Chronicles of a Book Evangelist

Review: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Expected Publication Date: May 22, 2012

Netgalley Description: 

What happens when someone you love becomes a weapon to use against you...

In New York City, 1897, life has never been more thrilling -- or dangerous.

Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her “straynge band of mysfits” have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade—the dangerous device Jasper stole from him...for the life of the girl Jasper loves.

One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei’s neck tightens. And tightens.

From the rough streets of lower Manhattan to elegant Fifth Avenue, the motley crew of teens with supernatural abilities is on Jasper’s elusive trail. And they’re about to discover how far they’ll go for friendship.

More than ever, Finley Jayne will rely on powerful English duke Griffin King to balance her dark magic with her good side. Yet Griffin is at war with himself over his secret attraction to Finley...and will risk his life and reputation to save her. Sam, more machine than man, finds his moody heart tested by Irish lass Emily—whose own special abilities are no match for the darkness she discovers on the streets.

Now, to help those she’s come to care for so deeply, Finley Jayne must infiltrate a criminal gang. Only problem is, she might like the dark side a little too much....

Review:

I was actually taken by surprise while reading The Girl in the Clockwork Collar.  I think Kady Cross has come into her own as a writer.  TGCC  still has the same playfulness and aesthetic as The Girl in the Steel Corset, but these things don't seem to overwhelm everything else in this novel.  The novel moved along much more quickly and smoothly without the page long asides about what everyone was wearing or tinkering with, but clothes and devices were still in the forefront.  She also dropped a lot of the allusions and parallels to X-Men and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which added authenticity and originality to her voice.  

The characters, too, seemed to take on additional complexity and sophistication in TGCC.  Many of the characters are actually called out on their flaws by other characters.  Sam becomes less broody, Emily becomes better at communicating, Griffin learns to show a little weakness and take himself less seriously, Finley learns to be less of a maverick, and Jasper becomes a fully formed character.  (Perhaps a large part of my increased enjoyment of TGCC also come from the fact that Cordelia is not present!)

The mystery/adventure in The Girl in the Clockwork Collar was also substantially better.  Cross did a good job of subtly laying out hints and clues, slowly building to the final big reveal -- I picked up on where she was going, but a lot slower than I would like to admit.  All the different pieces of the puzzle actually made sense in the context of the story.

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar was not perfect; Cross still describes poor Emily's hair as "ropey," "ropes" or "rope-like" an absurd number of times.  Girls still have instant distrust and dislike of each other simply because they are girls.  Cross takes a few too many liberties with some historical figures, and for a series that appropriates so much from Asian culture, it really sucks that the only Asian character --she who appears on the cover and for whom the book was named -- lacks the same nuance and complexity afforded to the other characters.  However, I enjoyed reading The Girl in the Clockwork Collar a lot more than The Girl in the Steel Corset, and think The Steampunk Chronicles may shape up to be a pretty good series.

Rating:

3.5 stars of 5

Previously:

Steampunk Chronicles #0.5 - The Strange Case of Finley Jayne

Steampunk Chronicles #1 - The Girl in the Steel Corset

This review also appears on Goodreads; a review copy was provided by the publisher.

 

Review: Short Story "The Strange Case of Finley Jayne" by Kady Cross

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: May 1, 2011

Goodreads Description:

Finley Jayne knows she's not 'normal'. Normal girls don't lose time, or have something inside them that makes them capable of remarkably violent things. Her behavior has already cost her one job, so when she's offered the lofty position of companion to Phoebe, a debutante recently engaged to Lord Vincent, she accepts, despite having no experience. Lord Vincent is a man of science with his automatons and inventions, but Finley is suspicious of his motives where Phoebe is concerned. She will do anything to protect her new friend, but what she discovers is even more monstrous than anything she could have imagined...

An ebook exclusive prequel to The Steampunk Chronicles.

Review:

I think this is one of those rare instances where I like the short story/novella format from an author much more than the full length novel.  Many of the failings found in Cross' full length novels are absent in The Strange Case of Finley Jayne.  The story is much tighter: the descriptions of clothing and devices are still present, but do not override the plot.  Nor does Cross over-employ the same redundant physical descriptions of characters as she does with Emily's "ropey" hair.  

