The Midnight Charter – David Whitley

Agora is a city of capitalism on crack. All transactions are barter, regulated by signed and sealed contracts. An orphanage sells Lily to a bookbinder’s when she’s six years old; Mark is eleven when his father sells him for medicine. Emotions are bought and sold, as are voices. Debtors eke out miserable lives in the streets, or are thrown in jail. Largely alone in the city, Lily and Mark try to make their own ways in the complicated economy and politics of Agora.

For a book clearly intended to show the Evils of Capitalism Run Amok, it’s surprisingly light-handed. Mark and Lily are well done, and the cast of scarred humanity around them are also convincing. Everyone has responded differently to the traumas laid upon them by life and the city, clinging to addictions, a safe haven, childhood, extreme pragmatism, or extreme idealism. The writing is quite solid overall, though marred by three two-page interludes—intended, I believe, to heighten the tension and the sense that this is about more than just two kids—written in unfortunately florid prose. I think it would be better without them, but those six pages over the course of the book only annoy, they don’t detract much from the book as a whole.

It reads like the first in a trilogy, though I haven’t seen any confimation of that; it does have a complete narrative arc, but Lily and Mark’s story is clearly far from done. I’ll be interested in seeing where Whitley takes them next.

September 2009

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The Midnight Charter

 

Devil’s Kiss – Sarwat Chadda

Billi doesn’t want to be a Knight Templar. Originally an official Church-sanctioned crusading order, they were officially disbanded and declared heretical in the thirteenth century. Now they exist in secret, a small band of deadly fighters based in London, charged with protecting humans from a standard slew of nasties: vampires, werewolves, and demons possessing dead bodies. Billi’s father, the current Grand Master, insisted that she become one of them, though several of the older Knights objected: Billi’s a girl and, historically, girls were not allowed in the Knights Templar (being a monastic order and all that). At fifteen, Billi is officially a member of the order, but would much rather go on dates and get her homework done on time than spend her nights fighting vampires. She might be slightly happier about it if her father ever showed the slightest pride or care for her well-being, but no such luck.

Angsty teenager + supernatural evils = melodrama.

Also, there is a general problem with many reluctant hero(in)es: we pick up books about, say, modern-day female Knights Templar because we want some badassitude. It’s an added bonus if the badass hero(ine) has a realistic, complex personality and therefore thinks about the reasons (s)he’s kicking ass, has some moral compunctions, and is generally three-dimensional. The bonus turns into a penalty if the thoughtfulness turns into whininess. Alas, the whininess:badassness ratio in Devil’s Kiss is rather high.

In a separate issue, I was left with an unanswered question: why are all the Knights except Billi (full name: Bilqis) named after Arthurian figures (Arthur, Percival, Gwaine, Bors, Balin, Pelleas, Kay, Elaine)? Granted, Devil’s Kiss is set in England, where Arthurian names are much more common, (I have a British cousin named Merlin), but to have all of them named thus begs an explanation. There are, apparently, some modern conspiracy theories connecting the Templars to Arthur¹ (and, of course, the entire book is based on the conspiracy theory that the Templars are still around), but neither these theories nor King Arthur are mentioned in the book, so that doesn’t go far in the way of explanation. Unlike Billi, the others weren’t born into the Templars; they came to it as adults. Did they change their names? Billi didn’t have to change her name when she officially joined. Was there some monumental coincidence? Where there are prophecies, as there are here, I have trouble accepting coincidences. So why the Arthurian names? Why does Billi pull a sword out of a stone? There could be some cool Arthurian connections, but the lack of explanation or exploration left my vastly unsatisfied. Perhaps Chadda will explain in one of the planned sequels, but I doubt my curiosity will be enough to get me to pick them up.

September 2009

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¹ Wikipedia says, “Revisionist historians and conspiracy theorists claim that the Knights Templar stored secret knowledge, linking them to myriad other subjects: the Rosicrucians, the Cathars, the Priory of Sion, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the Hermetics, the Ebionites, the Rex Deus, lost relics or gospels of James the Just, Mary Magdalene or Jesus (such as a ‘Judas Testament’), King Solomon, Moses, and, ultimately, Hiram Abif and the mystery religion/mysteries of ancient Egypt.”

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The Devil’s Kiss ~ Sarwat Chadda

 

Looking for Alaska – John Green

Miles goes off to boarding school in Alabama looking for the Great Perhaps: adventure, meaning, real friends. He finds the usual assortment of oddballs, including Alaska: hot, confident, exceedingly smart, emotionally scarred, she’s an amazing friend one minute and a selfish bitch the next.

