2021 EDIT: Just as good as on the first read. A fantastic, fun, funny, friendly, feminist, flouncy, furry, fuzzy and fabulous Marvel superhero book. What a charmer.
Read my original review for more.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
Oh my gosh, this is so much fun! One of the funniest, most charming and exciting reads of the year.
Squirrel Girl does it again! In her origin story in novel form, written by the wonderful Shannon and Dean Hale. Squirrel power - the unbeatable superheroine of Marvel - and where it all began...
Doreen Green is an adorable, optimistic and full of nutty energy girl of fourteen-years-old, born with a bushy tail and other squirrely attributes like two buck teeth, retractable claws, super agility and strength. And talking to squirrels. She, along with her parents, move into a new town of Shady Oaks in New Jersey, which is a rundown, petty crime-laden location in juxtaposition to her bright nature, with unfriendly and mean kids at her new school.
This set-up leads to Doreen steadily finding her calling, as a superhero she has always thought of herself in her head until now - Squirrel Girl! who saves other squirrels, dogs, babies, juvenile graffiti gang members, and LARPers taking things too far. A sinister plot involving a robotic takeover and specifically testing and challenging Squirrel Girl to boost some bad guy-wannabe's ego is going on, and the realities of being a (very young) hero in the modern internet age in the Marvel Universe soon begin to sink in for the ray of sunshine and ball of furry hugs that is Doreen Green. It is also here where she first meets her beloved squirrel sidekick, Tippy-Toe. Take that, Wolverine and your jacket!
With 'The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World', Marvel once again proves how fun it can be when it just goes along for the ride and doesn't take itself too seriously. The authors of the book play along with writing about a superhero world inhabited by colourful characters and crazy science, and you can tell they were having a blast with the silly material and making it all as charming and accessible as possible. It is an all-ages novel - so nice to see something inclusive for younger audiences for Marvel's superhero properties for a change - so it never gets too dark or mean-spirited (Asgard forbid in a Squirrel Girl story!), and nobody dies in it. Nonetheless it is so entertaining and heartfelt, I had a big smile on my face as I shot through the book in two days.
Doreen's lovable if naive personality is infectious; she is the imaginative child we as adults wish we could be again, living in our own worlds. She listens to and hums loud, upbeat music, and is so hyperactive that rare moments of exhaustion only make her move about even more. Plus she provides hilarious commentary in page footnotes throughout 'Squirrel Meets World', similar to how she would break the fourth wall in the comics; like a teen girl, child-friendly Deadpool. It is her coming-of-age hero's tale (tail, more like; yeah, she makes up funnier word play than me), where she is finding out who she is, and why she does what she does. Can Squirrel Girl be a true superhero? Or a joke, like her initial creation?
And squirrels are awesome little creatures. You learn so much about them on this adventure. Add in babysitting and you get a cute bundle of joy of a book full of robot action, carjacking, compromised dogs, text messages between Squirrel Girl and the Avengers (and Rocket Raccoon), and a talking courgette.
Doreen's parents, Dor and Maureen (get it? Doreen sure does), are as softhearted and scatterbrained as she is. They parent her so sweetly that grounding their kid is a foreign concept to them. They claim that she must hide her squirrel tail in public because people would get jealous of not having a tail themselves. Bless them; they were only trying to protect her from a cruel world where "freak" is still a normal, pejorative term in a world where superpowered humans, aliens and Norse gods exist. Young Doreen believes whatever her parents tell her, until she attempts to become a hero for her new home turf and she can't hide from the harsh reality any longer. But regardless, Maureen and Dor love and support their strange, unique daughter in her choices, unconditionally. They are a cracking, hysterically-funny couple, and surprisingly complex. And so is Squirrel Girl.
The friends she meets and makes aren't limited to the butt-kicking Tippy-Toe and her hundreds of squirrel kin, eating nuts in trees and scouting territories. There is Ana Sofia from school, a lonely deaf girl, also a POC, who is understandably tired of trying to communicate with people and explain her disability over and over again, and is prone to intense glaring. But she's really very sweet, and acts as the detective, computer programmer and hacker Intel person for Squirrel Girl. She loves socks, maths, comic books, and has a crush on Thor (who doesn't?). Ana Sofia would make a great superhero, in fact: it is colossally rare to see a deaf character in anything in the media, much less in a superhero story, and an origin story at that. A three-dimensional dark-skinned female with an honestly-depicted disability. Fantastic representation.
Speaking of which, ethnic minorities and people with dark skin are a constant in 'Squirrel Meets World', and even better, some white people are described as being white when we are introduced to them, negating the white-as-default narrative BS. Doreen has a family in Canada, too!
'Squirrel Meets World' has the makings of a Marvel goldmine. It came so close to getting five stars from me. However, I feel it falls a little flat in terms of its build-up to a battle climax to save Shady Oaks (and the world, possibly. Probably). The final showdown crams in a lot with little page-room for well-rounded development for the many characters, and everything is solved pretty easily. An attempt to sabotage Squirrel Girl's reputation via internet trolling and online abuse felt kind of tacked on for a reason to ensure her breakdown for the beginning of the book's third act (and for her friends to suddenly, seemingly abandon her when she needs them), and it could have been far more explored as commentary. The mystery villain is rather obvious - that this is a kids' book is no excuse - and doesn't get especially interesting until the final battle with the heroine, ironically enough.
Spoiler:
The young computer nerd is a H.Y.D.R.A. experiment leftover. He builds robot parents for himself that, when Squirrel Girl decapitates them, merge together by their necks to become a killer robot spider, with blades for arms and legs. Holy nuts and bolts, what a scary-as-hell image. That is 'Human Centipede' horror right there, for a lighthearted, all-ages book.
Spoiler end.
There's no LBGTQ representation, sadly.
Lastly, why does Doreen think that Iron Man is a mere Avengers' errand boy? Is there a joke here I'm missing? Poor bastard.
