Growing Up Through a Ghost Story

On October 2, 2013September 27, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews2 Comments

I saw Doll Bones by Holly Black make the blog rounds recently, and I knew it would be a perfect one for RIP…because what’s spookier than a haunted doll?

Zach, Poppy and Alice love playing the Game, an ongoing adventure story full of pirates and magic. But they’re coming right to that age where it’s not cool to play anymore–and Zach’s father puts an end to things by throwing all of Zach’s action figures away. Unwilling to explain what happened, Zach just tells Poppy and Alice he doesn’t want to play the Game anymore. And then Poppy announces she’s been visited by a ghost, sent by the Queen, a creepy antique doll they cast as ruler in the Game. The Queen wants them to go on a quest…

One aspect of this book bothers me immensely. I’m always annoyed when characters refuse to simply tell each other things, and instead create massive amounts of unnecessary confusion and conflict. And I really don’t see why Zach had to keep his secret. However. Setting that aside…

I love the theme of coming to terms with growing up. In a sense it’s a Coming-of-Age story, but not in a Hero’s-Journey way. It’s more a struggle with Peter Pan, with being forced to grow up when there are things about childhood that you don’t want to lose. Zach is the primary focus, but all three kids have that struggle. Alice looks the most mature (and I love a moment when Zach sees her from a distance and realizes that, if he didn’t know her, she would look like a teenager) and that pushes her into having to deal with more mature interactions. Poppy feels like Zach and Alice are growing up without her, while she still feels the same.

I love the uncertainty that persists through most of the book, as we don’t really know if there’s actually something magical going on, or if Poppy is making a last bid to hang onto her friends and the Game. Even while we don’t know if it’s true, a thoroughly creepy ghost story is revealed in bits and pieces as the book goes on.

I found all three kids likable and believable, and all of them had real, relatable problems–without this ever turning into a “troubled teen” book. It stays upbeat and positive, but with real-world trouble as undercurrents. I’d really like a sequel about Poppy, as I feel like there was more to explore with her especially.

The book winds up very satisfying…and while I won’t give the details away, the kids did reach a good place about growing up–and realizing what you don’t always need to let go of in the process.

Author’s Site: http://www.blackholly.com/

Other reviews:
Assorted Leafs
Never Ending Stories
Reading Rants
Slatebreakers
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Doll Bones

Spellbound by Shadows

On September 30, 2013September 30, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews1 Comment

Continuing my Alfred Hitchcock spree for Readers Imbibing Peril, I next watched Spellbound with Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. With the tagline, “Will he kiss me or kill me?” it’s proof that stories about women falling for possibly murderous men date back well before certain vampire novels I could name!

Bergman plays Dr. Constance Petersen, a coldly self-contained psychiatrist who falls for her facility’s new director (Peck), who falls just as hard for her. When he suffers a breakdown, it comes out that he’s an imposter; in reality he’s an amnesiac, convinced that he killed the man whose identity he assumed. Constance adamantly believes that he’s innocent and suffering from a guilt complex; the two go on the run, trying to learn what happened in his past.

This isn’t one where I’m going to rave about the plot, because, um, it’s kind of mad. At one point a character tells Constance, “you’re a brilliant analyst but a very stupid woman,” and unfortunately it seems to be true (for what it’s worth, in an interview Hitchcock described Constance as “very brave”). She takes wild risks and engages in extraordinarily unprofessional behavior–guided, of course, by her heart. Hmm, I seem to be a bit of a cynic about the whole thing!

While the plot and the main character are questionable, I love the atmosphere of the movie. The first time I saw it, I remember being utterly fascinated by the shadows and the shades of gray. It might sound strange, but Hitchcock cast shadows across faces in wonderful ways, and all those shades of gray in the black-and-white film contribute to a marvelous dreamy quality.

The music is also a big part. I honestly can’t remember if there was much of a soundtrack to Rope or Strangers on a Train, even though I just saw them, but in this one the music was perfect for increasing the tension in key moments.

