The Freak Observer

Sep 16, 2011 Nova Waite rated it 3 of 5 stars

So far, as an English teacher, I could criticize so many things about this book. But if the author is reading this review out of curiousity...I will temper my criticism with praise first--I thought the physics problems at the beginning of each chapter were outstanding pieces of craft. I'm a big fan of compositional risk, and especially look for "what has not been done before" in a book. I've never seen physics problems as a way to introduce chapters in a realistic fiction book. The writer scores...more So far, as an English teacher, I could criticize so many things about this book. But if the author is reading this review out of curiousity...I will temper my criticism with praise first--I thought the physics problems at the beginning of each chapter were outstanding pieces of craft. I'm a big fan of compositional risk, and especially look for "what has not been done before" in a book. I've never seen physics problems as a way to introduce chapters in a realistic fiction book. The writer scores points for that. However, I was a lazy reader and didn't really stop to connect the dots on how each chapter intro connected with all the others--but I can see that they connect as brilliantly as constellations. This is the kind of book you have to actually think about--if you "fast read," you're not going to get the subtleties. When I re-read, I will look at the connections between chapter intros more closely. I'd love to assign that as a student project, but some of the book's content is inappropriate, and so I would ask for parent's permission before even recommending it. I like to be as "realistic" as realistic fiction...and yes, this book has the infamous F-word in it, as well as "s--t," and the other detriments to our vocabulary. It also has, though not explicit, 1 or 2 "adult content" references. The author could've deleted this easily--it was uneccesary for this to be included--the book was good enough without it. However, we all know that in real life, you're going to hear profanity. We all know what young adults are being taught in health class. That being said, just because these things are "realistic" doesn't make the book seem any more realistic to me. First off, there are way too many conflicts. Without spoiling the book by revealing specifics, conflicts include: death, mental illness, terminal illness, underage drinking, poverty, etc., etc. And the problems are solved way too easily with a snap decision from Dad that came out of nowhere. His answer to it all is to start over--people in real life can't just "start over." The standard writer's motto is, "Write about what you know..." and sorry to say, I don't believe this author knows what it's like to suffer from PTSD. I do realize that PTSD can manifest itself in different ways, but I speak from experience when I say that PTSD involves much more than just having nightmares. Although I found Loa's nightmare "sequences" to be fascinating, probably the best writing in the book, her inner thoughts didn't "ring true" to me, and I can't quite put my finger on why. The relationships between characters also seemed hollow. Yes, relationships become strained after a traumtic event...but to really make that breakdown effective, you have to establish that there was in fact, a relationship to begin with. I never saw it much in the book, not between Loa and her siblings, Loa and her parents, Loa and her friends. The closest relationship was between Loa and Corey, and as a lover of horror, I was pleasantly Pleased by Corey's psychotic postcards from Europe.(less)

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Jun 06, 2012 Tracyfood rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

"I still have to do it. I just don't enjoy it.
That pretty much describes anything anymore."

Also:

"It is very hard not to remember something. It's easy to forget but very hard not to remember on purpose....

I know that I can't choose not to remember. I can't choose the slide show in my imagination.

I can practically hear my neurons laughing at me. The little shits."

That's the beginning and end of p. 147 of the copy of this book lent to me by the New York Public Library, and I think they've just bum...more

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Dec 13, 2011 Louisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 99-problems, bizarre-medical-problems, dead-girls-abound, i-love-awkward-teenagers-in-fiction, svu-esque, teenagers-in-peril, ya

Sometimes with books like this, I can't bear to get through them. I read like ten pages at a time, I start another book--all in hopes of avoiding a seemingly inevitable outcome that results in the horrible wasting away of the teenage protagonist. And by books like this I mean books where the teenage protagonist just gets the shit kicked out of them--physically and emotionally--by life.

I guess I'm a bit of a coward like that.

