Hélène Louise's Blog, page 10

The Place Inside the Storm – Bradley W. Wright

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3,5 stars / 5

This book was pleasant to read, rather serious in its themes but never boring.

The context was easy to grasp, a near futur, semi post-apocalyptic, semi dystopic. I just frequently wondered why the author had decided to set his story in such a near future, as such scientifically advanced technologies could never be developed in two decades from now on, especially during such dire times!

(Still, the robot-cat was great, not funny but realistic and clever).

One of the strong points was the great characterisation of autism, Asperger particularly, for all its particularities. The moral, in general, is that everybody should be able to be free to be what they are, and that each one of us has special qualities that should be nurtured and used for their advantage, but also for the whole community’s benefit. And also if someone tries to oppress you, even for your one good, even people who love you, you still should believe in yourself and trust your own jugement to make the right decision for you and your future. All that is exposed without any exaggeration or teenage angst, every decision made by the heroin is pondered on afterwards, she never forgets to considered all the possibilities and all the consequences of her decisions.

A rather entertaining book, not spectacular, but wise and educational, not in a moralistic point of view but in an intelligent one.

An Illusion of thieves – Cate Glass

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I’ve first learned about this book by the author’s site or, more exactly, Carol Berg’s site – Cate Glass being a new pseudonym of Carol Berg. I was immediately intrigued: I’ve read nearly all Carol Berg’s books and loved them for most parts (the characters for a start,  so loveable!) but have also been sometimes ill at ease because of some graphic violence (never gratuitous or unwholesome, but still difficult to read for the over sensitive reader I am) and also lost by some stories’ developments, a bit to esoteric for my taste. So, I was wondering what changes would have occur in the author’s writing to push her to make the decision to adopt a pseudonym. After reading this book, I can tell is was all for the best !

« An illusion of thieves » was a very easy read, enthralling and enjoyable. If some violence exists in the world, and some happens or has happened to the characters, no longish descriptions are imposed on us; just a very brief one, that even hypersensitive readers will probably bear without difficulties.

After the first chapter, where the world is explained, no special efforts are required from the reader, the narration is straight forward, the characters rather few and quite easy to distinguish. Just note that the fantasy society is vaguely inspired by the Florentine Medici Dynasty and that names are Italian or at least Italianish (I wouldn’t know the difference, alas…). As a French reader I’m used to Latin surnames, but I know that some readers find this choice difficult to follow in a book.

The second thing to know is that even if the main character, Romy, was brought up to be a courtisane (a high maintenance, highly educated prostitute) you’ll find no sex in this story. Hurrah! No graphic violence and no boring sexe scene ! So, you’re warned, if you’re looking for some Game of Thrones fantasy you should try something else. But if you love, as I do, well written classic fantasy with likeable characters, fine psychology, a good rhythm and some mi prosaic mi breathtaking adventures, you’re in for a treat!

Romy is a superb character to follow: courageous, clever and lucid, but also prone now and then to human frailties. The beginning of the book, where she struggles with her loss while attempting to protect and reform her dangerously carefree young brother, is very touching and credible.

All in all, even if the background is classically cruel and perilous, and if the heroine situation are dire since the beginning of the story, the main tonality is quite positive and heart-warming. « An illusion of thieves » is a spirited adventure with strong sentiments of love: family ties, friendship and bittersweet lost love.

I’m really looking forward reading the sequel which is clearly announced by the conclusion – but without any annoying cliffhanger, the story clearly marking a pause at the end of this first book of Chimera adventures.

A book I strongly recommend to every fantasy reader who likes a good story, linear and imaginative, with appealing characters whom have already lived a life of their own and present some welcome substance (no Young Adult vibe here, even is the narrative is devoid of graphic violence and sexe scenes, the characters’ psychology is sound and mature).

(I thank Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)

The stars are Legion – Kameron Hurley

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« Stars are legion » is a fascinating story, quite easy to read after the very beginning, which could appear mysterious and fuzzy to the unprepared… A slight effort is necessary and then none: one of the strong points of this book is that the main character, Zan, suffers from chronic memory loss. So, in a way, we discover with her the strange world she lives in, bewildered, but not alone!