Surprisingly, I also think that Cross did a much better job of shaping her characters when constrained by the short story structure.  Phoebe and Lady Morton were much more fully actualized to me than many of the characters found in The Girl in the Steel Corset.  Additionally, she explores Finley's dual nature, and how Finley thinks of and feels about her internal conflict, in a much more interesting way than occurs in the full length novel.  I also found the plot progression and world building to be a lot stronger in The Strange Case of Finley Jayne than in TGSC.  

It would have been wonderful if TSCFJ had been included as the first chapters of TGSC rather than an independent prequel. There is a lot of helpful world-building information that is naturally included in this story that we are unaware of while reading The Girl in the Steel Corset until very late in the novel, and only then in a info-dump manner.  Cross sublty uses foreshadowing with Finley's mother and her attitudes towards the aristocracy; and the former Duke of Greythorne's past experiments and discoveries were hinted at in a way that would have made TGSC a much better read.  

I really enjoyed all of the almost-meetings between Finley and Griffin -- especially the scene in the chocolate shop!  My only confusion is why Phoebe and Lady Morton don't show up in the full length books -- Phoebe is a sweet friend, and Lady Morton is a kick-butt cool character -- I'd like to see more of them. The Strange Case of Finley Jayne was a well-written, fun, interesting short story, and I really wish I would have read this first!

Rating:

3.5 of 5 stars

This review also appears on Goodreads; I purchased my copy from Barnes & Noble for Nook.

 

Update 2: The Kairos Mechanism

17 days into the campaign and The Kairos Mechanism is already 60% funded!  This is so exciting -- I really want this project to be funded!  Some updates from Kate on how the project is going thus far:

• This week The Kairos Mechanism will go to Kate's Kid Editor Crew.  Four of these six young readers have contributed interviews about how they approach editing that will be posted throughout this week on the Novellablog at clockworkfoundry.com. 

• If you are or will be anywhere in the vicinity of New York City, Annapolis (near where Mrs. Milford grew up), or the sanctuary garden in Massachusetts (which inspired a setting in The Kairos Mechanism) there is a good chance you could help celebrate this project with Kate in person!  She will be announcing the details this week for three different real-world events that will take place during the second half of the campaign!  (Alas, none of those places are remotely close to where I live.)

• You can now add The Kairos Mechanism to your Goodreads to-read bookshelf.

• Finally, if you know any tween or teen reader artists who are interested in participating in this project, send them Kate's way at The Clockwork Foundry.

Unrelated to The Kairos Mechanism (but just as exciting!):

 

Previously:

 Review: The Boneshaker by Kate Milford

Kickstarter Campaign: The Kairos Mechanism a New Novella from Kate Milford

Updates, Giveaways, and Free Books

Review: The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: May 24, 2011

Goodreads Description:

In 1897 England, 16-year-old Finley Jayne is convinced she's a freak. No normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch. Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special . . . that she's one of "them."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review:

 As a dedicated fan of the steampunk genre, reading multiple reviews of Kady Cross' The Girl in the Steel Corset inspired the need to clarify what I would consider two different types of steampunk books.  The first sort is heavily influenced by the science and technology of Jules Verne, and the harsher social realities of Victorian England.  Sure, there are rockin' cool mechanical devices; but they have an organic development from something that came before.  They often take technology that previously existed, then go a new way with it--having steam engines remain dominant rather than succumbing to internal combustion engines.  Other times, they take a modern need, think about the technology available at the time, and find a logical way that the technology of the late 19th to early 20th century could meet that modern need.  They are often very Vernian in how these machines are described, and could be considered almost alternative history.  Likewise, yes, there is a profusion of velvet and corsets and parasols.  However, they also have filth in the streets, five year old chimney sweeps dying in the chimney, and suffocatingly strict codes of behavior for social interaction.  Victoria and Verne would recognize their world.

