Alone and Unobserved

I’ve only really gotten into YA Fiction since I became an adult. As a pre-adolescent I graduated from picture books directly to the Adult section of the library: the few youth-targeted books I read were too full of angst and public-school references (I was happy and home schooled), and that turned me against the genre (?) for ten years or so.

I’ve recently been on a young-adult fantasy kick. I went to my college bookstore to preorder the sixth Harry Potter book, and while I idled at the children’s book counter I picked up a brochure from Scholastic on what you should read if you’re suffering from Harry Potter withdrawal. Intrigued but skeptical, I went to my college library and began methodically searching through the stacks for the books mentioned in the brochure. A few reviews follow (more to come).

Singer of All Songs (Chanters of Tremaris Trilogy, Bk. 1), by Kate Constable

Singer is quite an adequate début, if not an entirely original one. Despite falling into the trap of her sub-genre (i.e., Tamora-Pierce-type novels) of dividing her magical system into rather arbitrary and illogical categories, Constable has a great time describing the effects of spells or “chantments,” and some of the best moments in the book are the magical battles between various characters.

Somewhat recommended. I will probably read at least one sequel to find out if she gets better.

The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau

An interesting book with an interesting premise. Ember is a mysterious town lit entirely by electricity–its citizens know no sun or moon, and learn in school that Ember is the one light in endless darkness. All they know about its origins are the scraps of lore that have been passed down for generations: legends of the Builders who constructed the city, stocked its storehouses, connected its electrical relays, and then disappeared. Beneath the town runs a subterranean river which the Builders harnessed to generate power, but the ancient generator is failing and the supplies of the city are running low. Two children must brave the scorn, indifference and eventual anger of the town to discover Ember’s secret and save their fellow townfolk.

Both the setting and prose remind me somewhat of Carol Kendall, author of “The Gammage Cup” and “The Whisper of Glocken”–which is to say that the setting is isolated and mysterious, and the prose is unpolished but grew on me.

Somewhat recommended. I’ll probably read the sequel. I recommend Kendall’s above-mentioned books, by the way.

Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors, even though I haven’t read very many of his books. Stardust is fairly unique at least among those I have read, in both its setting (Victorian England/Faerie) and tone (sort of fairy-tale-like). I am not claiming that this is a young-adult book, although it has an eighteen-year-old protagonist–it figures here because I found it in the YA section of my college library, and because I liked it too much not to review it here.

Stardust tells the story of Tristran Thorn, half-human son of an English farmer and a fairy woman, who has grown up in the fictional English town of Wall, never suspecting his magical heritage. When he is eighteen he falls in love with the beautiful but superior Victoria Forester, who promises him her kiss, her hand, nay, whatever he desires if he will fetch her a (specific) fallen star. Fortunately or unfortunately, Wall is uniquely situated next to a wall that divides England from Faerie, and the star has fallen on the other side–the magic side–of the barrier. Tristran sets off forthwith, not realizing that there are other people, non-human people, who are also converging on the fallen star, and their plans are just as ill-advised as his, if more consciously malevolent . . .

Highly recommended, as are his other works–especially Neverwhere (adult), Coraline (children’s novel), The Wolves in the Walls (children’s picture book), and American Gods (adult).

I am currently reading Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord, and have spent the last couple days on an entertaining wild goose chase through the stacks of my college library looking for Inkheart, also by Funke; more updates later.