Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

First published in 2011, in Australia Sep 2012

Hmmm. Even without reading this book, I loved it. I saw it as a proof in my bookstore and grabbed it, flicked through a few really fantastic passages, and then took it home. As I read more and more, it lost a little of its appeal. All the little quirks that I started off enjoying began to annoy me, a tiny bit. It still held my interest. I still think it is a clever, mostly well-written and certainly unique book, but Where Things Come Back did lose me, just a little.

It was clever how Whaley tied the two main stories together, and all the other povs that are interspersed throughout. It made me want to keep reading, to see how they would come together, and also to see what he would do with all these non-linear timelines. He pulls it off. Stylistically, it is also clever to tie everything back to this idea of a small town going crazy for the appearance of the Lazarus woodpecker – to see how hope is a lovely thing, but it can also turn people a little crazy. The woodpecker is the symbolic heart of Where Things Come Back, and (from a writer’s perspective) I enjoy this kind of neat, simple, stylistic technique.

I thought this book was a case of the secondary, peripheral characters being the more interesting. I couldn’t warm to any of the main narrators. In fact, I think this is my main problem with the book. I didn’t really like anyone. And I don’t think it’s a reflection of their actual personalities, but the way they are written about – with a certain cynical, cold-hearted view. This book has warmth but it isn’t found in the characters, and that prevents me from caring. What I did enjoy was the way Whaley built up some characters, like Lucas and John Barling, so we formed an idea of them. And then he dropped a subtle bombshell which revealed all their hidden parts and motivations. The best example was when Cullen talks to John on the swing. Love moments like these.

I think the writing did show signs of this being a debut novel. It is very Dawson’s Creek. Full of emotion but in that cynical, referential way, that can be hip but is really, I feel, sometimes just disguised indulgence. It makes me smile the way people are always referred to by their full name. At the start I didn’t mind Cullen referring to himself in the third person but it does wear a little thin.

As for Cullen and his main crew – well they are so unobtrusively hip that it’s all pretty harmless. I can understand why some will love his cynical self. I felt all a bit blasé about it all. And I’m still not sure if the ending is real or not.

Anonymity Jones, by James Roy

First published by Woolshed Press in 2010

Critically acclaimed author James Roy’s latest book for teens, Anonymity Jones, concerns sixteen year old Anonymity, a normal teenage girl except for the fact that her life seems to be falling apart around her. Her father - in-between secretary girlfriends - is having a breakdown, her mother’s new boyfriend has some suspicious tendencies, her girlfriends have all dumped her for boyfriends and she’s in love with her thirty-year old art teacher. And to top it all off her older sister, the only one she can talk to, has run away to spend the year in Europe.

Roy takes us through the full reign of teenage emotions, with a narrative tone that will appeal to the adolescent world Anonymity is herself a part of. There are both familiar and ‘what if’ moments to engage with, although I will say that Anonymity is not an entirely sympathetic character, nor does she have much spark. This may deter a teenage audience in search of a new heroine. Some of the situations she found herself in I sometimes felt like saying 'well, what did you expect!?' Then again, I suppose it rings very true to the teenage years, but I still felt like there was so much angst without anything to redeem it.

I came to Roy's writing late and found his style appealing. There is plenty, either in Anonymity's head or in the action, to drive the reader on. He does have some nice moments of well-written or clever prose as well.

Anonymity Jones is a good choice for those who want all the angst without the supernatural love affair. Also watch for the clever plot line with the character Sam. And I also just want to lay on some love for the publishers, Woolshed Press: I love the ideas behind this imprint (of Random House) and am rarely let down by the books they produce.



Cicada Summer, by Kate Constable

First published by Allen & Unwin in 2009

Cicada Summer is a middle-grade fiction book that explores friendship, family, grief and personal growth. Eloise, who hasn’t spoken since her mother died, is left with her grandmother Mo while her dad goes off to organise plans to turn the derelict family mansion into a new, modern convention centre. But Eloise develops a bond with the new house, and finds herself transported into another time, where she meets a ghostly girl associated with the house’s past.

The first half of Cicada Summer is promising; the introduced themes have great potential, the characters are engaging, the setting has a wonderful ghostly/atmospheric feel to it. But somewhere along the way this book lost me a little bit – I just feel that the story didn’t really go anywhere; it didn’t grab me emotionally and all the conflict was resolved in a kind of by-the-numbers way. There was nothing unexpected. Basically, I felt like I’d read the story before and knew how it would end. I would have perhaps liked to see something more done with the whole time-travelling concept and maybe just for Constable to go a little deeper with it all – with the issues raised (death, immigration, land re-development, family issues, imagination) and even with the language itself. The second half just didn’t live up to the promise of the first.

I don’t really know what else to say – I just think it needed something else. Everything about it was just nice but there was no depth to the words that were skimming the surface. Passive. That’s the word. It lulls you in but after that there’s nowhere else to go.

Basically an easy read if you want to pass an afternoon. I would like to read a few of Kate Constable’s other books, just to see if it was just this book or her writing style.

A Witch in the Family, by Zilpha K. Snyder

First published in 1973 by Lutterworth Press

Also known as The Headless Cupid, A Witch in the Family is a short, breezy little book that depicts what happens when the Stanley children meet their new step-sister, Amanda. From the moment she arrives at Westerley House, with a crow and a horny toad, 'witchy' garb and her small upside-down smile, things begin to happen. Family things. Paranormal things. Growing-up things. For while Amanda announces she is studying the supernatural, the real story here is how the dynamics change when two families become one family, and everyone has some adjusting to do.

This book was recommended to me as a Newberry Honour book, and I really did enjoy it. The tone of the story-telling reminded me so much of the books I devoured as a kid - those sort of hidden away ones at the library which are always older than the rest and what I tended to resort to when I had read everything else or the book I wanted wasn't there. Of course, these are the ones which then kept me in the lounge room chair all weekend, and that is just what this book reminded me of - deceptively simple, funny, engaging writing for children, that is a joy to read and decipher.

I think this book won me over because I feel it captured how kids talk and relate to each other, and the little unit that is the Stanley children feels like a real set of siblings that squabble and play in the backyard together and know all the little things about each other that only siblings can know. When Amanda is introduced into this set, we see them being distrustful and awed and fascinated and accepting and negligent all at once, and watching them suss each other out is really quite delightful.

I like the way Snyder tells this story, there is just something very quaint and winning about the way she introduces ideas and scenes through the main character, David. Amanda has the potential to be quite unlikeable, and certainly her attitude in general doesn't make for the most charming of characters, but I think the way she is written is spot on. As an older reader looking back, I find all her little looks and snide remarks and the way she conducts herself so familiar, and can understand why she does it. And, of course, she does come right in the end.

As for the ending, I felt a little let down by it, maybe a bit cheated, but then Blair's last revelation made it alright again. A lovely little book that will both amuse and enchant, snap it up if ever you should be so lucky to find it.