Zan has some memories left, principally hunches, and had kept her (quite awesome) physical capacities. She’s also rather different from nowadays young women, for various reasons, but her struggles are familiar enough to help the reader to figure gradually the alternative reality.

So, if you fear to be lost in a oniric world, don’t. Of course the imagine background is very very strange. People now live on – or rather in – « worlds », which are many and form between them The Legion. Each « world » seems to be: third planet, third spacial ship, third living being. People are all women or girls, no allusion is ever made to another sexe, and nobody seems to have access to past History or even to wonder about it. (You may have read the excellent Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold, where the situation is the other way round, but the similarity stops there).

If there a lot of holes in the background story, there aren’t flaws, but narrative choices. There isn’t any lack of logic, the reader can imagine the context, a very distant human diaspora which would have resulted to this strange (in our point of view) situation. In a different way this book reminded me about another striking SF read, « Courtship Rite » by Donald Kingsbury, a story where we could also imagine an evolution which could have drove humans to embrace anthropophagy to survive on an inhospitable planet. In « Stars are Legion », we can also imagine a very distant past  where humans would have succeed to master genetic and biology so well as to be able to create entire biological symbiotical systems. A reality where reproduction isn’t anymore dependant of having two different sexes, and where men have disappeared, disappeared so thoroughly that the no one remembers a past where humanity presented two different sexes, both necessary to the human species’ survival.

The story is well placed, with action, adventures, good characters and good dialogues. The middle part is rather weird (beware if you have a weak stomach, for myself I must confess I enjoyed myself ^-^), weird but also coherent, logical, a riveting ride which allows many discoveries about the world and the intrigue. This part strongly reminded me the French Peggy Sue series (supposedly for children, my older daughter was passionate about them as a child, so I also read them), a mix between bizarre, creepy and exciting.

Another strong point is that the reader get rather quickly used to having only feminine characters in the book, which is an excellent exercise against gender preconceptions. I had one rather similar impression with the Ancillary series by Ann Leckie, a story which teaches you to think of every character as a person before thinking about them as male or female. In the Ancillary books, we don’t know the sexe of the protagonists, as they’re all called « she ». In « The stars are Legion », as everybody is female, we learn to forget about it and end up considering each new character with a totally open mind, skimmed of all involuntary and unconscious prejudices. As a person before anything else.

Zen, a very interesting and touching character, strong, resilient, violent  but also compassionate and shrewd, is good company and makes for an engaging read. The end of the book is satisfactory, clever and mature. If the premises of this story holds your attention you shouldn’t be disappointed.

My copy of this book as being waiting for a while to be read, and I’m really happy to have at least taken action, after have read and loved the author’s short story « Elephants and Corpses », which is splendid. I plan to read more of Kameron Hurley’s works, to begin with « The Light Brigade », which I have pre ordered

When Summer Ends – Jessica Pennington

 

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After a good beginning this book was a deception. I couldn’t even finish it properly and skimmed throught the last twenty per cent.

I really liked the premises, liked the ideas, liked what the characters were about to be. But the more and more I  read, the more baffled I was. The story, if a bit slow, was interesting – or should have been. What was happening?

To be sure I was rather annoyed by the very rapid changes of point of view (not every chapter but every few pages, every paragraph sometimes even). I don’t think this to be a good option for writing romance: as the reader usually knows how the story is going to end, romance wise, it’s important to keep some tension, some mystery. If you always know what each character is thinking at every moment of the story, the result is rather flat. A bit boring and lacking in emotions.

But still the story was promising and I decided that I could carry on regardless this (in my opinion) narrative flaw.

But the more as read, the more annoyed and bored I became. I had to ponder quite a lot to understand why this story that I appreciate quite a lot at first lost me in the long run, so harshly that I couldn’t even force me to read the book to its end.

Then I suddenly realised what the problem was: at three quarter of the book I still hadn’t meet the characters. Aiden and Olivia had exactly the same voice. Each time I picked up my Kindle I couldn’t say who was speaking, even after a whole page, sometimes. And sadly I never heard a teenager voice, but only the author voice. As if I was reading her notes but not the polished final book.

