Book of the Day

The planet Pern has a major problem: every few hundred years Thread falls, obliterating all living matter that it touches. Luckily, the first settlers managed to adapt indigent fire-lizards to become huge dragons that can fight the Thread threat. Now centuries later, the original settlers have lost their original technology, but retain the dragons.

Menolly is a young girl living in a Sea-Hold. Her community revolves around fishing and the sea. Her own private life revolves around music. But girls are not supposed to be Harpers, so she has no encouragement from anyone around her. When the home situation becomes unbearable, she flees. But in a hidden cave surrounded by the near-mythical fire-lizards, she is still in great danger from the Thread. Can she survive? And will she ever be able to play music again?

Like many books written for young women in the seventies (another obvious example would be the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce) the gender equality issue is far more blatant and pivotal than is generally found in modern books. Contemporary fiction tends to pit girls in far more subtle gender battles, fighting to balance their femininity with nontraditional roles or taking on the challenge of defining what it means to be female. We can easily forget that this generation can make these subtle distinctions because they are building off of their grandparent’s uphill battle to simply be included as equals. It is, therefore, a bit of a time capsule to see a book where the protagonist is so straightforwardly simply challenging the status quo’s traditional gender roles.

Ever since her best friend and exboyfriend Lawrence came out of the closet – thereby breaking up with her – Viola has felt like the Invisible Girl. She has friends, and people acknowledge her, but she doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. Not the way she belonged when she and Lawrence were dating. The intensity of her wish to belong summons a jinn, ready to grant her three wishes, and impatient to return to his world. But Viola isn’t sure what she should wish for, and the more she procrastinates, the more Jinn starts to doubt whether he truly wishes to leave her…

This was a fun story, and I highly enjoyed it. It was a sweet, if slightly predictable romance. That being said, it made me a bit uneasy how utterly destroyed Viola was at the thought of being alone. There are a few moments were Lawrence or Jinn try to convince her that she is not “broken” just because she doesn’t have a boyfriend, and by the end of the book Viola admits that she is a whole person all by herself, but the vast majority of the book showcases Viola’s intense sense of being a non-person simply because she is alone. When she gets a boyfriend who is completely wrong for her, she realizes that he is not good for her sense of self but stays with him anyway because the alternative, to be alone, is simply to horrifying to contemplate. She only dumps him when another love appears on the horizon. The last chapter or two show Viola alone and self-confident (at least for awhile), but the rest of the book does not. Yes, it’s just a silly romance novel, but the message to young women should still be mentioned.

In another area where I’m probably over-analyzing the messages in the book, is with Lawrence’s sexuality. He claims that he has purposefully avoided dating anyone so as not to cause Viola more grief, but this seems to be an unhealthy response to Viola’s neediness. Later, when Viola is happy and confident again, he doesn’t seem to be dating either. The most we see out of him is a few glances at boys at a fair. This seems to fall a little too closely into the stereotype of the “gay best friend”. And it is a bit disturbing that Jinn says that wishes can’t “change who you are” (so no becoming a mermaid), yet later SPOILER SPOILER a possibly unfriendly ifrit changes Lawrence to be straight. (Don’t worry, Viola makes the choice to change him back again.) How is that not changing an essential part of what makes Lawrence himself? END SPOILER Yes, it’s very dramatic and potentially angsty (and I saw it coming miles away just for that reason) but it seemed inappropriate to me.

In any case, I really did enjoy the book, even if I feel compelled to pick apart its undertones after finishing it.

The Duchesne school in NYC, despite being one of the ritziest, most exclusive schools in the country, still has its cliques and scholarship students. Schuyler Van Allen, one of the latter, and her best friend Oliver are definite outcasts, though this is something of their own choosing. Mimi Force and her twin brother Jack, on the other hand, are clearly the school rulers. The fact that they are all vampires is a something of a shock to Schuyler.

The Blue Bloods have existed for centuries, immortal creatures who trade old and decrepit bodies for new lives as babies. As adolescence approaches, the memories of their previous lives start to filter into the Blue Blood’s consciousness, they start craving blood, and become full-fledged vampires. But this transition process is a vulnerable time, and something ancient has begun to prey upon the teenaged Blue Bloods. What is it, and can they stop it in time before more of their friends are killed?

This was an interesting take on the vampire mythology. I very much enjoyed the concept that the Blue Bloods were immortal but changed bodies from lifetime to lifetime. However, I didn’t see any need for them to be vampires, other than to cash in on the current craze for all things vampire. They could easily have simply been a new kind of supernatural creature. I have not read the rest of the series yet, so it’s possible that the need to drink blood will arise as a point of importance later in the storyline. Otherwise the Blue Bloods don’t share any of the typical vampire characteristics.