Book nineteen: The Bermudez Triangle

The Bermudez Triangle* (2004)
Maureen Johnson

Rating: 3.5/5

Hmm. I am feeling conflicted about this book. I guess that is fitting giving how the characters feel.

It was funny, well written and original. I just didn’t like two of the three main characters very much. I don’t know. Part of it was that I could see the train wreck from the start and just spent most of the book cringing. It was like a car wreck that you don’t really want to see, but can’t manage to look away from.

Another part was that they were so selfish and inconsiderate. Don’t get me wrong, it is necessary to have characters like this in books – we have them in life, it would be unrealistic not to have them going on their merry ways in books. Its just I found it very hard to care about them.

I mean, I did care about what was happening, because I really liked two of the other characters (who, incidentally, are the ones whose feelings get stomped on by the other two). I just didn’t think there was enough character development for the other two. I didn’t really believe at the end, that they wouldn’t do the same thing over again.

I guess I just didn’t like some parts of the ending.

I want realism, but I also want the people I like to be happy. And I guess in a way they were, just not in the way they wanted to be originally. And I’m not saying that one of the relationships should have continued, I just thought the other was weird. Like, to make it different Johnston didn’t go for the requisite ending, but then by doing that, the character was committing the same thing they’d spent half the book bemoaning.

See? Conflicted.

It’s still worth reading.

It’s still worth reading. If only** for the fact that it deals with issues that I have never seen addressed in a YA book. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen in done so well in any book. Maybe I should stop complaining about the fact that the characters were self centred and feel a bit more compassionate myself for what they were going through. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to deal with that. I mean, I had trouble enough as it was.

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* Finished Thursday, 22/3

** Well, not really “if only,” but more like another reason why it really is a good book. Despite my conflicts with it.

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Book fifteen: The Key to the Golden Firebird

The Key to the Golden Firebird* (2004)
Maureen Johnson

Rating: 4/5

I loved this.

It was great: well written, funny, heartfelt and realistic.

I would give it the added recommendation that I read it one sitting – but that’s all I’ve been doing these last few days. Sitting around reading books. But I can predict that I would have read it this way anyways. Honest.

Johnson has a really terrific writing style and she is just as funny in print as she is in her blog. Which isn’t always the case. I read the books of a few authors for the first time after reading their blogs and was just disappointed. I guess it’s a case of my expectations being too high? I still read their blogs though, so I guess I do enjoy their writing still.

Usually when a book has more that on point-of-view, I get attached to one character more than the others, and that happened here. I liked reading about May the best, and she is sort of the central character, so I guess that makes sense.

I thought that Johnson handled the father’s death really well. The prologue really shows the difference between the carefree fun of the three sister’s playing a prank, then the shock of finding out that he had died.

Despite the huge issues being dealt with here – death of a parent, coming of age, oh-my-god does that boy like me? – I think that the story is very subtle. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but I really liked the fact that it was so interesting, without having to resort to being overly dramatic. This makes the whole story feel so realistic. I mean, the things that happened in the book, is stuff that happened to people I knew growing up, stuff that I experienced when people I loved died. The reactions are just exactly right.

[spoiler] I also liked the fact that Pete dated, and slept with, Nell. I know that sounds weird, after all he should have been pining after May the whole time like a good little hero, ha ha. Obviously, this was more realistic than that romance novel ideal. What teenage boy sits around pining when he could be sleeping with someone willing? Umm, none. [end of spoiler]

That’s really why I love YA – they are just so much more interesting and real than those in the adult market. It’s hard to go wrong with a YA title, which is really something you can’t say about the general popular fiction market.

Did I mention I loved this book?

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* Read on Tuesday, 20/3.

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Book thirteen: An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines* (2006)
John Green

Rating: 3/5

I really liked this book. It was equally funny and well written. What more could you ask for?

Green embodies the whole “oh crap, now what”ness of finishing high school very nicely in the protagonist, Colin, a child prodigy who has been dumped by his latest Katherine and now feels his life is over.

It somehow managed to be not too stereotypical coming of age, despite the format (somewhat traumatic event, road trip, uncanny destination, new set of people, finding oneself etc.). There was also not too much of a pause at the end for us to learn our lesson. I think it managed to have the whole underlying moral to the story, without swimming in sickly sweet sentiments.

It also avoided the overly-sombre ending. I’m not saying it’s all perfectly sorted, but I hate when books of the coming-of-age type go to the other extreme. I’m never sure if they are trying to be purposefully unconventional or just realistic. But really, sure, we know these people are only seventeen. We know that whatever it is they have just gone through isn’t going to be anywhere near the hardest thing they ever do (though here’s hoping), but why does that so often translate into a pessimistic ending?

Anyway, the relationship between the main character and his best friend is hilarious, and the way that they interacted seemed realistic. (Never having been a seventeen year old boy, I can’t say for sure). Obviously, there was enough swearing to keep me happy.

The trickiest thing about this book (and I can’t think of another way to describe it other than tricky) is how Green manages to weave Colin’s love of (or perhaps obsession with?) anagrams into the story. He’s perfectly captured a kind of stream of consciousness of Colin’s musing, were one idea turns into the next and somehow the whole thing works out as a narrative in the end. No idea how he managed that.

I’d be interested to read one of his other novels – he has at least one other published, I think it is called Looking for Alaska – to see how the voice differs there.

Wow, only two days off work and I’m sounding like an English lit undergrad. Great. At least I’m not analysing Brava Contemporary Romance’s tonight... let's save that for next time!

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* I read this on Monday, 19/3.

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