Book Review: The Strange and Marvelous Adventures of Puddle: Fragment One
You’ve got to like a writer whose Twitter handle is Claytonsaurus. Clayton Smith, the author of Apocalypticon and Pants on Fire: A Collection of Lies, is now embarking on a serial novel entitled The Strange and Marvelous Adventures of Puddle. He plans to publish fragments each month.
Puddle is a young girl living with her eccentric parents in an old house that is on the edge of a cliff. Down Below, in the canyon, is a magical world in which leaves talk and werewolves are talented blacksmiths.Puddle soon finds herself plummeting into this canyon, with her parents not far behind.
Given the nature of the story – a girl plummeting down into a peculiar world – there are, of course, similarities to Alice in Wonderland. But there are also touches of Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.
Smith’s style is whimsical without turning precious. He hits the proper narrative tone that is as much aural storytelling as it is imaginative. When describing the significance of Puddle’s name, he writes that she “was a puddle, through and through, because despite the fact that she was not the splashy sort, she did share some common traits with conventional puddles. She was usually quite reflective, and she was often quite still.”
I got myself into this tube. Now how am I going to get out?
Since Puddle’s house is literally teetering on the edge of a cliff, you know that each month’s fragment is going to end in a cliffhanger. Also, Puddle’s father is an inventor who doesn’t always know what he’s inventing. He makes a flubbernator without even knowing what a flubbernator does.
Which also is how Smith plans to write these monthly segments: he plans to publish each one before starting to work on the next. It’s a tricky place to be as a writer – hanging onto the side of a cliff and making it up as you go – but the immediate playfulness of the story suggests that Smith is resourceful with his imagination.
I’m looking forward to Fragment Two.
Puddle is a young girl living with her eccentric parents in an old house that is on the edge of a cliff. Down Below, in the canyon, is a magical world in which leaves talk and werewolves are talented blacksmiths.Puddle soon finds herself plummeting into this canyon, with her parents not far behind.
Given the nature of the story – a girl plummeting down into a peculiar world – there are, of course, similarities to Alice in Wonderland. But there are also touches of Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.
Smith’s style is whimsical without turning precious. He hits the proper narrative tone that is as much aural storytelling as it is imaginative. When describing the significance of Puddle’s name, he writes that she “was a puddle, through and through, because despite the fact that she was not the splashy sort, she did share some common traits with conventional puddles. She was usually quite reflective, and she was often quite still.”
I got myself into this tube. Now how am I going to get out?Since Puddle’s house is literally teetering on the edge of a cliff, you know that each month’s fragment is going to end in a cliffhanger. Also, Puddle’s father is an inventor who doesn’t always know what he’s inventing. He makes a flubbernator without even knowing what a flubbernator does.
Which also is how Smith plans to write these monthly segments: he plans to publish each one before starting to work on the next. It’s a tricky place to be as a writer – hanging onto the side of a cliff and making it up as you go – but the immediate playfulness of the story suggests that Smith is resourceful with his imagination.
I’m looking forward to Fragment Two.
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