May Schedule

Last month was good. I got a lot of reviews written but I ran out of time towards the end for an excellent reason: I got a job! I am officially a freelance writer and editor for Upwork.

So this month, I aim to make my reviews as simple as possible. I am reviewing only two reviews a week. Weekly Reader and Classics Corner.
All the classics this month are some of my favorite YA novelss.

Since I am working this will be the most tentative schedule of all. It depends on how much energy I have and how much Wi-Fi I get. All I can say is, I will certainly do my best.


May 7- Weekly Reader:Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Classics Corner: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster

May 14-Weekly Reader: The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton
Classics Corner: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

May 21-Weekly Reader: House of Silence by Sarah Barthel
Classics Corner: The Westing Game by Ellen Tasking

May 28-Weekly Reader: It's Kind of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
Classics Corner: I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg

Classics Corner: We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson; Wonderful Gothic Novel By The Real Master of Horror

Classics Corner: We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson; Wonderful Gothic Novel By The Real Master of Horror
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Forget Stephen King, Anne Rice, and H.P. Lovecraft. The real Master of Horror in the 20th century is Shirley Jackson (1916-1965).

Jackson was obsessed with witchcraft and the Salem Witch Trials even as a child. She studied Tarot Cards, Ouija boards, and tea leaves, and spun fantasies based on psychic visions. She endured an unhappy childhood with a critical mother and an even more unhappy marriage to editor/literary critic, Stanley Hyman. While Hyman encouraged her proffessionally, he was extremely critical and borderline verbally abusive. patronized  her writing career, kept her on a strict writing schedule, and derided her housekeeping and child care. To cope with her husband's bad treatment, Jackson turned to binge eating, alcohol, and tranqulizers. Jackson reportedly became so agoraphobic that before her death at age 49, she barely left her room.

From this troubled soul came some of the most frightening horror tales.What is particularly memorable about Jackson's works is that the horror does not come from outside sources: ghosts,vampires, or even serial killers. The true horror is found in the characters themselves through their own anxieties, paranoia, repressed frustrations, and adherence to brutal tradition.

Take what is probably Jackson's best known work, the short story "The Lottery." A seemingly peaceful  small town's residents are preparing for a certain ritual, a lottery in which one of the residents receive some sort of honor. It is only until the Reader reaches the end of the story do they learn that the ritual imvolves one resident to be stoned to death. While there are some people saying that they hope so-and-so "doesn't get it" and the supposed Guest of Honor yells that "It's not fair", no real objections are raised. Instead the townspeople are so bound by this tradition that even the victim's children pick up rocks and gleefully hurl them at her.
Another example of Jackson's excellent writing is the novel, The Haunting of Hill House in which a group of people investigate a haunted house. The hauntings become more prominent in the presence of one of the guests, Eleanor Vance. Eleanor becomes a conduit for the supernatural forces because of her hatred for her bullying family members and her repressed urges for a female guest, Theodora. (who rudely tells Eleanor,"Do you always go when you're not wanted?") Finding no affection romantically or from her family and only madness in the house, Eleanor has no choice but to commit suicide.

By far the masterpiece of Jackson's works is We Have Always Lived In The Castle. This insightful wonderful novel gives new light into the Gothic Novel exploring the interior lives of the people who dwell inside those creepy walls.

The book is narrated by Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood, the younger daughter of an eccentric family that lives in a dilapidated Gothic mansion with her older sister, Constance and senile Uncle Julian.

Merricat and Constance's back story could earn them a guest spot on the ID show, Deadly Women. Their entire family except Julian, Constance, and Merricat were murdered by poison. Constance was the prime suspect since she often did the cooking. Her trial was made public and even though she was acquitted, the court of public opinion made her a pariah. (Though her family was already held under suspicion by their eccentric ways.) The suspicions, including a catchy jump rope rhyme about the Blackwood Sisters, contribute to Constance's agoraphobia so that she never leaves the house beyond the family garden.

While Merricat goes outside to do the shopping, she is no less bizarre than her sister. Merricat is obsessed with black magic and fetishes and uses them to protect her home and family. She claims to have one eye for day and another for night. When her night eye is open to do dark things, her day eye remains dormant. (Perhaps her "separate eyes" are metaphors for schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder.)

