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This Week in Reading: Volume 5

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Do you ever feel like another person is really influencing your reading? Maybe you had a conversation or two and they told you that you had to read this book and that book and then this one, too? I like when that happens, especially when it’s a person whose tastes I trust. I think it kind of influenced a bit of this week and last week’s books but in a good way.

Here’s what I got:

Excavation: A Memoir by Wendy C. Ortiz (purchased) — I’m reading this one right now, and it’s fascinating. It’s a memoir of a girl who had a very physical relationship with her high school teacher and how she’s gone to understand the experience now that she’s an adult. A totally unique perspective on the teacher/student relationship story (and it’s not a story, since it actually happened).

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (purchased) — Cannot wait to read this. I’m going to intersperse this one with my novel and the reading I’m doing out of the Dorothy Parker anthology.

Compulsion by Martina Boone (review copy) — Not sure this one is for me, but I’m definitely intrigued by that cover.

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta (library) — I’ve never read it, and I think it might be tackling something I need for a project I’m working on.

Tomboy by Liz Prince (review copy) — This graphic memoir is fantastic. I’ll review it soon, but it tackles gender expression and gender identity and does so in a really great way.

The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey (purchased) — I don’t think it’s spoiler anymore to say this is a zombie novel. And while I liked it, I didn’t love it as much as some did. Though Melanie and her teacher’s relationship was a huge highlight. Definitely has great teen appeal for those who are looking for more zombie fiction (..as opposed to zombie non-fiction? I’m not sure why I included the word “fiction” there).

Under A Painted Sky by Stacey Lee (review copy) — Diverse historical fiction set on the Oregon Trail, featuring girls who have to dress as boys. I can’t express how excited I am by the premise, even though it’s not my usual fare.

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (purchased) — I bought this novel about a teacher-student affair at the same time as the Ortiz memoir. One of my fellow Book Riot writers raved about this title, and I had to have it.

Horrorstore by Grady Hendrix (review copy) — A horror novel set inside an IKEA-like store, and the format is in IKEA-catalog style. I’m in 500%.

Don’t Touch by Rachel M. Wilson (review copy) — I love realistic YA about mental health, and this one is about a girl with OCD.

The Only Thing to Fear by Caroline Tung Richmond (review copy) — Alternate history about what would have happened if Hitler won World War II.

I Work At A Public Library by Gina Sheridan (review copy) — I’m looking forward to this, since I really like Gina’s Tumblr of the same name.

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles (library) — The newest Gail Giles looks interesting. It’s set after high school and it features two special ed teens.

The Saskiad by Brian Hall (library) — A teen girl in the wilderness with adventure and a best friendship with another girl. Sold.

I think I covered everything I read in this run-down, too.

Worthwhile reading from around the web. There’s some book stuff and some non-book stuff:

  • Sarah Hollowell talks about a topic I’m passionate about: Write Fat Kids.
  • Carrie Brownstein is one of my favorite celebrities. She’s bookish, she’s funny, and she’s super down-to-Earth in every interview I read of her. This piece in Bust is particularly good, as she gets into how she’s managed to have two very different career paths and she talks about how she sees and reads the feminism in Portlandia. Also, I want her memoir right now. 

And here’s something exciting that happened this month: I’ve got an article in VOYA. This piece is about girls and girls reading, and it talks about 10 YA novels published in the last year that feature dynamic, complex female characters. This is one of my favorite things I’ve written for a professional journal. It’s not online (though if it goes online in the future, I’ll share that), but if you get the print edition, it’s in the August issue. 

This Week at Book Riot

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Quiet week this week over at Book Riot, but that’s because I’ve been working on something that took quite a bit of my writing power and time. But here’s what’s up:

  • Continuing my 3 On A YA Theme series with three books that feature girls who run. I could have included 100 more books, probably, so feel free to hop into the comments and add more. 

The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin

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Addison Stone is legendary.

She’s the girl who isn’t just a budding talent, an artist on the rise. She is hot artist right now, no qualifiers necessary.

Except, Addison Stone is dead, and she died under some mysterious circumstances. No one knows for sure what happened, and what comes together in Adele Griffin’s The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone is the testimony of people who knew her as they attempt to put together the pieces of just what happened. How could such a young talent be gone?

