What does it mean to be dead? "Rotters" by Daniel Kraus has the answer.
Secrets are best left buried next to the skeletons in the closet, but it's hard to keep them down there when the source of your livelihood is buried six feet under, locked in a wooden box, and nestled between the pale white ribs of the ones best left in the closet. The order of the grave robbers is an old and ancient one that's gasping its final breaths when two unexpected things happen: Joey's mother dies, and a colleague commits the worse sort of heresy possible. There's beauty in death, if you're around it long enough, as pale and as cold as it is. The trouble is, if you accept death as your love, you're halfway there yourself. Joey's drowning in a sea of bones, rats, and lies that are older than he is because nothing will ever be as it seems when you're the Resurrectionist's son.
This is not a book about zombies. This is not a book about romance. Well, there is love, but it's not romance, really. This is not a book about happiness. In fact, Daniel Kraus makes Lemony Snicket look like a Care Bear. This is not a book that has any definable parameters. This is not a book that one raves and gushes about, because in a way, it's too sacred for that.
This book does not have any definable parameters because it is so many things. At first, it seems like a realistic fiction book, in which a boy's mother dies and then he has to go live with his horrible father and go to a horrible school where everyone picks on him, including the teachers. For a while there, you think that he's going to do alright, get the girl of his dreams, rise up from his underdog status, and show those bullies their proper places, etc. like in a lot of other books. Then, you realize that you still have 3/4's of the book to go, you haven't even figured out why the name of the book is 'Rotters,' and that there's a picture of a shovel sticking out of the dirt next to a tombstone on the cover.
After you get out of the part where it's all a nightmarish high-school fantasy, it gets pretty twisted. Excuse me, really twisted. But, that is the most fantastic part about it. In the beginning it's pretty tame. They rob graves, big whoop. It's pretty interesting how Joey's interactions at school are directly influenced by his 'graveyard shift' (excuse me, I had to). He is one of the most dynamic characters I've seen, and even as he steps away from being what fundamentally made him Joey in the beginning of the book and he stops being recognizably Joey, he is still Joey. It's rare to find a character that changes so absolutely, completely, and believably over the course of one book.
The high school drama also serves to anchor the book. In the end of the book, when there is no more high school stuff and everything gets dramatically more weird, the book gets almost dreamy, because there's nothing there that you can really connect with. Yet, it's better for that. The book becomes more because true understanding of the real situation lies on the peripheral of your understanding. It doesn't make any sense now, while you're reading this, but it makes a lot of sense while you're reading the book. Which, I hope you do, because it's a fantastic book.
The whole thing with the dudes chasing after the dad because he robbed the grave after he saw the rat king is a bit absurd, though. If I saw an evil omen, I would've gone back to my house and sat there for a while and thought some before I jumped the gun and did. It seemed completely out of everything we knew about the Resurrectionist's character.
Speaking of character, the characters are very. As you know by now, I like a decently sized cast of personable characters. This book has two main characters--Joey, and his dad, though, I would suppose you'd be amiss if you didn't count Baby as a main character, so say you have three main characters--and really, only a few of them converse at a time. Half of the characters in the book are repulsive, and the other half are reclusive. They are personable,if personable means they have their quirks, but they are a very odd sort of personable. None of them are loud or overly sarcastic, which is more my style, but most are quietly cynical. And then there are, of course, the few people who devote themselves to a cause with a whole-hearted passion, which I don't really understand, but I almost can, per the style of the writing. The only person you really connect to is Joey, and the only one you really, really like is Ike or Joey's father's mentor. Yeah. But everyone's personality is fantastic, even if you hate them. Each are their own person, and you forget that they are merely characters in a book.
The world they live in is vivid, if not bright. A good book will keep you anchored by not moving to new places every other page. Many places in this book are revisited and reused, so it feels like you've actually been somewhere, not skimmed by it. That doesn't make any sense either. Excuse me.
In this day and age, people are easily offended, so I'm going to tell you that there is a bit of a religious undertone. He doesn't go to church, but there's a dude that comes around frequently telling him that his soul needs to be saved. And then there the two-fingered Jesus. I mean, I don't know what people's boundaries are, and I am an open-minded person who doesn't really get people's boundaries, so I thought I would just put that out there.
And so, now to the ending. All I'm going to say is that it is a pretty open-ended ending, one that's fantastic and creepy and mysterious and brings up more questions than it does answers. It's the sort of ending that leads to a sequel, in most cases, but if anyone makes a sequel to this I will personally bring them to their grave because perfection should not be messed with, and, anyways, what could be a better resolution than that? So, for once, I am pretty pleased with an ending. That must be some sort of momentous event, no?