However, in this book like that, Blythe Woolston's, The Freak Observer,...more

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Dec 10, 2011 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011gitftworthy, 6th-8th, crossover, favorites, realistic-fiction, speculative-fiction, teen

I don't summarize worth a dang, so if you need a summary, find it here. First up, this cover--this cover, people! On the whole, I think that these days middle grade and chapter books get the better covers--illustrations, significant objects, great color schemes--while YA has become a wasteland of severed heads, torsos, and wickedly photo-shopped faces. But Woolston's Morris Award Winning novel avoids that sad fate, and has a cover--and back cover--design that give the reader a huge, satisfying c...more I don't summarize worth a dang, so if you need a summary, find it here. First up, this cover--this cover, people! On the whole, I think that these days middle grade and chapter books get the better covers--illustrations, significant objects, great color schemes--while YA has become a wasteland of severed heads, torsos, and wickedly photo-shopped faces. But Woolston's Morris Award Winning novel avoids that sad fate, and has a cover--and back cover--design that give the reader a huge, satisfying clue about what is in store when they begin reading, which is the whole purpose of having a book cover in the first place.

I've had this book since I picked it up at ALA following the YA Author Coffee Klatch. Blythe was one of the authors that came to my table and talking with her was really a joy. She was thoughtful, modest, excited, and a steadfast lover of libraries, librarians, and storytelling. In our packet was a note that we could get a free signed copy of her book at the Carolrhoda Lab booth, so following the breakfast I made that my first stop.

I read most of this book while at ALA, mostly before I went to sleep at night, and then finished it on the train ride back home to Chicago. As the cover promised, this book is visceral yet clinical, detached and engaging, tugging equally at your mind and your heart.

I love this book, you guys. I love it because it both filled and created a whole in my heart. I love it because Loa is me, and I am Loa, and Loa is a direct descendant of Meg Murray (sex drive and all--do you realize how many kids Meg Murray O'Keefe ended up having? A LOT And can you blame her, being married to Calvin?? NO, you CAN'T, so don't even TRY). I love it because it has a family that is lower/middle/working class, a family that makes hard decisions and yet can still get excited about finally living at an address where you can get pizza delivered.

For fans of: Madeline L'Engle's Time novels, the ballroom sequence in Labyrinth, Blankets by Craig Thompson, Trespasser's William, walking fast on a cold day so your nose runs and your eyes sting, handwritten letters, agape love, and Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney. (less)

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Sep 26, 2011 Joanna Price rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: si-624, girls, school-library-media, public-library, high-school, ya-novels, yalsa-williamcmorris-award, author-s-first-novel, physics, boys, young-adult-life, family-problems

Grades 9-12. Woolston's novel, winner of the 2011 YALSA William C. Morris Award for excellence in a previously unpublished author, is a stunningly moving, honest look at the life of teenage girls. Perhaps the single best feature of Woolston's work is its' seamless integration of different kinds of worldviews into one enriched outlook. The protagonist, Loa, faces the issue of mortality, the meaning of friendship, the application of Physics to real life, how poverty affects opportunity, and the fr...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Pamela Voyles rated it 5 of 5 stars

Blyth Woolston was clever when she decided to write The Freak Observer (Carolrhoda Lab 2010) in first person. The reader feels like they are in Loa’s head with her. She has terrible nightmares and is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. She had a sister that died from complications with Rett syndrome. There was a routine and rhythm to her life when her sister was alive. She had a routine and her father read to her sister every night and the house was calm. Suddenly everything has change...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: life, not-graphic, voice, ya

"Death, life, astrophysics, and finding beauty in chaos," reads an apt line from the book trailer. I have to admit I'm still not entirely clear on just what the theoretical concept of a freak observer is, even though Loa, who is given it as a research topic for make-up credit in physics class, finds it a helpful metaphor as she copes with way more loss than any person should have to. In fact, if the sample school problems that introduce each chapter represented the events of those chapters, then...more "Death, life, astrophysics, and finding beauty in chaos," reads an apt line from the book trailer. I have to admit I'm still not entirely clear on just what the theoretical concept of a freak observer is, even though Loa, who is given it as a research topic for make-up credit in physics class, finds it a helpful metaphor as she copes with way more loss than any person should have to. In fact, if the sample school problems that introduce each chapter represented the events of those chapters, then I might have missed it. But that's okay, because it just goes to show how deep, complex, and real a person Loa is. She shares her intimate moments of trauma and attempts at recovery with us, bitterly but humorously cynical as a response to the pain she's suffered. Loa's journey isn't always a fun one to join her on, but she's a person worth getting to know and makes that journey worthwhile.

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The thing about ghosts is that they haunt your head. My dad can't pour a cup of coffee without remembering his mother--she used the same blue enamel mug for her own coffee. My grandfather used to sit in that chair by the window, so we leave that chair by the window. It's been more than a year, but Mom still has to remind herself not to buy diapers for Asta when she goes to town.

