Sarah Jamila Stevenson's Blog: Blog - Sarah Jamila Stevenson, page 41

Monday Review: ALL THE RAGE by Courtney Summers

Summary : I finished reading this one today…and I just started reading it last night, right before bed. When I picked it up again this morning to enjoy with my coffee, it turned out to be basically un-put-down-able. It's easy to see how this suspenseful and wrenching story got starred reviews. The author takes the themes of bullying, rape, and small-town small-mindedness and draws an intensely personal story told from the viewpoint of Romy, the girl nobody likes—not just at her school, where she's bullied and accused of being a liar for the things she's said about the sheriff's son, Kellan Turner, but also by the assorted busybodies around the town of Grebe.

We live in a culture that sometimes prefers to blame the victim when it's too difficult to blame the perpetrator, and this story brings that difficult reality into harsh and believable relief. It is clear from the punchy, intense flashback scenes that begin the story that Romy is not at fault for the trauma she's suffered. But the blame game is so effective that even Romy feels like there's something wrong with her, and like she can never tell her side of the story. Who would believe her?

The only place where she feels normal now is at her job, waiting tables at a diner outside of town. She even meets a nice guy there, Leon—but even that relationship is complicated by the painful issues in her past. And those issues rear their ugly heads when something terrible happens at a party out by the lake: a girl—Romy's former best friend, Penny—goes missing.

Peaks : The suspense in this one really knocked me out, as did the visceral descriptions not only of Romy's painful experiences but also of her inner torment. The reader is shown how intently Romy armors herself for the outside world with perfect red nail polish and lipstick, trying so hard not to show weakness, and yet still being bullied, pranked, and even assaulted at school. The contrast with her relatively peaceful (now, anyway) home life is staggering; it is a relief to see that there is something good, some hope in her existence, but at the same time it's a source of fear and frustration for the reader, to see the new home that Romy's mother and her boyfriend, Todd, are building together with Romy. Her family loves her but she is unable to break her silence, to tell them what's happening to her. The characters of her mother and almost-stepdad are well drawn, and they are an integral part of the story—of course, there's no way, in such a small town, that everyone isn't involved on some level. That part was also depicted in excruciating detail, the incestuous and ridiculous feuding and fussing of a town where everyone knows the skeletons in everyone else's closets.

Another thing I really liked was the relationship between Romy and Leon, how naturally and easily it developed, and how it complicated the story. The way the book was written and the way the beginning unfolded, my initial reaction to him was unease; he was just TOO nice. But the worse the rest of Romy's life got, the more I was rooting for them to succeed as a couple, to make it through, and for the happiness and positivity of Leon's family to spill over into Romy's life somehow.

Valleys : Because this was such a fast read, I did end up feeling like a couple of aspects of the story could have been explored a bit more deeply. One of those was Leon and Romy's relationship—I didn't get a deep sense of the implications of racial tension, though it was briefly mentioned once or twice. While this did not need to be a story about interracial dating per se or about racism, I expected to have more of a sense of what it meant for Leon and his family to be not only black, but black and successful, in an environment where people seemed to be mostly white and where poverty was clearly visible. However, this story was much more about the events, and the emotions and actions of the characters involved, and less about the specific setting and its socioeconomic context, so it didn't impede my enjoyment.

Conclusion : Highly recommended for fans of books like Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, and stories about the empowerment that lies in taking the courageous step to break a silence that needs to be broken.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of my library's ebook collection. You can find ALL THE RAGE by Courtney Summers at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Walden Award Winner Announced for 2015--Yay, A.S.!