That’s when I decided to stop reading and just skimmed sadly to the end of the book.

Clearly Jessica Pennington is not a writer for me…

(I thank Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)

 

The Outside – Ada Hoffmann

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I was very excited by the premises of this book ; its beginning (aside from one point, see below) was really good. In fact I read with pleasure most of the book before losing patience and interest.

Why, it’s rather difficult to say, probably because the story in itself didn’t manage to be good enough to make up for the points which annoyed me…

The story is original for its setting which was the reason why I read eagerly for a while. The idea of overpowering IA which have became gods was great and well defined. I like the organisation of it all, the hierarchy, all had a real potential (even if the mix between ruthlessness and cuteness – the relation between the angel and its sbires, which could have fit a romance – wasn’t completely convincing). Some aspects were a bit botched, as the various references to things that exist in our daily lives but couldn’t possibly exist in this kind of faraway diasporic futur (some details, but the kind that always grates on me, as it snatches me from the story), but still, a satisfying reading.

The enfolding of the story was good, if a bit repetitive, especially as repetitions didn’t manage to explain anything clearly about the Outside (mind you, it’s possible that the problem was because I didn’t understood it, couldn’t understood it, but the result was the same for me). The spooky part was also good, strongly reminding me of the Stranger Thinks’s series.

What I didn’t like since the very beginning and what bored me in the long run was the heroine. As a classical heroine she would have be convincing, nice, decent and courageous. But as a supposedly genius, in the autistic spectrum, she sounded completely wrong to me.

To begin with, what are the chances that these distinctions and terminologies for neurotypes would be in use in such a distant futur? Absolutely none to my point of view, especially to be exactly as we consider them now, in our interested but not specialised kind of way. Well, I may be wrong, maybe the author knows much more about the question as I do, but still, the manner to insert autistic particularities in the book had for me a strong flavour of « autism for the dummies ». Not bad, but basic and incomplete. For instance a lot of efforts are made to explain about the manner autistic person view the world via their senses (which is easily uncomfortable even insufferable because of an extreme hyper sensibility to sensations, to begin with). But between each scene, it seemed that it was forgotten, Yasira seemed pretty neurotypical for me. Another point irked me: speaking about autism being a pathology. Most (and maybe all) high functional autistic persons absolutely don’t think about their autism as a handicap but as a difference, and are quite happy to be as they are, just wanting to be considered as a normal, if different, person (see the excellent book of Alexandra Reynaud, « Asperger et fière de l’être: Voyage au coeur d’un autisme pas comme les autres »).

Another annoying fact is that she’s supposed to be a genius. Alas, apart from an excellent memory and a capacity to analyse and synthesise, skills often found in gifted persons, she didn’t seemed exceptionnel to me. Clever, yes, but a genius? No. She was quite your random strong and sensitive random female character (no disdain here, I love these characters!).

So, the repetitions about Yasira being a genius, and autistic, and a genius, and autistic, etc., annoyed me more and more. Enough that I lost interest for her, and for the story, before the end.

To finish with my recriminations, a last point. Yasira has a lover, Tiv, a nice young woman. No allusion is made about sexuality in the whole book, her choice is exposed as natural and accepted, the world seems – at least ! – accepting and just, which I liked for its natural and simplicity. But I didn’t care for the (very probably unintentional, at least I hope!) less-intelligent-than-me-shaming. Each time Yasira’s lover is evoked, it’s with the two words: « good girl ». A good girl, good with gods (which the heroine isn’t, as she repeats over and over). I don’t know if it’s the automatic French translation which makes is so wrong and dismissive to me (« brave fille », « gentille fille »), but I couldn’t help reading between the lines : « Of course she’s so much less clever than I am, because of me being a genius and her being a normally clever person but, she’s nice ; yes quite nice ; a good girl ; really, a good girl »). What didn’t help was that their interactions were very basic, very mundane, with no insightful and personal conversations, just basic-fits-all exchanges. Their relation wasn’t touching, except for the dramatic situation.

