Devon Trevarrow Flaherty's Blog, page 63

The Ruby Redfort series by Lauren Child, 2011-2014. I read the first two of six total books. The first four are titled Look Into My Eyes, Take Your Last Breath, Catch Your Death, and Feel the Fear. The other two titles are not yet released, but will be in the next couple years.

The reason I only read the first two is that the third and fourth are only available in hardcover until this summer and I simply didn’t want to pay hardcover price, even though it was very tempting. I don’t really like hardcover books as much as paperback, anyhow. So I wait.

I go into this with full disclosure: I already love Lauren Chlld. She is the brilliant writer and artist responsible for the marvelous Charlie and Lola series, as well as Clarice Bean (see review HERE) and a ton of other superb art, including lovely covers for two of my favorite books, Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking. So I fully expected to love these books. (And who wouldn’t? Just look at the rad covers.) More on all this to come; I just wanted to let you know where I stood.

There are some things about these books.

The thing is… my daughter doesn’t like them. She is a fan of fantasy and mystery and also very much of mixed-up fairy tales. Ruby Redfort falls into the secret agent mystery category. Although not a big fan of Clarice Bean, I thought Windsor would like these more because of the mystery. But she has set them aside, twice, to continue plowing through yet another mixed-up fairy tale series (even though I found the other series inferior…) and has yet to finish even the first one.

The thing is… I love Lauren Child. Love her. I know I already said that, but there is something (or many somethings) that I really like about her and her style and her voice. From her children’s book illustrations to the spunky attitude of all her characters, I have been caught by the whole shebang hook, line, and sinker. So perhaps its not for everyone, but it is for me. And it is for plenty of people. Especially Brits? Maybe. But Charlie and Lola hold their own here in the US.

The thing is... these are a British thing. Which needs to be further explored beyond my last comment. It’s not just about where Child is popular, it’s also about where her style resonates and where her plots and characters make sense. I am one of those typical ravenous-reader Anglophiles, so not only am I fairly comfortable with British stuff from all the English literature I have read over the years (and the history class I endured and the many, many movies and TV shows I have ingested), but I truly enjoy English culture. So I love all the pink milk and the butlers and the “toodle-oos.” But I did, as an American, find Ruby Redfort a little awkward in this respect. Whereas Child’s other works take place in England, Ruby Redfort takes place in the USA. I found myself wondering more than once if Child had regretted placing the super sleuth in the US during the writing of her Clarice Bean series. I just, as an American, found lots of times when a character would refer to an object by its very British term or would do things that are quite un-American. Redfort, true, is British, but everyone else is not.

The thing is… I really like them. I must think I’m ten again, because I can’t wait until the next two come out in paperback so I can read them immediately and I also can’t wait until I have them all lined up on the shelf and can read the code on the spines. The adult in me loves (as always with Child) the artistic choices (except perhaps the font on the main type, inside). The cover of the second book is perhaps my favorite cover on my whole entire bookshelf. (The display on a computer screen does not quite do it justice.) I think these books are fun and I just get more and more into the characters as we go along. There’s a real style here that I find fun and refreshing while at the same time being extremely retro-modern.

My critiques: Child violates one of my biggest novel pet peeves: she sometimes doesn’t tell us what people look like until it’s too late. I hate getting to book two and finding out John has blonde hair when I had been picturing black for 300 pages. She even makes this mistake with the main character! Also, as mentioned, the American/British thing gets fuzzy. And poor Clancy becomes vaguely unlikeable at times.

But pretty much: enjoyed, enjoyed, enjoyed and looking forward to continuing the series.

It does seem like I am always mentioning NaNoWriMo, doesn’t it? There are two reasons for that. First, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) now comes around three times per year. Sort of. There’s always the official month in November, but they now offer Camp NaNoWriMo, which can be attended in either (or both) April and July. Second, NaNoWriMo–to my husband’s chagrin (I sort of turn into a writing zombie)–has become an integral part of my writing process. Whether I “win” (hit my goal), or not.

And this time, it’s kismet.

As you no doubt noticed, I launched my second novel two days ago. I was at the computer being a promoter and marketer and sales person for more than twelve hours without a single break. Yesterday, I took the day off, meaning that I chaperoned for my daughter’s field trip. (It ended up being an awesome day, because my husband got called out of work and we went to the symphony, the best Chinese restaurant in North Carolina, and took a nap in the woods.) Today is April Fools Day, which used to mean taping the handle on the sink sprayer and hiding toothbrushes. Now, every year, it means my nephew’s birthday and the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo.

See how perfect the timing is?

Launch a book on Monday. Relax on Tuesday. Start intense writing on Wednesday. The circle of the author’s life.

Of course, there will be many more events and do-dads coming up this month and next as I continue to promote the new novel (go HERE to check out The Night of One Hundred Thieves or HERE to see the list of scheduled events), but it is also time to put as many words on the page as is humanly possible for the next book. Which is… The Journey of Clement Fancywater.

Fancywater is over half-written, thanks to last year’s Camp NaNoWriMo. Which means by the end of April, I should have a full first draft of the next novel on my hands. Pretty sweet deal. But a lot of work.

If you would like a writing challenge or some writing accountability for April or July, go HERE to sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo.

For my previous blogs on NaNoWriMo, check out this impressive list:

First Year, The Night of One Hundred Thieves written (failed, won after extension):

NaNoWriMo
Livin’ La Vida NaNoWriMo
A NaNoWriMo Update
A NaNoWriMo Extension
What I Learned From a Sprained Spine

First Camp, first half of The Journey of Clement Fancywater written (won):

Goin’ Campin’
Good-bye Camp NaNoWriMo

Second Year (failed):

NaNoWriMo Strikes Again
I Quit

“Come on ride that train, and ride it! Woo-woot! Come on ride that train, and ride it! Woo-woot!” An oldie and a… ah, well.