I was thrilled (as many of you no doubt were as well) to see that A.S. King's latest Glory O'Brien's History of the Future was announced as this year's winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award. There were some pretty amazing finalists, too: Diamond Boy by Michael Williams, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero, The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy) by Deborah Wiles. I've actually read three of them, which is pretty amazing for me and award titles, though I only reviewed the winner, apparently:

"Trying to summarize it is only going to make it sound truly bizarre, but it IS bizarre in a most wonderful way..."  Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, reviewed here

However, I also highly recommend Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero and The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson, both of which I thought were pretty incredible. It's been a tough year for me and book reviews, and I wouldn't feel comfortable reviewing them in any detail so long after the fact, but I enjoyed both. Congrats to all!!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Gone Reading... And Stuff

Greetings from Portland, where I've not so much gone reading (as implied by the photo of this nifty bag I got at ALA) as gone learning Welsh (which, if you know me at all, is in fact quite normal for me). That's the reason for my silence, and Tanita is in Scotland, so we're both basically on summer hols at the moment. Fear not--we will resume our semi-regular schedule soonish.

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Gallimaufry Thursday

1. I did a few more behind-the-scenes updates to Chasing Ray, which is where I got the idea for this post structure. Now you get to read about Stuff I Done Did, in no particular order, for no particular reason. Whee!

2. I just finished reading an ARC of writing bud Ms. Ashley Hope Perez's upcoming title Out of Darkness and I cried. Watch this space for more info about that.

3. I'm going to be away next week at a conference in Portland, where I sincerely hope to visit Powell's Books and do a lot of wonderful Pacific Northwest hiking, although I'm told it will be in the 90s the day we arrive. *shakes fist* DAMN YOU SUN!

4. I started a Tumblr for primarily cartooning purposes. There's very little on it as of yet, but again, stay tuned.

5. Earlier this summer I quit one of my longest-running freelance jobs. It felt good. Yet somehow I haven't gained back the free time yet. What gives?

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Thursday Review: LOVE IS THE DRUG by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Summary : I read this a while ago, and I've been terribly neglectful in writing up a review. This was my first experience reading one of Johnson's books, and I had high expectations after what I'd heard about The Summer Prince (reviewed here by Tanita), which I still need to read. Love Is the Drug did not disappoint—it was a political/sci-fi thriller about an all-too-believable virus epidemic, set in Washington D.C. in the world of prep-school teens.

But don't let the fancy schools and uniforms and wealthy parties at the houses of diplomats' children fool you: the story's got plenty of diversity, too, and engages with everyday teen issues and serious sociopolitical issues alike. And, ultimately, it's a page turner, with flashbacks and memory loss adding suspense to protagonist Emily Bird's increasingly urgent attempts to unravel the real story behind the epidemic—all while being harassed by homeland security, who are convinced she knows something because of her parents' scientific and political activities.

Peaks : There are huge peaks here: the suspense, the writing, the characterization, the diversity. Fans of thrillers, especially political ones, will really enjoy the pace and structure, although some reviewers pointed out that they guessed the story's twist earlier on than they would have liked. The scenario is a good one, though, and very timely in its references to current global politics and the ongoing fight against disease. It successfully plays on fears of pandemics and paranoia about government cover-ups to create an exciting premise and an action-packed plot.

The writing, appropriately, is confident and tight, and it provides an intriguing glimpse into the world of our nation's wealthy and powerful, and the privileged lives of their children. However, these are no cardboard cutouts: the characterization is fantastic, and depth and complexity to are added to protagonist Emily Bird's story with the inclusion of issues of race and class. Firstly, she is black at an overwhelmingly white school, and despite being from a family as educated and successful as anyone else's, there is a level of underlying tension, a sense of having something to prove that she and her few African American peers share, even if they share little else. As the plot thickens, Emily begins to gain a sense of her core self that is NOT connected to either her classmates or her parents, and issues of identity are tackled directly in a very interesting way.

Also, the characters with whom she connects the most closely have intriguingly unique stories of their own: Coffee, whose family is not nearly as well off and who is known as the local drug dealer, is far more than what he seems, and Marella, an outsider because of her sexual orientation, ends up becoming a close ally and confidante as Emily's own status drifts away from the inner circle.

Valleys : I'll freely admit that I find it hard to relate to boarding school stories or prep school stories because I did not have that experience growing up; as someone who almost exclusively attended public schools until I went to grad school, I admit to not only having trouble relating to stories about "rich kids' school," but also to having somewhat of a chip on my shoulder about the advantages that so easily come to those with wealth and privilege, those types of teens who are depicted in this story. So this isn't a valley so much as a personal prejudice, I suppose.

