Short & Sweet: The Light-Keeper's Daughters

The Light-Keeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol

Seriously, so good. The storytelling style really reminded me of Kate Morton's books (which is a huge compliment), complete with tragic storylines that are dramatic but grounded in characters that feel real. I did find some of the events/connections rather convenient, and the explanation for the mystery at the end a bit of a stretch that raised some questions (spoiler, highlight to read: Emily and Elizabeth were old enough to talk by the time the illness came along; wouldn't Emily have been super confused when she was suddenly being called "Elizabeth" instead?), but overall, I was just captivated by this slow unraveling of a mystery set by the icy waters of Lake Superior. This is the kind of story that just hurts your heart.


4.5 shooting stars. 

The Space Between Us: A Close-Up Review

"From the author of Virtuosity, a novel about two sisters and the secrets they tell, the secrets they keep—and the secret that could tear them apart.Amelia is used to being upstaged by her charismatic younger sister, Charly. She doesn’t mind, mostly, that it always falls to her to cover for Charly’s crazy, impulsive antics. But one night, Charly’s thoughtlessness goes way too far, and she lands both sisters in serious trouble.
 
Amelia’s not sure she can forgive Charly this time, and not sure she wants to . . . but forgiveness is beside the point. Because Charly is also hiding a terrible secret, and the truth just might tear them apart forever." (from Goodreads)

The Space Between Us by Jessica Martinez
 

*Note: I've whited out the most major spoilery bits, but there are some general mild spoilers in this review.

Characters:

Amelia: I had trouble liking Amelia at some points because of her dismissive, condescending attitude towards Charly. While she does change her attitude partway through — and I have to respect her for trying to be more positive and treat her sister better — I feel like it shouldn't have taken knowledge of a certain fact to get Amelia to realize she'd been treating Charly badly (spoiler, highlight to read: the fact that Charly was date-raped changes Amelia's perspective, but I feel like she shouldn't have had the attitude she did towards Charly even if it had all played out the way Amelia had initially thought, without any instance of date rape). Amelia's behaviour towards Charly wasn't helping anything — not Charly, and not Amelia's mental/emotional health either. All it was doing was creating a negative environment and relationship between the two girls.

However, Amelia actually acknowledges that she'd gotten into the pattern of nasty behaviour towards Charly and that it was difficult to get out of the habit of making fun of her. I thought this was quite realistic — perhaps not something a lot of people would recognize or admit, but something that's very true of human behaviour (old habits die hard and all that). Also, I enjoyed Amelia's sarcastic attitude in some ways. Yes, she's pretty bitter about everything at the beginning, and she slowly mellows out (Ezra helps with that), but it was fun to hear her take on things. I kind of had to admire her for being so self-contained and self-reliant; she wasn't afraid to tell people what she thought, and she ate lunch by herself in the library and didn't care.

Charly: Even though Amelia was far from perfect, I preferred her to Charly. Charly just didn't seem like the kind of person I'd like very much — she's pretty self-centered (although really, Amelia is too) and shallow. We don't get to know her that well, though, and our perspective is admittedly biased since Amelia is the narrator, and so we see Charly through a negative lens through most of the book. I wish we'd been shown more of their relationship both before the book starts (i.e. through flashbacks) as well as once it gets patched up (spoiler: there's one scene where they basically make amends, and then we really don't see much more of them together. It just seemed like a "quick fix" sort of resolution.) The full explanation for Charly's situation makes it easier for us to feel sorry for her, yes, but I never felt that bad for her because she seemed rather annoying through most of the book.


Ezra: he was pretty awesome. He's got a good sense of humor and he's funny — he gets a lot of great lines — but he cares about Amelia too, and the way he tries to win her over is sweet. He presents an interesting mix of geekiness and self-confidence (two attributes you don't see being paired together that often!) Ezra is not without his own issues and flaws, though; he's somewhat guarded, and doesn't like to share information about himself, which really irritates Amelia. It seemed like his family had a lot of issues, but that these issues were being used as more of a plot device, or perhaps a device to explain his character, rather than existing in and of themselves. I feel like we should have seen more of his mother or brother, instead of hearing about them offhand as part of an explanation for Ezra's behaviour.

The romance reminded me of Anna and the French Kiss in style — enjoyable banter between the characters, a sweet progression of the relationship, and a few dollops of drama.

Premise/plot:

The Space Between Us takes a cliched and generic premise (pastor's daughter gets pregnant) and then makes it significantly better with one simple change — the fact that Amelia and Charly go to Canada. All right, I'm Canadian, so I'm a little biased, but let's face it: Canada gets short shrift in the YA department. We're just north of the U.S. but for some reason it's oh so much more glamorous to set a novel in New York or California than Toronto or B.C.

But lo and behold, Amelia and Charly pack their bags and head for...Banff, of all places! I say "of all places" because it's not the first location in Canada I would have imagined choosing to stay for an indeterminate period of time. Banff is a tourist hot spot for the skiing, but not much else. And as the sisters soon find out, it's cold there. (Um, it's Alberta. In the mountains. Of course it's cold.)

So basically, the funny comments and jokes alluding to all things Canadiana (food, customs, weather, etc.) were fantastic. Seeing it from an American perspective was quite amusing at times (Amelia hates some aspects of Canada!) And happily, it was clear that the author understands the cross-border dialogue that occurs. Jessica Martinez has lived in both Canada and the U.S. and obviously gets both sides of the coin.

Moreover, I'm very happy to see Canada getting featured in a book published in the mainstream North American market. Usually we're lucky to even get one or two mentions in a story — generally something along the lines of, "He's escaping to Canada" or "that frozen wasteland to the north" — so it was really cool that almost all of The Space Between Us was set in Canada. I would love to see this more often in YA, where I get a lot of the references and it feels like it means something more to me because it's set in my country.

The teen pregnancy plotline didn't do much for me, and doesn't stand out amongst all the similar stories out there. Spoilers: the storyline involving the date rape wasn't explored enough in my opinion. However, Martinez does touch on the important point of women who are date-raped thinking they are at fault, and feeling buried with guilt and shame even though logically they know that's not the case. I wish we'd seen more of Charly herself, coming into her own. But Amelia's romance with Ezra is cute — I adored the scene where Amelia gets mild hypothermia and heads into the library where, of course, Ezra is working — and I liked how the book ended for the two of them. We're given a glimpse into the near future for Amelia and Ezra and it looks promising.

There's also a small subplot involving a guy back home (Will) that never really gets resolved; the whole thing seemed complicated and unnecessary. Amelia could have had enough sister envy issues on her plate without dragging Will into it. Either that or something more should have happened back in Florida to bring in the characters (like Savannah and Will) that we saw at the beginning, rather than having them just stay on the sidelines.

Writing style:

The writing style is a little bland, but quite relatable and realistic. Martinez has a good ear for dialogue between teens; her characters can have emotional conversations with each other and still remain authentic.

Final verdict: 3.5 shooting stars. While the central premise is hardly fresh, Jessica Martinez skilfully capitalizes on her knowledge of Canada-U.S. differences to provide a good dose of humor, and also demonstrates some astute perceptiveness of human emotions and reactions through Amelia's and Charly's characters and situations.

Disclaimer: I received this as an ARC for review from the author.
 
This book counts towards my goals for the Just Contemporary reading challenge and the Sophomore reading challenge.

Canada Day Blog Hop, Eh? (Giveaway!)

That's right, it's time again for the Canada Day Blog Hop! This giveaway hop is hosted by Aislynn at Stitch – Read – Cook, Carmel at Rabid Reads, and Chrystal at Snowdrop Dreams of Books.

Got your eye on a YA/MG book by a Canadian author (worth $10 CDN or less from the Book Depository)? Well, enter this giveaway and you could win it! If you don't have a book in mind, maybe this list of Canadian authors on the blog Just Deb... will give you some ideas :)

Rules:

• This giveaway is open internationally, as long as the Book Depository ships to your country. Please check their list here if you're not sure.
• One entry per person.
• No tweeting or following necessary, although it's always appreciated. 
• This giveaway ends July 2 at 11:59 pm EST.
• The winner will be selected randomly and contacted by e-mail.

Please fill out THIS FORM to enter. Comments, while fabulous, do NOT count as entries.

Then once you've entered, head on over to the next blog on the list, Ink, Paper & Imagination!

And early Happy Canada Day!

The complete blog hop linky:

Facing the Mountain: Interview with Wendy Orr

I'm pleased to welcome Wendy Orr, author of Facing the Mountain, to the blog today for an interview! First, a bit about the book and its author:

From the Scholastic Canada website:

"A gripping wilderness adventure by the author of Nim’s Island.

Raven is hiking in the Rockies with her family. But when she gets to the top of her first mountain, the world tilts. She finds herself falling, riding a wave of rocks. Her sister and stepfather are trapped by the avalanche. Now Raven faces wild animals and treacherous terrain as she goes for help. Can she survive long enough to save her family?"

From Wendy's blog: "I'm a Canadian born Australian author, mostly of books for children and young adults. My books include: Nim's Island (the book that the film was based on), Nim at Sea, Peeling the Onion, Ark in the Park, The Princess and her Panther and Raven's Mountain."

And now for the questions...


1.) You've written numerous books for children and young adults. Do you feel the writing experience for Facing the Mountain was different from others? If so, how? Has your writing process changed over the years?

