Neither fish nor fowl

[lady_schrapnell]

Or neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring. Or whichever version of that saying is your favourite.

Been feeling neitherish all day, though not sure why. Certainly neither interesting LJ poster, nor good book talker, nor flickerer, Library Thingie, etc. (And the knitters here will join in the virtual head-smack directed my way when I admit to signing up for Ravelry too.) (Only 17,294 people ahead of me in line now, according to the 'antsy check'.)

Among the many things I'm not, I'm certainly, definitely not a techie, and yet I found myself trying to fix my mother's internet connection today, with no notion of why it had suddenly decided to die on her. I could get online, but the machine was dialling up, though apparently using the ISDN line rather than her phone one. After crawling around in the frightening tangle of wires and cables on the floor for a bit, I was pretty sure the problem was a USB port (I think), and planned to plug the appropriate cable directly into the computer. I just decided to unplug the box itself from the power cable in case there was a loose connection there, but as soon as I'd unplugged it, the lights on it came back on... Fixing the internet connect problem. Mind, I still don't understand why it'd need power anyway, but its coming on when unplugged did my head in a bit.



Back to the books - I've been dipping into this and that, but just finished Sarah Dessen's Just Listen today. That's the nice headed* UK cover, which is the one I have, btw. I liked it (book, rather than cover) much too much to be able to say anything detached - and can see how it might be considered to be more than a bit too close to Speak, but it still did it for me. I'm not sure how much of that was feeling more character-likeness to Anabel than I've felt for anyone for a long time - not in the sense of being model-material as a teen! Not in any of the situations at all, in fact, but in her way of worrying about what will happen if she doesn't go along with what seems to make other people happy and the trick of answering 'I'm fine', rather than being able to say what's going on. Of being unable even to to see that you might be angry, and of thinking it could be the end of the world if you did anything to make other people get angry at you. The sense of needing to please people so much that you can start to feel unsure that there's any real you there beneath it all, that rang very true (and familiar). And so did Anabel's sister's anorexia, and gradual recovery from it (true, but not familiar). And her mother's reaction to it (true and would be me too!), and to other things...

Also reading Senrid, the first of Rosemary Sutcliff's King Arthur trilogy, The Sword and the Circle and Jamila Gavin's Coram Boy. And knitting.

* If this makes no sense, you must not be a reader of recent YA with a female orientation... Tendency the last few years has been for the cover to show part or all of a girl's body without the head. Links to evidence of the phenomenon possible if requested.

Comments

[breathingbooks.livejournal.com]

I liked Just Listen too, though I've become slightly frustrated with Dessen's detached, dream-like tone. It works, but it's worked for 6?7? books so far and I wish she'd try something slightly different - more directly emotional, a closer pov - since I think she'd do it well.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I've only read 2 others of hers, and liked both, though I was getting really worried thinking I'd read this already and forgotten most of it (the fashion show in the mall especially!) until I came across the characters from This Lullaby and realised what was going on. Will have to think about your comment, as it seems that she is giving a close pov, but Anabel's coping style is to shut out the emotions she "shouldn't" have. But if Dessen's been writing characters in that state for all that number of books, then I agree something a little different might be good.

[breathingbooks.livejournal.com]

I've read Just Listen, This Lullaby, Someone Like You, That Summer, Keeping the Moon, and The Truth About Forever. SLY is my favorite, followed closely by TL.

You may be right that the pov is close in JL (it's been about a year since I read it) and that I'm projecting complaints from previous books onto that one. I'm not sure if the pov was intentionally close or just happens to fit better with Anabel's coping style than with that of her other heroines. It's not that I don't know how the heroines are reacting, I just don't usually feel it, a necessary reaction with such close (pov wise, not emotion wise) narrations.

Her books have many similar elements, especially the romances and dreamyish tone. I generally like her romances, but there is too much of a decent thing, and the supporting characters have started to feel too alike.