Review: Rose and Poe by Jack Todd

Rose and Poe is a retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, from the point of view of Caliban and his mother.

Before I begin this review, I just want to say that I have never read the Tempest, or at least if I have I don’t remember reading it, so I can’t compare the adaptation or anything. For that, you’ll have to read it yourself (and The Tempest, I guess, if you aren't familiar with it). What I can do is tell you if it’s an enjoyable read, which it is.

The plot is fairly straightforward, about a sexual assault trial and trying to catch the actual perpetrator. It’s not a complex mystery case or anything like that, as the plot is mostly a backdrop for the characters and the setting, which are Todd’s strengths in this book. Rose and Poe are based on Caliban and his mother from The Tempest, and my guess is they are background characters in that play. Todd does an excellent job of bringing them to the forefront, developing their characters and making the reader empathize with them. I think Rose’s love and protection for her son are what make it easy to side with her and Poe. The alternating perspectives also provide a more rounded picture of the characters and the events that take place.

Todd's other strength is his setting; he has a way of perfectly describing the scene, which also has the effect of setting the tone for various events. His descriptions of the storm that takes place in the middle of the book are spine-chilling.

One of my favourite things about Rose and Poe, however, is the slight sprinkle of magic that Todd writes in the book, from a speedy delivery “sprite” called Airmail, to Poe’s giant qualities, to a walking staff that seems to hold more power than an ordinary staff should. The magic seems both everyday and slightly out of place to the characters in this book, which makes the setting all the more intriguing. All in all it was just a fun, suspenseful read and I encourage you to pick it up.

Rose and Poe on ECW Press
Rose and Poe on Amazon.ca
Rose and Poe on Amazon.com

More About Diversity in Fiction

First of all you should read this article on YA Interrobang, The Underappreciation of International YA Literature. (Side note: YA Interrobang is shaping up to pretty cool and you should definitely sign up for their mailing list!)

If you are not American, you probably understand and sympathize with the author of this article as I did, in that popular books or popular YA books originating from your country just don't have the same "universal" spread or popularity that American fiction does.

There are a lot of you Americans, so it makes sense that there are a lot of YA books. The U.S. also has very large influence over a lot of countries, especially when it comes to media and pop culture. In the case of Canada, American influence affects everything because of the shared border. I have nothing against Americans or American authors, I have lots of favourite books by American authors.

But isn't it fair to say that I want my experience in my country represented in more than just the odd book? Isn't it fair to ask that I don't have to go looking in every nook and cranny, hoarding Canadian fiction like a crazed collector, just so I can find something I relate to?

American fiction is great but it isn't representative of my experiences. Canada, despite all its similarities to the U.S., is quite a bit different, and to sum up some of the differences, quite a bit tamer. (Just look at the evidence in Canadian history...)

I think this issue extends to the issue of diversity in fiction.

I believe that diversity in fiction means representing not only different races or people with disabilities, but people with completely different experiences in life. Diversity should be representing EVERYTHING, so that EVERYONE has a book they can completely relate to. I can relate to some parts of American fiction, but never entirely because of that cultural and national barrier.

Everyone's experiences matter, or at least they should, no matter how different or singular they are.

I know I'm referencing Canada, but I'm sure (and the article linked to above is evidence) that people in other countries, probably every country except the U.S., feel the same way.

As you can probably tell, I'm not completely sure on all of my thoughts on this. I'd love to hear what you have to say or if you disagree and why and such. I'd love to hear more discussion of diversity in books, it's probably one of my favourite topics because I believe it is extremely important. (tl;dr: Please comment!!)

What does diversity in fiction mean to you?

What MG Does That YA Really Needs to Get Better At

1. Friendships. MG's main focus is friendships - actual, genuine friendships.  Somehow, most YA friendships are stereotypical, have some sort of tie-in with some sort of popularity struggle, or end with a romance.

2. No romance. YA, no matter the genre, always seems to end up slipping into some sort romantic subplot which then becomes of the focus of the book (even if it's actually not the focus, the fans will make it so). MG is not about the romance, and I am very thankful.

