Power of Invention

The future. What does it really hold for us? Whether realistic and closely tied to what we know now, or so distant that the world seems to be a millennia away, many authors have taken on the topic of the future. The idea that there is imminent destruction or discovery just around the corner that will change our lives forever might stop one from reading the novels that explain it so well. However, there are others, myself included, just recently, that have found it to be incredibly enlightening with endless possibilities. Many, many years ago when I attended elementary school, girls were not the protagonists in these high adventure books, nor were these books available on the scale they are today. Growing up, I loved to watch Sci-Fi movies – somewhat of an anomaly I am told – never thinking to pick up a book of the same content.

So recently, I reached down into the depths of my being and forced myself to pick up a 442 page book, that, as it turns out, I could not put down until I had droned over the very last page! Incarceron, written by Catherine Fisher, was so exciting and plausible, that I read and read until I finished. Not just the skimming kind of reading, but the kind of reading where I wanted to envision (and was able to through the author’s acute awareness of all the right details) what Claudia, the heroine, was going to do to save her kingdom that was all a façade. Behind the scenes were the minute electronic devices that kept up the whole charade of their chosen century in which to live. Her father was cold and serene as he planned her future, but she knew there was more to find out. Finn the lost soul of the underworld introduced other creatures partially flesh and blood with wires replacing veins and skin covering metallic parts. Unknowingly for years, their lives intertwined helping them discover the world that was at her father’s fingertips, literally.

Dab of Reality

When thinking about books to share, two came to mind immediately – Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, and You Know Where to Find Me, by Rachel Cohn, but for very different reasons. These titles deal with death (or near death experiences) and the aftermath for the friends and family left behind. The reality of thinking about life and death is clear and intense in these books. However, they address the subject in such remarkably different ways. We don’t want to be scared of the inevitable, so the introduction to such a serious topic is important. On the other hand, writing can profoundly affect many, changing their behavior and perception of the world around them. With that in mind, one should tread lightly when entering these books, but enter them, nonetheless.

Wintergirls is an intense, provocative, and horrifying look into the world of an anorexic girl whose friend, who was at one point her best-friend, takes her own life through means unbelievable to many, especially me. What makes it even more incredible, the reality is that tens of thousands of young women struggle with bulimia and anorexia every day. The novel was carefully and meticulously written about the girl who survived. Yet, her emotion is unattainable, but her personal plight to keep her life (weight) under control is so real that one wonders whether it is dangerous to read the novel for many young, impressionable minds.

Similarly in You Know Where to Find Me, we see a young girl, whose future was on the cusp, yet she makes the choice to take her own life – she battled with depression for most of her adolescent life (her biological father battled with the same affliction). The protagonist is her cousin, who struggles with her own addiction to pain and distress, but who works through the day-to-day while mulling over her incredible loss. The reader sees a lonely, uncomfortable young woman trudge through her life, but you sense the promise in the words on the page. The background is real and distressing, but important to discover. Both of these novels are uncomfortable at times; the reality is harsh and cruel. However, and most importantly, these young women are worth taking the time to understand.

Hooray for Heroines!

The characters in these novels are full of the kind of energy that one would hope to find every day. Young women, who go out, seek the world, venture into the unknown and have proved to be genuine, intricate, and strong. As a woman, with two daughters, I would only hope that the kind of excitement and intricately fascinating details portrayed in these novels will be available to each and every one of us. As females, young and old, we balance on a fine line of feeling strength and weakness, confidence and insecurity, intrigue and disdain, and these characters give us the right to cheer for the aggressive, stubborn, type-a personalities, but to also connect to the anguish they feel when their heart is broken.

In Graceling, by Kristin Cashore, the heroine chose her life and love, while helping the country fight an evil mastermind. Also, a pillar of strength was the young girl who chose to escape her fate, avoid prison because she was female, protect one sister while saving another from death, and rode off into the sunset on a dragon in Shadow of the Dragon, by Kate O’Hearn. And lastly, A Curse Dark As Gold, by Elizabeth C. Buntz, develops a young woman who fights off a dark figure looming over her tragic and simple but heroic life, as she saves the family business, her sister, and her own young child. Hooray for the REAL heroines – people who wear dresses (when they choose) while saving princesses (themselves, as well), tame dragons (no person had been able to before), fall in love (and show it openly), and be themselves (all in a day's work)! All of these young women show charisma and self-control while defeating the odds stacked against them, but they never lost their smart wit and capacity to defend themselves - traits I think we all hope for!

Recession Recreation

Realist-escapism…Is that a word or maybe a new genre? Having never loved fantasy novels growing up, I am approaching 40 these days, the new kinds of novels that grace the shelves of book-stores and libraries are extraordinary. For me, the line continues to blur between historical fiction and fantasy. Though none of these novels can be categorized as historical fiction, it seems hard to believe that these places and times do not actually exist. As the reader, you are whisked away into a world that exports emotions, possibilities, and very often real triumphs. You believe that there will be a day you will fall upon the crevice in the rock that will transport you to the world of monsters that are too beautiful to look at, as in Fire, by Kristin Cashore. When you step on the recently smothered fire from the faeries retreating into the forest as the dawn breaks, and extraordinary musicians are in danger of being stolen away for their talent in Ballad, by Maggie Stiefvater, you believe their fear is real. Lastly, huntresses lead the pack in a place far, far away, while dark figures looming in the forest masquerade as humans in the neighboring towns in Ash, by Malinda Lo.

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