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Book Review: Jawbone by Monica Ojeda translated by Sarah Booker

cover art for Jawbone by Monica Ojeda

Jawbone by Monica Ojeda., translated by Sarah Booker

Coffee House Press, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1566896214

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

 

Fernanda wakes up, disoriented, to discover she has been kidnapped by Miss Clara, her literature teacher. Figuring out how she got there is the first step in navigating a twisty narrative.

 

Fernanda, her close friend Anne, and their friends had found an abandoned, isolated house where they told horror stories, participated in violent dares, and worshipped the White God (as friend groups of teenage girls do). Fernanda and Anne pushed their limits further than the other girls, but Fernanda finally reaches hers.

 

Anne is forced to take extra lessons from Miss Clara after the teachers discover an irreligious drawing of an insect god in drag. Miss Clara has closely modeled herself on her mother and has anxiety and frequent panic attacks that result in repetitive and neurotic behaviors and self-harm, making her a perfect target for Anne, who is angry with Fernanda for drawing boundaries. Anne uses her conversations and assignments with Miss Clara to manipulate Miss Clara’s anxieties and turn her focus on Fernanda as a villain victimizing Anne…

 

The writing varies in style. Parts of the book record Fernanda’s therapy sessions; conversations between Anne and Clara;  and a long essay on “white horror” by Anne for Clara. Others get into the mental state of Clara or Fernanda which are quite disorienting, vivid, and sometimes gut-punching, with insect and body horror. The descriptions of physical responses to anxiety and panic attacks are hard to read. It gets harder and harder to trust any perception of events.

 

There is so much left to the imagination that it creates a real sense of unease. The violence keeps escalating but a lot of it happens off the page. This is generally effective but left me confused with the ending. There is so much left to the imagination that it creates a real sense of unease.

 

This is far from being a straighforward narrative, Readers who enjoy experimental narratives and unreliable narrators will find much to recommend it, though. ,.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Editor’s note: Jawbone was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award in Translated Literature. 

Posted on November 9, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

Cover for The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

PUSH, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1338745313

Available: Hardcover, paperback, KIndle edition, audiobook.

( Bookshop.org |   Amazon.com )

 

 

When genderfluid teen Mars Matthias’ twin sister Carikube dies violently in front of them after running away from summer camp, Mars insists on attending the camp for the rest of the summer. They agree to placement with the boys, but their real goal is to rediscover Caroline, especially through The Honeys, her girlfriends in Cabin H, which tends to the camp’s beehives.

 

Mars’ previous experience at camp involved the other boys tying them to a wooden scoreboard and setting it on fire so their experiences are mixed. Camp authorities prefer to let campers solve conflicts on their own, not great news if you can’t defend yourself. While the rest of the camp participates in mandatory activities, the Honeys do their own thing, and they invite Mars to be a part of it.

 

But the Honeys aren’t just tending bees, they are the hive– the collective mind of all the bees, seeking a queen, and being pressured by the adults around them to create umbral honey (created as it feeds on living, albeit predatory creatures (such as camp counselor Brayden), that will give them real-world power.

 

This is an interesting look at how genderfluidity and societal and parental expectations affect teens in a different environment and a genuine and authentic exploration of grief and the complicated feelings that arise when someone you have mixed feelings about dies.

 

Early in the book, a counselor points out that an aspen grove is actually a colony, with one original tree, effectively making the aspens around the camp disturbing. The whole collective hivemind, blood honey and giant honeycombs, is incredibly creepy, too. It’s one thing to know you are surrounded by interrelated creatures out in nature (nature being something you expect to encounter at summer camp), but it’s horrifying to  experience being absorbed into them against your will. Recommended for grades 9+

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 7, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Angel Falls by Julia Rust and David Surface

Angel Falls by Julia Rust and David Surface

Angel Falls by Julia Rust and David Surface

YAP Books, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949140330

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition. ( Bookshop.org |Amazon.com )

 

 

In the 1600s, a large group of women and children colonists of Beauport, Massachusetts disappeared, killed by the Indians they displaced. A year later, they started to return. Those who believed the returning family members were real were forced out of Beauport and formed a new settlement, Angel Falls, now abandoned.

 

 

Jessie is visiting Beauport for the first time, with her father, who is sorting out her cousin Dorothy’s estate. It’s also likely a trial separation for her parents. There’s not a lot to do, so despite warnings that a girl recently disappeared there, she decides to explore Angel Falls. There she meets Jared, who is dyslexic and in summer school for English, working at a crab shack, and caring for his depressed, suicidal artist father. They discover that together, while at Angel Falls, due to their ancestors’ gifts, they are able to make their wishes happen, to “fix” the people they love, but always at a price.

 

 

Jessie discovers letters from her grandfather to Jessie’s cousin Dorothy, who also clearly had this ability, trying to force him to return to Angel Falls by making wishes. We only see one side of a correspondence between them but it is pretty obvious that Dorothy’s actions are why Jessie’s parents have never mentioned her before. Jared’s English teacher is obsessed with Angel Falls and Jared’s growing ability, but Jessie and Jared both have doubts about continuing to use it.

 

 

The backstory has to be pieced together and so the background to the story was confusing, but the book is compelling, with some memorable moments, and was hard to put down once it really got started (it starts with days of rain trapping Jessie inside a cabin, not the best choice for getting the main characters going, but the authors get it jumpstarted). I especially liked the relationship Jared had with his dad and the way the authors showed that under the idyllic surface things were not quite right. Recommended.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on October 31, 2022 by , Reply
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