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Wednesday book of the week
Well, I tried doing that "what are you reading on Wednesday?" meme, but I kinda petered out because it was simply too random; the last book I read was usually something I didn't have much to say about, and I ended up talking about a lot of books I didn't like, and that wasn't fun.
So instead, I'll use these Wednesday reading posts to recommend a book that I read and liked.
This week, it's Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (On the Jellicoe Road in Australia). It's YA, and it was originally recommended to me by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
naye. The library finally had it -- it's been checked out every time I've gone looking for it for the last few months -- so I read it and was completely blown away. Also I somehow forgot the part of naye's recommendation post (note: spoilers in the comments on the LJ side) where she mentioned that the book "wrenched my heart out and set it on fire and threw the ashes in the river." Er, yes, that about sums it up. It turned me into a sobbing MESS. Although I realized when I started trying to explain to Orion why his wife was crying her eyes out that ... it's actually sort of hard to describe WHY I was so wrecked at the end of the book. It was a good kind of wrecked! Really, I swear.
Anyway, the book is YA, so if a basic, to-the-point YA writing style and teen protagonists are not your thing, then you may not like it. Also, it really does put you through the emotional wringer. But I absolutely loved it and recommend it VERY highly. It's been a long time since I read a book that was so completely surprising, on almost every level; although I finally got a decent grasp on it by about halfway through, it's a book that really throws all your expectations in terms of genre and characters and plot. It's difficult to talk about the book in more detail without getting into spoilers, and this is a book that I am very glad I read unspoiled. However, there are some more spoilery comments under the cut (not really a "review" so much as random things I liked about the book).
One thing I loved is that the book throws your genre expectations halfway through. It is actually not a book with a spec-fic element to it at all, but the opening of the book primes you to expect a different kind of book (it looks like your classic dystopian YA setup, and then it turns out that most of the elements that make it seem that way are, basically, the products of childhood imagination). I know that this could go all kinds of wrong, but in this case I think it really, REALLY worked. Likenaye and I were talking about in the comments to her post, it brings gravity and emotional resonance to the kids' friendships and enmities, because they really are that important to the kids (even if they don't have major political implications in real life), and the book gently teases you into taking the whole situation as seriously as the protagonists do, without being in-your-face about it. Also, it lends the whole book a sort of gentle magical-realism air without there being any actual magic at all (well, except one thing which could be viewed in several ways).
I also absolutely adore that the book is all about different ways of people loving each other: siblings, best friends, parents & children, lovers. Although there are a couple of central romances, there really isn't ever a suggestion that romantic love trumps friendship/family love, or that you can't love more than one person at the same time. (Which is not to say there are explicitly poly relationships in the book; actually, there aren't any queer characters at all, except for one who's name-checked very briefly. In another sense, though, you could say that the kids' entire lives are slightly queered, with their complicated networks of family both blood-related and chosen.)
And it's one of the best books I've ever read for depicting very damaged people in a way that is naturalistic and sympathetic -- not pitying, but not overly emo either. It is hard to write about suicidal, depressed people without either glossing over their issues or wallowing in them, and this book achieves that balance better than just about anything else I've read.
Short version: this is highly recommended. :)
So instead, I'll use these Wednesday reading posts to recommend a book that I read and liked.
This week, it's Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (On the Jellicoe Road in Australia). It's YA, and it was originally recommended to me by
naye. The library finally had it -- it's been checked out every time I've gone looking for it for the last few months -- so I read it and was completely blown away. Also I somehow forgot the part of naye's recommendation post (note: spoilers in the comments on the LJ side) where she mentioned that the book "wrenched my heart out and set it on fire and threw the ashes in the river." Er, yes, that about sums it up. It turned me into a sobbing MESS. Although I realized when I started trying to explain to Orion why his wife was crying her eyes out that ... it's actually sort of hard to describe WHY I was so wrecked at the end of the book. It was a good kind of wrecked! Really, I swear.Anyway, the book is YA, so if a basic, to-the-point YA writing style and teen protagonists are not your thing, then you may not like it. Also, it really does put you through the emotional wringer. But I absolutely loved it and recommend it VERY highly. It's been a long time since I read a book that was so completely surprising, on almost every level; although I finally got a decent grasp on it by about halfway through, it's a book that really throws all your expectations in terms of genre and characters and plot. It's difficult to talk about the book in more detail without getting into spoilers, and this is a book that I am very glad I read unspoiled. However, there are some more spoilery comments under the cut (not really a "review" so much as random things I liked about the book).
One thing I loved is that the book throws your genre expectations halfway through. It is actually not a book with a spec-fic element to it at all, but the opening of the book primes you to expect a different kind of book (it looks like your classic dystopian YA setup, and then it turns out that most of the elements that make it seem that way are, basically, the products of childhood imagination). I know that this could go all kinds of wrong, but in this case I think it really, REALLY worked. Like
naye and I were talking about in the comments to her post, it brings gravity and emotional resonance to the kids' friendships and enmities, because they really are that important to the kids (even if they don't have major political implications in real life), and the book gently teases you into taking the whole situation as seriously as the protagonists do, without being in-your-face about it. Also, it lends the whole book a sort of gentle magical-realism air without there being any actual magic at all (well, except one thing which could be viewed in several ways).I also absolutely adore that the book is all about different ways of people loving each other: siblings, best friends, parents & children, lovers. Although there are a couple of central romances, there really isn't ever a suggestion that romantic love trumps friendship/family love, or that you can't love more than one person at the same time. (Which is not to say there are explicitly poly relationships in the book; actually, there aren't any queer characters at all, except for one who's name-checked very briefly. In another sense, though, you could say that the kids' entire lives are slightly queered, with their complicated networks of family both blood-related and chosen.)
And it's one of the best books I've ever read for depicting very damaged people in a way that is naturalistic and sympathetic -- not pitying, but not overly emo either. It is hard to write about suicidal, depressed people without either glossing over their issues or wallowing in them, and this book achieves that balance better than just about anything else I've read.
Short version: this is highly recommended. :)