1. The thing that first attracted me to Weave a Circle Round by Kari Maaren was the word weave, which I do, but it wasn’t actually about that. It was about Freddy, a ninth grader whose brilliant little sister and irritating stepbrother and herself are all affected by the two strange people who move into the house across the street. When I began reading, I didn’t expect Norse gods and time travel, but that’s only among the strange things that happen.
Honestly, the parts I liked most were not the time travel bits but those set at Freddy’s school, where she tries to take the path of least resistance initially but later changes her mind. It’s comparable–but inferior to–A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle in that the main character is “normal” in a household of oddities. If Maaren wrote another in a different setting, I’d read it; if in the same, I’d hesitate.
2. The second book of the Raven Cycle, The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater, has a more fractured set of protagonists. While Ronan is pushed slightly into the forefront based on his revelation at the end of book one, the main drive of the book is Gansey’s hunt for Glendower, which has been complicated by Adam’s actions from the previous book.
Where is Blue in all of this? Excellent question. She isn’t–so far–as important as in The Raven Boys. I’m rather over halfway through and strongly suspecting this may suffer from sequelitis. It could finish strong, however, and I still enjoy the characters, particularly Gansey. I’ll download the two remaining ebooks and attempt to finish them before the end of the year.
3. Next up. Another short story in Kelly Link‘s Get in Trouble, the third Vatta’s War book by Elizabeth Moon, and reading aloud from Sharps by K. J. Parker on the Christmas road trip. Where I hope to get books for Christmas.
Advertisements Share this:
