Book #64: Adaptation, by Malinda Lo
Nov. 11th, 2012 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityOne of the last genres to break into the teen section is sci-fi. I think this is because a lot of sci-fi was already read anyway (like, for example, The Book That Shall Not Be Named, which was rebranded on account of the movie and, hilariously, GIVES AWAY THE ENDING ON THE COVER), but every time a true sci-fi title pops up in the section, I am THRILLED. And when that book is written by Malinda Lo? I am extra-so. ;)
Adaptation is the story of Reese, a girl from San Fransisco who goes to a debate competition in Phoenix and is traveling home the day the world changes. Birds fall from the sky, and they bring planes with them as they fall; planes built to withstand one or two bird-strikes, but not dozens at the same time. Almost right away, conspiracy looms. The government is lying about the number of planes. Everything is shut down. There is panic, and Reese and her co-debator, a boy named David, find themselves driving home. They're in a crash, and when they wake up, everything has changed.
What made Adaptation truly great was how slowly the Alien Conspiracy unfolded. I think Lo really captured how people react to disaster and change, how they become cautious but also determined to be themselves again, even if they have to redefine who they are in the process. By the time the action picks up again at the end of the book, I felt like I really knew Reese, and by knowing her, and growing with her, I was all the more compelled to find out what was going to happen to her. We got to spend plenty of time with Reese as she figured things out, both in terms of what happened to her and David, and in terms of her feelings for Amber.
Oh, did I mention the love triangle? Because that's exactly where Reese finds herself. And in a dramatic break with tradition, the focus of the love triangle was not her PICKING between Amber and David, but in her figuring out how she feels about them. Reese's feelings for David have been simmering for a while, and their relationship is kind of stalled, where Amber is fast. I was actually a little bit uncomfortable by her determination (which, for the record, would have been the same had Amber been a dude), but I also think it was very realistic. And Reese, Reese was amazing, trying to put all the pieces together.
We've all accepted by now (I hope), that I love books about love. And when the pacing of the Main Plot matches the pacing of the Love Plot? So much the better. I really enjoyed going from ASH and HUNTRESS, fantasy, to ADAPTATION. The writing was absolutely great.
The other thing I really loved was that, except for the aliens, nothing was sensationalized. Reese's mother was a lawyer. The President, Secretary of State, Press Secretary and Local Senator were all women. Most of the doctors were women. The book was ABSOLUTELY FULL of excellent female characters. I blogged a couple weeks ago about stories without reason, and ADAPTATION was very much one of those. The President of the United States was female for no particular reason, and it was excellent. I love it when Fiction is better than Real Life.
Finally, in this Year Of Great Endings, ADAPTATION joins THE RAVEN BOYS and UNSPOKEN for ending in a way that is not precisely a cliff-hanger, but in a way that is brilliant and open and OMG, WHERE IS THE NEXT ONE?
Rated 9/10 for amazing pacing, brilliant and creepy plots, wonderful (and creepy) imagery, an excellent application of The Love Triangle, and a roster of great female characters.
Adaptation is the story of Reese, a girl from San Fransisco who goes to a debate competition in Phoenix and is traveling home the day the world changes. Birds fall from the sky, and they bring planes with them as they fall; planes built to withstand one or two bird-strikes, but not dozens at the same time. Almost right away, conspiracy looms. The government is lying about the number of planes. Everything is shut down. There is panic, and Reese and her co-debator, a boy named David, find themselves driving home. They're in a crash, and when they wake up, everything has changed.
What made Adaptation truly great was how slowly the Alien Conspiracy unfolded. I think Lo really captured how people react to disaster and change, how they become cautious but also determined to be themselves again, even if they have to redefine who they are in the process. By the time the action picks up again at the end of the book, I felt like I really knew Reese, and by knowing her, and growing with her, I was all the more compelled to find out what was going to happen to her. We got to spend plenty of time with Reese as she figured things out, both in terms of what happened to her and David, and in terms of her feelings for Amber.
Oh, did I mention the love triangle? Because that's exactly where Reese finds herself. And in a dramatic break with tradition, the focus of the love triangle was not her PICKING between Amber and David, but in her figuring out how she feels about them. Reese's feelings for David have been simmering for a while, and their relationship is kind of stalled, where Amber is fast. I was actually a little bit uncomfortable by her determination (which, for the record, would have been the same had Amber been a dude), but I also think it was very realistic. And Reese, Reese was amazing, trying to put all the pieces together.
We've all accepted by now (I hope), that I love books about love. And when the pacing of the Main Plot matches the pacing of the Love Plot? So much the better. I really enjoyed going from ASH and HUNTRESS, fantasy, to ADAPTATION. The writing was absolutely great.
The other thing I really loved was that, except for the aliens, nothing was sensationalized. Reese's mother was a lawyer. The President, Secretary of State, Press Secretary and Local Senator were all women. Most of the doctors were women. The book was ABSOLUTELY FULL of excellent female characters. I blogged a couple weeks ago about stories without reason, and ADAPTATION was very much one of those. The President of the United States was female for no particular reason, and it was excellent. I love it when Fiction is better than Real Life.
Finally, in this Year Of Great Endings, ADAPTATION joins THE RAVEN BOYS and UNSPOKEN for ending in a way that is not precisely a cliff-hanger, but in a way that is brilliant and open and OMG, WHERE IS THE NEXT ONE?
Rated 9/10 for amazing pacing, brilliant and creepy plots, wonderful (and creepy) imagery, an excellent application of The Love Triangle, and a roster of great female characters.
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Date: 2012-11-12 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-12 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-12 01:57 am (UTC)A bunch of my friends re-read that in the past few years. I never read it in the first place. I think I missed a lot of the wildly dysfunctional tween books other people got to read while I was in the ashram not knowing about sex.
<3 I love that you're awesome and have well-founded, well-explained opinions about books. I wished we lived closer so we could hang and I could mooch off your knowledge of things! (I would let you mooch my nail polish.)
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Date: 2012-11-12 02:03 am (UTC)(Also it kills me that the movie preserves the characters of colour instead of whitewashing them, and cast HARRISON FORD and VIOLA DAVIS as the adults, genderflipping Davis's character in the process. I just don't want OSC to get more of my money!)