REVIEW: The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

The Wednesday Wars

By Gary Schmidt

After we closed the books, Mrs. Baker asked me to discuss the character of Shylock.

 "He isn't really a villain," I said, "is he?"

"No," said Ms. Baker, "he isn't."

"He's more like someone who wants..."

"Who wants what, Mr. Hoodhood?"

"Someone who wants to become who he's supposed to be," I said.

Mrs. Baker considered that. "And why couldn't he?" she asked.

"Because they wouldn't let him. They decided he had to be a certain way, and he was trapped. He couldn't be anything except for what he was," I said.

"And that is why they call it a tragedy," said Mrs. Baker.  

The Wednesday Wars is about Holling Hoodhood, the Son Who Is Going To Inherit Hoodhood and Associates Architects Firm. He lives in the Perfect House, right in the middle of the town, where he is not allowed to go into the living room, and everything is covered in plastic. His life is set out for him by his forceful father, who makes every decision in his life based on if it will help advance his career. Until one day when his teacher, Ms. Baker, begins an independent study session with him, exploring the works of William Shakespeare. He then begins to wonder who it is he will become.

This book was amazing! Schmidt’s style is intricate and clear as a bell. Holling’s life starts out very small, mostly petty school troubles. He sees things through a narrow lens: “My teacher hates me.” However, as soon as he starts reading Shakespeare, his world is gradually widened. He sees other people’s point of view, and he gets a glimpse into lives that are not his own. He starts memorizing passages, and using Shakespeare’s words in every day speech. He begins to see that his father might not be the man he wanted to be. That there are things worth fighting for. That there are many sides to a question.

And the beautiful thing is that it doesn't happen through one brief training montage and he understands Shakespeare and life all at once. He reads one play at a time throughout the year, and each play reflects what is going on in his busy life. When he is dealing with love, he is reading Romeo and Juliet. When he is dealing with his father, he is reading Hamlet. When he is confronting a bully, he is reading Macbeth. While none of the stories really have clever exact parallels like so many of the YA Shakespeare lit painfully does, his knowledge of the work sheds a new light on his life, as Shakespeare should.

Since Holling begins to see the world differently, he starts to make different choices. Bolder ones. Riskier ones. Life-affirming ones. He begins to stand up for what he believes in. He stands up against his father, and he finds himself. And the brilliant thing is, he does it as a middle school boy.

This book touched me deeply, not only for the transformative power of Shakespeare (which my mother taught me in middle school), but because of the relationship between Holling and his older sister Heather. I have a younger brother who is often much smarter than me in many ways, and whom I can count on to take care of me like Holling did.

I highly recommend this for anyone trying to show kids the power of Shakespeare, and any adult who knows the power of Shakespeare and needs to remember what it was like to be a kid again and to choose for yourself.

Here is my friend Drown My Books' review of the book!

REVIEW: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska

by John Green

“When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.” 


Miles Halter lives a safe, dull life. He loves both his parents, no one comes to his birthday parties, and he is obsessed with last words (of dead people, not of books, or conversations). He decides to go and seek "the Great Perhaps," as poet François Rabelais said, and enrolls in a boarding high school in the woods. There, his life is shaken up by the family of misfit students who adopt him, especially by the funny, sexy, spontaneous and destructive Alaska.

Oh dear. I am so behind. I read this book over a month ago, and it is now fading from my memory. I am sure I have many other things to say about this book, but right now you will only get the things that made the strongest impression on me.

First, let me say that I am so incredibly late to the John Green bandwagon. I came across him as mearly a perveyor of wisdom and whimsy on the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel. Once I learned he was not only a YA author but an incredibly lauded YA author, I felt I must see what more this lovable genius man could do. Why did I choose Looking for Alaska? It was the only John Green book not checked out (probably because it was in the storage closet and no one knew it was there!)

Things I remember about this book:

1) It reminded me of what I imagine Perks of Being a Wallflower is like (though I have never read it.)

2) It is so good! The style is pretty much what you would expect from John Green. Funny, with a huge smack upside the head of truth. I kept picturing the main character as either a young John Green, or a young Hank Green (his brother who co-runs Vlogbrothers), depending on what the character was doing.

3) The characters are excellent. Not a stereotype in the lot. Alaska could just be a manic pixie dream girl, but he gives her real, dark reasons for why she is so unpredictable. She must seize every moment and never stop going going going or bad things will happen. Miles' roommate, the Colonel, is another gem. You think he will be a bit of a neanderthal, but his charm, his brain and his heart just pick you up and hug you. His and Miles' relationship become one of the high points of the book.