Charles, Julian's nephew and the Sisters' cousin, wanders into their lives and begins to dominate the sisters particularly Constance. He derides the family especially Merricat for hiding valuables and constantly asks persistent questions about the Blackwood's finances leaving no doubt about his true intentions to Merricat anyway. Constance remains in blissful denial....or does she?

Once the truth of the early poisoning and other violent acts throughout the book is revealed, The Reader becomes aware that the Blackwood Sisters could not have accomplished their violent murderous deeds without each other. Merricat is the obvious doer living out her darkest fantasies and impulses but she needed Constance to guide her. In turn, Constance has repressed urges and needs that she could never do without Merricat achieving them for her. The two's obsessions with each other and their home become destructive as they are determined never to leave their home come hellish murder or high fire.

Shirley Jackson exposed the darkness in the human psyche and how it leads to her protagonists to commit dark deeds in a dark world.

Weekly Reader: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins; A Deep Psychological Thriller With An Unreliable Narrator

Weekly Reader: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins; A Deep Psychological Thriller With An Unreliable Narrator
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Rachel Watson, the protagonist of Paula Hawkins' psychological thriller, The Girl On the Train, is the very definition of the unreliable narrator. She is a character who gives her first person account of the events but it is hampered by her psychological state which is filled with rash judgments and blackouts caused by frequent alcoholism.

Rachel is a very depressed woman for many reasons. She turned to alcohol to cope with her inability to bear children. Her husband, Tom, left her for another woman and they live in Tom and Rachel's old home with their infant daughter. Rachel lost her job because of habitual drunkenness and still rides the train to and from work, convincing her roommate that she is still employed, but is actually job searching and beating herself up over her guilt and despair over her current situation.

While riding the train, she sees a seemingly happily married couple through a window. She becomes obsessed with the couple that she names "Jess" and "Jason" picturing their lives as perfect. She imagines Jason as a doctor and Jess as an art gallery owner and the two have a loving marriage of frequent sex, romantic dates, and amorous expressions. As Rachel's life spirals more out of control, she becomes obsessed with her imaginative perspective of Jess and Jason.

What is particularly fascinating is as we find out about Rachel's life, we also get into the lives of "Jess" and "Jason" which are hardly the paragons of perfection of Rachel's fantasy. Instead Jess, who is actually named Megan, is just as troubled as her observer. Megan is given to frequent anxiety attacks, feels stifled in her marriage to Scott (not "Jason"), and commits acts of infidelity with other men. The portrayals of Megan and Rachel reveal how little that we know of people. Even when we imagine they live lives better than ours, theirs may be the same or worse than our own.

Rachel's fantasies of Megan and Scott's life comes to a head when Megan turns up missing. Unfortunately, Rachel has no memory of the night Megan was missing and Tom says he saw her in the area in a violent drunken state, which needless to say does not bode well for an alibi. Hoping to make things right, Rachel ingratiates herself into the investigation and in Scott's life.

Tension mounts as Rachel cannot account for that missing time nor what happened or why she was bleeding afterwards. She becomes suspicious of Scott and of herself. The Reader has no preconceived knowledge of Rachel's actions so they are finding out events as she is. Hawkins also cleverly withholds information from The Reader until the time is right.

As the investigation continues, Rachel becomes the proverbial woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown always one drink away from oblivion. She knows she has a problem, but feels unable to do anything about it. Alcohol becomes a security blanket that she clings to until it chokes her with her avoidance of the troubles in her life and what happened to Megan.

It takes until Rachel learns the truth of that night from an unlikely source that she takes some positive changes to her life. She calls to question herself and the people around her including those she thought she could trust.
When Megan was a ghost, an unimaginable standard, Rachel felt that she was doomed to fall. Then when she learned the truth of who Megan was and the truth of her disappearance does Rachel take stock in her own life and seeks to change it. That's when Hawkins makes the Unreliable Narrator more Reliable.

Forgotten Favorites: Little Little by M.E. Kerr; A Sweet YA Love Story About Two Outsiders

Forgotten Favorites: Little Little by M.E. Kerr; A Sweet YA Love Story About Two Outsiders
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews

This is another book that has been a long-time favorite of mine, since I was in middle school. Little Little is a Young Adult novel that gives us a teen romance between two characters who are just as sharp, witty, and non-conformist now as they were 37 years ago in 1981 when the book was first published.

Little Little La Belle, a three foot, three inch tall high school senior is soon to turn eighteen and is contemplating her future. She lives in a  picture postcard upstate New York town with a  wealthy family of average sized parents and a younger sister. She is tired of her mother trying to fix her up with various little people who are "perfectly formed" or "p.f." and tired of her father not wanting to let her grow up at all. She plans a secret engagement with Knox "Little Lion" Lionel, a TV evangelist and fellow little person with a large following and an even larger ego. Things begin to go awry when she meets and forms a friendship and maybe more with Sydney Cinnamon, another little person who is to be her party's entertainment.

Sydney has some issues of his own. At three feet, four inches, Sydney has been starring as "The Roach," a TV mascot for a pest control company and has been hired to entertain at Little Little's upcoming birthday party. An orphan and high school dropout, he begins to fall for Little Little himself and vice versa. The two begin a romance based on their different outlooks and the difficulties that they experience of being short stature.

The book is very dated in some parts. Little Lion's career as a TV evangelist seems to be based upon real preachers from the '80s such as Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker so the character seems a bit dated now. (However many of his conservative fundamentalist views still retain some of their prominence as does the discovery when his character is not all that he pretends to be). Little Little and Sydney go on one of their dates to a grindhouse movie theater which shows such B movie horror films as The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant and Curse of the Werewolf. However, M.E. Kerr has given the reader two strong characters through their humorous narration and their fresh outlooks on life.

In alternating first person chapters, Little Little and Sydney both give their views of the world with deft and witty narration that makes them memorable characters. In describing her younger sister Cowboy's various interests, Little Little observes: "It's hard to tell which one of us is most strange, me or Cowboy, though a dwarf will always look stranger anywhere."

Sydney also presents some clever insights, particularly about his fame as The Roach: "I decided to be something that people don't like instinctively and make them like it....If I'd been a vegetable, I'd have been a slimy piece of okra. If I'd been mail, I'd have been a circular addressed to 'Occupant.'"

Besides the narration, Sydney and Little Little become individuals describing their different experiences as little people. Little Little grew up with a normal sized family and has always been considered a town outsider; Sydney grew up in an orphans' home with other children with physical deformities; Little Little's first experience with other little people was when her grandfather took her to a meeting of The American Diminutives (TADS), a fictional organization that she and her family later join, mostly with the purpose of setting Little Little up with the male members. Sydney's first experience with other little people was when he went with the other orphans' home children to a theme park and saw various little people dressed as gnomes, foreshadowing his future working as an advertising mascot. Little Little is constantly described by the mother as "little, but p.f." but is tired of being treated as small doll by everyone around her especially her parents; Sydney often feels self-conscious about his hunched back, his overlong front tooth, and his short legs, but covers up his physical insecurities with one-liners and intelligence gleaned from reading various books about other people with physical abnormalities. In the differences in the two leads, M.E. Kerr shows that experiences can be different and even people in similar situations can be raised with completely different outlooks in life.

Above all, the book is about being an individual in a world that encourages conformity or as Sydney and Little Little describe, being oneself rather than being"Sara Lee" which means "Similar And Regular And Like Everyone Else." There are various moments that celebrate the characters' individuality such as Sydney and his friends' mock-Oscar award ceremony call "The Monsters" which awards are presented such as "Least Likely To Get Adopted" or "Most Likely To Scare Small Children." Little Little also proves her non-conformist nature in her arguments with her family including her blustering but well-meaning minister grandfather. When he tells her to "be a bush, if she cannot be a tree," she counters with "the idea of being a bush wasn't all that appealing and not for me, anyway, even if I was the best bush." Through Little Little and Sydney, Kerr seems to speak to every kid or adult who has ever been considered different by their peers and encourages them to embrace it and be themselves or as Sydney says "When I found out  I was a ball in a world of blocks, I decided that even if they didn't roll, I do. I decided to roll away, be whatever  I wanted to be."

Forgotten Favorites: Memoirs of A Bookbat by Kathryn Lasky; A Powerful YA Novel About Reading and Censorship

Forgotten Favorites: Memoirs of A Bookbat by Kathryn Lasky; A Powerful YA Novel About Reading and Censorship
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews

A person who loves reading is usually called a bookworm. Not Harper Jessup. The young protagonist of Kathryn Lasky's powerful YA novel, Memoirs of A Bookbat prefers to call herself a bookbat."I am like a bat.... skimming across the treetops to find my way through the densest forest in the darkest night. I listen to the shining needlepoint of sound in every book I read."