Bonus, and this has to be added:
Spoiler:
Thor and Black Widow show up from S.H.I.E.L.D. after Squirrel Girl's win against the bad guy/her "nemesis" in Shady Oak. Thor bonds with Ana Sofia over socks, and he coos a baby as he takes him back to his mother via hammer leap. Not bizarre enough? Black Widow, the snarky stick-in-the-mud, laughs - she seriously laughs at the end of her cameo. How I envy those who might try and succeed at imagining Scarlett Johansson crying in fits of joyous laughter in her tight black leather fetish suit.
Spoiler end.
Just... what a gem. What a charm against cynicism, hate, and the gritty and edgy age of superheroes 'The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World' is. Sweet, sensitive, ridiculously funny and cute, it is like a sugar rush: a colourful, action-packed Saturday morning cartoon expertly implemented for the novel medium. Think 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and 'The Lego Batman Movie'. And there is no romance! It says something when the recent books that I've read and loved have no romances in them.
I enjoyed Squirrel Girl and friends immensely. Maybe I'll forgive Marvel, and lift my boycott, at least a little. I crave superheroines and comics too much.
Final Score: 4/5
Sunday, 9 July 2017
Saturday, 8 July 2017
Book Review - 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' by Stephanie Burgis
2021 EDIT: 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' is such a fun book to read in one day! It's colourful, cosy and chocolatey stuff! It's as addictive as it's ever been. Life lessons can be learned from this all-ages book, too - it's not all sweetness and fantasy.
I'm still waiting for that animated film to be made.
See my original review below for more.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
Who knew that dragons and chocolate could mix so well together? For an adorable, luxurious, fire-breathing and mouth-watering recipe of a children's book?
Welcome to this generation's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' will make you want to eat every chocolate in every chocolate shop you see. It is inspirational, imaginative, clever and joyous. There is a pinch of 'Oliver Twist' to it as well, with its "outcast-on-the-streets-guided-by-poor-rascally-urchins" plot.
Aventurine is a young and restless dragon living in jewel-hoarded mountains with her territorial family. She is too impatient to think of a clear life goal or passion, unlike the other dragons, who are passionate about things like poetry and philosophy. Not wanting to wait thirty years for her scales to harden and her wings to develop fully for flying, Aventurine sneaks out of her mountain and, on her first hunt for humans, she is tricked by a food mage into drinking a cauldron of his wondrous, aromatic hot chocolate. It is an enchantment made in fear for his life at the hands of the naïve beast. Aventurine was never as ready, nor as knowledgeable about humans, as she once thought - for on her first day of freedom, she is transformed into a human herself!
The hot chocolate gives her a twelve-year-old girl's body, and when the food mage leaves her to her own devices, she finds she can never return home under threat of fireballs to warn puny humans away from dragon families.
But through all the hardship, this life-changing experience has helped Aventurine to finally discover her passion - chocolate! "Please sir, can I have some more?" became additionally badass. So she sets off for the nearest town of Drachenburg to become a chocolatier's apprentice, and build her own territory. Nothing is going to stop this fierce dragon heart...
Aventurine is a strong, determined, snarky and funny heroine. Unusual in that she is a dragon in a child's body - only her golden eyes and dragon-skin cloth are what remain of her old self - it is just one of the many characteristics that make her extraordinary. She is like a feral girl raised by dragons, always thinking about biting and clawing at people whenever they annoy her. She knows what she wants and she will take it, and after her encounter with the food mage she has learned her lesson of being too trusting of humans, and so she is cautious, and plays them at their own game in the impoverished streets of Drachenburg. She won't become the prey.
Money means nothing to her, and typical human behaviours of blending in, following the leader, and not standing out in bright colours baffle her.
Nobody is going to take advantage of Aventurine, or stomp on her dreams. By the end of the second act of her story, as it were, she feels at her lowest point and begins to allow herself moments of weakness, and the reader feels it with her, because they've grown to care for her deeply. Anybody who is unused to failure and learning that life isn't as straightforward as one hopes will understand Aventurine's journey, and identify with her, scales or no scales. Terrible, unfair stuff happens sometimes, and we move on from it. We keep going, because what else are we to do? Self-pity never helped anyone. It's not all fantasy, chocolaty-bliss in 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart': it is an emotional, social, and intellectual study that is much appreciated in children's literature.
Other characters are equally colourful and memorable, like Silke, the dark-skinned, cunning-as-hell street rat girl who easily fills the Artful Dodger role in this 'Oliver Twist' retelling. In fact, quite a lot of people are described as having dark skin, which is great. Marina is a stout, golden-skinned chocolatier who makes the best chocolate in town, but has the worst people skills and business sense, caring only about making her chocolate taste perfect, much to her partner Horst's distress. Aventurine warms up to Marina immediately, and loves being her apprentice.
The only things I don't particularly like in 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' are what I've noticed in Stephanie Burgis's previous book, 'Kat, Incorrigible', which I wholly dislike. Both these books contain a twelve-year-old rebellious, ahead-of-her-time heroine who hates older, snobby women, with far more vehemence than how she views snobby rich men. And in 'Kat, Incorrigible', the main character, Kat, punches a woman so hard on the nose she breaks it, and doesn't regret it; in 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart', Aventurine kicks a nigh-indistinguishable woman-from-high-places in the shin - the only time she actually attacks someone in the story. These instances of physical violence are seen as normal, with barely any repercussions. Both girls also dislike their successful and beautiful older sisters. Overall there is the stereotypical envy, condescension and competitiveness between females.
I hope this unchecked internalized misogyny isn't a pattern in Burgis's other books.
But at least 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' has much more happening in it, and more positive female relationships, than in 'Kat, Incorrigible'. The less-obvious, not-cartoony villain roles are a welcome surprise, too. Really, all Aventurine does in her book is live her new life, loving the rich smell and taste of cocoa, mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, spices, and chilli; reminding her of the dragon breath she once felt in her throat.
