2011 Book Review #97: Hickey of the Beast

[jethrien]

Title: Hickey of the Beast
Author: Isabel Kunkle
Genre: Paranormal YA
Thingummies: 4

Synopsis: Being the daughter of the headmaster of the boarding school you go to is hard enough. But now Connie's having nightmares about her classmates--who each fall ill the day after she dreams about them.

Thoughts: Disclosure: I know both the author and the publisher of this book.

I read this book as a serial, which I suspect was not an ideal format for me personally, mostly because of my reading speed. I'm used to getting through books in a matter of days if not hours--it's weird and a little frustrating to have a book drag on for months. This, however, was a personal problem and not actually the book's fault.

The really delightful thing about this book is the voice. Connie is bright and funny, sarcastic but still a little vulnerable. She's a good kid--no rebelling for the sake of rebelling, no intent to hurt people--so her sharp observations are good natured. It's been awhile since I was a teenager, but I really bought that this is how a smart, mature but still not grown up young woman would think. She has crushes but doesn't lose her head, has enemies but doesn't over-angst, and steers clear of any sparkly vampires whatsoever. No one's playing with the idiot ball here--Connie and her friends are sensible, her parents are competent, her reasons for not going to adults are legitimate. So a lot of the wall-banger traps of YA are neatly avoided here. I liked that, while she's not a brown-nosing goody-two-shoes, Connie's essentially a well-behaved kid. She has a head that's pleasant to be inside, which is really important when a book's in first person.

I'm not 100% sure that I felt the reason for Connie developing extrasensory powers was fully developed. There's an explanation given, but I didn't feel it was fully fleshed out. I kept expecting to get a confirmation and more details later, but they never quite materialized. It made the ending feel a little bit rushed to me. I was also never quite sure why her little brother appeared in her dreams at first--I kept expecting more meaning from the beginning form of the dream, but I'm not sure I'm totally satisfied with that explanation, either.

The pacing overall hums right along, and the setting is nicely sketched in. The combination of having involved parents and still being at a boarding school is a nice little twist. The title is a good indicator of the overall nature of this book--playful and clever.

Comments

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I think some of those questions are answered, but perhaps easy to lose track of in the serial format. If you happen to go back and read it as the collected novel later, it might be easier to follow - especially the little brother thing, which does get addressed, but only briefly.

Really glad you enjoyed!

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Fair enough--as I said, the serial format threw me a little. I rarely read something over so long a period. It's not that it's a bad idea--it's just perhaps not ideal for me personally.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I think it's only possible with very specific books and formats. It'll be interesting to see how it works out with Leonard's book...

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I think the blog post nature of it will lend itself very well to the format.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm thinking, and why we decided to window it as a serial and then release the finished novel a few months into the run. I think it'll be a matter of reader preference which they want...and that both will be good ways to read it, and almost different experiences.