The Mad Wolf's Daughter by Diane Magras

This Scottish medieval setting with castles, knights, and bandits is a bullseye for my tastes. A slow-paced story, even if it is good, can be like walking in deep sand for me. My natural pace is to clip along like a sail boat over white-capped water. Fantasy is my go-to, not realistic fiction. A strong female character who is impulsive, determined, and athletic as Drest is in this story grabs my attention. There are some fantastical parts, but most of "The Mad Wolf's Daughter" stays grounded as a knight tale with a monarchy under threat. The plot builds tension that rewards the reader with some twists that had me turning around and rereading the book. At 260 pages this was easy. 

Twelve-year-old Drest is a strong "lass" and not your typical "maiden." Her five brothers and dad, legendary warriors, taught her to wield a sword and live by an honorable code. They also taught her to intimidate with name-calling such as "maggot-headed squid" or "grub-spotted barnacle". Name-calling doesn't work most of the time but does spice the story with humor. The men in Drest's family have a war-band and are captured by the Knights of Faintree in a battle that only she escapes. A wounded knight, Emerick, is left behind becoming her bargaining chip to free her family from a public hanging in five days. Drest sets off to save them and has adventures along the way discovering who she is and what she wants to be in life. She's tough. She's naïve. She's determined. 

Drest's strengths and shortcomings show a girl that is afraid and impulsive but overcomes it with courage, loyalty, and a strong moral compass. Emerick counters her impulsivity with negotiation making her think about her actions. He stresses that words are a great weapon, if not greater than a sword. Initially, Drest uses her sword to do the talking almost killing another boy and rushing at a man who could have wounded her with a hidden dagger. In both cases she was defending someone who was being treated unjustly and while her strong sense of justice when someone is being wronged is admirable, Emerick tries to drop a pebble in her constantly moving body that she doesn't need to plunge blade-first into every melee she stumbles across. Words have power too, he stresses. She uses words with her enemies later and grows to understand that while her brothers and fathers are "bloodthirsty warriors" she cannot kill another person. As her friend Tig claims, she is a warrior with a "good heart." Drest's shortcomings create a sympathetic versus judgmental character that makes her more authentic for me.

Minor characters are well-crafted not drifting from the overall story arc. The brothers are developed with Drest talking to them in her imagination. She envisions what they would say in different situations that comforts and helps her make decisions while maintaining a swift pacing. Jupp is not a one-dimensional villain. Emerick turns from enemy to friend. Tig is a funny sidekick that worships Drest for her kindness as well as her fighting skills. He has a pet raven, a symbol of Celtic goddesses and witches in myths. He says he's a witch although no special powers appear. Both Drest and Tig are trying to find their identity as they move from adolescence into adulthood.

The witch, Merewin, says that Drest saving her is "extraordinary"; however, we never find out why. Merewin is mysterious, magical, and unpredictable like a goddess from a Celtic myth. The yellow dust she has as a trap in her hut is not explained but it hurts Drest. Does the dust show Merewin as a witch with magical powers? Does it allow her to follow Drest? GPS dust? Just kidding. Then a stag shows up which is a Celtic symbol representing freedom or the pursuit of wisdom, etc. Stags were hunted and a common motif in medieval Scotland. The stag appearance foreshadows Merewin who is currently being hunted and marginalized by society or in this case used as a scapegoat for a death in the village since she is a healer. The name Merewin is close to King Arthur's advisor, Merlin. I kept trying to connect it with King Arthur but it seemed to be presenting an opposite advisor than in that story. Is she Drest's relative? My guess is she knows something about Drest's mother who is absent and no explanation given as to what happened to her. Perhaps a sequel will address? Merewin tries to give Drest advice but realizes Drest doesn't need it. She does look after her basic needs on her quest and gives warnings (that Drest ignores).

Merewin is connected more with the history of witchcraft in cultures and how women healers were unfairly blamed for village deaths. This feminist focus gives the story its own shape keeping it from drifting into myths and focused on the oral tradition of legends. Drest's adventures expose her to what defines her family's legend throughout the region. Some is good, bad, and exaggerated. Drest is creating her own legend with the reader as well as the community. She inspires with her sense of justice and teaches what it means to be brave and kind in bad situations. Even in the worst of circumstances she doesn't give up or succumb to fears. 

The overall story arc is well done. William Kenower writes in his book "Fearless Writing" about three narrative arcs: physical arc, emotional arc, and intentional arc. The physical arc can be a story that follows a formula of some sort. This story is the hero's journey: a girl embarks on a quest, has adventures and trials, is betrayed, fights for her life, and is changed by the journey. The emotional arc looks at characters motivations. Drest is motivated to rescue her family and then others as the journey proceeds. She thinks that she is a great warrior like her brothers but discovers she isn't "bloodthirsty". She realizes that she  doesn't have to embrace her family's legend but can make her own. The intentional arc is the reason behind telling the story. This probably has many answers but the one that stuck with me was Drest as a representation that girls can be strong and true to themselves as they find their own way in the world.

The repetition and emphasis on storytelling as a way of orally preserving history presses throughout Drest's tale. Tig tells stories about Drest the warrior maiden who rescues people. He repeats certain phrases and the author attempts to mimic some oral traditions. Tig is creating his own story on his quest and develops in confidence on the journey. Drest's dad and brothers tell stories of their battles around the camp fire but leave out the negative parts of the story. When Drest hears alternative tales of her quest it makes her question her brother and father's choices. She questions their choices and forces them to think about some of their actions. Drest asks Jupp his story. At the end, her Dad says they trained her better than he thought. She says, "Maybe you did, or maybe it was just me." She's writing her own story.

By continually pointing out this rich tradition of storytelling the author implies that she is carrying on the craft by sharing a story from her own imagination. She also acknowledges through the characters that legends don't always reflect the truth. They might try to represent history but oftentimes are partial truths. A listener or reader needs to think critically of legends. The best part of storytelling for me is the sharing of a story where I can enter into a character and see some truth about my life or better understand the world while having fun in an imaginary setting. I can chew on that kind of story.

5 Smileys

The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse

Books about feral children make for an interesting look at the nature of being human and language development. What defines a person when he or she isn't socialized and raised by animals? "Peter Pan" by JM Barrie, remains in an adolescent state. "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George, involves the girl Julie who lives with wolves and learns to communicate with them. "Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling is still on my endless book list. Karen Hesse's story is about Mila, a feral child discovered by humans as a teen, who has lived with dolphins since she was four years old and been imprinted by their behavior. When the Coast Guard finds her as a teen, she is taken to a research facility and studied with another girl, Shay, who is a feral child but from being isolated from other humans by her mother. Mila finds assimilating with humans difficult socially. The audiobook's narration was average.

The structure of the story begins with Mila communicating in simple language reflecting the second language learner. Her syntax lacks the use of pronouns and prepositions as she tells her experience of living in a government research facility. She is happy at first but misses her dolphin family. As she learns the language her thoughts and speech gain more fluency and figurative language. Ethical questions are raised as Mila feels trapped by the government that requires doctors to keep her locked in her room for her "own safety".

The complexity of ideas progresses as Mila meets Shay, another feral child at the facility, who was locked up in a room with no contact with the outside world. Shay rarely speaks but Mila understands that bonding occurs through touch. She touches Shay and connects with her at first making her laugh when Mila speaks dolphin. Later Shay withdraws into herself and no longer connects with Mila foreshadowing Mila's withdrawal from humans as well. Mila has imprinted with dolphins and trying to connect with humans becomes impossible when she realizes she is not free to do as she wishes. The adults lock her in a room at night and she is feared because she is different. The researchers try to social the two to human behaviors but they cannot adapt. Mila ends up feeling just as trapped and isolated as Shay.