'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' is similar to 'Kiki's Delivery Service', both the book and the film; in fact I can clearly picture it as a animated film. Make it happen, Hollywood! Think of all the chocolate and dragon plushies it'll help sell!
'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' is a delightful treat. It is a well-cooked, well-prepared, dark and light sugary tart: full of the delicious, grounded taste of family bonds, sweets that will change the world, humour and, of course, heart. I cannot recommend it enough. My compliments to the author.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to buy more chocolate.
Final Score: 4/5
I'm still waiting for that animated film to be made.
See my original review below for more.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
Who knew that dragons and chocolate could mix so well together? For an adorable, luxurious, fire-breathing and mouth-watering recipe of a children's book?
Welcome to this generation's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' will make you want to eat every chocolate in every chocolate shop you see. It is inspirational, imaginative, clever and joyous. There is a pinch of 'Oliver Twist' to it as well, with its "outcast-on-the-streets-guided-by-poor-rascally-urchins" plot.
Aventurine is a young and restless dragon living in jewel-hoarded mountains with her territorial family. She is too impatient to think of a clear life goal or passion, unlike the other dragons, who are passionate about things like poetry and philosophy. Not wanting to wait thirty years for her scales to harden and her wings to develop fully for flying, Aventurine sneaks out of her mountain and, on her first hunt for humans, she is tricked by a food mage into drinking a cauldron of his wondrous, aromatic hot chocolate. It is an enchantment made in fear for his life at the hands of the naïve beast. Aventurine was never as ready, nor as knowledgeable about humans, as she once thought - for on her first day of freedom, she is transformed into a human herself!
The hot chocolate gives her a twelve-year-old girl's body, and when the food mage leaves her to her own devices, she finds she can never return home under threat of fireballs to warn puny humans away from dragon families.
But through all the hardship, this life-changing experience has helped Aventurine to finally discover her passion - chocolate! "Please sir, can I have some more?" became additionally badass. So she sets off for the nearest town of Drachenburg to become a chocolatier's apprentice, and build her own territory. Nothing is going to stop this fierce dragon heart...
Aventurine is a strong, determined, snarky and funny heroine. Unusual in that she is a dragon in a child's body - only her golden eyes and dragon-skin cloth are what remain of her old self - it is just one of the many characteristics that make her extraordinary. She is like a feral girl raised by dragons, always thinking about biting and clawing at people whenever they annoy her. She knows what she wants and she will take it, and after her encounter with the food mage she has learned her lesson of being too trusting of humans, and so she is cautious, and plays them at their own game in the impoverished streets of Drachenburg. She won't become the prey.
Money means nothing to her, and typical human behaviours of blending in, following the leader, and not standing out in bright colours baffle her.
Nobody is going to take advantage of Aventurine, or stomp on her dreams. By the end of the second act of her story, as it were, she feels at her lowest point and begins to allow herself moments of weakness, and the reader feels it with her, because they've grown to care for her deeply. Anybody who is unused to failure and learning that life isn't as straightforward as one hopes will understand Aventurine's journey, and identify with her, scales or no scales. Terrible, unfair stuff happens sometimes, and we move on from it. We keep going, because what else are we to do? Self-pity never helped anyone. It's not all fantasy, chocolaty-bliss in 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart': it is an emotional, social, and intellectual study that is much appreciated in children's literature.
Other characters are equally colourful and memorable, like Silke, the dark-skinned, cunning-as-hell street rat girl who easily fills the Artful Dodger role in this 'Oliver Twist' retelling. In fact, quite a lot of people are described as having dark skin, which is great. Marina is a stout, golden-skinned chocolatier who makes the best chocolate in town, but has the worst people skills and business sense, caring only about making her chocolate taste perfect, much to her partner Horst's distress. Aventurine warms up to Marina immediately, and loves being her apprentice.
The only things I don't particularly like in 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' are what I've noticed in Stephanie Burgis's previous book, 'Kat, Incorrigible', which I wholly dislike. Both these books contain a twelve-year-old rebellious, ahead-of-her-time heroine who hates older, snobby women, with far more vehemence than how she views snobby rich men. And in 'Kat, Incorrigible', the main character, Kat, punches a woman so hard on the nose she breaks it, and doesn't regret it; in 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart', Aventurine kicks a nigh-indistinguishable woman-from-high-places in the shin - the only time she actually attacks someone in the story. These instances of physical violence are seen as normal, with barely any repercussions. Both girls also dislike their successful and beautiful older sisters. Overall there is the stereotypical envy, condescension and competitiveness between females.
I hope this unchecked internalized misogyny isn't a pattern in Burgis's other books.
But at least 'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' has much more happening in it, and more positive female relationships, than in 'Kat, Incorrigible'. The less-obvious, not-cartoony villain roles are a welcome surprise, too. Really, all Aventurine does in her book is live her new life, loving the rich smell and taste of cocoa, mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, spices, and chilli; reminding her of the dragon breath she once felt in her throat.
'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' is similar to 'Kiki's Delivery Service', both the book and the film; in fact I can clearly picture it as a animated film. Make it happen, Hollywood! Think of all the chocolate and dragon plushies it'll help sell!
'The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart' is a delightful treat. It is a well-cooked, well-prepared, dark and light sugary tart: full of the delicious, grounded taste of family bonds, sweets that will change the world, humour and, of course, heart. I cannot recommend it enough. My compliments to the author.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to buy more chocolate.
Final Score: 4/5
Book Review - 'Little Miss Hug (Mr. Men and Little Miss)' by Roger Hargreaves (Creator), Adam Hargreaves (Writer)
A new Little Miss, and all my stars she is cute! Little Miss Hug is one of the cutest little things ever created. She is plushie material, no doubt. This love-and-innocence-flavoured cutie-pie has the super power of hugging, which we all need on any occasion, for any need, once in a while. It can be for anything; it is a powerful medicine, and a comfort for any emotion, as long as the intent is honestly good.
