Bookcase Bizarro: MG/YA Book Reviews, October 2024

MG/YA Book Reviews by a MG/YA Writer

Welcome to the October edition of Bookcase Bizarro!

September was an insanely exciting month for me. First, my MG steampunk debut novel, Shadow Apprentice, finally made its way onto Hoopla, so it’s available to read for free with those of you with a library card. For those of you without a library card, what are you waiting for? Go get one!

Then came the launch of Bad Artist: Creativity in a Productivity-Obsessed World (#TPL). It includes my essay, “The Murakami Method: Re-writing Long COVID,” where I explore how long COVID affected my life and my writing and how I rebuilt both, thanks to a highly creative technique my teacher, Mrs. Murakami, taught me in grade 5. Of course, my partner made me pose for a picture at the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) holding a copy of the book—my first trad-pubbed title. (Don’t worry, I’m still a die-hard indie author, but I certainly see the value of traditional publishing if it’s the best fit for a piece of writing.)

I also sent out my new Garrison Creek novella, Rogue Wizard, for a beta read and a developmental critique. I hope to get it back in late October. I plan to spend the rest of the autumn and winter on rewrites and edits. I won’t announce any release dates, as I’m nowhere near ready to design a production schedule. Not until I’m happy with the revisions and they’ve received the Big Okay from my fabulous copy and stylistic editor.

Production schedules are only useful to me once I am actually producing physical and digital formats of the book. They are completely useless when I’m creating or editing a story. In fact, I’d argue that they are destructive. If I learned one thing from long COVID, it’s this: productivity-skewed ways of measuring creative output (as if the only reason I write is to create publishable work) and schedules that don’t allow for any interruptions, detours or breathing spaces may actually be very unfriendly to creativity, not to mention the rest of my life.

I do block out time on most days to write, but my mantra is simply to show up on the page and see what happens. If my idea turns into a book, my mantra stays the same, only I also have a loose (and changing) outline to guide me… and a team of wonderful editors to keep me on track.

Speaking of ideas that turn into books, I’m 80 pages into the extremely terrible first draft of a new Garrison Creek story. I won’t say any more than that, except that I’m finally learning to let first drafts be messy, contradictory, awful and entirely too much without too much inner cringing. (Actually, that’s not true. Shadow Apprentice was just as horrible, even after several revisions. I was just too sick with long COVID to know it!) Anyway, the first draft of this new story is a real stinker. I hope that bodes well!

Although the protagonist of this month’s pick is 15, it’s a perfect choice for those chronically underserved 13-to-14-year-old tween readers. So take a deep breath of crisp (or probably warm) autumn air, and join me as we open the door on a truly magnificent Secret Garden rewrite.

A quick note to new readers: books that are available from the Toronto Public Library will be marked #TPL, because books don’t have to be new or owned in order to be loved.

YA Novel

When Mary Craven’s parents are killed in a terrible accident, 15-year-old Mary Craven goes to live with her uncle in Georgian Bay. Mary has never met her uncle before. The only life she knows is one of opulent, neglectful isolation. While her family’s mansion in Toronto was always quiet, her uncle’s home spills over with people, many of them workers from the nearby indigenous community in Georgian Bay. The staff at her new home behave more like family than employees, especially whenever Uncle Craven’s second wife, Rebecca, is not in residence.

Unfortunately, all is not well at the manor. Mary’s cousin Olive has been locked away in an attic because of a ‘nervous condition.’ Her health seems to improve whenever Rebecca is out of the house, leading Mary to suspect that Rebecca may have more to do with Olive’s ill health than she’s letting on.

With the help of her new friend, Sophie, Mary looks for ways to free Olive from her attic prison and the terrible cycle of illness, while she comes to terms with her changing environment and self. She’s romantically drawn towards Sophie, but a future together with another girl seems doomed. Yet Mary cannot give up on the love she feels blooming inside her, not just for Sophie but for Olive too, and all the people and places she’s come to care about. When Mary finds a key to an abandoned garden and shows it to Sophie, they unlock the door to more possibilities—and danger—than either of them ever bargained for.

