![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Kit's Wilderness
Author: David Almond
Published: Random House Children's Books, 2001 (1999)
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 240
Total Page Count: 499,800
Text Number: 1781
Read Because: reviewed by rachelmanija; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: 4.5 stars, rounded up. After his grandmother dies, Kit and his family move in with his grandfather in a small ex-mining town. Kit, thirteen, who shares a name with the victim of a mass mining accident, plays a game of Death. This is a story of intergenerational trauma: the imprint that mining deaths left on a community which has since radically changed; the loss of a family member, and stories passed between generations; Kit's antagonistic friendship with Askew, a schoolmate who's a victim of child abuse. Almond's voice is sparse, but his text is dense; the summary barely touches everything going on here. Characters double and foil each other; inset narratives and ghosts add a surreal magical realist element balanced by incredibly realistic dialog. The relationship between Kit and Askew is captivating, a dynamic, intense, queer bond between boys from different backgrounds, united by a shared vision from opposite ends of the spectrum: "You and me, we're just the same."
It's not a flawless book. The coda runs overlong and puts too neat an end to beautifully complex themes; it turns out that intergenerational trauma is surprisingly easy to heal! who knew; how convenient. But many middle grade books about capital-d Death feel like award-bait; this is affecting but it's also weird and nuanced and has a Alan Garner-like dreamy quality. I loved it.
Title: Spare and Found Parts
Author: Sarah Maria Griffin
Published: Greenwillow Books, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 415
Total Page Count: 501,220
Text Number: 1785
Read Because: enjoyed the author's Other Words for Smoke, also reviewed by Rosamund
Review: DNF at 25%, not for any particular reason except that I'm not big on YA, and YA kept getting in the way of the parts I found interesting, over-broadcasting our protagonist's teenage social angst and the dystopic worldbuilding when I wanted to spend time with the speculative plot. If I know I'm not going to like it, well, then....
Title: Widdershins
Author: Oliver Onions
Published: 1911
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 160
Total Page Count: 502,015
Text Number: 1787
Read Because: many years ago I saw a first edition of this in Powell's rare book room & went, great title, great author name; and wrote it down and looked it up, and was delighted to see it was actually good; and put it on my TBR until, finally, it got read for the spooky season, to which it's a superb fit. Anyway, this is free via Gutenberg
Review: A collection of short stories, the longest of which, the novella "The Beckoning Fair One," is the most famous and most successful: after moving into new lodgings, the narrator finds himself courting the jealous spirit who inhabits it; it has that perfect, seductive claustrophobia of a haunted house, pushing away the outside world, drawing the protagonist into an obsession which is toxic but irresistible. The other stories are shorter and more gimmicky, not in a negative way; it reminds me, weirdly, of the Twilight Zone, a sort of "wouldn't it be fucked up if that happened" vibe - to live a life in an instant, to be pursued by one's shadow-self, to sacrifice sanity for art, which is the most consistently recurring theme in this collection. Only the novella is particularly good, but the whole collection is very readable.
Author: David Almond
Published: Random House Children's Books, 2001 (1999)
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 240
Total Page Count: 499,800
Text Number: 1781
Read Because: reviewed by rachelmanija; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: 4.5 stars, rounded up. After his grandmother dies, Kit and his family move in with his grandfather in a small ex-mining town. Kit, thirteen, who shares a name with the victim of a mass mining accident, plays a game of Death. This is a story of intergenerational trauma: the imprint that mining deaths left on a community which has since radically changed; the loss of a family member, and stories passed between generations; Kit's antagonistic friendship with Askew, a schoolmate who's a victim of child abuse. Almond's voice is sparse, but his text is dense; the summary barely touches everything going on here. Characters double and foil each other; inset narratives and ghosts add a surreal magical realist element balanced by incredibly realistic dialog. The relationship between Kit and Askew is captivating, a dynamic, intense, queer bond between boys from different backgrounds, united by a shared vision from opposite ends of the spectrum: "You and me, we're just the same."
It's not a flawless book. The coda runs overlong and puts too neat an end to beautifully complex themes; it turns out that intergenerational trauma is surprisingly easy to heal! who knew; how convenient. But many middle grade books about capital-d Death feel like award-bait; this is affecting but it's also weird and nuanced and has a Alan Garner-like dreamy quality. I loved it.
Title: Spare and Found Parts
Author: Sarah Maria Griffin
Published: Greenwillow Books, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 415
Total Page Count: 501,220
Text Number: 1785
Read Because: enjoyed the author's Other Words for Smoke, also reviewed by Rosamund
Review: DNF at 25%, not for any particular reason except that I'm not big on YA, and YA kept getting in the way of the parts I found interesting, over-broadcasting our protagonist's teenage social angst and the dystopic worldbuilding when I wanted to spend time with the speculative plot. If I know I'm not going to like it, well, then....
Title: Widdershins
Author: Oliver Onions
Published: 1911
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 160
Total Page Count: 502,015
Text Number: 1787
Read Because: many years ago I saw a first edition of this in Powell's rare book room & went, great title, great author name; and wrote it down and looked it up, and was delighted to see it was actually good; and put it on my TBR until, finally, it got read for the spooky season, to which it's a superb fit. Anyway, this is free via Gutenberg
Review: A collection of short stories, the longest of which, the novella "The Beckoning Fair One," is the most famous and most successful: after moving into new lodgings, the narrator finds himself courting the jealous spirit who inhabits it; it has that perfect, seductive claustrophobia of a haunted house, pushing away the outside world, drawing the protagonist into an obsession which is toxic but irresistible. The other stories are shorter and more gimmicky, not in a negative way; it reminds me, weirdly, of the Twilight Zone, a sort of "wouldn't it be fucked up if that happened" vibe - to live a life in an instant, to be pursued by one's shadow-self, to sacrifice sanity for art, which is the most consistently recurring theme in this collection. Only the novella is particularly good, but the whole collection is very readable.
