soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2023-05-24 03:57 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2023-05-24 03:57 pm
We Ride Upon Sticks, by Quan Barry
We Ride Upon Sticks is a historical fantasy/magic realism novel set in the long-ago era of 1989, and it fully embraces what it means to be set in the 80's in the eastern United States. (is it weird to be reading historical fiction set in the decade of my birth? it sure is! but also I adore how firmly it embodies the 80's.)
The Danvers High School field hockey team has a long history of losing their games by embarrassingly large amounts, but this year is different. This year the 11 players have a PLAN, have made a magically binding pact, and are ready to do what it takes to win for a change.
The book is told from the pov of the team. Yes, the whole team, it's written in first-person plural. You would think this would be weird? But it super isn't, it feels remarkably natural to read!
None of the team members are the main character; the whole team is, equally. Over the course of the narrative, you spend time examining the realities of what it means to be each of them, what's going on in their families and relationships, what their inner lives are like, and so forth. You would think that this is too many characters to focus on, but again, it super isn't! I really felt like I knew all eleven of them.
One of the things I loved about this book is its prose; it's distinctive and confident and fun. And I love the way reveals are constructed, circling around the information so that you see what the result is and then come back around to see what actually happened – you get these kind of reveals both within the space of a paragraph, or a chapter, or a whole arc, and I love the way it carries you forward. And the author has a real knack for similes too, and the story is full of the kind of extremely specific and weird details that make something come alive. I saw in the author's bio that she's also a published poet and that doesn't surprise me!
The book is about teens but it doesn't feel like a part of the YA genre to me. It's more of a classic bildungsroman, wherein the main characters become more empowered to become more themselves as they make the transition towards adulthood in their final year of high school.
My main disappointment is that for the first while in the book, the weirdness quotient kept on being turned up, and it was so much fun to have no idea where it was all going – but then it kind of stabilized midway through, and at the climactic ending of the story, the weirdness quotient was actually LOWER than it was at its peak. I think that there should have been a weirdness climax to go along with the emotional and plot climax! What we got felt weirdly....mundane, for the kind of book I had thought it was, tbh.
But overall I thoroughly enjoyed the read, and it was definitely doing a bunch of really cool things!
The Danvers High School field hockey team has a long history of losing their games by embarrassingly large amounts, but this year is different. This year the 11 players have a PLAN, have made a magically binding pact, and are ready to do what it takes to win for a change.
The book is told from the pov of the team. Yes, the whole team, it's written in first-person plural. You would think this would be weird? But it super isn't, it feels remarkably natural to read!
None of the team members are the main character; the whole team is, equally. Over the course of the narrative, you spend time examining the realities of what it means to be each of them, what's going on in their families and relationships, what their inner lives are like, and so forth. You would think that this is too many characters to focus on, but again, it super isn't! I really felt like I knew all eleven of them.
One of the things I loved about this book is its prose; it's distinctive and confident and fun. And I love the way reveals are constructed, circling around the information so that you see what the result is and then come back around to see what actually happened – you get these kind of reveals both within the space of a paragraph, or a chapter, or a whole arc, and I love the way it carries you forward. And the author has a real knack for similes too, and the story is full of the kind of extremely specific and weird details that make something come alive. I saw in the author's bio that she's also a published poet and that doesn't surprise me!
The book is about teens but it doesn't feel like a part of the YA genre to me. It's more of a classic bildungsroman, wherein the main characters become more empowered to become more themselves as they make the transition towards adulthood in their final year of high school.
My main disappointment is that for the first while in the book, the weirdness quotient kept on being turned up, and it was so much fun to have no idea where it was all going – but then it kind of stabilized midway through, and at the climactic ending of the story, the weirdness quotient was actually LOWER than it was at its peak. I think that there should have been a weirdness climax to go along with the emotional and plot climax! What we got felt weirdly....mundane, for the kind of book I had thought it was, tbh.
But overall I thoroughly enjoyed the read, and it was definitely doing a bunch of really cool things!
no subject
I also really, really enjoyed her next novel after this one (When I'm Gone, Look For Me In the East) -- though it's completely different in almost every way from WRUS. It maybe has more of a Weirdness Climax, too.
no subject
and I will add that book to my tbr, thank you :D
no subject
This sounds fascinating. It sounds like it ought to be queer, but I'm guessing from the year of its publication that it is not very?
no subject
no subject
Oh, I misunderstood! Okay, this gives me a slightly different perspective on the thing! What an interesting setting.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject