Book #29: Hourglass, by Myra McEntire
Aug. 24th, 2011 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityIt's the story of a wall. And a door. And a pattern. And time. And a girl. And a boy. And, naturally, it's a story about love. Because most of the good ones are.
(It's also another entry on my list of Books With Amazing Cover Art. And now that I'm finished reading it, I'm pretty sure the picture on the front blows my mind even more.)
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
When![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rj_anderson first told me about the book, she described it as "My book [ULTRAVIOLET], as written by a person I've never met who had very similar yet strikingly different ideas, oh and also the same person did our cover photography." That might be a bit of a paraphrase, but having finished it, I can see what she was talking about. They do have quite a bit in common, but their differences are what make them truly amazing books.
While Ultraviolet focused on the real world looking crazy, Hourglass makes the crazy world look real. They are more mirrors of one another than clones, and I think that's why I love them both so much (OMG, DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!).
Ahem.
Anyway, HOURGLASS is the story of Emerson, a seventeen-year-old girl who is recovering from the fairly major psychological trauma of having lost both her parents four years before. Additionally, she sees dead people. Well, not really. She sees people from the past. As you can imagine, this makes for some rather awkward one-sided conversations before she learns to deal with it (Her learning to deal with it is actually one of my favourite things. She does it by fashion. And since she doesn't actually care about fashion, she had to teach it to herself. I love her). But she's got her life back on track. Or nearly, anyway. She's about to start senior year, she has a best friendwith excellent spin off potential, and her brother and his wife, who took her in, love her to bits.
Her brother hires one more "specialist" to help her: a student named Michael who works at the Hourglass Institute. Or at least, that's what it looks like.
What follows is this beautiful, perfectly constructed, semi-linear ball of timey whimey...stuff that just made my HEART BLEED on account of it's AWESOMENESS (and yes, I am allowed to make Doctor Who jokes about this book because McEntire does it herself, and actually she has a joke about a Klingon I won't ruin for you that just about killed me).
And then of course you get to the end, and it's like getting punched in the stomach a hundred thousand times, except Emerson has a brown belt, and girl knows how to take a hit. I can't even bring myself to tell you anything else beyond GO AND BUY THIS BOOK (and possibly also some kleenex).
There were, naturally, some things I didn't love. I didn't love Kaleb. Well, I did love Kaleb, and that was part of the problem. He's basically my worst nightmare in a human being, and his OVERWHELMING DECENCY is a large part of why, and I can't really explain it. Needless to say, he's a great character, but there was one scene where I had to put down the book, curl up into a ball, and hyperventilate for a while. I am probably the only person in the UNIVERSE that would be triggered by him, but there you have it.
I also didn't love the Big Villainous Reveal, because I never like it when, uh, let's just say there's a consent issue and let it go at that, but I don't think I was supposed to, on account of it being the Big Villainous Reveal. At least it ended it pretty much the BEST WAY POSSIBLE. (Um...that's not a spoiler. We all know I only like books with happy endings, and the CAPSLOCK indicates I liked it.)
When I ran into the Michael/Emerson 'ship, I thought the potential of Doctor/Patient thing was going to put me off. Perhaps it was that Michael was so definitely not a doctor? Apparently I'm okay with mentor/mentee, so long as both are close in age? Maybe it was that Emerson had a brown belt and was not afraid to use it? I have no idea, but I loved them.
I hadn't planned to stay up this late reading, and then I hadn't planned to stay up this late writing the review, but I just REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK and felt the need to finish it and then SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE. I know I've been overgenerous with the 10 this year, but I'm doing it again: 10 out of 10 for an amazing girl, an absolute dork of a boy, familial bonding, brilliant geek references, and a plot worth staying up past midnight for (two nights in a row).
(It's also another entry on my list of Books With Amazing Cover Art. And now that I'm finished reading it, I'm pretty sure the picture on the front blows my mind even more.)
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
When
rj_anderson first told me about the book, she described it as "My book [ULTRAVIOLET], as written by a person I've never met who had very similar yet strikingly different ideas, oh and also the same person did our cover photography." That might be a bit of a paraphrase, but having finished it, I can see what she was talking about. They do have quite a bit in common, but their differences are what make them truly amazing books.While Ultraviolet focused on the real world looking crazy, Hourglass makes the crazy world look real. They are more mirrors of one another than clones, and I think that's why I love them both so much (OMG, DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!).
Ahem.
Anyway, HOURGLASS is the story of Emerson, a seventeen-year-old girl who is recovering from the fairly major psychological trauma of having lost both her parents four years before. Additionally, she sees dead people. Well, not really. She sees people from the past. As you can imagine, this makes for some rather awkward one-sided conversations before she learns to deal with it (Her learning to deal with it is actually one of my favourite things. She does it by fashion. And since she doesn't actually care about fashion, she had to teach it to herself. I love her). But she's got her life back on track. Or nearly, anyway. She's about to start senior year, she has a best friend
Her brother hires one more "specialist" to help her: a student named Michael who works at the Hourglass Institute. Or at least, that's what it looks like.
What follows is this beautiful, perfectly constructed, semi-linear ball of timey whimey...stuff that just made my HEART BLEED on account of it's AWESOMENESS (and yes, I am allowed to make Doctor Who jokes about this book because McEntire does it herself, and actually she has a joke about a Klingon I won't ruin for you that just about killed me).
And then of course you get to the end, and it's like getting punched in the stomach a hundred thousand times, except Emerson has a brown belt, and girl knows how to take a hit. I can't even bring myself to tell you anything else beyond GO AND BUY THIS BOOK (and possibly also some kleenex).
There were, naturally, some things I didn't love. I didn't love Kaleb. Well, I did love Kaleb, and that was part of the problem. He's basically my worst nightmare in a human being, and his OVERWHELMING DECENCY is a large part of why, and I can't really explain it. Needless to say, he's a great character, but there was one scene where I had to put down the book, curl up into a ball, and hyperventilate for a while. I am probably the only person in the UNIVERSE that would be triggered by him, but there you have it.
I also didn't love the Big Villainous Reveal, because I never like it when, uh, let's just say there's a consent issue and let it go at that, but I don't think I was supposed to, on account of it being the Big Villainous Reveal. At least it ended it pretty much the BEST WAY POSSIBLE. (Um...that's not a spoiler. We all know I only like books with happy endings, and the CAPSLOCK indicates I liked it.)
When I ran into the Michael/Emerson 'ship, I thought the potential of Doctor/Patient thing was going to put me off. Perhaps it was that Michael was so definitely not a doctor? Apparently I'm okay with mentor/mentee, so long as both are close in age? Maybe it was that Emerson had a brown belt and was not afraid to use it? I have no idea, but I loved them.
I hadn't planned to stay up this late reading, and then I hadn't planned to stay up this late writing the review, but I just REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK and felt the need to finish it and then SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE. I know I've been overgenerous with the 10 this year, but I'm doing it again: 10 out of 10 for an amazing girl, an absolute dork of a boy, familial bonding, brilliant geek references, and a plot worth staying up past midnight for (two nights in a row).
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Date: 2011-08-24 01:11 pm (UTC)Still haven't rediscovered where I packed Plain Kate... must find...
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Date: 2011-08-24 01:57 pm (UTC)I think it's awesome that last year I had a clear standout as to which book was my favourite (well, which two books), and this year I'm going to have about five...