4) This book is not just high school hyjinx. The whole time, each chapter title counts down to something. "63 days before, "50 days before," "10 days before." You don't know what it is counting down to, or whether it is good or bad. Some moments you are hopeful, but other moments you are filled with foreboding each time you see those numbers. When it happens, even though at times you think you know what it will be, it still knocks you off your feet.

5) It is one of the best studies of grief since "The Body" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Possibly better than that.

6) It is peppered throughout with brilliant scenes from Miles' World Religions class, where they study not the dry facts of religion but where, as the teachers says, "We are engaged here in the most important pusuit in history. The search for meaning. What is the nature of being a person? What is the best way to go about being a person? How did we come to be, and what will become of us when we are no longer? In short: What are the rules this game, and how might we best play it?”

7) It was almost banned in a school because of sexual content, which lead John Green to post this video, called "I Am Not a Pornographer." I am a sucker for intellectual freedom.

I recommend it wholeheartedly, and I will definitely read more if his stuff! I will leave you with an inspiring, truth-dropping John Green vlogbrothers video:

REVIEW: Midnight in Austenland

Midnight in Austenland

by Shannon Hale

"'Have you been reading Gothic novels, Charlotte? You know what Mother would say. Women should not indulge in dark fantasies. It disrupts the proper workings of the womb.'

Charlotte snorted and coughed at once, she was so surprised. 'The proper workings of the womb?'

Eddie was trying very hard not to laugh. 'Indeed.'

'Never fear, protecting my womb from Gothic novels is my first priority.'

"I am very much relieved.'"

Charlotte Kinder has just gone through a messy divorce and needs to get away. She has no Jane Austen mania, like the Austenland heroine. She just needs a vacation from her life. So she decides to take it at Pembrook Park, the adult (no, not sexytime, just "for adults") roleplaying retreat manor house where actors and fellow guests leave modern society behind to live as Regency ladies and gentlemen. You can choose a new identity and be wooed by beautiful men and flounce around in lovely dresses. But when the games turn to ghost stories and murder mysteries, the line between reality and fiction blurs. Was that a real body in the attic, or just part of the fun?

This will be a short review, and please do not think it is short because I didn't like it. I loved this book! I devoured it in two days. I loved it more than Austenland. It seems much cleverer than the first book, for starters, both in narrative style and in plot.

For example, this little gem: "The pond lay dull and grey between the trees, no breeze to finger it's surface into uneasy ripples. The sky was clogged with clouds, preventing reflected sunlight from winking mischievously on the waves, as one might expect if the waters did indeed hide a secret. But the pond resisted all personification, neither begging for inspection nor warning of horrors best left alone. It just lay there, uninterested."

The prologue was a beautiful piece of writing. As this book is based on Northanger Abbey (as the first was based on Pride and Prejudice), Hale starts her book by explaining how her heroine is not a typical heroine. She was practical and nice, and never did anything unexpected or out of the ordinary. Even in this rather dull-sounding introduction, we manage to see ourselves in Charlotte. She is compelling in her normalcy.  The book jumps back and forth between the past events that created Charlotte, and the present as Charlotte tries to solve the mystery of the house and, in the process, solve the mystery of why she is so....nice.

I also enjoyed this more than Austenland because our heroine is not incredibly neurotic and obsessive. I felt that was a little off-putting about the first book. She went to be cured of something and finds love. Charlotte goes to escape, and finds herself.

It is less a girlish fantasy and more an actual journey of finding inner strength. And it is incredibly sexy and dangerous and gasp-worthy! There is just enough levity, and just enough darkness to thrill you.

REVIEW: Kraken by China Mieville

Kraken

by China Mieville

“And the continual non-up-turnance of so valuable a commodity as a giant squid—the thought of getting their alembics on which made the city’s alchemists whine like dogs—was provoking more and more interest from London’s repo-men and -women.” 

Billy Harrow works at the Darwin Centre, a museum and research facility in London that is focused on evolution. Their prized possession is a dead, preserved giant squid. When the giant squid suddenly disappears, Billy is thrust down the rabbit hole (so quickly I had to put the book down for a sec) into an insane London underbelly full of magic and cults, criminals and police. Along the way, he discovers that the theft of the squid somehow sets off the chain of events that will lead to the end of the world. He must learn the rules and break them all if he is to save London, and the world, from a fiery doom.

Did you understand that synopsis? I'm not sure I did.