The second sort is substantially different.  They are written for the modern-day velvet corset wearer who glues gears to her iphone, or the guy with the monacle and watch fob and desktop tricked out with brass paneling and typewriter keys.  They are basically all the trappings and technology of modern day society with a romanticized "Victorian" aesthetic.  It doesn't really matter if sociological or technological aspects of the novel are "accurate," because that isn't really the point.  They are inspired by rather than based on Vernian and Victorian qualities.  One type of steampunk is not necessarily better than the other, but it can be very disappointing to go into a book looking for one type to find the other.  Kady Cross' The Girl in the Steel Corset is firmly and unabashedly in the later camp.

 To that end, as far as world building goes, The Girl in the Steel Corset is basically set in a modern society with Victorian-inspired details.  Cross has flashlights, text messaging, tattoo guns, multi-disc cd players, motorcycles, and motion sensitive tracking devices--just think metal for plastic or silicon and wind-up for plug-in and you've got the quirks in the design.  Her ladies can wear shorts with their corsets, fishnets with their lace-up boots.  Tattoos and facial piercings abound.  In fact, establishing this aesthetic seems to be so important to Cross that other things, such as character development and plot progression, sometimes fall victim to her copious descriptions of what everyone was wearing and what device they were using.  

Cross also often references things that have happened prior to the novel with people who are not in the novel.  Don't get me wrong, having back stories for your characters is marvelous for making sure they are believable!  BUT, it shouldn't be referred to in such a way that I, as the reader, feel like I am reading the second or third book in a series without having read the others first!  Cross is also very redundant in her descriptions: if I have to read Emily's hair described as "ropey" one more time I think I will scream!  Also, Cross' attempts at creating an X-Men/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen mash-up are, at times, really obvious, but that makes them no less successful.  None of these problems are particularly egregious in a debut novel.  In fact, The Girl in the Steel Corset is a very fast, fun read.

However, I do have one issue with the book that I found very frustrating. One of the characters has the ability to reads minds, and does so in an unrepentantly aggressive way, despite repeatedly being asked to stop or being told no by other characters.  Despite this behaviour (which I would consider abusive), she is mostly treated as a 'good' or 'positive' character by the author.

For more information on Steampunk, check out Brass Goggles: The lighter side of Steampunk.  They have tons of links out to cool things as well.

Other Opinions:

Wendy from Cupcake and a Latte Really Liked It

Wendy from The Midnight Garden Was Mostly Indifferent

Vinaya Really Didn't Like It

The review also appears on Goodreads; I borrowed The Girl in the Steel Corset from my local library.

Review: Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore

Publisher: Bloomsbury 

Publication Date: December 22, 2009

Goodreads Description:

Nimira is a foreign music-hall girl forced to dance for mere pennies. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing with a piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new and better life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets are beginning to stir. Unsettling below-stairs rumors swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. Then Nimira discovers the spirit of a fairy gentleman named Erris is trapped inside the clockwork automaton, waiting for someone to break his curse. The two fall into a love that seems hopeless, and breaking the curse becomes a race against time, as not just their love, but the fate of the entire magical world may be in peril.

Review: 

One of the hardest parts of becoming a parent, in my opinion, is having to crystallize in words what it is that we believe, to articulate with precision that which we have only vaguely felt to be true before. To have to look into the eyes of a child who trusts us and answer a question like, "Why do we have war?" One thing that has become clear for me in the past few years is that I do not believe in "Good Guys" or "Bad Guys." We each of us make a thousand decisions every day that slowly shape us into the person we are - dynamic, not static. Sometimes we make good decisions and sometimes we make bad ones, but at the end of the day, we are still all people. It may not seem like this has anything to do with Magic Under Glass, but it does! I promise!

The world in which Dolamore has created is rich in cultural texture. The story is fast paced and intriguing. However, where I feel Dolamore really shines is in her characterizations. So often in YA we are given villains who do bad things because they are just evil. Not so for Magic Under Glass. The characters are weak and strong. They make bad choices for good reasons and good choices for bad reasons. There is room for redemption. I appreciate the shades of grey. Without ever becoming preachy, Dolamore shows how racism can come from a place of smug superiority, or from a place of fear. She shows how people who want the same thing for their country can come to diametrically opposed positions on how that can be achieved. There is more than one way to be courageous. She shows how passion can be good - and how it can lead to zealotry. Dolamore's characters are neither "good guys" nor "bad guys," they are simply people who have made good choices and people who have made bad ones, but they all had their reasons. I can not wait to see where they go from here. I will absolutely be reading her next book. 

