The Shattering
Jul. 16th, 2012 10:47![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyHealey, Karen. The Shattering. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2011.
I liked Karen Healey's first novel Guardian of the Dead quite a lot despite some flaws, and Healey herself is one of those people I know mostly from the Internet and would like, in a perfect world, to know better. *waves* So when I was offered a signed ARC of her second novel, The Shattering, I was quite excited. I think in a lot of ways this is a tighter book, and maybe even a better one, than Guardian of the Dead, and I enjoyed it a lot - though, rereading my review of the first book, it's clear that I liked the first one better, or at least, that one got me in the emotions in a way that this one didn't quite manage.
The Shattering takes place in the fictional, idyllic West Coast New Zealand town of Summerton and follows teenage Keri and her two friends Janna and Sione, all of whose older brothers committed suicide, and whose deaths they become convinced were not actually suicides but murder. It's a quick read, partly because it's tightly plotted and fast-paced, and I liked that this book felt more--well, in Guardian of the Dead the teenagers in there wind up having to save New Zealand, while in here it's "just" trying to save their town and themselves. The stakes are lower but no less serious, and while I mostly enjoyed the panoply of characters Healey deployed in Guardian, I felt like the tighter focus on the three main protagonists and their families--Keri is half Maori, and Sione is Pacific Islander--made it feel a little less like the diversity of the cast could be misconstrued as being forced. The other thing about the fact that, even as Healey makes a point of having a diverse cast, she doesn't ignore the potentially ugly responses that people's differences can earn, particularly in a small town. As well as discussion of suicide (obviously), the book also contains some realistic hate speech.
Although Keri is the only one who has a first person POV, the book is split between her and Janna and Sione (who are in third) which I thought was interesting given that l know people who are being told that lack of first person POV is going to keep their YA books from selling to publishing houses. I liked that all of them have their own issues and their own responses to it, and that they're not the same people - Keri's an atheist, Janna is a Wiccan, and Sione is a practicing Catholic, to take one example. The ending too was nicely complicated, and I appreciated that the book was both honest and realistic about grief. Life's never as simple as it is in stories.
All in all, I'm looking forward to Healey's next book, When We Wake.
I liked Karen Healey's first novel Guardian of the Dead quite a lot despite some flaws, and Healey herself is one of those people I know mostly from the Internet and would like, in a perfect world, to know better. *waves* So when I was offered a signed ARC of her second novel, The Shattering, I was quite excited. I think in a lot of ways this is a tighter book, and maybe even a better one, than Guardian of the Dead, and I enjoyed it a lot - though, rereading my review of the first book, it's clear that I liked the first one better, or at least, that one got me in the emotions in a way that this one didn't quite manage.
The Shattering takes place in the fictional, idyllic West Coast New Zealand town of Summerton and follows teenage Keri and her two friends Janna and Sione, all of whose older brothers committed suicide, and whose deaths they become convinced were not actually suicides but murder. It's a quick read, partly because it's tightly plotted and fast-paced, and I liked that this book felt more--well, in Guardian of the Dead the teenagers in there wind up having to save New Zealand, while in here it's "just" trying to save their town and themselves. The stakes are lower but no less serious, and while I mostly enjoyed the panoply of characters Healey deployed in Guardian, I felt like the tighter focus on the three main protagonists and their families--Keri is half Maori, and Sione is Pacific Islander--made it feel a little less like the diversity of the cast could be misconstrued as being forced. The other thing about the fact that, even as Healey makes a point of having a diverse cast, she doesn't ignore the potentially ugly responses that people's differences can earn, particularly in a small town. As well as discussion of suicide (obviously), the book also contains some realistic hate speech.
Although Keri is the only one who has a first person POV, the book is split between her and Janna and Sione (who are in third) which I thought was interesting given that l know people who are being told that lack of first person POV is going to keep their YA books from selling to publishing houses. I liked that all of them have their own issues and their own responses to it, and that they're not the same people - Keri's an atheist, Janna is a Wiccan, and Sione is a practicing Catholic, to take one example. The ending too was nicely complicated, and I appreciated that the book was both honest and realistic about grief. Life's never as simple as it is in stories.
All in all, I'm looking forward to Healey's next book, When We Wake.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-16 17:56 (UTC)Maybe you're right that at least one first-person narrator was necessary to sell. I don't think arbitrary rules like that do anything to improve the artistic quality of books. (Imagine if that was a rule in Tolkien's time.)
I liked this better than Guardian, even though the plot was pretty cliched. But I loved the characters, and the plot made a lot more sense and everyone had a part to play, rather than being told that they could help financially but had no role in the final battle.
I also loved the revelation at the end about Keri's brother. I feel like I should have expected it, but I didn't.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-16 17:59 (UTC)Ditto. I think it made the entire book much stronger, to have them confront this giant evil and then realize that even defeating it doesn't fix all the things that have gone wrong in their lives.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-17 07:11 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-17 11:59 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-17 17:37 (UTC)I'm glad it was your choice. I've heard so many stories about authors having to make changes they didn't want to make.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-17 23:22 (UTC)Why 1st/3rd/3rd? Because Keri's grief was the most immediate and raw, I really wanted to get into her head and lay out her emotions. I see the wider framing story as Keri's story, which encompasses Janna's and Sione's as she goes on. I wanted a complementary distance on Janna and Sione to underline this.
There's also that revelation about Keri's personal life that comes about halfway through the book - by choosing a frame of reference that cues readers to view her as the most sympathetic and identifiable character, I wanted to see if I could smack at a few walls people tend to construct in their heads about Other people. If you know what I mean! Trying to avoid spoilers!
Also, not gonna lie, the technical challenge was interesting. I like trying new things with my craft
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-17 21:53 (UTC)