As I mentioned earlier, too, there are always risks when you write a story of suspense that is structured in such a way that the reader might possibly guess the outcome too early—and that did seem to happen for some readers.

Conclusion : This was an intense, gripping, fascinating story, both because of its glimpse into the lives of the DC elite and because of the wonderful writing. Highly recommended for suspense fans.

I bought my copy of this book as a Kindle ebook. You can find LOVE IS THE DRUG by Alaya Dawn Johnson at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Monday Review: I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson

Summary : This one hadn't been on my immediate radar until I signed up to attend the Printz award ceremony at ALA in San Francisco at the end of June—and then I decided I'd better get going on reading the winner of that prestigious honor if I wanted to get the most out of the author's speech and the experience as a whole. Plus, it would really be a much better thing to have read the book if I somehow ended up talking to the author…which I didn't, but if I had, I'd have told her that her book is amazing and I wish I'd written it.

I'll Give You the Sun is about family and love, art and grief; in short, all of the joys AND tragedies that always seem to happen at the same time. It's about the less visible wounds suffered when we don't communicate our needs or sorrows, and the healing that can happen when we are finally able to express what's inside. Sometimes we just need to talk to the right person, find the right medium to say what we need to say.

Jude and Noah are fraternal twins, both artistic in their own unique ways, and as children they were as close as close can be--until their family started to unravel. Around age 13, we see Noah begin to be bullied by older boys, and his only way out seems to be the hope of admission to the local arts high school, a place where he can be himself among like-minded outsiders. He throws himself into his artwork with a frenzy. Meanwhile, Jude, too, has a creative side, but she feels like nobody notices it, not even their artistic mother, who seems only to have eyes for Noah's work.

Here's where the unraveling starts. Noah doesn't talk about his physical injuries, or the fact that he's in love with the boy next door. Jude doesn't talk about her injured feelings or her jealousy. And so much is still left unsaid when tragedy strikes their family.

Peaks : This story is told in alternating viewpoints—and alternating timelines. It's incredibly deftly woven. We begin with Noah's story, when he's nearly thirteen and the bullying begins in earnest. But when we switch to Jude, it is over three years later. Jude, who felt like the uncreative twin, is the one at the arts high school. Noah, for all intents and purposes, seems like "the normal one." And so what could be a straightforwardly structured "issue book" or a quieter story about coming of age and sexuality and finding one's calling, becomes a page turner because not only is the reader left wondering "how did we get to THIS point?" but also because the story in the present still has somewhere to go. And where it goes is full of surprises.

The message here is one of healing and family, above all—not just the family you're born with but the family whom you choose and who finds you. It's about serendipity and magic in the everyday, and the creative vitality none of us can truly live without. Even the romantic bits are about healing what's broken inside of us. It's also about grief and the terrible sadness that can balloon out from one small mistake left to fester, but the important take-away is that healing is always possible, and often in ways we don't expect.

Valleys : I have to admit: after reading the first chapter, I was not sure I was going to like this story. The opening scene (minor spoilers) depicts an intense confrontation in which a barely-thirteen-year-old Noah is physically bullied by older boys, and yet it's also a scene of sexual awakening and realization. It was very uncomfortable to read, but if I had given in to my initial discomfort I would never have experienced the rest of it. So. If you find yourself a little put off with the strange place where the story begins, give it time.

Conclusion : I haven't gone into too much detail—in part to avoid spoilers, but also because it's simply impossible to encapsulate this story in a brief summary. As an artist, there was a lot here that tugged at my heart and soul: it's vivid and visual and visceral. At times it's very painful, because each and every character hides his or her own private tragedy, and you kind of have to choose to heal in order to set things in motion again. But ultimately the characters (young protagonists and adults alike) felt so very real, and I couldn't help but follow them through thick and thin. Mind-blowing, and not like anything I've read before. The only thing that comes to mind at all is Going Bovine by Libba Bray, another Printz winner, and they're not alike at all, really, except for quality of characterization, depth of story, and other intangibles. Just…read it, I guess.