I Borrowed a Copy from my Local Library

Review for 2012 Classics Challenge: Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

It had been a while since I last read Journey to the Center of the Earth, and I am afraid I had forgotten quite a few details.  I've been reading a lot of Steampunk recently, and many of the authors cite Verne's books as inspiration.  Also, my son has recently discovered this film of the same title and hoped Journey to the Center of the Earth could be one of our next read-alouds.  (Considering we had some trouble with Around the World in Eighty Days vocabulary-wise, I think we may hold off just a little longer.)  So, for my fist Classics Challenge Book, a classic set somewhere I realistically will never visit in my lifetime, I  chose to re-read Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Original Title: Voyage au centre de la Terre

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Publication Date: September 29, 2009

First Publication Date: 1864

Description:

Originally published in 1864, this Jules Verne classic has wowed generations of readers with its portrayal of an imaginary odyssey into a subterranean wonderland. When Axel deciphers an old parchment describing a secret passage through a volcano to the center of the earth, nothing will stop his eccentric Uncle Lidenbrock from setting out at once. With silent Hans as guide, the two men encounter natural hazards, prehistoric beasts, and other curiosities on their perilous, astonishing, terrifying trek through the underworld.

 

 Review:

 Re-reading Journey to the Center of the Earth reminded me of all the reasons I love Verne.  The contrast between the exactitude in his descriptions of geography, geology, society and people and the soaring nature of his imaginings just leaves me in awe.  I love reading Verne with an atlas or a map.  (In a perfect world, it would be on one of those huge full-wall sized affairs done in a Mercator or Robinson Projection with black ink on a yellowing paper; with Africa as tall as my waist, Eastern Euopean countries big enough to really see, and a beautifully elaborate compass rose in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  I would follow the journey with little metal pins connected by bright red thread.)  He is so precise about each step of his journey that I always feel  as if he truly does want me to follow along behind him -as if he is telling me the way - until at last I come to the place where the pins on the map stop and Verne's world begins.

Verne is the same with science as he is with geography.  He really knew his stuff for his time.  I know that Journey is sometimes accused of not ageing as well as his other novels.  There have been so many advances made in the field of geology that much of what he wrote was just flat wrong, but I think that sells Verne a little short.  As with all his other books - with their inventions, machines and sciences so very far ahead of their time - he had the bravery to say, "this is what we know to be true, but what if this were possible?!"  He then proceeded to lay out a logical way in which all he knew to be true could be wrong.  At the same time he kept the fantasy elements firmly grounded in scientific principles that absolutely had to be true; and I respect him for that as well.  (I actually got my son's dinosaur encyclopedia - with it's illustrated strati of geologic layers - to follow along with as they descended.  Verne's accuracy is just amazing.)

What I probably most admire Verne for, though, is his ability to craft characters that leap from the page.  He reminds me of Jane Austen in this way; he gives form to people you know, or almost know.  After a while, you can see the look on a characters face or anticipate a reaction without Verne describing it because you know the character.  It's your neighbor, your professor, your aunt, your brother.  You've seen that face before, you've heard that laugh, you've gotten that reaction.  Verne was a keen observer in all things and, lucky for us, was able to capture what he saw with words.

So, with that in mind I decided to make the February Prompt  about Characters a little more difficult and wrote it about Axel/Harry - the narrator and, therefore, the character whom Verne described the least.

What phrases has the author used to introduce this character? What are your first impressions of them? Find a portrait or photograph that closely embodies how you imagine them. 

From the get-go Harry is far more concerned about his comfort - especially his food - than he is in any sort of pursuit of knowledge.  In his own words, "to me soup was more interesting than soda, an omelette more tempting than arithmetic, and a artichoke of ten times more value than any amount of asbestos."  He is selfish in that affable sort of way that doesn't really infringe on anyone around him, mostly because - despite the fact that he is quite intelligent - he feels himself just enough inferior and indebted to his uncle to not go against him.  He is the last person who would ever choose to go on the adventure that awaits him.  I picture him as being a little portly (due to his love of food and primarily sedentary scholarly pursuits) but not too much so, because he does love a good walk and is a little vain.  Maybe a little like one of these guys:

How has the character changed? Has your opinion of them altered? Are there aspects of their character you aspire to? or hope never to be? What are their strengths and faults? Do you find them believable? If not, how could they have been molded so? Would you want to meet them?

I don't think that Harry really does change in essentials.  He has his moments where his surroundings or experiences are just to amazing to not be awed; or where his curiosity gets the better of him, his intelligence is fully engaged, and he cannot help but be excited by it all.  I think he will always be a little more worried about his dinner than his dissertation and able to stretch his intelligence a little more than he ever actually will.  He is smart and loyal and, I believe, truly loves his uncle and Gretchen.  He is as I said a bit selfish, and more than a bit pompous and ethnocentric (as I believe most people of his class at that time probably were.)  He is absolutely believable (in fact, I am pretty sure that I have attended more than one lecture from his likeness.)  I think I would probably really enjoy having dinner or hanging out with him at a club (in the 19th century meaning of the word!) discussing science or the classics (that is, if he would talk to me as a woman about such things.)  However, I don't think I would want him for a travel companion!

                      

Review: The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

Publisher: Random House

Publication Date: February 21, 2012

Book Description:

Boston, 1868. The Civil War may be over but a new war has begun, one between the past and the present, tradition and technology. On a former marshy wasteland, the daring Massachusetts Institute of Technology is rising, its mission to harness science for the benefit of all and to open the doors of opportunity to everyone of merit. But in Boston Harbor a fiery cataclysm throws commerce into chaos, as ships' instruments spin inexplicably out of control. Soon after, another mysterious catastrophe devastates the heart of the city. Is it sabotage by scientific means or Nature revolting against man's attempt to control it?
 
The shocking disasters cast a pall over M.I.T. and provoke assaults from all sides-rival Harvard, labor unions, and a sensationalistic press. With their first graduation and the very survival of their groundbreaking college now in doubt, a band of the Institute's best and brightest students secretly come together to save innocent lives and track down the truth, armed with ingenuity and their unique scientific training. 
 
Led by "charity scholar" Marcus Mansfield, a quiet Civil War veteran and one-time machinist struggling to find his footing in rarefied Boston society, the group is rounded out by irrepressible Robert Richards, the bluest of Beacon Hill bluebloods; Edwin Hoyt, class genius; and brilliant freshman Ellen Swallow, the Institute's lone, ostracized female student. Working against their small secret society, from within and without, are the arrayed forces of a stratified culture determined to resist change at all costs and a dark mastermind bent on the utter destruction of the city. 
 
Studded with suspense and soaked in the rich historical atmosphere for which its author is renowned, The Technologists is a dazzling journey into a dangerous world not so very far from our own, as the America we know today begins to shimmer into being.

Review:

The only way for me to really talk about The Technologists is to pull it apart into its different layers.  At its most basic, Pearl's The Technologists is a mystery, a thriller.  It is also a novel with a profound sense of place - not only of the where but also when.  Pearl takes his setting very seriously, and in it is entirely convincing - in fact, it is primarily in the steampunkish technology that we wander outside of historical fiction into alternative history.  Finally, The Technologists reads almost as an Ode to Science and Technology, as well as an exploration of their place and purpose in the world.  It explores the morals and ethics of innovation, the value of technology and scientific discovery, and even attempts to distill to its simplest form what science and technology really are.

