(no subject)

[skygiants]

So I meant to do all kinds of stuff on the plane back from Dublin, but instead I just ended up zooming through Andrea K. Host's And All The Stars at LIGHTSPEED.

And All The Stars is exactly the kind of thing I want in a YA apocalypse: PLUCKY TEENAGERS BAND TOGETHER, ACT SENSIBLY, FIGURE OUT HOW TO SURVIVE.

Our protagonist is Madeleine Cost, an Australian high schooler who's skipping school for the day to paint her crossdressing movie-star cousin for a major prize in portraiture, and accidentally ends up at Ground Zero for a MYSTERIOUS AND SINISTER EVENT that leaves her and several million other people around the world contaminated by an alien substance.

I don't want to spoil the actual developments of the apocalypse, because nobody has any idea what's going on at first and figuring it out along with the rest of the world was part of the fun of reading, at least for me. But I will tell you that, like, 50% of the book is Maddie and her new friends Trapped In an Inn, like, classic Trapped In an Inn in which everybody becomes FRIENDS FOR LIFE and checks in frequently on ApocalypseDotCom internet forums and puts on amateur theatricals, in addition to making plans for long-term survival. This is probably bad pacing, given how compressed the actual action is afterwards, but I DON'T CARE, I LOVE IT.

And, I mean, while the plot of the book is centered in What Is This Apocalypse And What Do We Do About It, with an eventual shift towards Plucky Resistance, the real emotional arc is mostly about Maddie -- who's always been a very solitary person -- making connections, and discovering she likes making connections, and having people to rely on. I like it for some of the same reasons I like 7 Seeds; while it's a grim apocalypse, certainly, and plenty of people die and awful stuff does happen, it's not a grimdark book. It embraces the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP and the importance of hope. And that's something that's extraordinarily rare in the current YA apocalypse scene.

Also, the plot twist about Fisher is AMAZING. Wow. Twelve angsty romance points to Host, that is GENIUS. Why didn't Animorphs ever do that? ...did Animorphs ever do that?

I mean, the book has its flaws. The pacing, as mentioned above, is totally wonky; several of the cast of Maddie's friends don't really get enough personalization time to flesh them out; and while I love the fact that technology and the Internet and social media play a MAJOR role in the plot development (which is something, again, you don't see a lot in current YA apocalypses) the extent to which all the electricity and power and major services ... kept working all the time ... did occasionally stretch the extent of my disbelief. Also, there may be a character who dies twice, and there is definitely a totally unnecessary epilogue. I DON'T CARE. These flaws are charming. Weird pacing is my jam. I super enjoyed this book.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Yes to most of this! I read it while I was not really posting about reading (all I said is, "emotionally powerful, unevenly, but more than enough to float its teens-against-alien-oppression premise"), but I think now that the weird pacing is to its advantage: major reader+character bonding time to balance the traumatic scenes somewhat.

I kind of anticipated the Fisher thing, honestly, because it was one of a very few ways out and it seemed that the story as a whole would not end on a downturn--but it's still a very smart narrative move. (Perhaps it's all the 1950s-'70s SF reading I did as a child?)

[genarti]

This sounds FANTASTIC. Or, at least, hilarious in all the ways I want a book to be, and flawed in the ways I'm generally willing to roll with.

(You had me at "band together, act sensibly," really.)

[jinian]

Oh, yay! I read All The Andrea Host when I was in Japan, and this was my favorite. :)

[wakuchan]

And All the Stars is wonderful and now I need to find time to re-read it. Or read Stray for the first time, either way.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I agree! I mean, I like it for the same reason I often like Pamela Dean's weird pacing -- it gives the ordinary beats of people doing small things to get through their day and forming connections with people as much narrative weight as the epic battle stuff, and I think that's pretty cool.

Ha, I wasn't anticipating it at all, but I also weren't thinking at the time of the aliens as humanlike enough to really pull that kind of impersonation off (or invested enough in that deception, either.)

I still don't actually understand ... anything about the aliens and their society -- I reread that explanation three times and it made as little sense to me every time -- but whatever, that wasn't what I was there for anyway.

[skygiants]

It's really charming! EVERYBODY'S SO PRACTICAL. (At one point one character is like "man, I mean, I appreciate that y'all are so sensible and survival-oriented, but I would not have objected to an apocalypse survival group that let us all get depressed and wasted at least occasionally." NO GETTING WASTED. TOO RISKY.)

[skygiants]

Which of her others would you recommend? I'd definitely like to read more of her stuff!

[skygiants]

What is Stray? :O

[wakuchan]

The first book of a trilogy she wrote - I got about 50 pages in and then got distracted by school but it was quite good. (http://www.amazon.com/Stray-Touchstone-Andrea-K-H%C3%B6st-ebook/dp/B004T3A518)

[jinian]

This is the series I was about to recommend! Young girl falls into another world, meets spoilers, adventures across spacetime ensue.

Of her other stuff, I liked Medair despite finding the romance creepy. Not as bad as Champion of the Rose, though, which has a remarkably disturbing rape (both people physically present do not consent).

[genarti]

Is there any reason I would not find this as delightful as this is making it sound? Because from all this, VERY HIGH ON THE TO-READ LIST. *laughing*

[remindmeofthe]

SPIRIT PUNCH

[skygiants]

As I said before, none that I can think of! Except WORLD-BUILDING BEMUSION, so now I'm invested in you reading it to see if you can make sense of it.

[skygiants]

Duly noted on all counts. Thanks for the recs!

[skygiants]

It's like the best video game attack ever.

[genarti]

Ha! Well, I will do my best. Is it a thing I can borrow from you, or am I obligated to go to the GREAT EFFORT of going to the library myself?

(The great effort here is mostly returning the books I have out and paying the fines on them. Um.)

[skygiants]

Alas, I have it in Kindle and not physical format, and it's self-pubbed, so the library may not be an option either! It's only five bucks on Amazon, though.

[genarti]

That explains why the library did not, indeed, have it. Well, I will check it out, then!

[genarti]

I did not even notice the character who died and then came back without explanation! I couldn't even think of who it was until you said the name over on LJ.

...But you're totally right about that, I think. WHOOPS. (Shows how well that character stuck in my head, la la. Mostly I think she did very well with a cast that large, but.)