Oh dear.
I did NOT like this book! Was it supposed to be serious? Silly? Both? I spent much of the time asking myself what the hell was going on.
More when I have my notes in front of me--just wanted to get the topic open.
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Arg, I went to get it from the library yesterday and could not find it on the shelves, despite the fact that two copies were showing up as available. I asked the librarian at the desk in the children's room and she said, "We have a shelving problem. Thousands of books are waiting to be shelved." Then she helped me put in a request for it, and it sounded like they were actually going to try to get one from a different branch rather than track down the ones they already had.
It made me really sad.
Wow--that's awful! Short on staff?? erk.
Okay, my blurb:
There were LOTS of points of view. This was off-putting at first, but I rolled with it. I can be flexible.
And then the Dracula stuff came into play.
Hmmm. Dracula? Dracula? Is this for real?
Initially, I did not know if that element was imaginary or what. It later came off as a joke taken too far; being an odd fantastical element in the middle of a pretty standard book.
(I know Kalpana went off on flying boys and things, but that was all believable, within proper context.)
Kate and Lucy's relationship: SO Beezus and Ramona; I loved that. And Kalpana was a wonderfully strong and endearing character.
The writing. was. stilted.
To sum, the story went PHUT. PHUT is not good. I closed the book thinking, "What a silly story, and one not clever enough to convince me to go along with it. Very middling."
Had it been witty, or even DROLL, or pretentious (for I do like me pretentious bookses) then there'd be no PHUTTING. Alas, not to be.
Other people liked it, even the Horn Book. Especially the Horn Book, who Honored it. If I wasn't such a lazy-ass, I'd dig up my copy with the original review and see what they liked so much.
But as it is, I am lazy tonight, and must leave you with that. Tra-la-la.
The Horn Book apparently believes the book qualifies as a kind of "magical realism," which I think is a ridiculous load of bunkum and makes me feel like they're not vetting their reviewers well enough. Magical realism involves deeply fantastical elements that are presented in a matter-of-fact manner, as if they are normal -- not idiotic caricatures of vampires that everyone whispers and gossips about. I thought Mrs Dallimore was an absurd character, and, like you, I couldn't figure out if the book was supposed to be serious or silly -- it felt like the author was totally making fun of the "Who Am I?" essay topic, which minus any direction is really a hopelessly vapid question, and at the same time trying to get us to believe that simply being assigned the homework made all the characters engage in deep personal reflection.
All the "Why does looking at Gull's face make me think of the words 'sheep' and 'shepherd?'" stuff also drove me nuts -- I hate it when writers choose the laziest possible way to introduce motifs.
I did like Lucy and Kate (although I was mad when Kate tore up her essay!) and the girl with the big feet and little baby shoes, but all in all, this seemed like rather rubbishy stuff. It read like a first novel -- not the work of an award-winning writer.
Yes! This "magical realism" business is a load of codswallop because I ENJOY magical realism and I just didn't enjoy this.
Yes! The sheep and shepherd thing was dumb; it was too specific. Maybe if he made her feel safe or protected, okay, but not such word-oriented feelings. Not even feelings; they were thoughts.
And I really wanted to know the answers to their essays...
Props to Meera, for using "rubbishy" in a comment. You sound very Neil Gaiman (ie. British).
Susan, I hope this doesn't mean you avoid the book; I'm curious as to your response.
I didn't read these comments until just now, after I finished the book, so unfortunately, I stuck with it for the entire duration. Ugh. I keep wanting to call this book stupid. I know that's not very literal, and it's not very smart (npi), and it's not very discussion-causing, but that's how I feel. It was stupid. Really stupid.
I hated all of the points of view, especially when we got to know some of the characters (Neema, Kate) more. And the title of the book led me to believe it was going to be about her, that family, etc. Which I probably would have liked. But it just jumped around too much, sometimes even in the same scene, and I found it annoying. Don't tell me that Ivy is sour her boyfriend isn't more romantic and then not say anything more about the special place in the zoo. Don't show me how Ms. Dallimore is getting a little tired of Vlad and his sensitivity to light and then have them exit the book via magic. [Don't have Vlad in it period. He doesn't eat but pretends he does? No, thanks.] Don't give me a little information about some classmates that falls into every stereotype possible (brainy girl eating carrots and celery sticks while everyone else is pigging out; dumb jock realizing he has feelings but can't resist playing with a ball when he finds it while looking for a pen in a really unrealistic place). Just don't.
I might have liked this book if it had been about Neema and her family (and a good friend named Kate would have been fine). I loved Nani and found her very endearing as well. It would have been a pretty typical book if that were the plot (girl gets to know her great-grandmother despite language differences and learns to love her), but still, it would have been better than this ridiculous drivel.
I don't even want to comment on the "magical realism." You guys said it all. This is so not a book where it fit in. It made everything seem like a big joke.
I really can't believe that this book was well received. I'm in shock, frankly. A BGHB Honor Award? Maybe it was a typo. I read a starred review from Booklist on Amazon that raved about the book but then said that the Dallimore stuff was bad. Um, why does a book get a starred review and a huge honor if part of the book was detracting? It actually makes me really sad that this book won. It doesn't even feel like a first novel to me. It feels like a novel I would have written in high school when I had so many ideas running around in my mind and I wanted to put them ALL in one book. And I wrote it all very poorly.
Very disappointed.
Wow--we all agree!
Is Booklist one of those review places that stars everything?
Not that I know of, but I will seriously question their judgment next time.
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