It is only in that first, most basic layer of the book - they mystery/thriller - that I feel Pearl has failed.  His writing style, while beautiful and absolutely perfect for his other aims, hampers the sense of urgency he is attempting to create.  I recently read a very interesting blog post from Query Shark in which she talked about word count in sentences, and sentence count in paragraphs, as part of what increases tension in mystery/thrillers.  Pearl's writing can at best be called languid.  It is the type of prose you wallow in, not speed through.  Additionally, I get that it is a convention of the genre to introduce the reader, at a rapid rate in the first of the books, to numerous people who will be among primary characters, secondary characters, as well as mere victims of whatever disaster is imminent.  This lack of characterization is okay because it is rapid.  Unfortunately, according to my Goodreads status updates, I had read a fifth of the book before I really started getting to know the main characters of The Technologists.  I knew that the mystery would eventually unfold; I knew that the Tech boys (and girl) would eventually be my focus; I didn't particularly care.  But, here's the thing: I did care  enough to keep reading because of all the other layers that Pearl did really, really well.

As a reader, I have to attach myself to someone to continue to invest in a book.  Pearl's constant introduction of new characters left me with little other option but to attach to Boston, the city, as its own character.  (In fact, I would be quite surprised to find that it was not at least partially Pearl's intent to make Boston so present in the novel that it appeared a character.)  Likewise, Pearl's writing is at times so evocative of the mid to late 1800s, that I was surprised when I get to something 'alternative'.  Everything from sentence structure to word phrasing to chosen vocabulary firmly places the book in the 19th century, while simultaneously being approachable by the modern reader.  Pearl does this with such balance and grace that it is truly beautiful to behold.  I was shown 19th century Boston in all its full-bodied glory.  

However, where The Technologists really shines is in its handling of science and technology.  It is the story of the pioneers of science education.  This book is firmly about the time in history when MIT had to fight for its very existence in a world that  mistrusted it.  Yet, it would require an almost ostrich-like approach to current events to not realize that this is a battle still playing out today.  The thing I think I most appreciated about Pearl was his ambiguity.  His characters were not always fully formed because they were often embodiments of the different views people take in this fight.  Marcus WAS MIT, and MIT was Marcus.  Agassiz is Intelligent Design, and Intelligent Design is Agassiz.  And, in allowing each of these approaches to be embodied by a person, Pearl allows more nuance and ambiguity into the discussion.  It is easy to ask MIT to have a protectionist stance, as an institution, within the city of Boston for its own self preservation.  However, to think of Marcus sitting idly by feels morally wrong.  This duality in the characters allows the reader to see the hypocrisy in thinking something is a safe decision from an institution, but morally repugnant from an individual.   They are the same.  So often in this fight between science educators and moral objectionists, all the decisions seem to come from cold, faceless institutions; but really they are made by people with fear, hubris, conviction, excitement, etc. - people who are anything but cold or faceless.  Pearl is also perpetually defining and redefining science and technology, and the definitions rarely feel wrong.  I found myself nodding along with Agassiz at first, until his rants slowly slipped into something that, at first I only could not follow, until finally they reached something I abhor.  

The Technologist asks of us, where is the line between protecting ourselves with innovation and from innovation?  When have we gone too far? Where does religion fit into a new, more scientific world?  Where does science fit into a religious worldview?  What about ethics and morality?  Where is the moral line between theory and practice?  (For example, was it morally acceptable for these scientists to theorize about the construction of this new virus, but wrong to actually create it?  Or was it wrong to even theorize?  Or should they have been allowed to create it and publish it anyway, for the sake of learning?)  Does technology improve society or destroy it?  Are we naturally innovators, or do we defy nature by our innovation?  Were we already set apart as better than the world around us, or do we set ourselves apart by our attempts to better ourselves?  Do great minds arise because of education, or in spite of it?  There is not always a set right or wrong in these questions, but dynamic shades of grey that change as often as the faces of science and technology themselves change.  Other times there are clear rights and wrongs, and they require action - and Pearl shows that as well.  I love how deftly and beautifully Pearl deals with these issues, how he often forces the questions without providing the answers, and so I don't really care that I felt no urgency for his mystery - that wasn't really the most important question he asked anyway. 

Review Copy provide by Random House.