The point is, now you’ve got a dancing song in your head and you’re ready to celebrate the launch of The Night of One Hundred Thieves with me by boarding The Launch Train! Here’s how it works: you click on the links (or icons) below in order, and each will open in its own tab so that you can go on the scenic tour of Launch Day one stop at a time. I’ll be your illustrious tour guide. Hang on for giveaways, events, and just plain interesting information about the book and the whole writing thing. Keep your arms and head inside at all times (and you might want to consider doing the tour on a laptop). Also, keep in mind that this train strongly encourages Liking, Sharing, and Following all along the route. And hang on cuz here we go!

Let’s start simple, with a quick look at the book’s listing on Amazon. As you can imagine, seeing your book go live on Amazon is today’s equivalent to getting the first books hot off the press on publication day. The listing feels like it means we have taken off! Of course, that real moment is deferred for maybe the 10,000th reader but it’s still exciting. You can celebrate indie authors now by purchasing at the click or waiting until the tour is over.

Another exciting moment for authors these days? When their name just starts popping up all over the place with legitimate bios. I have bios on all sorts of pages, from GoodReads to Amazon Authors to who knows. A favorite past time of my husband’s (besides checking my sales ranking) is to Google me and see what pops up. I take up more than a whole page, that’s for sure.

Of course, I’ve done this whole publishing thing once before, so this is the second time that getting my POD copies or gearing up for a public reading has come along. Little-known fact: writers and books get awards when they fork out money. Contest entries require cash, and the cost falls either to the author, the publisher, or someone else. Little-known fact two: many of the contests and awards (and most of the most prestigious ones) are closed to indie authors. No matter how successful or professional a self-pubbed title, it won’t be allowed to win most contests. (The Pulitzer is an exception, but it does cost money to enter.) I won’t be entering The Night of One Hundred Thieves in any contests, at this time, but Benevolent took home a handful of the indie awards and laurels it participated in.

So how does one go about making a book anyhow? How does one get from an idea to a listing, Google-fame, and awards? Hard work, time, and perseverance of course. The Starving Artist is quite fond of writing about all these things, in fact. Among the most popular posts of all time on The Starving Artist are the writing life encouragement blogs (that, and the one about Haven Kimmel). Even when I write for other blogs and sites, my most popular blogs are writing life encouragement, like this one, over here, on the K. M. Weiland blog.

As for how I got from point A to point B with The Night of One Hundred Thieves? Technically, it’s a spin-off from my first novel, Benevolent, although the books are technically different genres. When readers asked for more of the Northwyth legends, I obliged in November 2013 by making a legend expansion my 50,000-word project for NaNoWriMo. A few months and a back injury later and I was whole-first-draft in. Another year while working on four simultaneous projects and Night was ready for its final reads, proofs, and publication. Owl and Zebra Press is a very picky indie publisher. It takes a lot of time, patience, and read-throughs before we are ready to green-light a book.

We are now arriving at the Launch Day section of our tour. If I could draw your attention to the right side of the train, where we have Launch Central. When it comes to virtual launches, a good author will sit at the computer all day, promoting and spouting check-it-out! and buy-my-book! all over the internet. That’s pretty much where the Launch Train came from. And if you are touring any time on March 30, 2015, yes, I am sitting at my computer right now.

But a virtual launch isn’t just about the beginning of a blog tour or anything. One of my most favorite tools in getting people engaged is the Facebook invitation. When used very sparingly, it can be the key to (at least the people that know you) starting a fire of interest and purchases that maybe, just maybe, will spread into a bonfire. Or a wildfire. Or a fire storm!

The Launch stops at Twitter.

At GoodReads.

At Pinterest.

At Instagram.

And you had no idea I was so ubiquitous. Okay, maybe you did. Did you notice all those giveaways? Did you enter some? Here’s a tip for you if you’ve stayed with me on this tour: there will be an Amazon paperback giveaway this evening at 9pm Eastern, first eligible entry wins! Stay tuned to The Starving Artist (right here!), Twitter, and Facebook for further details on how to pounce at precisely 9p. Or if you’re the type who does not enjoy Black Friday, go ahead and purchase your copy at the end of this tour and be watching Kimmy Schmidt at 9pm. Have it your way, as long as you know The Night of One Hundred Thieves will be zooming to you from the nearest distributor.

And while we are in giveaway country, here is a Launch Train exclusive: Sign up for The Starving Artist Newsletter between now and April 12 and you’ll be entered to win yet another copy of The Night of One Hundred Thieves. Or, if you already have one of those, Benevolent. Or if you already have one of those, an Advanced Reader Copy of The Journey of Clement Fancywater. I’m thinking this deal is too big not to leak though, so Launch Train passengers will get the first crack at it, anyhow. The idea is for you to sign up for the monthly (no more) newsletter and receive updates on the writing and indie publishing world as well as Flaherty books and Flaherty news and events.

Now, I know you don’t want this fancy tour to end, but we are nearing the final station. To continue the fun, make sure to check out The Touch on Wattpad. It’s free. And it’s a neat idea, right? Read while the author is writing. Mind blown.

Also, remember that reviews are very important to indie authors and even more important is that if you like the book, you tell your friends. Heck, even better, take it to your book club!

We here at The Starving Artist would like to thank you for joining us today on the Launch Train. We hope you enjoyed the ride and that no one was seriously maimed by sticking their arm out the window. You’ll notice a gift shop on your way out, and the management has asked me to say just how much we truly appreciate all support and every single reader that we get.

BUY THE BOOK

 

Enter to win a copy of “The Night of One Hundred Thieves” by Devon Trevarrow Flaherty. Like, Share, or Comment to be entered to win one of three e-book copies. Contest ends April 12, so get your Like, Share, or Comment in before then!

Also, check out all the launch day festivities right here on The Starving Artist. See Launch Central and Launch Train.

The Sale Is Here. The Pre-order Is Here. The Reading Is Coming. The Festival Is Coming.

The Launch is Here!

Whew! No wonder I have hives. (Actually, I think that’s seasonal allergies.)

The Night of One Hundred Thieves is a fantasy/medieval magic realism novel about thirty-two thieves and one magical ring. They all want it. It needs them. But can they all have it? Who will be the last thief standing?

