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Nov. 1st, 2010 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsAt the beginning of Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead, protagonist Ellie's biggest problems are these:
1.) She has self-esteem issues and no friends at boarding school except her BFF Kevin
2.) who has just shared with her an Awkward Secret (which I'm not going to spoil for you guys, even though it's revealed a few pages in, because I thought it was pretty awesome and is something I haven't really seen treated this explicitly in a book before)
3.) and she's sort of promised to help Kevin's cool and gorgeous best friend Iris out by using her badass martial arts training to choreograph the fight scenes of a production of Midsummer Night's Dream, even though Iris makes her uncomfortable by dint of being Almost Too Awesome And Friendly To Be Real (spoiler: I love Iris)
4.) and she has a big crush on Mysterious Loner Mark Nolan, who aside from his brooding and difficulty with personal hygiene also has, it turns out, a really bad habit of casually mindwiping people
A hundred and fifty page or so into Guardian of the Dead, Ellie's biggest problems are these:
1.) She also is capable of casually mindwiping people!
2.) A figure out of Maori mythology wants to make off with Kevin!
3.) No wait scratch that, sorry Kevin but that isn't even the big problem, the big problem is that figures out of Maori mythology are trying to sink New Zealand
Guardian of the Dead actually reminded me a lot of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, except the pacing's completely in reverse. The first three-quarters of Tam Lin is meandering buildup with English and theater dorkery and overanalysis of Hamlet and faint supernatural weirdnesses under the surface and then all of a sudden WHAM BAM PLOT WHAT WHERE DID THAT COME FROM in the last fifty pages; the first third of Guardian of the Dead has that same feel, lots of Shakespeare and Classics and realistic boarding school social dynamics with quiet supernatural threads running underneath, but the WHAM BAM ROLLER-COASTER PLOT picks up midway through and then zooms you all the way to the end without a pause for breath. Both plot models have their issues, but I love both books anyway. My favorite part of Guardian of the Dead was probably the first half, with its compelling but more understated eeriness and the amazing climax in the middle. (Mostly because a lot of the characters I liked best didn't have a lot to do in the second half, and while I loved the development of the mythology - which I thought was treated with respect and appropriate wonder, in a lot of directions - I was also invested in some of the character dynamics that we didn't get to return to.) Overall, though, highly recommended, and one of the books I've found hardest to put down all year.
1.) She has self-esteem issues and no friends at boarding school except her BFF Kevin
2.) who has just shared with her an Awkward Secret (which I'm not going to spoil for you guys, even though it's revealed a few pages in, because I thought it was pretty awesome and is something I haven't really seen treated this explicitly in a book before)
3.) and she's sort of promised to help Kevin's cool and gorgeous best friend Iris out by using her badass martial arts training to choreograph the fight scenes of a production of Midsummer Night's Dream, even though Iris makes her uncomfortable by dint of being Almost Too Awesome And Friendly To Be Real (spoiler: I love Iris)
4.) and she has a big crush on Mysterious Loner Mark Nolan, who aside from his brooding and difficulty with personal hygiene also has, it turns out, a really bad habit of casually mindwiping people
A hundred and fifty page or so into Guardian of the Dead, Ellie's biggest problems are these:
1.) She also is capable of casually mindwiping people!
2.) A figure out of Maori mythology wants to make off with Kevin!
3.) No wait scratch that, sorry Kevin but that isn't even the big problem, the big problem is that figures out of Maori mythology are trying to sink New Zealand
Guardian of the Dead actually reminded me a lot of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, except the pacing's completely in reverse. The first three-quarters of Tam Lin is meandering buildup with English and theater dorkery and overanalysis of Hamlet and faint supernatural weirdnesses under the surface and then all of a sudden WHAM BAM PLOT WHAT WHERE DID THAT COME FROM in the last fifty pages; the first third of Guardian of the Dead has that same feel, lots of Shakespeare and Classics and realistic boarding school social dynamics with quiet supernatural threads running underneath, but the WHAM BAM ROLLER-COASTER PLOT picks up midway through and then zooms you all the way to the end without a pause for breath. Both plot models have their issues, but I love both books anyway. My favorite part of Guardian of the Dead was probably the first half, with its compelling but more understated eeriness and the amazing climax in the middle. (Mostly because a lot of the characters I liked best didn't have a lot to do in the second half, and while I loved the development of the mythology - which I thought was treated with respect and appropriate wonder, in a lot of directions - I was also invested in some of the character dynamics that we didn't get to return to.) Overall, though, highly recommended, and one of the books I've found hardest to put down all year.
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Date: 2010-11-01 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-11-01 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 04:00 pm (UTC)(she contributes, usefully)
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Date: 2010-11-01 04:02 pm (UTC)(I want her to be my director! OF EVERYTHING)
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Date: 2010-11-01 04:09 pm (UTC)KAKKOI~
(I think that's seriously one of my favourite things to find in stories - when instead of being the de facto bitchy enemy of the underdog/outcast protagonist, the Little Miss Perfect And Pretty And Popular And Has Everything character is actually a genuinely nice person.
Unsurprisingly, I also adore Charlotte from The Princess and the Frog, and Savannah from Hellcats.)
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Date: 2010-11-01 04:17 pm (UTC)But I also love when Little Miss Perfect and Popular and Has Everything is not in fact a nice person, but then ends up using her powers of evil social command for great justice, leading to hilarious frenemyship/actual friendship.
Basically: ~ladies~ and ~ladyfriendship~ and subverting the terrible paradigm that says that the only awesome kinds of ladies are plucky tomboyish underdogs = A++.)
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Date: 2010-11-01 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-11-02 04:52 pm (UTC)Also :DDDDD!
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Date: 2010-11-02 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-17 01:22 pm (UTC)