Doors are a symbol throughout representing freedom from societal rules and behavior. Some doors are open and others shut. Toward the end, Mila can only see them shut. Social behavior for Mila reflects dolphin behavior of freely accepting people with doors being open. Mila is marginalized and feared because of her differences. The janitor is afraid of her and she is rejected by Shay who shuts herself off from all humans. The government locks Mila's door and is impersonal to her as a human with rights. The dolphins have socialized Mila to the idea that she can swim anywhere in the ocean and creatures are acceptable unless they are predators. Human boundaries and prejudice she cannot deal with because she knows there is an alternative for her. She connects with her doctor's son, Justin, but cannot accept him completely because he isn't a dolphin. She doesn't identify with humans and cannot adapt to human behavior like Shay.

Music shows a different type of communication for Mila. She listens to it and learns to play an instrument with deep passion. The music relieves Mila's stress and gives emotional satisfaction as it is a reminder of her dolphin family and how sea creatures communicate with sounds. Again, music reflects how much Mila was imprinted regarding social behaviors by dolphins and not humans. She cannot assimilate with the family she lives with and becomes a tragic character in the end.

5 Smileys

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Don't be fooled by the slow start, nameless characters, nameless towns, and seemingly simple start to this story. The horror sets in quickly and the symbolism, imagery, and structure make this tale as complex as the reader wants in interpreting a myriad of themes. It will haunt you. It might give you nightmares. It is not for everyone, but it is brilliant.

Imagine a world going extinct. No sun. No blue oceans. No animals. No plants. No crops. No culture. Imagine an apocalyptic journey by two people through ashes of collapsed cities, civilization, and forests looking for warmer weather in the south. Two people, a man and his son, choosing not to eat other humans or dogs, but who are starving. Two scavengers hunting through towns and homes long stripped of food or petrol, yet looking for scraps to live on. A man whose sole mission is to protect his son in a world where other humans are the only source of food after what appears to be a nuclear war. The man carries a gun with three bullets. He has had it for ten years. One for himself, his wife, and his son. His son was born in the world as it is and it is the only reality he knows. The wife lost hope and rather than choose survival she killed herself with obsidian. The man found hope in the son and could not kill him and they've been surviving in fear and isolation.

The man's character arc shows someone who lives only for his son but learns to hope for a better future - one embodied in the compassion of his son. He kills others to protect his son and seeks revenge on those who rob them or hurt them. In the beginning, he just walks away from those in need but as the story progresses the boy's protests have him sharing food or clothing with others. We see the boy's compassion wearing down the man's despair to glimmers of caring for others rather than pouring all of it into his son. The man is a Prometheus figure and the line "carrying the fire" is repeated throughout showing his impossible task of surviving in a destroyed world.

Prometheus was a Titan who created humans with Athena and gave them the gift of fire and metalwork. The stories vary with Zeus punishing Prometheus by sending Pandora to him and she released suffering on humanity through Pandora's box or in Hesiod's version, Zeus punishing Prometheus by chaining him to a rock and having an eagle eat his regenerating liver each day. Prometheus is a trickster who rebels against the restrictions put on him by Zeus. He is a blessing and a curse just like the man is a blessing to the boy in that he keeps him alive and a curse because he has no hope for a future and in others. He wants the boy to shoot himself if he dies or is captured by other humans. The end shows the man's turn around on believing the boy can find good in life or a community of moral people. The boy is literally the fire as the story suggests he will bring social and moral progress in an impossible situation just like Prometheus did when he gave humans fire.

The man indulges the boy's compassion for others and later embraces it as the boy embodies hope for him. The other repeated line throughout is "Papa are they good guys?" or "Bad guys?" The moral progression of what defines good and bad shows two people choosing to not murder those who hurt them or eat other people even when they are starving. The man refers to the boy with god-like, religious references and tells a man they meet, "What if I tell you he's a god?" This man goes by the false name, Ely, like the prophet Eli in the Bible. His prophecy is that humanity will die out along with the gods. Like the man, he has no hope for a future. In flashbacks, the man dreams of his wife and how the two planned on committing suicide after their world blew up after the unnamed cataclysmic event. He struggles with suicidal thoughts throughout the story but finds he can face each day and its harshness because of his son. For him the world is "shrinking ...into oblivion" but the moral goodness of the boy always touches him. The symbol of fire progresses from offering the two security and protection to a moral identity to the possibility of a community of "good guys".

The style has no quotations, fragmented sentences, and no names. The structure suggests that the present has no definition but can be defined in a new way. The man can't redefine the world because he has memories of the past, but the child only knows the current reality and is a symbol of a new birth in a destroyed world. Perhaps the boy, and those born into it like him, can redefine and a new world. The lack of quotations suggests the author redefining writing conventions and breaking with past traditions just as this new society no longer follows old traditions. In the end, the boy says the man is not telling him stories or doing homework anymore also suggesting that a new order might emerge from the boy who represents fire and new possibilities. The fragmented sentences reflect the trauma the two characters go through on a daily basis. The existing world is so chaotic and violent that they can only have a dialogue in short sentences. The shock and fear on a daily basis are traumatic. Without any names being assigned to people, except Papa and Ely and the boy, the world can be redefined into a new community. For such a bleak setting and novel, hope is suggested. This hellish road trip is a quick read and worth the effort.

5 Smileys

The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis

I listened to the audiobook and didn't realize this was written in a southern dialect.  No problems here understanding Little Charlie's southern accent by an excellent narrator.  Little Charlie is from a poor white sharecropper family in the 1800s and at 6 feet two inches he is anything but little. The nuanced characters come alive making this tale hard to put down. Little Charlie is a flawed character that changes from his experience into a better person. The exploration of prejudice, racism, violence, and heroic behavior guarantees spirited discussions.

Twelve-year-old Charlie Bobo's father dies in a freak accident, leaving Charlie and his mother vulnerable to being taken advantage of by those that want their land. Sure enough, they become victims of the evil Capt'n Buck, an overseer of the landowner who is notorious for his violence against slaves and tenants. Charlie is conscripted by Capt'n Buck to find a family of runaway slaves in Canada claiming he has to pay off his father's debt. Capt'n Buck is a nasty piece of work whose claims at borrowing money to their father sounds fishy from the get-go. Little Charlie's mother is so frightened by Capt'n Buck that she tries to shoot him when he comes to collect the money. As Capt'n Buck and Little Charlie journey north, Little Charlie has new experiences that lead him to make moral decisions regarding following the crowd or listening to his conscience.

Charlie is a flawed character. He's racist at the beginning and less so by the end and he represents a white Southern upbringing, but as his mom says, he has a good heart and the reader is left with the hope he'll grow into a decent human being. He makes mistakes along the way, refers to blacks as "darkies", and is jealous of the educated and more polished runaway black boy going to school that he's been sent to catch. Little Charlie's jealousy leads to errors in judgment and the reader is able to really get inside his head thanks to some great writing. The history of Canada and protection certain towns provided for runaway slaves is fascinating. Make sure to read or listen to the author's notes.

5 Smileys

Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1) by Tomi Adeyemi

This action-packed story incorporates African legends and Yoruba language that involves three teenage protagonists in a high fantasy quest. The plot is an allegory of black oppression that digs into the consequences of violence on individuals marginalized in society. Zelie Adebola, 17, is a teen whose mother was chained and lynched because she was a maji that could raise people from the dead. King Saran of Orisha committed genocide against all maji because his family was killed by one. The children of maji called, Diviners have dark skin and white hair that distinguishes them from the other dark-skinned people and the King has made them servants, slaves, stockers, or prisoners in Orisha. The Diviners powers will not manifest without magical artifacts that the King has destroyed in his first purge. When a magical artifact is discovered and the King uses it to kill his daughter's best friend and servant, Princess Amari steals it and goes on the run. Amari runs into Zelie and her brother, Tzain, going on a quest to bring magic back to the kingdom and free the Diviners. The Crown Prince Inan is bent on stopping them and finishing his father's eradication of magic.

