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Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

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I first read Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting graphic novel as part of an assignment in library school.  It was the very first graphic novel/comic I had read in years (the last one before that was probably an issue of Casper when I wasn’t even double digits).  I wasn’t averse to reading graphic novels, and I had long embraced the notion of having them in public libraries as practical and necessary, I just hadn’t ever bothered to go find one I thought I would like.
I’m glad I chose Castle Waiting as my gateway drug.  It has a lot of elements I really enjoy in a novel: fairy tales reworked in new and interesting ways, a strong female protagonist, humor, feminist themes, and some nice surprises in the plot.  I revisited the book this week and was pleased to discover that I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.
Castle Waiting opens with what seems to be a fairly straightforward re-telling of Rapunzel.  Near the end, it morphs into something different (there’s a particularly funny set of wordless panels at this point), and we see that it’s the origin story for the place known as “Castle Waiting,” which has become a refuge for the weary and the imperiled.  As one of the characters tells our protagonist later on, the castle provides sanctuary for those who need to live in safety or die in safety.  When you consider the fact that the setting is a fairy tale world, it becomes easy to see how this story is a feminist one.
After the origin story, we’re introduced to our protagonist, lovely young Jain, who’s pregnant and on the run from her husband (not necessarily the father of her child).  She’s been told by her own father about Castle Waiting and its sanctuary, so she makes her way there.  Once there, she’s welcomed by its inhabitants, a diverse array of characters which Medley has plundered from the pages of nursery rhymes, legends, and fairy tales.
The second half of the book involves a group of bearded nuns.  That’s awesome enough in itself.  I don’t think this story is as strong as the one featuring Jain, but it’s amusing and interesting nonetheless.
The emphasis in Castle Waiting is not on sword and sorcery, and there’s not a great deal of action.  Instead, Medley focuses completely on the characters, giving us vignettes without major climaxes that allow us to really get to know everyone.  By the end of the book, they’ve become friends, and we wish we could visit for a weekend.  There’s nothing pulse-pounding about this comic, and sometimes that’s exactly what people need.
All of the female characters (and the male ones) are independent and interesting.  They’ve all got their own back stories and their own little quirks.  A few of the characters are particularly funny, cracking jokes and seeing humor in everyday activities.  While the characters’ lives weren’t necessarily rosy, they’ve all found a home at Castle Waiting, and the tone of the book reflects that sense of community.         
Medley’s art is all black and white, which I normally avoid (I prefer full-color), but it works here.  Her linework is very detailed and helps give the story its sense of fun.  The humor in the story comes not only from the dialogue between the characters, but in the reactions seen in facial expressions and body language.
Castle Waiting is basically a fairy tale (or rather, a series of fairy tale-esque stories) told with a feminist bent.  It has similarities with Bill Willingham’s Fables in that they both re-work traditional stories for a new audience and both center around a community of diverse characters who have found sanctuary with each other, but Castle Waiting is much different in tone.  Whereas Fables is most definitely for an adult or mature teen audience (lots of violence and sex), Castle Waiting is more child-friendly.  Its tone is a bit gentler and it doesn’t have any of the content parents tend to object to: bad language, nudity, violence.  That said, I think Castle Waiting is best appreciated by older teens and adults due to its themes, which younger readers may miss or simply not find interesting.
I first read Castle Waiting in individual volumes, but I got my hands on the compilation for the re-read (so the origin story, Jain’s story, and the bearded nuns story were all together).  Wow this book is beautiful. The spine has a cloth-type covering and it comes with a built-in ribbon bookmark.  It’s kind of ridiculous how much I love these ribbon bookmarks.  The cover, the only part of the book in color, shows the characters the reader meets within the book’s pages, and even the horse’s personality is evident.
This review covers only Castle Waiting Volume I, but Volume II is out now, and it’s sitting on my table ready to be read.  I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Stay by Deb Caletti

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Clara and her father’s move to a rental place in a small town on the water begins Deb Caletti’s latest novel, Stay. Although a quiet event in their lives, it ends up being a huge part of the story, as we begin weaving the story of Clara’s volatile last few months in an abusive relationship with Christian with the story of her recovery and attempt to reconcile her feelings for Christian, herself, and a guy she’s met on the water in her new town. Is she ready to move on after such a rough relationship with Christian? Can she let herself believe she’s worth more than what Christian told her?

