I thought I would love this book. Mainly because I'm a huge mystery whore and I love characters with secrets. Ehhh, no.
And this one had so much potentI thought I would love this book. Mainly because I'm a huge mystery whore and I love characters with secrets. Ehhh, no.
And this one had so much potential - which mainly just fizzled out. I loved that the characters had a strong sisterly bond and a strong Jewish identity, because I love new culture. I actually really liked Colin and Sam, which was strange, because usually I hate the standard cliché of a girl falling for her best friend without her knowledge, but there was some real sense of the closeness and friendship between Sam and Colin in the few scenes they had together, so that worked for me. I felt that Rabb was better at handling the subplots which had a little more fizz and edge to them, like the developing romance between Sophie and Josh, who may or may not be Sophie's second cousin, because it got some pretty good lines like, "Since Sophie had never even been on a real date before, having her first one with her cousin might be a good way to ease her into it." I really liked it because they had cute chemistry and nice scenes together, but I didn't know where Rabb was going with it - the unpredictability, fun farcical tone and curiosity of that subplot, though, kind of showed up how dull and standard the rest were.
Unfortunately, the other strands of the plot didn't really have anything twisty or intriguing about them, which was fatal to the mystery subplot of the book. This probably just comes from starting at the second book in the series (it was all I could pick up at the cheap store!), but I didn't really care enough with the subplot about the private investigator that Sam and Sophie's evil stepmother had hired to track them down, since I had no idea what they were running away from. (It was recapped in the book, but not really fleshed out enough to give me the "holy crap what if they get caught?!" feeling, so that one lacked any tension. I don't need bloodshed in my mysteries to care about things like this - in fact, I found it refreshing that this was a relatively light mystery - but it had absolutely none of the things I like about mysteries. Twists, red herrings, most of all: surprises. It ends up that exactly what we thought is going on is going on, and I don't mean that in a "look at me I'm so clever I guessed it" way; there is literally no other plot twists or red herrings and it just turns out that the idea Sam had about what had happened had, actually, happened. Even in the big denouement, which featured Sam and Colin breaking into a gallery, didn't have the giggly tension that it should have because I didn't for one second believed that Rabb would take any risks.
Gus, the grumpy private detective with a heart of gold, was mostly a cliché, as was Leo Shattenberg, the ancient professor and cool old guy who tracked them down to find his lost love for him. I don't mind that because these familiar roles gave me a nice feel for the old-fashioned noiry/detective feel that Rabb had going on. It's a pity that the rest of the book fell so flat and failed to maintain anything that I like about the detective genre. Still, I'll probably check out the rest of the books in the series, because this one was fast and fun enough, it was just near the end (when I realised that Rabb planned to pull literally no surprises, or even an attempt at a surprise) that it fell flat for me. ...more
This book is great while you're reading it. It's well-paced, fascinating, compelling and dark. There are some great twists and creepy moments, particuThis book is great while you're reading it. It's well-paced, fascinating, compelling and dark. There are some great twists and creepy moments, particularly: "Your name is (view spoiler)[Dunfee (hide spoiler)]?" and "all the kings horses and all the kings men could not put Humphry back together again." (I was shivering very badly.) I love novels that can really pull off twists and wham lines and this novel can. He brought the strings together at the end in a great way. I particularly loved the ending scene in the Admiral's garden.
Shusterman does a great job of evoking the all-round consequences of 'unwinding', from the revelation about Mai and 'the boy no-one knew' to the sequences in the book. The concept of unwinding is horrific in a can't-look-away way, and Shusterman really doesn't short change us on anything. Interesting and unique for a YA novel, it also made me think about the adults' perspective - what the hell would make an adult unwind their own child? Yet Shusterman's world-building, while vague, showed us how the parents could really believe that this was a good thing, but it also made me reel with the desperation and injustice and callousness of it all.
And yet...
"Unwind" certainly made me think, but not all the thoughts I had were good.
Risa and Connor's romance just made me go, "ugh? Really?" Connor and Risa seemed more like brother and sister to me up until the moment they started kissing frenziedly in the bathroom, which just felt pathetic and clichéd. Overall, I loved Shusterman's use of third-person, which encompassed a very broad range of people, but it really fell flat with Risa and Connor's romance. Though maybe that was just flat overall. I understand that teens have hormones, and hormones + adrenaline + "you don't want to die a virgin, do you?" = some sexy time. But it just wasn't written believably at all and felt really out of kilter with the rest of the story.