We also see again Hitchcock’s ability to raise tension without any blood or dramatic conflict. Peck gets a wild look in his eye, and that’s enough. There’s a very good scene where he becomes fixated on a knife Constance is using at dinner. There’s no dialogue about it, but we see him seeing, and we see her seeing him seeing, and then a noise jolts him out and things are all right again.

Hitchcock also seems to have a thing about characters on staircases. Cary Grant in Suspicion comes to mind, or there’s a terrifying sequence in Psycho. Spellbound has two scenes with characters on staircases that are wonderfully tense even though nothing is really happening–although in one of them, Peck is carrying an open razor. Still, you don’t need the blood of Sweeney Todd–just carrying it is tense enough.

Though that does bring me back to Constance being very stupid. I know he’s handsome Gregory Peck and therefore has to remain handsome and clean-shaven, but why did she leave a razor where a possible psychotic could get it???

Anyway…one of the more famous sequences in this is the dream sequence. It’s very surreal (in the Surrealist sense), and you can definitely tell that Salvador Dali was an adviser for that part. It didn’t look like any dreams I’ve ever had, but it’s a great bit anyway.

This one doesn’t come in at the top of my list of Hitchcock films…but I do love Bergman and Peck and that wonderful Hitchcockian atmosphere!

Other reviews:
Journeys in Classic Film
Derek Winnert
Screen and Stream
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Spellbound

Dark and Grim, Indeed

On September 25, 2013September 25, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews6 Comments

I think my reasons for reading A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz should be fairly self-evident in the title…Brothers Grimm-inspired, and dark and spooky for Readers Imbibing Peril!

The premise is very clever, promising to tell the true story of Hansel and Gretel, and then setting off through several Grimm fairy tales. When Hansel and Gretel’s father learns that his faithful servant, previously turned to stone in his service, can be restored if he chops his children’s heads off…he goes ahead and does it. Hansel and Gretel are restored to life, but (quite understandably) decide it’s time to run away from home. They encounter the wicked witch with her candy house, but also go on adventures through other fairy tales, struggling against dangerous magic and frightening or fantastically irresponsible adults.

With the exception of the original Hansel and Gretel story, these are not the best-known Grimm fairy tales, like Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella. I recognized most of the stories, but I’ve read a good bit of the original Grimms…and considering my audience here, you might recognize them too!

There’s definitely constant excitement in this novel, with a new twist and villain at every turn. It actually didn’t feel as episodic as you might expect, though. With the constant thread of Hansel and Gretel as the main characters, the different tales wove together surprisingly well. There’s also an amusing narrator who occasionally stops the action to make remarks to the reader about the story. I might have liked a little more subtlety in weaving the narrator into the story…but that’s a choice, and once I got used to the narrator, the device worked well.

For all that’s good here, I do have one BIG reservation–I really don’t know who the target audience is meant to be. The style of the writing is clearly juvenile. There’s a simplicity to the language, Hansel and Gretel seem to be about 10 or 12, and there’s just a very strong juvenile feel to the book. However–there is a LOT of blood.

I feel a little strange pointing that out, because the narrator points it out too, in a very sarcastic, tongue in cheek kind of way. Early on, he keeps advising that little kids should be kept out of the room because they’ll be disturbed by upcoming sections. Those remarks read like jokes…but they’re true! The blood and the violence are told in the matter-of-fact style of the original Brothers Grimm, and there’s probably nothing here that wasn’t there…which still leaves you with blood, beheadings, dismemberment, two (unrelated) severed fingers, and all in all quite a bit of nastiness.

As far as I can tell from Gidwitz’s website, the blood is supposed to be a large part of the appeal. All the same, I haven’t the slightest doubt that if I had read this when I was actually the target age suggested by the writing style, I would have been thoroughly disturbed. There’s a bit in here about skinning a monster that I find slightly disturbing now. Conclusion: although I liked aspects of this, apparently I’m not the target reader.

