Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
ISBN: 0439139597
734 pages
published in 2000.
I have to say I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the previous three. I’d say that the primarily reason is that this book has lost a lot of the fancy and whimsy of its predecessors and replaced it with a lot of grim events and flat-out misery at times. My boyfriend and I were discussing it, and we joked that it is a lot like (nerd alert) the Pokemon characters of the most recent generation. They start off really cute and turn pretty ugly, and that seems to be the case with this series so far. I’ve been told that the remaining books are equally grim, but perhaps there is more going for them.
I did enjoy the majority of the plot line and the times that the focus was NOT on how horrible the world is and how terrible and abused Harry Potter is were excellent and entertaining. I suppose even the scary parts were entertaining, but I honestly do feel I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been less grim.
The new characters that were introduced were very enjoyable, though. I especially like Viktor Krum and I found myself liking Severus Snape a lot more than I did in the previous books, as I feel he was given a lot more dimension. I’m still curious to learn more about his history and what sort of usefulness he has for Dumbledore. He was particularly vindictive towards Harry earlier in this novel, so I was beginning to be suspicious of him again, though perhaps I was wrong to feel that way.
I’m actually very surprised at how dark this book was. The whole history behind Mr. Crouch and some of the other members of the Ministry of Magic was VERY depressing, indeed, and I was very stricken by the events surrounding Cedric Diggory. Voldemort’s past was also disturbing — like — *legitimately* disturbing! It’s very odd to see this book go from a fairly light-hearted atmosphere like the first and second into a drastic spiral of drama and darkness. I may change my mind as I progress in the series though, so this isn’t really a total condemnation, just an expression of some apprehension, I think. I wonder why so many YA/JUV books are so depressing!
The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike
ISBN: 0671872648
193 pages
published in 1994.
Christopher Pike was one of my favorite writers when I was probably between the ages of 8 and 14. I was allowed to read his books because they were always stocked alongside R.L. Stine’s YA series in the library (and what is safer than R.L. Stine?) but they always seemed edgier and more unnerving to me. The standard horror plots were there, but there was always something a little stranger underneath. Time travel, possession, etc. No offense R.L. Stine, but they were not “monster in the basement” books at all. They had drugs and sex and extreme violence. And my parents had no idea.
Anyway, I remembered really liking this book but it had been a long time since I’d sat down and read it. I picked up the first four books in the series last summer when I took a walk to a used bookstore near my sister’s house and I hadn’t gotten around to them until recently. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my memories of the book were pretty accurate. The Last Vampire certainly isn’t a quality piece of literature, but it stands out amongst the sea of trashy YA novels as imaginative, dark and funny.
The protagonist, Sita, a thousands-of-years-old vampire realizes that — after centuries of stalking other people — someone is after her. The book follows her exploits in the modern day (her relationships with the people she meets and the conflict between the figure that is stalking her) and also includes a fairly lengthy description of her beginning and her past. I enjoyed those parts most of all because they are the most compelling and interesting in the book. Vampires, in Pike’s novels, were created from a demonic possession that took place in India thousands of years ago that Sita was involved in. It was her friend that was possessed, and the baby that she gave birth to wound up to be the first vampire — Yaksha. It is Yaksha that made Sita into a vampire.
Notable appearances also include Krishna, oddly enough, who plays a big part in the novel. It is Krishna’s favor that Sita is most concerned with keeping. So in the end, it’s not just a novel about a vampire trying to keep herself from being staked — it’s also a novel about Sita puzzling over the existence of God, whether she’s stayed in his/Krishna’s favor if he does exist and what her place is in the world after 5,000 years. It is arguably one of the most original vampire stories I’ve ever read. There is angst, sure, but it is for once understandable and non-irritating angst. It seems validated. I appreciated the use of mythology and religion and though it is a short novel, it’s filled with character development and plot. Truly impressive.
The one thing that did irritate me was Sita’s narrative voice — but only occasionally. It’s a very consistent voice and she makes a good storyteller, but her confidence and the way she constantly bragged about her strengths and exploits wore on my nerves a little bit after about 50 pages or so. This doesn’t take away much, but it does make it difficult for me to empathize with her early-on. I would say that the climax saves her for me as a character, though.
I really enjoyed it. I want to read more of Pike’s books now but I remember quite a few of them actually disturbed me! I’m going to see what I can dig up on Amazon.
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
ISBN: 9780812558623
224 pages
published in 1992.
- Briar Rose
was one of those books that kept me up for a long time after reading it. I had a lot of trouble falling asleep last night because my thoughts flip-flopped back and forth so much between pleasure (I thoroughly enjoyed the book) and horror, because there were so much in the book to be disturbed about.