The construction of this book is brilliant. Never do we get Addison’s voice because she’s dead; instead, we’re only allowed to get to know Addison through the voices of people who knew and associated with her, for better or for worse. Some of the people who get the chance to speak up loved Addison and wanted to see her get better and better with her art. Others, though, weren’t fans of Addison nor her life. Some, maybe, were downright envious. Bit by bit, Addison’s life comes together through these narratives, which are interspersed with both Addison’s art and photographs of her life.

Without getting Addison’s voice directly, it might feel like this book is a bit gimmicky. But Griffin manages to do something smart: she not only works with the set up to tell a huge story, but she simultaneously uses the format to comment upon the idea of art and artifice. Because who are these people to tell us who Addison is? What do their concepts of her as a person — and her as an artist — do to render a full person? Can they? What of their biases and connections with and to her do to getting at the heart of who she was?

Addison wasn’t without problems. Being talented came at a price, and much of it had to do with pressure. Internally, externally, and from the entire world around her. Being young and female didn’t help the situation. There’s much here about gender and about the unique struggles and situations that talented girls find themselves in and how that sort of lifestyle is destructive not because of the individual living it, but because of the way the world operates and puts expectations and demands upon girls. Further complicating the situation and tying right into that is the struggle Addison had with her own romantic life. She was (and was not) interested in more than one boy. The revelations those boys have about Addison and their personal relationships with her, because they’re so biased, tell us a lot about Addison and her interest in them.

We get the opportunity to see Addison’s growth through her adolescence, and we learn exactly how she came to hone her talents and find herself living the big city artist dream. But as much as it seems like it was a dream, bits and pieces come together to tell us as readers perhaps it wasn’t a dream after all. That perhaps there was something bigger warring within Addison.

The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone has a plot twist in it that comes through the bits and pieces we learn about Addison’s younger years. It’s spoiler to reveal what that twist is, but it might be fair to note that there’s a tiny bit of a supernatural element to the mystery of the story. That tiny bit of supernatural, though, may not be precisely what it seems to be. It might indicate a far bigger challenge to Addison and her struggles with creativity and the bigger questions that surround artists and creative inspiration. More, this delves into what might be the most provocative element of the story (and, as noted above, the bigger idea behind the book’s construction): the idea of performance. What is performance? Is it art? Is it life? Is it both? Who are the performers within one’s own life? At what point do you get to separate yourself from the work you do? Are you granted permission to do so, and if that’s the case, how do you protect that inner self from the bigger world taking in what it is you do and create?

Also, who owns a story once it’s out there? Is it the artist or is it those who enjoy the art?

The voices and perspectives in this book are unique and easy to navigate. Though we hear from a lot of people, it’s never confusing. Much of what emerges from the cast of characters is in itself the story: we get to see and experience what envy and love look, feel, and taste like without those things being described straightly to us. The immersive setup makes it easy to forget that this isn’t an actual story of a person who lived; this is a fictional account of a fictional character’s death.

Griffin’s novel is experimental but exceptionally successful at being so. This is the kind of book mystery lovers will want to get their hands on, as well any readers who are themselves creative and artistic and struggle with the internal and external manifestations of themselves and their art. It’s a complex, layered book, but it’s a lot of fun because of that. There are serious themes, but the way they come together and the way it’s put together and examined by the reader is the most enjoyable part. This is a book of pieces and characters, but it’s ultimately the reader who gets to put them together. Addison is an older character, so readers seeking stories at the upper end of YA or about teens who choose not to pursue traditional college/career paths will want to pick this up, as well. The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone asks more questions than it answers — and it begs to be discussed because of that.

If the book piques your interest, check out this great piece at School Library Journal between Liz Burns and Adele Griffin. Learning about how the book came together — and the girl who inspired the way Addison looks — is really fascinating.

For those who like a little story to your book covers, too, the cover of this book is not only fitting, but representative of an Addison habit you’ll come to discover. It’s a small detail, but it made the experience of the book that much more enjoyable.

The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone will be available August 12 — next Tuesday — from Soho Teen. Review copy received from the publisher. 

Audio Review: Teardrop by Lauren Kate

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Eureka’s mother Diana died in a freak weather event a few months ago when a wave crashed over the bridge they were driving along. While Diana didn’t make it, Eureka was rescued by someone, but her memories of the incident are murky. Afterward, she goes to live with her father, who has been divorced from her mother for several years and has remarried to a woman named Rhoda. Tensions between Eureka and her stepmother are high, especially since Rhoda is a main force behind Eureka’s mandated visits to see a therapist to deal with her grief and her recent suicide attempt.

