Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Review: What Happened to Goodbye


What Happened to GoodbyeWhat Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Sarah Dessen has been blessed over the years with fantastic covers. They call out to me, teasing me and telling me that I'll love what's inside. I rarely listen. Years ago, I did read two of her books, That Summer and Someone Like You, packaged together in the omnibus How to Deal. At the time, I thought they were ok but not deserving of the huge fan following Dessen has built. In the time since then, her covers have continued to call to me. However, I've remembered my prior disappointment and walked away.



This book called my name louder than any of her others. Something about the model's stance on the cover caught my eye. Was she defiant or merely weary? Intrigued, i read the cover copy. What was going on with girl, McLean? Why did she change her name and persona at every school? Why did she travel so much? Was her father doing something illegal? Was she a hostage in a custody battle?



Once I found myself coming up with that many questions, I knew I needed answers. Most of my theories were off-base. McLean's parents did have a messy divorce, but her dad had not stolen her. He was not a con man. Instead, he was a consultant, moving from town to town doing business.



While the plot wasn't as exciting as my fantasy of it, McLean's problems were real. She was deeply unhappy with herself and used each move to create another temporary self. Having seen the breakdown of her parents' marriage, she doubts that true long term relationships exist. Her policy of leaving each town abruptly, without goodbyes, reinforces her worldview. Except now, in Lakeview, McLean doesn't get the chance to create an identity. Instead, she's living as herself for the first time in two years. Taking up her true name and identity forces McLean to confront all of the issues she's been dodging. And it also gives her a real chance to connect with others.



I enjoyed this book, but I still don't see what makes her fans love her so much. McLean was a very real character, and she was someone I could sympathize with. At various points in my own life, I flirted with the idea of creating a new self. My user name at GoodReads, Nan, is an outgrowth of that desire. When I started my freshman year of college in 1994, I dropped my full name, Nancy, and gave myself a nickname. Nan was much more than a persona; freed from the baggage of high school, I was able to be myself (still geeky, just more social and willing to take risks). McLean's personas were much different. They were a way for her to hide.



McLean's new friends--Deb, Riley, Dave, Ellis, Heather, and even Opal--are what made this book. Their steadfast devotion to each other and to McLean proved her wrong. Relationships--friendship and romantic--can be real. Unfortunately, the world doesn't revolve around McLean and the lessons she needed to learn. She's unaware that events are moving around her and may snatch her away from these people that have come to mean so much.



I still can't quite decide if I like Dessen or not. I do think this was a sweet novel about finding oneself, but I'm not too likely to revisit it. Dave and the rest of the supporting cast were superb, but I don't feel a strong connection to them. Overall, I do think think this is a good book, and it's likely to appeal to a wide audience.



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Friday, May 20, 2011

Review: The Libertine


The Libertine (Gothic Novels II)The Libertine by Charlotte Dacre

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This novel was originally published in 1807. The author, Charlotte Dacre, was a recognized author of Gothic fiction and Della Cruscan poetry. This edition is a reprint of the first edition; it is literally a photocopy of those pages rebound and reprinted in the 1970s as a part of the Gothic Novels series by Devendra P. Varma. Despite its strong ties to the Gothic, there is very little in this book that is actually Gothic.

The Libertine opens with the story of Montmorency, who, having lost almost all his fortune in gambling, retreated with his small daughter, Gabrielle, to Switzerland. There, in the remote mountains, he believed he could raise her away from the temptations of society. However, society was destined to find them in the form of Angelo. Welcomed into their home as a lost traveler, Angelo overstays his welcome and seduces Gabrielle. He genuinely adores her, but he decides to return to Naples regardless. Only after he leaves does Gabrielle realize that she's pregnant. In the first of a long series of tragedies resulting from the seduction, Montmorency loses his mind in grief when he realizes that his daughter is pregnant. Gabrielle gives birth to Agnes on the very day that her father dies. Throughout her pregnancy, she had only written one letter to Angelo, and she'd sent it before she realized the truth of her condition. He did not respond, since he was distracted by society, and Gabrielle never wrote him again. However, after her daughter is born, Gabrielle decides that she must journey to Naples in order to find Angelo and inform him of his duty as a father. Having borne a daughter, Gabrielle is all too aware of the fate of a girl raised without the protection of a father or a father's name.

