bookshelves: fiction, providence-public-library, read-in-2009, ya-
Like Stephenie Meyer's Bella Swan, Laurie Halse Anderson's Melinda appeared to her in a startling dream. The startling dream compelled her to write this book which has been captured on film and rereleased in a glossy platinum addition. I am wracking my brain for what fodder exists in my dreamlife, but NOTHING. I will never be a YA starlet.
SPEAK is what my librarian pal calls "an issue novel." It chronicles a year in the life of Melinda, a depressed tween who recedes into the background of freshman year. She fails classes; she can't relate; she's limp with suburban ennui. She is all but mute. We know early on she is burying something, and that something is pretty obvious (especially if you peek at the catalog info for the Library of Congress). It feels strange to treat this as a mystery, but I suppose it is true to trauma and how a person pulls away.
This is decent YA fare. It echos this old fave: Life Without Friends.
And remember, despite what this genre purports, we can't all blossom! Sometimes the ugly duckling becomes an ugly duck!
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Leslie
read and liked
Meg Powers's
review of The Neverending Story:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
bookshelves: to-read
Last year I read Blue Light, an amazing story from this collection. In the story "a topman is mastered by the witchcraft of a blue light that first traps him, then dismembers him, and finally allows him to be entered like a woman." I have such high hopes!
Ack, I just realized my current writing project prominently features the much weaker "witchcraft of a GREEN light"!!! Derivative or in conversation? You decide. ]]>
bookshelves: memoir, providence-public-library, read-in-2009
The Lover is the story of a clandestine love affair between a French tween and a wealthy Chinese gentleman in French colonial Vietnam. There are quite a few black limo scenes. It is nice and plot-lite.
The writing in this tome is top notch. Duras relays the story in episodes and the episodes appear out of sequence. They are linked as memories are linked--through association. Think temporal connect the dots. The result is something kaleidoscopic and haunted and spare.
It is a lovely little book, and not a terrible thing to turn to when life feels impossible and/or star-crossed.
It is clear that I need to start a shelf for fictionalized memoirs by tore-up French voluptuaries. Pronto!
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: gave-up-the-ghost, read-in-2009, ya-
I cried uncle at page 122. Such sad, dashed hopes! ]]>
bookshelves: to-read
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Leslie
read and liked
Allison's
review of Danse Macabre (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #14):
"The next Sookie Stackhouse doesn't come out till April, I think. In the meantime, what's a gal who likes a little formaldehyde in her cosmos and a little gore in her chick lit to do?
Not this.
Direct quote: "Size doesn't ma...more "
"The next Sookie Stackhouse doesn't come out till April, I think. In the meantime, what's a gal who likes a little formaldehyde in her cosmos and a little gore in her chick lit to do?
Not this.
Direct quote: "Size doesn't ma...more "
bookshelves: grotesque, poetry, read-in-2009
Amazing, amazing. I know it's not a contest, but his Shirley Temple poem is better than mine. ]]>