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Mar. 24th, 2011 11:22 amIn a previous Laurence Yep booklogging post, I made a reference to the bit in the Dragon of the Lost Sea books where a teenaged boy sacrifices himself to make a magic cauldron, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bookblather responded with "I remember that one! Child of the Owl, right?"
And I said, 'no, it was in one of the Dragon books!' because, though I had not yet read Child of the Owl, I knew that one was set in the 1960s, which is a time period without a lot of magic cauldrons, and also surely there could not be two Laurence Yep books in which a teenaged boy sacrifices himself in a cauldron, right?
OH HOW WRONG I WAS.bookblather, I am sorry for doubting you; Child of the Owl is indeed set in the 1950's, but, just for you dark fairy-tale lovers out there, contains a story-within-the-story that does in fact feature a young boy who sacrifices himself in a cauldron to make soup for his family. Once was chance, Laurence Yep, but twice is suspicious! If it happens in a third book I will have to consider it a THEME in your work.
Anyway, that aside - and I don't mean to suggest I didn't like the story-within-a-story, because I did, a lot; Laurence Yep is very good at complicated pieces of story-mythology - this book is also going up among my top Laurence Yep books for other reasons. Honestly, the more I read of the Golden Mountain books, the more I'm impressed with his range; I haven't seen him write this kind of confident, street-smart teenaged girl before, and he pulls her first-person voice off really well. Casey is wonderful. She's thoroughly capable of taking care of herself and her gambling-addicted deadbeat dad; she's fierce, funny and rebellious, but not Capital R Rebel Without a Cause - as soon as she starts meeting people she can actually connect with (like her grandmother! Laurence Yep's elderly ladies CONTINUE TO BE WONDERFUL) she tries really, really hard to use those smarts to help them out. And she makes unlikely friends with the wannabe-fashionista next door over their mutual love of Wonder Woman! GIRL GEEKS FTW. \o/ I could also just read about her adventures with Gilbert the James Dean Wannabe pretty much forever.
It's also - this, more even than his other books, is set in the Chinatown where Laurence Yep grew up, and you can really tell. The sense of time and place is incredibly strong. Laurence Yep! <3 Every book reaffirms my excellent life decision to read everything you have ever written.
bookblather responded with "I remember that one! Child of the Owl, right?"And I said, 'no, it was in one of the Dragon books!' because, though I had not yet read Child of the Owl, I knew that one was set in the 1960s, which is a time period without a lot of magic cauldrons, and also surely there could not be two Laurence Yep books in which a teenaged boy sacrifices himself in a cauldron, right?
OH HOW WRONG I WAS.
bookblather, I am sorry for doubting you; Child of the Owl is indeed set in the 1950's, but, just for you dark fairy-tale lovers out there, contains a story-within-the-story that does in fact feature a young boy who sacrifices himself in a cauldron to make soup for his family. Once was chance, Laurence Yep, but twice is suspicious! If it happens in a third book I will have to consider it a THEME in your work. Anyway, that aside - and I don't mean to suggest I didn't like the story-within-a-story, because I did, a lot; Laurence Yep is very good at complicated pieces of story-mythology - this book is also going up among my top Laurence Yep books for other reasons. Honestly, the more I read of the Golden Mountain books, the more I'm impressed with his range; I haven't seen him write this kind of confident, street-smart teenaged girl before, and he pulls her first-person voice off really well. Casey is wonderful. She's thoroughly capable of taking care of herself and her gambling-addicted deadbeat dad; she's fierce, funny and rebellious, but not Capital R Rebel Without a Cause - as soon as she starts meeting people she can actually connect with (like her grandmother! Laurence Yep's elderly ladies CONTINUE TO BE WONDERFUL) she tries really, really hard to use those smarts to help them out. And she makes unlikely friends with the wannabe-fashionista next door over their mutual love of Wonder Woman! GIRL GEEKS FTW. \o/ I could also just read about her adventures with Gilbert the James Dean Wannabe pretty much forever.
It's also - this, more even than his other books, is set in the Chinatown where Laurence Yep grew up, and you can really tell. The sense of time and place is incredibly strong. Laurence Yep! <3 Every book reaffirms my excellent life decision to read everything you have ever written.