So I stopped reading at 78 %, after having read: « While Tiv waited, patiently, the way good girls waited »: enough was enough! I understood that Yasira was supposed to be touched be Tiv kindness and goodness, but this emphase about Tiv being (just?) a « good girl » finished me off. A shame…

(I thank Netgalley and Angry Robot for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)

Walking to Aldebaran – Adrian Tchaikovsky

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After having read, and loved, Children of Time by the author, I was quite interested by reading more of him, and this novella was nicely timely!

The story, the tone, the context were quite different from the big and serious « Children of Time », which didn’t surprised me: a novella is a very interesting format to show an author personality and range of writing capacities. « Walking to Aldebaran », a short story, a creepy tale, with a mystery hidden in plain sight, is one perfect example. It’s main characteristic and appeal is its tone, a dry desperate one, as the hero progress in the nightmarish maze name the crypts and speaks to an imaginary friend, Toto (like the dog in « The magician of Oz »). If the story isn’t funny at all, the way it’s told is absolutely delicious!

The narrative is cleverly woven, going back and forth from the present to the past in a very comfortable fashion – no effort and no frustration either for the reader. There are some references, apt to speak to the modern reader; even if there aren’t quite credible for the narrator, living in a distant futur, this kind of bending is quite acceptable for our reading pleasure!

The atmosphere is downright horrific. It reminded me, for its mix of dread, disgusting-revolting-but-rather-fun facts, its practical and bizarre atmosphere, the Peggy Sue’s books by Serge Brussolo that I used to read when my oldest daughter was a child and a fan (yes, there are children books, the kind of weird and horrific stories some children crave!).

The end was good, and quite unpredictable until the last pages – even if, retrospectively, many hints were given. Still, I was a bit dissatisfied, as I’d have liked some points cleared up. An epilogue, from the other humans point of view for instance, would have been nice.

To conclude a very good story, funny and horrifying in the same time, riveting from the very beginning till the end!

(I thank Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)

A memory called empire – Arkady Martine

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I enjoyed reading this book very much (a 4,5 * read for me) but can’t say that I would blindly recommend it to any reader. Or more precisely, I know that I wouldn’t recommend it to all science-fiction readers while I would recommend it to some other kind of readers, those who appreciate some kind of literate, subtil, slow, detailed stories (like Guy Gavriel Kay maybe, and of course Ann Leckie’s books).

One of the aspects which sounded somewhat of key for me was that the story could easily have been a fantasy one. The SF tonality was rather weak, the sense of wonder muffled. The story would have needed very little adjustments to be transposed to a fantasy world, where it would have been even more credible, in my point of view. Magic instead of science would have been fine. Probably because the only futuristic differences explained, exposed, were about biology and weren’t that convincing (these books with this sort of developments should be seriously proofed by someone with some kind of medical expertise).  For instance, the author speaks about cancer two or three times; I can’t believe that a medicine so much advanced as to have mastered « imago machines » (neurological very sophisticated devices) wouldn’t have cured cancer since a long time ago! (Very weird references about coffee, mugs and microwave too, but I’m being petty there). Another example: in a certain situation (won’t spoil so fuzzy sorry) one character is left alone for hours, which is handy for the narrative as she has to do something in secret, but is absolutely inconceivable in the circonstances – she could have died! Her friends were just waiting in the next room, which is not believable for a second.

Well, enough quibbling. Just keep in mind that the story may holds a lovely fantasy tone under the science-fiction promised context for some kind of readers.

The other reluctance that I may have about recommending this book is a point that didn’t annoyed me, just prevented the read to be a page-turner: the atmosphere is tense, even dramatic, most of the time, the heroine is living historical and dangerous times, but the narration is slow. A lot of attention is given to small details, to psychological interpretations, with great meticulousness. The contrast between the narrative tone and the atmosphere (which is striking) is rather unsettling.

Another point that the reader must know before choosing this book, is that a great part of the book is dedicated to the Teixcalaanli culture, its love of literature, especially poetry. Poetry holds a tremendous place, is used to describe one sentiments or a building or to give sub-context to a discussion (the Teixcalaan learn quantities of poetry by heart), to make political statements, to encode some messages, etc. It gives a lot of charm to the story but could tire some readers waiting for some classic action.