Every time I think I’ve worked out how I write books, I start a new one and all the rules change again. One thing that has changed over the years is simply that when I started I could concentrate on one book and there were very few other demands (except for the outside job, small children, farm… I guess I mean very little else to share the writing head-space.) Now there are always other books in different stages: promotion, proof reading, copy editing, so I have to make the switch back and forth from the intensely internal creative world of the early drafts, to the more external or logical demands of proofing and study guides, etc. For the first year of writing Facing the Mountain I deliberately cleared some of this by postponing other deadlines, but this book had the challenge of following the adrenalin rush and continuing publicity following the release of the Nim’s Island movie. I combated this by using meditation in a more focused way during the first drafts.

I think one thing that has changed, or developed over the years I’ve been writing, is that I’ve become less averse to planning. I still feel that a chapter plan before I start would kill the story for me, but I think I’ve also developed a better feel for the overall shape of the story, and am able to look at structure a little more rigorously after the first draft. This book went through several rigorous restructurings in the first six drafts: in the first draft the story was told alternately between Raven and her older sister Lily. I always think it would be great to be someone who could do chapter plans, follow them, and still have the story come to life, but I seem to have to take the slow way.

However one way that I do structure quite strictly is with maps. For this one I drew several maps of the mountain: an overall view of the mountain including the road in, around the lake, and the mountain top. I also made a salt dough model of the peak. That was on the back of my office door so I could easily check if the waterfall was east or west of the track, etc.

2.) It sounds like Raven has to overcome some major obstacles and face her fears. What are your top three fears? Have you been forced to face them?

Isn’t that interesting: I’m not sure what my top three fears are. I’ve had a phobia about seeing doctors ever since I broke my neck and other bones in a terrible car accident, but that’s a bit different. And of course as a mother you get a bunch of fears delivered with your first baby.

But in this sense… Probably fear of failure. Which means facing it every day, because you can’t write if you’re too afraid of failing. Writing means putting your soul out there for the world to see, all the time. And, depending on your definition, failing an awful lot of the time!

3.) Facing the Mountain is set in Alberta and British Columbia. What’s your favourite location in Western Canada, and why?

A tough question in a different way. A lot of places have that childhood nostalgia overlay, like the beach my grandparents lived by on Vancouver Island and my aunt’s on Salt Spring Island. They’re probably my favourite places in the world: that combination of rocks, trees and sea seems just perfect to me. But the feelings that started this book drew a lot on the camp I went to when I was 8 or 9, Camp Kananaskis in Alberta. There was a clearing that may have been an outdoor chapel, or I may remember it as that because I felt it was a holy place… but what I remember clearly was a conscious awareness of the beauty, the moss on the stumps, the light coming through the trees…. (But then I had to throw out a lot of that feeling, realizing that Raven, a prairie child, did not have the same feelings for mountains that I did. For her feelings I drew more on a Red Deer friend’s reactions when she came out to Vancouver Island with us on holidays, when we were 11 or 12. She found the mountains and trees claustrophobic and overwhelming.)

4.) I read on your website that you had the fairy tale of Rose White and Rose Red in mind when you wrote this novel. I’m a fan of fairy tales so I’d love to know more. Can you elaborate a bit? How did this fairy tale influence the storyline or characters of Facing the Mountain?

I realized I was thinking of the fairy tale as the story was growing in my head. I waited till the characters were fairly fully formed before reading it, so that it reinforced rather than instructed their development. Rose White and Rose Red are very different from each other, but, unusually for a fairy tale, not because one is good and one bad, or one clever and one stupid. They are both good, just different – and that’s how I saw Lily and Raven. And of course there’s the bear in it too…

5.) Stories often ask questions of the reader. What do you feel is the most important question your book asks?

I think it’s something about finding who you are when all the normal rules are stripped away – not sure how to put that into a neat question.

6.) What’s next for you, writing-wise?

In the next few months I’ll have copy editing and proofing to do on the last two Rainbow Street Shelter series (Henry Holt, US). I think the fourth, ABANDONED! A Lion Called Kiki, which comes out in July, is all done, but it might have one more lot of proof reading edits.  I’ve also been working on a picture book. And I’ve got started a new book that would really like me to do nothing but live in its world for a while. It’s still at that wonderful secret bubble stage, totally different from anything else I’ve done, and I haven’t even discussed it with my editors or agents yet. So we’ll see. 

Thanks for dropping by and answering my questions, Wendy! It's always a pleasure to find new children's books set in Canada. (There aren't enough of them out there!)

 

Calling All Canadian Book Bloggers...

...there is now a directory for you!! Yes, a directory especially for Canadian book bloggers.

Bella from A Girl Reads a Book has started up the Canadian Book Bloggers Directory. So if you are a Canadian and also a book blogger, join the rest of us & submit a link to your blog! :D