So…I guess the natural reader is either a kid who doesn’t mind gore (and I’m sure there are ones less squeamish than I was), or an adult who doesn’t mind a simplistic writing style. If you pick it up, there’s plenty that’s well-done, but be warned that this really is inspired by the Brothers Grimm, not Walt Disney!

Author’s Site: http://www.adamgidwitz.com/

Other reviews:
Here There Be Books
Rex Robot Reviews
The Mountains of Instead
Anyone else?

Buy it here: A Tale Dark and Grimm

Strangers on a Train

On September 23, 2013September 23, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews5 Comments

I’ve been continuing my Hitchcock viewing for Readers Imbibing Peril, and I’m still enjoying the Master of Suspense. I had a bit of a Hitchcock phase in college (the library had lots of his movies available) and most of the movies I haven’t seen since then. I’ve been having a good time now rewatching favorites I haven’t seen in years–like Strangers on a Train.

This is a very direct and accurate title: two strangers meet on a train, tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and the wealthy and idle Bruno Antony (Robert Walker). Bruno has all sorts of wild theories, and he proposes one to Guy: a criss-cross murder. Guy wants to get rid of his philandering, divorce-refusing wife, Miriam; Bruno wants to get rid of his father. Neither can commit the murder because the motive makes them the obvious suspect–so why not commit each other’s murder? Guy laughs the idea off…until Bruno shows up at his door to tell him that Miriam is dead, and now he expects Guy to fulfill his half of the agreement.

I didn’t plan it, but this turned out to be a fascinating one to watch right after Rope (review here). It was made a few years later, and I can see some of the same themes. Also, if you remember weak-willed and murderous Philip from Rope, the same actor played the very different Guy Haines. I was impressed, actually, because Philip and Guy look exactly the same, and yet they felt like very different people. I think it was a difference that was on the level of mannerisms, bearing, speech patterns and so on. Guy has his foolish and weak-willed moments, but on the whole he’s confident and morally-upright…although, like Philip, he winds up manipulated by a seriously deranged man.

Hitchcock does wonderful things with Bruno. He’s not a moustache-twirling villain or a big hulking monster. He’s smiling, affable, pleasant-spoken and even charming…but with a little edge of weirdness. To quote Mr. Shakespeare, “you can smile and smile and be a villain,” and Hitchcock takes this smiling psychopath and presents him as a terrifying specter, haunting first Miriam and then Guy.

We follow Bruno as he follows Miriam to an amusement park, and it becomes a long tense scene set against a backdrop of revelry, because we know what has to be coming. One of my favorite moments is when Miriam and two “friends” take a boat into the Tunnel of Love. Bruno follows in another boat, and for a space we only see their silhouettes as shadows against the wall–and from their separate boats, Bruno’s shadow stalks and overtakes Miriam’s. Bruno’s amusement park boat, by the way, is named Pluto, the God of the Underworld. Those little touches are why I love Hitchcock so much.

As Bruno gets more intent on his demands of Guy, there are other lovely moments that are so simple but so creepy. At one point, Guy is sitting on the sidelines of a tennis match, and we see the crowd–every head turning in unison with the progress of the match, except right in the center there’s Bruno, eyes locked on Guy.

I mentioned some of the themes seemed to be carrying over from Rope, and I was especially thinking of the contrast between murder in theory and murder in actuality. Guy’s new girlfriend has a younger sister who is lovely and sweet and fascinated by grisly murders. We again have a character who thinks murder is quite thrilling in theory–but is horrified when confronted with the reality. The insane characters, the Brunos and the Brandons, are the ones who make no distinction–who don’t draw a line between saying you could strangle someone, and actually doing it.

My one criticism of the movie is that it ends too quickly (a Hitchcock trademark) and more importantly, too easily. I like happy endings, but I don’t quite believe that it all would have worked out so neatly and so simply…

Still, it was another excellent walk through the shadows with the Master of Suspense.