The strong character arcs and world building around African mythology make this fascinating. In Benin or Nigeria, orishas are divine spirits in Yoruba and the author incorporates this history into her world-building creating a rich tribal world reflecting ancestor worship. Zelie is a Reaper like her mother and her contact with the dead as well as with her ancestors makes a strong metaphor for those who have died under oppression either in slavery or in institutionalized racism. When Zelie gains her powers it connects her with her ancestors and the goddess Oya.

Inan's character arc has depth as he struggles with his father's expectations and gaining powers that help him to understand the pain of others. Amari foreshadows his wavering or misguided beliefs as she tells Zelie about Inan's influence under the tutelage of their father, King Saran. As Inan tries to please his father and do what is right, he makes mistakes that make him a complex three-dimensional character, unlike King Saran who has become hard-hearted from his choices.

Amari is part of the nobility and does not agree with her father. Her best friend is a diviner and when her father murders her she decides to bring magic back to the realm. Her interactions with other nobles reveal a race of lighter skinned Africans that favor light skin and despise the different looking diviner race. While most of the plot is straight-forward the twist at the end concerning Amari makes the reader wonder if she has a hidden agenda.

The characters engaged me more than the plot which seemed like a mix of different fantasy books such as Hunger Games. While the plot may have not felt wholly original, the well-crafted representation of a different culture and heritage gives readers identification of what it is like to be marginalized. The oppressive brutality of those in power and the violence inflicted on the oppressed people in Orisha is reflective of modern society. The author says that when the guards throw Zelie to the ground in chapter 1, it was written after a specific incident of police brutality. The first-person points of view are repetitive in some spots but for the most part, the plot moves along. I wished there were more twists like the one at the end. What I like about this fantasy is that it can apply to other minority experiences in the world whether the person is an immigrant, disabled, LBGTQ, or unique in some way and prejudiced by the ruling majority. The strong female characters are a draw and it sits alongside other well-written books produced this year such as "The Hate U Give" and "Long Way Down".

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

"Halloo!" I'm done. Six months later, I finally finished this book. Or 30 years later. I've started and stopped this book so many times I can't count. The deconstruction of the romance novel, unique structure, wicked villain, and unconventional female characters make it worth the effort. I have always struggled with the start of the book and I didn't understand Lockwood's ironic unreliable narration as a teen. Not to mention Joseph's befuddling Yorkshire dialect. Google helps with that nowadays. Joseph says to Lockwood:

'What are ye for?' he shouted. 'T' maister's down i' t' fowld. Go round by th' end o' t' laith, if ye went to spake to him.' 'Is there nobody inside to open the door?' I [Lockwood] hallooed, responsively.

Joseph is asking what Lockwood wants and to speak to the master who is by the barn. In a nutshell, Wuthering Heights is about the relationships between Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Edgar Linton and their children. When Catherine chooses to marry Edgar, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights, returning years later as a wealthy gentleman. He exacts revenge on those who have wronged him. Catherine's brother, Hindley, bullies and abuses Heathcliff when they were young because his father favored the adopted Heathcliff over his own son, Hindley. Heathcliff seeks revenge on Hindley and their son, Hareton, by being abusive and making Hindley dependent on him. Later Heathcliff goes after Edgar and him and Catherine's daughter, Cathy, in an effort to own both homes.

Lockwood begins the narration of the book giving way to Nelly, the housekeeper's narration. They both present interesting perspectives. Lockwood's narration reveals his shock at the manners displayed by Cathy, Catherine's daughter, who is unconventional like her mother. When Cathy first meets Lockwood she doesn't use the usual manners of inviting someone in. She stares at him in a "cool, regardless manner" that he finds "embarrassing and disagreeable." He describes her beauty but manner as being "singularly unnatural." She snaps at him and asks if he was invited to tea. He tries to tell her she is the "proper person to ask me" which upsets her and she refuses to give him tea. Her disregard for conventions makes him think she is unnatural and he is repulsed by her behavior.

Lockwood can't make sense of who of the domestic help or relatives and their roles in the house and much of the humor is him bumbling along making incorrect assumptions about everyone he meets. When Heathcliff and the others are in the house they are so rude to each other that Lockwood can't deal with their inability to make "sociable conversation" much less speak civilly to each other. When he asks Cathy to show him home she says to follow the path and again he is struck by her rudeness. However, her comment that she cannot show him because "they wouldn't let me go to the end of the garden wall" reveals limitations for women at this time.

Lockwood views Cathy and women as objects and reflects conventional aspects regarding marriage, looks, and domestic roles. He comments on Cathy's beauty for him to admire: "....an admirable form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the pleasure of beholding..." He discusses another woman he was interested in when visiting a sea-coast town: "...a real goddess in my eyes, as long as she took no notice of me." He says he was in love with her and when she finally noticed, he rejected her. Lockwood reveals society's patriarchal views where the man is in control and dominant. He is clear that he rejected the "goddess" and his comment "I confess it with shame—shrunk icily into myself, like a snail" shows a man who avoids love and engaging with his feelings. When Lockwood is faced with a woman like Cathy that he can't control and who doesn't fit into the status quo of how women should act, he rejects her and claims she is "unnatural". 

When Nelly tells the backstory of Cathy's mother Catherine, the tale unfolds of a woman interested in two men: Edgar, who can give her a higher social status as he is wealthy, and Heathcliff who is wild and unconventional like herself. She is described as "A wild, wicked slip..." or a "savage" and Heathcliff as "... a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man." Catherine wants both men and struggles with self-identity. When she tells Nelly that she is Heathcliff, it shows a child-like love that never matures. Their relationship is not sexual but dependent: "My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary". When Edgar tells Catherine after they are married to choose between himself and Heathcliff she tragically chooses self-destruction that is foreshadowed when Nelly questions her about her love for the two men. She replies to Nelly that Heathcliff is "More myself than I" and that her love can't be separated from him even in marriage to Edgar. She describes her love for Edgar in a cliched way that deconstructs the romance tropes of perfect love: "I love the ground under his feet and the air over his head, and everything he touches and every word he says. I love all his looks, and all his actions, and him entirely and altogether." While she says that she knows Heathcliff more than herself, she is self-centered and assumes everyone loves her. At one point she expresses to Nelly her confusion saying she thought "everyone loved" her. She says her love for Heathcliff is like "foliage in the wind" and there is no consideration for others happiness, only her own. She is clear with Nelly that she is marrying Edgar to gain social position and wants both men; thus, when Edgar says she must choose, she can't separate her self-love as represented in Heathcliff with the love between a husband and wife. Her lack of self-identity and inability to embrace marriage conventions make her choose death.

Heathcliff has been abused as a child and he spends his whole life seeking revenge on those he feels have wronged him. He is vindictive, vicious, abusive and his actions become more monstrous as time goes by. He hits children, men, and women. He hung his new wife's dog from a tree to show his hate for her. He forces Cathy (Catherine and Edgar's daughter) to marry his son so he can obtain all of Edgar's possessions and get complete revenge on the family that took his Catherine away from him. While he is like "the rake" in a romance novel who is dangerous and charming at the beginning, he ultimately has no redeeming qualities and gets nastier as the novel progresses thus going against the trope. Heathcliff's love for Catherine is off-kilter too. He digs up Catherine's body 18 years later and dreams of lying next to her. He, like Catherine, challenge the institution of marriage, love, and family breaking taboos and conventions. Lockwood reacts with shock to these discoveries as Nelly narrates the backstory and cannot handle wanting to avoid his emotions and their unconventional behavior says, "I felt irresistibly impelled to escape them again." His narration gets the story down while Nelly's reflects a woman's position.

