Don't know what to say except that my neck got really stiff & sore yesterday. I spent the evening snuggled up to a frozen bag of peas reading What Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum-Ucci.
I read her first book The Body of Christopher Creed earlier this year. It was intriguing, would definitey appeal to teens, but the style was a bit stilted and melodramatic. I loved the plot and it's appeal potential, I wasn't so crazy about the writing.
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arialas recommended Lani Garver, so I found it at the library and picked it up. I read the whole thing last night (along with Diana Wynne Jones' latest, Wild Robert, which is unfinished and extremely disappointing, don't bother!) and it was intriguing. It's about a gender neutral person who moves to a small island town and about a horrible hate crime that ends in mystery.
The protagonist is Claire, a survivor of childhood leukemia. She's in with the in crowd and befriends Lani, who helps her deal with a lot of the issues still haunting her from her bout with cancer.
What Happened to Lani Garver is a much more complex book than Christopher Creed, but it doesn't explore the broad social structure of high school as well. Instead, it seems to focus on the group dynamic between Claire and her friends. The events that occur seem believable, and I love that Plum-Ucci doesn't vilify Claire's best friend Macy, even though Macy is integral to the negative plot developments.
And I love Plum-Ucci's exploration of transsexuality, which was gentle, thoughtful, and very real. Lani is referred to with male pronouns through much of the book, but it never compromises the genderlessness of the character.
I wasn't so crazy about some of the philosophizing; throwing around Freud and Hegel with the lightness of high school coffee shop philosophers. It may very well be appropriate for the characters, and appeal to teens, but it seemed a little pretentious to me, and wasn't particularly enlightening.
I thought the characterization of the small town was good, although I hate that it reinforces this idea that small towns are a source of hatred and cities a source of acceptance. I happen to have grown up in a community with a large population of transsexuals, most of whom are accepted at face value because the conservative folks in the area would never think to question the way someone presents themselves, in part because they do not want to know.
I also thought it was interesting that Matthew Shepherd was alluded to on several occasions, including by the perpetrators of the hate-crime. "It's not like we're from Wyoming!" one of the characters says to justify their actions.
An interesting a thought-provoking book, which belongs on the shelf with other queer teen classics.
I read her first book The Body of Christopher Creed earlier this year. It was intriguing, would definitey appeal to teens, but the style was a bit stilted and melodramatic. I loved the plot and it's appeal potential, I wasn't so crazy about the writing.
arialas recommended Lani Garver, so I found it at the library and picked it up. I read the whole thing last night (along with Diana Wynne Jones' latest, Wild Robert, which is unfinished and extremely disappointing, don't bother!) and it was intriguing. It's about a gender neutral person who moves to a small island town and about a horrible hate crime that ends in mystery.The protagonist is Claire, a survivor of childhood leukemia. She's in with the in crowd and befriends Lani, who helps her deal with a lot of the issues still haunting her from her bout with cancer.
What Happened to Lani Garver is a much more complex book than Christopher Creed, but it doesn't explore the broad social structure of high school as well. Instead, it seems to focus on the group dynamic between Claire and her friends. The events that occur seem believable, and I love that Plum-Ucci doesn't vilify Claire's best friend Macy, even though Macy is integral to the negative plot developments.
And I love Plum-Ucci's exploration of transsexuality, which was gentle, thoughtful, and very real. Lani is referred to with male pronouns through much of the book, but it never compromises the genderlessness of the character.
I wasn't so crazy about some of the philosophizing; throwing around Freud and Hegel with the lightness of high school coffee shop philosophers. It may very well be appropriate for the characters, and appeal to teens, but it seemed a little pretentious to me, and wasn't particularly enlightening.
I thought the characterization of the small town was good, although I hate that it reinforces this idea that small towns are a source of hatred and cities a source of acceptance. I happen to have grown up in a community with a large population of transsexuals, most of whom are accepted at face value because the conservative folks in the area would never think to question the way someone presents themselves, in part because they do not want to know.
I also thought it was interesting that Matthew Shepherd was alluded to on several occasions, including by the perpetrators of the hate-crime. "It's not like we're from Wyoming!" one of the characters says to justify their actions.
An interesting a thought-provoking book, which belongs on the shelf with other queer teen classics.