3. Unique concept. A lot of YA I've read always seems to end up falling back into the old, easy stereotypes and the stuff about popularity. So many MGs have such interesting stories and concepts. I always find them quite a bit fresher than YA.

4. Covers. So many YA covers these days have the face of a girl, or you know what, how about you just look at these common YA covers. MG covers are AWESOME and creative and artistic. Look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think YA needs to get better at? Also, what are your favourite MG covers?? I want to know!!!!

 

*just a disclaimer: I'm sure all these things don't apply to all MG, but most, anyway.

 

3 Books I Want Everyone To Love

Just recently I read a post by the young writer John Hansen that talked about luck and bestseller lists and also illustrated the point that a lot of people feel that popularity equals quality when it comes to books. However this isn't necessarily true. I mean, Fifty Shades of Grey is the fastest selling paperback of all time and it's literally Twilight fanfiction (ugh). And from what I've heard, it's not very good.

A lot of books have hype surrounding them, and the hype just makes people want to read the books more, even if it's just to find out what the fuss is all about. I'm definitely guilty of checking out books because of the hype. But there are so many awesome, incredible, life-changing books that never make it onto any bestseller list.

Anyway, these are some of my favourite books that maybe don't have as much hype as say The Hunger Games or Fifty Shades of Grey. (By the way, I highly recommend you check out 50 Shades of Grey: The Musical, because it is awesome.)

Also, I'm talking about these books in the hope that you'll pick them up and fall in love with them as much as I have BUT everything's subjective, so even though I want everyone to love these books I know not everyone will and I'm OK with that.

1. JELLICOE ROAD by Melina Marchetta
Genre: YA contemporary
Goodreads page
My review

I know, I know, I talk about Jellicoe Road pretty much every chance I get. But it's soooo gooood. I love it when books have multiple stories that are beautifully woven together with strong characters supporting the entire thing. If you haven't read this book yet, you should. You should also check out some of Marchetta's other books that I love, Saving Francesca and The Piper's Son. All of these books are really character-heavy so if you like falling in love with characters, go check those books out right now!!

2. KING OF ATTOLIA by Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Fantasy
Goodreads page

Megan Whalen Turner is a writing genius. Her writing and characters are so intelligent and clever, it blows my mind. Just when I think I know what's going to happen in one of her books, something happens I never, ever saw coming yet the unexpected twist still feels natural. Also, her books are excellently researched and perfectly subtle. I LOVE IT. I love all three books in The Queen's Thief series (The Thief, Queen of Attolia and King of Attolia) but King of Attolia was the most amazing.

3. OKAY FOR NOW by Gary D. Schmidt
Genre: YA contemp
Goodreads page

This book I just recently read and... it was amazing. It almost made me cry, and no one even died in it. It was just completely beautiful and true, and the writing was amazing. Schmidt did this thing where he used paintings of birds to kind of reveal truths in the MC, Doug's life and also just to the reader and it was SO COOL. And the layers to the characters... I have no words for the amazingness.

So what are you still doing here? Go check out those books. ;)

How To Journal (In Order To Be Helpful To Your Writer Self)

(Note: the theme for the pictures is "Experiences I Would Journal About". Also, "Here's Some Visuals to Help You Through the Word Slush").

Upon reading the title of this post, you might be thinking: "How to journal? Um, Alyssa, journaling isn't something you tell people how to do..."

Toboganning and beautiful Canada.

OK, yes, I realize journaling is a very personal and independent activity and you basically do what you want and actually I don't really even write journals (and now you're thinking and you think you're qualified to give me how-to advice??? what is this place???).

But... I've decided I'm just going to give you advice anyway.

First of all, I shall tell you about my journaling/diary history. If you've read this post, then you probably already know a bit about that particular topic. Basically what you can gain from my journaling history is that my journals were filled with stuff like hateful thoughts, a few boring sentences about my day, or things that are really stupid and don't make any sense.

"Tire d'erable" at the winter festival.
Maple syrup, basically.