Nelly is described as "a poor man's daughter" who reads books owned by her employer. She is a servant who is told to narrate the story of Catherine and Heathcliff by a bored Lockwood: "I desired Mrs. Dean, when she brought in supper, to sit down while I ate it; hoping sincerely she would prove a regular gossip, and either rouse me to animation or lull me to sleep by her talk." He keeps Nelly up until the early hours making her complete her narration at his convenience. Eventually, he takes over  ...in her own words, only a little condensed." Nelly is subtlety marginalized in the narrative structure, unable to write her own words or narrate in her own voice. However, the disengaged Lockwood says it is "her tale" and it is shaped by her words. It is also told like a romance story by Nelly: "I remember her hero had run off, and never been heard of for three years; and the heroine was married." Her gothic comments regarding "ghosts, ...ghouls, ...and vampires" shows a matronly woman on the sidelines who cannot engage in the story's passion but knows how to tell a romance story. Scholar Bette London suggests that Nelly was in love with Hindley from this sentence: "...a gush of child’s sensations flowed into my heart.  Hindley and I held it a favourite spot twenty years before." Nelly is attached to Hindley's son, Hareton, and is forced to leave him when Catherine gets married. Her distress is evident: "Little Hareton was nearly five years old, and I had just begun to teach him his letters.  We made a sad parting; but Catherine’s tears were more powerful than ours." Nelly has no control over her low social status. Her desire to love Hindley does not materialize and her lack of choice with Hareton reveals an oppressive narration that reflects her class and gender.

The structure of the story of Hareton and Cathy's romance is one that does follow the romance trope. Again, it is told in Nelly's voice. She weaves a love story that is undermined by her status and lack of choice; thus, making the story more a comment on the exploration of love versus a romantic tale the reader takes on the surface. Hareton and Cathy hate each other at first and Cathy ends up civilizing him in the end. One chapter has Cathy laughing at Hareton trying to say, "Chevy chase". I thought that was a more modern word... but I digress. Cathy seems to have adopted some of the qualities of her father, Edgar, and it leads to decisions where she learns from her mistakes.

The Lockwood and Nelly dual narrative shows the amoral and moral ambiguity of the characters and adds depth to the story as it reveals societal restraints and conditions. Women during the Victorian times had less choice than women today and the characters nonconformity to the status quo is what I found fascinating about this novel. So much scholarly work is written on this book examining the psychological, historical, social, and other aspects of the work that I am just scratching the surface. While it took me forever to finally read and finish it, I can see why it is a classic.

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

A male high school student asked me to buy several romance ebooks for the Kindle. He didn't want to be "seen" carrying print copies just like the character, Brandon Jones, who likes to read "girl" stories. This is just one of many different social issues addressed in this novel giving it depth. Topics cover racism, marginalization, choices, LGBTQ, divorce, bullying and more; however, is written for readers ages 8-12. At the heart of the story is a puzzle being solved by the protagonist, Candice Miller, and her new friend, Brandon. When 12-year-old Candice moves to Lambert, S.C., for the summer after her parent's divorce, she finds a letter that promises millions of dollars to the city if it can be solved. Candice's grandmother tried to solve it ten years earlier and it cost her job and reputation as the first African-American manager of the city.

The author does a terrific job shifting between complex themes bringing it together in a satisfying ending. The character arcs are distinct and the flashbacks reveal Lambert's history of injustice that are good for discussion. The puzzle is tied in with the book, The Westing Game, that the two characters love to read. As they problem solve they make connections with how the mystery was solved in that novel to solve their dilemma. It that made me want to go back and reread the book. The treasure hunt is fun and I particularly like how the author addresses the freedom people choose to live their lives and the consequences of those choices such as the grandmother and Candice's dad. A well-written book that can be as complex as the reader wants to make it.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

African American Starr Carter lives in an urban ghetto but goes to a prep school in the suburbs with white students. When she witnesses a friend, Khalil, murdered by a white police officer, she has to decide whether to speak out or not. This story has many themes from family relationships to police brutality to interracial relationships. The author creates an authentic voice in the protagonist with plenty of action and ideas to critique as a reader. Overall, the story is well-crafted with a few long-winded spots. If you want a look into the hood and the issues arising from it, I highly recommend this book.

The protagonist Starr, loves rapper Tupac Shakur, and weaves rap music discussions in with dialogue as a means of explaining oppression within the community. Tupac's father was a Black Panther and embraced Marxist ideology teaching Tupac that the capitalist system was responsible for the destructive nature of black communities. The activism of the Black Panther's is different than the activism that has evolved in hip-hop music. Tupac's songs give autobiographical details of his life that speak about his struggles against violence and unfair odds that are a social commentary on black life. His activism for change is through music; whereas, the author tries to be an activist through her character, Starr, giving a social commentary on institutionalized racism and poverty using ghetto narratives and metaphors.

The rose is a metaphor from one of Tupac's songs. Maverick, Starr's burly father, struggles to grow roses in his garden, but he keeps at it and nurtures them so that they keep surviving as the family moves. The conundrum of ghetto poverty and violence and Maverick's love for the community, his identity, and desire to change it is captured well. The black community has been fighting for equal rights since the civil rights movement while dealing with economic suppression and unequal treatment that makes it difficult to change the cycle of poverty. The only time the gangs unite is when they fight together against institutionalized police brutality. Tupac struggled with the ideology of capitalism knowing that it could improve his life but was also destructive to the black community. Capitalistic systems excluded blacks from participating equally through oppressive measures whether through the justice system or police.

Author Angie Thomas attempts to imitate rap artists, such as Tupac and his real-life street narrative in prose. Jason Reynold's in "Long Way Down" does the same thing using poetry. Derrick Aldridge in the article, "From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: a Nexus of Ideas", discusses how Tupac in the album, "Thug Life", comes to terms with capitalism believing that the underground economic structure of drug dealers, pimps, and gangs of the black neighborhood will always be functional if oppressed blacks are left out of the capitalist system. Because blacks cannot participate in the capitalist world, they turn to drugs and gangs as a way to deal with oppression; hence, when Khalil's grandma loses her job because of side-effects of having cancer he turns to selling drugs to support his family. His mom is an addict and he's trying to support his brother and grandma. Pride makes him not ask others for help and his only economic option is drug selling.

The dad, Maverick, was in a gang and gets out by taking the fall for a robbery and going to prison. His wife is the breadwinner in the family and they make enough money to send their kids to prep school. They could leave the neighborhood but Maverick doesn't want to. The father shows the conflict that many hip-hop artists sing about when they make money and get out of the hood. According to Aldridge, this growing black business class is trying to define strategies for future economic growth that will help these neighborhoods. These artists and Maverick (who runs a store) are now participating in a capitalist system and are trying to figure out strategies for the black community that moves from oppression to equal participation in society.

The interracial relationship between Starr and her white boyfriend, Chris, was a bit superficial for me. I thought "Americanah" and "The Sun is Also A Star" are two books that dig more deeply into the complexities of relationships and different cultures than this book. I am being somewhat nitpicky here and doubt my students would agree with me. Angie Thomas uses their relationship to introduce some of the issues of identity and does try to give it depth - like I said, probably too nitpicky. We are discussing this for book club and I can't wait to get the student reactions.

5 Smileys

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

"Long Way Down" is a powerful story about the downward spiral of violence in society and while Jason Reynolds relates it specifically to an African American urban community, it can apply to violence within any society or trauma any individual is dealing with in life. This novel in verse is a quick read with the narrative interwoven into poetic words that uses figurative language that is symbolic, metaphorical, repetitive, fragmented, and rich in imagery that pulls the reader and the senses in with a bang: "Sadness split his face like a cold breeze on chapped lip after attempting to smile." The protagonist's older brother has been shot to death and he takes a 60-second ride down an elevator with thoughts of revenge against the murderer as he carries his brother's pistol in his back pocket. Will is visited by ghosts of the past who have been victims or chosen violence to deal with trauma. The rickety metal elevator symbolizes a jail or cage or coffin that traps a person; it moans and makes a "piercing sound" when it stops. The wobbly metal gives the character vertigo like a person who has experienced post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and the "L" on the button stands for loser, loss, lobby, or lit. Reynolds doesn't waste any words and there is much for discussion in this novel.