This book is insane, and often you have to do mental backflips to grasp what is going on, who is fighting who, who did this horrible thing and why? But it is really good.

It's China Mieville, who gave us the equally complex Un Lun Dun. He loves himself some London underbelly. They also share themes: the importance of words, the un/destined hero, and prophecy informing present action. He also gives us a giant new helping of world building, species and rules. Some are similar, like the house that contains a forest in Un Lun Dun vs. the Embassy of the Sea (a house that contains the ocean) in Kraken.

Other things are completely new: reading the future of the city through cutting open the (literal) guts of the street, the Tattoo (a parasitic villain who lives on a man's back), Chaos Nazis (those who believe that the core value of Nazism is decadence and dress like deranged clowns), Goss and Subby (a nightmarish duo: a man who talks mostly nonsense and a silent boy who are responsible for most bloody catastrophes in history), angels of memory (the anthropomorphic protectors of museums and libraries), and most importantly, the cult that worships all things squid-related.

No, not Cthullu, though that is what I thought for the first few chapters. And the strange thing is, Mieville manages to take us from laughing about the ludicrousness of worshiping cephalopods as gods to being incredibly moved by the devotion of one particular devotee (I won't give away who).

There are so many joyful and clever inventions in this book, and often they don't feel like belong to the same world. You wonder if Mieville has all these crazy ideas in his head and then decides to take all of them and funnel them into one book. But somehow, he makes every single one of the crazy ideas relevant to the plot, even unnamed characters you gloss over for the first 3/4 of the book. As far out as it goes, he manages to tie it all back together. When the climax finally comes, you realize where everything was going and that it could only end this way.

And I love that Mieville is a NERD. He sprinkles so many references to nerd pop culture in there (some of them very obscure). One entire segment is devoted to a man who is so much of a Star Trek fan that he basis his magic on Star Trek's technology.

The characters are incredibly exciting too: Wati (a Egyptian spirit created to serve the dead in the afterlife who rebelled and is now a union organizer), Collingswood (a sassy and brassy doesn't-give-a-fuck cop chick with self-taught magic mojo), Smiley the Chameleon (a man whose power it is to make you think that you probably know him, doesn't he work in the office down the hall?).  It was a joy to watch Billy Harrow transform throughout the book, not through a one time test, like with Bilbo and the Spiders, but gradually, absorbing information and strategy as he goes. He begins as protectee,  walking behind his guide and protector, then beside, then offering plans as a co-combatant, then leading the group against the apocalypse.

While Mieville has this crazy, brainy, intricate and often perplexing style, he sprinkles in moments of whimsy, like "squididity" and "squid pro quo." Silly little puns to make your turning brain go "meh heh" and give it a break.

All in all an excellent book. Bit of a steak meal, though, so I'm going for something lite next.

REVIEW: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Equal Rites 
by Terry Pratchett

“She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you.” 

I'm sorry this is going to be a bit of a slapdash review of a book that is fading in my memory. Grad School has taken up all of my writing brain power.

So, Equal Rites. A wizard finds a blacksmith (who is a seventh son) whose wife is about to give birth to a seventh child. He bequeaths his powers to the child and dies before anyone informs him it is a girl. There has never been a female wizard before, and Granny Weatherwax, the no-nonsense village witch, is determined there never will be. Wizard and witch magic are too different. Wizard magic is all about flashy power and equations and making things happen. Witch magic is about rhythms and nature and asking for things to happen. Women shouldn't be wizards, just as men should not be witches. So Granny Weatherwax trains Esk (the girl) as a witch. Helped by the dead wizard's forcefully opinionated and loyal staff (the stick, not the group of people) Esk and Granny soon realize that wizardry might be Esk's only option if she wishes to not wreak havoc.

This book had all of Pratchett's wit and charm with very little of his meandering. He pretty much kept with Esk and Granny's story, and their journey to Ank Morpork to the Unseen University, and their ensuing battles. I quite enjoyed its simplicity!

It actually seemed like a little story-let. You have the origin story, the journey to the magic school, and right when you think the training montage is going to begin, Pratchett drops the final battle on you.

I think I liked Granny Weatherwax's transformation more than Esk's. Granny starts out very set in her ways, thinking cities were dens of iniquity, and always wearing black simple clothes. After a while, she begins to loosen up, and then ends up having the most fantastic battle of them all! Very Sword in the Stone. And her ensuing relationship with her opponent is one of the delights of the book.

Esk, and her compatriot Simon, have a weird, metaphysical, philosophical final battle that I still don't completely understand. About how not using magic is the real magic. No idea.