Also, looking back through the entries of the diary I got when I was six, I get frustrated. Because, seriously? I wrote about THAT? ("That" usually being how much I hate/dislike a variety of cousins, friends, and general other people I knew).

So yeah, I stopped writing journals except for on trips pretty much because I hated how they showed me how much of a stupid young child I was.

But the other thing I want you to note about all those journals and journal entries is that they did not -and have not- helped me with my writing (aside from helping me with an entertaining blog post, o 'course).

So I'm kind of piggy backing off of this post. That post (the one I just linked to) talks about truth in fiction and how to inject ourselves into our writing in order for our writing to come out more real and true and, ultimately, more beautiful and relatable. This requires a very, VERY different kind of journaling than the kind of journaling I did from ages six through 14ish.



Mt. Rushmore on choir tour... of all days to be foggy.

HOW TO JOURNAL IN ORDER TO BE HELPFUL TO YOUR WRITER SELF

• Whenever you find yourself comparing how something feels in your life to how something is commonly presented in books/other fictitious media, write down what YOU are feeling.

• Note what you notice. You are going to notice things in different ways than characters in books, but what YOU notice matters more, because you are real.

• Don't just talk about the things you did in a day when journaling. You can talk about stuff you did, but also talk about how you felt, or thoughts you thought or opinions you realized you had while you did stuff.

• Use detail when describing anything: what you notice, or what you did, or how you felt.

• Remember that when you experience something yourself, and then write about it, THAT is when your writing will feel (and be) the most real and that realness will then help readers to connect to your work.

So, now I'm going to give you homework. Here's what you have to do:

Go out and do something, even if it's just something really simple. Go to the park, go for a bike ride, play with your cat, even eat cereal... anything, just do something. Pay attention to:

• your thoughts
• your feelings
• what you're noticing
• detail

Then, after you're done doing whatever you did and paying attention to whatever you paid attention to, write about your experience.

Hiking in the desert with my friends.

And THAT, my friends, is how you journal.

---

I really hate to ruin a rare awesome blog post ending like that ("awesome" because my usual endings are along the lines of "so... yeah"), but I really would like to get some feedback from you!

I want to know if you do end up doing the writing exercise and if so what came out of it. In fact it would be cool if you even did it as a post on your blog, and then you can post the link below and I'll check it out. :)

Also, I want to know what you think. There may be other things I haven't thought of while forming these opinions, and maybe you see a hole in my logic. Do you think this is a good way to journal that would be helpful to your writing? How do you journal?

I would also love if you could go here to check out that truth/reality in fiction post I talked about above, and I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the opinions I present there. I really love discussion so please don't hesitate to comment, e-mail me (kazuntai101[at]gmail[dot]com) or even tweet me @AlyssaSherlock.

So... yeah. ;)

The Heart of Fiction

I would die to be able to write a song.

Um... maybe not. But sometimes it feels really frustrating that I can't get my feelings out in a way that will display them to the world and tell others what I want to say without just saying things flatly outright like "I was wondering if I would be a different person if I didn't have a sister with Down Syndrome", but saying things like that in a kind of hidden, deep, metaphorical way with haunting melodies to match. And then you can feel and say, with maybe feeling exposed but at least not naked.

So then, as I'm standing in front of the mirror brushing my teeth (yes, these deep contemplative times for me come not when I am looking out over a sunset, but when I am brushing my teeth...) I think: OK. I can't write songs. But, you know, sometimes I write poems.

And the voice inside my head that somehow is able to disagree with me goes: But, a poem? No, just... no. Today, that's not going to work. I can't explain it, but I need the simpleness of lyrics and the comfort of music.

And then I was thinking of books, or I guess fiction, and how that's what I really love to do is write these made-up stories. And even though it's all just out of the thin air of imagination, it's not. It's threads of stories and ideas and thoughts and wonderings, all these things that if I was a songwriter or a (better) poet I would express in songs or poems.

Instead, I insert things into characters and their ideas and their stories and process my experiences and thoughts and beliefs there. And then when my characters are thinking and speaking and being profound I go, "Hey. I believe that too, whaddaya know?" or I just breathe because it's pretty.

Like a fiction song.

:)