Ghosts are mostly habits of memory. In an old house like this, everything you touch is connected to another moment. The cupboard is full of ghosts. The bookmarks between pages are ghosts. The photographs of my unattractive ancestors on the wall are most certainly ghosts. Even the morning glories that grow by the back porch are ghosts. My mom plants them every year. She soaks the little black seeds and nicks them with a nail file so they will be able to crack open and grow. She plants them because there were morning glories blooming the day she came to the house.

-----

Today there are people in the library who are never in the library. They just want to get this over with quickly. They swarm the help desk. I'd say "like maggots," but they are noisy and calling out for poems about beer and suicide and vampires and baby deer. Maggots are pretty quiet, in my experience. I am quiet like a maggot. I don't even ask for help. I pretend that I'm working on poetry, but instead, I'm writing about noisy maggots.

-----

Once upon a time, Mr. Banacek wanted to go to the moon. Now he's in a classroom trying to get us to remember things that happened before we were born. He wants us to be amazed by duct tape and ingenuity. Or maybe he just wants to remember when he was amazed.(less)

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Apr 19, 2011 Cornmaven rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: high-school

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. There's a lot about this book that I liked, but much of it was a bit obscure for me. The chaotic journey through PTSD that Loa experiences as a result of much, much tragedy in her life was understandable. Her whole family seemed to be spinning out of control, at least to her. Her somewhat casual hooking up with her debate partner rang true for the circumstance. And I really liked the way the author allowed her to come to the understanding at the end that her reactions to the events in her life w...more There's a lot about this book that I liked, but much of it was a bit obscure for me. The chaotic journey through PTSD that Loa experiences as a result of much, much tragedy in her life was understandable. Her whole family seemed to be spinning out of control, at least to her. Her somewhat casual hooking up with her debate partner rang true for the circumstance. And I really liked the way the author allowed her to come to the understanding at the end that her reactions to the events in her life were coloring EVERYTHING with which she came in contact.

But there was a lot I didn't get - I couldn't appreciate the math/physics problems at the beginnings of a lot of the chapters because I never took a physics class - so even whether those problems were real or not was lost on me. I knew that those beginning snippets, whether a problem or a famous statement, were germaine to the chapter, but many times I couldn't make the connection. I appreciated the metaphor of the orrery in relation to her sister Asta. But, I did not get the purpose of Jack in the story, other than maybe his chaos was actually grounding Loa, or his total acceptance of her was helping her come to grips with her trauma. Maybe. I don't know.

Even with Loa's extra credit project on the Freak Observer/Boltzmann Brain, I didn't get that at all. Even after reading about Boltzmann and his theories on the net, I didn't get it. Would many young adults get it? I don't know. I did find out that Boltzmann was most likely bipolar, so that was interesting.

But I don't agree that Corey's posting of a photo with her in it on the net was anything approaching simple self-absorption. It was just sheer stupid, teenage immaturity.

In the end, I thought the story was a good one, but the larger than life metaphors and symbols obscured the lessons a little too much. Even Wallace Stevens' poem, and I love Wallace Stevens, was a little too much for me in this tale. Maybe the author didn't spend enough time on it for me. Probably someone smarter than I would need to explain it to me.

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Apr 15, 2011 Penny Johnson rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to quit reading this book several times, but I was so anxious to find out if this poor young woman was ever going to get any help!! (I won't spoil it by telling you whether or not she did.) I wanted to scream at her parents, school counselors, teachers, and any other adult in her life. HEY! Can't you see this girl needs help?!!?

16-year-old Loa Lindgren is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Her 8-year-old sister, an invalid since infancy, has died, sending her parents into a...more

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Mar 21, 2011 Lizz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gosh damn, the Morris award nominees were EFFING AMAZING this year. While I was all pissy that "Crossing the Tracks" did not win, I must (and not begrudgingly) admit this book deserves such accolades.