Review also appears on Goodreads

Other Opinions:

Thought it was an Excellent Mystery

Wasn't a Fan of the Science

Review: The Boneshaker by Kate Milford

Publication Date: May 21, 2010

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Literary Awards: YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults (2011)

Goodreads Description:

Thirteen-year-old Natalie Minks loves machines, particularly automata—self-operating mechanical devices, usually powered by clockwork. When Jake Limberleg and his traveling medicine show arrive in her small Missouri town with a mysterious vehicle under a tarp and an uncanny ability to make Natalie’s half-built automaton move, she feels in her gut that something about this caravan of healers is a bit off. Her uneasiness leads her to investigate the intricate maze of the medicine show, where she discovers a horrible truth and realizes that only she has the power to set things right. Set in 1914, The Boneshaker is a gripping, richly textured novel about family, community, courage, and looking evil directly in the face in order to conquer it.

Review:

I have put off reviewing The Boneshaker for some time now because it leaves me feeling absolutely inadequate to the task. It is quite possibly one of the best books I have ever read. 

The Boneshaker is the story of Natalie Minks, a young tomboy with a passionate love of all things mechanical. Few things give her more pleasure than tinkering with her father on their automata, unless it is perhaps her red Chesterlane, a beautiful boneshaker of a bicycle he built for her. Except that she cannot ride it just yet. She has grown up in a small Missouri town near a crossroads, listening to her mother's fantastical stories of the town and it's people, because all things are possible at a crossroad. And it is in this way that The Boneshaker becomes a story of stories. Tom Guyot's victory over the devil with a guitar that can talk. The mysterious drifter. Simon Cofferett's frightening jump, and his uncanny youth for one who has lived just outside town as long as anyone can remember. When 'Dr. Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show' comes into town with intricate automata, fantastic healing machines and miraculous cures, Natalie begins to realize there is more truth in her mother's stories than she previously suspected. 

Though a steampunk novel (for kids!), The Boneshaker is so much more. There are layers upon layers to it. The language is so evocative of the region and time about which she writes that her fantasy feels like truth. This absolutely could have been Missouri in 1914, it just wasn't. It makes me think of my Grandmother, and the way she would say, "sometimes it's easier to see the truth when it's in a story." Everything about it feels real from the dusty roads under her bicycle tires to the taunting boys down the lane. You can hear the music as Tom Guyot plays. No, really. You can. 

"Tom's humming turned into strange syllables, sounds that weren't words but sort of broken pieces of words, bits and bobs of song dodging and darting over and around and under the music of the guitar, rising and falling and ducking, and every once in a while climbing sharp and clear and plaintive... 

It made a strange tableau, and plenty of people paused to look: the old black man singing blissfully with the guitar flashing sunset colors on his knees; and the sweaty, bruised, and scraped girl, unmoving and rapt, absently holding on to a bizarre bicycle with her head cocked like a bird's. Neither of them noticed anyone else's stares." (p32-33)

It is like Milford lifted the essence, the very life force, of the folklore of an entire region, and slipped it into her novel. I could feel my grandparents in it. I could hear the echos of their parents. I caught myself, over and over again, stopping to savor something I had just read. As soon as I finished the book, I immediately read it again, only out loud to my husband and son. We spent weeks lingering over it, bellowing to sell wares or whispering in fear. It almost feels wrong to NOT give voice to the words, to NOT have the Boneshaker become the very oral history it describes. 

The Boneshaker is the kind of book that will grow with you. A mid-grade reader could pick it up and be entranced by the mystery, captivated by Natalie's courage. A few years later, they may better understand the fear motivating the choices Natalie's father and brother made about her mother; grasp the deeper, darker elements of the story that are always running just under the surface. It talks about darkness and light, good and bad, courage and weakness in a way that just leaves me breathless at times for its beauty. The different meanings of this book are so multilayered that different readers of different ages will experience what is happening in very different ways, none of them wrong. If I could, I would give a copy of this book to every boy or girl I know. Adults, too. 

I purchase my copy from Barnes and Noble.