Little Miss Hug might just change Mr. Grumpy himself!
This book is a packaged, yoghurty pink cream ball of adorable sweetness. An unforgettable tiny dessert treat.
Final Score: 5/5
Little Miss Hug might just change Mr. Grumpy himself!
This book is a packaged, yoghurty pink cream ball of adorable sweetness. An unforgettable tiny dessert treat.
Final Score: 5/5
Book Review - 'Little Miss Sunshine (Mr. Men and Little Miss)' by Roger Hargreaves
Little Miss Sunshine, out for a drive, decides to take a turn towards a town called Miseryland to cheer up everyone in it (even the worms are crying!), starting with its source - the king. Change the rules that don't make sense and are no good to anybody, change the world. What a fine message for the little'uns.
Positive and lovely. One of the better 'Little Miss' books I've read. A 32-page iconic classic.
Final Score: 4/5
Positive and lovely. One of the better 'Little Miss' books I've read. A 32-page iconic classic.
Final Score: 4/5
Friday, 7 July 2017
Scribble #53
Curling up with a book I enjoy, with tea and chocolate on the side (bonus: hot chocolate), in a bookstore cafe, by a window looking out on a gorgeous countryside and willow trees for shade, with one kitten or a dozen around. What's your idea of heaven? :)
Sunday, 2 July 2017
Book Review - 'Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)' by Seanan McGuire
2022 EDIT: Fantastic premise and start. But unfortunately this time round I couldn't get into any of the characters and their callousness, tactlessness and apathy towards everything happening around them, including literal grisly murder. They seem too disconnected from reality, and probably not in the way that was intended. Is this related to them being miserable adults trapped in teenage bodies and unwanted lives? It's not clear. Everyone's random meanness and hostility is not as much commented on as it should be.
On the subject of bad or inconsistent character writing, characters would suddenly speak of their backstories in great detail to the protagonist for no real reason; right after a murder, even! This is linked to the book's slow, sloppy and choppy pace. I like the sweet, enchanting, bitter and morbid subversive fairy tale atmosphere it develops, in such a short time for a novella. But not much happens, and then once the murders finally occur - starting 74 pages in - everything keeps stopping and starting, erratically in motion, like a damaged car.
It's all a baffling mix of being too bizarre and yet not bizarre enough. Plus, if the characters barely care about the sudden deaths of people they know - that they can immediately dispose of the bodies and all of the victims' possessions no problem, and even laugh good-heartedly towards their friends right after a murder - and about what's going on, then why should the reader?
However, the ideas present are enough to make 'Every Heart a Doorway' an almost magnum opus. I especially like how it loosely refers to the universal truth that, if the world gave as much of a shit about girls as it so blatantly does boys, there would be far less missing girls everywhere. The line, "We notice the silence of men. We depend upon the silence of women.", is still chilling.
Oh and the protagonist, Nancy, is mostly useless. In fact, she's completely useless. What did she actually do to earn her "happy" ever after?
And the Fairyland world that rejected the trans character, Kade, for not being the gender they thought he was, is referred to as a "really high Logic" and "pure Logic" world. That...leads to very, very unfortunate implications right there. Is it meant to be ironic? And wrong? It's not debated, so...fuck *rests head on hands in despair*.
'Every Heart a Doorway' - I think it needed another revision (and the few glaring typos confirm this).
An excerpt from my first review of the book, listing the flaws in more detail:
The subject of Kade's hypocritical magical world rejecting him for who he is - when the other kids' worlds accepted them for their true selves - isn't explored enough. In a murder mystery tale, no one does any investigating or detective work - the main key players just stumble onto plot points accidentally. The characters, who we are infrequently told are scared, are rather blasé over the fact that there's a serial killer on the loose at their school. Maybe this is to show how out of touch they are, but it results in some unsympathetic and thoughtless leads whom the reader is made to connect to. Nancy is not a proactive heroine; to even call her that is a stretch. She is constantly surrounded by more talkative and motivated characters (while her motive is to return to the Halls of the Dead, where she is most understood, she doesn't actually do or think up anything for how she could work that out), and it seems that at the end the only thing the protagonist achieves on her own is not die, and that is not "saving the world", as it were.
Nancy might believe or want to believe that she's dead - figuratively and literally - and this ghost girl wandering around as life passes her by could have had an arc where she grows more in confidence through friendships, and she slowly finds her inner light again, stands up for herself, and does stuff. But there isn't really a payoff to that in the actual book.
Final Score: 3/5
Original Review:
'Every Heart a Doorway' is one of those divisive YA fantasy books that has gotten really popular despite receiving mixed reviews from the online reader community. I usually don't bother with books that have been overhyped and have generated mixed reactions, and if I do - after crumbling under a lot of pressure - I often fall under the negative camp and think the book is mediocre and doesn't deserve its hype, so I have wasted my time on something I should have known I would not like. But anything is possible, and though I am rarely surprised by books nowadays, adding to my most recent disheartening reading slump I was willing to try anything. I felt I had to give 'Every Heart a Doorway' a try for its premise alone. And it's a novella at 170 pages, so it'll be a quickie.
'Every Heart a Doorway' by Seanan McGuire reminds me of the power of fantasy, and childhood, and psychology. It guts me to know that it isn't real, for it is a lovely little trip into the sunshine, the weird, and the morbid. For every kid, and every kid at heart, who wanted to believe they were special, to believe in magic; for every lonely and weird and wonderful child who desperately wished over the years to receive a letter from Hogwarts; or to stumble into an impossible world and go on exciting adventures like in the books, which promised a new life away from a cruel, cynical, hopeless and depressing world: 'Every Heart a Doorway' is for you.