I purchased my copy of this book as a Kindle ebook. You can find I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Monday Review: GLORY O'BRIEN'S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE by A.S. King

Summary : I don't know why I put off reading this one for so long. I really love A.S. King's writing, and every time I read one of her books I'm pretty much blown away. This one's no exception. Trying to summarize it is only going to make it sound truly bizarre, but it IS bizarre in a most wonderful way, so here goes.

Glory O'Brien has a fairly circumscribed world. She lives with her father—her mother committed suicide when she was four, and it's left a gaping hole in her life as well as making her father lose his own way. Her best friend, Ellie, who is basically her only friend, lives in a commune across the street, but Ellie doesn't quite understand. And what neither girl realizes is the extent of the ties that bind them and the threads of love and loss that reverberate through their lives and those of their families. Things only get more complicated when they (here's the bizarre part) get bored and frustrated one night and decide to drink a desiccated bat for no real reason other than it's there, and they're there, and everything seems topsy turvy anyway.

After that, everything changes. Glory and Ellie both begin to have visions—whenever they meet someone else's eyes, they see that person's past, that person's future. And the future that Glory is beginning to piece together is not a pleasant place. Women are once again second-class citizens, and the New America is an all-too-believable place of war and extremism. What's more, Glory isn't even sure how she herself fits into it, or how she might have even a whisper of a possibility of stopping it. If it's even real in the first place...

Peaks : Like the author's other books, this one strikes that perfect balance between quirky and profound. Quirky might not even be the right word, but what I love about it is it doesn't shy away from the weird, the uncomfortable, the painful, the imaginative—things we as writers are often afraid to put into our writing because the risk seems too great. But they all interweave in this tale, which also manages to not fit neatly into a genre (which I like) but is something of an issue novel, magical realism, and sci-fi all blended into one. The SLJ reviewer mentioned Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and while the sci-fi aspects are only one part of this book, the comparison as far as genre fluidity is quite apt here.

What's interesting about a book in which the future is sort of foretold is that everything that happens has a sense of inevitability about it, and yet nothing here is predictable; in fact, it's a page-turner because of the real-life parts of the story just as much as, if not more so than the magical aspects.

Another thing I really liked about this book was the fact that the adult characters are not given short shrift; in fact, they're key parts of the complex plot that unfolds, whether they are present in the scene or—in the case of Glory's mother—painfully absent.

Valleys : I don't think anything A.S. King writes has any valleys at all. There, I said it. Insert fan-girl squeal if you must have sound effects.

Conclusion : Just read it. That is all.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of the Stanislaus County Library. You can find GLORY O'BRIEN'S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE by A.S. King at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

On Plot Structuring

Cross-posted to Aquafortis.

I'm finally back to having time to devote to my WIP--or I should perhaps say, I have seized time back from the ravening bitch-goddess that is unexpected work. Not to mention the slightly less ravening bitch-goddess that is EXPECTED work. And what I realized was that my WIP has the extreme need for some attention devoted to structure. (And also that I wanted to change the title again.)

I've been spending a lot of productive time lately looking at screenwriting books, or at least books written with screenwriters in mind but which are also quite helpful for us novel writers. I've gotten a huge amount of thoughtful and practical advice from Story by Robert McKee and The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler, even though I haven't finished reading them yet. But possibly the most directly useful book has been Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, which was recommended by fellow author and member of our writing group Sara Lewis Holmes (of the lovely and poetic blog Read Write Believe). Snyder uses a method called the "beat sheet" to lay out plot structure in chunks--or maybe a better word than structure is "dynamics," because it isn't so much a matter of specific THINGS that have to happen at certain times, it's the rhythm of the thing.