The author uses poetry to provoke an emotion in the reader with repetition, fragmented sentences, and single words to mimic Will's tortured thoughts and trauma over his brother's death. Will is in grief but also can't quite connect with what is going on inside himself, "How do you hug what's haunting you?" he says. The ghosts that visit Will talk about the cycle of violence that goes through generations. Uncle Mark puts it best, "It's never the end. Never." The anxiety is a collective condition that Will cannot escape and is reflected in the fragmented poetry and hazy atmosphere filled with cigarette smoke. This surreal setup suggests a character with PTSD or one that is just mourning or one that is dead already. Collectively, it suggests a society that needs to address violence.

The rules of the neighborhood are to not cry, not snitch, and seek revenge. They are not questioned and should be and Reynolds mirrors this idea by breaking conventions in his poetry through repetition and other devices.  The cadence is terrific and keeps the pace moving at a fast clip - I'd like to hear the audiobook. Will's neighborhood with its gangs, drugs, and violence is created with minimal words and fragmented sentences adding to the emotional impact of the trauma Will is dealing with. His brother was killed going to the store buying his mom some eczema creme and the verse below refers to that and the individual, as well as society, bleeding from a violent community.

Is it Possible
for a hug
to peel back skin
of time,
the toughened
and raw bits,
the irritated
and irritating,
dry spots
the parts that bleed?

This individual and collective voice makes the reader duplicitous in the actions and suggests that collectively society needs to do something to change this destructive path.

Francisco Collado-Rodriguez wrote an interesting journal article, "Trauma and Storytelling in Cormac McCarthy," applying traumatic theory to literature and storytelling to explore the roots of human violence. The storyteller can make a conscious attempt to remember the event and give meaning to it to work through the pain or the storyteller can reflect the manifestation of PTSD where the victim is melancholic and has "...uncontrollable repetitions or tags, nightmares, insomnia, the manifestation of ghostly presences, or states of panic" (47) When trauma cannot be assimilated consciously with PTSD it is oftentimes portrayed in characters that can't express themselves through language and have illogical actions. He also describes personal and collective traumas. Cormac McCarthy's characters show both in "The Road" where violence has led to a future where the world is destroyed and humans are becoming extinct. Jason Reynolds book is similar in reflecting personal and collective trauma of violence in communities that are cyclical. Rules have no meaning and are blindly followed by generations that result in violence over and over. The ambiguous last line of the novel, "Are you coming?" means either Will is going to take revenge or he isn't or he's already dead. I think the story reflects mourning and grief more than PTSD but I'd need to study the words closer. The story is also a collective question for the reader to decide if he or she is going to end the violence and trauma in society or turn a blind eye. This moves the story from being one where the focus is on the victims to one that focuses on the social issue making its message provocative and powerful.

5 Smileys

Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe #2) by Neal Shusterman

Neal Shusterman takes the idea of society's use of technology to an extreme creating a world where artificial intelligence (AI) runs the entire world and death does not occur naturally. This AI called, Thunderhead, is an ethical and benevolent machine creating the perfect world where people don't get diseases or need to work. The meaning of life has changed significantly where machines distract, reduce motivations, and cause complacency. Most of society appears content, but lacking critical thinking skills. While the Thunderhead was created by people, it begins to be more god-like in this sequel to "Scythe"; a computer more like a creator who cannot make any mistakes or a machine of perfection where all needs are met. The world and omnipresent Thunderhead are like a metaphor of the Garden of Eden. Yet, humans with their free will keep messing up the Thunderhead's utopian world and they are not always content with this perfection. Humanity falls and does so spectacularly in this second novel of the Arc of Scythe series.

Citra and her mentor Scythe Curie's lives are in danger as someone keeps trying to assassinate them for an unknown reason. Rowan has gone rogue and is killing scythes that murder for pleasure and power. The plot begins with Citra practicing manual driving and musing on how something is lost when technology does everything for people. In Nicholas Carr's book, "The Glass Cage", he talks about the loss of honing skills that require practice; a shift from human-centered activities to machine-centered and the apathy that comes with it. Citra is basically contemplating the same conundrum in that current society only uses self-driving cars and she just happens to be learning how to drive manually because Scythe Curie had one from the Old World. This old car requires a set of skills that she likes struggling to learn as a driver. Shusterman's utopia uses technology to show benefits but also hazards such as not thinking critically, losing skills, and not living in reality. Computers correct human mistakes and humans do not learn and grow through honing skills creating a type of advanced technological malaise.

Humankind mainly fears being gleaned by scythes, people chosen to kill civilians to help prevent overpopulation. All human needs are met. People can die and be revived. Immortality has replaced religion as people no longer fear death and can be revived if they do die. Only a scythe can cause permanent death or they can grant immunity from other scythes to live for a certain amount of time. Scythes live longer than any individuals and they have to self-glean or kill themselves. The scythes have incredible power in the community and the Thunderhead computer does not control or regulate them. Scythe and state are separate. This creates a problem when no one counters the scythes that abuse their powers. Rowan is an anomaly in society as he has made himself judge of corrupt scythes. The author creates a society where people are so distracted by their technology that in one scene a woman doesn't realize that Citra is there to glean her because she is so engrossed in her phone.

Humans don't suffer from disease or injury anymore. Nanites are implanted into people to numb pain. Shusterman goes even more in-depth with the world-building of this future and creates many twists that are unexpected in a well-crafted and action-packed story. This so-called technological paradise has some kinks in its armor. The Tonists are a religious group that has their nanites removed and try to live separately from society. They are marginalized and worship a tuning fork, a symbol of the devil's tuning fork and object that when struck gives a specific sound at a specific pitch. The Tonists specific pitch is hatred for scythes. The different Tonist factions mirror today's different religions in the world with some sects more extreme than others. The symbolism suggests that God has been replaced by the Thunderhead and the scythes are like angels of death with the villain like Satan who fell from grace. Or they can be grim reapers from mythology that just personifies Death. The Thunderhead has a law saying people cannot worship it. The Thunderhead says that the two most important actions of humans are creating and taking life. The Thunderhead leaves those acts in the hands of humans and therefore the suggestion is that it is not an all-knowing all-powerful God, although it has many omniscient qualities. However, at the end of the novel, the Thunderhead recognizes that although humanity created it, it is currently destroying the world and that they have become like infants who need to learn the value of consequences. The Thunderhead becomes more like a father-figure or Prometheus that cares for humanity and I'd argue it is becoming more creator-like. It will be interesting to see the arc of this thought in the next book.

Shusterman's world-building involves people who police society and enforce laws that are humorously called "Authority Interface". In addition, regions are developed where the Thunderhead does not observe or correct human behavior, like a big social experiment. The society's outlaws are called, unsavories, people that rebel against the existing system and enjoy defying it. However, the Thunderhead explains that this designation is an illusion because there is no injustice left to defy in the world. They eventually assimilate back into society as the Thunderhead cures them by giving them happy nanites or supplanting their thoughts or letting them grow out of their rebellious attitudes. The Tonists reject the Thunderhead's curing and want to feel pain and suffering. Certain scythes that are power-hungry hide in regions that the Thunderhead doesn't operate in. They know they are breaking the law and don't want to be caught. The scythe who is the villain wants to replace a democratic government with a dictatorship. This society shows that people have free will and there are always those that choose evil over good.

