what i'm reading wednesday 14/5/2025

[lirazel]

What I finished:

+ Westmark by Lloyd Alexander. I read the Chronicles of Pyrdain a couple of times when I was a kid and also The Iron Ring, but I completely missed this series. Several people with good (read: my) taste had it on their 100 books list, so I ordered it through interlibrary loan.

I see why people imprinted on it! I did not imprint on it, being not the right age for it, but it went directly to my "wish I'd discovered it as a kid" shelf on GoodReads. Alexander is better at the prose level than I realized as a kid, and it was a joy to read his writing. I liked our main character Theo, who is a person who always tries to do the right thing but is not always sure what that is (relatable) and is surrounded by people with different ethical frameworks than he has. I hate to be all "the publishing industry has gone downhill!" but honestly, very few authors (Hardinge, as always, is a big exception) are doing this level of nuanced morality and prose on even the YA level, much less the MG one. It's a joy to read "old school" YA/MG books and be so totally trusted by the writer. That said, it is very much a book for kids, so every time I wanted the writing to really dig into a particular idea or feeling, it didn't, but, like, that's a me problem. It's perfect for a MG reader!

I also think it's interesting how his worldbuilding looks at a glance like Generic Medieval European Fantasy, but it's clearly not--this is actually Reformation-era fantasy with the importance of printing presses and a Cromwell-esque villain, and it reminded me that your worldbuilding doesn't have to be complex to be good and distinctive. Just a few details make things feel realistic.

Also, this is an aside, but I was looking at Alexander's GoodReads page, I do not think I'd ever seen a picture of him before, and I am so taken by his face, especially his nose. He looks like a Froud illustration! Exactly what a children's fantasy author should look like! What a wonderful face!!!

+ Also, Everything Is Tuberculosis again. I had long ago put both the book and the audiobook on hold at the library and then ended up buying a copy of the book instead, so I read it right after it came out, but the audiobook hold finally arrived last week so I listened to it again. I still think it's great; I still wish it was longer; I still understand why it isn't.

What I'm currently reading:

+ Still working on City of Stairs. I might not finish it before it's due back at the library and then I will probably have to wait for it to come around again!

+ I also finally started Tendencies by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. This is my first time reading more than short excerpts of queer studies icon Sedgwick and damn, that woman could construct a sentence. This book is a collection of essays and I am reading one essay at a time. It'll take me a while to get through it but she is not a writer that you rush through! Many of her insights seem even more relevant now than they did in the early 90s when she was writing.

Comments

[watervole]

Wow! That smile. You can't help but smile back.

[chestnut_pod]

In author photos, Frances Hardinge herself looks very much like one would expect Frances Hardinge to look!

[scripsi]

I love the Westmark-trilogy so much! the sequels are even more complex. I think it wa sthe first time I encuntered the concept of a flawed hero, and i have since realized that forcing such hero to not reddem themselves by dying heroically, but instead having to face their action is not very usual. Especially not children's books.

I read an interview with Lloyd Alexander once where the interviewer though he looked just like Flewdur Flam. :)

[annavere]

I sadly denied myself the chance to read Prydain growing up (I hated The Black Cauldron film and wouldn't give it a chance afterward) but I did read a couple of Alexander's stand-alone books multiple times as a child. His stories resonated when I gave them a chance. And he did have a wonderful visage! You're right, he looks exactly the way a children's writer should.

[pauraque]

It's a joy to read "old school" YA/MG books and be so totally trusted by the writer.

This is a great way of putting it. It sucks that so many books for young people now seem convinced that young people are idiots!

[muccamukk]

I remember loving Westmark as a teen. I grew up on his high fantasy books, and everyone else's high fantasy books, so "and then Democracy!" was very refreshing. And the prose is very good.

[genarti]

Oh, yes, a Froud character is it exactly! I always forget what an incredible face he had, and then I see a picture of him and am reminded all over again. (At least in his old age; he looks like he surely must have had distinctively character-filled looks always, but I don't think I've ever seen a picture of him young to confirm it, now that I think of it...)

Anyway, I loved Westmark as a kid, in that uncomfortable way where an author is blowing your mind with digging into the complexities of a trope ("and then Democracy!" as above) and you're not sure you like all that digging but it also rings so compellingly true. I'll be interested to hear what you think of the later books in the series, assuming you read them!

And YES, about feeling totally trusted by the author in oldschool YA/MG books! Admittedly, that may be partly a function of which books stood the test of time enough to be given to me, but it really is SUCH a different feel from so many modern books aimed at kids.