skygiants | (no subject)

I knew going in that Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken was probably going to be exceptionally relevant to my interests, seeing as it is:

- a Gothic
- starring a plucky girl reporter
- and her important relationships with her ladyfriends

SOLD! said I, announced my intention to buy it the first week it was out, and then instead spent about a month and a half trying to convince the local YA bookstore to special order my copy, so, you know, the best-laid plans etc.

But anyway I finally conquered the special order process and then proceeded to devour the book in a day. The protagonist of the book is Kami, a big personality in a small English town; she's a powerhouse of an investigative reporter, with one tiny quirk in that she has spent a large portion of her life having an intense personal connection on the astral plane with a boy she's never met.

Naturally, fairly soon after the book begins, aforementioned boy shows up, and here is what I loved: IT'S REALLY AWKWARD. He's huge and kind of creepy! She's tiny and has a mean death glare! The physical presence of a previously-disembodied voice really weirds them out! He is lonely and super into maintaining their codependency, and Kami is really not sure she's comfortable with that and would like to set some boundaries, please and thank you!

About three chapters into the book, they have the conversation that goes like this:

ASTRAL PLANE DUDE: Kami, now we have met, we should clearly DATE and be TOGETHER FOREVER.
KAMI: . . . yes, of course. Let me unbutton my blouse and you can proceed to take me now!
ASTRAL PLANE DUDE: AUGH YOU HAVE A BODY AUGH PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON!
KAMI: And that is why we should not date.

It's a really beautiful deconstruction of the destined soulmates trope, and I love it to pieces.

In addition to all of this, there is a lot of page space devoted to Kami's relationships with her female friends -- her BFF Angela, the deceptively lazy, and new friend Holly, who is a lot lonelier than she seems. I loved them both; I loved that their relationships with Kami were important, and that their relationships with each other were super important too. Kami's family: also important! Also Angela's family; also, in general the sense of a town full of people who know each other very well, but who all also have their own lives and motivations. What I mean is that this is not a world which revolves around the protagonists, and that's what makes it feel real.

And then, you know, there is the plot, and a sinister aristocratic family in a sinister house, and dark secrets, and attempted murder, and possible human sacrifice, all of which is awesomely Gothic and compelling in addition to the characters! But I say 'in addition' because basically the characters are what I'm here for and will continue to be here for throughout the rest of the trilogy.

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/312933.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

ceitfianna

This is on my to-read list as my library has a copy of it. I'm being good and taking a break from YA to read a non-fiction book about the Civil War but then this one.

Have you read Team Human, Brennan and another author's take on the Twilight vampire craze? If not, you need to read it because you will love it. There's a vampire that I think might be related to Eugenie.

From:

skygiants

I have actually read it now! Though I haven't had time to review it yet, but coming soon. :)

From:

ceitfianna

Yay, I look forward to your thoughts on it as it was a book I read and thought, Becca must read this so we can talk about it.

From:

thewickedlady

Aw, Sarah Rees Brennan.

Almost my favorite thing about this book is how she retweets everyone tweeting their rage and heartbreak with her about the ending.

(Which, still have not finished! Even though the book is sitting on my bookshelf! ARG, SELF!)

From:

skygiants

hahahahaha I know, right? Sadism and schadenfreude: THE GREATEST AUTHORIAL JOYS OF ALL. >:D

(I mean it's not like you have a million other books to read or anything!)

From:

thewickedlady

I KNOW. I somehow got three digital library books at the same time! MUST. READ. ALL THE THINGS. ONLY HAVE SO LONG!!!

From:

skygiants

DIGITAL LIBRARY BOOKS. So wonderful, so tempting, and yet, SO DANGEROUS. ;_____;

From:

aeslis

Oh wow, it's so funny, I ended up frustrated with this book! I mean, all the things you say are very true, and absolutely wonderful. There deconstruction of the ~~soulmates~~ trope was great, and I wish there were more such deconstructions and great relationships in other YA books.

My main issue was how everyone had the same razor-sharp wry wit. The dialogue always seemed to be snarky, no matter what the situation and no matter which characters were talking. With everyone talking the same, my suspension of disbelief went out the window.

Plus I found the name 'Kami' thoroughly distracting. Who would name their child that??

Other than that, I really would have loved it. I guess I'm more picky than I thought?

