Team Human and How to Ditch Your Fairy: Two Book Reviews for the Price of One

[attackfish]

I had two exams at the library the day before yesterday, and then I had to go for an oral surgery consult (My wisdom teeth are impacted) so as a treat to myself, I took two books out of the library that I’ve been meaning to read for a while: How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier and Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan.

Team Human:

Mel has never liked vampires.  Lucky for her, even though she lives in New Whitby, the famous vampire town, she hasn’t had to have much to do with them.  They stay on their side of town, and she stays on hers.  But vampires have always held a fascination for her best friend Cathy.  When a vampire who was turned as a teenager back in the eighteen hundreds decides to start taking classes at the local high school, it’s Mel’s job to figure out what he’s doing there and chase him off before Cathy finds herself drained of her blood and joining the ranks of the undead herself.

How to Ditch Your Fairy:

Charlie hates her fairy.  Fairies are supernatural good luck talismans, which means they’re supposed to be helpful right?  Her best friend has a clothes shopping fairy and it’s awesome.  Charlie meanwhile has a parking fairy, and at fourteen years old, this means everybody wants her to ride in their car.  After an unfortunate kidnapping incedent, she wants her fairy gone, and she will do anything to make that happen.

Okay, so you don’t get a cut because this will be short.  I decided to review these two books together because I have pretty much the same thing to say about both of them.  I liked them.  They’re clever, fun, charming, and witty.  I didn’t love them, I’m not overly attached to the characters, the settings were interesting, but the books didn’t explore the bits of them that most intrigued me, and I’m not devastated that they’re finished, nor do I want to reread them.  They are light, fun, happy books, and the perfect thing to read after final exams.  They made me feel better about getting my wisdom teeth out, and the fact that my car wouldn’t start, at night in the rain.  If you want something pleasant and diverting, don’t hesitate to pick them up.

Justine Larbalestier has a website at justinelarbalestier.com/ and tweets under the name JustineLavaworm.  Sarah Rees Brennan can be found all over the internet, as sarahtales on livehournal, on tumblr at sarahreesbrennan.tumblr.com, and on her own website, sarahreesbrennan.com.

Comments

[ljlee.livejournal.com]

I adore the premise (or that part of the premise) of your novel. The easy way, obviously, would be to make the grandfather a monster who is abusive to the heroine etc., but the easy way is seldom interesting and I'm glad you're not taking it. To me he seems like not so much a deliberately cruel man as a limited one, who is capable of great kindness to the people in his life but doesn't see all people as people. He probably sees what he does as necessary for survival and order, and maybe even a net good for the people he oppresses because those people don't have what it takes to decide their own destiny and they'd be worse off on their own etc. (Just typing that makes me feel dirty.) I can imagine him saying something casually and benevolently bigoted in his granddaughter's presence and her twitching but not saying anything. Or maybe they're sharing a very sweet moment and she wonders why she keeps imagining him dead at her hands even as she wants to bask in his affection forever. What works and what doesn't is all very highly context-dependent, of course.

Also it's fascinating that you've inverted the usual genders of an unequal het relationship and it's just as troubling as the other way around. I mean, the person whose consent is at issue might react in different ways depending on who they are and the expectations they have. After all, slave women in Earth's history were often proud of being the master's concubine, bearing his children etc,, and a slave man may similarly find it a source of pride that a highborn woman found him worthy of siring her child over his social betters, and he may feel tenderly toward the lady. And of course none of the above makes the situation okay and there are going to be strains and discord somewhere.

This also raises questions about the heroine's own status, is she a slave herself due to something like the "one drop" rule, is she somehow both noble and lowborn due to some awkward loophole etc. Maybe she's a royal bastard, or maybe the classes are configured very differently. Whatever the particulars of her status, this girl seems precisely poised to go on a Hero's Journey to grapple with her grandfather's legacy and maybe heal the rift in her community. Moses seems to be a good template with his own dual identity.

Must... shut up... If you need an editor or just someone to bounce ideas off of, just ask!

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I'm replying to you by PM.