REVIEW: Shine by Lauren Myracle

“Even so, I was proud of myself for taking action at all. I didn't hide or run away or pretend the ugliness didn't happen. I stood up and said something that was true. I said it out loud, and by doing so, I was standing up for lots of people, not just me.” 

Shine

by Lauren Myracle

Due to a traumatic incident, Cat has cut herself off from her friends, including her best friend Patrick. When Patrick is found outside the gas station where he works, beaten and with a gas nozzle in his mouth and fastened with tape, with a sign on him that said "Suck this, faggot," Cat must throw off her protective shell and hunt down the culprit while Patrick struggles in a coma. In her rural conservative small town she is faced with judgmental gossips, uncommunicative neighbors, and her friends who are clearly hiding something. She must be braver than she ever thought possible to face her demons and bring her friend's assailant to justice.

I had a very difficult time immersing myself in Shine. The plot was compelling: a girl forced to break through her protective shell of indifference and find who hurt her friend. It felt like an episode of a cop show. She goes and interviews various people around town, and then it circles back to someone you met in the beginning, but did not initially suspect. They have a final confrontation and all is revealed.

I then realized I was reading Veronica Mars. A girl who is sexually assaulted by one of her former friends turns inward and rejects anyone associated with that group, until the friend in that group she cared the most about is killed/ almost killed and she must confront each of the group again to solve the mystery. Through this process, she discovers that those she thought were bad have complex issues they are trying to deal with, and those she thought were good are not. Once I realized that, it was difficult for me to see this as anything other than formulaic.

I am not sure why, but I had a very difficult time becoming invested in any character’s story. I felt like a distant observer. Perhaps because Cat does not trust anyone, so you learn not to get too attached to a character, or take any of their words or actions at face value. I didn’t even feel like I knew Cat, even though we were in her head. Perhaps it was because we never saw her change from timid to brave. We see the before and we see the after, but never the transformation.  I almost wish the story had begun with her hearing about Patrick. Though the timeline was confusing for me, it seemed she had some time to digest the information and make a decision before the story begins. Her struggle would have been a meaty part of the story to examine.

As for the friends, we meet Gwennie for a hot second, think she is nice, see her neurosis, learn she has an eating disorder, and then never see her again. While other characters come back, we learn that they each have a secret problem that they are struggling with. At times the book felt like a chronicle of the greatest hits of teenage problems: rape or drugs or homosexuality or eating disorders or risk taking or mental illness or all of the above. We learn that several of the characters are trying to change their lives around, but you never really learn why? What are the stakes for them?

The only character I felt was utterly compelling was Cat's Aunt Tilly. She reacts to difficult situations by cleaning, or hiding or pushing problems under the rug, or ignoring them completely, or pretending they are over and done with. I was clamoring to learn her back story. Why was she like this? Was there anything that could happen that would make her face the problem? Does she have some wisdom to impart to Cat, or will Cat help her face her fears? Unfortunately, nothing happened with her. She did not grow or change. She was yet another adult figure in the book who could not be relied upon to help.

While this is not my favorite book, it does depict a teenager struggling to speak out against the violence in a community that resists the conversation, and might inspire high school students to follow her example.

REVIEW: Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance by Gyles Brandreth

Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance: A Mystery

by Gyles Brandreth

"Oscar's conversation was so brilliant he could make you forget the toothache. That night we sat in a dark corner of a London club with a dead man's head in a box before us and for forty minutes thought not a thing about it."

Oscar Wilde arrives at a (potentially illicit) appointment to discover his young friend Billy Wood dead with his throat slashed. With the help of his friend Robert Sherard (Watson to Oscar's Holmes), and his friend Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar slips around London's drawing rooms and dark alleys to solve the mystery.

This book was a delightful read! The mystery itself was not that compelling, as it dragged on for months. It was predictable enough that I had it narrowed down to two suspects before the big reveal, but not so much that I knew for certain. 

The real fun of this book is Oscar himself. I loved this man before I read the book, but now, seen through the eyes of Brandreth (who was a biographer first), and through the fictional lens of his friend Sherard, I love him even more. He is at once the most commanding, jovial, and kind man you have ever met, and at the same time secretive, vulnerable and moody. He was very frustrating at times, deliberately withholding information from his friends, but you forgave him because he was such a generous and charismatic man. 

One element I found quite compelling were the comparisons between Oscar and Sherlock Holmes. In this book, Oscar is a great observer of human nature, like Holmes, and can tell everything about someone just by looking at him. Oscar also has a brilliant mind that is tainted by his one vice - in Sherlock's case, cocaine; in Oscar's case, young men. Conan Doyle also confesses (in this book) that he based the character of Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock's smarter older brother) off of Oscar, as the man who languidly sits in his club all day, until something sparks his interest, and then he can move a lot faster than you ever thought. (I LOVE that Stephen Fry has now played both Mycroft and Wilde).

I was planning on finding the book chock full of references to Wilde's works, but I could not find that many. He often quoted himself, and I'm sure he did it more often than I caught, but it seemed like he quoted Shakespeare the most. One moment that broke my heart was when he sadly muttered to himself Andrew Aguecheek's lament from Twelfth Night "I was adored once too..." 

All in all, a fun read. It would be even more fun if the whole sodomy trial wasn't looming over everything. As wonderful as Oscar's life is at this point, our foreknowledge of his fate makes everything he does part of his great tragedy. 