The premise of a boarding school that houses children who have been to fantastical worlds and just can't adjust to life back in "reality" is an amazing one, full of potential. Did Alice go as mad as the Hatter from the times she'd been to Wonderland? Maybe Dorothy really did get sent into electroshock therapy after her wonderful adventures in Oz. And to say nothing of the poor Pevensie kids of Narnia. What was reality anymore for these youngsters? Why did they happen to go down the rabbit hole or find that one wardrobe in the first place? Were they chosen? What if there really were hidden doors around the world that are portals into other realms, attracted to children? What if those children loved those worlds more than their original ones (who wouldn't, let's be honest)? Worlds where they felt accepted, where they felt they truly belonged to? Where they called their real home? And who wouldn't want to stay in a Neverland and be immortal?
This book deconstructs these ideas and assesses the possible psychological damage caused by these big changes - in body, mind and soul - happening to children, and all throughout adulthood, with a demented surgeon's scalpel. The sharp instrument glints and shines in its deadly beauty. 'Every Heart a Doorway' is deep about its fantasy and world(s) building, and nonsensical in its real world logic. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but it is glorious.
The characters are memorable and they stand out well - a limited cast of children and adults with serious issues who are colourful in a dry, drab real world that doesn't want to deal with them.
Our main lead is seventeen-year-old Nancy Whitman, a gothic girl who has been to an Underworld known as the Halls of the Dead, and wants nothing more than to taste pomegranate and dance with her lord under the starry night sky again. She explicitly mentions that she is asexual, but not aromantic, for they are not the same thing, and from her long time among the dead she has developed the habit of standing as still, silent and breathless as them whenever she is stressed and upset.
Eleanor West is the elderly eccentric headmistress of the boarding school, her Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. She wears bright colours when parents and local authorities aren't around, and is still a child at heart, perhaps too much so. She wants to help the children who have been through what she had once, and unlike everyone else she can still access her fantasy door, but only with a nonsensical, childlike mind. Eleanor isn't dissimilar to Dumbledore or a good version of Count Olaf - a female version of this type of character is rare and it is refreshing. She is a tragic figure, being practically the only adult shown in this novella.
Kade is a transgender male and a little too calm and cheery for an eighteen-year-old who got kicked out of his fantasy world of candyfloss and knights for not being a girl like they thought. There is also Sumi, a completely, happily-loopy Japanese girl who holds nothing back - her world was like Wonderland; Lundy, a teacher who due to travelling back and forth many times from her magical door, she ages backwards and has the body of an eight-year-old (I'm getting Claudia from 'Interview with the Vampire' vibes from her); Christopher the Latino skeleton land boy, who doesn't really get introduced until over a hundred pages in; and last but certainly not least, the Addams twins, Jack and Jill, both girls - Jack is the utterly morbid but brilliant mad scientist's protegee (she seriously scared me, but that's the intended reaction), whilst Jill is the pretty, girly former vampire's prize. Their parents also beat the parents from Louise O'Neill's 'Asking For It' as the worst in the entirety of YA fiction: after barely any time of their twin daughters going missing, they have another kid whom they tell his sisters are dead, with the implication that they never really tried to look for them. The real world is as insane as any made-up one.
And yeah, vampires, in a way, are in this book. So are mutilated bodies and disposing of the evidence, for 'Every Heart a Doorway' is also a murder mystery, binding its time before striking dead a character the reader grew to like very much and didn't expect to get offed so soon and so suddenly. It takes risks, and leaves no detail untouched, like a madman.
Everybody is eerie and unstable in this shiny/gothic two-sided coin of a novella; nobody is what they seem. It's not all rainbows, friendly munchkins and unicorns here. In fact, in Nancy's world, unicorns would get cooked and eaten at a banquet.
The diversity of the cast is also something to applaud in a modern day fantasy. It contains feminist teachings, and even analyses why it is that more girls visit magical lands than boys. Ableist slurs are called out on.
The writing is addictive and it whisks the reader fast into its meta-narration, and prose containing prospective lands, where the plot doesn't start until over a quarter of the way through. It is so effective it can be read in one day.
For its fantastic concept, writing, characters and atmosphere, 'Every Heart a Doorway' does contain many flaws, and the reasons for its dividing people can be founded fairly. Its ideas and plot could have been explored better in a novel that's longer (sequel-baiting does not count). Not every potential is realised for a great story. The subject of Kade's hypocritical magical world rejecting him for who he is - when the other kids' worlds accepted them for their true selves - isn't explored enough. In a murder mystery tale, no one does any investigating or detective work - the main key players just stumble onto plot points accidentally. The characters, who we are infrequently told are scared, are rather blasé over the fact that there's a serial killer on the loose at their school. Maybe this is to show how out of touch they are, but it results in some unsympathetic and thoughtless leads whom the reader is made to connect to. Nancy is not a proactive heroine; to even call her that is a stretch. She is constantly surrounded by more talkative and motivated characters (while her motive is to return to the Halls of the Dead, where she is most understood, she doesn't actually do or think up anything for how she could work that out), and it seems that at the end the only thing the protagonist achieves on her own is not die, and that is not "saving the world", as it were.
Nancy might believe or want to believe that she's dead - figuratively and literally - and this ghost girl wandering around as life passes her by could have had an arc where she grows more in confidence through friendships, and she slowly finds her inner light again, stands up for herself, and does stuff. But there isn't really a payoff to that in the actual book. The Home for Wayward Children itself isn't 100% friendly anyway - bullying exists everywhere, including Hogwarts - no matter how hard Eleanor tries to keep the children safe from the harsh real world.
Yet, I love 'Every Heart a Doorway'. There is so much to talk about in such a short story. I adore the writing, the creepy, luscious tone, the gothic horror, the strange and beautiful characters, and the angles it took, despite what could have been if only it were longer. It's deliberately weird and bizarre but not self-indulgent. Care is present.
