The thing is -- I should have loved this book. A companion novel to "Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time," this is the story of Marley Sandelski's 7th grade year. Marley is an A/V geek who translates everything in his life into Star Trek terms. His best friend Ramen loves Star Wars and their new friend Max loves Batman. This ~was~ my life. I was a Star Trek geek and my friends loved Star Wars and Batman, etc. so when Marley makes a reference to TOS ep 51, I **totally** know what he means. And yet. The book, a very middle school, very typical pre-teen book, just didn't grab me. The characters go through the average trials and tribulations, but the writing just seemed kind of surface -- skimming things instead of looking with any depth. For a fairly tame storyline, there is vicious violence in a couple of places and it is just put out there then things move on. The 61 chapters in 310 pages means a lot of breezing through moments rather than living them. I also wasn't wild about the author's voice, which comes off a little more obvious than intended given the first person narrative. While Marley feels authentic, this seems a lot more like a story told by an adult about a kid than a story told by a kid. There are light touches of moralism here and there ("it's okay to be a geek but it doesn't hurt to clean yourself up" and "you need to stand up to bullies") which give things a stilted "too perfect" feel. Marley's parents are interesting but other adults are stereotypes, particularly the school principal, who is one step to the right of a cartoon villain. When Yee goes for it, the descriptions are great (i.e. "The tragic tree") but the initial setup was murky. Took me a long time to realize this was Los Angeles? I think perhaps there was a sense that the reader could jump in if they had read "Stanford Wong" but since I hadn't, I was fairly lost. The negativism aside, I do think kids would enjoy this book (assuming they can suss out the difference between Kirk and Picard) but to me, it felt more like adult reminiscence than real life.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
"Warp Speed" by Lisa Yee
The thing is -- I should have loved this book. A companion novel to "Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time," this is the story of Marley Sandelski's 7th grade year. Marley is an A/V geek who translates everything in his life into Star Trek terms. His best friend Ramen loves Star Wars and their new friend Max loves Batman. This ~was~ my life. I was a Star Trek geek and my friends loved Star Wars and Batman, etc. so when Marley makes a reference to TOS ep 51, I **totally** know what he means. And yet. The book, a very middle school, very typical pre-teen book, just didn't grab me. The characters go through the average trials and tribulations, but the writing just seemed kind of surface -- skimming things instead of looking with any depth. For a fairly tame storyline, there is vicious violence in a couple of places and it is just put out there then things move on. The 61 chapters in 310 pages means a lot of breezing through moments rather than living them. I also wasn't wild about the author's voice, which comes off a little more obvious than intended given the first person narrative. While Marley feels authentic, this seems a lot more like a story told by an adult about a kid than a story told by a kid. There are light touches of moralism here and there ("it's okay to be a geek but it doesn't hurt to clean yourself up" and "you need to stand up to bullies") which give things a stilted "too perfect" feel. Marley's parents are interesting but other adults are stereotypes, particularly the school principal, who is one step to the right of a cartoon villain. When Yee goes for it, the descriptions are great (i.e. "The tragic tree") but the initial setup was murky. Took me a long time to realize this was Los Angeles? I think perhaps there was a sense that the reader could jump in if they had read "Stanford Wong" but since I hadn't, I was fairly lost. The negativism aside, I do think kids would enjoy this book (assuming they can suss out the difference between Kirk and Picard) but to me, it felt more like adult reminiscence than real life.
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