Stay is a slower paced story but it’s an important one. As readers, we know immediately that the relationship Clara develops with Christian won’t be healthy — we can see it from the start. But what Caletti does that’s so important here is that she drops us square into Clara’s mindset. As outsiders, it’s easy for us to judge this relationship, but given the internal thoughts of Clara, it’s almost easy to see why she chose to remain in an abusive relationship and why she’s unwilling to throw herself into a new one after ending things with Christian.

A secondary plot that Caletti develops in this book is that of Clara’s mother: she’s been dead for quite a while, but we’re never given the immediate reason why. Clara’s father isn’t willing to talk much about it, but it’s through his newly emerging relationships in this new town that he finally comes to terms with his grief over the loss of his wife and is able and willing to relate the story to his daughter.

This isn’t an easy book to review, primarily because it is such an issue-driven book. It’s fairly cut and dry in terms of what the goals are in story telling, and as readers, we have our expectations adequately met. Christian is depicted at first as a good guy, but then we’re given insight into those small moments where his character is questionable. Then we see his wretched side fully. We get to see Clara develop her innocent fascination with Christian into a full relationship, one which is rich and exciting from the get go. Then we see her begin questioning his actions toward her, his possessiveness and need to keep an eye on her. We care deeply when she’s hurt and we want her to leave Christian, but we know, too, it will take quite a bit for her to build the power to do so. Both are fully realized characters, complex and emotionally charged, but neither were exactly different. That is to say, nothing memorable stood out about either for me as a reader. They were based on their actions/reactions thereafter, rather than their characteristics.

The story as a whole never coalesced like I hoped, either. Although I liked the resolution, I kept thinking in the back of my head that more should happen or that I should know something quirky or more compelling about any of the characters. Part of me questioned the audience of this novel more generally, too: as Sarah’s pointed out, Caletti’s writing feels a bit like a teen version of Jodi Picoult. I agree. In fact, part of me believes that a story like Stay has tremendous cross-over potential for adult readers and admittedly, there were moments in the story that the description dwelled just a little too long on the water front imagery and the idea of the sea, something that happens much more in adult fiction than teen. Those moments didn’t feel as authentic to Clara’s voice as I’d like them to because they felt much more adult than teen. Although she’d been through something that certainly was adult, I didn’t believe her sensibilities in those musings.

What I really liked about this novel, though, was the relationship between Clara and her father. It’s rare to read a well-written relationship between a father and a daughter, but I think Caletti nails it here. Dad doesn’t hover, but he wants to protect his daughter; Clara doesn’t repel him or go running to him for safety, but she treads carefully into the world of knowing she needs her father for some things (such as safety and security) but that she also needs to rely on herself to handle other things (such as social acceptance and moving on). I really liked her father throughout the story, but it was probably the last couple of interactions between them that solidified him as my favorite character in the story.

Worth noting, this book can come off a bit jarring upon first reading. The chapters alternate from the present back through the past, and it took me a few chapters to figure this out. It’s worth noting that I read the advanced copy of this title, and as of that version, there were not indicators on the chapters noting whether they were in the present or were flashbacks. Once in the groove of the story telling method, though, the flow makes sense and works quite nicely. I liked the story’s execution because it really gave us intimate insight into Clara’s mindset, both in the moment and in her reflection of those moments.

Stay will work for your teen fans of adult fiction authors like Jodi Picoult or Anna Quendlin (and fans of her most well-known work Black and Blue will likely find Caletti’s story an interesting work to read in comparison to boot). It’ll also work for fans of Sarah Dessen and Susane Colasanti, though the plotting here will be the thrust of the stories, rather than the characters. And finally, I urge you to keep this book on your radar if for no other reason than to notice one of 2011’s ya trends: relationship abuse. Stay is the first big name book on this topic out this year, but Jennifer Brown’s Bitter End (reviewed here) will be available this week and Jenny Downham’s You Against Me will be over from the UK this fall. In addition, Amanda Grace (the pen name for Mandy Hubbard) has also recently released But I Love Him on this topic, as well. It’ll be interesting to see the varied and various angles on this tough but important topic — Caletti’s title falls on the internal and recovery aspects of the victim.

