The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
As an educator, avid reader, and fan of children's literature, I am so happy that Neil Gaiman was awarded the Newbery Medal for this fantastic, haunting, and sophisticated book. Having only read Gaiman's 'Coraline' and 'Neverwhere', I was in awe of his ability to grasp so acutely the power of a child's imagination, their fears and hopes and comforts and language. I felt at times like I was ready a Grimm Fairy Tale (though in his afterword Gaiman writes that he was inspired by Kipling's Jungle Book). The story follows many motifs of a fairy tale. Namely escaping powerful and evil enemies, good versus evil and the fine line in between, freedom versus entrapment, etc. Midway through the novel, I began to feel like I was reading a series of short stories, tied together by the protagonist (Nobody 'Bod' Owens) but by the last chapter I had become so attached to the inhabitants in the graveyard, and especially to Bod himself, that the book came full circle. I own my own copy and I admit that, yes, the last five pages are tear stained -- tears of joy, mostly, to have been so moved by a characters' growth and understanding.


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We Were The Mulvaneys

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sometimes the American Dream fails due to one event. A close knit and warmly truthful family may not be as close as they originally thought. People change, friends are not the people you thought they were, intelligence can only accomplish so much, and even on the surface what appears to be a deep familiar love may not be sustainable.



Oates draws the reader into the close knit family circle of The Mulvaney family, only to eventually rip away the facade. Life, love and family are fragile. And as a reader, I thrived on every sentence and description of the Mulvaney family. An event that at first seems harmful yet able to overcome becomes something so evil and sinister that it can destroy lives and tear apart the inner core of everything we believe to be true.








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The Possession Of Mr. Cave

The Possession of Mr Cave by Matt Haig

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
While at times I found this 'mystery' a bit overdramatic and filled with obvious metaphors which are overly drawn out, eventually Haig touches on a very real and very poignant issue -- how far will a parent go to protect his children and at what cost? If one reads this bizarre story as a metaphor for the anguish, fear, and eventual acceptance of a parents' coming to terms with his child's entry into the teenage/adult world, this is a strong novel. But if read as a 'mystery', I found it lacking and I thought the narrator was under developed.


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Zombie

Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Absolutely terrifying. This book was so disturbing that I had to read it in one sitting for fear that if I didn't finish it immediately, I might have been too horrified to finish it the next day. Quentin P is a sick man. But the brilliance of this novella lies in Oates's first person narrative -- as a writer she literally has entered the mind of mentally disturbed killer. His crimes are gruesome, but that is not what made this book get into my skin. It is Quentin's voice, his somber, at times child like and innocent description of his daily routine. And his complete lack of feeling or empathy for others. Very scary and very, very well written.


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Beasts (Otto Penzler Books)

Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Eerie, haunting, disturbing and yet satisfying and impossible to put down, 'Beasts' was probably not the ideal read on my most recent trip to a resort in Dubai. Still, I was drawn into the story (novella) and even identified with several of the characters (the fictitious Catamount College could so easily be Vassar) and their 'artistic flairs' which allow them to be so drawn in by the creepy Professor Harrow and his wife. This is a story of desire, of the drive to be noticed and singled out, of college students' entry exploration of love versus lust, beauty versus grotesque, honesty versus pretension, and how these lines are so easily blurred when one is living in a 'bubble' that is an east coast liberal arts college.



Of course, this novella slapped me in the face as it brought me back to my senior year, when art history was the most important subject in my life though I was hard at work directing a play which was an adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses for my thesis.


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