Told in a circular style that also includes a linear narrarative, this multi-layered account of Loa's struggle to come to terms with extreme loss, her traumatic reaction and the daily crap of teen life is engaging on multiple levels. Each chapter begins with a physics problem cluing us into what Loa...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Caren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

About a quarter of the way through this book, I nearly gave up on it; it is just so relentlessly sad. It is, however, extremely well written and I found myself reading on in the way you can't turn your eyes from a horrific accident, but know you should. It is an edgy, intelligent story and I imagine it to be an engaging read for teens. At the very end, there seems to be a glimmer of hope for Loa, the 16-year-old protagonist. She is a mature, smart girl, but life just keeps throwing so much at he...more

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Nov 30, 2010 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

I was pleasantly surprised by this book (and by surprised I mean, "Wow, I really like this book when I told myself I wouldn't"). The cover is extremely eye-catching and the title sets you up for a unique reading experience. The narrator, Loa, goes through a lot of turmoil (losing a sister, having a close friend move away, losing another friend, a home life devoid of love, getting diagnosed with PTSD) and normally a book with this kind of subject matter usually involves having a really whiny, ann...more

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Nov 21, 2010 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley

Loa, who has just lost a younger sister and a friend, navigates the worlds of high school and her family... all this interspersed with snippets of theoretical physics.

The narrator of this book had a very unique voice, which I liked. For example, in the library, she described the Dewey decimal system as "a ghetto for old books that couldn't just be put in the dumpster but weren't worth the trouble of assigning new numbers and moving to new shelves." She goes on to describe the "shelves of oversiz...more

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Oct 11, 2010 Julia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: families, appropriate-for-high-school, friendship-school, death-grief, tearjerker, illness-mental

Loa has PTSD. She should. She lost a much loved sister & saw a friend killed in a car accident all within a year. Her family is no help. This then is a story about how Loa finds her own ways to cope with her problems. She distances herself from her pain by looking at it through the lens of physics principals. (The title of the book comes from one of these principles.)

To be honest, though I saw growth in Loa, I felt lost at the beginning of her journey & I still felt rather lost at the en...more

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Jun 29, 2010 Claire rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: high school- content

Recommended to Claire by: Carolrhoda

Shelves: first-person-narrator-all-ages, gms-fall, grief, high-school-and-beyond

In this book Loa processes her life with us. She lives near a university town but way, way, way off in the back woods; lots and lots of time on the school bus.
The book kicks off with the sudden, violent death of her friend Esther who is hit by a stray log tossed like a toothpick when a logging truck jackknifes near the kids. This compounds the loss earlier that year of her sister Asta who died of a genetic anomaly. The family is still reeling from the loss which was followed closely by Dad losi...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Janani Subramanian rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 05, 2012 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: death-and-dying, relationships, sibling-relationships, young-adult-literature, morris

"I find it weird that nobody teaches us about dreams in school. You'd think it would come up at some point, like maybe in health class or something, but it doesn't. There was that inspirational speaker who tore a phone book in half and told us to dream big, but his message had nothing to do with our dream life while we sleep. He was all about goals and, I guess, dislike for phone books."

Loa's life has been filled with heartache and loss. Most recently, she was present for the death of a high sch...more "I find it weird that nobody teaches us about dreams in school. You'd think it would come up at some point, like maybe in health class or something, but it doesn't. There was that inspirational speaker who tore a phone book in half and told us to dream big, but his message had nothing to do with our dream life while we sleep. He was all about goals and, I guess, dislike for phone books."

Loa's life has been filled with heartache and loss. Most recently, she was present for the death of a high school classmate in a truck accident; the images and aftereffects of that event are added to the earlier loss of Loa's little sister Asta(from Rett Syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder), whose death tore the foundation out from under her family. Loa now suffers from PTSD, and works to avoid sleep as much as possible, so she can escape the death-related hallucinations and dreams that haunt her. Her family is in dire financial straits, and while Loa hopes for a normal childhood for her little brother, Harold, she knows that he's had to grow up far too soon. Without Asta, Loa and her family have lost their center, and as individuals they are now spinning off on their own orbits. The notion of astrophysics and math figure prominently in this novel, as Woolston introduces each chapter with a complex physics problem/question.

Loa is a keen observer of those around her, much like the Freak Observer she chooses to write about for extra credit in physics class. A Freak Observer is a random self-made entity that basically pops up in the universe, outside of any established system, to make sense of the chaos. Loa does the same, and even though she tries mightily to make sense of her chaos, it appears overwhelming at times.