Full disclosure: I am a total fan of Cherie Dimaline’s writing. Still, I’d have never believed that someone who’s known for post-apocalyptic literary SFF would choose to tackle a remix of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Secret Garden. That’s Dimaline for you. Into the Bright Open is a satisfyingly creepy read for October, thanks to the gothic menace of Rebecca. (It’s interesting that Dimaline named this sinister figure ‘Rebecca,’ which echoes Daphne du Maurier’s famous gothic novel of the same name.)

Indeed, Dimaline’s Rebecca is an updated twist on Mrs. Danvers, but a Mrs. Danvers with a story of her own, one that asks questions about the motivations behind her treatment of the sickly Olive. The answers hint at the ways that Rebecca herself is trapped within a 19th-century system of marriage, where upper middle-class women were largely confined to the role of Angel in the House. That Rebecca inhabits the role in a more sinister capacity only draws attention to the ways the role diminishes and warps women. Rebecca is made no less menacing by our understanding. She’s made more complex. There’s a real sense of desperation behind her behaviour. Her twisted nature and serious character flaws are absolutely there, but they have systemic origins.

Dimaline’s embrace of all things growing, whether plant or human, shares space with colonial history. Her Georgian Bay landscapes are a study in contrast between the monied order of the mansion and its gardens and the uncontrollable wildness of the natural world outside its borders, a glimpse of which Mary catches in the forgotten garden she rescues with Sophie. Through their friendship, Mary learns to embrace the wild, treasuring those moments when she breaks free into the bright open, which is both a shift of perception and a way of growing beyond the walled borders of a pre-determined life. That growth allows Mary to question the class and race bias of her times, as well as allow her to hope for a future beyond that of a married, ornamental wife. I love how Dimaline constructs a historically plausible queer love story that is rooted in indigenous Georgian Bay culture, and shows characters who act with agency despite systemic oppression.

She draws her secondary characters with sensitivity and fullness, so they are people with their own backstories and goals. The effect highlights a post-contact ensemble cast moving through intersecting communities, providing more scope for readers and more options for the characters. Georgian Bay stands in for the Yorkshire moors of the original version, and an Indigenous/French community replaces the Yorkshire villagers. Dimaline’s depictions of Georgian Bay are every bit as resonant and ebullient as Hodgson Burnett’s wild moors.

An imaginative rewrite of a classic tale that will appeal to 13-to-14-year-old tweens and Secret Garden fans everywhere. Highly recommended. (#TPL)

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This month, I found a delightful escape in the audiobook version of Ken Follet’s World Without End. I absolutely loved The Pillars of the Earth as a teenager. I still remember swinging in a hammock, ignoring the voices of my parents as they called me in for dinner, completely lost in the stone dust and political intrigue of building a great cathedral. I’m having the same experience (we won’t say how many years later) with the sequel. John Lee’s narration is fantastic (I’m VERY PARTICULAR about audiobook narrators), and I’ve got 40+ hours of enjoyment ahead of me.

Suitable for readers 15+. Sublime. (#TPL)

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Thirteen-year-old Ermin is a gifted mechanic and the worst student at St. Anselm’s Training School for Orphans. She’s just failed her exams for the third time—something nobody’s ever done. Worse, Ermin’s been running her own repair business for money—something that’s expressly forbidden. If the headmistress finds out, Ermin will go to prison. Her future will be over before it’s even begun.

But that’s not her only secret.

Her best friends, Colin and Georgie, are wizards in a world where magic is strictly controlled. Ermin worries that her friends will be captured, drained of their power, then banished. When Georgie’s caught aiding the Wizard’s Resistance, Ermin repairs a broken flying carpet so all three of them can escape.

Hesitant to join the Resistance because of her lack of magical power, Ermin steals an experimental device from a wizard hunter that could destroy every wizard in the Creek. She’s faced with a choice: either smash the device or convert it into a different kind of weapon—one that not only helps wizards but just might get her an apprenticeship at the prestigious Guild Academy.

Ermin’s got one chance to get it right. If she fails, she risks losing her two best friends… and her dreams.

Find Shadow Apprentice at your local library through Hoopla or buy from online retailers:

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Thanks for being a Bookcase Bizarro reader! I’ll be back next month with more author news, and more MG and YA book reviews. See you then!

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