There are unseen, unfounded lands out there. You only need to look for them, and believe in yourself before you can believe in them. We make our own story, our own narration, and don't let anyone else tell it for you. Where we love and are loved and understood in return - unconditionally and unfailing - that's where we can call home. There is magic in this unique novella, buried not too deeply. Whether you find it or not is up to you.
Final Score: 3.5/5
On the subject of bad or inconsistent character writing, characters would suddenly speak of their backstories in great detail to the protagonist for no real reason; right after a murder, even! This is linked to the book's slow, sloppy and choppy pace. I like the sweet, enchanting, bitter and morbid subversive fairy tale atmosphere it develops, in such a short time for a novella. But not much happens, and then once the murders finally occur - starting 74 pages in - everything keeps stopping and starting, erratically in motion, like a damaged car.
It's all a baffling mix of being too bizarre and yet not bizarre enough. Plus, if the characters barely care about the sudden deaths of people they know - that they can immediately dispose of the bodies and all of the victims' possessions no problem, and even laugh good-heartedly towards their friends right after a murder - and about what's going on, then why should the reader?
However, the ideas present are enough to make 'Every Heart a Doorway' an almost magnum opus. I especially like how it loosely refers to the universal truth that, if the world gave as much of a shit about girls as it so blatantly does boys, there would be far less missing girls everywhere. The line, "We notice the silence of men. We depend upon the silence of women.", is still chilling.
Oh and the protagonist, Nancy, is mostly useless. In fact, she's completely useless. What did she actually do to earn her "happy" ever after?
And the Fairyland world that rejected the trans character, Kade, for not being the gender they thought he was, is referred to as a "really high Logic" and "pure Logic" world. That...leads to very, very unfortunate implications right there. Is it meant to be ironic? And wrong? It's not debated, so...fuck *rests head on hands in despair*.
'Every Heart a Doorway' - I think it needed another revision (and the few glaring typos confirm this).
An excerpt from my first review of the book, listing the flaws in more detail:
The subject of Kade's hypocritical magical world rejecting him for who he is - when the other kids' worlds accepted them for their true selves - isn't explored enough. In a murder mystery tale, no one does any investigating or detective work - the main key players just stumble onto plot points accidentally. The characters, who we are infrequently told are scared, are rather blasé over the fact that there's a serial killer on the loose at their school. Maybe this is to show how out of touch they are, but it results in some unsympathetic and thoughtless leads whom the reader is made to connect to. Nancy is not a proactive heroine; to even call her that is a stretch. She is constantly surrounded by more talkative and motivated characters (while her motive is to return to the Halls of the Dead, where she is most understood, she doesn't actually do or think up anything for how she could work that out), and it seems that at the end the only thing the protagonist achieves on her own is not die, and that is not "saving the world", as it were.
Nancy might believe or want to believe that she's dead - figuratively and literally - and this ghost girl wandering around as life passes her by could have had an arc where she grows more in confidence through friendships, and she slowly finds her inner light again, stands up for herself, and does stuff. But there isn't really a payoff to that in the actual book.
Final Score: 3/5
Original Review:
'Every Heart a Doorway' is one of those divisive YA fantasy books that has gotten really popular despite receiving mixed reviews from the online reader community. I usually don't bother with books that have been overhyped and have generated mixed reactions, and if I do - after crumbling under a lot of pressure - I often fall under the negative camp and think the book is mediocre and doesn't deserve its hype, so I have wasted my time on something I should have known I would not like. But anything is possible, and though I am rarely surprised by books nowadays, adding to my most recent disheartening reading slump I was willing to try anything. I felt I had to give 'Every Heart a Doorway' a try for its premise alone. And it's a novella at 170 pages, so it'll be a quickie.
'Every Heart a Doorway' by Seanan McGuire reminds me of the power of fantasy, and childhood, and psychology. It guts me to know that it isn't real, for it is a lovely little trip into the sunshine, the weird, and the morbid. For every kid, and every kid at heart, who wanted to believe they were special, to believe in magic; for every lonely and weird and wonderful child who desperately wished over the years to receive a letter from Hogwarts; or to stumble into an impossible world and go on exciting adventures like in the books, which promised a new life away from a cruel, cynical, hopeless and depressing world: 'Every Heart a Doorway' is for you.
The premise of a boarding school that houses children who have been to fantastical worlds and just can't adjust to life back in "reality" is an amazing one, full of potential. Did Alice go as mad as the Hatter from the times she'd been to Wonderland? Maybe Dorothy really did get sent into electroshock therapy after her wonderful adventures in Oz. And to say nothing of the poor Pevensie kids of Narnia. What was reality anymore for these youngsters? Why did they happen to go down the rabbit hole or find that one wardrobe in the first place? Were they chosen? What if there really were hidden doors around the world that are portals into other realms, attracted to children? What if those children loved those worlds more than their original ones (who wouldn't, let's be honest)? Worlds where they felt accepted, where they felt they truly belonged to? Where they called their real home? And who wouldn't want to stay in a Neverland and be immortal?
This book deconstructs these ideas and assesses the possible psychological damage caused by these big changes - in body, mind and soul - happening to children, and all throughout adulthood, with a demented surgeon's scalpel. The sharp instrument glints and shines in its deadly beauty. 'Every Heart a Doorway' is deep about its fantasy and world(s) building, and nonsensical in its real world logic. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but it is glorious.
The characters are memorable and they stand out well - a limited cast of children and adults with serious issues who are colourful in a dry, drab real world that doesn't want to deal with them.
Our main lead is seventeen-year-old Nancy Whitman, a gothic girl who has been to an Underworld known as the Halls of the Dead, and wants nothing more than to taste pomegranate and dance with her lord under the starry night sky again. She explicitly mentions that she is asexual, but not aromantic, for they are not the same thing, and from her long time among the dead she has developed the habit of standing as still, silent and breathless as them whenever she is stressed and upset.
