Storybound, by Marissa Burt, was another book I read for the 2012 YA/MG Fantasy Reading
Challenge. I loved the premise; I
think every reader/writer has dreamed about being pulled into a storybook
world. In Storybound, that’s exactly
what happens to Una Fairchild.
“When Una
Fairchild stumbles upon a mysterious book buried deep in the basement of her
school library, she thinks nothing of opening the cover and diving in. But
instead of paging through a regular novel, Una suddenly finds herself Written
In to the land of Story—a world filled with Heroes and Villains and fairy-tale
characters.
But not
everything in Story is as magical as it seems. Una must figure out why she has been Written In—and
fast—before anyone else discovers her secret. Together with her new friend
Peter and a talking cat named Sam, Una digs deep into Story’s shadowy past. She
quickly realizes that she is tied to the world in ways she never could have
imagined—and it might be up to her to save it.”
I
really liked the idea. I still do. And it was fun to see characters walking
about, from many different genres, going to classes like Advanced Heroics, Villainy,
and Backstory as they figure out what kind of tale they’d like to be in. As a soon-to-be
college freshman, thinking about potential careers, I really connected to this
concept.
Unfortunately,
I didn’t really connect with some of the main characters. They were amusing at
times, and I liked certain qualities of each. But some just didn’t quite ‘pop’
for me, and I ran into that accursed disconnect that I get when I just don’t
understand what’s going through a character’s head.
When
the summary says that Una ‘thinks nothing’ of diving into a storybook world,
they mean it. Cloaked figures in her school basement? ‘No big, just find
another corner to read in.’ Waking up on a stone dais, in strange clothes, with
no idea how she got there? ‘Must’ve found a secret passage. Whatevah.’ The
moods – of Una and other characters – flip flop occasionally, like, they’re
mad, and then cheerful, with very little transition between.
I liked
the academy in Story. It almost gives off a Hogwarts kind of feel. And yet
sometimes, the school and standard classmate-related conflicts seemed to
overshadow the Uber-Important Events that are supposed to be going on.
Like,
when Una first appears in Story, her ‘new friend Peter’ spends at least eleven
pages thinking Una is a student, even after she gives him every hint that she is not supposed to be there. Then,
instead of leaping into action and ‘digging into Story’s history’, etc… he goes
to check if he just failed his exam. Then we actually sit in on a few classes,
and they still don’t do a whole lot of ‘digging’. Even when they (mini-spoiler)
go to find some all-important books to try and figure out how and why Una was
brought to Story, Una thinks something about how ‘she’s never gone so long
without reading an actual book.’ Like, the act of reading is more important to
her then figuring out what the heck she’s doing
in Story.
To
paraphrase Ron Weasley: “These guys need
to sort out their priorities.”
The
action picked up a lot toward the end, almost to the point where things moved
so fast that it was hard to understand. It cuts off in a weird place too.
Things are kind of resolved, but it
leaves a very major strand of the plot dangling. It’s a cliff-hanger, but it’s
a cliff-hanger that we last heard about several chapters from the end. Then it
was never mentioned again. By the time the last page rolled around, I’d almost
forgotten about it—not good, considering it left some of my favorite characters
of the book in danger.
Bottom
line, I wasn’t really pulled in by the characters, and some of the pacing
seemed off. However, it’s an alright, fun little read, and younger readers will
probably enjoy the Hogwarts-y feel, and descriptions of the characters in
Story. Writers will also appreciate the references to things like dialogue and
backstory, I think.
I just
wasn’t pulled as deeply into the world of Story as Una was, I suppose.
Have you ever imagined being
pulled into a storybook world? Have you read Storybound yet? If so, did my
observations line up with yours? If you haven’t read Storybound yet… Will you?
Honestly, I don't like the sound of the blurb. There's something about "together with her new friend Peter and a talking cat called Sam" that comes across as cliche. Like what it's actually saying is "together with Sidekick and Partially Civilised Animal". But the classes about Backstory and Dialogue sound really really cool!
ReplyDeleteIf I see this in the library, I might check it out.