While driving to a school event one day, Eureka is rear-ended by a car driven by another teenager, a boy named Ander. He acts oddly, though Eureka is strangely drawn to him. He begins popping up in the same places where Eureka goes. Her best girl friend, Cat, encourages Eureka to avoid him at all costs, but Eureka isn’t convinced he’s dangerous. It soon becomes clear that he has something to do with the strange items Diana left for Eureka in her will: a book written in an archaic language, a locket, and a strange stone that can’t get wet. When Eureka manages to translate the book, she learns that everything – Ander, the items, Diana’s accident – leads back to the legend of Atlantis.

Goodreads reviewers are particularly vicious about Lauren Kate’s previous series, Fallen. I expect a lot of that has to do with how popular they are: the more people who read them, the more people will find they dislike them, and many of them will be very vocal about it. (The flip side is true as well, of course – it’s certainly found a lot of fans.) I haven’t read them – angel fiction isn’t my thing – so I can’t say how they compare to this new Teardrop series. What I can tell you is that I don’t foresee Teardrop winning over any new fans.

The primary problem with the book is pacing. It’s 11 discs long and it seems like half of them are solely exposition. Most of the book is concerned with mysterious goings-on in Eureka’s town, some of which are repeated (for example, we see Eureka’s best guy friend Brooks acting hot-and-cold toward her at least half a dozen times before it’s revealed why). When things really do get going, it’s near the end of the book, and it involves a huge info-dump that coincides with the climax of the story. Not the most interesting or engaging way to reveal information. I have a feeling many readers will grow bored before getting to the payoff.

As for the payoff itself, it’s a little disappointing. I gave this one a whirl because I’ve long been obsessed with stories about Atlantis, but the twist Kate gives the legend is not terribly exciting. Without spoiling things too much, I’ll say that it involves Eureka’s inability to cry – her tears would cause something terrible to happen, something that has to do with the lost city. I think there might be a metaphor hidden in here about teenage girls’ emotions and how they inspire fear in people, but if it’s there, it’s muddled. Mostly I just thought it was a little ridiculous; it was hard for me to suspend my disbelief.

Erin Spencer’s narration is good; it neither enhances nor detracts from the book. I had a hard time determining if Eureka’s best girl friend was named Cat or Pat – it sounded like one or the other on different occasions (it’s Cat). She voices Eureka in a slow, deliberate way, which is normal for audiobooks (don’t want the listener to miss something!) but also works well for Eureka’s character, who is grief-stricken and depressed. The other characters are only partially voiced.

This would be a good pick for fans of light fantasy who don’t mind a slow-moving story. It’s the kind of book that focuses a lot on its non-fantasy elements: high school friendships and romances, parties, grief over a dead parent, tensions within blended families. The fantasy portions seem almost an afterthought at times. Waterfall, the sequel, publishes this October, and hopefully it includes a little extra meat to the re-imagined Atlantis legend and less plodding to the story, but I’m not sure I’ll read it to find out.

Audiobook received from the publisher. Teardrop is available now.

Matriarchal Societies

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I’ve always been fascinated by depictions of matriarchal societies in books. They’re extremely rare in our own world (if they exist at all – please let me know if you know of any), meaning they’re most often explored in science fiction and fantasy, realms where the unusual, the unique, and the impossible are common occurrences.

By matriarchy, I mean a society ruled or governed by women in a simple sense, but also a society where women’s ideas, interests, and desires are valued above those of men. It’s different from a matrilineal society, where descent follows the female line (think of how cultural Judaism is inherited from the mother). It’s quite easy for one’s family name or identity to be derived from one’s mother while still existing in a culture that values men more. A matriarchy is more complex and more comprehensive.

In fiction, a matriarchal society is a deliberate choice. Sometimes the author intends to simply explore the idea, but usually it’s used as a way to critique our own patriarchal culture. Rather than presenting the matriarchy as a utopian ideal, though, most authors choose to present it as replete with its own problems and injustices. It’s not an antidote to patriarchies, but it is a response. And within the fantasy genre, where it seems like most authors like to write not just patriarchies, but patriarchies that strip women of most of the basic rights they now have in the 20th century western world, a book with a matriarchy stands out. It’s different, it’s interesting, and it’s always discussable.

