Book Reviews: Chain Letter, Pike; Shadowplay, O'Conner; The Changling Sea, McKillip

[juushika]

Title: Chain Letter
Author: Christopher Pike
Published: 1986
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 190
Total Page Count: 451,125
Text Number: 1576
Read Because: I was curious to read some Pike after watching the firmly mediocre The Midnight Club; borrowed from OpenLibrary
Review: After a deadly car accident, a group of teens receive a chain letter blackmailing them into increasingly self-destructive stunts. The writing here is workmanlike for sure, but it's hard to begrudge that in such a pulpy book and it allows the more stylized sections (like Alison's attack) to shine. Similarly the characters are uninspired but serve their purpose: their blandness is an entertaining juxtaposition to the increasing tension of their predicament. The mystery is also on the right side of legible. I remember Pike having more gleeful & less morose antagonists/violence, so I'll probably read a few more. But as an experiment in "how does Pike read as an adult" the answer is: utterly unsurprising, but that's not a bad thing.


Title: Shadowplay
Author: Joseph O'Connor
Published: Europa, 2022 (2019)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 360
Total Page Count: 452,455
Text Number: 1581
Read Because: cribbing off my mother's book club's October reading, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A fictionalization of Bram Stoker's life, managing the Lyceum Theatre under the tyrannical rule of its lead actor, Henry Irving, the model for Dracula. This isn't about writing Dracula, but it's about its inspirations, real and fictional: Irving, the rising homophobia of 19th Century England, and the background anxiety of the Ripper murders; and a sprinkling of namedrops and conjectures which grow gratuitous and offer limited insight into Stoker or Dracula. The good bits are rich, immersive, a nuanced imagining of life in period England. The bad bits made me roll my eyes, and I find this overstays its welcome, with a belabored, maudlin coda. Not mad I read it; probably would've benefited from reading some biographies instead.


Title: The Changeling Sea
Author: Patricia A. McKillip
Published: Firebird, 2003 (1988)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 140
Total Page Count: 453,395
Text Number: 1584
Read Because: fan of the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Local tavern worker finds herself enmeshed in a world of princes, magicians, and the vast magics of the sea. As well established (since I mention it every time it comes up), I don't like water aesthetics; I took an age to pick this up as a result. There's so much that could bias me against it ... but no, it's beautiful. McKillip's evocation of the sea, its awe and beauty and danger, and the very real tension of living a mundane life on the border of something so unfathomable, marries perfectly to a fae-like understanding of magic and otherworlds. And it never hurts that McKillip loves to surround an unassuming female protagonist with numerous but non-competitive attractive, mysterious young men. It's wish-fulfillment, a fairy tale, but so nuanced in execution: emotionally intense and bittersweet. Still not a favorite, and blame that in fact on the water aesthetic, but I'm glad that I finally read it.

Comments

[ambyr]

The Changeling Sea is my very favorite McKillip, and I'm glad it worked for you despite things.

[juushika]

My favorite is Alphabet of Thorn, and there's so many overlaps in narrative construction (apparently normal young woman meaningfully centered in the confluence of big political movements and even larger magics, with gentle, indulgent proto-poly vibes) but Alphabet of Thorn is about books and lost knowledge and magic schools; it has the exact personal aesthetic appeal that The Changeling Sea lacks for me. So honestly it puts The Changeling Sea at a bit of a disadvantage, but I really enjoyed it despite that!