The whole atmosphere is great however. I loved the very strong and personal voice of the author via the heroine’s, Mahit. The world is carefully woven, with plenty of specific details, which gives a very vivid picture.

The story is a political one but also a very personal one. It depicts with great care and strong authenticity the emotions of enthusiastic and ambitious young persons, cultivated and intellectual, aspiring to eminent political careers. We see how they love to discuss, to recite poetry, to be part of important decisions, and feel their complicity and enthusiasm. The theme is universal. It perfectly shows the difference between theory and pratique, about speaking and debating about politics and been thrown into a revolution, a civil war.

The story is also quite pregnant with a poignant fact: Mahit is head over heels in love with Teixcalaan’s culture, has learned the langage (quite different, hers has an alphabet and Teixcalaan’s has ideogrammes) and is quite bilingual. She’s also au fait of many customs and subtleties, she knows how to keep the proper behaviour, especially about facial expressions (Teixcalaan don’t smile by showing their teeth, but by opening their eyes wide, etc.) or even when to use her barbarian’s manners to unsettle someone. She also supposed to have many memories of her predecessor thanks to her imago, which will give her all the necessary informations about everything and everybody.

Alas, she’s not a true Teixcalaan and will never be one. Because of her very different physique (so tall, with pale skin and auburn hair) but also because she hasn’t grown up here. She’s from the Station, from a Barbarian world, and hasn’t benefited from the unequalled avantages of lifelong immersion. She knows it, frequently muses about it, and suffers when she compares her (yet spectacular) capacities with her new Teixcalaan acquaintances’ ones.

I really think that this particular side of the story will appeal to people who loved a langage, a culture, as all the readers who read in English even though it’s not their native langage (my case) or people who dream to live abroad, in a country with a different langage and so many different ways.

To finish with another positive argument, the plot is good and clever. All that seems rather foggy clears up nicely in the end!

A series I’ll be happy to read on.

(I thank Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)

 

Skyward – Brandon Sanderson

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J’ai découvert l’auteur il y a des années alors qu’il sortait son premier roman, Elantris – un de mes romans préférés à ce jour, une histoire fascinante et des personnages extraordinaires… Depuis ses débuts Brandon Sanderson est devenu très connu, principalement pour avoir écrit la fin – avec beaucoup de talent paraît-il – de l’immense sage de « La roue du temps » de Robert Jordan, à la demande de l’épouse de celui-ci. BS est largement traduit en français.

J’ai continué à le suivre avec une certaine assiduité (même si je n’ai pas tout lu, c’est une bête d’écriture qui écrit plus vite que je ne lis !). Il écrit principalement de la fantasy ambitieuse (Elantris, le trilogie Fils des Brumes, ses préquelles, Les Archives de Roshar…), mais aussi des textes très courts, dont les novellas Legion qui sont des histoires contemporaines mâtinées de fantastique et de psychologie. Il écrit aussi beaucoup pour la jeunesse, avec sa série un peu déjantée Alcatraz, la série super héros Coeur d’acier et récemment, le début d’une série YA SF, dont j’ai lu avec beaucoup de plaisir le premier tome, « Skyward ».

Comme toujours avec mes auteurs masculins préférés, Brandon Sanderson présente toujours des personnes féminins forts et déterminés, non pas secondaires mais principaux, comme dans Skyward. Leur forte personnalité et leurs éventuels tempéraments combatifs n’en font pas des mâles en jupons (comme avec certains auteurs de fantasy dont les personnages féminins ressemblent à des hommes pourvus de seins et de cheveux) ; ces personnages restent des femmes, des jeunes filles.