I found this a tough read initially, because Woolston's representation of Loa's reality often reflects the fragmented nature of Loa's PTSD. Loa feels that everything is crashing down upon her after her sister's death, but she slowly comes to realize that she may have some power over her reality as well. This an absolutely heartbreaking book in parts, and even the characters that initially appear unsympathetic (like Loa's father) are developed to the point where readers can easily identify with them. I was constantly reminded of A.S. King's writing style throughout this book - the same vivid language, alternating long-short paragraphs (used to great effect), and strongly-drawn narrative voices. It's a short novel, but you'll still want to take your time and soak in the language. (less)

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Jul 04, 2011 TheBookSmugglers rated it 4 of 5 stars

Original review posted on The Book Smugglers HERE

The Freak Observer is the 2011 winner of the William C. Morris Award. This award is given by YALSA to a debut book published by a first-time author writing for young adults and I have decided to try and read all of this year’s nominees. So far, I’ve read Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride (which didn’t work for me) and Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey (which I loved without reservations). The Freak Observer falls somewhere in between...more Original review posted on The Book Smugglers HERE

The Freak Observer is the 2011 winner of the William C. Morris Award. This award is given by YALSA to a debut book published by a first-time author writing for young adults and I have decided to try and read all of this year’s nominees. So far, I’ve read Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride (which didn’t work for me) and Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey (which I loved without reservations). The Freak Observer falls somewhere in between those two for me. It is clearly a very good book, an excellent debut and I liked it – but I have to say that it didn’t completely wow me.

Loa Lindgren is having a terrible time: she just witnessed a close friend’s death in a car accident and has been having nightmares and panic attacks ever since. This is only the tip of the iceberg though, as Loa’s disjointed narrative (back and forth, back and forth) will eventually disclose. Financial disaster has hit Loa’s family hard and she and her mother have to work while her father tries to find any work available. And all of that come in the aftermath of her younger sister Asta’s death a year before from Rett Syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder where development is normal for the first 6–18 months of a child’s life, stagnating and regressing thereafter.

The story then revolves around Loa, and her family trying to find their way again, after living so many years orbiting around Asta, who was effectively the centre of their family life. To speak of “revolving” and “orbit” is quite a propos since what keeps Loa marginally grounded and sane is her love for physics and maths. At school, she gets to work on a special physics project about Freak Observers – a hypothesised self-aware entity that pops-up in the universe to make sense of the chaos. She works on the project as she reminisces about the past year, all the while fighting severe PTSD (paranoia, nightmares, having visions of death) with little to no help as her parents have their own problems and they don’t have money to afford treatment. Loa herself needs to be her own Freak Observer of her own small universe and make sense of the reining chaos in her life.

More than that though, the reader too has to be a Freak Observer too, as the narrative is as fragmented a Loa’s brain seem to be. Perhaps, this might explain the causal distance I felt when reading the novel. Maybe Loa’s narrative and life being too fragmentary and almost emotionless is what kept me from being wowed. I don’t know. I do know this is strictly a “me” thing and I do know that those very qualifiers (fragmented narrative and lack of emotion) are expertly incorporated as symptoms of Loa’s PTSD – as both story and storytelling. I do appreciate that as I appreciated many other things about the novel. Like the lovely writing, for example:

"Ghosts are mostly habits of memory. In an old house like this, everything you touch is connected to another moment. The cupboard is full of ghosts. The bookmarks between pages are ghosts. The photographs of my unattractive ancestors on the wall are most certainly ghosts. Even the morning glories that grow by the back porch are ghosts. My mom plants them every year. She soaks the little black seeds and nicks them with a nail file so they will be able to crack open and grow. She plants them because there were morning glories blooming the day she came to the house."

I specially admired how the author deftly allowed the reader to feel an immense sympathy for Loa’s parents who at first might come across as abusers. The book opens as Loa’s father hits her with a toilet brush. When Loa has an accident and ends up in hospital, her mother’s first reaction is to wonder about how they are going to pay for the bill. As the story progresses it is easy to see how both are simply good, loving people, struggling with the terrible thing that has happened to their child and dire financial distress and doing regretful things as a result. These are not excuses but explanations and in the end, there is a sense that this family is moving forward, in the process of healing and that includes Loa as well. It is a sad story but also a beautiful and hopeful one. You know, the sort that wins well-deserved awards. (less)

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Jun 26, 2011 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: death-dying, mental-illness, realistic-fiction, teen-fiction, award-winners