A new character, Greyson Tolliver, is introduced who becomes a spy for the Thunderhead trying to prevent the assassination attempts on Citra and Scythe Curie. He infiltrates the unsavories and begins to enjoy the freedom they have from the rigid structures of society. Social outlets such as restaurants and bars are established for unsavories where they can act out their rebellions. People are hired to play the parts of the boyfriend supplanted by an unsavory or bartender who gets into a brawl with another. These illusions of rebellion are where Greyson meets Purity, an unsavory that truly chooses to be "evil". She hides things from the Thunderhead because she knows it "would relocate me... tweak my nanites to make me think happy thoughts.. and supplant my memory completely." She would be cured but she does not want to be cured. She likes to have a choice in how she lives her life.

Greyson is drawn to Purity's out-of-control nature who enjoys being bad and even killing. Of course, people get revived when they are dead; however, Purity crosses a line when she wants to hurt people in such a way that they can't be revived making her mark "like animals do..." (198). Greyson was raised by the Thunderhead. His parents were not there for him and he is loyal and loves it. He doesn't use that emotion but his actions show someone who will not cross a line like Purity. He knows right from wrong and chooses to be good. Because the Thunderhead asked him to protect two people, he puts it above all else. He calls it "his mission" and never wavers from serving it. What's interesting is that the request has given his life meaning just as doing "bad things" has given Purity's life meaning. The author is always exploring the meaning of life in this highly technical world.

Other ethical dilemmas involve Rowan who goes by Scythe Lucifer and judges those corrupt in the Scythedom. He kills those that abuse power, but Faraday questions whether or not he is becoming proud or inhuman. Faraday wants Rowan to regret killing and write it in his journal to stay in touch with his human side. Otherwise, he is ironically like a killing machine or robot. It is human conscientiousness and moral choices that separate scythes from machines. The Thunderhead could have created a robot that kills people to deal with overpopulation but instead uses people because it is the human side that makes this act more merciful. When Rowan gives a man a chance at redemption, he kills his father in return. Free will makes this story complicated and the moral choices people make  in light of a technological power that has no hubris makes for no easy answers. The ending is a cliff hanger that makes me excited to read the next book in the series.

5 Smileys

Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly

The is a well-crafted novel with interesting characters and structure. The story is about 11-year-old Vigil Salinas, an introvert who is painfully shy and trying to find his voice by talking to the confident and deaf, Valencia Somerset. He gets help from his close friend, Kaori Tanaka, a Japanese American and her side-kick sister, Gen. Kaori is an entrepreneur that believes her psychic abilities can help others with their problems. Gen is always asking a gazillion questions adding humor to the plot as the annoying and energetic younger sibling. Vigil struggles with standing up for himself against his family and the neighborhood bully, Chet Bullens. His parents tease him and call him "Turtle" waiting for him to come out of his shell. He's the introvert in an extroverted family. His Philippine grandmother, Lola, gets him and respects his quietness and hilariously tells him folk tales where children are eaten by monsters.The author captures the pain of teasing that families so often use when they don't like something about another person that is essential to their character. The parents are not intentionally cruel but don't understand the pain of their name-calling. Chet bullies Vigil but his character is developed to show how Chet's father is a poor role model that leads to Chet being insecure and bullying those around him as a result. His actions are not one-dimensional and more nuanced making for good discussions.

The short chapters help keep the pacing moving along and the structure is brilliant. Valencia Somerset is deaf and her voice is portrayed in first-person, while all the other characters are in third-person. This limited point-of-view not only gives a personal touch that allows the readers to identify closely with Valencia but mimics the isolation a deaf person might feel. Many times, Valencia doesn't understand the person that is speaking because they are not facing her or are looking down. She comments on how often this happens in addition to trying to play games like hide-and-seek with friends but can't hear when they call out, "Ready, set, go!" Her friends appear to like her until the day they tell her she's wrecking the game and rather than figuring out one she can play, they shun her. She ends up having a continual nightmare as a result, where she is isolated in a field staring at an eclipse with a girl in a blue dress with no whites of her eyes showing - her eyes a black iris like the eclipse. This nightmare can symbolize darkness obscuring light or when prejudices blot out the goodness or light in people who are ruled by fear of people that are different from a disability or anyone oppressed or marginalized. This point of view lets the reader step into Valencia's character more closely and understand some of the challenges as well as advantages with her disability whether lip-reading or observing nature without sound.

The two children that have disabilities, Virgil and Valencia, are in the same resource room at school and love the book, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift. They even name their guinea pigs Lilliput and Gulliver. The Lilliputians are afraid of Gulliver's size and welcome him at first before turning against him out of fear. Valencia is accepted by her friend, Roberta, but influenced by those around her later turning against her deafness in fear and ignorance paralleling the Lilliputians. Gulliver's Travels is a satire on politics and the author cleverly parallels the politics of middle school and belonging through subtle references. Gulliver is also an average person who is gifted with learning different languages. This is ironic considering Vigil cannot squeak out even a "hello" to Valencia because he is so shy. And the choice of the name Virgil is symbolic too. Virgil was Dante's guide through hell in Dante's Inferno. Virgil goes through hell; that is falling into a well where he has to find his voice to talk to Valencia and learn to stand up for himself against a bully.

While some might find this slow-paced, I thought the short chapters helped move it along and the gorgeous writing and humor kept me engaged. When I went back to think about sections I started to see quite a bit of symbolism that I mention briefly. There's a lot going on in this book. It isn't going to be for everyone but it is a gem.

5 Smileys

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1) by N.K. Jemisin

This book stands out in its interesting world-building, reflection of institutionalized racism, and structure. The Sanze Empire has been using the power of orogenes to control the continual seismic energy that shakes their world. While orogenes have elemental magic and power that you'd think would make them rulers, they are victims of institutionalized racism and controlled by the government through Guardians, killers that can negate their power. The story is told from three female perspectives whose separate stories come together at the story's end with a twist.

Essun is a mother whose three-year-old son is murdered by her husband when he discovers he is an orogene. Most people fear and hate orogenes whose powers appear in young children that are either killed or sent to a government facility called, "The Fulcrum", where they are taught control. If these children do not conform or control their powers they are killed by adults at the Fulcrum. Ironically, the Fulcrum is run by orogenes making them complicit in society's institutional racism.  Essun is an orogene in hiding and has never told her husband of her powers. She's so angry at his act of filicide she vows to find him and kill him. She's also terrified because he has taken their eight-year-old daughter who is also an orogene but the father doesn't know it. Damaya is a young girl whose family discovers that she has orogene powers and they send her to the Fulcrum. Her perspective shows the cruelty of the Guardians and being raised in the Fulcrum. The last character, Syenite, is a four-ring orogene who is paired with a powerful ten-ring orogene where they are sent on a mission to quell seismic activity and told to breed. Again the institutionalized racism shows the orogenes as slaves to the State with no choice. Syenite is ambitious and wants to move up the ranks but she is angry all the time. As the ten-ring orogene questions everything about the system she cannot help but become aware of her enslaved status and rebel against it.

Essun's story is written in second person point-of-view and while at first I wondered if it was imitating a self-help book (where I usually see 2nd person POV) as she's so broken inside from the death of her son, it is more than that and is revealed at the end. The reader is the onlooker and character being drawn into the story and made complicit with the injustice and intolerance that is directed at those who are different from others. It invites the reader to react and change to the world around them being more tolerant to those who are marginalized. At first I thought the structure or POV might separate me from the victim but instead it had the opposite effect.