When Harper began to read it was to escape the fear of living with a frequently unemployed alcoholic father, weak-willed mother, and life in a trailer park. But after her parents become Born Again Christians, it's to escape their ever-increasing rules.

While her parent's religion allows her father to stop drinking and receive recognition as a spokesperson for their religious parent's organization: FACE (Family Action For Christian Education), they limit Harper's education. They censor books, try to instill traditional American History lessons, and constantly move their children pulling them from one school to another across the U.S.

Most of the early chapters focus on the lessons Harper learns from the books that she reads and deals with her friends: She writes to (fictional) children's book author and illustrator, Rosemary Nearing and discovers that authors are regular people who like receiving feedback. She reads Br'er Rabbit stories and uses her "lippity-clip and her blickity-blick" to get past her parent's restrictions, such as putting smaller books inside school textbook covers or larger FACE-approved books. She uses Are You There God? It's Me Margaret to answer questions about her late development. Above all, she realizes her axiom: "Nothing I have ever read in a book has ever caused me to be really unhappy."

Harper Jessie is a memorable protagonist. While she possesses an independent mind from her parent's religious values, she doesn't outright rebel against them. In fact many of her schemes to read what she wants are to compromise, so she doesn't lose her parent's love. It is only when the family moves to California when her parent's lessons become more threatening that she outwardly challenges her upbringing.

Her parents befriend a White Supremacist family and her little sister's best friend could be the poster child for the alt-right.(Her idea if playing "office" is to write inflammatory anti-Semitic letters to authors like Judy Blume.)
Harper's parent's beliefs become dangerous as they encourage child recruitment and picket abortion clinics.

Harper finds herself at a crossroads between her parent's values and her desire for independence especially after she befriends Gray Willette, a free-thinking youth. Gray develops Harper's reading interests by introducing her to the works of the (fictional) horror author, Dolores Macuccho. He also encourages her to try different more challenging projects like creating a bridge of toothpicks called Apocalypse Bridge. Romance between the two 14-year-olds is refreshingly understated as Harper sees less of a boyfriend in Gray and more of a kindred spirit.

In fact Gray becomes instrumental in Harper's final battle against her parents. She realizes that she will not let her parent's restrictions affect her mind. While some may question her final decision, sometimes the only way for a person to truly be free to be themselves is to break away from where they came.

Classics Corner: I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith; A Sweet Book About Writing About Eccentric Family Members

Classics Corner: I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith; A Sweet Book About Writing About Eccentric Family Members
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews

Every beginning writer is told, "Write what you know." The cliche suggests that people capture the people and situations around them, recall their own childhood memories, or describe the setting around them. One of those writers who took that message to heart is Cassandra Mortmain, the protagonist of Dodie Smith's novel, I Capture The Castle. True to it's name this sweet novel captures the writing spirit within Cassandra and her eccentric family.

Cassandra writes shorthand in a journal with her feet resting in the kitchen sink. She plans on following in the footsteps of her author father who is a one=book wonder with Jacob Wrestling, a stream-of-consciousness work (similar to Joyce's Ulysses). Sebastian Mortmain was once a wealthy intellectual coasting on the popularity of his magnum opus. He frequently lectured at American colleges and universities and was the darling of the intelligentsia. Unfortunately, his streak ended. He suffers from writer's block, dwindling finances, and a violent unstable temperament.

Mortmain bought a dilapidated castle where he lives with his family, including his second wife former artists' model, Topaz, his young son, Thomas, and two daughters, the creative Cassandra and the mercenary, Rose. Topaz tolerates Mortmain's rages believing him to be a tortured genius who just needs space and inspiration to continue writing again. The girls see their father in less rosy terms.

Rose is tired of living in genteel poverty and longs to find a rich husband and to escape from her dowdy life. Cassandra however inherited her father's writing ability and creative spirit, using it to fascinating ends such as participating in elaborate rituals for May Day and creating Mrs. Blossom, a surrogate fairy godmother from an old mannequin. The Mortmain family would be stuck in the perpetual inertia of little financial rewards and wanting more, if not for the arrival of the Cottons.