Do you like Lord of the Rings? How about Oceans 11? And Love, Actually? What about if they were all smashed together in 220 pages?

This book sprang up after Benevolent was published and reviewed and I started getting requests for more Gaby and Mikhail, but really more Northwyth. My husband especially hankered after an expansion of the Northwyth legends. So, for my first attempt at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November 2013, I set aside my current project–The Family Elephant’s Jewels, out in early 2016–and wrote–like I was supposed to–a book in one month. With a serious back injury, it didn’t exactly work out that way, and the book was never about Gaby and Mikhail (but rather about The Queen), but by 2014 I had a complete novella on my hands and a lot of editing to do. Last year I spent working on no less than four projects at one time, including the re-writes and edits involved in making The Night of One Hundred Thieves a novel worth publishing.

So ta-da! Owl and Zebra Press proudly presents our second novel, The Night of One Hundred Thieves!

Here’s where you can get your copy ($9.99 retail for the paperback and $2.99 for the e-book):

Amazon (and Kindle)
Smashwords
Barnes & Noble (and Nook)
Regulator Bookshop (for locals, and not until closer to the reading; see info below)
other local book stores (but it takes time for them to catch on. Eventually, you will be able to get a copy at Letters Bookstore, FlyLeaf Books, or Quail Ridge Books & Music. The point is, almost any book store can order a paperback copy for you, and many also offer e-books, in which case you can get Night there, too.)
IndieBound (It’s also taking time for them to catch on, but they will. Meanwhile, you can check there for Benevolent.)
iBooks (Sorry, I can’t link directly to it, but if you go to the iTunes store and search “Devon Trevarrow Flaherty” it’ll pop right up.)
Kobo
libraries (All you have to do it request it at your local library, and there is a big chance they’ll stock it for you.)
rentals (like Netflix for books) at Oyster and Scribd

If you are a friend (or just friendly) and you want to know where I get paid the most (one of the questions I get all the time), the answer is this: first, buying the book directly from me, but I will have very limited copies; two, Amazon; three, Smashwords (e-book only); four, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, the library (per copy), local bookstores, etc.; five, rentals. Actually, I have yet to figure out how in the world the rentals are paying me at all. It’s on my to-do list. So really, the answer to that is Amazon.

And here’s where you can go around the internet today for events and giveaways (#nightofonehundred). Maybe on your lunch break? Or while dinner is in the oven? Or instead of another episode of Kimmy Schmidt?:

here. I’ll be posting blogs throughout the day to celebrate the launch and to host giveaways!
Devon Trevarrow Flaherty Books (where you can check out the pretty new website and go deep with Night information and even book club material)
Facebook
GoodReads
Amazon
Twitter
Owl and Zebra Press

And here’s what’s coming up next:

Benevolent e-book sale. The 99-cent e-book sale will continue until April 15! Get your copy now, cuz everything on the calendar always seems so far away, but it’s really not. Get it at any of the places listed above.
Blog Tour will be happening over the next two weeks, maybe a little longer. Keep your eyes peeled (ew!) for appearances here and there in the blogosphere. It’s sure to involve not just riveting interviews, but also more giveaways.
Lit 101 open mic and discussion night. It happens every month, but here’s your chance to write it in your datebook. If you are a local writer (or you are a local listener), come on out to Lit 101 at Francesca’s on Ninth Street in Durham at 7pm on Sunday, April 19th. I will be guest-hosting this month while the founder gets married. Yes, he’s trusting me with a PA system.
Reading and Signing for The Night of One Hundred Thieves. If you are local, this is a great time to be a groupie. The event is from 7-9pm on Thursday, May 14 at the Regulator Bookshop on Ninth Street in Durham.
Read Local Book Festival. Yes, this may be the first year (they are calling it “inaugural”) but there are more than sixty exhibitors ranging from bookstores to libraries to publishers and more than fifty authors for this weekend-long festival coming to the Triangle. Check out the website for events on Friday and Saturday, and the exhibitor fair (featuring yours truly) on Sunday from noon-6pm in Durham Central Park. May 15-17
The Touch is my ultra-modern online writing project, and you can follow along at Wattpad to read a new novel (?) as I write it. That’s right! 1200 words at a time, you can read as I reveal the story of the irrepressible and angry Dane as she stumbles into the lost City of Gold in southern Indiana looking to hide but finding so much more. You can join in at any time and catch up at the website.
The Journey of Clement Fancywater will be the next novel published by Owl and Zebra Press and written by me, much later in the year. Perhaps this novel would make a great Christmas gift? About a thirty-year-old failure who is pushed into Hollow Earth and destined–or asked, anyhow–to become a real live hero-of-epic-proportions.
Other Owl and Zebra projects include a journal, a holiday home series, and a reprint, as well as the launch of our children’s imprint. Stay tuned over the next coupla’ years for super exciting developments.
The Family Elephant’s Jewels will be the next-next novel published by Owl and Zebra Press and written by me, in 2016. Perhaps you will buy the book because by book four you will be utterly addicted to my novels? About a woman who dies with her secrets, leaving her seven children to uncover them one at a time, meanwhile unhinging something in themselves.

And when you’re reading The Night of One Hundred Thieves, don’t forget how much reviews (especially good reviews) matter to indie books! Also, each and every sale matters, so I thank you heartily for spreading the word, purchasing your copy (or two or three) and supporting me and this book!

I’ll be back later to invite you to climb aboard the Launch Train! And yes, that’s a real virtual thing.

Smile, Sisters, and Drama, by Raina Telgemeier. All three are Middle Grades graphic novels, the first two memoir and the last realistic fiction. They were published in 2010, 2012, and 2014 (not respectively). They have all been NY Times bestsellers and have won numerous awards.

Smile

For me, a sad part of reading a graphic novel is that it goes so quick. I enjoyed reading Smile, but man did it read fast. For me, it was just one sitting, not even an afternoon, like as long as it would take me to peruse a magazine.