I had done a beat sheet for this project last year, but that was before I decided to split it into two books, so it was long overdue for me to try to revisit my "outline" (or what passes for one) instead of just working on individual chapters and going into denial about major stuff like the book as a whole. I kind of like the beat sheet because it gives some structure to the story beyond just outlining the scenes or chapters. But I was starting to feel overwhelmed because what I have is this old, bloated beat sheet from before; a partially-rewritten manuscript with a bunch of scenes and changes not included in the old beat sheet; and a stack of index cards with plot points on them that I'd been attempting to shuffle around. What I decided to do, with the help of the Save the Cat Beat Sheet for Novels Spreadsheet that I found on Jami Gold's website, was create a set of Beat Sheet Cards, one for each beat listing the name of the beat and a short description (cut and pasted from the spreadsheet) and an approximate page count goal.


I did this by printing them onto big Avery shipping labels and slapping those onto the index cards. (I love office supplies.) Then I spread those out on my living room floor and aligned my plot points underneath them--reshuffling in a couple of cases, and inserting a couple of new ones as I found out there was kind of a gaping hole in the plot. Once I had it all laid out, I then went in and rewrote the beat sheet.

And changed the title again. *Shakes fist* TITLES!!!

Anyway, this was a helpful exercise. I was having trouble visualizing everything because of the fact that there are two POV characters that alternate, and because a third character is taking on a bit more of a role in this rewrite. This made it easy for me to pinpoint where I still needed to add in that third character's arc. It also made me realize I really need to do something about the ending....

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Thursday Review: EXQUISITE CORPSE by Penelope Bagieu

Summary : This graphic novel isn't technically a YA book, but since it's about a 22-year-old young woman trying to muddle along in early adulthood, it makes a great crossover title. And because I loved it so much I want to hug it, I'm going to review it here. (How could I not like a book that references the Simpsons on the first page? Let me just say..."Canyonero!")

Zoe, the protagonist, has a rather underwhelming career as a booth babe at car shows and the like, and when she's not fending off the ham-handed advances of trade show attendees, she's at home "enjoying" the company of her somewhat loser-y boyfriend. So, one day, when she meets a rather odd, reclusive, but intriguing man who says he's a bestselling author, her life gets a little more interesting. And then it gets a LOT more interesting when she finds out what he's hiding and why he's so reclusive...

Click to embiggen Peaks : This book was not only hilarious and charming, but the plot had fun twists, and the ending...the ending was just PERFECT. I can't go into too much detail with spoilers, so I'll keep it brief. Zoe is a wonderfully relatable protagonist whose life has that jogging-in-place feel that nearly all of us are familiar with, and her inability to resist a tiny infusion of adventure sets the story going in an all-too-believable way. The portrayal of author Thomas Rocher (and the authorial lifestyle) is highly entertaining, and the banter among the characters is so well-written and made me laugh out loud. There is something indefinably very French about it, something I also enjoyed. And the artwork is simple, cute, and down-to-earth, and also very funny. If you like Vera Brosgol or Faith Erin Hicks, you'll want to check this one out.

Valleys : I don't really have any valleys to report, per se, except that this one's probably best for older YA readers (there's a bit of mature content, i.e., sex and the F-word) unless you are French and lack our American puritanical hangups, in which case, go nuts.

Conclusion : This is another funny and all-around excellent contribution from the world of French comics, which, I have to say, has a lot of amazing stuff going on for all ages. My last review of Last Man: The Stranger was another originally French-language publication, and I've been impressed for a long time by animation coming out of France, too. Don't miss this one--it's a laugh, and I look forward to reading more from this clearly very talented author.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of First Second Books. You can find EXQUISITE CORPSE by Penelope Bagieu at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

IN TANDEM: DELICATE MONSTERS by STEPHANIE KUEHN

Happy Friday!
Welcome to another edition of In Tandem, the dual read-and-review blog series where both A.F. and I give our on-the-spot commentary as we read and team blog a book. (You can feel free to guess which of us is the yellow owl and which of us is the pinkish-purply owl...frankly, it depends on the day of the week!)

This week's book has been described as a "disturbing and engrossing" psychological thriller, and Kirkus says it's about "reckless redemption" and not for the faint of heart. To read a Kuehn book, is to delve into the bits of humanity that you might not yet have a name for, to be profoundly uncomfortable with your thoughts, and to realize that the species as a whole has more in common with a rabid pack of hyenas than you'd prefer to explore. In the name of full disclosure, we enjoyed the opportunity to meet the author in person last autumn at KidlitCon, and were glad for the chance to team read this novel.