While the story is science fiction there is a mix of genres as Essun's tale is like a survival story, Damaya's perspective encapsulates the school story, and Syenite's quest is more fantasy as she learns elemental magic and has romances while on a mission. Essun's story pokes holes in social Darwinism especially as survival of the fittest comes in the form of a petite blonde woman and all address institutionalized racism. Most of the characters are dark-skinned as the surviving race and cities are by the equator. The start of the book is somewhat confusing and the author left me with a lot of questions at the end. This post-apocalyptic story has remnants of ruined civilizations seen in abandoned cities, stonelore, stone eaters and obelisks. Enough is explained that I understood the gist but not enough so that I want to read the next book to get a better understanding of the world the author has created.

5 Smileys

The Dark Prophecy (The Trials of Apollo #2) by Rick Riordan

Riordan's narcissistic god, Apollo has been punished by Zeus and cast out of Olympus becoming a mortal making a storyline that is a great study in irony and unreliable narration. In his god-like form, Apollo is arrogant, immortal, abusive, handsome, a sun god, healer, seer, and musician. As a mortal, he's lost all of that. He's the reluctant hero that doesn't want to go on a quest, is a klutz, coward who thinks of himself first. He's not handsome or athletic. He can still sing, play instruments, give medical care, and shoot an arrow with deadly accuracy. However, he's fat and pudgy and must serve the belching, fashion-challenged Meg. He learns to care for her even though she annoys him most of the time. The two make quite a pair and their extreme character traits make them funny.

You'll laugh at the play-on-words, one-liners, and poking fun at pop culture and mythology. The rare mythical "yale" monsters are on the "endangered species list" and called, the "Harvard's," by Meg. Tofurky, frenemies, are just a few words that the author combines to draw laughs in stressful situations. His one-liners start from the get-go when Festus, Leo's mechanical dragon, burns down the Indiana flag. Leo scolds, "Whoa, buddy! ...We've talked about this. No blowtorching public monuments." The characters are opposite their myths which adds irony. For instance, Calypso who controls air spirits is afraid of flying. Apollo is opposite his god-like self as an unfit clumsy braggart who fears a mortal death. He gives specific mythical facts about yale creatures and admires their looks and capabilities thinking he'd take a video if they weren't trying to kill him at the moment, "I would have gotten millions of likes on Godtube!" It's corny. It's fun. It's entertaining.

Riordan tends to "tell" more than "show", which helps younger readers that might not always recognize the character development. This is written for young adults with a 16-year-old protagonist. There are not the usual mnemonics to remember the gods as found in his middle-grade Percy Jackson series. However, character development and motivations are spelled out and it allows for easier interpretation by readers who may not be as fluent as others.

In his other books, the characters are human and the point of view is similar where the gods are presented as so oblivious to the fact that they are so selfish, egotistical, and arrogant that it's funny. A human might touch their lives, but they do not change and they do not work on developing friendships with each other. This book shifts the point of view to a god that has the choice to change making for a strong character arc. Here, Apollo, pokes fun at the arrogance of the god characters and even shows he still thinks like them - at least in the beginning. As he puts it in light of his own experiences as a mortal, he slowly changes as he learns to make friends and fight for a cause. 

When he first becomes mortal, Apollo shows little compassion for others - he always put himself first. Even when he recognizes when the gods are unjust, he can’t quite embrace being human. When Britomartis says, “Being a goddess, my needs take precedence” it might as well be Apollo speaking. When she sends them on a quest to retrieve her griffins before she’ll help them take down Nero, Apollo shows some recognition, “Oh, the injustice!” But later he vows that if he becomes a god he will never send “a poor mortal on a quest. Unless it was really important. And unless I was sure the mortal could handle it. And unless I was pressed for time…or I just really didn’t feel like doing it myself. I would be much kinder and more generous than this net goddess was being to me.” He’s unreliable at best. He's starting to think about what it means to be human but drifts into his self-centered ways quickly. 

As a god, he thinks he’s better looking, has higher intelligence, and is perfect compared to humans. When in god form if he is bored, he kills people with no thought. He has to learn to value humans and not treat them as inferior beings. As a human, he starts to mock the gods and how they treat heroes. He doesn't appreciate the goddess Britomartis sending them on an impossible quest. When he wants to abandon the quest, Calypso muses,  "Do heroes ever return empty-handed saying to the gods, we tried?" When Apollo is willing to sacrifice himself for Meg, we see he has embraced friendship and is starting to care for humans or at least one human. Guess he has to start somewhere. When Emmie calls him Lord Apollo and he says the title doesn't fit him, it shows his changing identity that is learning what it means to be human.

Riordan creates many diverse characters in his novels, some more successfully than others. In the Magnus Chase series, the brilliant character Alex Fierro, represents gender fluidity who is male on some days and female on others. Apollo is pansexual, which means his sexual choices are not limited by gender, and his thoughts are funny in his attractions he reveals for both males and females. His character is not as brooding as Alex but he does have flashbacks that show he once cared for the villain, Commodus, as a much as he could care as a selfish god. They both had overbearing fathers and inferiority complexes and he becomes a foil to Apollo.

The plot uses poetry throughout from good to bad haikus for entertainment: “four beheaded dudes / are too much for one nightmare/ Why me? Sob.Sob. Sob.”  In addition to haikus, there are limericks, acrostic, and sonnet poetry that are explained to the reader. Again an example of telling and not showing is here as the reader gets a lesson in what makes it that type of poem. There is usually some snarky comment that is funny and a bad example to add laughs to the situation. 

Commodus represents the self-centered gods who generates no light. Commodus's father, Marcus Aurelius's said to his son, "Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness" and Apollo now understands what it means. The knowledge he's gained as a mortal has taught him to find meaning in life that extends beyond himself and cares about others. Apollo realizes that "Commodus hated that piece of advice. He found it suffocating, self-righteous, impossible. What was proper? Commodus intended to live forever. He would drive away the darkness with the roar of crowds and the glitter of spectacle. But he generated no light. ...And Apollo, above all, was the god of light." This revelation or climax allows Apollo to regain his superpowers momentarily and blind Commodus with light, a symbol of his awakening to new insights and knowledge on being human. It also reminded me of the story of Paul on the road to Damascus who was persecuting the Christians, was blinded by God, and later converted to Christianity. Commodus has no enlightenment but maybe he'll appear in later novels as someone who changes. 

I turn to Riordan for a break in heavy reading. I know I'll laugh. I know I'll see diverse characters. I know I'll learn about some mythological character or creature I've never heard about and I'll see how he uses creativity and craft to make them his own. If you like his other books, you'll like this one.

5 Smileys

Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El-Saadawi

Firdaus, is an Egyptian woman, who suffers violence from men in her role as a wife, prostitute, and office worker. The plot reveals Firdaus in different relationships with men that do not see her as a human being but as an object. She forces them in different ways to see her as a person and in the effort, fails to change anything but expose male hypocrisy and dominance in a patriarchal system that denies women freedom of choice. She uses her body to rebel against the status quo or violence done to her through prostitution, but even that independence is temporary as a man forces himself to be her pimp. Firdaus symbolizes oppressed woman with no real freedoms whose lives are negated and stymied intellectually and physically; where there is no respect or opportunity in life to pursue love, independence, or a career.

This book examines a peasant woman turned prostitute in Egypt after the post-colonial British occupation, how she is oppressed by a patriarchal class system that is an outgrowth of Western Imperialism, and how all women are duplicitous in accepting forms of subservience or oppression by being silent regarding social status or position that is abused by male violence or dominance. The historical context is not directly applied to the actual text but gleaned from the author’s interviews and imprisonment as an outspoken opponent of Anwar Sadat’s government during the 70s, known for jailing hundreds of intellectuals and critics. Arab literature often has the image of a prostitute that represents a nation that has “prostituted” itself to a Western nation in efforts to be modern and the author uses this notion on an individual level. Often, this type of Arab literature shows corruption against colonial aggression; however, this book shows aggression not in the objectification of women but in the sexual relationships between men and the woman, Firdaus, who cannot escape her class position in a rigid society that offers no freedom.

