Among Others

I'm so shocked about this book I just finished ("Among Others" by Jo Walton) that I am compelled to write about it.

For the first time ever I can't imagine how in the world this book landed over a 4.10 rating on GoodReads.  Huh? What?

I'm not sure what I am missing about this book.  I scrolled down on GR and noticed I am the only one with a ONE STAR rating.

Basically, the book is told through the voice of a 15-year old who walks with a cane, was a twin, and grew up with a witch of a mother (what teen girl hasn't?), can see fairies, loves libraries, and reads endlessly.

There was no plot, no back-story, nothing.  The book was put together as the young girls diary entries.  She said her mother was a witch but you didn't really get to see any of it and even the fairies were boring. She never met her father until recently and he is under some spell brought on by his witch-half sisters.  You would think there would be some intrigue and fascination there but other than the witchy half-sisters trying to stop the young girls magical traits by piercing her ears, that was it.  (Yes, piercing her ears because putting a hole in your body made the magic go away. I know, see?)

She loves libraries and reading science fiction and the book is littered with dozens and dozens of references and titles that I know absolutely nothing (except the Lord Of The Rings mention) about because science fiction just isn't my thing.  In fact, science fiction is just a step above romance in my list of least favorite genres.

She rants. She sees a boy she likes but is unsure if he really likes her likes her or only likes her because of magic.  Her father drives a Bentley (but is unsure if he is rich. Really, child?), smokes constantly, and is otherwise one-dimensional.  Grandparents play a roll and she writes to them everyday (the book takes place over six months from late 1979 to early 1980).  She joins a SF book club at the library.  She goes to ruins in search of fairies to tell her what to do (the book takes place in England).  Her dead twin sister (we never really learn how or why she dies which is only one of MANY holes in the "story") tries to make her into a ghost/fairy by turning her wooden cane (full of magic, that wood) into a knife and plans to stab her through the heart with it so she can be reunited with her twin.

Oh come on.

Stupid, dumb, and plot-less.  Not the makings of a very good book (although I did laugh when she first discovered what interlibrary loans are and from then on she prays how thankful she is for the interlibrary system).  The only saving grace was it was a fast read, thank God.  I finished it in less than two days.  I'm more shocked that this is the first book where my rating is such a complete opposite to what is listed on GoodReads.  I can hardly wait to take it back to the library...

Comments

[Kip W]

It was clear enough from what the narrator says that she and her twin were hit by a car. Their mother had bombarded them with illusions of similar things enough that they didn't recognize a real one when it came.

Similarly, the backstory was sufficiently clear to me, though it was not revealed all at once in a block of declaractive prose.