NB: Here There Be Dragons. This is as close to a "reader advisory" as we get. This novel contains some disturbing ambiguous scenes of abuse, violence, partying, sexual activity and disturbing depictions of mental illness. Older teens and those who enjoy digging into the twists of our psyche will be just fine. *dusts off hands* Now! We're going to talk about this book - sans spoilers - and we hope you'll join us. We're...
 
Two writers,
& Two readers,
With one book.
In Tandem.

When nearly killing a classmate gets seventeen-year-old Sadie Su kicked out of her third boarding school in four years, she returns to her family's California vineyard estate. Here, she's meant to stay out of trouble. Here, she's meant to do a lot of things. But it's hard. She's bored. And when Sadie's bored, the only thing she likes is trouble.

Emerson Tate's a poor boy living in a rich town, with his widowed mother and strange, haunted little brother. All he wants his senior year is to play basketball and make something happen with the girl of his dreams. That's why Emerson's not happy Sadie's back. An old childhood friend, she knows his worst secrets. The things he longs to forget. The things she won't ever let him.

Haunted is a good word for fifteen-year-old Miles Tate. Miles can see the future, after all. And he knows his vision of tragic violence at his school will come true, because his visions always do. That's what he tells the new girl in town. The one who listens to him. The one who recognizes the darkness in his past.

But can Miles stop the violence? Or has the future already been written? Maybe tragedy is his destiny. Maybe it's all of theirs.

We received copies of this book courtesy of St. Martin's Griffin Press for our tandem review. You can find DELICATE MONSTERS by Stephanie Kuehn at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you.

tanita: Wow, well, I started this novel Tuesday night at bedtime, and when I realized what a mistake that was I stopped -- took a deep breath, and ...finished the last ten pages Wednesday morning. I read most of this book in one setting, not because I couldn't put it down in the way that warmly memorable characters or snappy dialog or whatnot pulls you along, but because I kind of couldn't believe the stuff that was happening... I kept saying, "No, seriously!?" The things that were happening to the characters throughout the narrative kept me reading.

Sarah (aquafortis): I agree with that assessment entirely--it was very hard to put down, in a kind of train-wreck way. Each of these characters is battling their own private slide downward into morally dangerous territory. Battling their own worst selves, and often ignoring the better angels of their nature. It was both difficult to read and difficult to set aside.

When I think about character likeability, I first think about the book THAW, by Monica Roe which was a Cybils finalist some years back in YA Fiction, where I just could not like the character but he redeemed himself through personal growth. I feel like I have levels of not-liking which are sort of like those stupid survey choices:
I would actively hang out with this person and could see them being a good friend!I would probably like this personI would be okay with this person, but I'd probably never hang out with themI would actively dislike this personPerson is a sociopath

The main characters in this book are somewhere between active dislike and sociopath for me. What I found myself wanting more of as I read was what made them this way in terms of background, environment, childhood...and yet it was clear that I wouldn't be able to know that kind of thing until the author revealed it, because it would tip her hand, maybe.

tanita: As I read this book, I kept a few notes. Ten chapters in, I wrote, I can see the rough shape of a tragedy forming -- and boy, could I.

As I read, I also thought about things like "likeability" in characters. The characters in this book make me feel by turns discomfort and active dislike. No one feels... safe, or truly friendly. Which I noted as an interesting observation, followed by... What do I need from characters in books I read? For them to be my temporary friends? Not... really. Do I need for them to allow me to accompany them on a journey as they grow/change? Not always, but more of that, I think. So, then, I asked myself, Do we get what we need from the characters in this book? Do I see potential in the characters for growth or change? Do I want to go with them on this journey? No. Yes. Maybe.

Which, for me, is what makes Kuehn's books masterfully frightening. Because I'm being dragged on this trip regardless, and I don't sometimes understand why, or where we're going, and I'm absolutely positive that I won't know where I am when we get there, or like what I see. For some people, this kind of book is utterly, appallingly addictive. You just have to know what happens next...