I also felt that Risa's portrayal was quite sexist. Not at first: at first she's introduced as this kick-ass girl who thumps Connor in the face when he attempts to touch her because she's from the state home, where people have to be tough unless they want to have a very awful life. That's her immediate reaction, but Shusterman never follows up on it. For the rest of the novel, they become the archetypal Hero and Dasmel in Distress and I rolled my eyes so hard they ached at times. For example, when Roland, a thug, attacks Risa, her first instinct is to scream (which is fine, because he is meant to be physically stronger than her anyway), but, when that fails, Risa just gives up. This supposedly hard-as-nails girl is about to be attacked and she doesn't even try to defend herself. That would be fine if she'd been set up as anything else than an instinctive ass-kicker. But then it gets worse - Connor walks in to see what's going on and Roland appears about to rape Risa (but, and I'm not saying that this isn't traumatic, he doesn't appear anywhere near close to it. He just - and I use "just" as a relative term - has hold of her arm and he's taunting her).
Does Risa then use the distraction to get some kind of physical advantage on Roland? NO. Risa SCREAMS AT CONNOR to PROTECT HER! What the fuck, Risa? Risa, who knows that Roland is trying to provoke Connor into a fight so he can kill him and make it look like self-defense? Risa, who has been presented as coolly rational to the extreme throughout? Risa, who is supposed to be a tough StaHome kid? RISA EXPECTS CONNOR TO DEFEND HER HONOUR LIKE SOME PATHETIC DAMSEL IN DISTRESS? (I'm not saying this wasn't a scary event, but Shusterman's third-person narrative makes it just quite difficult to discern Risa's panic.) On top of that, Risa spends most of her time in the start of the novel taking care of a baby because Connor can't. That's not inherently bad, but consider the fact that Risa has pretty much zero to do for the entire second half of the novel in 'the graveyard'? Both Lev and Connor get their own separate, distinct stories. Risa does pretty much nothing. Oh, sure, she learns about medicine, but she never really does anything except hang around in the medical centre and worry about Connor and Lev. I just felt that Risa was one pathetic love interest stereotype, which is very disappointing.
Also, how the hell does Unwinding satisfy anybody? I know the Admiral says that it was definitely an extreme joke, there to provoke one side to "blinking." But. Come on. The main argument in pro-choice/pro-life is "when does life begin?" I'm totally and viciously pro-choice, but even I concede that, once the baby is born, that is a life (but then again I'm also pro-adoption). I think it would have been much more effective if Shusterman had built the idea around one spine-chilling line from the Admiral: "if more people had become organ donors, Unwinding never would have happened." rather than abortion. Organ donation is a big deal today. But that's just an aside complaint, though it did spoil my enjoyment a little because it felt like Shusterman was attacking the extreme strawman views of abotion, which I would agree with, but it felt unfocused and unbelievable (I know it's a dystopian future, but still...I feel that dystopia has to be built out of a core of truth) because - what was he attacking? I think all pro-choicers would agree that life starts once a baby is born. How can anyone who is pro-life think that this satisfies their argument? Organ donation - yeah, I can see that. Abortion, not so much.
Still, a compelling, creepy novel that should satisfy if you're not a constant overanalyser like me. Shusterman is clearly a great plotter because Unwind really strung me along with the high-stakes tension, constant twists and the way that all the little things came back together at the end, with a particularly excellent cast of supporting characters, particularly the Admiral and Sonia. I loved the way he used little strands that will be familiar to readers from everyday life, like the boy whose parents would rather see him unwound than back down on their custody battle and the girl being 'unwound' because of budget costs. ...more
"Kitty Kitty", by Michele Jaffe, is a really mixed bag. On one hand, it's really funny in places, generally fun, light-hearted and fast-paced. It's al"Kitty Kitty", by Michele Jaffe, is a really mixed bag. On one hand, it's really funny in places, generally fun, light-hearted and fast-paced. It's also incredibly well-paced, in that there are genuine twists and turns at the each of every chapter and there is lots of genuine imagination and creativity. However, the imagination and creativity manifests in a way that is sorta over-quirky, in that practically all the characters talk the same kind of witty, OTT way. For instance, there is constant footnotes, references to characters in quirky ways like "Dadzilla", "Sherri", "Tyger's Eye*" (the star is silent) and "Sapphyre" (not Sapphire, which Jaffe obviously thought funny enough to repeat every five pages. Jasmine is a good heroine, though she's somewhat undermined by the fact that every one of her friends are quirks with legs, which also makes her feel like a quirk with long legs while reading, and not even a particularly unique one. However, she is funny, self-depracating and refreshingly short on the whininess.
I felt conflicted about what is obviously the overarching plot in these "Kitty" books, which is the Mysterious Death of Jas's mother when she was very young. This is very intriguing, but only shows up veeeeery sporadically in the novel and, even when it appeared, it wasn't remotely developed. Jas gets a few mysterious e-mails and her dad promises to tell her 'something' about her mother's death when they return to L.A. - which Jaffe all leaves for the third book, despite the fact that this third book has not materialised yet and it says on her website that "IT IS NOT SCHEDULED YET." So, great. Even though both "Kitty" books came out in quick succession of one another, this appears like an ongoing series which has just been...dropped? Gahhh. I feel really irritated by this because the mystery of Jas's mother's death is the only part of the novel that got me really, really invested, because I loved how Jas dealt with her more emotional moments for such a quirky character.
I even quite liked the 'romance' between Jack and Jas, though it pretty much takes a backseat for her weird dalliance with the sleazy/sexy Italian, Max, mainly due to Jas's interesting voice and treatment of it. But, overall, this book suffered from serious CHARACTER SOUP. We appear to have our heroine's sidekicks introduced in the first thirtyish pages - her cousin and her cousin's best friend, both of whom she dislikes so much, she calls them the Evil Hench-Twins - but then her three best friends pop up from L.A. and it just becomes a little overcrowded. Okay, really overcrowded. We now have five sidekicks even though it's blatantly obvious that Jas only needs two. And, honestly, if I hadn't read "Bad Kitty" (about a thousand years ago so I can't really compare the two), I would think that Jaffe created this mad plot and then these totally implausible characters to go along with it. Tom is apparently a mastaaaah (Jas's voice) of all things lock-picky and stuff, which is very convenient for Jas's detective work, but so is Roxy, Tom's twin sister, so Tom gets totally pushed to the back and is pretty much the third wheel throughout. Polly's quirk is the only one that gets real plot grounding - her fashion talent - but it's so overheated (like a lot of "Kitty Kitty", in all honesty), it gave me a bit of a headache.
"Kitty Kitty" is very implausible. This is not, in itself, a problem. I didn't read this book for a gritty, realistic picture of Venice. I read this for entertainment and giggles (both of which it provided consistently and well). And, so, even though I could accept the ridiculous way that Jas talks her way into Prada, and into a dead millionaire's home without comment, when it finally came time for the mystery to be revealed, I was left totally confused and feeling very stupid. I'm not quite sure how much of this I missed but, in the end, it turns out that Suspect #1 and Suspect #2 are NOT the killers, but Not Suspect #3 is. How did Jas know that Not Suspect was M.? I'm not sure. Also, if #1 and #2 were not the killers, why did they react so goddamn violently? #1 is not the killer and apparently was totally set up by #3 but still decides to kick Jas in the face when she discovers his next 'victim' (who has in fact staged this and set themselves up as the victim)? And apparently he's a total nice guy at the end and not remotely a creep or a violent asshole? Also, #2 is not the killer, but COMES AT JAS WIELDING A KNIFE with no motivation, until Thshe is 'saved' by #3. #3 is not planning to kill #2 until #3 makes it look like #2 and Jas were having an affair and then #3 can kill #2 six months later and stage it like a suicide. And at no point in the next six months will #2 happen to mention the fact that he and Jas were not having an affair? And what did The House That Kills article have to do with anything? There's a difference between a wild, implausible plot and a just plain stupid one. This difference was plain to see here. The ending becomes very rushed to the point where it is almost incoherent. I was really glad that it didn't turn out to be a certain somebody, which it almost was, and when the twist showed up, I was glad, yeah, but the solution was just so clichéd and rushed that I don't know how Jas figured out half of the things she supposedly did.
This book is also not for nitpickers. It is for anyone who can suspend their belief - preferably from the ceiling - but also their worry about cultural stereotypes. Every stereotype about Venice is present here. Jas's sort-of love interest, who is called Max (stereotypical Italian name!) uses no Italian except whatever it is for 'beautiful girl/woman' (he literally says it on every page). Jas's grasp of the Italian language fluctuates wildly. She goes from not sure how to answer a simple question to understanding a very complex sentence spoken by two native Italins while hiding in a cupboard. I get it, suspend disbelief, blah blah blah, but this was just so plain stupid. More stupid behaviour involves genre conventions: one minute, Jas is as savvy as they come about being in a mystery novel. The next minute, she lets her friends decide that it's a great idea for them all to SPLIT UP and search for the murderer. Except of course, for some reason, this overstuffed crowd of five does not split into three and two. Jas doesn't even get the majority group. In fact, for some moronic reason that isn't even mentioned in the text, Jas winds up alone. Yep. So forget the fact that she's the killer's target and the killer CAME TO SPEAK TO HER less than five minutes previously. Apparently it's a great idea for them all to split up and leave on her own to pursue him! The friends' super skills get to the point where they are no longer quirks and more like insane plot devices. For example, Alyson, Jas's arch-enemy, turns out to be great with computers despite appearing to be a traditional valley girl. This could be quite a neat twist if not for the fact that it comes up at the very moment that Jas needs a hacker. I'm not quite sure when else it was supposed to come up, but it really does reach ridiculous levels. Her friends have crazy skills (not a bad thing in themselves, given that this book is very much Not To Be Taken Serioiusly), but they have an abundance of crazy skills that always turn out to be a) totally logically impossible and b) exactly what is required to get them out of the latest impossible situation.
Still, if you want fun and funniness, you could do worse than "Kitty Kitty", if you're willing to ignore a pretty crap denouement....more
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