I have this weird relationship with books by Maureen Johnson. Either they really work for me or they feel flat because I can’t believe the relationships. This is my third book by her, her first book with Scholastic, and I feel like saying that means that somehow I was magically going to love it? Unfortunately that sounds like I didn’t and I did, I actually have almost zero problems with this novel! It’s abnormal! Even with Johnson’s books I’ve liked there’s been something that bothered me, so the fact that I consumed this book in something like six hours disturbs me.

This! This is the type of novel I want to write, these kinds of hilarious, interesting, flawed relationships.

Well, except for the one-dimensional parents. I mean, they could have had a little depth! It is a pity they were so there, yet not there at all. Parent A and Parent B, left by the wayside until useful as a plot point! Please. I don’t know, but this family novel was more a sibling novel than a family novel, because the parents were just flat.

There’s such a sense of drama in this story, and not just because of Spencer and his theater group, not just because of Mrs. Amberson, some kind of actress with loads of cash to burn and revenge plots to put into place. It’s the fact that we walk into this story that already has so many stories in progress: Lola’s troubles with spoiled rich kids and what it means to be middle-class in New York City, Marlene’s background story, so deftly woven into Scarlett’s but not overtaking it because it’s Scarlett’s story, Spencer’s trouble with his life as an actor versus a life as a chef in the hotel he definitely doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life working in—these siblings and their troubles felt so real (I am sad I can’t put “family” there).

And while I’m frothing over how awesome the characters were, I guess I can just add a paragraph of pure pulsing and unbridled joy for the dialogue, for the references, for the beautiful, beautiful snark between Scarlett and Spencer, and how awesome Mrs. Amberson was, with her health kicks and habits of throwing large amounts of cash around and her pleasure in sneaky antics and love for theater.

Guys! The dialogue. Oh my god, I don’t know what Johnson has been doing with her dialogue in the past, but this novel! She needs to do this every time, and if so I will forever declare myself the president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer for the Maureen Johnson Appreciation Society. It’s a lot of work, but I think I would do it.

Even with the questionably characterized parents.

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We’re sorry, this post is in another castle.

Mary has grown up behind the fences, her small village buried in a dense forest surrounded by Unconsecrated that moan and shuffle around the protected people, unrelenting and full of the eternal desire for tasty snacks. All Mary has is her mother and the stories passed down through generations of women of the time before the Return, before the dead stood up and asked what who was for dinner (or might have, if anyone living spoke zombie). Mary dreams of the ocean, a never ending stretch of water and hope, but can’t quite bring herself to believe there’s anything beyond the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Her village is guided by the Sisterhood and protected by the Guardians—the Sisterhood, made up of women, are the spiritual leaders and the Guardians, made up of men, answer to them and patrol the fences. Unsurprisingly, the small village has turned to faith to give them hope as they seek to survive and repopulate. Then the unthinkable happens: Mary’s mother is bitten and Mary’s life gets all fucked up (and that’s putting it mildly). Suddenly orphaned after watching her mother die and come back as a flesh eating monster, her brother’s kind of a douchebag, Harry, the boy who asked to marry her went AWOL and now her only option is to take up with the Sisterhood, which is omninous and also depressing, because Mary’s starting to suspect God is a great big joke.

I found out about this book via A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy and I couldn’t get it out of my head because, well, zombies. In the book, though, they’re not called zombies; they’re Unconsecrated, the dead-walking, strangers as well as friends and family that have wandered too close to the fence—like Mary’s mother, who, although it’s never actually confirmed, Mary suspects she was bitten by the Unconsecrated that used to be Mary’s father. Unconsecrated or zombies, they’re very effective as an antagonist as well as a metaphor for what Mary lives through in the course of the book. At times her inner monologue came close to “I can haz theme” and one time hit it directly. I might have rolled my eyes, guys, I’m not lying. Don’t take the mystery out, authors! I like digging for answers, really. That gold platter is nice, but I like silver. It’s more subtle. Figures I can let one sentence from one chapter harsh my buzz. XD