I'm still not really sure what to say or make of this one. On the surface, it appears to be mainly concerned with Loa's mental state following the deaths of her sister and a friend. But there's an awful lot going on in this slim tome. Loa is definitely an interesting character. She's tough and smart, but ultimately still suffering from the death of her little sister, Asta, who had suffered from Rett's Syndrome. Loa had been her sister's caretaker for most of Asta's short life. At some point, the...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Crowinator rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, contemporary, 2011-reads, unreliable-narrators

Okay, this won me over -- just when I got so fed up with the relentlessly sad life the narrator, Loa, is living (seriously, I just about lost it when the dog dies in the story), things start to improve for her; yes, it improves slowly, and it's only a little bit, a glimmer, but that's realistic and doesn't undercut all of the reasons for her PTSD and depression. Also, I love a non-linear, character-driven story, so the structure and the voice held me through the rough patches.

Still, if it wasn't...more Okay, this won me over -- just when I got so fed up with the relentlessly sad life the narrator, Loa, is living (seriously, I just about lost it when the dog dies in the story), things start to improve for her; yes, it improves slowly, and it's only a little bit, a glimmer, but that's realistic and doesn't undercut all of the reasons for her PTSD and depression. Also, I love a non-linear, character-driven story, so the structure and the voice held me through the rough patches.

Still, if it wasn't for Woolston's writing, I never would have gotten past the first 90 pages. I don't normally enjoy reading such sad stories, and I can't really say I enjoyed this one . . . but I'm glad I finished it. It felt meaningful. There were just too many sharp, wry, observant passages I was marking off with sticky notes to stop reading, and I'm glad that the story ends on a quietly hopeful note.

This is the kind of book I will think about long after finishing and probably read again, to catch all the nuances I missed the first time around. *longer review later possibly*

Here's three of my favorite snarky quotations, which I couldn't resist including here (I marked a lot more of them, but the others are too long for me to want to type them out):

[On friendship] "All friendships are unequal. If they weren't, power couldn't get swapped back and forth. We would just hover in our self-contained envelopes producing everything we need and eating our own shit. 'Mmmm!' we would say, 'That's good shit.' And we would all be perfectly happy and immortal, like yeast." [p. 72]

[On her job working in the kitchen and dining room at the residential care center] "I did not have much in common with the cooks. I am not a widow, for example, and I've never found my husband pinned under the axel after the rig he was working on slipped off the blocks. I am not fascinated by whippets or Judge Judy or the guy in the blue and white trailer who is running a meth lab." [p. 101]

[On how nobody teaches about dreams in school] "There was that inspirational speaker who tore a phone book in half and told us to dream big, but his message had nothing to do with our dream life while we sleep. He was all about goals and, I guess, dislike for phone books." [p. 126]
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Sep 15, 2011 Donna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-bitten

Carolrhoda Lab for the win yet again! Seriously, I've been on top of this inprint since they debuted with DRAW THE DARK and TRAITOR and they've yet to publish anything even remotely resembling a word turd. Their books are so rich and deep that you just get sucked right in and you don't even realize you were under water until you emerge breathless. THE FREAK OBSERVER is no exception.

Now this is literary YA that I can sink my teeth into. It's succinct but vibrant. Loa doesn't pity herself even tho...more Carolrhoda Lab for the win yet again! Seriously, I've been on top of this inprint since they debuted with DRAW THE DARK and TRAITOR and they've yet to publish anything even remotely resembling a word turd. Their books are so rich and deep that you just get sucked right in and you don't even realize you were under water until you emerge breathless. THE FREAK OBSERVER is no exception.

Now this is literary YA that I can sink my teeth into. It's succinct but vibrant. Loa doesn't pity herself even though she is probably someone that should. The story is relatively plotless, with Asta's death happening before the story even starts. When you first enter, you're walking into Loa's shit storm of a life without an umbrella and you can feel every ping and fleck of poo as it hurls at her.

The main antagonist is someone that exists only in Loa's mind, The Bony Guy. Death. He's always there, haunting her, keeping her alone in life. And her loneliness is tangible. Her parents don't see her as their child but as a burden, especially when she falls out of line, like getting hit by a car. Such a bad kid. Her only friend moves away but she finds something out about him that makes her doubt the relationship for most of the book. Her little brother is kept at a distance by her parents, as if they're afraid he'll catch something from her. This girl leads such a loveless, lonely life that you can't help but feel for her.