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol

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I just love First Second (:01), Macmillan’s graphic novel imprint.  Not only are the stories and art almost always good, the books themselves always look pretty.  The binding is high quality, most are available as hardcovers, and the pages are thick and will hold up for many readings.
Anya’s Ghost, Vera Brosgol’s first graphic novel, is no exception.  Teenaged Anya considers herself to be something of an outcast at school.  Her family is Russian, and her mother understands nothing of what it’s like to be a teenager in America.  She insists that Anya eat fatty foods when Anya is trying to go on a diet, and she tries to get Anya to be friends with “fobby” Dima, a short Russian boy at her school who just doesn’t understand why it’s important to assimilate into the majority culture.  What’s more, Anya is crushing majorly on the school’s star athlete, who will never notice her.
When teenaged Anya is out walking after a particularly bad day at school, she has the misfortune to fall down a well.  Even more unfortunately, it looks as if someone else fell down the well, too, and her fate wasn’t terribly rosy – she’s now a skeleton.  After a good freakout, Anya discovers that her companion is a ghost named Emily who died around the time of World War I.  Emily’s a bit irritating at first, but she starts to grow on Anya, and ultimately helps rescue Anya from the well by waking up Anya so she can call for help from a passerby above.
Anya is happy to leave the well and Emily, but she soon discovers that she has accidentally taken a piece of Emily’s skeleton with her, allowing Emily to follow Anya home.  The two start to develop a real friendship, something Anya desperately needs since she feels like such an outcast at school.  Emily helps Anya cheat at tests, choose the right clothes for a party, and impress the boy she’s been crushing on for years.  Along the way, Emily shares the tragic story of her death, and Anya decides to keep Emily around for awhile.
Then things take a turn, and Emily’s concern for Anya’s life starts to morph into something a little closer to infatuation.  Anya discovers that Emily may not be who she says she is – she may be something very dangerous indeed.
Neil Gaiman’s blurb on the front cover calling this book a masterpiece is high praise indeed, and while I think Anya’s Ghost is good, it’s perhaps not that good.  It’s got a lot that any teen could relate to: issues of not fitting in at school, a weird family, an unrequited crush.  The artwork is nicely done – it’s got a generic cartoony feel to it, but Brosgol infuses real emotion into her facial expressions, so we always know when Anya is feeling scornful, anxious, excited, or ashamed.  The muted blacks/whites/grays are perfect for a ghost story.  I also really love the cover.
Despite all these positives, Brosgol spells out the lesson the reader is supposed to have learned at the end of the book, making it a bit didactic for my taste.  The twist with Emily near the end adds some nice excitement to the story, but once it’s revealed, the plot is fairly predictable from then on out.
I see some similarities with Deutsch’s How Mirka Got Her Sword in that both involve the exploration of a culture very different from the average reader’s – Jewish Orthodox for Mirka and Russian Orthodox for Anya.  Both female leads are also highly spirited with a lot of personality and a good amount of intelligence.  It’s also got some parallels with Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese – both explore what it’s like for a teen to feel divided between her parents’ culture and the “American” culture, how it feels to not be accepted by your peers despite desperate attempts, and a twist at the end that makes the reader view the story in an entirely different light.  I think Anya’s Ghost would be a good readalike for both books.  It’s also got enough widespread appeal to please almost any audience.
Anya’s Ghost will be on shelves June 7.  Copy obtained from my local library who somehow got it early.  Score.

Twitterview: Blake Nelson!

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Once in a while, blogging gives you gifts you weren’t expecting. Today, I bring you one of them.

I’m a big fan of Blake Nelson, and I’ve offered my reviews of Destroy All Cars, Paranoid Park, and Recovery Road. So when he contacted me about a potential Twitterview a few months ago, it was hard not to do it right then. But I waited. And today I bring you an exciting interview with him. Blake may have been the first author to actually email me after a review — way back in 2009 — and it was one of those awesome blog moments that stuck with me. So, I’m giving away GIRL, PARANOID PARK, DESTROY ALL CARS, and RECOVERY ROAD to celebrate our 2-year blogging anniversary here at STACKED. I’ll add that RECOVERY ROAD is also signed by Blake himself, who I had the pleasure of meeting during his stop in the area for Sister Spit (oh yes, photo evidence below). Here’s your chance to sample Nelson’s style which I have grown to appreciate more and more with each book of his I read.

But first — let’s hear from him.

What influenced RECOVERY ROAD?

I did a school visit at a girls reform school. The girls were smart, interesting, unusual. I wanted to write about them.
Maddie ultimately recovers in the story, but she’s the only one. Why did you make this choice?

