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Shape Of Water (2011)

by Anne Spollen(Favorite Author)

3.87 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0738725773 (ISBN13: 9780738725772)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fiction

publisher

Flux

review 1: I've read two of this YA author's books now. Both have a eerie, languid quality that captures the isolation many young ados experience in divorce or death of a parent. The pathways the protagonist finds to connect imaginatively and viscerally with the world and, in turn, herself are powerful as is her eventual return to so called "real" life. Also contains one of the best arguments ever of why anyone would turn to arson.
review 2: You'd think a book with this good of a cover has got to be great, but you'd be horribly wrong in this case. Which is very disappointing, of course, because I had such high hopes for this book. But, no, just no. It had no point. NO POINT. No point besides maybe creeping me out, that is. And creep me out it did. I think Anne Spollen ... morewrote from a weird place in her mind, a place I could never understand no matter what because it's just too out there for me. Maybe no one can understand it, and that would be a big problem, I should think, when writing a book you want others to get. But of course I got the gist. The gist of a girl with a crazy mom, a crazy mom who raises her to be crazy, and when the mom dies (or, if I gathered this correctly, killed herself)the girl just doesn't know what to do because no one else is as crazy as her. One part of her craziness I found amusing, though, and that part would be Mr. and Mrs. Fish. After a while they start to get incredibly annoying, but the thought of them was interesting. I couldn't tell if they were an analogy to Magdalena's mom and dad, or if her subconscious mind was trying to coach her into what happened by the way of imaginary fish. Either way, it was a good thing to add in a book like this, but I don't think it ever reached its full potential.All the random characters in this book didn't leave lasting impressions. Not even Magda herself. Her dad was a big element in the story, but all he ever does is grow away from her and end up marrying some neat-freak. And as for Dorothy's son, Andrew, one of the biggest harbingers of creepiness, he does nothing except be creepy and get stoned and have masochistic tendencies, but Spollen makes him out to be some important asset to Magda. But he does nothing! Nobody does anything! This book is full of wacko nothingness! I think we're meant to believe she was struggling with her mother's death and in the end she's over it, but I don't see it. It wasn't a sudden revelation. Everything that led up to those last words was useless to me. I could have gone without and still know the whole story. Plus, she talks about water and fish way too much. After wanting to read this book for so long, it's sad to say it was terrible, but I am just so over this book now. Good riddance. less

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