Surprise! This book is also a story about interlocking love triangles. I keep stumbling into stories with love triangles even though I’m not fond of them. I want stories where there’s two interesting people and awesome subtext with violence optional. Adding more than two is a recipe for angst I don’t find altogether appealing. If I was asked to sit and list love triangles I’ve enjoyed, I would be hard pressed to come up with any at all. I’ve sure there are some, but um…yeah, I’ve got nothing. What’s more, as Mary goes into the Sisterhood and begins to fall in love with Travis as she nurses him back to health, I kept thinking, “why are you lying to yourself?” I also wondered at the choices Mary faces between Travis and Harry; what the hell happened to Harry? I suspect Jed of being a jerk, honestly. How Mary interacts with Travis and Harry and other villagers as they face complete extinction becomes a direct parallel to the Unconsecrated who wait and claw at the fences, hoping for a taste. Read the rest of this entry »

I love this book. I can’t say anything about it, though, because it’s all a spoiler! All of it! But I must make it sound enticing so people will read it. I can always spend a few paragraphs telling people why a book is lousy and shouldn’t probably be avoided and/or SET AFLAME, but it’s much harder to articulate why books work so well for me. Here it how the story unfolded, how ultimately creepy the premise and revelation was, how there was so much blame to go around but the tail just wouldn’t go on the donkey in the end. The ultimate question of what it means to live and what it means to die is not really explored; Pearson just sits it out there for readers to consider.

Actually, this book gave me the same overall “What is humanity?” vibe that Paolo Bacigalupi’s short story, “The People of Sand and Slag” did (this story can be read here). The similarities in theme are there, but Pearson’s story is way more hopeful.

The thing about the spoiler of this book is that it’s absolutely not meant to be kept a secret from the reader (in my humble opinion). You open the book and you meet Jenna Fox and her parents and grandmother and start getting hints and clues and an idea will start to tickle. I guessed the the wrong idea but it was pretty close; what can I say, I’m not a genius. The point is that the reader figures it out first and then watches Jenna figure it out, come to terms, grow up. That’s what made this book punch me in the heart.

There was a lot of love in the book for me. Memory and identity, female characters that felt real and flawed and imperfect. I wondered when I finished what Pearson was trying to say about parents. Jenna’s story interested me but in a big way I found how her parents handled everything to be more interesting just because of the real-world implications. How far is too far? How beloved is too beloved? Were does parental authority begin and end?

I wouldn’t be me without complaints, and I have them! I think the day I can start once more finding books I think have no flaws will be a beautiful one, indeed. Two points in this book made me pause: one of the side characters, who is built up and built up and then never expanded frustrated me. I could infer a lot about what Pearson could have been saying but the more I thought about it the more that character just felt like a tool instead of a character, a catalyst, a caricature of a threat we never see. I admit I might just be missing the point; but he just rang hollow for me in a book of very varied, real characters. Maybe that’s the answer, then, the reason for why I was so displeased, but again, possibly not.

Secondly, the romance! I admit I am pretty picky with my romance! I love this book but I felt like the romance was awful! It felt forced and unnatural and after the epilogue I was kind of in the position where I could have rolled my eyes across the room. Teen girl, teen guy, both with questionable pasts; hello, it was a perfect set up except in how it didn’t feel romantic at all. It was kind of shoe-horned in for the well-rounded teenage protagonist, so the epilogue would be pretty and romantic, but there was none of the romance it seemed to promise. I let it go with all the other awesome things going on, but I was pretty disappointed in that aspect.

Regardless of my concerns, I think this is an awesome science fiction novel! Everyone who likes science fiction should read it and then come discuss the parents with me! Not that I’m demanding or anything. >.>

My advice about this book is this: read the book because it’s awesome but take a page out of millions of Harry Potter fan handbooks and skip the ideological epilogue. However, you might like epilogues full of the author’s id leaking all over the page and in that case, full speed ahead.

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