Books like this:

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen

REVIEW: All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen

All Men of Genius
by Lev AC Rosen

"Furthermore, I don't recommend emulating the behavior of any of the characters contained within.

They're all quite mad.

The truth is, I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Except about love. We all know a little about that.

Or nothing at all."

- Author's Note

This book is a basically a steampunk mashup of Twelfth Night and The Importance of Being Earnest. Need I say more? Well, I will anyway.

Violet Adams is not your typical Victorian girl. She spends her spare time up to her elbows in grease and gears in her family's basement inventing wonderful things. She is serious and bullheaded, and frustrated that because she is a girl, she will never be recognized for her genius by her scientific peers. Her twin brother, Ashton, is the opposite: an easy-going poet and all around foppish cleverboots. 

She hatches a plan to dress as a boy so she can enter Illyria College, the best scientific school in the city. Along the way she makes friends and enemies (an excellently bitter and entitled Malcom Volio), falls in love, fights against an evil plot, is awesome and smart, and fights an incredible battle to win her place in the scientific community. 

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. It is crammed with characters and references to both Twelfth Night and Importance of Being Earnest, but it is not slavishly devoted to either story. You get themes, characters, delightful flavors, and sometimes direct quotes, but Rosen makes them his own. For example, Mariah from Twelfth Night is Miriam Issacs, a "Jewess" born in Persia, married and widowed in Paris, and then employed as governess to Cecily (Cecily/Olivia). Miriam's relationship with student Toby Belch warms my heart. Cecily is as naive and youthful as Cecily Cardew, and falls for Violet-dressed-as-a-boy a la Olivia. Violet herself (after a long struggle) falls for Earnest, Duke of Illyria. Another example: One of the Professors is named Bunburry, and he rather accident prone. 

Like Neverland, it is nicely crammed, and there is hardly any space between one reference, and another, but if you don't know either play, you can appreciate the book for its own merits. And if you do know both plays, you will not be ruined on the story. 

It sounds complicated, but it doesn't feel that way while you are reading it. Reading the book feels like surfing, where you ride the rhythms of each section, and switch to the next wave of text as it comes. It is easy and exciting, and flows really well. And then, like a video game, you collect the little gold coins of allusion as you ride. 

The 3rd person point of view slides just as easily. Each character, including all the minor ones, gets their moment (or more) of perspective. You get to look through the eyes of of the all main characters, of course, but then you have moments when you are in the brain of Lothario Prism, the aging professor, to get his unique perspective on the science faire set up at the Crystal Palace, or Fiona, the burlesque actress Violet hires to be her maid, and who ends up seducing Drew Pale (a still pitiful, but happier Andrew Aguecheek). 

I also loved Violet's character development. At the beginning she was brash and fearless because she was naive and young. As she matures, she hones those features into a genuine bravery and strength of character. She learns that femininity is not weakness, and she that she can be both a girl, and fully herself. 

The book is also chock full of imaginative, steampunky science, which for the most part I loved. However, biology class made me cringe a bit. The biology class's sole purpose is to experiment on animals. Rosen does have Jack Feste upset when he kills an animal in his experiment, but the idea of "improving" animals (giving ferrets bat wings, or switching animal's voice boxes), while it lead to comical outcomes, made me uncomfortable.

Other than that, this book was probably the best book I have read on a long time. It is not a heavy, weighty tome of genius, but it was clever, funny, engaging, exciting, and had wonderfully detailed characterization.

Books like this:
Leviathan, Behemoth and Goliath by Scott Westerfield

ARCHIVED REVIEW: Fingersmith (8/3/11)

Fingersmith

by Sarah Waters

"All day I sat or walked with her, so full of the fate I was bringing her to I could hardly touch her or meet her gaze; and all night I lay with my back turned to her, the blanket over my ears to keep out her sighs. But in the hours in between, when she went to her uncle, I felt her—I felt her, through the walls of the house, like some blind crooks are said to be able to feel gold. It was as if there had come between us, without my knowing, a kind of thread. It pulled me to her, wherever she was."

Susan, a girl raised among thieves in dirty Dickensian London, is sent disguised as a lady's maid to a cavernous, decaying mansion to woo an innocent, fragile, dowry-full maiden for a rogue known as the Gentleman and help him steal her fortune. She thinks the money is worth it, but all is not as it seems.

This book was excellent! The structure was a strange, measured waltz for two women: the story begins from Susan's point of view, and then, with a dramatic and always unexpected plot twist, the narrative jumps to the other girl. Each time, the same series of events is retold, and everything you assumed was truth is turned on its head. You are constantly on the edge of your seat, wondering what sudden twist the story will take next and how it will all end.

Waters has an incredible eye for detail, and understands how one gesture or sigh can be grossly misinterpreted depending on who you are and where you are standing.

The two tales braid together in a story of treachery, madness, murder, duality, and desire.

And yes, there is lesbian love. It is a lesbian Victorian Dickensian lovefest. Though not as much as I had expected, mostly unrequited passion. What sex scenes there are are beautifully emotional and sensual, rather than sordid, voyeuristic or graphic.

Very well-written, and not a word was wasted. I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves the Victorian Era's underbelly like I do.

If you liked this book, you may like:
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson