**spoiler alert** This is a comfort re-read (re-listen) for me, as one of the Willis audiobooks I own. It's classic Connie Willis - stream-of-consciou**spoiler alert** This is a comfort re-read (re-listen) for me, as one of the Willis audiobooks I own. It's classic Connie Willis - stream-of-consciousness running rampant, but this time mixed with dialogue due to the whole telepathy thing. There are some things that are a little cliched overall (like The Boyfriend being utterly horrible), but I think it would work well as a film. I found Maeve to be utterly annoying as a character; precocious children are often parts of Willis's writing, but Maeve's unwillingness to leave people alone (while her biggest lamentation in life is a lack of privacy) was a bridge too far for me. ...more
**spoiler alert** This is the last of the trilogy now marketed as "Losing Christina", which I'm re-exploring as an adult. When it first came out, I wa**spoiler alert** This is the last of the trilogy now marketed as "Losing Christina", which I'm re-exploring as an adult. When it first came out, I was remember being very excited for the culmination of the series, and I also remember being very disappointed in it.
The school year is almost over for Christina Romney; she has eighteen days left until summer break, and at the very beginning of the book she learns that the Shevvingtons are going to be leaving the school. This buoys her momentarily, but we're also informed that she's been sleepwalking in the interim between the books (which is questionable to the reader, since the Shevvingtons are the ones telling her about it?) and she finds a candle in a tin can outside of her bedroom door. She's become obsessed with fire (again, according to the Shevvingtones), which ties into her love of Burning Fog Island and her midwinter essay about wanting to burn all her clothes (which occurred, in the last books, allegedly at the hands of the Shevvington's insane son). Her purse is mysteriously stuffed with matches. Her doodles all involve flame. In shop class she's making a a wooden sculpture of fire. When it's time to plan the end-of-year seventh grade picnic, Christina pipes up about how a huge bonfire is the most important thing to have. This becomes the theme to the Shevvington's last-ditch effort to ruin Christina.
And it actually works. Christina, who's had so much strength in the last two books, is undermined within three weeks' time. She volleys between sane and insane, and the reader gets to realize that she's at her strongest when she's saving someone else. Luckily, in this book, she fights the insanity by helping Val, the Shevvington's last victim prior to Anya. She helps Val escape from an institution and houses her in the Shevvington's inn, and the two of them manage to ultimately bring down the evil adults. It was a strange, but satisfying end to the Shevvington's story, aided with the belief of an actual adult in the story. All of the adults (save one teacher, who was fired early on) believed the Shevvingtons over Christina, but luckily one was convinced. Off-page.
What really bothered me about this was the sudden forced romance between Christina and sixteen-year-old Benjamin Jaye, the oldest boy living with the Shevvingtons. He'd had limited interest in her in the prior books, and now (after she saved his sister in book 2, and getting her advice for a fundraiser) was suddenly keen on her. We get his own narration at one point (when Christina appears to have completely lost her mind) where he's thinking that he loves her, and it just... seemed like a bit much. And as a reader who was very invested in the Christina/Jonah relationship, it was incredibly jarring to suddenly have a rival on equal (if not advanced) terms who hadn't put nearly the same work into it. Jonah had been one of the people who actually believed Christina throughout, who helped her at times, who listened and warned her. In this book, he was limited to warning her not to get too cocky, being jealous over Benj, and then standing up to Mrs. Shevvington for all of five minutes. It was absolutely disappointing to lose a perfectly great established (and age-appropriate feeling) romance plotline in order to throw in a last-minute love triangle that actually added nothing to the story.
So, yeah... honestly, this would probably be a one-star review if my experience with the book wasn't laced with nostalgia, and my love of the overall trilogy plot wasn't so strong. It literally took me days to reread this book (that should only take an afternoon) because I kept putting it down. But man, do I love the world Cooney created.
**spoiler alert** Another childhood reread... I first read this when I was in sixth grade, starting at a new school like Christina. It was one of my i**spoiler alert** Another childhood reread... I first read this when I was in sixth grade, starting at a new school like Christina. It was one of my introductions into YA horror, which became my favorite genre over the next few years.