Skyward est une histoire de science-fiction, qui se déroule sur une planète où mes humains vivent principalement sous-terre, la surface de la planète étant régulièrement attaquée par de mystérieux extra-terrestres dont on ignore tout, la nature, les moeurs, les objectifs. Spensa, une jeune fille, vit dans l’un des petits villages souterrains, les humains ne pouvant, étrangement encore, se regrouper sous peine d’être repérés et attaqués par des raids. Spensa rêve de faire partie des nouvelles recrues des pilotes de vaisseaux de défense, d’autant plus que son père en fut un célèbre et honoré, du moins jusqu’à sa mort qui le fit basculer du statut de héros à celui de traître…

La tonalité de ce premier tome est grave, intense, mais agréablement égayé par un personnage secondaire fascinant que je vous laisse le plaisir de découvrir…

Un très bon premier tome, avec des mystères qui se dévoilent peu à peu, une héroïne courageuse et sympathique et une fin sans cliffhanger de mauvais goût (on apprend la raison des attaques extra-terrestres par exemple), de bons personnages, un bon rythme et de l’action bien présente sans être invasive (les fans de Star Wars seront contents ).

Je ne sais pas quand est prévue la VF mais j’espère qu’elle ne tardera pas !

découvert l’auteur il y a des années alors qu’il sortait son premier roman, Elantris – un de mes romans préférés à ce jour, une histoire fascinantes et des personnages extraordinaires… Depuis ses débuts Brandon Sanderson est devenu très connu, principalement pour avoir écrit la fin – avec beaucoup de talent paraît-il – de l’immense sage de « La roue du temps » de Robert Jordan, à la demande de l’épouse de celui-ci. BS est largement traduit en français.

J’ai continué à le suivre avec une certaine assiduité (même si je n’ai pas tout lu, c’est une bête d’écriture qui écrit plus vite que je ne lis !). Il écrit principalement de la fantasy ambitieuse  (Elantris, le trilogie Fils des Brumes, ses préquelles, Les Archives de Roshar…), mais aussi des textes très courts, dont les novella Legion qui sont des histoires contemporaines mâtinées de fantastique et de psychologie. Il écrit aussi beaucoup pour la jeunesse, avec sa série un peu déjantée Alcatraz, la série super héros Coeur d’acier et récemment, le début d’une série YA SF, dont j’ai lu avec beaucoup de plaisir le premier tome, « Skyward ».

Comme toujours avec mes auteurs masculins préférés, Brandon Sanderson présente toujours des personnes féminins forts et déterminés, non pas secondaires mais principaux, comme dans Skyward. Leur forte personnalité et leurs éventuels tempéraments combatifs n’en font pas des mâles en jupons (comme certains auteurs de fantasy dont les personnages féminins ressemblent à des hommes pourvus de seins et de cheveux), elles restent des femmes, des jeunes filles.

Skyward est une histoire de science-fiction, qui se déroule sur une planète où mes humains vivent principalement sous-terre, la surface de la planète étant régulièrement attaquée par de mystérieux extra-terrestres dont on ignore tout, la nature, les moeurs, les objectifs. Spensa, une jeune fille, vit dans l’un des petits villages souterrains, les humains ne pouvant, étrangement encore, se regrouper sous peine d’être repérés et attaqués par des raids. Spensa rêve de faire partie des nouvelles recrues des pilotes de vaisseaux de défense, d’autant plus que son père en fut un célèbre et honoré, du moins jusqu’à sa mort qui le fit basculer du statut de héros à celui de traître…

La tonalité de ce premier tome est grave, intense, mais agréablement égayé par un personnage secondaire fascinant que je vous laisse le plaisir de découvrir…

Un très bon premier tome, avec des mystères qui se dévoilent peu à peu, une héroïne courageuse et sympathique et une fin sans cliffhanger de mauvais goût (on apprend la raison des attaques extra-terrestres par exemple), de bons personnages, un bon rythme et de l’action bien présente sans être invasive (les fans de Star Wars seront contents

Miss Dumplin’ – Julie Murphy

J’ai lu ce roman, traduit chez @editionsmichellafon, sur les conseils du charmant duo @bountynette_litterature et @ecureuil_de_natacha. Le livre a été également adapté en film sur Netflix, mais je n’ai pas voulu le voir, je n’ai pas l’impression qu’il soit très fidèle à l’esprit du livre…

Parce que l’esprit du livre est superbe ! J’ai adoré cette lecture, la « voix » de Dumplin, ses relations avec ses proches. La psychologie du roman est très fine sous la trame distrayante (l’aspect principalement retenu par l’adaptation si j’ai bien compris). Pour moi le sujet principal est bien celui du rapport d’une personne à son poids, la difficulté d’être bien dans son corps quand tout crie autour de vous que vous êtes trop gros, la difficulté de savoir même finalement si on accepte vraiment ce corps ou pas, cette impossibilité d’être capable de juger par soi-même, d’établir une image de soi authentique quand la pression sociale est si grande.