On a pure story level, though, it’s a way for female characters to have the kind of power and influence that would be nearly impossible in a realistic novel, much the same way giving a girl magical abilities does. As a teen, that’s what drove me to these kinds of stories, and I wish there were more out there geared toward the 13-18 age range. I didn’t read many YA books in this vein as a teenager. Instead, I read adult books like Melanie Rawn’s Exiles series, which features a world where women hold power due to their ability to birth children, and Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels series, where powerful magical women rule over men in often terrible ways. Bishop’s series is particularly interesting to me, since it takes the commonly-accepted ideas about the differences between men and women and subverts them completely. (I like Rawn’s series, but I’m weary of books where people revere women because they can get pregnant. It’s too often used as method in our own world to reinforce the patriarchy.) Her characters exist in a necessarily violent world, as such power structures are only established and maintained through violence.

I’ve collected a few YA books featuring matriarchies below. In some of the books, the matriarchy exists as a smaller society within a larger patriarchal culture, though some of them do feature entirely matriarchal cultures. Are there any others you can think of? Even older titles are fine here, since there are so few of them. Descriptions are from Worldcat, and I’ve also provided a bit of my own commentary on some of the titles in italics.

Trial By Fire by Josephine Angelini
In her hometown of Salem, Lily Proctor endures not only life-threatening
allergies but humiliation at her first high school party with her best
friend and longtime crush, Tristan. But in a different Salem — one
overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called
Crucibles, she is Lillian, the strongest and cruelest Crucible …
Lily’s other self in an alternate universe where Lily suddenly finds herself. There she is torn between responsibilities she can’t hope to shoulder alone and a love she never expected. [This will be published September 2, and it should be on your radar. I’m currently reading it. It’s got a really intriguing hybrid science/magic system the likes of which I haven’t read before, and the matriarchy in the parallel world is equally unique.]

Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow
Otter is a girl of the Shadowed People, a tribe of women, and she is
born to be a binder, a woman whose power it is to tie the knots that
bind the dead–but she is also destined to remake her world.

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
In a Brazil of the distant future, June Costa falls in love with Enki, a
fellow artist and rebel against the strict limits of the legendary
pyramid city of Palmares Três’ matriarchal government, knowing that,
like all Summer Kings before him, Enki is destined to die. [The matriarchy here is so detailed and so believable. Like the power dynamic in our own patriarchy, it’s simply taken for granted that the women rule and the boys die to make it so. I read this one for the Cybils (it was our winner) and it’s probably the best example I’ve read of a matriarchy where the purpose isn’t the matriarchy itself – the story still reigns. Bitch Magazine has a really interesting entry in their “Girls of Color in Dystopia” series about this book that explores the society and whether or not it can be considered dystopian.] 

Night Flying by Rita Murphy
As the time for her solo flight on the sixteenth birthday approaches,
Georgia begins to question the course of her life and her relationships
with the other women in her unusual family. [This addition is courtesy of Liz Burns, @LizB.]

Prized by Caragh O’Brien
Sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone is in the wasteland with nothing but
her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a rumor to guide her when
she is captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where she
must follow a strict social code or never see her sister again. [I only have vague memories of reading this, but I do remember that Sylum is very matriarchal, not the world at large.]

Epitaph Road by David Patneaude
In 2097, men are a small and controlled minority in a utopian world
ruled by women, and fourteen-year-old Kellen must fight to save his
father from an outbreak of the virus that killed ninety-seven percent of
the male population thirty years earlier. [I haven’t read this one, but I’d be really interested to know just how utopian the world really is. I’m super wary of this kind of setup – has anyone read it who can weigh in?]

Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen
Tells of the coming of the White Queen –of deception, and war, and the changing face of history. [This is clearly quite vague. I got this title from kind Twitter respondent Stephanie Appell, @noseinabookgirl. I haven’t read it, so I don’t know the specifics of the culture represented.]

I’ve also read that the House of Night series by P. C. and Kristin Cast feature matriarchal societies, but I’m not sure how. If you’ve read them, perhaps you can weigh in. I also feel like there might be some historical fantasy – or perhaps simply historical fiction – out there that’s Pagan-centric and features matriarchal societies, even if they’re small ones. No YA titles come to mind, though.