Eleanor West is the elderly eccentric headmistress of the boarding school, her Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. She wears bright colours when parents and local authorities aren't around, and is still a child at heart, perhaps too much so. She wants to help the children who have been through what she had once, and unlike everyone else she can still access her fantasy door, but only with a nonsensical, childlike mind. Eleanor isn't dissimilar to Dumbledore or a good version of Count Olaf - a female version of this type of character is rare and it is refreshing. She is a tragic figure, being practically the only adult shown in this novella.
Kade is a transgender male and a little too calm and cheery for an eighteen-year-old who got kicked out of his fantasy world of candyfloss and knights for not being a girl like they thought. There is also Sumi, a completely, happily-loopy Japanese girl who holds nothing back - her world was like Wonderland; Lundy, a teacher who due to travelling back and forth many times from her magical door, she ages backwards and has the body of an eight-year-old (I'm getting Claudia from 'Interview with the Vampire' vibes from her); Christopher the Latino skeleton land boy, who doesn't really get introduced until over a hundred pages in; and last but certainly not least, the Addams twins, Jack and Jill, both girls - Jack is the utterly morbid but brilliant mad scientist's protegee (she seriously scared me, but that's the intended reaction), whilst Jill is the pretty, girly former vampire's prize. Their parents also beat the parents from Louise O'Neill's 'Asking For It' as the worst in the entirety of YA fiction: after barely any time of their twin daughters going missing, they have another kid whom they tell his sisters are dead, with the implication that they never really tried to look for them. The real world is as insane as any made-up one.
And yeah, vampires, in a way, are in this book. So are mutilated bodies and disposing of the evidence, for 'Every Heart a Doorway' is also a murder mystery, binding its time before striking dead a character the reader grew to like very much and didn't expect to get offed so soon and so suddenly. It takes risks, and leaves no detail untouched, like a madman.
Everybody is eerie and unstable in this shiny/gothic two-sided coin of a novella; nobody is what they seem. It's not all rainbows, friendly munchkins and unicorns here. In fact, in Nancy's world, unicorns would get cooked and eaten at a banquet.
The diversity of the cast is also something to applaud in a modern day fantasy. It contains feminist teachings, and even analyses why it is that more girls visit magical lands than boys. Ableist slurs are called out on.
The writing is addictive and it whisks the reader fast into its meta-narration, and prose containing prospective lands, where the plot doesn't start until over a quarter of the way through. It is so effective it can be read in one day.
For its fantastic concept, writing, characters and atmosphere, 'Every Heart a Doorway' does contain many flaws, and the reasons for its dividing people can be founded fairly. Its ideas and plot could have been explored better in a novel that's longer (sequel-baiting does not count). Not every potential is realised for a great story. The subject of Kade's hypocritical magical world rejecting him for who he is - when the other kids' worlds accepted them for their true selves - isn't explored enough. In a murder mystery tale, no one does any investigating or detective work - the main key players just stumble onto plot points accidentally. The characters, who we are infrequently told are scared, are rather blasé over the fact that there's a serial killer on the loose at their school. Maybe this is to show how out of touch they are, but it results in some unsympathetic and thoughtless leads whom the reader is made to connect to. Nancy is not a proactive heroine; to even call her that is a stretch. She is constantly surrounded by more talkative and motivated characters (while her motive is to return to the Halls of the Dead, where she is most understood, she doesn't actually do or think up anything for how she could work that out), and it seems that at the end the only thing the protagonist achieves on her own is not die, and that is not "saving the world", as it were.
Nancy might believe or want to believe that she's dead - figuratively and literally - and this ghost girl wandering around as life passes her by could have had an arc where she grows more in confidence through friendships, and she slowly finds her inner light again, stands up for herself, and does stuff. But there isn't really a payoff to that in the actual book. The Home for Wayward Children itself isn't 100% friendly anyway - bullying exists everywhere, including Hogwarts - no matter how hard Eleanor tries to keep the children safe from the harsh real world.
Yet, I love 'Every Heart a Doorway'. There is so much to talk about in such a short story. I adore the writing, the creepy, luscious tone, the gothic horror, the strange and beautiful characters, and the angles it took, despite what could have been if only it were longer. It's deliberately weird and bizarre but not self-indulgent. Care is present.
There are unseen, unfounded lands out there. You only need to look for them, and believe in yourself before you can believe in them. We make our own story, our own narration, and don't let anyone else tell it for you. Where we love and are loved and understood in return - unconditionally and unfailing - that's where we can call home. There is magic in this unique novella, buried not too deeply. Whether you find it or not is up to you.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Graphic Novel Review - 'Spell on Wheels' by Kate Leth (Writer), Megan Levens (Artist), Marissa Louise (Colorist), Jen Bartel (Cover Artist), Nate Piekos (Letterer)
A graphic novel about three modern day witches! How could I resist?
So 'Spell on Wheels', by the writer of 'Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!', Kate Leth, follows Claire, Jolene and Andy, three adult witches (yes, they are adults, not teenagers as you would've expected from this genre, revived for modern young audiences), each with her own magic specialty. Upon finding their house broken into and robbed and their magical protections useless, they go on a road trip in a snazzy new, Wicca-symbol car to search for their missing magical equipment, which the thief sells on the internet Goblin Market to prospective buyers, who want magic spells and objects for various reasons. Dangerous consequences are sure to follow, and the mystery of who the seemingly-unremarkable thief is, and who he works for, runs deeper than the witches think.