The good thing (as if there's only one) is that Woolston doesn't drag the drama out for hundreds upon hundreds of pages. The story is poignant, telling the parts that need to be told for Loa's mind to get from point A to point B and then it's done. And it's marvelous. It's literary without the heinous, door stopper fat.

If you're jonsing for a phenomenal character-driven story that's low on plot but amped up with a multi-faceted character whose crutch is physics because it's the only dependable constant in her life, you'll love THE FREAK OBSERVER. I feel like all I'm doing is expounding on the fangirlishness with this review but it is that level of amazing. It's a character study with a glimmer of hope at the end. It's near hopeless but not quite. Loa is one of the most amazing characters I've seen and to have gone through everything that she has, it's a miracle she's not in the fetal position sucking her thumb by the end of the story. No. At the end she's standing up straighter than at the beginning. And for that she's all the more amazing.(less)

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Mar 26, 2011 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

This is unique little book. It's about a teenage girl named Loa, and her life immediately following the death of her little sister of Rhett's disease. Loa was Asta's primary caretaker until her death, and the loss of Asta plays a big part of the story, while the actual character of Asta is already gone.
Basically, Loa is trying to create order out of the chaos of her life and feelings. And there is a lot of chaos in her life, including everything from family financial woes, alcohol abuse, teen s...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Gaja rated it 3 of 5 stars

The one thing I can say most about this book is that it's really melancholy. It's not a happy-go-lucky coming of age tale where the plucky heroine gets the guy and wins the love of the people/homecoming crown/big game. It's a book about a sad girl with a sad life who's pretty much just trying to get through said life after it craps on her hard. That's pretty much it, though. In the end it doesn't really go anywhere. There's no big revelation or life changing event, but, in this case, that's okay...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Jan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: teenbooks, contemporary

Woolston just won the latest YALSA Morris Award, which recognizes a debut novel written for young adults.

This is a very unusual book, both in construction and in voice. Loa has suffered many losses in her life. She has lost her younger sister to a terrible genetic disorder and a friend to an auto accident, and to make things worse, her friend Corey has betrayed her. Loa is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and experiences terrible nightmares and flashbacks. Her way of coping is to b...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Martha rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book with its main character who is interested in physics. I loved the cover with the heart and I enjoyed the set up with a law of physics or a scientific fact at the start of each chapter.
With much I liked I was very disappointed by the disjointedness of the novel. Loa suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after seeing a friend hit by a logging truck and killed, yet this does not seem to account of the disjointedness of the story. I think it was more in the wr...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Desiree rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Young Adults

I'm going to get straight to the basics to explain why I rated this book 3 stars.

Characterization, for one, is very one dimensional. Loa is portrayed as a very intelligent, rational teenager in high school who is very interested in science and physics. This was interesting and unique, however, I feel that it's the only part of her character - aside from the panic attack in class that occurs midway through the story - that is believable and draws the reader in. She isolates herself from everyone,...more I'm going to get straight to the basics to explain why I rated this book 3 stars.

Characterization, for one, is very one dimensional. Loa is portrayed as a very intelligent, rational teenager in high school who is very interested in science and physics. This was interesting and unique, however, I feel that it's the only part of her character - aside from the panic attack in class that occurs midway through the story - that is believable and draws the reader in. She isolates herself from everyone, even before the accident that gives her the beginnings of post-traumatic stress disorder. She is extremely emotionally stunted for most of the book, which may be a result of having to care for her younger sister who has an incurable disease and needing to stay in control of her life (emotions would present a threat to that control) but even when she is written to feel something, I never felt as if I were connecting with her.

Other characters, with the exception of Little Harold as another reviewer mentioned, are completely unlikeable. The only people from school that she gets remotely involved in friendships with are so flimsy, they're practically transparent. I felt that the only reason they existed was to fill pages as most of them had next to no importance for the storyline, including the very long entanglement with her debate partner who abruptly leaves and then sends cryptic postcards and gifts to Loa for months. The two male characters we're introduced to nearer the end of the story, have such little to offer that I only kept reading to get to the end.