Review also on Goodreads

Review: The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

Publisher: Amulet Books

Expected Publication Date: May 1, 2012

Book Description: 

This dark and thrilling adventure, with an unforgettable heroine, will captivate fans of steampunk, fantasy, and romance.

On her 18th birthday, Lena Mattacascar decides to search for her father, who disappeared into the northern wilderness of Scree when Lena was young. Scree is inhabited by Peculiars, people whose unusual characteristics make them unacceptable to modern society. Lena wonders if her father is the source of her own extraordinary characteristics and if she, too, is Peculiar. On the train she meets a young librarian, Jimson Quiggley, who is traveling to a town on the edge of Scree to work in the home and library of the inventor Mr. Beasley. The train is stopped by men being chased by the handsome young marshal Thomas Saltre. When Saltre learns who Lena’s father is, he convinces her to spy on Mr. Beasley and the strange folk who disappear into his home, Zephyr House. A daring escape in an aerocopter leads Lena into the wilds of Scree to confront her deepest fears.

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After reading the description of McQuerry's The Peculiars, I could not wait to read it. I love alternative histories and I love quests, and, in many ways,The Peculiars did not disappoint. McQuerry's writing style is engaging, drawing the reader quickly into the story. After years of feeling alienated and different from everyone around her, Lena sets of to the wilds of Scree (ostensibly Canada) in search of her father. The plot starts out a little slow, but quickly picks up. On the long train ride to the borderlands, she meets a young would-be librarian, Jimson, an enigmatic marshal, Tom Saltre, and eventually the eccentric Mr. Beasley, each of whom play a significant role in shaping her future.

The alternative late 1800s America that McQuerry has created is fascinating. She is excellent at painting a scene with words, and I often wanted to sink into the setting. However, at times I found myself wishing The Peculiars,were just straight fantasy, or perhaps a bit more alternate in its history. McQuerry does a LOT of name dropping - so much so that it becomes distracting. I found myself mentally calculating, 'when was that book published?' or 'he would have been about this old then, right?' and wondering if the dates would line up in a plausible way. It also made it harder to accept the fantastical elements of her alternative America - how could everything here have been so different when the rest of the world, apparently, from Darwin to Marx to Napoleon, progressed in exactly the way it did in our history. There is a wonderful index of historical names, places, and things at the end of the book, but it was mostly beneficial in reassuring oneself that one had, in fact, remembered that correctly; or that, yes, that person was, in fact, real. Perhaps readers who are a little less familiar with history (or at least less concerned with accuracy) would not find this so distracting. 

McQuerry also does an excellent job at characterization. Nearly everyone is three dimensional, even the spectre of Lena's father Saul, who often feels present, even when he is not. Secondary characters have histories, depth to their personalities, and a little mystery as well. Even the missionary sisters have room for growth. And there are no cardboard bad guys here. (Though I must say Tom's romantic interest in Lena, and Lena's reciprocation always felt way more tell-me than show-me in an otherwise show-me sort of book.) I cannot directly quote as I am reading an advance, uncorrected proof, but McQuerry says something that I also believe to be true, there are no good or bad people, just people making good or bad choices. There are a few moments that feel a bit deus ex machina (such as Mr. Beasley having the Aeolus prepared to fly a day early, or the sheriff's intervention with Tom at the end), but even they feel mostly plausible within the setting. 

Perhaps this richness of characterization is what leaves me feeling a little dissatisfied with Lena as a heroine. In a story that tackles big questions like 'what makes us human,' 'what is a soul' or 'where is the line between skepticism and denial of facts,' we are left with a heroine that fails to ever move past her self-doubt to take control of her own future. My dissatisfaction could also arise from McQuerry's tone: I am not sure how she does it, but she manages to sound almost impersonal, while narrating from Lena's perspective. It allows the reader insight into what is going on outside of Lena's perspective, and one can't help but wish Lena would be just a bit more perceptive. I like her, but I do not find her particularly brave or heroic. I really want her to step up and seize control of her choices. I find myself in the uncommon position of hoping this is the first of a series rather than a stand-alone so that I get the chance to see her do it.

Thanks to Amulet Books for the ARC.

Review originally appeared on Goodreads