Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Five: Prairie Lotus

I dipped back into the world of middle grade fiction to read Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park.  Since it's written for younger readers, this is quick to read, but it will stay with me for a while as I both enjoyed its story and appreciated the work it does to portray a more accurately diverse picture of an often romanticized and whitewashed time: the heyday of the American frontier.  

Prairie Lotus, set in the late 1800s, is the story of a 14-year-old girl, Hanna, who wants nothing more than to attend school and someday soon become a dressmaker, and whose father is white and whose late mother was Chinese.  Father and daughter settle into a new prairie town in Dakota Territory--not unlike the town where Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House books lived as a teen--and in fact, Hanna meets a girl, Bess, not unlike the young Laura.  But, as with the other places where they've tried to settle, Hanna and her father are confronted with racism against Hanna.  However, unlike in the other towns where they've tried to settle, a few of the white people in this town are willing to support Hanna and her father, despite the prejudice most of the townspeople express, and the story ends on a cautiously hopeful note.  

This is excellent historical fiction for older kids (and I know a few other adults who really enjoyed Prairie Lotus), and you don't have to be familiar with the Little House books to appreciate it: its story and characters stand on their own merit.  If you like historical fiction, this is well worth reading.

Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Four: The Seep

What if an invasion of non-corporeal aliens made everyone kinder and more accepting (if also sort of high most of the time), and also solved climate change?  That's where Chana Porter's novel The Seep begins.  

At first, and for years after the invasion, trans woman Trina Goldberg-Oneka enjoys these changes along with most of the rest of humankind.  But by the time she's fifty, Trina's wife has decided to be reborn as an infant (which is possible, due to the alien substance called Seep, which is how the aliens control humans).  Trina is devastated and sinks into alcoholism until a random encounter with a boy who's grown up sheltered from the Seep startles her out of her stupor and into action.  (If this seems like a spoiler, don't worry: it's not more than you'd get from the back of the book.)  

The Seep is way more upbeat than this semi-dystopian vision may sound, and I appreciated how many questions it hints at but doesn't raise directly, leaving them to readers to ponder (or not).  It's one of the weirder books I've read lately, but in the best possible way: it was refreshing and original and I couldn't guess how it would end.  If you enjoy alien invasion stories, or if you're interested in a very different vision of the future, this novel might be for you.

Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Three: The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Alix Harrow's debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, had been vaguely on my radar as something I might enjoy, and then a friend suggested it, too.  I'm so glad I finally read it!  It was captivating.

The basic premise is this: there are Doors that lead between worlds.  We follow a young girl named January--whose "in-between" skin has meant that she never fits in anywhere and faces suspicion (and worse) everywhere--as she begins to grow up and to learn more about these Doors, both from her own experiences and from a mysterious book.  Of course, she has dangerous and powerful enemies.  The villains are suitably evil, and while they're mostly one-dimensional, the chief villain has enough dimensions to be a believable and interesting character.  January is a dynamic character who starts the story with plenty of room to grow, and it's a pleasure to see how she changes.  The various settings are most fun of all, though.  I love Harrow's depictions of the worlds through the Doors; they're so varied and vivid.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is equal parts coming-of-age, adventure, mystery, and fantasy; if you like any of those, it's worth a look, and if you like all of those, it's a must-read.

Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Two: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld

I've been reading mostly fairly recently published books, lately, and I was wanting something a little different when a friend recommended that I check out anything by Patricia A. McKillip.  The name was vaguely familiar to me as a writer of fantasy whose heyday was maybe the 1980s, and I decided to borrow whatever I could find by her that was available as a library e-book.  Thus, I came to read The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, which was her second published novel.  

It's an enchanted tale, with a much calmer pace and more detached feel than most of what I've been reading lately, but that's not to say that not much happens or that there aren't deep emotions.  Neither of those statements is true; this is just a story that is unafraid to take its time, drawing readers in by backstory, setting, and its lore of magical creatures before unveiling more of the protagonist's inner workings and allowing those to propel the story through hatred, deceit, and war to its delightful, surprising conclusion.  About halfway through, I went fairly suddenly from not feeling that invested in the main character, Sybel, to finding myself distraught by her choices and hoping things would work out for the best but fearing they wouldn't, or couldn't--and then I could hardly put the book down until it was done.  It's definitely not for readers who don't enjoy or aren't in the mood for a traditional fantasy novel, but if you do enjoy that genre, then you'll likely appreciate this tale.