The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Read: 16 March, 2012

The Road Hill House murder shocked Victorian England. The crime itself was brutal, of course, but what really shook the foundation of Victorian assumptions about social class and safety was that the murder took place in an otherwise ordinary middle class household and that the murder was evidently one of its inmates.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher follows the investigation of the murder and its aftermath, focusing on the lives of the Kent family and on Mr. Whicher, the detective, himself.

Summerscale does an amazing job of contextualising the murder and its aftermath. While she does go a little overboard in painting the Road Hill murder as the catalyst for change in Victorian society, she does at least make her argument rather convincing. Her writing style is approachable even for those unfamiliar with the era, and her frequent mentions of books and historical figures added extra fun to the reading for me because it brought back so many of my lessons from when I studied Victorian literature in university.

I highly recommend Mr. Whicher if you have an interest in the Victorian era, issues surrounding the interaction of law enforcement and privacy, or simply enjoy mysteries and want a little more background on real life detectives.

Buy The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher on Amazon.

The Poisons of Caux #1: The Hollow Bettle by Susannah Appelbaum

Read: 14 March, 2012

Apotheopathy - or healing - has been illegal in Caux since the deadly King Nightshade took the throne. Ivy Manx's uncle is one of the few apotheopaths still practising in secret. But when he goes missing, Ivy sets out on a adventure to find her lost uncle and to fulfil a mysterious and hidden prophecy about a Noble Child.

I picked The Hollow Bettle up on a whim. I'm trying to build a collection of good children's books to build my son's interest in reading, and this one has very appealing illustrations and seemed to have an interesting concept. Blind buying is always something of a gamble, and I'm generally so lucky that it stands to reason that I was about due for a dud.

Appelbaum's writing style aims for whimsy, but often opts for lyricism over sense. Her writing is littered with throwaway lines that sound lovely (if a little purple), but don't fit in with the text around them. For example, when Rowan tells Ivy to kick at the Outrider, we are told that "it was fortunate for Ivy that Rowan's advice was excellent." But what was excellent about it? Ivy kicks and it fails to free her from the Outrider.

I also noticed several occasions where Appelbaum chose the wrong words - often words that sound very similar to the right ones, or perhaps indicate a case of thesaurusitis (choosing a synonym without fully understanding the particular connotations of the new word). To be fair, the problem does lessen as the book goes on, perhaps as the author starts to find her groove, but it's enough of a problem that I would have considerable reservations giving The Hollow Bettle to children lest they build their vocabulary incorrectly.

The story itself suffered from similar problems. There's no question that the world Appelbaum constructs is interesting, but it seems that she was more interested in showcasing that world than in actually telling her story. As a result, each adventure adds little to the story or to the reader's understanding of the characters. Rather, the episodes feel disjointed, and Ivy moves from one to the next in fits and starts.

The illustrations are beautiful, and filled with details and life that are so lacking in the narrative.

Series: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is a dystopian series set in the distant future Appalachia. The world - as much as we know of it - has destroyed itself and been reborn as Panem. In the centre is the Capital, where people live in luxury and entertain themselves with fashion and the drama of the Hunger Games. Around it are twelve districts, each focusing on a single industry so that all dependent on each other for the basic necessities of life. Once, 75 years before the series begins, the districts rebelled in what has come to be known as the Dark Days. There were thirteen districts then, but the Capital destroyed one in the battle. To ensure that the districts would never again seek to rebel, the Capital instituted the Hunger Games - a gladiatorial event in which two children, a boy and a girl, from each district is selected by lottery and entered into the arena, there to fight to the death until only one child is left.

The odds were in Katniss Everdeen's favour and she was not called to be a tribute for the Capital's Hunger Games, but her little sister was not so lucky. When Katniss volunteers herself to take her sister's place, her personal refusal to accept the Capital's rules lay the groundwork for a return of the Dark Days and the possible extinction of what's left of human society.

Are you on Team Peeta or Team Gale?

The Hunger Games series followed many conventions that could have reduced it to a superficial, silly novel - the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale perfectly illustrates my point. It would have been all too easy for the Hunger Games to become about Katniss's "boy troubles," to make her struggle be about the men in her life. The narrative does flirt with this at a few points, but it does so in a psychologically real way that preserves Katniss's identity as an individual in her own right, rather than as an object for the competition between two males. As Shoshana Kessock points out, the only real team in the Hunger Games is Team Katniss.

Living vs Surviving

Katniss's reaction to her dystopian government grows and changes in interesting ways. In the beginning, she is resigned to her fate, content merely with survival. She dismisses the interests of both boys in her love triangle because she cannot envision a future with either, a future which may include having children, in a society that would allow have something like the Hunger Games. It's Peeta who offers her an alternative to simple survival - living - which, paradoxically, may mean martyrdom. His refusal to sacrifice who he is as a person to play by the Capital's rules is a lesson to Katniss that simply surviving isn't enough. She comes back to this lesson again and again through the series, each time understanding a little more about what Peeta meant.

