially distinctive.* Later revelations diversify the worldbuilding, but it's never particularly magical or personal; it doesn't do much with the horse girl trope; the ending is rushed and doesn't engage the overarching focus on coming back from a portal world. This installment just breezed past me—where the modern-day half of the series makes for messy, hit-or-miss books, that not the issue here; it's perfectly pleasant, but nothing more: not personal, not evocative, not trope-engaged in the way I want the series to be.
* A moment of silence for the vision I had of the world when the concept was first introduced: all species, sentient or otherwise, of every size, are hooved! a totally different ecology! miniscule flying horses as pollinators! sea horses???? It feels more whimsical and engaging than the setting we're actually given.