I read it because my daughter picked it up off the library shelf at school and quickly read most of the Raina Telgemeier there is. I do find that a little funny, though, because–even though it seems to be devoured by the Middle Grades demographic–my favorite thing by far was all the allusions to growing up in the 80s and 90s. Raina is about three years older than I am, and I loved seeing Exclamation perfume and a Bart Simpson tee shirt… The book was just chock-full of generational allusions and shared experiences. Loved that.

I have been looking for graphic novels to read for a while, actually, but I am not used to reading them. Going from all books all the time to a graphic novel is a bit of a leap. It’s fun to look at the art and to experience a story in a different way, but it can also be a little awkward; from Wuthering Heights to Smile made the latter feel clunky. However, many of you are used to comics and really enjoy them. I like that they have kept pace a little better with the way young readers think and act, like in smallish pieces and snatches. Plus I love good art. Raina’s drawings are clean and inspiring, more like the Sunday funnies than modern manga or superhero comics.

I also really like that since so many kids have gone through the trials and pains of orthodontia, this book can be like a friendly guidebook during that process. I also love how Telgemeier gently shows readers that yes, you will probably grow out of your friends (geographically or otherwise), but that you will find new ones. And they’ll probably fit you a lot better. Also, that the way to “find yourself” is to keep doing the things you love.

Sisters

I think the story in Sisters in more compelling than Smile. It felt more natural to me, as a plot. There is the suspense of “the incident” (although, as a note, I think the revelation of “the incident” is a bit over-subtle), which creates suspense. There is the twist ending. And there is just this calm, familiar feel to the whole thing. I love the special little moments that Raina was able to translate from memory to the page, like star-gazing. And, I am happy to say, I actually LOLed at times.

Drama

Now Drama is a different story, altogether. It’s, well, it’s older. Besides the fact that it deals with sexual identity, it is completely about junior high relationships and is replete with kissing and dates, etc. (Actually, when I think about it, most of the personalities and circumstances in this book are more appropriate for high schoolers. And I don’t just mean high school readers; I mean these are high school situations that would more likely be happening to high school characters, all around.)I asked my fourth-grade daughter if she’d read it. She said, “No” and asked why. When I told her, she said, “Yuck!” So while all the other Telgemeier books are appropriate for the younger set, this one is not. Besides that, it’s okay. Cute. Real. Simple. But I think it’s not quite as good as the other two above.

Baby-sitters Club #1, #2, #3, and #4: Kristy’s Great Idea, The Truth About Stacey, Mary Anne Saves the Day, and Claudia and Mean Janine

So, one of the reasons I personally enjoy Telgemeier is that we appear to have a whole lot in common. Among the things in common is a love of The Baby-Sitters Club. They were my absolute favorite books as a kid. I must have read a hundred of them (including the Specials and the Mysteries). One of my favorite book memories is the day my dad came home from work and handed me Baby-Sitters Club #1: Kristy’s Big Idea and I sat down on the porch in the setting sun and read the entire thing before dinner. I was very happy, then, to see that Telgemeier teamed up with Ann M. Martin to “Graphix” four of the first books of the series. (Note: There are no plans to continue the series.)

The characters in the new series looked just the same as I had imagined them twenty-plus years ago (except up to date)! I got a kick out of these books. Plus, Claudia was always my favorite, so I enjoyed #4, especially. The books were just what I remembered: sort of light and innocent, but also tackling the more difficult things the average junior higher goes through (in this case, arguments with friends, moving, divorce, tough customers, illness, added responsibilities, etc.) Reading these really made me want to go back and read some of the original BSC, but lo and behold they are not that easy to get your hands on despite that they are one of the best-selling kids series of all time. (Barnes & Noble carries them online, but not in any boxed sets.) I need to go through some old boxes at my mom’s and see what I can find. Until then, I have one eye on Ebay.

Overall

So the question I’m left with is this: Did I enjoy these books for themselves, or because they were so nostalgic for me? I’m just not sure I can separate the two. I know that my daughter enjoyed them, as do her friends (with the exception of Drama). I know that I breezed through them. I know that they are a superior graphic novel for Middle Grades, by the awards and the other reviews. But I also know they are going to be bumped up–possible severely–because I am thirty-five and can relate to all the 1980s adventures.

One of my favorite thing about Telgemeier is the simplicity. And yet, I am also a little put off by it. Just take a look at the covers. On one hand, you’re super unimpressed that an artist used a simple smiley face to sell her books. On the other hand, everything has this old-fashioned, family-style Sunday comics kind of feel. It’s like they’re perfectly executed, but a little underwhelming. Maybe it’s just the simplicity distracting us from the perfect execution?

I would recommend these books for people my age and junior highers (but Drama only if they are ready for a book about sexual identity). I would also point out that they are super-fast reads, but if you are in to graphic novels, you understand this. If you have ever enjoyed the Sunday funnies, you’ll find the art reminiscent and enjoyable, while at the same time new.

For more information, visit Telgemeier’s website HERE.

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. First published under the pen name Ellis Bell in 1847. Widely considered one of the best novels in the English language, it is Emily’s only novel; she died the following year at age thirty. I read it in conjunction with the other Bronte sisters’ novels. See previous reviews here: Jane Eyre, Shirley, and Agnes Grey. Three more to go.

*Painting for featured image is “Wuthering Heights” by Leon Nack, an artist out of Cleveland. (For more information, see HERE.)

**I will refer to Edgar Linton as Edgar and Linton Heathcliff as Linton. I will refer to Catherine Linton (nee Earnshaw) as Catherine and Catherine Earnshaw (nee Heathcliff nee Linton) as Cathy.

Let’s just get this part over with so I can move on to the real review: I did some research on brain fever. After two volumes of Sherlock Holmes, I was horrified when right there in one of the “best books of all time” (I am referring to Wuthering Heights, of course) a character fell into brain fever. More than once. What is this brain fever? Because I really want to think the Victorian writers made the thing up. It doesn’t fit with anything I have observed in reality and its presence in literature confounds me. Here goes nothing.

