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Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Eleanor & Park, The Girl Before, and Jane Steele

Eleanor & Park.  I really liked Attachments, but I loved Eleanor & Park.  It has been on my list since it was published; I skimmed all the positive reviews at the time because I didn't want to know too much about it, but...somehow I never got around to reading it.  Now, I have, and it was a pleasure.

Although billed as YA, E&P is a book for anyone who remembers what it was like to be a young adult, at that awkward stage and the need to be accepted; Rainbow Rowell clearly remembers.  The pov alternates between Eleanor and Park, two misfits who somehow, eventually fit together.  

One of Rowell's greatest strength is her ability to create characters who are interesting and likable, not goody-goody or too bad-ass.  Characters who are ordinary, but individual, not heroic and not totally downtrodden.  Sometimes small things d0 require courage and abuse can fail to make an individual surrender.  No magic, no deadly battles, no assassins, no zombies.  Two young people who learn to depend on each other and who face life's  predicaments and hazards with pluck and determination.  And that is not always easy, especially for adolescents.

Purchased.

YA/Contemporary.  2013.  Print length:  335 pages.


The Girl Before is timely in the sense that human trafficking is something right here in our own world, not in some distant country.  In fact, our local paper has been running a series of articles about human trafficking that brings the topic that many novels lately have used as a premise--too close to home.  

The Girl Before was an intense and frustrating read, but often novels make the distant and the impersonal...very personal. Was the premise of this novel believable?  Maybe not so much, because the expense of kidnapping, raising, and educating a child for the purpose of selling her (or him) ten or twelve years later would be difficult to justify economically(Dear God, what a thing to say!).  Quite a few elements of the novel didn't ring true...yet the brainwashing and Stockholm Syndrome are quite believable, sad, and disheartening.  

An interesting and well-written novel about a degrading, repellent practice that is much more common than those of us in our middle-class neighborhoods want to believe.  If it happens most often to runaways, immigrants, or the very poor (there are instances of parents selling their children or pimping the children themselves) than to the people we know, it does not change the horror.  A compelling read that manages to avoid graphic descriptions, avoids manipulating the reader while still making the point, and does not leave you without hope.  

NetGalley/Penguin Group

Psychological Thriller.  Penguin Group.  Print length:  320 pages.


Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye is a recent retelling of Jane Eyre, and the similarities are all over the place--except turned on their heads.  Jane Eyre in a fun-house mirror.  :)  

It was amusing to see how closely and how absurdly Faye followed and inverted characters, events, and elements from the original novel.  There are murders and romance and intriguing situations.   

There are flaws (pacing could have been better, some parts that drag and the whole treasure motif didn't feel convincing), but I have to admit to enjoying it thoroughly.   What I enjoyed most (besides noting all of the clever sneaky subversions) was the Thornfield household with the butler, who was not a butler, and Jane using her charge's love of horses to teach...well, almost everything.  Well done, Governess Jane.  :)

Library copy.

Pastiche/Serial Killer Parody.  2016.  427 pages.

18 comments:

  1. I really like Eleanor and Park too, I think it's my favorite by her.

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    1. I still have a couple more of her books to go, but I love her voice!

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  2. E&P is a great book - so glad you enjoyed it so much :) I have The Girl Before on my kindle and can't wait to read it - although from what you've written I'm sure I'll find it to be a disturbing read. As for Jane Steele - I thought it was such a fun read. I love these reinterpretations of JE :)

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    1. Jane Steele was fun, wasn't it? I don't always like reinterpretations, but find it hard to resist them. Have you read Re Jane by Patricia Park? A contemporary retelling that I didn't like all that much. Jane Steele takes so much from the original!

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  3. I really loved Eleanor & Park. It was my first book by her after a lot of buzz. I just have to read Landline by her and I will have read everything she has written! The narrator that does her audio books is really good, too!

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    1. :) E&P certainly did create a lot of buzz! I was forced to skim a lot of reviews at the time, trying not to learn too much. Fangirl is next on my list.

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  4. Everyone's been reading Jane Steele lately. It sounds so clever and funny. If only people would quit checking it out of my library so I could get my hands on a copy. :)

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    1. The first two times I looked for Jane Steele at my library, it was checked out. Third time--charm! Jane Steele is a different take on a retelling :)

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  5. Ooh, I loved E&P. The author has done well in capturing their voices; I felt so much for the characters. I think it's the best YA among all Rowell's books. The only books I haven't read is Landline and Carry On.

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    1. Yes--Rowell has the ability to give her characters unique, genuine voices! More Rowell in my future. :)

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  6. I keep meaning to read E & P. Thanks for the review. I wouldn't touch The Girl Before!!

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    1. I think you will like E&P. The Girl Before didn't ring true for me in a lot of ways, but it wasn't graphic. More about how enforcing a culture can shape behavior.

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  7. I am glad you enjoyed Eleanor and Park too! I thought the audio was so well done. I'm not familiar with the Girl Before at all, but human trafficking is a subject that interests me very much. Jane Steele is on my wishlist. It looks like it will be a fun read. I'm glad you liked it even with is flaws.

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    1. It was a good spell of reading. And very different books!

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  8. I haven't read all three of your books - just Jane Steele which I loved. It has lots of parallels but is then so different too.
    Lynn :D

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    1. I would have enjoyed Jane Steele even if I had not read Jane Eyre, but it was the way the author twisted events and characters from the original made was more than half the fun!

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  9. E&P has been on my radar for a while, but I still haven't gotten around to reading it. I must remedy that. Jane Steele sounds like good fun!

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    1. Rainbow Rowell has created her own niche; her books seem to have such a unique fingerprint. I've certainly enjoyed the two I've read! Jane Steele is an experience of both novel and parody. :)

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