Durant ma lecture j’ai beaucoup pensé au roman de Jennifer Niven, « Tous les visages de notre histoire ». Contrairement à Miss Dumplin, je n’ai pas beaucoup aimé ce livre, en particulier pour l’exposition du surpoids. Après avoir établi avec force le désir de l’héroïne de faire comprendre au monde qu’elle est très bien dans sa peau et que le monde ferait bien de la laisser vivre – un excellent point – l’autrice gomme petit à petit les rondeurs de la jeune fille, qui n’est alors plus que sourires, yeux et voix pour le garçon qui tombe amoureux d’elle. J’avais trouvé cette évolution néfaste, cet oubli bien pratique du corps, comme si l’amour faisait disparaître les kilos, la différence de poids. Au contraire ce corps aurait dû être mis à l’honneur, considéré à l’égal des yeux et de la bouche dans la séduction…

Dans « Miss Dumplin », la déchirante difficulté de ne pas se sentir désirable dans les bras d’un garçon (sexy et populaire) – même si celui-ci se montre séduit et plein de désir – est extrêmement bien traité.  Non éludé, non balayé d’un revers de main. Une analyse pleine de finesse du triple regard de soi, de l’autre… et des autres.

The Witch’s Kind – Louisa Morgan

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4,5 stars

This book was a very fast and comfortable read.

What marked me particularly since the very beginning of my reading was its timeless quality: This is a book that I could have read many years ago, after rummaging in my parents’ bookcases. The writing is classic and an easy flow, with interesting and credible characters. The story is slow but with a very good rhythm, it was quite a page-turner for me! I was very afraid in the beginning, when I understood that the story will be switching, chapter after chapter, between « now » and « the past ». But as a fact the story is very linear, each story completing the other one perfectly, and no frustration nor difficulties were met. A rarity for me, as I don’t care much for flashbacks. But the writing construction is very clever and the reading absolutely effortless.

The historical context was interesting two, especially the point a view and the role of women during war time. One of the main theme of the story is clearly feminism, how woman are perfectly able to leave alone, all alone or between women, without any men – especially bad ones. All the main characters of the story are female, except one, and he’s not a good person. The tone isn’t one against men, not al all, some are presented as good and honorable persons. But the writer chose to show a situation where a young woman has to live with an abusive, elusive and lying husband.

Even if the story is quite mundane, with a lot a every day details, it’s never boring. There is a special intensity, a momentum toward something. A thing that is going to happen, we don’t know what, nor when, only that we’ll be surprised, and maybe also scared.

The fantasy aspect is minimalist, as reduced to one only thing, but it’s also central, and mysterious, and very well developed. The reader just has to know and accept that it’s not a classical fantasy book, much more a classical story with a tiny shinning magical spot.

I’ll certainly read more books of the author, to begin with « A Secret History of Witches ».

I’ve rated this one four stars and a half, and not five, for two reasons: firstly I’m a little frustrated about the magical point, I would have like to know how it has evolved later on. I’d appreciate an epilogue about fifteen or twenty years later on, maybe? The second point is about the husband psychology; I thought it was a little caricatural in the end, a bit « too much », too « black or white ». I quite understand the necessity of such a dark exposition, but still, more subtlety would have been welcome (even if it would have made the story… different. Sorry to be so unclear but I don’t want to spoil!).

To conclude a book I recommend to all readers who love classical stories with good characters, a strong atmosphere, some hidden magic and a lingering mystery. For Daphne du Maurier’s fans for instance, or Elizabeth Goudge’s ones.

(I thank Netgalley and Redhook Books for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)