Weave a Circle Round
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Discover your inner child once again in Weave a Circle Round, a debut fantasy adventure for fans of Madeleine L'Engle, Diana Wynne Jones, and E. L. Konigsburg. Now nominated as a finalist for the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Novel! When the unexpected moves in next door, anything can happen in Weave a Circle Round, Kari Maaren's debut in this YA-friendly fantasy adventure. Freddy doesn’t want people to think she’s weird. Her family makes that difficult, though: her deaf stepbrother Roland’s a major geek, and her genius little sister Mel’s training to be the next Sherlock Holmes. All Freddy wants is to survive high school. Then two extremely odd neighbors move in next door. Cuerva Lachance and Josiah definitely aren't normal. Neither is their house, which defies the laws of physics. Neither is Freddy’s situation, when she suddenly finds herself stuck thousands of years in the past with her very, very weird neighbors. And that’s only the beginning. “I adored this brilliant book from start to finish. It left me reeling with delight and I can't wait for the rest of the world to get as lost in its pages as I was.” —Charles de Lint “I'd have loved this book when I was twelve, and I love it now.” —Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy-Award winning author Jo Walton At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Pros: interesting story, really captures the high school atmosphere
Cons: really captures the high school atmosphere, takes a while to get to the mystery aspects
Fourteen year old Freddy has enough problems in life - a neglectful mother and step-father, a deaf step-brother she resents, a genius little sister - the last thing she needs are crazy neighbours, Josiah and Cuerva Lachance. She's worked hard to maintain social invisibility at school, but when Josiah starts talking to her, she becomes a target for abuse. She and her sister are convinced there's a mystery with the neighbours, and intend to solve it, even as their step-brother warns them away from the pair.
This is a hard book to discuss without spoilers, but I'll try. There's a slow burn on the mystery of what's up with the neighbours and you don't really get more than hints until the half way point. Having said that, it's a quick read (took me two days), so you're not frustrated trying to figure things out.
There are some very realistic depictions of high school. I personally didn't enjoy high school so that's kind of a negative for me, especially since I straddled the not cool but not outcast social position Freddy's in.
I really liked Freddy. She's got some real issues and has a coming of age where she realizes that some of the things she did in the past weren't that great. Her interactions with her step-brother felt honest given her circumstances.
I liked seeing a deaf character in an important role. I'd be interested in seeing what readers with more experience with this issue have to say about the portrayal.
It's a fun, quirky, story.