AF: Her writing consistently astonishes me.

tanita: Oh, yeah. Such beautiful writing - really confident, clear writing. The sort of writing that makes you have to read slowly to let the concepts sort of hydrate in your brain before they bloom...

So, beautiful writing about ...sociopaths. Unreliable narrators. Murky scenarios, where doubts and fears and good and bad are all rolled in, as Dorothy Parker says, "a crazy plaid." I roll my eyes a lot when I hear people say, "Man, Stephanie Kuehn must have really dark places in her soul," yadda, yadda, yadda. That isn't true - this is fiction, and we all have dark places in our souls; we writers merely take license and delve into them. I applaud the author for her ability. I think it's amazing that she has the language to articulate and explore these places.

AF: All of Stephanie Kuehn's books are very well crafted, but this one in certain ways impressed me the most because the characters are the most challenging for me as a reader. As a writer, creating a character who is unlike you is a challenge to begin with, but the thought of creating--and KNOWING--a character that is so very far removed from the "normal" conception of functional reality that most of us live in...What a task to set oneself, but she lives up to it and somehow blends the beautiful and the terrible in a way that quietly hooks you...

tanita: ...with those sociopaths. It's hard to know how to feel about characters who really would have no feelings... about ... you. People are so charmingly canine; we're ready to wag our tails and lick anyone who wags their tail first. But, cats are kind of sociopaths, and people who, like cats, go their own way - who may or may not do anything more than crouch in a corner and stare at you with eyes that are all pupil... for most folk, they're flat-out disturbing, discomfiting, and we're not really sure they belong indoors. Of course, inside or out, they're apt to chase us, toy with us, and wound us - and then abruptly get up and leave us alone. I'd say that if this book were about cats and dogs, Sadie Su would be a giant, fluffy Persian cat.

As I was reading, I wondered if it was significant that Sadie is very wealthy. Can you blow people off like that and really own your crazy so well if you're poor? I mean, Emerson is poor in a rich person's paradise (and the depictions of the Napa Valley, where I've lived, were spot on)... but he's invested in "normal" really heavily.

AF: I'd love to unpack issues of class a little more. I thought that was an interesting aspect of the book that I almost wanted to see investigated in more depth. One of the things that put me off about Sadie's character right away was her snobbishness about the West-Coast public school environment. As a primarily public school kid, it's the kind of character trait that makes me think "blah blah BLAH boarding school East Coast Europe WHATEVER snore," but it's also an important factor that sets her apart from her fellow students and has informed her identity. Her family's wealth, and its dysfunction, create an intriguing backdrop for Sadie that makes me want to know more about what has formed her character--so that I CAN have more of that sense of empathy. Or maybe it's that BA in Psychology still lurking in the back of my head, wanting to know what makes people tick.

tanita: You make a good point.

Because almost every depiction of the bipolar or depressive or other mentally ill folk in fiction depicts them as Seriously Deranged ...I was a little uneasy about some of the negative portrayals in this book ... to me, such extreme depictions make people say, "Oh, I'm not like that," and can make it harder for people not to fear people with a disease, and for others to acknowledge that they have it. To that end, I found myself wishing that the author had spent more time on the character of Emerson - although, maybe the time spent was enough, in spite of the label placed on his family. Maybe the author was deliberately brief, because all of Emerson's issues and all of his guilt loops had a simple and straightforward answer: as his friend Trey said, when you screw up, you apologize. His issues, despite his family having been touched with mental illness, were in some ways much more straightforward.

AF: Yes, I loved that simplicity of Trey's advice. THAT moment felt like it could have been a turning point, and I think I really wanted it to be. I guess Emerson's final act in the novel was his way of apologizing, and while that felt very real, I wanted more to be made of the question of whether it was an act of escape or an act of redemption; generosity, or cowardice. There is a lot of complexity there, and as you said, there is a danger to the possibility of oversimplifying portrayals of mental illness. And I know some of my repulsion is connected to the fact that I really cannot handle animal abuse (in fiction or reality), but it also seems to be a frequent shorthand in fiction for "bad person," for sociopathy, and I have trouble with that.

tanita: And then there are those other characters in the novel, and you find yourself sifting through levels of "bad." Who is worse, someone who actively acknowledges that they'd just as soon rabbit-punch you in the back of the head, or someone who sneakily trips you and helps you up after you fall down a flight of stairs?

