The Anti-Twilight?: "Team Human"

Book: Team Human
Authors: Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan
Pages: 344
Copy: another advanced reader copy (and this one was a mess; I'll explain below)
Read: finished July 27
Spoilers: eh, some-ish, but I don't give anything too major away

So two things before I really start reviewing this book. 1) My copy is missing 17 pages and from what I can tell, those 17 pages were fairly important.  I don't think this will have too intense an influence on my review, but it does mean I have an incomplete understanding of this novel.  Bear that in mind.  2) I only read this book because of this review, which means I started this book with fairly high expectations.  I think that might have been a mistake.

Despite the title of my post, don't pick up this book thinking it's going to be the anti-Twilight.  A human (in this case her name is Cathy) still falls in love with a vampire (named Francis) (and, SPOILER, they end up together!) and neither the human nor the vampire is particularly interesting.  The narrator, Mel, is feisty, which is a relief, and she actually does stuff, rather than sitting around pathetically.  So far so good.  But there is one big issue with this book.

I would argue that Mel is adamantly racist (speciesist?) against vampires.  I know that is a ridiculous statement, but given the logic of the world created by Larbalestier and Brennan (vampires live alongside humans peacefully enough, governed by laws and such), Mel is unapologetically racist.  She hates vampires, hates them without reason (she doesn't even have the excuse that someone in her family has been negatively impacted by vampires and she admits that she has never spent much time with vampires herself).  She eventually latches onto an excuse (her friend Anna's dad potentially ran away with a vampire), but even that excuse doesn't really explain it.

This book is basically Mel's excruciatingly slow journey towards the realization that maybe vampires are okay.  However, she never really makes it.  The novel ends with Mel's firm declaration for her "team" (i.e., Team Human).  I'm not going to be a vampire apologist, because that's not really necessary, but I do want to call out Mel's racism.  I imagine the authors just want a reason for Mel to want to break up Cathy and Francis, but I'm not sure racism is the best way to accomplish this.  Everything in the novel comes down to the fact that Mel hates vampires and wants vampires to be completely separate from humans.  Perhaps the inevitable sequel will do more to upend Mel's racist streak.

Other than this rather immense stumbling block, this novel is okay.  Mel is fairly engaging, when she isn't on an anti-vampire rant, and she's a young woman of action.  That Mel actually does things and seems capable of taking care of herself makes this novel fairly worthwhile, especially to those readers disturbed by Bella in Twilight.  Despite the presence of two authors, the writing doesn't veer wildly between two different styles, but stays consistent.  It takes a little while for the mystery to get going (at first I was worried this was going to be 300-plus pages of Mel's painful attempts to break up Cathy and Francis--thankfully she ends up more interested in the mystery).  The mystery is well thought out (I'll admit I figured out the answer early, but I've been on a huge Sherlock Holmes kick lately so perhaps I'm just primed) and the resolution is thoughtful.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who hasn't succumbed to the "Paranormal Romance" YA genre yet.  I think this is a better place to start than a book like Twilight, primarily because the female characters seem stronger and more interesting.  I don't think this book is really going to convert anyone, so don't have someone who hates the "Paranormal Romance" fad read this.  I think it will only give them more ammunition for the next debate.  I also don't think this book is going to help anyone get over Twilight.  It's not really as romantic and I doubt anyone is going to make a movie out of this one.  This is one that I'd recommend borrowing from the library or a friend.  Maybe the authors' next book will be a keeper.

--Benvolia

July is for the Ladies: "The House of the Scorpion"

Book: The House of the Scorpion
Author: Nancy Farmer
Pages: 380
Copy: Mine; see Librarything
Read: 1 July 2012; read it as soon as I bought it at Green Hand Bookstore in Portland, Maine.
Spoilers: a few, but none that should cause problems

So this was unexpectedly amazing. I don’t know why it should have been amazing--after all Nancy Farmer is pretty awesome and this thing is plastered with awards. I guess the amazing part was the fact that I hadn’t read it before. I actually even recall rejecting it! Rejecting a futuristic sci-fi young adult book with clones and zombies? Why?

Because the main character is a boy, of course. There were so many futuristic sci-fi or classic fantasy young adult books (though none with clones) with girl characters to read, why read this one?

This is something of a shame. The House of the Scorpion has combined the huge scientific morality questions--are clones an ethical means of medical research? what happens when science and technology begin to destroy humanity?--with the simplicity and grace of language that examines the human condition without being obnoxiously philosophical. This is a novel about science and drugs and politics, but it is also a novel about families and human relationships.

In The House of the Scorpion, Farmer creates a new country out of the borders of the US and Mexico, a country that has existed under the power of an ancient despot, El Patrón. Matteo Alacrán is his clone, grown from skin cells and harvested from a cow. Matt is the child of technology, but he is more human than the Alacrán family that surrounds him. Matt’s self-discovery guides the reader through a book half fairy-tale and half sci-fi.

This is pretty nearly a perfect book. My only regret is not reading it when I was younger. Please, please read it, so I can talk about the ending!

-Mercutia