Simon and Neil Cotton are two American brothers who are the descendants of the castle's owners and get to know the renting Mortmains. At first both families have their own misconceptions and suspicions towards each other, but in a series of misadventures including in one humorous episode when a fur draped Rose is mistaken for a bear, the two families become friends.

The novel is filled with various subplots that are fueled by the various relationships within the families. Topaz at first is relieved when Mortmain begins to socialize with the Cottons but then becomes suspicious when he starts doing things with Mrs. Cotton that he never had before like laughing and visiting people. She worries that her husband is having an affair but is also worried that he is using his new relationship to avoid writing. His writer's block is finally ended by a desperate moment of tough love from Cassandra and Thomas, resulting in a book that begins in a free association wring style imitating a child's first sentences.

Rose and Cassandra also have their relationship woes as well. Rose, forever dreaming of a rich life, becomes romantically involved and gets engaged to Simon. However she and Neil continue to take snipes at each other. She thinks he's a boor, he thinks she's a gold-digger. But anyone who has read any Jane Austen book ever knows that fighting couples disguise romantic feelings for each other. Rose and Neil act on those romantic feelings in a way that changes their families forever.

Standing at the center of all of this turmoil is Cassandra. While she practices her writing, she is dealing with her own complicated love life. She fends off the advances of Stephen, a servant boy and wannabe-poet but too successfully. She ends up inadvertently putting Stephen in the arms of a cougar who uses the young man for her personal interests. Cassandra develops an infatuation for Simon but keeps her emotions suppressed for Rose's benefit. Unfortunately, this proves for naught when Rose and Neil's secret affair is revealed.

Cassandra begins the book as a starry-eyed romantic idealist but after she captures the castle, its inhabitants, she gains maturity and realizes how little she can change things with her choices. She not only captures the castle. She captures herself.

Weekly Reader: Atonement by Ian McEwan; A Moving Story About False Accusations and The Dangers of Imagination

Weekly Reader: Atonement by Ian McEwan; A Moving Story About False Accusations and The Dangers of Imagination
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: While having a great imagination is great for creating works of art and literature, it can also lead to problems when you have trouble separating fantasy from reality. This situation is faced by Briony Tallis, the young protagonist with too much imagination and too little control over it in Ian McEwan's moving and emotional novel, Atonement.

When the novel begins, Briony is writing a play to entertain her cousins and her older brother returning home from University. She temporarily takes a break from her Gothic thriller about a young naive heroine ravished by a wicked man and sees her older sister, Cecilia and Robbie Turner, a maid's son, both barely dressed emerge from a nearby pond. Briony's mind is filled with the plots of various Gothic and Romantic tales and is alarmed. She becomes even more alarmed when she sees what she believes is a violent encounter between Cecilia and Robbie (but is in reality nothing of the kind). This event and Briony's misconceptions of it lead to a chain of events which result in Robbie's dismissal and arrest and Cecilia's estrangement from her family.

While the middle drags somewhat dealing with Robbie and Cecilia's time during the war and taking tentative steps towards a relationship, it picks up once Briony reenters the scene. Briony is  a multi-faceted character no matter how regrettable. In the beginning she is a spunky vibrant girl filled with romance and imagination and wanting to protect her sister no matter the cost. Later she becomes withdrawn and hesitant but is still driven to make things right. She is never a heartless girl enjoying the pain she gave Robbie but what's done is done and what's said is said and she can't take it back no matter how much she wants it to be.

The last sections of the book focus on Briony's desire for atonement and forgiveness which only makes things worse. A violent act really did occur and not only did Robbie get arrested for it but the real culprit receives no punishment and becomes a member of Briony's family as though a constant reminder of her mistaken assumption and regrets.
Briony volunteers as a nurse in WWII to achieve some good works in the world but only receives anguish and further sadness as she realizes nothing that she does will stop the soldiers from dying.

Even her final conversation with Robbie and Cecilia which is partly an apology and closure is tempered by a final revelation that provides no closure at all among her, Cecilia, and Robbie. Even as an old woman and successful author, Briony is still haunted by the lengths her imagination took her.

In the end, Briony Tallis does not seek atonement from Cecilia and Robbie for her actions, she seeks it from herself. Whether she gets it or not is up to the Reader's perspective...their own imagination.