I’m going with the answer of “nervous breakdown.” That, coupled with these two thoughts: health in the time period was not ideal, and “brain fever” happened with more frequency and to more exaggerated extremes in literature than in real life. It is not meningitis or encephalitis, although that might be what we would use the term “brain fever” for today. It was, It believe, more of a polite way to say “crazy” but also encompassed more than that: fever, malaise, lethargy, hallucinations or fitful sleep, loss of consciousness, and sometimes even depression. I would want to call it “shock,” but it lasts much longer than modern “shock,” oftentimes for weeks or even months. As for the exaggeration and poor health, you just have to accept that between the two, Victorian characters did a whole lot more swooning and falling apart than we do. It can be a pretty useful (and perhaps even romantic) plot device, but yeah, it’s annoying too.

Did I like Wuthering Heights? I definitely found it entertaining. A great story, despite that its devices might get lost on the modern reader (like making the whole thing a parenthetical of a bystanding character). I was intrigued by the story-telling and the writing, to be sure. The characters were so finely drawn, so fleshed out. And I had those moments: those “Aha!” or “No!” or “Don’t open that door!” It’s sort of like an emotional horror novel. Yes, I think that might be the best way to term it. Emotional horror.

It was a bit meandering in the sense that I never had any feeling where it was heading or what exactly I even wanted to find out. As far as pacing, I always felt like I was just coming up on–or had surpassed–the end of the tale. That, I did not so much enjoy, and you might want to be forewarned: it deviates strongly from the Hero’s Journey construction, like with a clearly defined denouement and plot stages, etc.

Also, I feel like I have to mention that there is no one to like. Even Ellen, the second narrator, has so many glaring vices and makes so many horrible decisions that you are (at least at times) repulsed by her. Or horrified. Again, lots of me yelling, “No! Don’t do it!” And then she always does. Even the main narrator, who is basically a bystander, is so passive in character that you despise him. But perhaps that is the genius of Wuthering Heights. Perhaps it’s exactly what Bronte was going for.

The book an exploration of the dark side of life and the broken (and obsessive) side of love. So in that sense, we can all read it as a cautionary tale or a glimpse into our own (or others’) humanity. What I am convinced it is not, is a love story or a romance. There was not one moment past their earliest childhood that I actually wanted Heathcliff and Catherine to end up together, let alone Catherine and Edgar or Isabella and Heathcliff or Cathy and Linton. The movies all seem to get this part wrong. See my reviews below.

Of course, I’m disturbed by the idea that all the evil in the book springs from a character of a “different” race. Hindley and Catherine cause as much trouble as Heathcliff, but the whole mess starts with Heathcliff, his arrival, and ultimately from his stunted soul (which appears to have been bent before his arrival). Perhaps this is why modern adaptations make Heathcliff and Catherine out to be victims and heroes (but I’m telling you, they’re not). It’s more PC. Then again, Bronte may have been ahead of her time in creating some characters that did sympathize with Heathcliff and love him despite his race.

I am also torn on what to think about the few good characters in the story. Most memorably, I found Edgar Linton to be a nice man who truly did love his wife and was capable of forgiveness. When seen through the interpretation of his wife and his rival, though, the reader would be led to believe he was pathetic and silly and shallow. Somehow, though, I don’t buy it. Or I don’t want to buy it? I think there are probably a couple redemptive characters in the book, but it’s hard to find them surrounded by the mockery of the cruel people around them.

And then there’s religion in Wuthering Heights. On one hand, you could sort of see everyone’s downfall as a neglect of Christianity (further enhanced by some of the saner things that are said being pulled from the Bible). On the other hand, you have Joseph, who is one of the most despicable portrayals of a Christian that there is out there. And he’s the main representative. I would love to know what Bronte was thinking about it.

My biggest disappointment with the book was the ending. I like what happened at the end, I just didn’t like the pacing, at all. (SPOILERS AHEAD. SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON’T WANT TO READ THEM.) Healthcliff’s demise was confusing and ambiguous and dragged on and on after I wanted to set the book down with a sigh. Yet Cathy’s and Hareton’s relationship brightened out of absolutely nowhere. Like, you knew it was coming, but it was so completely unbelievable. The only way we could go from Cathy’s treatment of Hareton to their marriage was with a lot more time or glimpses of a kinder, gentler, deeper side of Cathy earlier on. I mean, even doting Nellie had an awfully hard time of it convincing Mr. Lockwood (and therefore us) that Cathy was anything more than a shallow, spoiled brat with a beautiful face and a bit of a spark.

Literature could be divided in half. On one half, you would have writers who expect you to take all the characters and the narrator at their word. On the other half, the reader should approach the story like real life, using clues beyond the words of the characters and narrator to determine what is true and what’s really happening. Perhaps because I’m not great at speaking what is going on inside my own complicated soul, I love it when a writer falls in the latter category. And I really think that Wuthering Heights is right there. That’s right: when Heathcliff and Catherine and Cathy and Nellie make impassioned speeches about this or the other thing, they might just be talking out of their butts. It’s the reader’s job, through contextual clues, to determine just who these people really are and what is really going on. And I believe it gets no more complex than reading through an English gentleman narrator as told through the family’s maid. You have, therefore, a minimum of three lenses (a fourth when we are reading a letter to Nellie) to look through all at once and make sense of the action and words of Wuthering Heights. For example, Nellie is going to make Linton and Cathy look much better than they really were, and yet she is also reacting to who treats her kindly. Another example: Mr. Lockwood can not be relied upon to clearly tell us who is pregnant and when, since he is a Victorian gentleman. Most importantly, Wuthering Heights is a book with an exceptional number of fickle and impulsive characters, so they give one thing with their right hand, and retract it with the left.

Therefore, impassioned love speeches should be taken with a grain of salt, not made into sappy movies a la Sense and Sensibility (which really is a sappy love story and I love it).

Conclusion? Fascinating. Beautiful. Dark, for sure. And minutely drawn characters within a (meandering but) complex story. Much to think about and discuss.