The characters decide, not me. She was just sooo determined. That’s what made the book: her ferocity.

As a reader, I found your setting a hugely important part of Maddie’s story and know Portland is where your stories are usually set. Why?

The rainy gloom of Portland! It is in my soul … and it was perfect for this kind of love story.

GIRL, your first novel, has been in print for over 15 years now and it’s a cult classic. Would you change anything about the book today?

No way! We love people because of their flaws. GIRL has many many flaws. But it still kicks ass!

Each of your books is entirely different — you don’t fall into a single category. How do you make your style/voice decisions?

I feel sorry for series authors, writing the same thing over and over. Poor J.K. Rowling. I think I’ll send her a card.

You successfully capture both male voices and female voices, giving your books wide appeal. Talk about the experience of writing each.

Girls think. Boys do. Girls analyze. Boys criticize. Girls think about people. Boys think about things.

Two of your books — PARANOID PARK and GIRL — have been made into films. Did both/either come out as you’d imagined?

It’s always profoundly weird to see what your story looks like in someone else’s brain. But after the shock, it’s fun.
This spring, you’re on the bus for the Sister Spit tour. How did you get involved with this?

They’re GIRL fans, and SASSY freaks. I’m a big fan of their stuff. Michelle Tea is one of my heroes.

What influences your writing?

Hearing people talk about their lives. Watching teenagers. Thinking about being young.
Which of your books has been most meaningful to you and why?

Probably RECOVERY ROAD. It is my fullest, most complete book. Maddie changes so much. And it feels so real.

Of all your books, which character from which book would be closest to your heart and why?

I still love Andrea Marr. From GIRL. I would love to meet her now, fifteen years on, she’s probably a librarian.
Same question as above, but this time tell us who is most like yourself?

Alex in PARANOID PARK: Clueless, funny, sometimes profound in an accidental way.

Given your career as a whole, if you could redo something in any of your books, would you?

No. I do TONS OF REWRITING, POLISHING and OBSESSING, so I know there’s nothing really wrong with any of them.

You’ve seen the rise of YA in the last few years. What’s changed in the time you’ve been publishing? Is it easier or harder now to write?

Too much trend-chasing. Someone yells “DYSTOPIA!!” and everyone runs to their computer and starts typing.
What is your writing routine?

Six hours, every day.

Best piece of writing advice ever received?

“Get rid of the little words”
Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever given?

“Maybe you should stick to acting, Gwyneth.”

Who do you think is doing some of the most influential work in the YA world today?

Love Frank Portman. Love Natalie Standiford. And Sara Zarr. I like more realistic stuff.

What three books or writers would you consider the most influential to you and your career?

John Updike, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Rollins

Like all authors for teens, you get letters from your readers. What was the most memorable thing someone has said to you about your work?

I love it when my books keep people company. Like a good friend. Kerouac does that for me.
Share one of the most memorable moments of your teen years.

Falling in love the first time. And having my whole psyche re-arranged by it.
What are three surprising things we should know about you outside of writing?

I was a teenaged redneck. In high school I played football, drove a pickup and hunted and fished on weekends.

And the most important question — favorite ice cream flavor?

chocolate!

AudioSynced, May Edition

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Welcome to this month’s edition of AudioSynced, hosted by STACKED and Abby (the) Librarian. We’re sharing a wealth of audiobook reviews and news. If you posted something in the month of April relating to audiobooks, leave a comment and I’ll add it to our roundup!

Reviews

Melissa at Bibliochic talks about her listening experience with David Levithan and Rachel Cohn’s Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares.

Lee at Reading with My Ears has number of reviews this month, including the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, The Carbon Diaries 2017, The Mermaid’s Mirror, Odd and the Frost Giant, and I Shall Wear Midnight.

Abby posted a review of Carter Finally Gets It.

The Love YA Lit blog posted a review of Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Jenn of Jenn’s Bookshelves reviewed Storm Front by Jim Butcher.

News & More

Devourer of Books is preparing for her second annual Audiobooks Week in June to celebration Audiobook Month. You can find out more details here. STACKED participated last year and had a great time talking up all things audio.

Interested in hearing Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize winning book A Visit From the Goon Squad on audio? AudioGO is offering it for only $14.98. Go here, and then use the code Coupon50 for the deal.

The Audio Publisher’s Association has announced their finalists for the 2011 Audie awards. Check out this list of contenders (and sneak a listen, too!).