For the first half of the book, sections are labeled “___ days before,” (and in the second half, “___ days after,”) such that we know that Something Bad is going to happen in the general vicinity of Christmas or New Years. Before: booze, cigarettes, pranks, and the study of precalc and religion. After: booze, cigarettes, pranks, and the study of precalc and religion. Also after: trying to figure out what happened, trying to make sense of it, trying to explain it.

It’s not the type of book I usually read, but it came highly recommended , and it’s worth it. Much of the time, when I read books that really throw me into a teenage boy’s head, I feel that I just don’t get it. Excellent books that I enjoy and get a lot out of, but there’s a disconnect. This was just as much in a teenage boy’s head, but it still made sense. A lot of that’s the excellent writing and characterization. I think it’s also partly because so much of Miles’s experience that year involves Alaska; because a girl is so central to everything that’s going on, even the boys’ interactions with each other, it’s grounded in something I do (somewhat) understand.

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Looking for Alaska ~ John Green

 

Shiver – Maggie Stiefvater

As long as Grace can remember, there have been wolves in the woods behind her house. Though they attacked her when she was young, she’s not afraid of them; particularly not her wolf, the golden-eyed one who watches her in the winter and whom she misses in the summer.

Sam remembers the girl he saved from the other wolves one winter and has watched every winter since, and avoided every summer – what if she recognized his eyes, which are the same when he’s a wolf and when he’s a young man?

One fall, a boy in Grace’s high school is attacked by wolves and the humans go wolf-hunting. Injured and inexplicably cast back into human form while the rest of the pack is lupine, Sam goes to Grace for help.

Now, romance is not really one of my genres of choice, though I’ve no objection to presence of romance in a plot. Shiver is decidedly in the paranormal romance genre, so it’s not surprising that I found the focus on romance a little excessive. Also the public displays of affection. You know that couple you hate? The ones who are always kissing in public? Snogging in the middle of ordering hot chocolate? Well, they’re that couple. I hate them! Except I couldn’t quite; they were just too damn sweet and too damn real.¹ It also does have a plot aside from their relationship, so between that and the excellent writing I did find it quite enjoyable. It’s not syrupy-sweet, either; too much goes wrong and there’s too much sadness for that. Furthermore, it digs into the reality that sometime people we love do bad things, sometimes out of good intentions or negligence, but sometimes for very bad reasons, and how we react to that. And sometimes people we don’t like become allies.

So if you’ve a strong aversion to romance, it’s probably not for you. But if you’re neutral on romance, it is well-written and thoughtful enough that you may just like it anyway. Besides, it has the added bonus of werewolves.

August 2009²

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¹ Though people’s reaction to their PDAs did strain my willing suspension of disbelief. The woman selling them that hot chocolate? She tells them they’re cute! Ooohs and aaahs over them! Guys, she works at a shop known for amazing chocolates and better hot chocolate. It’s got to be a popular date spot; dates and chocolate go well together. Therefore, she spends many of her evenings watching annoyingly cutesy couples being all smoochy while she’s stuck at work. Assuming it’s not her first day (and she seems to be unsupervised in the store, so I think that’s a fair assumption), she shouldn’t find it cute anymore. Seriously.

² Which is a kinda silly pub date; it’s a winter book. Reading Shiver on air-conditioned subways, there was a moment of disconnect leaving the book and the train and finding that it’s summer.

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Maggie Stiefvater

 

Baby Be-Bop – Francesca Lia Block

Background information: Baby Bebop is a prequel to Francesca Lia Block’s Weetzie Bat books, now only in print in the compilation Dangerous Angels. A group in Wisconsin is currently suing for the right to publicly burn their local public library’s copy of Baby Be-Bop. Let’s read it instead, shall we?

Dirk has always known that he’s gay, but he’s never told anyone: not his loving grandmother, nor her gay best friends, nor the young man he falls in love with when they’re teenagers. Full of self-loathing and afraid of anyone guessing, he defends himself with leather, punk music, and black hair-dye. He still gets himself beat up, and in the resulting semi-conscious state he gets a visit from some of his ancestors, telling their stories of love and life.

Francesca Lia Block specializes in an odd sort of Los Angeles flowers-and-fairies dreamy quasi-fantasy, and this is no exception. Plot-wise, there isn’t much to it, but it’s a beautiful book. It does tiptoe into sappiness, but in many ways its more of a love letter to gay teenagers than it is a novel; and love letters are allowed to be sappy.

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Baby Be-Bop ~ Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books ~ Francesca Lia Block