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MOVIE REVIEWS

I searched out what are supposed to be the two best of the more recent adaptations of Wuthering Heights, and I limited myself to them.

Wuthering Heights, by Masterpiece Theater. I was scared, within the first minute of this movie, that it was going to turn a tale of revenge and bad character into a couple of typical love stories. It totally did.

To be honest, I have already found this reading of the tale on the internet, and it sort of confounds me. I read the book. It’s about broken people. It’s about malice and revenge and, if it is about love, it’s about twisted and consuming love. I just can’t see Heathcliff as a lover. He’s a hater. Even his one great love was so poisoned by hate that it killed everything around him. I also don’t see Catherine as a lover. She was (wild and) spoiled and bent beyond the recognition of love.

Also, much of the beauty of a tale like Wuthering Heights (or, perhaps, other Victorian stories) comes from the absence of love’s consummation (on many levels). It is perhaps hard for many modern readers to see this, but it’s true. Instead, they load a story like this one up with passionate kisses and sex on the moors and kill much of the pathos and meaning with doing so.

Beautiful scenery, but I fear it may have been the only thing in the movie that really caught the spirit of the book. If you don’t care how carefully it follows the book, it’s a pretty good movie.

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.

While a much truer telling of the story, it still doesn’t capture just what broken people Catherine and Heathcliff were even in their childhood, and how they thus grew crooked and stunted and mean and selfish and out of touch with themselves (and yes, I mean both of them), therefore unable to love except in the most twisted ways. It also underplays all the abuse and neglect, all the anger and hate.

That said, I think many decisions were made in the making of this movie that did work, very well. I don’t know why, in the other hand, they added so many things. There is so much material to draw from, I don’t know why you would continually write new scenes and even a character.

Compared to the previous movie review, these characters did not look like what I would have imagined, for the most part. And despite the plaudits that Fiennes got for this role, there was a softness there in the eyes that was too human for a real Heathcliff. Bronte herself describes his eyes as black and soulless, several times. Then again, it’s sort of the way this movie was: another well-loved and healthy child who is just a victim of a mean older “brother.” Ehn.

What both these movies do for me, though, is give me a visual on the homes, costume, and moors.

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QUOTES

“They had so many queer goings on, she could not begin to be curious” (p19).

“I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire” (p80).

“Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being” (p82).

“How strange! I thought, though everybody hated and despised each other, they could not avoid loving me” (p120).

“I sometimes wonder at him with an intensity that deadens my fear” (p144).

“Do you understand what the word pity means?” (p151).

“He might as well plant an oak in a flower-pot, and expect it to thrive, as imagine he can restore her to vigour in the soil of his shallow cares!” (p152).

“But treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies” (p172).

“After all, it is preferable to be hated than loved by him” (p178).

“One hoped, and the other despaired: they chose their own lots, and were righteously doomed to endure them” (p181).

“‘I know he has a bad nature,’ said Catherine: ‘he’s your son. But I’m glad I’ve a better, to forgive it'” (p277).

“That sounds as if I had been labouring the whole time only to exhibit a fine trait of magnanimity. It is far from being the case. I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing” (p312).

“The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!” (p313).

“I have to remind myself to breathe–almost to remind my heart to beat!” (p313).

This is the third Bronte book I have read of the seven total novels the three sisters produced. I still have two of Charlotte’s, one of Anne’s, and Emily’s only one, which is the very next book I am starting. This has been an entertaining ride, so far.

Anne is the youngest of all of the Bronte children. She is also usually considered the most religious (which is saying a lot) and the most quiet and reclusive. While she was very devout, the biographer who wrote the front matter for the Barnes & Noble version of Agnes Grey would argue as to whether or not she was the meek and mild sister, at all. This reputation may have arisen from various screenings of Wuthering Heights which makes the Brontes looks like a somber, unhappy, reclusive family (they were not), and Charlotte’s tactics to save Anne’s reputation after she published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and died.

At any rate, Anne seems to have been one of three amazingly talented youngest sisters who would all have blazing careers drastically abbreviated by untimely death. Anne published her poems only after Charlotte persuaded her to in her twenties, and then very quickly produced Agnes Grey and Wildfell Hall. She died within months of the publication of the second one, at age twenty-nine. Agnes Grey was overshadowed by the simultaneous publication (they shared three volumes) of Wuthering Heights, considered–more than one hundred years later–to be one of the best books ever written in the English language, and some confusion about the Brontes’ nom de plumes. The second one–Wildfell Hall–was very popular and widely acclaimed, but marked Anne as a ruined woman, since the subject matter (adultery) was considered racy and indelicate.

I started with Agnes Grey because it is still around, and it was actually stocked at my local Barnes & Noble.

Due to the nature of the publishing industry in the mid-1800s and also to the death of the author, the manuscript for Agnes Grey that we are left with is far from perfect. It is riddled with improper and misplaced commas, as well as misspellings, some poor grammar, etc. And then, on page seventy, a POV shift for two paragraphs. I mean, like a major problem POV shift, when first person becomes third person and we can’t figure out what the heck just happened and why.

But if you can just let all that be what it is, Agnes Grey is a nice book. It has that Bronte forward- and deep-thinking thing going on, but in a cleaner narrative, a simpler plot, and a more realistic story than Jane Eyre or–so I understand–Wuthering Heights. It’s like reading a real account of someone from the time period, and being rewarded with a touching and wonderfully terrestrial romance.

Of course, first you have to wade through maybe like fifty pages (or one hundred?) of establishing the character and her situation, which is riddled–just riddled!–with description. Telling, not showing, for reals. True to the period, there is a lot less dialogue and action than straight up “The name of governess, I soon found, was a mere mockery as applied to me” (p25). I just want to beg Anne, couldn’t you show me how this unfolded in some school room vignettes? Ah, well. I was still interested in the book and driven by the neat writing all the way until the hero entered. And even though I had no idea this tale had a hero, I could spot him a mile away, as subtle and destined as a new perfume in a dark room.