AF:What was interesting, too, was the arc of each character. Maybe "arc" isn't even the right word, because all three wandered back and forth between redeemable and irredeemable. (I guess it's safe to say none of them is static!) In the end, we are faced with the dilemma of moral ambiguity, "levels of 'bad'" as you mentioned. And yet we also understand WHY they do what they do--it isn't arbitrary behavior. On the contrary, the action of the book, the characters' actions, seem in many ways inevitable. That's one of the things that's so disturbing.

tanita: I've read interviews with the author where she talks about empathy and compassion. Part of why she writes this way, she says, is to reflect the way that she feels about people - it's never one way. You can be afraid of someone, attracted to someone, and repelled by them and want them desperately to both hang with you and to leave you alone. We're all a pastiche of particular (and peculiar)... reactions to and interactions with other individuals. I think I have learned to think about empathy in a new way, since reading her books - empathy is simply the ability to feel what other people feel, in this respect. You may or may not understand or be able to like them better because of it, but you GET them.

AF: Yes, exactly. And, yet...

tanita: I get a sense that you didn't like this book very much. I feel that's okay to say... I realize I admired this book, because of the writing... but just as I can't say I like something like Stephen King's MISERY, I can't say I like this novel. It's masterful and disturbing, but ...well, it's disturbing. It's, as you said, real and raw, and this kind of "real" scares me far more than chainsaw wielding maniacs (rare in real life) and stuff like vampires and zombies and rabid unicorns (so far nonexistent). And I think I read sometimes to be ...comforted? To be comforted that my worldview is right, or shared, to be comforted that Whatever triumphs over whatever Conflict the character is going through, to be ...reassured. For people who read to have their worldviews challenged, to get a frisson of Otherness and horror, this is definitely their book.

AF:I feel the same--I admired the book very much, and was amazed at the depth with which she explored the characters and their torturous worlds. But I can't like them. I really wanted to like Emerson, really wanted to like Miles, for much of the book. But as we gradually learn more and more...as the story unfolds...I went from "wanting to like" to just wanting to understand, and even that I had some difficulty with because I wasn't sure about the nature of the mental issues, whether there was bipolar or dissociative issues...and then Miles as a character kept a LOT of secrets from us throughout the book.

This is the Stephanie Kuehn book whose characters I have connected with the least. Their unreliability, their unpredictability, their destructiveness and sadism, pushed me away. That's very much something personal, not a comment on the writing itself.

I could still see this making a really good movie, because of the mysterious "following just behind the character's head" sensation that the author creates. In writing, we end up being SO close inside each character that we don't see what they aren't thinking about, if that makes sense.

tanita: I keep hearing people talking about this ending being "up in the air." It a little bewildering for me because it's not up in the air, at least it isn't for me. I know exactly what's going to happen - a happening that's been played out repeatedly in past years in conflicts between teens and the "warrior" mindset police confronting them. There's a certain air of tragic inevitability here; maybe tragedy is the destiny of these teens. Maybe they're past the point where an apology would have made a difference. And yet... and yet... even to the last scene, I wanted something better for them all. Not gonna lie, they broke my heart a little.

AF:I think, with the ending, it just went fast for me...choppy movie-like scenes where, instead, I wanted it unpacked a bit more. Not that they need to have explanatory soliloquies, but...Something. Maybe I'm just a completist who wants to understand everything and not have the end of the story left up in the air. :)

tanita: So - tragic, disturbing, enigmatic, ambiguous -- yet brilliant in a way that leaves us uncomfortable. Those are the descriptions we'll stick with. Thanks for reading along with me, and thanks to our readers for joining us for another round of In Tandem.

Psst! If you're in the SF Bay Area, Stephanie Kuehn is having the book launch for DELICATE MONSTERS on June 13th at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway's Books. Check it out!

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