Reading it as an adult as been illuminating. This book, second in the trilogy, continues with the gaslighting of Christina by the English teacher and school principal who are boarding all the island children for the school year. Christina is trying to take care of Anya (who lost much of her mental capacity in The Fog), as well as sixth grader Dolly, who was brought over to the mainland for the second semester. But at this point, the Shevvingtons are no longer just using Christina’s oppositional outbursts against her. Now they’re framing her (burning all of her clothes and claiming that she did it) and putting her in direct danger. Christina lives up to each challenge, losing more and more support from her family and friends. But she holds out. By the end, however, she recognizes that even if she wins the battle, the Shevvingtons are still winning the war.
Dolly and Anya fascinate me the most in this one. In Anya’s lucid moments, she outright recognizes that the Shevvingtons are enemies, which did not occur in the prior book. Dolly, meanwhile, assists in the gaslighting. For example, she’s there when Mrs Bergeron gives Christina ski clothes. When Christina shows up wearing jeans and her usual coat (because she gave hers to Anya), however, Dolly asks whether Christina was just making up that she had a new ski suit. It gives the Shevvingtons more opportunity undermine Christina and paint her as a lying, jealous child. It’s hard to understand whether Dolly is intentionally hurtful, or if it’s just playing out this way. By the end, even Christina doubts they will ever truly be friends again because of all the harm from he Shevvingtons playing one off the other.
This is definitely a fun psychological read, though simplistic and very late ‘80s/early ‘90s. But it’s a fun jaunt down memory lane for me as a reader. ...more
**spoiler alert** I read this book back in 1989, when it first came out. Like Christina, I was starting at a new school and feeling sheepish over my o**spoiler alert** I read this book back in 1989, when it first came out. Like Christina, I was starting at a new school and feeling sheepish over my off-brand clothes and poverty-driven lifestyle.
This series is a neat combination of horror - the idea that people are evil and will do their best to ruin you - and gaslighting. Christina, in essence, is gaslit by the principal and English teacher who are boarding her (and three other children from her island) for the school year. But their goal is one of pure evil - they appear to be intentionally driving young girls insane. Through crippling self-doubt and series of misunderstandings-turned-into-lies, they take promising young women and turn them into shells of themselves.
Christina watches them destroy Anya, a gorgeous honor roll student with dreams of becoming a doctor. Anya is losing her mind, and the only thing that keeps Christina from joining her is her fierce desire to save her friend.
Reading it as an adult is fascinating, because while I still see all the infuriating ways the Shevingtons turn people against Christina and make her question her own sanity, I also see where Christina is a petulant thirteen year old who could be seen as having a problem with authority, or even an oppositional defiance disorder. It’s interesting to me, because it shows how the people who are most fragile in society are the ones to be taken advantage of and manipulated. It’s because Christina isn’t a “normal”, abiding person and will stand up for herself that the Shevingtons are able to manipulate situations.
I’m sure I’m reading too much into a simple thriller from the 1980s, but it’s very neat that I can still get this much out of it.
And like eleven-year-old me, I still adore Jonah Gideon Bergeron. :P...more
When you decide to read a Connie Willis novel, you're signing on for a number of things: historical and literary references, interrupted conversationsWhen you decide to read a Connie Willis novel, you're signing on for a number of things: historical and literary references, interrupted conversations, moments of pure frenzy, a precocious child, lots of meddling, a degree of predictability, and the need to recall a random line dropped earlier in the story. All of these were present in Crosstalk, and it was a fun, almost stereotypical Connie Willis experience.
For me, that meant it was exactly what I wanted. Even when I was a step or three ahead of Briddey, our protagonist, I was enjoying the pace and the thrill of the unraveling story. Plot points were teased out early on, and very neatly tied up as the story went on.
I do feel like the end was a little rushed, but I suspect on a reread it will feel better, as there will be nothing new to reveal to me as a reader.
I enjoyed this look at how much communication is too much. From the onset I was amused at how often Briddey ignored calls and turned off her phone, for someone who wanted to connect emotionally with her boyfriend via EED.
Ultimately the book was a fun ride. And makes me lament that I don't have a library full of more undiscovered Willis novels. :)...more
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