The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.50 You Save: $5.49 (69%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Blue Girl
Book Review: The Blue Girl
Summary: 4 Stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I know it's marketed as teen fiction, but the characters are rich enough to engage adults as well. It has creepy moments, magical moments, and mundane moments, each in just the right proportion. Wonderful read.Book Review: Urban Fantasy for Young Adults
Summary: 4 Stars
Imogene is an unusual girl. Brought up on a commune and running with a street gang when she moved to the city Imogene had thought she'd seen it all. Then Imogene, her mother and brother moved to Newford and she decided to turn over a new leaf. This plan seems to be going well, she has a new best friend named Maxine, she staying out of trouble and even making good grades. That is, until she discovers she is being stalked by Ghost, the spirit of a bullied boy who died at the school and her childhood imaginary friend Pell-Mell begins leading a dischordant band of fairies from Imogene's closet on a nightly basis. Suddenly Imogene is learning that there really are things that go bump in the night and that the shadows contain more things than just high school bullies.
I found The Blue Girl to be an interesting fantasy told in alternating portions between Imogene, Maxine (her best friend) and Adrian the boy ghost. I felt that the switching of the voices gave the story more depth and wasn't at all confusing. I particularly was fond of Adrian and was horrified by the circumstances that led to his death. My only complaint is that although I liked Imogene she seemed a little overly perfect to me. Pretty, compassionate, tough and protective Imogene had no flaws other than a slightly checkered past from running with a gang. She even had a perfect mother and brother (lucky girl!!) All in all I enjoyed The Blue Girl very much and would recommend it to anyone interested in young adult or urban fantasy.
Book Review: WIndow into my psyche
Summary: 5 Stars
Charles de Lint has an insight to magic and how girls/women think and feel. Whenever I read his books I think he had a window into my past. I can identify with the characters at many levels. He is a master at weaving magic that could be here.Book Review: above an beyond anything I've read this summer
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok, to start with I picked up this book when I was just passing through one of my favorite book stores in San Fran. It wasn't priced too high, and when I read the summary on the back I thought "eh what the heck, I've been up to my neck in crumbeling empires, and reluctent heros all year." So, to say the least, I loved this book. Imogene is the first fictional character that I've actually been able to completley relate to, and the only regret that I had in reading this wonderful book is that it ended all to quickly. GIVEMEMORE!!!!!!!Book Review: from missprint.wordpress.com
Summary: 5 Stars
Charles de Lint is one of my favorite authors although my constantly writing Derek de Lint instead of Charles de Lint might lead you to think otherwise. He has been one of my top authors for a few years already based solely on the awesomeness that is "The Blue Girl."
I want to read everything he's written, no easy task because he's written a lot, but so far have only polished off two books from his oeuvre (this one and "Little (Grrl) Lost"). Both, coincidentally, have been exceptional enough that they rate as Chick Lit Wednesday books.
Like many of De Lint's books, this novel is set in Newford and firmly grounded in the urban fantasy genre with which he is so often associated. The story opens with the heading "Now" as Imogen describes a nightly ritual, perhaps dream or perhaps reality, that occurs in her bedroom:
It starts with this faint sound that pulls me out of sleep: a sort of calliope music played on an ensemble of toy instruments. You know, as though there's a raggedy orchestra playing quietly in some hidden corner of my bedroom, like the echo of a Tom Waits song heard through the walls from the apartment next door. Rinky-dink piano, tinny horns and kazoos, miniature guitars with plastic strings, weird percussion.
It ends with the appearance of creepy characters parading out of Imogen's closet, "patchwork creatures made out of words and rags and twigs, of bits of wool and fur, skin and bone", followed by Pell-mell the imaginary friend Imogen gave up on years ago now made scary by the intevening years. When Pelly reaches for Imogen's comforter saying, "I've missed you sideways," is it something sinister or an endearment? Only time will tell.
In order to explain how Imogen's now got so weird, De Lint works backward looking at Imogen's past. Specifically, the next section of the book is called "Then" and begins right after Imogen moves to Newford with her mother and Jared, her brother. (The book alternates between "Now" and "Then" segments of varying length until the two points in time converge about a third of the way in.)
I could actually spend even more time talking about the prose and structure of this novel, because both are rich with detail. But, on the other hand, I feel like if I keep doing that, I'll just end up quoting the whole book in this review. It's that amazing.
So instead of getting into a lot of the minute details, here's some basic information on the three characters who share narration of the book (that's right, three first-person narrators, crazy!)
As astute readers may have guessed, Imogen is the star of the novel and the "blue girl" mentioned in the title. The fantastic cover art by Cliff Nielsen, incidentally, is exactly how I would have imagined Imogen myself. Anyway, before moving to Newford, Imogen was not the quirky character readers will come to know and love. She has a past that she's trying to leave behind, except for the being tough part--that stays. Imogen, in a Stargirl-esque manner, likes to reinvent herself. As part of her reinvention, Imogen decides she needs a new friend who turns out to be Maxine, whether she likes it or not. Maxine is everything Imogen is not--geeky, bookish, and meek--she is also everything Imogen needs in a friend (and vice versa).
Add to the equation: Adrian, a lonely ghost who spends his time avoiding angels; the aforementioned imaginary friend, and a group of nasty fairies and you have all the makings of a plot rife with action and suspense.
At the same time, De Lint's text here is rich. Sometimes "rich" is a euphemism for "dense" but not in this case. The prose is evocative, creating not only a strong sense of place within the story but also helping readers to actually know each of the characters. The writing never seems excessively long, rather De Lint manages to make each bit of information or description feel vital to the story as a whole--the writing is that tight. Aside from that the plot, which admirably manages a broad scope of time, is excellent from the first sentence to the last.