Read lately

[lady_schrapnell]

Got this because a lot of people were raving about it on adbooks, and it sounded interesting. Author, Cecil Castellucci, is female, surprisingly. Anyway, it was a very engrossing, fun read - though quite painful in places, as the main character, Egg (she calls herself this, from her favourite heroine in her favourite SF film), is pretty clueless about everything other than academics. And she's clueless about how to treat people, for fairly little (apparent) reason - being mean to the closest thing she has to friends, to her mother, as well as to the threatening new guy in school. It's teen angst with some fun quirkiness. But, what suddenly hit me about three-quarters of the way through, when everyone has turned against Egg for very good reasons, was how very similar it was to Harriet the Spy. There were a lot of things I really loved about the book - the celebration of geekiness, the combination of great intellectual ability with extreme emotional dimness, the way Egg gradually learns to appreciate the nice things about her geeky friends, and a lot of humour (Egg as broccoli going to a protest) but there were also places where it all seemed a bit easy: suddenly she's pulling everything together and interested only in saving the world? Perhaps a touch quick as a transformation. I would really need a reread of Harriet, but in memory it seems much more sustained in its celebration of the awkward and not-fitting in. And it seems that all too often everyone has to be extraordinary: Max is an extraordinary artist/cartoonist; Egg's father is the best special effects make-up guy in Hollywood, from whom Egg learns, and she's clearly learned very well... Don't object to her being (originally) top of her class in everything the same way at all, but sometimes it's lovely to read about quirky, interesting kids who are only ordinarily talented and motivated to 'do' things with their life.

Not at all sure about the ending either, but don't want to spoil... Older daughter has said she'd be interested, so hopefully she'll read it soon.

Comments

[emmaco.livejournal.com]

On hold as of now...don't you just love the internet? Recommendations and the library catalogue only moments apart.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Grr - I'd love it if we had online library catalogue! I'll be very interested to see what you think when you do read it. Older daughter hasn't got around to it yet. I don't think I managed to explain what I meant about the contrast between it and Harriet the Spy at all clearly (doesn't help that it's been a long time since I've read HtS either), but maybe I'll do better if you say what you think. ;)

[emmaco.livejournal.com]

I just blogged about this book - thanks for the rec! I agree with your comment about the above average greatness being a bit annoying. A bit common in lots of books and movies.

Spoilers below!

I didn't notice Egg's transformation as being overly quick. Her life seemed to fall apart slowly at first and then quickly at the end, but even then there's signs she knows what she's doing to others.
And over the next month or so I think there were some scenes that show how Egg changes (eg realising she could have invited her friends to the launch or whatever with her mum), and I think the saving the world thing was not so much a new thing as indicating she's now willing to show interest as she's focussed on the real world.

I haven't read Harriet since I was a child and never loved it enough to go back and re-read it (willing to be convinced otherwise, though!), so I can't help out with the comparison. From my vague memories it seems like it might be true though :)