Woolston's writing style is unique and I appreciate it but the fact that she skipped around so much in the beginning between her sister dying, her friend dying, and her present attempts to deal with it, did not piece together very well. The location of the story and the bleak weather, I think, set a dull mood to the story. I was not moved by the characters and I found a majority of the story lacked emotionality. If Woolston does write another book, I hope that she continues using amusing descriptions of mundane things (one of the reasons I gave 3 stars instead of 2) but she might try harder to connect with her readers, have them feel what her main character is feeling.

And, as a sidenote, as someone who has been struggling with PTSD for over ten years, I did not find that Loa's PTSD was entirely believable. Everyone goes through different methods of dealing with death (her constant nightmares and sleeplessness) and everyone who has PTSD doesn't suffer from the same symptoms but there is a certain degree of reality and emotionality that you can sense when reading about someone's PTSD. I don't know if Woolston was trying to protect younger readers but writing about it from arms-length will not do anything to reach younger readers who are looking to learn more about how others go through it or have a history of it themselves. If an author is going to have a character suffer from a disorder, I don't feel like they should keep it at such a distance. It's important so why act as if it's some annoying thing like a headache and not talk about it? The only point where I felt she even tried was during the aforementioned panic attack in which she did some slightly impressive cognitive processing.

If you do decide to read this book, don't expect very much depth. (less)

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May 06, 2011 Laura (The Zealous Reader) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100-in-2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Loved it! Blythe Woolston's The Freak Observer tells the heartbreaking story of Loa and how she tries to put herself back together time and time again. I am so happy it won the 2010 William C. Morris award for debut novel.

Right from the start, Loa reminded me of a quote from Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls: "Emma is a mattress who got thrown off the truck when her parents split up. It's not like you can blame a mattress when people don't tie it down tight enough." Loa's heartbreaking life is...more Loved it! Blythe Woolston's The Freak Observer tells the heartbreaking story of Loa and how she tries to put herself back together time and time again. I am so happy it won the 2010 William C. Morris award for debut novel.

Right from the start, Loa reminded me of a quote from Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls: "Emma is a mattress who got thrown off the truck when her parents split up. It's not like you can blame a mattress when people don't tie it down tight enough." Loa's heartbreaking life is caused by circumstances she can't control: her sister's illness, her parents' temper and lack of compassion, her poverty, and Esther's death. Every time she tried to rise above her situation she was knocked down by another obstacle. When I finished the novel all I wanted to do was give her a hug.

The Freak Observer is one of the best novels I've read recently about family dynamics, especially with how illness destroys everyone, not just the patient, from inside out. As many families do Loa's started out friendly and kind but turned sour and cold after Asta's death. Readers see how her parent's apathy towards her in the wake of the tragedy turned Loa from an engaging child to a bitter and tired young woman.

Two topics dominated the novel: death and the freak observer. The constant bombardment Loa received of images or situations regarding death in each chapter scarred her emotionally until she perceived death as an actual person. I loved how the concept of the freak observer (a single brain in space observing the universe) became something Loa could compare herself to, something that represented how isolated and alone she felt in the world. I also loved how the physics question at the beginning of each chapter alluded to the emotional content of the chapter. What an awesome plot device!

The only disappointing thing about The Freak Observer was the ending. I found it lack luster with many question unanswered. I wish that the ending scene had been more towards the middle, with a revelation about death or the freak observer to finish off what had been such an emotional novel.(less)

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Oct 24, 2010 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

An interesting read for the disaffected teenager.

Loa is struggling with a number of challenges. Her dad's out of work, her mom's got a drug problem, she doesn't fit in at school and her baby sister, Asta, is dead. The only person Loa can lean on for support is her friend Corey who's got issues of his own and is soon shipped off to Europe by his mom.

Then her friend Ester is hit by a car and Loa spirals further into depression, trying to use her love of science to explain enough of what's going o...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Loa Lindgren, the protagonist in The Freak Observer, struggles to find her place outside her family after her young sister dies from a rare genetic disease. For years her sister was the center of the family's universe, and after her death, the family begins to fall apart, and roles that were automatic during her life lose their significance. Loa's character is credible; she is intelligent, thoughtful, a caregiver, but she is also cautious to become emotionally tied to anyone and so becomes an "o...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Josephine rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book a while back, and now I'm going to try and recall scenes.
Rarely do I give books perfect scores, so it's like...a 4.3.
I think it's an interesting book. Loa is strangely lovable, for some weird reason.She's disturbing at times. Her mind works in strange ways (I'm not going to give an example).
(view spoiler)...more

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