I really grew to love the few lovable characters and also to believe that there were so few lovable characters to be found in the world of a governess of the time. I also found some confusion regarding how Agnes would waffle between being abused and depressed and her unswerving hope in particular humanity. There were times when I saw this as simply irreconcilable, and yet, it makes Agnes who she is, to an extent. And it makes me wonder how fine a line many a governess walked. In the end, we see at least one of the despicable characters living out their dark destiny, despite the cheery hopes of their former governess, which lets us in on one of the best secrets of the book: Agnes Grey is not an omniscient storyteller.

The words I would choose for the back cover of this book: Clever. Forward-thinking. Basically entertaining. Romantic. Brief. Educating. Memorable.

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There are no, and have never been any, film adaptations of this book.

BTW, I have no idea where this image actually came from–I think perhaps a French adaptation of something Bronte?–but it came up when I searched for Agnes Grey images. The reason I included it is because the girl looks almost exactly as I had imagined Agnes Grey, minus a more rounded face with dimples. If you know its source, do tell me.

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“…but she would rather live in a cottage with Richard Grey, than in a palace with any other man in the world” (p3).

“I never felt more ashamed and uncomfortable in my life, for anything that was not my own fault” (p25).

“The ties that bind us to life are tougher than you imagine, or than any one can, who has not felt how roughly they may be pulled without breaking” (p106).

“There are, I suppose, some men as vain, as selfish, and as heartless as she is, and perhaps such women may be useful to punish them” (p122).

“…not that I am superior to the rest, but I was made for him, and he for me” (p156).

“The end of Religion is not to teach us how to die, but how to live; and the earlier you become wise and good, the more of happiness you secure” (p180).

Another Best Books list, this time for the best history books of all time. This is one my husband and father-in-law would really enjoy. Personally, the titles are about to put me to sleep, so I think I’ll keep this list tucked away for when I need to do some research or am traveling somewhere. There are even some historical novels in there, near the end. (Most of these titles are from The List Muse (www.listmuse.com.)

The Histories, Herodotus
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon
The History of England, Thomas Babington Macaulay
Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt
The Making of the English Working Class, E. P. Thompson
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown
Hard Times: an Oral History of the Great Depression, Studs Terkel
Shah of Shahs, Ryszard Kapuściński
The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991, Eric Hobsbawm
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Familes, Philip Gourevitch
Postwar, Tony Judt
A Study of History, Arnold J. Toynbee



The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Fernand Braudel
The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848, four volumes, Eric Hobsbawm
The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Gordon S. Wood
The Rise of the West, William H. McNeill
The Sources of Social Power, Michael Mann
What Is History?, E. H. Carr
The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150-750, Peter Brown
The Contours of American History, William Appleman Williams
The Origins of the Second World War, A. J. P. Taylor
The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
The Black Jacobins, C. L. R. James
The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Karl Polanyi
Liberty Before Liberalism, Quentin Skinner
Gender and the Politics of History, Joan Scott
Search for Modern China, Jonathan Spence
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, James M. McPherson
The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World, Kenneth Pomeranz
Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, William Cronon
The Strange Death of Liberal England: 1910-1914, George Dangerfield
Religion and the Decline of Magic, Keith Thomas
Greece, Michael Rostovtzeff
Rome, Michael Rostovtzeff
The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman
Hidden From History: 300 Years of Women’s Oppression and the Fight Against It, Sheila Rowbotham
The Century of Revolution, Christopher Hill
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Tony Judt
A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War, Melvyn Leffler
The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, Ibn Khaldun
The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English States, 1688-1783, John Brewer
Coercion, Capital and European States: AD 990-1992, Charles Tilly
The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It, Richard Hofstadter
A History of the Arab Peoples, Albert Hourani
Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, J. M. Neeson
Quicksand: America’s Pursuit of Power in the Middle East, Geoffrey Wawro
The Annals: The Reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero, Cornelius Tacitus
Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People, Josiah Ober
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt
American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World, David E. Stannard
The Great Chain of Being, Arthur O. Lovejoy
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad 1750 to Present, Walter LaFeber
The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire, John Newsinger
Reflections on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Raymond Garthoff
That Landscape of History, John Lewis Gaddis
Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson
The Destruction of the European Jews, Raul Hilberg
The First Emperor: Selections from the Historical Records, Sima Qian
Imperial China 990-1800, F. W. Mote
The Historian’s Craft, Marc Bloch
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney
African Perspectives on Colonialism, Albert Adu Boahen
A History of Russia, Nicholas Roasanovsky and Mark Steinberg
The Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru
Jefferson and Civil Liberaties: The Darker Side, Leonard W. Levy
The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization, Bryan Ward-Perkins
The City in History, Lewis Mumford
The Revolution and the Civil War in Spain, Pierre Broue and Emile Temime
The French Revolutions: From Its Origins to 1793, Georges Lefebvre
The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350-1750, James D. Tracy
The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell
The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller, Carlo Ginzburg
The Korean War: A History, Bruce Cumings
The Idea of History, R. G. Collingwood
History of the Byzantine State, George Ostrogorsky
Age of the Democratic Revolution, R. R. Palmer
The Crowd in History, George Rude
History of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky
British Counterinsurgency: From Palestine to Northern Ireland, John Newsinger
A History of Sub-Saharan Africa, James M. Burns and Robert O. Collins
The Conquest of the Incas, John Hemming
Hiroshima, John Hershey
American Slavery: 1619-1877, Peter Kolchin
The Battle for Homestead, 1880-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel, Paul Krausse
Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, John Womack
Reformation, Diarmaid MacCulloch
The Politics of War: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1943-1945, Gabriel Kolko
Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America, Edmund S. Morgan
The Great War: 1914-1918, Marc Ferro
Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750, Jonathan I. Israel
Europe and the People Without History, Eric R. Wolf
Industry and Empire: The Birth of the Industrial Revolution, Eric Hobsbawm
Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900-1300, Susan Reynolds
Europe: Hierarchy and Revolt: 1320-1450, George Holmes
Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade, Henri Pirenne
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ilan Pappe
The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Avi Shlaim
Last Reflections on a War, Bernard B. Fall
Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movements and the English Rising of 1381, Rodney Hilton
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Eduardo Galeano
Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation, Barry J. Kemp
A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924, Orlando Figes
The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe, T. H. Alston, Robert Brenner, and C. H. E. Philpin
Society and Culture in Early Modern France, Natalie Zemon Davis
The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, J. G. A. Pocock
Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830, John H. Elliott
Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, Eric Metaxas
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer
Battle Cry of Freedom, James McPherson
The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman
A Distant Mirror, Barbara W. Tuchman
1776, David McCullough
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
1491, Charles C. Mann
American History, Alan Brinkley
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
Night, Elie Weisel
A Bright Shining Lie, Neil Sheehan
Ornamentalism, David Cannadine
The Best War Ever, Michael C. C. Adams
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gerrtude Stein
Founding Brothers, Joseph B. Ellis
Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Louwen
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin
Undaunted Courage, Stephen B. Ambrose
The Rise and Fall of the West, William H. McNeil
Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin
Salt, Mark Kurlansky
The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang
The Civil War, Shelby Foote
With the Old Breed, Eugene Sledge
Ghengis Khan and the Modern World, Jack Weatherford
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
A Tales of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
1493, Charles C. Mann
Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The Prize, Daniel Yergin
The Kite Runner, Khaled Housseni
The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes
The Pillars of the Earth, Kenneth Follett
The Alchemist, Paulo Coehlo