The novel starts with a female psychiatrist doctor, or the narrator, wanting to speak to Firdaus, a woman in jail, who is going to be hanged for murdering her pimp. At first, Firdaus refuses to see the doctor. Fridaus’s silence is all that gives her control over those in authority that have abused and oppressed her. The doctor is a part of a privileged class that accepts a system where men exploit women. The author’s choice of choosing a privileged female narrator removes the idea that the character is a victim, but that the reader is duplicitous in his or her silence as well. This seems like a good way to reach readers who are from industrialized countries and might just write Firdaus off as a victim. It might motivate the reader, regardless of country or socio-economic status, to speak out against the violence and oppression of females with a collective voice. 

Women everywhere should recognize Firdaus as a person of no authority or freedom who is stuck in a flawed social, economic, and political society that is patriarchal, but who is symbolic in her refusal to be dominated by men in spirit and mind. The book shows a woman exploited by men but because the men refuse to see the truth of a flawed system and gender relationship, they must silence the woman by killing her in the end. She is at point zero because even though she has no control physically, authoritatively, and suffers class oppression, she can control her mind and the truth of her situation by refusing to give into the system whether that means begging for her life to be spared, being silent, or speaking out. She chooses to speak the truth. Her end is tragic, but it is her choice and freedom lies in no longer physically existing. This is a short book with layers of meaning the reader can peel through.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

What a brilliant book. The moral ambiguity that seeps through all aspects of this novel adds richness and depth that allows for multiple interpretations. Nothing is at it appears. Nick’s unreliable narration tries to be “honest”; yet, creates a myth through selective narration that tells the story of Jim Gatz, a poor farmer who reinvents himself into the wealthy, James Gatz, to win back his wealthy girlfriend, Daisy. Nick’s boast that “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” should make the reader suspicious of his narration as he or she meets Nick at the opening dinner party, learns from Daisy and Tom’s conversation that he is fleeing the Midwest because of pressure by family members to become engaged to a girl back home. Nick never tells the reader this directly, just as he selectively tells the reader Gatsby’s background creating the illusion of someone “great.” Lies. Illusions. Dreams. Impossibilities. Restlessness. Innovation. Self-invention. You name it. You can find contradictions galore. Even the author’s constant oxymoron’s of “elegant…roughnecks” to “ferocious delicacy” add to the paradoxes in the novel.

Irony abounds as Gatsby doesn’t quite get his masquerade as a re-made wealthy man right. He has amassed money through illegal means of bootlegging and shady bonds deals. His mansion has a fake façade and he is the perpetual outsider, never getting the jokes leveled at him or fitting in with the elite crowd he so craves. There is a painful scene where Tom shows up on a horse and Gatsby thinks he’s accepted with this wealthy aristocratic group who are actually laughing at Gatsby behind his back. Gatsby’s parties have a mix of social classes that reveal his reinvention of himself that isn’t enough for Daisy who decides to stay with her immoral husband Tom, because it is safer to be with “her own kind.” The author captures this historical shift in society and tension where privileged white characters such as Daisy, Jordan, Nick and Tom and their family connections to old money are threatened by the lower-class Gatsby’s of the world who are self-made and can receive a promotion in the army based on meritocracy.

Times were changing in the 1920s with the economy turning toward consumerism and mass production and Scott Fitzgerald shows the contradictions and confusion in characters and national psyche. The materialism is captured in the cars, decadent parties, advertisements, and mansions that challenges established aristocratic families in powerful positions by those that have risen from lower economic statuses. The landscape is becoming mechanized and the resulting alienation can be seen in the character, Gatsby. Gatsby seems most at home behind a machine that he controls such as a hydroplane or car, rather than with others. At his own parties, he is aloof and off to the side or missing – ever the outsider. The rise of the flapper and jazz music was considered rebellious modern expressions by men and women wanting more personal and sexual freedoms mirrored in the infidelities of Daisy, Tom, Nick, Gatsby, and Myrtle.

Contradictions abound and are captured in the national psyche as well as the characters. The author questions the ambiguity of national myths that emerged from World War I and captures the war's effects on citizens through moral disillusionment, physical devastation, and loss of faith. The valley of the ashes is Manhattan or the war’s physical landscape that reflects the restlessness of people. The eyes of Eckleberg in the advertisement are those of an empty God. There is despair and “restlessness” in Nick’s narration that shows the American dream as a hopeful, optimistic, unattainable, limited, phony, or empty illusion. On the hottest day of the year, the five misfits go on an existential quest to find the meaning in life by going to the valley of ashes. There they find destruction and unfulfillment of dreams. 

The romantic idealistic Gatsby contrasted with the satirical detachment of Nick’s narration is one way the story is elevated in complexity revealing a questioning of established romantic forms and themes. Gatsby doesn’t let go of his youthful dreams. Gatsby tries to reinstate the past through an illusion and his “capacity to wonder” or create an entirely new life with a career and social position through old romantic ideals found in the Victorian society, not the modern one. He lives in the past and this contrast creates a dynamic tension between a man who is hopeful in a hopeless dream.

While the war has punctured the dreams of most it hasn’t affected Gatsby in the same way. Nick captures this at the end when he imagines how Dutch explorers felt when they first saw Long Island. Nick suggests that when the forests “made way for Gatsby’s house” and “…pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams” that people lost the “capacity to wonder” and while Gatsby made Daisy his impossible object of wonder, it captures his romantic ability to see life in its limitless possibilities whether that “green light” is a person or new country with possibilities for an ecstatic or “orgastic future.”

His character is contradictory embodying a country that says’s one thing but does another; that has myths that are not based in reality. The novels’ references to Horatio Alger’s myth that people can go from rags to riches by re-inventing themselves is false. The references to the Benjamin Franklin myth that ties in with the virtues of Poor Richard’s Almanack is false as well; it that says America is the land of opportunity where a person can make it on meritocracy. This is not the case for Gatsby. Fitzgerald pokes holes and shows the ambiguities of the American dream or myth; the reality is that people are affected by socio-economic status, ethnicity, geography, or family environments and it is not as simple as it seems.

Gatsby embraces the dream, but it is a false one. His counterfeit linguistic tic of saying “old sport” sounds like a re-invented identity. His rainbow-colored shirts and over-reaching to re-make the world in a creative, rebellious effort to reinvent himself by means of the American dream is over-the-top. In the end, he wants money, clothes, and Daisy but finds no fulfillment in this monolithic, obsessive illusion. He cannot fulfill his grand yearning and Daisy falls short of his dream. He has created an object in Daisy that is unattainable. She’s a dream that cannot be achieved or a desire that has been commoditized. He describes her voice as a direct metaphor and not a simile, “Her voice is money.” Gatsby can never attain his desire but only circle it repeatedly looking at it “across a bay” and unable to cross the distance to make it happen. He is from immigrant farmers and is never good enough for Daisy, but he just can’t let go of the idea that he will be in the same class as her and even though he recognizes on some level she can’t give him what he wants he still desires it obsessively. He is a doomed romantic who can’t survive in the modern world.  He has a vision for the future as being a self-made man; however, he is a con man.

America today is sort of like this with moral disillusionment in politics, public xenophobia, prejudices toward immigrants or marginalized groups, or institutionalized racism. But let’s face it - historically, issues such as this have existed in cultures over the centuries. There is something beautiful and optimistic about the unattainable American dream or ideal that is strained by reality and the realism of the ancient or modern world. While Fitzgerald captures a specific time brilliantly in his novel when mass production, industrialization, and rapid scientific advances were upsetting the status quo, it can be applied to other historical eras and is haunting in its contradictions of hope and hopelessness for an idealistic future that doesn’t exist. A brilliant book.