If you pop over to Lili Wilkinson’s blog you can read the first chapter of The (not quite) perfect boyfriend, her contribution to the new Girlfriend Fiction series.
I know that I shouldn’t really have any desire to read a pink book, but based on Scatterheart, I think Lili is a fantastic writer, so I’m curious to see what it’s like.
It began when I was not doing my history essay – same old story. I needed a break an I decided to google for my name. Sad I know, but don’t tell me you haven’t done it.
Jessica Allendon is a 16 year old living in London going about normal 16 year old things when a chance encounter throws her life into turmoil.
Nothing much happened that night – I found one Jessica Allendon who researched old churches, one who won the hundred-metre breaststroke at some school in Virginia, and her, the one that was to cause all the trouble: sixteen-year-old Jessica Allendon from somewhere in London.
So begins the adventure. Jessica decides to meet the other Jessica and ends up being transported to another London. A London that seems to be stuck in the past, but where it is also 2008. A London with a different history. No world wars, first or second, and a very different cold war.
Jessica must find her way in this world, adjusting to new customs and expectations, along with a world of politics, spies and terrorism that she finds herself in the middle of. I think my biggest disappointment with this book was that I found myself waiting for the time when the author would explain exactly what happened in history to make this world turn out different to our own. But that is more to do with my own expectations that a problem with the book itself. Hints and snippets are provided and I guess the reader can feel free to use their imagination to construct a series of events that may have occurred.
In spite of that niggling distraction, it was a good read. The author does a good job of putting you in Jessica’s shoes and like the stranded character, you never quite know who are really her friends and enemies. It is a story about Jessica’s struggles to come to terms with a different culture, to navigate her way through a tangled web of spies and double crossing in which she never quite knew her place, and the danger of building relationships in a world in which you cannot remain.
That pretty much sums up my response to this book.
I thought Cornish had written a fantastic book with Foundling, the first in his Monster Blood tattoo series, but I think he has surpassed it with Lamplighter. This book continues the story of young Rossamund, the orphan living in a world where people are continually at war with monsters. Rossamund spent book 1 being called from his home at an orphanage to begin his work as a lamplighter. In this book he begins that work. Lamplighters are the brave souls who venture out near sundown to light the lamps along the great roads of the empire. The lights help protect travelers against monsters, but of course lamplighting is a dangerous job itself. They venture out again in the early morning to dowse the lamps.
A story about a kid lighting lamps might not sound all that exciting, but Cornish kept me enthralled through 600 pages of Rossamund’s encounters with monsters, good and bad people, and the politics of power within the lamplighters’ ranks. The world Cornish created is a fascinating one. People live in walled or fortified towns and cities with much of their energies focused on protecting themselves from the monsters who live in the wild. The name of the series comes form the practice of being tattooed with monsters blood when someone manages to destroy one of the beasts. The writing is detailed and the author goes to great effort to describe the world in which the stories are set. Lamplighter is actually just over 700 pages long. 600 pages of story, and 100 pages of “Explicarium” which contains a detailed glossary along with labelled images, a calendar and other information about the world.
Lamplighter is a wonderfully written book. It is long and heavy with detail, but never failed to have me wondering what would come next. The characters are well developed and of course the ending left me hanging out for book 3. If you read and liked Foundling, then I would be surprised if you don’t like Lamplighter. If you haven’t read Foundling then I would suggest you grab that one first.
Things have been a little quiet here over the last couple of weeks, but there is a very good reason for this. I have been busy planning, writing, and tinkering with a new blog: ReadingHacks.com: tips, tools, and gadgets for people who love to read. Why don’t you pop over and have a poke around.
Those of you who have been waiting, hoping, dreaming, or begging for a fifth Uglies book can rejoice. Sort of. Scott Westerfeld is working on Bogus to bubbly: an insiders guide to the world of Uglies. Not a continuation of the story, but looks like interesting reading if you’re a fan of the series. Read more over at Scott’s blog.
Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a rabbit who was made almost entirely of china. He had china arms and china legs, china paws and a china head, a china torso and a china nose, His arms and legs were jointed and joined by wire so that his china elbows and chine knees could be bent, giving him much freedom of movement.
Edward Tulane is a toy rabbit. A doll. But don’t let him hear you say that. He doesn’t particularly like dolls, as he finds them “annoying and self-centred, twittery and vain.” As a rabbit made of china, he is obviously unable to move his arms and legs, to speak, or even to close his painted on eyes. But he can see, and hear, and think, and admire his own reflection.
Edward begins the story being cared for a by a ten year old girl called Abilene Tulane. But disaster strikes on a sea journey and Edward is sent overboard to lie face down on the bottom of the ocean. The following years see Edward in the hands of a fisherman’s wife, a hobo, a dying young girl, her musical brother and a toy repairer.
The miraculous journey of Edward Tulane is a fable. A story about love. About the importance of loving and being loved. The physical presentation of the book is quite lovely. A square format book, with not-white pages (buff? yellowed? cream, bone, ivory, off white, beige?), and a series of nice full page colour illustrations as well as smaller black and white ones. The story is lovely too. Edward’s journey and the repeated separations he faces are well written and evocative. The character of Edward is well developed too. Considering he is a china rabbit. I found myself feeling sympathy for his plight. A well written and well illustrated story.