From:

skygiants

These are all valid complaints! Though the witty banter worked really well for me, actually, because it's such a genre staple -- not for the Gothic genre, but for the Snappy Investigative Reporter genre, from His Girl Friday up to Veronica Mars. So instead of frustrating me it wrapped me in fond nostalgia!

You are definitely not the only person who was bothered by the name Kami, though. It didn't nag at me but I also don't speak Japanese, so I am not the best judge!

From:

aeslis

Oh, interesting! I haven't read a lot of Snappy Investigative Reporter books, but I HAVE read several of Sarah Rees Brennan's things, including her HP fanfiction back in the day. I have to say that there were a couple lines that sounded like they'd come straight out of (her) Draco's mouth. And Jamie, from The Demon's Lexicon, had the same voice to him, too. Though I felt like the personalities in that book were more varied. Reading Unspoken and having most of the characters talk the same made me feel like she'd backed herself into a character corner. So it's definitely interesting, yes, to hear that that sort of voice is a staple of this particular genre.

I think she has some really engaging writing, though! She's definitely talented and I like that she's writing something a little different, and trying to break the normal molds.

From:

skygiants

I am also, I will admit, largely uncritical of witty banter a lot of the time anyway, just because I enjoy reading it. >.> So that is a Sarah Rees Brennan feature for me and not a bug.

But it is a dangerously easy thing to do, make character voices sound the same! For me when I write it is one of the Great Constant Battles. I think it's also something that stands out less in audiovisual works, because you're distracted by how the actors sound different, and how they are pretty and so on.

From:

aeslis

NGL, I do love myself some witty banter--it's one of my top looked-for qualities of a book. (The Legend of Eli Monpress has it in spades, with bangin' awesome ladies, to boot!)

I know what you meeeean. Part of the issue is that it all stems from my own head, so it's hard to make characters talk in a way that I wouldn't! Because my brain doesn't think in those speech-patterns! Ah, characterisation.

From:

jinian

IT IS PRONOUNCED "CAMMY"

Because otherwise the whole book gets an "oh hell no" and that is clearly unacceptable. I have known an actual person named that, spelled that way, so I have justification here.

From:

aeslis

I dunno dude--I mean, I can see how it might be pronounced 'Cammy', sure, especially if it wasn't supposed to be a Japanese name necessarily. But the book made it a ~point~ that it was about her Japanese heritage, and her mother insisted on naming them with Japanese, and no matter how they pronounce it, it still is an AWFUL and STUPID name for someone if they had that intention.

Though looking it up in a Japanese names dictionary, it looks like it actually is a name... still a horrible choice, though.

From:

jinian

I know; however,

LA LA LA CAMMY CAMMY CAMMY

is what I am saying.

From:

aeslis

Hahahaha! I see. You go on goin' on, then. ;D

From:

umadoshi

I loved this book SO MUCH. I would like the sequel now.

*waits*

...how about now? ;_;

From:

skygiants

"Sequel Summon" is a magic power I would dearly like to have! You'd think I would have learned better by now than to start unfinished trilogies . . .

From:

dimestore_romeo

I really enjoyed this book! I read it a couple of weeks ago. I really liked that characters were very complicated and had their own things going on outside of Kami's sphere.

Angela and Holly are fabulous. And I loved Kami's dynamic with Jared.

Have you read the two short stories Sarah Rees Brennan wrote leading up to the novel - The Spring Before I Met You and The Summer Before I Met You?

From:

skygiants

I've read one of them! Uh, I don't remember what title goes with which story, but I read the one about Kami. Someday soon I will get around to the one about Jared (but I care more about Kami than Jared anyway. >.>)

From:

dimestore_romeo

I think the Jared one probably got me to care for him more. :) It was interesting! I think the reason I had trouble with him at first was that we don't get much of him or his point of view in Unspoken, so this helped me. But then I rather liked him anyway, perhaps because I found his relationship with Kami very refreshing, especially how their power dynamic favours her.

From:

skygiants

I like Jared much of the time, and am also deeply frustrated with him much of the time. (But I like him much more than Ash, who mostly just signaled 'here to set up a love triangle' to me.) I'm also sort of reserving judgment until next book and we see if he learns how to respect boundaries!

From:

brooms

your link leads to a recipe for ice-cream bread. which i'll probably try later today because it sounds like something out of a fantasy children's book, so thank you for that.