A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Lloyd and published by Scholastic Press in 2014.

I loved this book. Going in I had absolutely no expectations, but was very, very pleasantly surprised. I liked it from the first and all the way through the end. Between the combination of magic and word-loving, the prose was light while the topics a bit heavier, all wrapped in a youthful magic-realism full of interesting people and suspenseful story.

My biggest complaint about this book: the cover and title. Ice cream? Snicker? No to both. It’s completely true that both of these things were prevalent in the book, but somehow taking them out of the book and highlighting them on the cover had a completely different vibe, for me. All I see on that cover is a kid’s book about an ice cream shop. “Snicker,” in this context, is just “Snickers,” like the candy bar. Which does nothing to reveal the magical, lyrical, sleepy mountain town feel of this book or the Big Fish quality.

Next in line: the romance was a little old for the audience. Maybe the older end (12), but definitely not 8. I find this to be true of many books for Middle Grades. When there is romance, it is just too advanced for the age group. It’s like the grown-up writers are trying to infuse the craziness of junior high, blossoming attraction and affection with the wisdom of more mature love. This is the second book I have read this year where the romance of two twelve-year-olds is on par with the most practiced and committed marriages. Perhaps modelling this way is okay? I just find it distracting and creepy, while also being torn wanting it to bloom into a marriage or something. I really think Lloyd could have kept the two characters just best friends (which in some ways, I suppose, she sort of did. But we know what was really going on).

I also started forgetting who people were. Now, that’s pretty hypocritical coming from an author whose last book covered forty people in two hundred pages, but it’s a fact and I’m going to state it. I love having a lot of characters, but I definitely dropped threads on some of the more minor ones.

And how quickly can one person eat a pint of ice cream? I find myself really on the look-out, lately, for how timing and dialogue are handled in books. There was one case in this book where a character arrived somewhere after school, had a quick conversation, and arrived home late at night. Whuh?!? Also, people scarfed whole pints of ice cream in like five minutes, over and over again. Whuh?!? I was left wondering if Lloyd doesn’t just adore ice cream so much she had to force it in there. Or was this part of the magic of the ice cream? If it was, she didn’t say so. “Goes down magically easy.”

One of my favorite things about the book was that it was about the South, but not about the South. You could just tell that the author found this place and these people to be comfortable, so there was no forcing things down our throat. There was a respect and an easiness that I have not seen in Southern literature in a long while.

Topic-wise, I appreciated that it was about moving and about not fitting in, two things that kids can really relate to. I also appreciated that it contained a disabled character but not a whopping, heavy disabled-character storyline. He was disabled. Okay. This book is about imperfect people, which is also great, although I’m not sure what I think about a twelve-year-old grasping that all the adults around her were broken and most of them were lonely. Felicity was definitely mature beyond her years, sometimes unrealistically so. (Then again, it is a book.) But it’s a stretch, I think, for most kids in the designated age group to gravitate to this book–full of mature observations and a featured love of language–over, say, a fairy tale or superhero series. It’s more on par with more “difficult” and classic literature from the age group, like The Secret Garden or Charlotte’s Web.

I loved how real so much of it was. All the way from the smoking, Dorito-breakfasting aunt to the bed in the family room to whatever. Lloyd was never trying to hush up any family secrets or glaze over the normal parts of Midnight Gulch. While fiction can be that world-away-from-the-world thing, I loved that this book was not like that. Despite the magic themes, this book really celebrates the normalcy of life.

The ending was fine. It could have been handled a little more deftly, I think, but fine. I was nervous coming up on it, because I didn’t want a great book to be spoiled. Despite a little bit of hokiness (which is immensely difficult to avoid) and perhaps some imperfect timing, the ending was on point with the book. If I were an upper elementary school teacher, I would definitely put this on the required reading list, although the girls are going to relate to it more than the boys, in most cases.

Among other awards, A Snicker of Magic has been named a top book of 2014 for National Public Radio (NPR), New York Public Library, and Parents Magazine.

I would give it four stars, at least. Definitely a recommend. Very much looking forward to Natalie Lloyd’s next book.

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This could make a great movie. Tim Burton? It would seriously be like a kid version of Big Fish.

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QUOTES:

“I don’t mind running, but only if I’m running toward something wonderful. I don’t see the point in running away from anything, ever” (p124).

“I could climb to the prickliest star in the sky and scratch its back. I could climb past that even, all the way to heaven, and give God a high five for bringing my family together” (p125).

“He saw the whole world from the basket of that balloon. But the whole world’s nothing compared to the people you love” (p160).

“Home isn’t just a house or a city or a place; home is what happens when you’re brave enough to love people” (p302).