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Jul. 1st, 2009 11:13 pmCross-posted to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
50books_poc
The blood stone, Jamila Gavin, 9/50. Filippo Veroneo is the youngest son of a family of jewellers in seventeenth century Venice; his father left for Hindustan before he was born and is believed dead, but the family have never entirely given up on him. His father’s masterpiece, the Ocean of the Moon, is a pendant containing a 55 carat diamond that Filippo’s mother keeps hidden; Filippo’s older sister’s husband has lost money in business, and wants the pendant, but at the same time news finally comes that Filippo’s father is alive, imprisoned, and can be freed in exchange for the diamond…
I really enjoyed the first hundred pages of this, with lots of charging around Venice, jewels, and family politics – the Veroneos are an interesting bunch. And then it all fell apart on me, and I ended up with something I really didn’t enjoy reading, which was disappointing. I’ve read Coram Boy (also by Gavin) and it was a while back, but I think I had a similar but milder problem with one of the plot elements there. This actually makes me more likely to track down another one of her books (although I will stick to library versions) to see if it’s a consistent problem, because obviously all my book reviews are conducted according to rigid scientific principles…
( Spoilers. )
Anyway. Possibly I am just the wrong reader, or reading at the wrong time. Basically, I wanted to either hang around Venice when the book left or else do remarkably different things with the same set of characters, but this reaction is idiosyncratic enough that I wouldn’t necessarily stop anyone else reading it.
Josefa and the Vu, Tulia Thompson, 10/50. This I liked unreservedly. NZ children’s book, about Josefa, who is the youngest son of a Fijian family living in Onehunga (Auckland suburb currently in the process of being gentrified) who meets a giant warrior claiming to be a protective ancestral spirit, just before dark clouds and pollution start attacking, and the over-entitled Pakeha son of Josefa’s dad’s boss comes over to their place and steals a whale’s tooth pendant that’s sacred to Josefa’s family. Plot, and multicultural fantasy, ensues.
( No spoilers, although probably too many parentheses. )
50books_pocThe blood stone, Jamila Gavin, 9/50. Filippo Veroneo is the youngest son of a family of jewellers in seventeenth century Venice; his father left for Hindustan before he was born and is believed dead, but the family have never entirely given up on him. His father’s masterpiece, the Ocean of the Moon, is a pendant containing a 55 carat diamond that Filippo’s mother keeps hidden; Filippo’s older sister’s husband has lost money in business, and wants the pendant, but at the same time news finally comes that Filippo’s father is alive, imprisoned, and can be freed in exchange for the diamond…
I really enjoyed the first hundred pages of this, with lots of charging around Venice, jewels, and family politics – the Veroneos are an interesting bunch. And then it all fell apart on me, and I ended up with something I really didn’t enjoy reading, which was disappointing. I’ve read Coram Boy (also by Gavin) and it was a while back, but I think I had a similar but milder problem with one of the plot elements there. This actually makes me more likely to track down another one of her books (although I will stick to library versions) to see if it’s a consistent problem, because obviously all my book reviews are conducted according to rigid scientific principles…
( Spoilers. )
Anyway. Possibly I am just the wrong reader, or reading at the wrong time. Basically, I wanted to either hang around Venice when the book left or else do remarkably different things with the same set of characters, but this reaction is idiosyncratic enough that I wouldn’t necessarily stop anyone else reading it.
Josefa and the Vu, Tulia Thompson, 10/50. This I liked unreservedly. NZ children’s book, about Josefa, who is the youngest son of a Fijian family living in Onehunga (Auckland suburb currently in the process of being gentrified) who meets a giant warrior claiming to be a protective ancestral spirit, just before dark clouds and pollution start attacking, and the over-entitled Pakeha son of Josefa’s dad’s boss comes over to their place and steals a whale’s tooth pendant that’s sacred to Josefa’s family. Plot, and multicultural fantasy, ensues.
( No spoilers, although probably too many parentheses. )