The question that this book is supposed to answer, as I posed up in the beginning--'what does it mean to be dead'--is never answered outright, but you're given enough information to form your own answer. For me, I think that the moment you die is the moment you stop worrying about whether you're truly alive.
http://danielkraus.com/rotters.php Watch the video by Vorvolakas (that's a band that plays a significant part in the book). It's pretty creepy, once you get into. And, I think they're chanting 'pain will not escape you,' or something of that kin, but I'm too sure. His other books look pretty cool, too.
Showing posts with label Family Tragedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family Tragedy. Show all posts
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
Death Watch
"Death Watch," Ari Berk, is a fantastic novel on death and what it means to live.
Lichport is a town where the dead outnumber the living. Amos Umber used to be the town's Undertaker, putting the spirits of the dead to rest and keeping the fragile peace between the world. Amos Umber went missing while working a year ago, though, and his disappearance has haunted his son, Silas. Moving into his uncle's house in Lichport, Silas stalks the old, abandoned streets looking for clues to his fathers appearance. But Silas is no child and the more time he spends looking for his lost father is less time he has to figure out the real problem in Lichport, the one that's got everyone on their toes; a lonely ghost locked in a house, an insane man looking for blood, and the ship wicked that's hovering just beyond the horizon.
You know what's going on forty pages after Silas steps over the threshold and into his uncle's house. Well, you know the basic premise of what's going to happen, but still. That's a hundred pages into a (I want to say) 500 page book? Eh. Could be better.
Also, Silas is a spoiled brat. All he thinks about is his 'girlfriend' and his father's disappearance. Okay, so, maybe he's not a spoiled brat. But he's pretty self-absorbed. He is a basically good person and he's selfless when he can see past his own problem. When Mr. Peale dies he's still wrapped up in his father and he has to do the final rites. Hello? Quit worrying. There's a time for everything. Eventually, though, I do believe that he learns his lesson. It's always nice to see a character grow after reading an absurdly long novel. In my mind, he was cutting an impressive figure by the end, but that might just be my perception and my obsession of good beating evil, good personalities over bad personalities.
I'm not saying that it's a bad book, though. It's one of those books that can carrying on no matter what mood the protagonist is in. There isn't a dreadful amount of dialogue; the descriptions of things outweigh the dialogue by far. The amount of description is like that of C.S. Lewis's, in literary nature, of course. I've heard some people describe the Narnia books as wordy, and if you can't handle those I don't believe that "Death Watch" is for you.
But, lo, the descriptions describe something wonderful. The ghostly worlds jump of the page. It's phenomenal. The town of Lichport is as real as any town on the map, sometimes more real. The closed in lanes of the Narrows; the playground; the cramped, chaotic, and serene sight of that graveyard that's on the hill that I've gone and forgotten the name of; and (one of my favorite parts) the tea house and the alehouse where the spirits go to forget that they ever lived. They all played like a little movie in my head, and I believe that I would recognize those places if I ever stumbled across them.
Also, I love books about death. I know that's extraordinarily morbid, but I do. Books that bring up theories about what happens to you after you die, books that speculate what the meaning of death is. This is a book that does both, with an added question: What is death if you've never really lived at all The question is sort of buried within the many pages, but I agree with it wholeheartedly, or, at least, as much as one can agree with a question. The book also brings up another interesting concept (yes, this one also has to do with death); the memory of the dead.
Not the memory of the spirits, but how people remember them. Silas's mother's grandfather decided not to die, so he's basically a 'zombie' or a corpse with a will. No, he does not try to eat anyone's brains, sorry for the disappointment. Mainly, he sleeps. But, all that aside, Silas's mother's grandfather is a good example of the books theme "Remember the dead," because Silas's mother is afraid of her grandfather. She doesn't want to remember him. In fact, she moves so she doesn't have to remember him anymore. This could be in part because he's a corpse, but it also could be a metaphor, and not just about death. A lot of people are afraid to remember things that are painful to them.
Also, in the spirit world, spirits try to remember things too. I think that those souls 'have lost something but have given up on looking for it' but I don't have the book in front of me so I can't check up on the correct wording. But these souls lost something in their life, and now, upon their death, they've given up looking, but they're still stuck. This could be another metaphor, but about people who are living.
So, really, the book isn't all about death. It's about the living and how death affects them. It has multiple levels, which makes for an enthralling read. All in all, Silas Umber's story isn't half bad, not half bad at all. Now, if only he can stay alive long enough to give us more of them.
Lichport is a town where the dead outnumber the living. Amos Umber used to be the town's Undertaker, putting the spirits of the dead to rest and keeping the fragile peace between the world. Amos Umber went missing while working a year ago, though, and his disappearance has haunted his son, Silas. Moving into his uncle's house in Lichport, Silas stalks the old, abandoned streets looking for clues to his fathers appearance. But Silas is no child and the more time he spends looking for his lost father is less time he has to figure out the real problem in Lichport, the one that's got everyone on their toes; a lonely ghost locked in a house, an insane man looking for blood, and the ship wicked that's hovering just beyond the horizon.
You know what's going on forty pages after Silas steps over the threshold and into his uncle's house. Well, you know the basic premise of what's going to happen, but still. That's a hundred pages into a (I want to say) 500 page book? Eh. Could be better.
Also, Silas is a spoiled brat. All he thinks about is his 'girlfriend' and his father's disappearance. Okay, so, maybe he's not a spoiled brat. But he's pretty self-absorbed. He is a basically good person and he's selfless when he can see past his own problem. When Mr. Peale dies he's still wrapped up in his father and he has to do the final rites. Hello? Quit worrying. There's a time for everything. Eventually, though, I do believe that he learns his lesson. It's always nice to see a character grow after reading an absurdly long novel. In my mind, he was cutting an impressive figure by the end, but that might just be my perception and my obsession of good beating evil, good personalities over bad personalities.
I'm not saying that it's a bad book, though. It's one of those books that can carrying on no matter what mood the protagonist is in. There isn't a dreadful amount of dialogue; the descriptions of things outweigh the dialogue by far. The amount of description is like that of C.S. Lewis's, in literary nature, of course. I've heard some people describe the Narnia books as wordy, and if you can't handle those I don't believe that "Death Watch" is for you.
But, lo, the descriptions describe something wonderful. The ghostly worlds jump of the page. It's phenomenal. The town of Lichport is as real as any town on the map, sometimes more real. The closed in lanes of the Narrows; the playground; the cramped, chaotic, and serene sight of that graveyard that's on the hill that I've gone and forgotten the name of; and (one of my favorite parts) the tea house and the alehouse where the spirits go to forget that they ever lived. They all played like a little movie in my head, and I believe that I would recognize those places if I ever stumbled across them.
Also, I love books about death. I know that's extraordinarily morbid, but I do. Books that bring up theories about what happens to you after you die, books that speculate what the meaning of death is. This is a book that does both, with an added question: What is death if you've never really lived at all The question is sort of buried within the many pages, but I agree with it wholeheartedly, or, at least, as much as one can agree with a question. The book also brings up another interesting concept (yes, this one also has to do with death); the memory of the dead.
Not the memory of the spirits, but how people remember them. Silas's mother's grandfather decided not to die, so he's basically a 'zombie' or a corpse with a will. No, he does not try to eat anyone's brains, sorry for the disappointment. Mainly, he sleeps. But, all that aside, Silas's mother's grandfather is a good example of the books theme "Remember the dead," because Silas's mother is afraid of her grandfather. She doesn't want to remember him. In fact, she moves so she doesn't have to remember him anymore. This could be in part because he's a corpse, but it also could be a metaphor, and not just about death. A lot of people are afraid to remember things that are painful to them.
Also, in the spirit world, spirits try to remember things too. I think that those souls 'have lost something but have given up on looking for it' but I don't have the book in front of me so I can't check up on the correct wording. But these souls lost something in their life, and now, upon their death, they've given up looking, but they're still stuck. This could be another metaphor, but about people who are living.
So, really, the book isn't all about death. It's about the living and how death affects them. It has multiple levels, which makes for an enthralling read. All in all, Silas Umber's story isn't half bad, not half bad at all. Now, if only he can stay alive long enough to give us more of them.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Blood Wounds
Blood Wounds, in my opinion, is the best thing Susan Beth Pfeffer's written so far.
Willa is part of a mixed family. She knows that she's lucky to have Jack, her step-father. She knows that she's lucky to have her two step-sisters, even though they've been spoiled silly by their mother. She knows she's lucky that she's out of her biological father's house, where things were bad for her mother. She becomes even more aware of this fact when it is becomes clear that her father has gone on a killing spree, killing his new wife and their three daughters. The danger rises as her father comes into her town, possibly looking for her and her mother.
The danger does pass, but the aftermath is almost worse. Caught between her 'real' family and her blood family, Willa wants to make peace with the half-sisters she never met, the half-brother she could never forget, and the town that is out for her family's blood. Even if it tears her 'real' family apart.
I usually find realistic fiction boring, but this one was good. I couldn't put it down, actually. I think I annoyed some librarians: I sat in the library and read it for an hour solid while they kept turning up the air conditioner, trying to get me out ( ;).
Willa is the most heart-warming character I've come across in a while. She is brave to face the people that hate her, and I can only hope to emulate that. I could also never imagine being in the situation she is in with her step-sisters. They are real brats, even if they don't seem it at first glance, and I don't think I could continue being nice to them after all I saw them get. Does that make any sense? Okay, so, what I'm trying to say is that Willa must be a lovely person to remain happy and untainted even while Brooke and Alyssa get everything they want.
This book has a lot of similarities to Wild Things, in my mind, if only because there is an unknown half-brother and both team up and deal with some aspect of death. I like Trace more than I like Wil, though, in some aspects. Trace is more of a real-world guy, and I can picture him giving Willa advice about the world later in life. World-hardened and street-toughened, he's the older brother that I wish I had. (Well, I wish I had any older brother, really, but if I could have my pick of them, I'd choose Trace.)
No matter how many similarities you'll find between this books and others, there is one thing that I've never found in any other book: The plot line. It is a very sick, twisted plot line. It's something that you would never see coming. If you think about it too much, your stomach turns. But it's new. Please name a book in which there is something equally disturbing. (Maybe I should give this book to my dad for Father's Day . . . That would be cruel.)
I cried several times while reading this. I would've laughed out loud too, but there were really no funny parts. I've been reading books that I haven't been posting on, and I haven't been posting on them because I don't like them. The characters were paper dolls, the plots, meaningless. But here, I felt like there was something at stake, so my emotions ran rampant with it. I probably made myself look life a fool while sitting in the Young Adult section, but so be it. It was well worth it.
If every realistic fiction book were like this, you wouldn't be able to pull me away from them. As it is, I am feeling deprived. Blood Wounds doesn't just get under your skin: It cuts you all the way to your heart.
Willa is part of a mixed family. She knows that she's lucky to have Jack, her step-father. She knows that she's lucky to have her two step-sisters, even though they've been spoiled silly by their mother. She knows she's lucky that she's out of her biological father's house, where things were bad for her mother. She becomes even more aware of this fact when it is becomes clear that her father has gone on a killing spree, killing his new wife and their three daughters. The danger rises as her father comes into her town, possibly looking for her and her mother.
The danger does pass, but the aftermath is almost worse. Caught between her 'real' family and her blood family, Willa wants to make peace with the half-sisters she never met, the half-brother she could never forget, and the town that is out for her family's blood. Even if it tears her 'real' family apart.
I usually find realistic fiction boring, but this one was good. I couldn't put it down, actually. I think I annoyed some librarians: I sat in the library and read it for an hour solid while they kept turning up the air conditioner, trying to get me out ( ;).
Willa is the most heart-warming character I've come across in a while. She is brave to face the people that hate her, and I can only hope to emulate that. I could also never imagine being in the situation she is in with her step-sisters. They are real brats, even if they don't seem it at first glance, and I don't think I could continue being nice to them after all I saw them get. Does that make any sense? Okay, so, what I'm trying to say is that Willa must be a lovely person to remain happy and untainted even while Brooke and Alyssa get everything they want.
This book has a lot of similarities to Wild Things, in my mind, if only because there is an unknown half-brother and both team up and deal with some aspect of death. I like Trace more than I like Wil, though, in some aspects. Trace is more of a real-world guy, and I can picture him giving Willa advice about the world later in life. World-hardened and street-toughened, he's the older brother that I wish I had. (Well, I wish I had any older brother, really, but if I could have my pick of them, I'd choose Trace.)
No matter how many similarities you'll find between this books and others, there is one thing that I've never found in any other book: The plot line. It is a very sick, twisted plot line. It's something that you would never see coming. If you think about it too much, your stomach turns. But it's new. Please name a book in which there is something equally disturbing. (Maybe I should give this book to my dad for Father's Day . . . That would be cruel.)
I cried several times while reading this. I would've laughed out loud too, but there were really no funny parts. I've been reading books that I haven't been posting on, and I haven't been posting on them because I don't like them. The characters were paper dolls, the plots, meaningless. But here, I felt like there was something at stake, so my emotions ran rampant with it. I probably made myself look life a fool while sitting in the Young Adult section, but so be it. It was well worth it.
If every realistic fiction book were like this, you wouldn't be able to pull me away from them. As it is, I am feeling deprived. Blood Wounds doesn't just get under your skin: It cuts you all the way to your heart.
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