Let's think up famous women trios-to-quints in popular culture, and narrow it down to the fantasy genre: there's 'Charmed', 'The Craft', 'Practical Magic', 'Hocus Pocus'; none of which I like but are popular enough in the mainstream consciousness that they're inevitably there whenever the topic of witches in fiction is brought up. There's also 'The Witches of Eastwick', and the ton of Magical Girl anime and Western media, like 'W.I.T.C.H.'. 'Spell on Wheels' takes the witchy zeitgeist and both celebrates and improves on it for a new generation, with a dash of 'Scooby-Doo' cartoon aesthetics, without the pesky Hollywoodization and its overwhelming negative portrayal of witches (and women in general, but that's another loooooong, heavy topic talked about to death already).
'Spell on Wheels' is fresh and nuanced and full of great, well-rounded characters. It's effortlessly diverse: Claire is a curvy, red-haired Canadian, Jolene is an Asian lesbian, and Andy is Black, and though she's presented as the shy, inexperienced younger sister of the trio, she proves throughout the plot that she may well be the most powerful of the lot (yey rhyming! Am I casting a spell? Wouldn't you like to know ;) ).
There's also a sexy satyr named Paul (Claire is really into him in his only issue - bestiality? Who cares, he's a tall gentleman beast), blunt, unapologetic feminist commentary mixed throughout, and some real aspects of Wicca and its rituals, amid all the fantasy; magic is definitely real in 'Spell on Wheels', and catastrophic when used wrongly and for selfish purposes. The only other contemporary comic I've read that explores Wicca and witchcraft as a lifestyle is Greg Rucka's 'Black Magick', and I find 'Spell on Wheels' to be more fun and positive.
And to all the detractors who might whine about the feminism in the comic: 1) Why are you complaining about something that's clearly not made for you? Oh yeah it's because whenever anything isn't about you, you can't leave it be and you feel entitled to force your way into others' spaces and intentionally take them away and ruin their enjoyment and inclusion, of course; and 2) The feminist agenda makes sense in context, because witchcraft, Wicca and feminism go together like the sun, the moon and the stars. They always have done. I don't know if this was accidental in 'Spell on Wheels', but it stays true to the concept of witchcraft on the whole as being about female empowerment; about women coming together as a group of friends for a chance to be free and accepted as their own individual selves (woman, LBGT, POC, etc), as nature intended. To carve their own space; to feel wanted; to be themselves in the dangerous, patriarchal world, where witch burnings still exist in subtle, metaphorical ways.
My point is, do your research before you passionately, vehemently decry something you may not even try to understand otherwise.
Fun, progressive and fashionable - both the lighthearted and darker elements brew together exquisitely - 'Spell on Wheels' comes highly recommended.
Final Crescent Moon Score: 4/5
So 'Spell on Wheels', by the writer of 'Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!', Kate Leth, follows Claire, Jolene and Andy, three adult witches (yes, they are adults, not teenagers as you would've expected from this genre, revived for modern young audiences), each with her own magic specialty. Upon finding their house broken into and robbed and their magical protections useless, they go on a road trip in a snazzy new, Wicca-symbol car to search for their missing magical equipment, which the thief sells on the internet Goblin Market to prospective buyers, who want magic spells and objects for various reasons. Dangerous consequences are sure to follow, and the mystery of who the seemingly-unremarkable thief is, and who he works for, runs deeper than the witches think.
Let's think up famous women trios-to-quints in popular culture, and narrow it down to the fantasy genre: there's 'Charmed', 'The Craft', 'Practical Magic', 'Hocus Pocus'; none of which I like but are popular enough in the mainstream consciousness that they're inevitably there whenever the topic of witches in fiction is brought up. There's also 'The Witches of Eastwick', and the ton of Magical Girl anime and Western media, like 'W.I.T.C.H.'. 'Spell on Wheels' takes the witchy zeitgeist and both celebrates and improves on it for a new generation, with a dash of 'Scooby-Doo' cartoon aesthetics, without the pesky Hollywoodization and its overwhelming negative portrayal of witches (and women in general, but that's another loooooong, heavy topic talked about to death already).
'Spell on Wheels' is fresh and nuanced and full of great, well-rounded characters. It's effortlessly diverse: Claire is a curvy, red-haired Canadian, Jolene is an Asian lesbian, and Andy is Black, and though she's presented as the shy, inexperienced younger sister of the trio, she proves throughout the plot that she may well be the most powerful of the lot (yey rhyming! Am I casting a spell? Wouldn't you like to know ;) ).
There's also a sexy satyr named Paul (Claire is really into him in his only issue - bestiality? Who cares, he's a tall gentleman beast), blunt, unapologetic feminist commentary mixed throughout, and some real aspects of Wicca and its rituals, amid all the fantasy; magic is definitely real in 'Spell on Wheels', and catastrophic when used wrongly and for selfish purposes. The only other contemporary comic I've read that explores Wicca and witchcraft as a lifestyle is Greg Rucka's 'Black Magick', and I find 'Spell on Wheels' to be more fun and positive.
And to all the detractors who might whine about the feminism in the comic: 1) Why are you complaining about something that's clearly not made for you? Oh yeah it's because whenever anything isn't about you, you can't leave it be and you feel entitled to force your way into others' spaces and intentionally take them away and ruin their enjoyment and inclusion, of course; and 2) The feminist agenda makes sense in context, because witchcraft, Wicca and feminism go together like the sun, the moon and the stars. They always have done. I don't know if this was accidental in 'Spell on Wheels', but it stays true to the concept of witchcraft on the whole as being about female empowerment; about women coming together as a group of friends for a chance to be free and accepted as their own individual selves (woman, LBGT, POC, etc), as nature intended. To carve their own space; to feel wanted; to be themselves in the dangerous, patriarchal world, where witch burnings still exist in subtle, metaphorical ways.
My point is, do your research before you passionately, vehemently decry something you may not even try to understand otherwise.
Fun, progressive and fashionable - both the lighthearted and darker elements brew together exquisitely - 'Spell on Wheels' comes highly recommended.
Final Crescent Moon Score: 4/5
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