Other reviews:
Derek Winnert
Folding Seats
Collider
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Strangers on a Train

Revisiting Fairyland with September

On September 18, 2013September 18, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Ruminations17 Comments

So…we all know that I madly, madly love Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland series, right? I mean, there was quite a bit of conversation on that subject in the comments section of my RIP launch post. As per plan, I reread Fairyland 1 and Fairyland 2, for Readers Imbibing Peril and as preparation for the soon-to-be-released Fairyland 3…and it won’t surprise you at all that I madly, madly loved them!!

Book One, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, was my favorite book last year–and I read 182 books in 2012. The only serious competition was from Book Two, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There. Both books follow the adventures of September, an ordinary girl from Omaha who is swept away to Fairyland. She encounters wonderful and whimsical magic and makes dear friends–but this is not Baum’s terror-and-tension-free Land of Oz, and September needs courage and heart to survive very real dangers, and solve very real problems.

I already reviewed both books (here and here) the last time I read them, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much…and I’ll try not to just gush all over the place!

It’s very possible I loved these books more the second time through–which is really pretty amazing, considering. But I feel like I know the characters even better now, picked up on some little nuances that probably went past me before, and loved the seeds planted in Fairyland 1 to suggest Fairyland 2 and (I think!) the ones in both books suggesting Fairyland 3.

Normally I refer to a book as a “fast read” as a good thing, and a slow book as a negative…but these were slow books in a GOOD way. Especially in the first one, I found myself stopping practically every page to think “oh, that’s a clever line,” or “what an interesting insight,” or “that’s so TRUE.” And there are few things I love more than seeing a book express something that I KNOW and FEEL but have never seen explained in quite that way before.

I just opened Fairyland 1 at random (to pages 114 and 115, if you’re curious) and found six different bits I love. Really. Lines that are clever or whimsical or touching or insightful or particularly well-phrased.

Fairyland 1 is particularly full of splendid little nuggets of thought or phrase, but Fairyland 2 brings a little more maturity, a little more wisdom. Nothing too mature, of course! But September begins to grow up, just a little, and the book reflects that. It’s a beautifully drawn portrait of a girl beginning to grow towards adulthood–this is not Neverland, where no one ever ages, and even a girl fighting monsters in Fairyland can be prey to the same worries of growing up of everyone else. She has fears about friends changing and feels often like the only person who doesn’t know her proper path.

Maybe I love September because she seems to act the way people really would if they were whisked away to Fairyland. Much as I love the classics, I want to shake Wendy for spending her time in Neverland darning socks, and I just don’t know what to do with Dorothy who wants only to go back to gray Kansas–or the Dorothy of later books who is never the least bit worried or concerned by anything. September thinks about home, just enough, but she wants to revel in the magic of Fairyland–and when it goes bad, when there are challenges to be faced, she does it with a real understanding of the hazards and the fierce determination necessary to go forward anyway.

The book is very self-aware of its source material in a delightful way. Little bits of classic novels are given nods here and there, in September’s magic shoes or her visit to a rather mad tea house. And then there’s a piece where September visits a Questing Physickist, who begins discussing Object Quests, the Laws of Heroics, the Conservation of Princesses Law and E. K. T. (Everyone Knows That) Fields. It’s brilliant.

Another aspect of the book that I love is the way everyone and everything is a meaningful character–I say “everything” because it applies even to September’s clothing! Everyone has complexity and history, and seems to be carrying out their own lives that September just happens to be passing through. I love that depth of characters and of the world. And even the villains have their secret tragedies, and believe on some level that they are, in fact, the heroes.

I could gush and ramble on some more, about how much I love September’s fierceness and Saturday’s shyness and A-Through-L…well, his whole concept is brilliant, and about the wonderfulness of getting the shadows of characters in the second book to bring a whole different layer to them, or how creepy the Autumn Lands are and how heartbreakingly sad I find Mallow’s story, and how intrigued I am by little hints here and there that I hope will be explored in later books…but perhaps this review is long enough? 🙂

Suffice to say…I love this series. I really, really, REALLY love this series. I have the publishing date (October 1) for Fairyland 3 in my calendar, and I cannot WAIT to read The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two.

Author’s Site: http://www.catherynnemvalente.com/

Buy them here:
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two