A Fan's Playground

A childhood nostalgia reread. Gail Carson Levine is known for her fairy tale retellings, and this book is definitely fairy-tale-inspired, but not based on any particular story. It tells its own story instead, and I am deeply fond of many of the things it does!

It's the story of two teen sisters, one who's brave and forthright and eager for adventure, and one who's a quiet and anxious homebody. When the brave sister (Meryl) is struck down by a magical illness that has beset the country of Bamarre for centuries, the anxious sister (Addie) goes on a quest to find the cure to save her sister.

I love that this is a story where the most important relationship in it is a sibling relationship; and that although the sisters are extremely different from each other, they both love each other and value each other deeply. It's wonderful!

I also love that an extended portion of Addie's questing time is taken up with her being the captive of a dragon, Vollys. Addie may not be a fighter like Meryl is, but the way she handles the situation with Vollys shows her strengths and abilities, and honestly the whole thing is really interesting. I love Vollys as a character! She may be terrible, but also she's genuinely understandable as a person with her own priorities and sense of appropriate behaviours, even if that conflicts pretty directly with those of her "guest"!

My other favourite thing about the book is the constant poetic references. Bamarre is a country with a founding myth written in epic poetry, and the characters are constantly thinking about and referencing that founding myth. There's extensive sections of poetry quoted within the text, even, because it's so deeply important to the characters. Not all of the poetry is...amazing.... But some of it really manages to capture something, and there are sections of poetry from this book that have stuck with me decades later because it's just right. (and then we get a snippet of dragon poetry at one point too, to contrast with the heroism of Drualt the killer of dragons, and I LOVE that we get to see that alternate perspective!)

The book does have a Compulsory Heterosexuality ending for both sisters, which is a bit of a yawn; Meryl's is particularly bad because she and her partner in heterosexuality meet and get together in a fairly permanent-seeming way in like....a day or two. All off-screen. The romances feel Very Tacked On is what I'm saying. So that's annoying!

But overall I still have an immense fondness for this book. I love it.

So this is a trilogy that I have been seeing around for what feels like forever, having been popular when I was in approximately the right age bracket to be its intended audience, but I never actually read it when I was of that age because it didn't really seem like my thing for some reason. I've finally gotten round to it though and....it wasn't what I was expecting? Basically all I knew was that there was magic and undead beings, so when the main character of the first book turned out to be a teenager in her last year of boarding school in a context remarkably reminiscent of early 20th century Earth, I was surprised.

Anyway, the trilogy might not have been exactly what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it! I think I was right that it's not exactly my kind of thing, but I definitely do understand why it was so popular.

I liked the three books to varying degrees. I feel like the first one (Sabriel) was overall the most successful for me, although my one major complaint would be that I feel the end needs a LITTLE more breathing space after the day is won, as the end feels a bit abrupt.

(Also: there's more than one YA novel from the late 20th century featuring a flamboyant undead evil sorcerer named approximately Roger? Okay!)

In the second book, Lirael, I really loved the main character Lirael and her efforts to try to make a place for herself and discover herself while being something of an outsider among her own people. Lirael's feelings about family and identity were very compelling to me. And I found the Clayr fascinating! I was kind of bored by Sam's parts of the book though, which are not insignificant. Also, by this point I was wondering more about what's with the generally evil nature of the dead? What's the motivation of the bad guys beyond just Being Evil?

The third book, Abhorsen, I got kind of bogged down in. Instead of the focus being on a particular character's growth arc, the focus was much more about Saving The World From Ultimate Evil. Also, there was more Sam. Sorry, Sam, but you're boring. And so's Nick. I got through Abhorsen in the end, because I wanted to know how it would end, but I was never particularly engaged by it.

This is a short book type thing that was given to me for free once at a multicultural festival. I've been intending to read it for years and finally got around to it! And, well, it is the kind of religious book that you might expect to be handed out for free. It confidently tells you the one and only interpretation the religion of Islam could possibly have on the subject of sex and marriage. And I'm sure there are Muslims who believe exactly as this book outlines! But I'm also sure there are Muslims who would disagree with it to varying degrees.

The contents were interesting. I enjoyed how much time it spent directly quoting sources like the Quran and so forth - it was great to see in what words these sources talked about the issue. There were definitely some bits where I was like "Dear author, how are you getting your interpretation out of this quotation because I'm not seeing it?" And it's like, either I am missing some important context from Muslim religious scholarship or this author is bad at exegesis. And I don't know enough to be able to judge which it is. I can do that kind of judging in Christianity because I grew up steeped in discussions about theology and interpretation but even though I'm not entirely ignorant about Islam I just don't know enough.

Anyways I was also vastly amused by some aspects of this book's perspective. For example: this book's ideas of unlawful and lawful sexual behaviour are ALL in the realm of heterosexual sex. The author clearly has no idea that anyone could ever engage in sexual activity with someone of the same sex as themselves! Hah.

And I am pleased to note that despite its fairly conservative stance, this book does a lot less deliberate shaming and trying to make the reader feel bad than an equivalent type of Christian book would do.

Writing up extensive thoughts about every book I read was much easier when I read fewer books. Around the beginning of May I switched to reading published books during my lunch hour at work instead of spending it on the computer and all of a sudden my rate of bookreading has SKYROCKETED -- and not just because of the extra hour of reading a day, but because the reading-every-day puts my brain in the mindset of reading profic and so I read more of it at home as well. In the month of May I completed 14 books, which is just shy of a book every other day. Like hell I had enough time/energy to write lengthy reactions to each of those books! Especially since usually these books are completed at lunch (when I'm not at a computer to write my thoughts down immediately) or at bedtime (when my computer has been turned off for the evening already).

But I MISS it, I really do. So I am going to keep trying my best. HERE:

Squire, and Lady Knight, by Tamora Pierce

I realized while reading these that there are two different modes of rereading I do. One is rereading a book that I've read infrequently enough or long enough ago that I don't remember everything that happens, so I am experiencing some or most (or all) of the contents anew. And one is rereading a book that I have already read a million times.

The latter makes a reread really fast! Because I don't need any time to digest or comprehend what I am reading -- I just motor on forward at breakneck pace. It's a way of reminding myself in order of everything I like about the book. There's nothing new or surprising, I'm not about to have any sudden insights about the content, I know exactly what is going to happen next and often the words in which it's going to happen. But it's a wonderful experience anyways because it's so comforting and enjoyable to just wallow in something I love and know so well.

I'm quite sure that there are people out there who would find this way of rereading books unfamiliar and/or uninteresting. But WOWWWW NO I LOVE IT.

This is all a very roundabout way to say, I have nothing much to say about these books. I LOVE THEM THE END?

Actually no there is something to say, and that something is this: ( cut for spoilers )


Jane of Lantern Hill, by LM Montgomery

A comforting reread! I was having a bad evening and this book is a delicious warm hug telling me that everything is okay.

It is a book about NATURE PORN and COMPETENCE PORN and FAMILIAL LOVE.

( cut for spoilers and for some discussion of unhealthy family relationships )


Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church, by Lauren Drain

You can tell pretty easily from this book what it is about. Lauren Drain was part of the Westboro Baptist Church for seven years, starting when she was a young teen, and this book chronicles her time among them.

( cut for spoilers and discussion of unhealthy religious experiences )