In Naples, Gabrielle poses as a male servant, even dying her skin. She works for Angelo, and even helps him to in his affair with another woman. As she sees both his devotion to Oriana and his disregard for the woman, Gabrielle realizes that Angelo will never respect a woman that gave herself to him without a wedding. In despair, Gabrielle finds herself in a position where the only things that matter to her are her daughter's fate and Angelo's happiness.

This is a four volume novel, and that summary doesn't even encompass the first two volumes. In some ways, this novel does read like a Gothic in its condemnation of sin and its extreme violence. However, it is also a novel with close ties to the sensation fiction that would appear in the late nineteenth century. Dacre constantly focuses on the emotion of her characters, on their despair and heartache. Reading this book inspires an emotional response in much the same way that sensation fiction did in later readers. As with that later genre, it details the crimes of present-day characters. Using Dacre's references to philosophers as a guide, it would seem that this novel was written in a contemporary setting, unlike her more traditional Gothics, Zofloya and The Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer. Also, this book is entirely lacking in any supernatural element--explained or otherwise. If it were not written by Dacre, I'm not sure that it would even be considered a Gothic. It might have been considered a late sentimental novel, or even an attempt at realism.

The book itself is occasionally difficult to read. Dacre is well known for her excesses of language, her neologisms like "enhorrored." At times, I was thrilled when characters died, if only because it meant an end to their death scenes.

As with Zofloya, Dacre does try to create a moral for this work. In that other work, she examines the question of nature vs. nurture and whether a mother's example could have saved Victoria from her own dark nature. In this book, Dacre doesn't present questions. Instead, she baldly states that the institution of marriage was created to strengthen society and the bonds between individuals. When marriage is disregarded, and sexual relations occur without that holy bond, chaos results. The sins of the parents will be punished through their children. Here, Angelo and Gabrielle's unhallowed union brings about the deaths of at least three people and results in madness for two others. (Those totals do not include Gabrielle and Angelo, either!)

Dacre's moral is complicated by her biography. It is well established that she had three children prior to her marriage to their father, Nicholas Byrne. Dacre's father was a well known radical named Jacob Rey. He divorced Dacre's mother and married a countess, changing his name to Jonathon King. In addition to the divorce, he was involved in other scandals and was called "the Jew King." Several recent scholars have focused on Dacre's relationship to her father and his faith, which she seems to have rejected. After her marriage, all of her children were baptized into the Church of England. With this history of divorce, of rejected Jewishness, and extramarital childbirth, Dacre's moralizing is suspect. While she may have condemned extramarital sexual relations in her writing, she was also condemning the life she led.

Most of Dacre's work has long been forgotten. Zofloya has enjoyed increased critical attention in recent years. Now that scholars have rediscovered that work, they need to enlarge their focus and discuss her other works as well.



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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Review: Kitty Goes to Washington


Kitty Goes to Washington (Kitty Norville, #2)Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For the past two days, I've been struggling to contain a migraine. I've turned to the Kitty Norville books to give me something to do that wouldn't make the pain worse. It's been a good decision.



As this second adventure opens, Kitty has taken her radio broadcast on the road. She's got her reasons for leaving Denver, and she'd rather not talk about them, thank you. Especially not with any humans. Her schedule is interrupted by a call from her lawyer, Ben. He's been handling her mail, and she's received a subpoena to testify before a Senate hearing. Dr. Flemming, our friendly researcher from the first book, went public with his findings after Kitty was outed as the first publicly known werewolf. Now the government wants to know what he's been using their money to study. To get a better understanding of the supernatural, they've invited a number of experts, including Kitty.



On her arrival in D.C., Kitty finds herself the guest of the local Master Vampire, Alette. She also finds herself drawn to the were community, a packless society that meets at a local club. Compared to Carl's pack, this D.C. group is a utopia, but as Kitty discovers, their peace comes at a price--nonintervention.



As the Senate hearing moves forward, Kitty quickly learns that everyone involved has an agenda--especially Senator Duke, the Bible quoting chair of the committee. He's especially fond of the verse "thou shall not suffer a witch to live," and seems to think it covers werewolves as well.



Drawn into terrible events against her will, Kitty has to take control of them in the way that only she can. In doing so, she'll discover that she's more of a leader than she's ever let herself believe.



Fans of the book should definitely read the short story, "Kitty Meets the Band," included in the back of the book. It includes some of my favorite call-ins, from the woman sick of the sound of "Muskrat Love" to a guy who'd love to sell his soul if he could play like Hendrix . . . and we haven't even met the band as yet . . .



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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Review: Kitty and the Midnight Hour


Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville, #1)Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After recommending this book strongly to a friend yesterday, I realized that it had been so long since I had read it that I had forgotten the plot. I still remembered some of my favorite scenes, but I couldn't recall the story arc of this particular book. So I took it down and read it. And, after reading it, I still found myself flipping to the front of the book to remind myself how it started.



While that might sound like a bad thing, I don't perceive it that way. As I read the book, the narrative seems to progress so naturally that it's often difficult for me to remember the steps that led to any specific event. The events seem to occur organically, each one building to the next.



As the novel opens, Kitty Norville is subbing for a coworker and doing the midnight DJ shift at the radio station where she works--KNOB in Denver. Bored with recent music, Kitty decides to talk instead, and she asks her listeners if any of them have ideas about why The Weekly World News (which is now sadly defunct) had been reporting on Bat Boy for 50 years. On caller suggests that it's a cover up for supernatural activity and hints that he may be a vampire; another caller has heard wolves in an area where they're supposedly extinct. One of my favorite callers asks if she believes in vampires. He asks if she thinks that first caller was a vampire, and when she says she didn't know, he explains that



"I go to nightclubs a lot, and sometimes people show up there, and they just don't fit. They're, like, way too cool for the place, you know? Like, scary cool, like they should be in Hollywood or something and what the hell are they doing here--"



"Grocery shopping?"



"Yeah, exactly!"




The next caller asks about salvation and claims to be a vampire.



Kitty's stint hosting late night and her improvised call-in show turn out to be a huge hit. Her manager is thrilled with the ratings, making it a regular show and even taking it into syndication.



However, at least two people are not pleased--Arturo, the local Master Vampire, and Carl, the alpha male of her pack. Arturo approaches Carl to get Kitty to quite the show, but in a rare showing of stubborness, she refuses.



Kitty is the lowest the member of the pack, and Carl would like to keep her that way. She's the newest wolf in the pack, and Carl wants to keep her as a puppy. So long as she's a puppy, she won't have to stand for herself, and he'll protect her. But the human Kitty is an adult, and she can't stay a puppy forever.



Vaughn's portrayal of Carl's pack is troubling. From the outset it is clear that Kitty doesn't accept her role within the pack, but the voice of the Wolf within her explains that this is how things are supposed to be. As alpha, Carl has sexual access to any wolf in the pack (although he seems to be heterosexual, there's never a clear statement that says that male wolves would not also submit to him). When he chastises Kitty for trying to step outside her role, the yelling will turn into a sexual encounter. As much as Kitty can recognize this as abuse, her Wolf loves him. Changing her relationship with Carl means challenging the pack structure, and Kitty doesn't know if she's ready to do that just yet.



In the course of the novel, Kitty is outed as a werewolf while broadcasting, and society must suddenly deal with the fact that supernatural creatures are real. As she's the only "out" werewolf, the local police come to her when they find themselves facing a series of gruesome murders.



The murders--and Kitty's relationship to her pack--form the story arc for the novel. In some ways, though, they're secondary. The true wonder of this book is Kitty's relationship to her callers. They come to her looking for advice, trying to understand the moral implications of their lives. Or looking for the location of the next vampire orgy. In any case, Kitty tries to talk with them and provide some form of guidance. Through Kitty, Vaughn is able to explore the world she has created in a way that's simply not possible for most urban fantasy.



I adore the Kitty novels, and I can't wait for the newest entry in the series this summer.



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