Any Granny Weatherwax fans should definitely read it, though! This is her first appearance in the Discworld series.

REVIEW: Austenland by Shannon Hale

Austenland

by Shannon Hale

“Well do I remember the first night we met, how you questioned my opinion that first impressions are perfect. You were right to do so, of course, but even then I suspected what I've come to believe most passionately these past weeks: from that first moment, I knew you were a dangerous woman, and I was in great peril of falling in love."

She thought she should say something witty here. She said, "Really?” 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every girl must occasionally read fun frivolous girly books. Equally true, every great author needs to write them.


Shannon Hale, author of The Goose Girl, a fantastic book, has written a delicious, indulgent, smart, and surprisingly genuine girly book. Jane Hayes, graphics designer, is obsessed with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy (in a ashamed, hide-the-dvd-in-her-plants kind of way). To cure her of this, her great aunt Caroline bequeaths Jane a trip to Pembrook Park, a Jane Austen resort where women go to live in the world of Austen, surrounded by actors (specifically gentleman actors) to play the parts of Austen-like heroes: the brooder, the jovial rake, the common-man-turned-successful-sea-captain). Jane struggles with the dichotomy (real or not real?), and feels like a desperate, sad, ridiculous women, but then, things begin to turn around. Is she deluding herself, as always, or is she being offered something real in Austenland.

DAMN, this book was surprisingly good. I swear, I came home today and read the entire thing in one sitting (minus a chapter or two yesterday). It was so refreshing after reading books where I care about style and serious things. It was like exfoliating! Scrubbing off the slough of academia and large fantasy tomes to revel in a little bubble bath.

And yet, this book surprised me with it's depth. Yes, the plot is predictable, so is the plot of almost any romantic comedy. I began with the book at arms length, judging Jane for fangirling, and the being weirdly ashamed about it. But as the story continued I was sucked in, and became totally invested in her story, squeeing and crying out in emotional agony at the appropriate moments.

This is a must have for anyone who a) has the Austen fever and b) has ever fantasized about being swept off your feet by the guy of your dreams in a romantic setting. I'm looking at all of you, ladies.

PS: It is also a Movie.

REVIEW: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

The Magician King

by 

Lev Grossman

“Quentin had an obsolete sailing ship that had been raised from the dead. He had psychotically effective swordsman and an enigmatic witch-queen. It wasn't the Fellowship of the Ring, but then again he wasn't trying to save the world from Sauron, he was trying to perform a tax audit on a bunch of hick islanders…” 

The Magician King pretty much picks up where The Magicians left off. Quentin and his friends are kings and queens of Narnia-- I mean Fillory. Everything is pretty much perfect, and there is not much for them to do. Quentin longs for adventure, but the best he can come up with is an unnecessary trip to collect back taxes from an island territory. From there, the book is basically The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, with some side excursions and the mysterious Julia (self taught witch friend of Quentin)'s back story woven in.

Well, Lev Grossman does his brilliant and frustrating thing again. He lets the story meander leisurely. There are some frustrations along the way, but nothing too big. People live their lives. You come to love them, and the world they inhabit. You know something horrible is going to happen because that is what Grossman does. However, in this book it takes so long for something horrible to happen that you think, maybe this time it won't! You come to love the natural rhythms of the story, and accept the Narnian logic of things. And then within the last 100 pages, he takes everything you love, locks it in a house, and burns it to the ground. Metaphorically speaking. And damn it, it is satisfying.

It differs from The Magicians in a few ways, though. First, Quentin is no longer a dick. He has grown up into a decent person, still a little haunted by the events of the last book. Second, Julia (a minor character in the first book) comes into her own in this incredible journey of power, addiction, and transcendence as she teaches herself the magic denied to her when she failed the Brakebills exam in the last book. Third, Grossman seems to trust in Fillory just a bit more. It really comes into its own as Narnia, the land you love and long for, rather than a cardboard cut parody of Narnia. The scenes where Quentin is sailing on the ship are saturated with peace mixed with salty adventure, exactly what you wish for in a Fillory adventure.

It really takes a long time for Grossman to pull the rug out from under you, but when it happens he nails you not once, not twice, but three times in quick succession. Just when you think everything is safe (though you have a small voice telling you it might have been too easy) he will get you, but never in a way that you expect.  The ending is desolating and painful, but strangely right. Almost like Eustace scratching away at his dragon skin to become a new man in Dawn Treader. 

Another brilliant book from Grossman. I can't wait for the third!