Coming back to the romance tropes, it was so refreshing to see Katniss and Peeta help each other grow as individuals rather than simply learning to don a new identity at the expense of the self. Bella Swan, of Twilight fame is a perfect example of the latter. She sheds her self to take up the identity of her paramour (in this case, his identity as a vampire). In the Hunger Games, on the other hand, Peeta serves as a lesson, but it changes Katniss in a way that is unique to herself. She doesn't become a copy of Peeta, but rather a person who has been shaped by her relationship with him.

Moral Complexity

In the first book of the series, the sides are fairly clear: the Capital is bad, the Districts are victims. But by the second book, Katniss is unable to reconcile her hatred for the Capital with her love for the Capital people in her life, such as her design team, Cinna, or even Effie. By the third book, the moral line that divides the sides becomes even more complicated as we meet the people of District 13 and fine them to be something less than the rescuers they have presented themselves to be. As with so many of our real world revolutions, when the rebels win the war, they adopt all the habits they had so recently fought against. There's a lesson there for readers about trying to fit groups into a "good guy vs bad guy" narrative, and about thinking too uncritically about one's in-group.

Image

Much of the series revolves around Katniss's image. Throughout the series, characters are always dressing Katniss, using her appearance to tell a narrative that promotes their own agenda. I kept thinking of our fashions and the way that clothes often display the maker's branding in a highly visible spot, using their customers as walking billboards. Through it all, Katniss struggles to keep hold of who she is as a person, an individual separate from the image is made to project.

There's also a lesson here about the importance of image, and how powerful our appearances can be.

Conclusion

This series is absolutely fantastic. At only three books, there's really no reason not to go out and read it. It's very well written and excellently plotted. If you haven't already, give it a try!

The Hunger Games #3: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Read: 11 March, 2012

The Hunger Games ended when Katniss destroyed the barrier keeping the tributes in the arena, but the battle against the Capital is far from over. After an all-too-short glimpse of freedom, she finds herself yet again a pawn in someone else's game - this time she is the Mockingjay, a symbol of the revolution used by the rebels and District 13 in their PR campaign.

I was worried about the third instalment of the Hunger Games series because so much could have been poorly handled. The love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale - which had been on hold while Katniss fought for the survival of herself and her loved ones - needed a resolution, and that might mean turning Katniss's world towards 'boy issues.' The Capital had been set up as the baddies from the start, but Mockingjay is the first time we get to look at possible alternative rulers. It would have been so easy to maintain the perception of the Capital is the series' baddies and reduce the conflict into a simplistic good vs evil conflict. And, lastly, the first two books in the series focused around a Hunger Game - what was left for the third? Surely we wouldn't see another Hunger Game? But where else was there to go?

I was pleasantly surprised on all fronts. Collins navigated the standard whirlpools with much grace and ended the series powerfully. Even the "years later" epilogue fit the story and only increased the emotion, rather than feeling too removed from the events for the reader to process. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was in tears for much of the ending.

I really enjoyed the twist - yes, there's a twist. It caught me by surprise, but only because it solved an issue that had been concerning me rather than because it was from "out on left field" or otherwise lacked sense. In retrospect, it fit Katniss perfectly.

Buy Mockingjay from Amazon now!

The Hunger Games #2: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Read: 5 March, 2012

After Katniss defied the Capitol in Hunger Games, forcing them to allow two winners of the Games for the first time in their history, she returns home and tries to patch together a life that has been irrevocably changed by recent events. Her budding feelings for Peeta become even more confused now that Gale is once more by her side. But for now, she's tried to put the events of the Games aside as best she can while she carves out a new routine. Unfortunately, the Capitol is not so willing to forget her defiance.

Discussing Hunger Games with a friend on Facebook recently, someone chimed in to say that they truly enjoyed Catching Fire and actually considered it superior to the first book. I'm not sure I agree, but I can certainly understand where she was coming from. It starts out fairly slow, showing us a Katniss who is trying to make sense of her post-Games life, but then the story really catches fire (har har) and I found it impossible to put down. And with the fictional world and character exposition taking care of by the first book, Catching Fire was free to focus on development.

There were some weird authorial issues. I don't want to give too much away, so... this next bit is a total spoiler. Sorry. So, in both books, Haymitch communicates with Katniss in the games through the gifts he either gives her or does not giver her. So when there are five people in Katniss's alliance and they keep receiving bread rolls in multiples of 6, I assumed that Haymitch was trying to tell Katniss that her group should be looking to include Chaff (since Chaff was Haymitch's friend, and because Peeta had so easily remembered that he was still unaccounted for). And yet while much page space was given to Katniss trying to interpret all of Haymitch's other gifts, she barely gives the rolls a second thought. The only reason I could think of for this is because Suzanne Collins knows the answer, knows that it isn't anything she wants Katniss to guess, so she's just dropped it. It feels like a missed opportunity for some character development. Up until that point, Haymitch's gifts were always communicating to Katniss, but this time the message was meant for her allies. Katniss could have tried to guess the meaning and come to the wrong conclusion, and then had to deal with her feelings later about Haymitch "cheating" on her (which, frankly, would have made her anger at Haymitch's supposed betrayal at the start of Mockingjay - which I've only just started reading, so forgive me if this does get covered - far more palatable).

