Author: Jill Maclean
Publisher: Pajama Press
Rating: WORTHY!
This is a coming-of-age story written as though it’s a long poem, but it’s not actually written in poetry. It’s merely prose set out in a format which superficially resembles the poetic. Frankly, this put me off to begin with. Typically I look inside a novel and read a small portion of it - usually something in the first chapter - to get a feel for whether I might like it. In this case I went solely on the blurb, grabbing it off the library shelf without looking inside because I was in a hurry! I'm glad I did, because if I had looked inside it and seen this format, I might have put it right back on the shelf, and it would have been a sad loss if I had. This book is brilliant in many ways, not least in that the author actually grasps that there are places in the world which do not end in ", U.S.A."; the novel is set in Canada which is apparently some nation north of the center of the world (/snark).
I read the entire novel in about two hours, which is not something I normally do, but the novel is a lot shorter than it appears because of the format. Initially, I started skipping through the first few pages, thinking the first 'chapter' was actually the prologue before I realized the entire novel is written this same way! Color me annoyed, but I began reading, and soon found it not only readable, but addictive. MacLean has found a way to defeat my hatred of prologues, because she doesn’t have any chaptering - or anything! It’s one long text with no traditional breaks at all. The only indication of a break is when you turn the page and the first line of text is bolded. This counts as a chapter I guess, and if so, the chapters are exceedingly short! It’s a brave new format, but it’s one which doesn't detract from the reading experience once you get used to it.
I saw one negative review of this novel which started out by adding this not-so-subtle subtitle: "Or, A Promiscuous Girl Gets Her Just Desserts…" which is not only an appallingly misguided and cruel thing to say, it's also completely inaccurate. The girl is question wasn't promiscuous at all, and even if you insist that she were, promiscuity had nothing whatsoever to do with what happened. Nor would promiscuity merit what happened - not unless you're some delusional religious zealot. The novel isn't even about the girl. It’s about her brother.
Nixon Humboldt is fifteen, and in an abandonment of YA fiction trope, lives in your standard one boy, one girl, two parents, one of each gender family; in short, about as normal as you can get, except that there are undercurrents in this family which are not readily apparent at the outset. This is a loving family, but there is distance between its members for a variety of reasons. Nix loves his sister Roxy, but they fight when they aren't supporting each other. Nix's mom is unexpectedly strict with Roxanne, but not with him. His father is distant and usually supports his mother's dictates.
Nix's dad is a self-taught cabinet-maker, and Nix has learned the trade to the point where he can competently make furniture by himself - such as the table he gives to his mother for her birthday - a table she seems unable to appreciate for obscure reasons of her own. Nix was a rather rotund child and is just starting to grow out of his 'baby-fat', but he has only one real friend at school, and he doesn’t even understand why this guy, Chase, even is his friend. He is in love (so he believes) with Chase's girlfriend Loren and barely registers that Chase has a sister, nick-named 'Blue', until she shows up one day at the workshop by his home and orders four bird boxes.
Roxanne finally gets a date with Brian, the high school playboy, whom Nix detests, but she will not listen to his advice ands she starts seeing Brian regularly for better or rather, for worse - and shockingly so. This relationship leads indirectly to a real tragedy which marks a great divide in the book between before and after. The power of this story is that it handles both halves amazingly well. The first 'half' is intriguing and highly amusing as Nix tries to navigate his way through life feeling very much like he's on his own - alone that is, until he forms a relationship with a neighbor's neglected, if not abused, dog. In walking the dog regularly, Nix finds his life changing for the better, but with great dog walks comes great responsibility.
The second 'half' of the book is much more somber with, it seems, every single relationship Nix has, no matter what its hue, changing palettes even as he watches. Someone who was important becomes ordinary, someone who was ordinary becomes important, and his life turns around completely.
Here’s a sentence of advice to YA romance writers: read this novel and learn how to write really cool relationships as depicted by a maestro. MacLean shames unfortunately too many YA writers with her handling of these relationships in this novel which (it turns out) is just the right length after all. And this is from someone who has come to harbor a great deal disdain for first person PoV stories! I rate this novel a worthy read.
