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cyphomandraIt is now cold enough that I am likely to be doing more posting due to a disinclination to move from the heater/computer combination I currently have, especially as it's also conveniently close to some duty-free chocolates. Anyway. Books read in transit coming up.
Justine Larbelestier, How to ditch your fairy. I liked quite a few bits of the Magic trilogy, but thought it ran out of plot about half a book too early. Nice set-up, though, and this book, a one-off, shares that, with interesting world-building and a city (New Avalon) that is somewhere between Sydney and New York, and (impressively) full of more self-obsessed inhabitants than either. In this world, people have fairies that give them certain powers and Charlie, the narrator, has a parking fairy that guarantees her a parking spot. As this ensures that she will be seized upon by everyone going anywhere regardless of what she herself wants (and she hates cars and driving) she is desperate to get rid of it, although doing so is causing her to rack up demerits at her ruthlessly rule-bound and sports-obsessed high school…
I really liked the world-building. I am pretty fond of the characters, and there’s a nice mix of teenagers and adults who don’t necessarily understand each other without feeling like they’ve been divided into separate hostile camps. The plot, though, has a couple of problems, and I will dive behind this spoiler cut to discuss them…
Two problems, really. The situation with Danders Anders is never really resolved – okay, so he’s gambling? Possibly? So why does this require going to so many places at so many different times? (I no longer have the book in front of me, but I can’t remember cell phones featuring, actually, but I just assumed most people phoned their illegal bookies) And why does he get away with basically kidnapping Charlie to do so? (yes, he’s an important school sports hero, but she doesn’t even tell her parents?). This felt like a build-up to something much more major than just getting to meet the principal, and it unbalances the book.
The second problem – hmm. One of the things I like in the book is that Charlie really likes the idea of Fiorenza’s “all the boys like you” fairy, until she swaps fairies with Fiorenza and discovers the reality of a) being stalked and b) not knowing if the boy you like really likes you back for you, rather than your fairy. This is nicely done (especially a), which is just the right amount of creepy without going into completely disturbing – fortunately, it only works on boys your own age). At the end, though, Charlie (who is mad about both basketball and cricket) gets a new fairy, and it’s a “shot-blocking” fairy that gives her amazing basketball skills and gets her into the team she previously failed try-outs for. She’s thrilled. There’s no suggestion that this invalidates her hard work at basketball, nor that she’s only going to go further in this sport because of her fairy rather than her own talent – which places her in the exact same moral place as Danders Anders, who is a school sports hero precisely because he has a grip fairy.
I don’t think I was supposed to finish the book feeling quite so ambivalent about the ending. I’ve read a commentary somewhere (if I find it again I’ll link) about how this book uses the fairies as a literalisation of privilege, which I thought was an interesting take on it – but if that’s the case, what does this ending mean for Charlie? Some people just deserve to be talented?
Justine Larbelestier, How to ditch your fairy. I liked quite a few bits of the Magic trilogy, but thought it ran out of plot about half a book too early. Nice set-up, though, and this book, a one-off, shares that, with interesting world-building and a city (New Avalon) that is somewhere between Sydney and New York, and (impressively) full of more self-obsessed inhabitants than either. In this world, people have fairies that give them certain powers and Charlie, the narrator, has a parking fairy that guarantees her a parking spot. As this ensures that she will be seized upon by everyone going anywhere regardless of what she herself wants (and she hates cars and driving) she is desperate to get rid of it, although doing so is causing her to rack up demerits at her ruthlessly rule-bound and sports-obsessed high school…
I really liked the world-building. I am pretty fond of the characters, and there’s a nice mix of teenagers and adults who don’t necessarily understand each other without feeling like they’ve been divided into separate hostile camps. The plot, though, has a couple of problems, and I will dive behind this spoiler cut to discuss them…
Two problems, really. The situation with Danders Anders is never really resolved – okay, so he’s gambling? Possibly? So why does this require going to so many places at so many different times? (I no longer have the book in front of me, but I can’t remember cell phones featuring, actually, but I just assumed most people phoned their illegal bookies) And why does he get away with basically kidnapping Charlie to do so? (yes, he’s an important school sports hero, but she doesn’t even tell her parents?). This felt like a build-up to something much more major than just getting to meet the principal, and it unbalances the book.
The second problem – hmm. One of the things I like in the book is that Charlie really likes the idea of Fiorenza’s “all the boys like you” fairy, until she swaps fairies with Fiorenza and discovers the reality of a) being stalked and b) not knowing if the boy you like really likes you back for you, rather than your fairy. This is nicely done (especially a), which is just the right amount of creepy without going into completely disturbing – fortunately, it only works on boys your own age). At the end, though, Charlie (who is mad about both basketball and cricket) gets a new fairy, and it’s a “shot-blocking” fairy that gives her amazing basketball skills and gets her into the team she previously failed try-outs for. She’s thrilled. There’s no suggestion that this invalidates her hard work at basketball, nor that she’s only going to go further in this sport because of her fairy rather than her own talent – which places her in the exact same moral place as Danders Anders, who is a school sports hero precisely because he has a grip fairy.
I don’t think I was supposed to finish the book feeling quite so ambivalent about the ending. I’ve read a commentary somewhere (if I find it again I’ll link) about how this book uses the fairies as a literalisation of privilege, which I thought was an interesting take on it – but if that’s the case, what does this ending mean for Charlie? Some people just deserve to be talented?