Buy Catching Fire from Amazon now!

A Song of Ice and Fire #3: A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin

Read: 28 February, 2012

I really can't summarize the book without giving away what's happened in the previous works of the series, but let's just say that it's more of the same. Stuff is bad, it's getting worse, and everyone is too focused on their own concerns to see the bigger picture.

It's incredible that Martin is keeping me at the edge of my seat through the audio equivalent of 3,000+ pages, and leaves me craving more. Even more incredible is that he is able to keep hitting air circulation devices with human waste without it ever feeling forced or giving me anxiety fatigue. It's become a running joke in our household - D will ask how the book is going and I will say: "Everything's gone to hell!" To which my dear gentleman friend replies: "Isn't that what you said last time?"

In Storm of Swords, Jaime Lannister is given a POV and quickly earns his way into my good graces. Martin has done an amazing job at creating convincingly grey characters, and allowing for multiple interpretations of the same events. By giving the reader insight into Jaime's motivations, Martin shows us a man who wishes to honour his vows, and who was willing to break them and sacrifice his reputation to protect the innocent.

Tyrion Lannister is still one of my favourite characters, and we see quite a bit of his development in this book, but there's something that's been bothering me. From the start, he is played as "the clever one." Jaime is a great fighter, Cersei is beautiful, and Tyrion is clever. Yet from the start, he's never struck me as especially smart. He's borderline witty, although he seems to simply subscribe to the buckshot school of wit (make as many japes as possible and hope that some of them land). And, quite frankly, his mocking jokes are frequently ill-timed and just get him into trouble.

I've read a couple reviews mentioning Sansa Stark and how weak and annoying she is. She's no Arya, certainly, but is she really so weak? Arya and Brienne of Tarth are both aberrations in Westeros, and not really an option for females. Sansa is the more realistic of the three. She is a woman and she is acting within the female sphere to survive. Far from being some passive little china doll, I found her to have incredible strength and an active agent in her own right whenever she sees the opportunity. Consider, for example, how she uses Ser Dontos Hollard to escape King's Landing, or how she tries to escape Joffrey by marrying Willas Tyrell. She's afraid, to be sure, but so is Arya. The difference is that Arya survives by using her sword while Sansa survives by using her courtesies. Personally, I admire Sansa's strength, all the more because she carves out her survival in the "woman's domain" (historically speaking) rather than pushing herself into the "man's sphere" as Arya does.

One final note, I am "reading" this via audio book (because it's a hands-free way to stave off boredom while nursing) and it needs to be said that Roy Dotrice is amazing. He makes the characters come to life by giving each a different voice. It was hard for me at first because it shaped my perception of the characters - something that I like the written medium without - but it's grown on me. And Dotrice's range is truly impressive.

The Walking Dead #4: The Heart's Desire by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard

Read: 23 February, 2012

The story picks up at the cliff hanger from Safety Behind Bars, and continues to cover the survivors' stay in the prison. Zombies make very few appearances in this volume and are, for the most part, just background scenery to the real story taking place among the living.

Unfortunately, the greater focus on interpersonal relationships brings to the forefront Kirkman's weakness in writing dialogue. Overall, I've found the writing in this series to be rather bland and, at times, suffering from the kind of awkwardness that an editor might easily have fixed. From a character standpoint, we meet Michonne who seems like she has the potential to be an interesting character, but she behaves erratically- alternating between character and caricature at the flip of a switch. She clearly has a history that I hope will be exposed in future volumes, but I found in frustrating that the survivors took very little interest in who she was, how she had survived for so long, or how she came to have two zombies following her around on a leash who "stopped trying to attack [her] a long time ago." Seems like the kind of thing the survivors ought to want to know more about...

Closing the issue, we have a rather lengthy speech from Rick Grimes about survival in a zombie apocalypse that was, frankly, cringer-worthy. While it had all the markers of "the badass teaches everyone a little something about their darker natures" speeches that we get in the movies, it suffered from all the failings of these sorts of monologues - superficiality, a lack of logical consistency, and an awkwardness that turns the characters into mouthpieces for authors who want to sound cool.

This was by far the most difficult volume of the series to write so far because it had so little action to carry it through and, unfortunately, I didn't feel that Kirkman is capable of handling the interpersonal complexities that were needed. That being said, he and Adlard's artwork did convey some sense of psychological breakdown - that the immediacy of survival had been keeping everyone's heads together, but that sustained (relative) safety is highlighting the cracks.

I don't want to give the wrong impression. I may not be impressed with The Walking Dead, but it's still an interesting series and I'll be reading volume 5. It's pulp, but it's a very quick read and the illustrations make for a different experience than I'm used to.