Australian Women Writers Challenge - The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody

So I signed up for this thing, the Australian Women Writers Challenge, which exists to support and promote books by Australian women. Which I think is a fine thing to do, being an Australian woman and all. You sign up and decide how many books you're going to read and/or review, and then you link your reviews back to their site. Considering I was already halfway through The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody, I thought I could just start with that one. This will be the first of 3 reviews that I do.

I've previously blogged about Isobelle Carmody and how excited I was to meet her at Supanova a couple of years ago. After re-reading the rest of the Obernewtyn series, I read The Stone Key for the first time. I first started this series in around Year 7 or 8, when I was about twelve. I loved the series very much back then, so it was interesting to revisit it as an adult, as I hadn't read it since. To be fair, between publishing the forth and fifth book, there was a ten year gap. So it wasn't exactly possible to continue being a "young adult" while reading it. They've also started publishing the whole series with new covers, which means everyone who had the old ones has half the series in a different cover set now *hyperventilates*. I mean... it doesn't sound like a big deal. But to me it is. I liked the old ones better! They don't look pretty on my book shelf! Anyway.

Old Cover

New cover... waaah I'm a little baby

I might as well do a *spoiler* alert here. I won't go too much into the storyline, but there might be some mentions.

The Stone Key begins where it left off in The Keeping Place, with the rebellion in the Land kicking off. Considering the actual size of this book, which is fricking huge, but also the huge font size, I'm really confused about whether it's longer than The Keeping Place or not. My main issue with The Keeping Place was that it was a lot of conversation and not much action at all, which would be great if the conversation was interesting rather than superfluous.

The Stone Key had a much stronger storyline and a lot more things happened. Which made it more enjoyable to read. Unlike the previous books, where you got the feeling that the end of the series was indefinitely far away, she's really outlined what will happen, or what the protagonist, Elspeth, thinks will happen. This probably comes from the ten years of planning the rest of the series!

Even though I did really enjoy this book, I have a bunch of criticisms which I can't ignore. I kind of wish I'd been able to just finish it while I was in high school and while I had a less critical mind about writing. But there you go.

My first criticism is that while embracing wholly the 'first person' viewpoint she'd set up for herself with the first couple of books, there really is just too much *thinking* included. It's realistic, yes, but it's also very tedious. Although it's a great example of excessive character development for the protagonist, AND I'm keeping in mind this book is intended for young adults, so a bit more plot explanation might be deemed necessary (by some people - I would argue not,) there was still far too much stewing over Elspeth's thoughts. We know she would be OBSESSING about these things. It's what we would be doing in her place. We don't have to go through absolutely all of it with her, you know? We got the gist by the second chapter. It just gets really repetitive. Half of it was necessary, and the other half seemed like overkill.

Secondly, every time there was a conversation or a meeting between people, as in The Keeping Place, they would sit down, someone would bring in plates of humble-yet-mouthwatering food, and after the conversation it would be packed away. I mean, are these descriptions really necessary? Again, it's the same every time, and the food they're eating isn't exactly relevant to the storyline. It seemed really superfluous and turned scenes which could have been quick and simple into long, drawn out food porn, essentially.

The story and characters of this book were definitely its strongest point. Without giving anything away, Carmody's strayed into much darker territory this time, and with much more interesting results. The darkest parts of the book were the most engaging, for sure. And there were some sad parts which in which I felt genuine emotion, which is always a good sign.

So basically my experience with reading this book was both positive and negative. I would love to have read the exact same book, minus half the descriptions and musings. I feel like it really just needed a better editor. There were times when I couldn't put it down, and then other times when it felt like it was dragging on. Nevertheless I will be reading the next one and the one after that, of course. It's an epic story, combining fantasy and sci-fi and dystopian futures (or pasts?) and those are the things that I love about it. The sense of adventure, the powers, the socio-political kind of themes. It just needs some intensely strict editor to go "I'm cutting it up and that's all there is to it. No more plates of cheese and warm bread."

Reading.

Right now it is time for me to write about Isobelle Carmody, but first I'm going to comment on Suzanne Collins.

I just finished reading Mockingjay, the second Hunger Games book. I read it in about twenty four hours. Same with the first one. I'd been meaning to read them for a while, before the movie came out, because I hate for movies to dictate the look of characters and places to me. And while I have obviously enjoyed them, and am involved with the characters and looking forward to the film, I knew from the first page that these are not very well written books. The sentences are clumsy, the dialogue is cringe-worthy and the metaphors are basic at best. The storyline and characters are its selling point. And the storyline is exciting, although it's also very predictable.

What this lead me to think about is the level of understanding teenagers and tweens have when reading. I have no doubt that I would have loved these books beyond measure when I was eleven, and even when I was sixteen. I loved any kind of adventure, or fantasy novel. I also know that I was always ahead of my age group in terms of book-comprehension, purely because I read so much. I obviously feel the conceit in this, but then again, an alarming amount of people I speak to now have no interest in reading books and what's more, seem to have a kind of smug attitude about it. Which is (ooh pun) something I actually can't comprehend.

Anyway, my long winded point is that while the Hunger Games were good for a trashy, quick read, I know that there are teenagers out there who can read more complicated sentences. Teen writing does not need to be dumbed down. It really plagues me thinking about whether or not Suzanne Collins dumbed down her writing on purpose for a younger audience, or whether she's just a bad writer and has no idea. There's a HUGE difference between simple writing and bad writing. And at least her editors should have known better.

All through the books I was reminded of Isobelle Carmody, whose teenage post-apocalypse is anything but cliche. About how she published her first Obernewtyn book when she was nineteen, and how much I love her for writing that series. It is not trashy, and it is not full of cliche writing. It has well realised characters and an epic plot that is so developed, it's taken her twenty four years to develop it. The first book was published the year I was born, and the last is being published later this year.

Basically, Isobelle is my hero. She's been a published writer almost her whole life, and has been able to live solely off of writing. I've been reading her books since I was about eleven. I read an interview with her today which reminded me of how awesome she is, and how much I want my life to be similar to hers. I met her a couple of years ago at Supanova, for the first time, and when I asked for a photo she said, "Yes, my daughter would love you!" (in reference my turquoise hair and bead necklaces.)

That is the face of someone fangirling out. But seriously, she was wearing a coat with a magical, sparkling eye on the back. She is a fantasy princess. And then she added me on Facebook. <3

To turn this post back to more superficial things, her fringe is SERIOUSLY calling to me. I've spent the last couple of years growing my fringe and layers out and cursing them, so it seems so wrong to then chop into them again. But with Isobelle and Grimes combined, I am having a hard time resisting.

Anyway, I think that's all I have to say on the teen fantasy genre and fringes. Is it fair to compare those two authors? Probably not, but I mean, it just happened in my head while I was reading. It probably sounds like I don't like the Hunger Games either, which is totally not true. I am really enjoying that series, and I especially think it's important to note that Katniss Everdeen is an excellent, human, not-trope-or-stereotype strong female character. From a feminist perspective, I think it's a +1. But I honestly think editors, publishers and authors need to give tweens and teens more credit when it comes to their reading skills. Maybe then more kids would get into reading, instead of finding it boring. Idk.