The story parallels the original story of Briar Rose by giving it a new setting — Poland during World War II. A young girl who works as a reporter at a small paper in the 1990s challenges herself to find out more about her grandmother’s mysterious past after she passes away. All she has to go on is a box of old and cryptic documents and paperwork that her grandmother left behind and a story she was told over and over as a child — in fact, the only story her grandmother ever really told her — the story of Briar Rose.
Yolen seems to effortlessly merge a heartbreaking Holocaust story with a fairy tale, giving a fantasy quality to the first and a dose of hard reality to the second. It’s a beautiful match. The characters are incredibly compelling. The girl and her friend, and the older man they find in Poland who is able to finally help them match up the pieces to the puzzle and unravel the mystery. I was attached to each of them emotionally. They were completely unlike any other characters I had read before and I wanted to know more about each of them as though they were real people. More about their past, their future… My concerns for them seemed so real, which I think is a mark of a magical storyteller!
I appreciated the fact that although Yolen was telling a holocaust story, she did not resort to known names and places to make her story effective and authentic. She didn’t have to. The story she had to tell was enough. I’m sure these mixed feelings of joy and satisfaction and horror and sadness will be with me for a very long time.
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
ISBN: 0451155750
416 pages
published in 1979.
I’ve been wanting to get around to more Stephen King books lately, so I’m glad I finally picked one up. I probably wouldn’t have chosen to read this one — but it was one of the few King paperbacks I had lying around on my shelves, and I figured I was going to read it eventually (Stephen King reading challenge) so I might as well now. :]
I have to admit, it wasn’t really my kind of book — at least concerning the subject matter. But it was extraordinarily well-written and the fact that it did keep my attention is a testament to Stephen King’s skill. It was a very political novel, really, and dealt mostly with political actors that had their time decades before I was even born (the novel spans the 1970s — I was born late in 1990!) If it was anyone else, I don’t know if I could have stuck with it.
Again I marveled at how well King is able to weave plot elements into themselves and have them all match up together in something that is startlingly organized and beautiful. For example (and while attempting to not make this post a total spoiler) the tiger motif and the color of the child’s clothing in Johnny’s vision was totally unexpected yet extremely satisfying once it swung around.
On top of that, King also wrote very well developed characters that I wind up feeling very strongly for, but this is also the norm for him. I liked Johnny quite a bit — along with his father and Bannerman, the town sheriff, but I didn’t care very much for Sarah. I’m not really sure why that is, but I guess you can’t like everyone.
Besides just simply being disinterested for the most part, I was sort of disappointed with the ending. The actual plot ending was fine, but the final part (with the transcripts from interviews and — finally and perhaps most eye-roll-inducing — Sarah’s visit to the cemetery) was a bit too corny for me. I was a little shocked because I don’t really expect King to have things wrap up in the way that they did (not that there is necessarily anything wrong with neat endings, but it seemed a little too TV-movie for me).
Anyway, it is basically a good book. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I cared more about politics in the 1970s or had more of an interest in psychics, etc. I was also a little embarrassed here and there though when “skeptics” in the book were sort of dismissed with a shrug and an eye-roll, as though it is totally unreasonable to believe that some guy is pretending to be psychic. I wouldn’t re-read the book but I wouldn’t steer people away from it either, if that makes sense!
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
ISBN: 043912042X
262 pages
published in 2000.
This was another one of those books for my Adolescent Literature class this semester and it was definitely one of the loveliest ones! (If I had to rank them I’d probably put The Devil’s Arithmetic first, this one second, The Watsons Go to Birmingham third and The Outsiders fourth.) I loved the way Ryan concentrated on the land and thought that the characters were very well developed and lovable.
For young readers especially, I feel like this book does a great deal of justice to the history of Mexican immigrants and immigrants in general — specifically those who arrived in America, land of dreams, to find that things were not going to be as fair as advertised. This book would be great to use to connect to current events involving Mexican immigration, but would also be great to use in a historical context. Hell, this would just be a great book to have kids read in general, whether it’s being used for a class or not. I adored the descriptions of Esperanza and her family crocheting, and the making of their special blanket (I can relate!)
Esperanza’s descent from being a wealthy child of a landowner to a poor migrant farm worker was difficult but done tastefully and with sensitivity. She comes across as a spoiled child at many times, yes, but you can feel the pain that this causes others and the embarrassment it eventually causes Esperanza. But because she’s a strong character (especially as a female lead) she eventually takes control of her situation and absolutely flourishes. The message at the end of the story, “Do not ever be afraid to start over” is relevant in so many situations and I can just imagine this being a lovely book to hand to a child that is having trouble getting used to a new living situation (moving to a new place, seeing their family’s living/financial situation changing, etc.) The reading level is appropriate for middle schoolers, but each word is chosen so carefully that it would not be offensive to suggest the book to an older child as well, as I think most readers would be able to get something out of it, whether they can connect personally with the subject matter or not.
A really great piece of children’s literature and totally worth the read!
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Reading Challenges
