Book Review(s): Anya's Ghost; Wildwood; Doll Bones

I've been rediscovering libraries.

I finally got a library card out here in Colorado. Checked out:

• Anya's Ghost, by Vera Brosgol
• Wildwood, by Colin Meloy (illustrated by Carson Ellis)
• Doll Bones, by Holly Black (illustrated by Eliza Wheeler)

 ... and I read them all in three days.

Yes, okay, they're all kid's books.  They're all fantasy.  Why? Because books for kids are fearless and daring and vulnerable in a way that books for grownups aren't. Or often aren't, at least.

They're scary in a primal way.  Beautiful. Fierce and raw. Blacktop and skinned knees and papercut perfect.

Anya's Ghost is about a teenage girl. Pretty standard story - feeling insecure, fighting with friends, trying to fit in, feeling lost. Except she's also got a ghost hanging out with her. And her new friend is sure she and Anya will be best friends. Forever.

It's honest. A girl, self-involved. Learning to be better, to think about more than herself. The themes are less about ghosts and the supernatural and more about fears and disappointment and what drives us to do what's right.

Wildwood reads, as you might expect, like an entire Decemberists album. A baby boy is stolen by a flock of crows, and his big sister must venture into a mysterious woods that grown ups avoid talking about. There are coyote soldiers, a beautiful but crazy Dowager Duchess, a useless Governor-Regent, an owl prince, a band of bandits, and mystics that talk to trees. There's the threat of civil war. Sacrificial rituals. Black magic. Quests. Bicycles. Doubt. Fancy, slightly archaic vocabulary.

Needless to say, I loved it.

It doesn't pull any punches. Characters die. There is bloodshed and terror and hunger and uncertainty. The protagonist, a prickly girl named Prue, has to learn to trust herself and her friends. It's a lush, wayward offering of love and betrayal and courage.

Doll Bones is at once eerie and familiar, like de ja vu. Part ghost story, part coming of age tale, part adventure, it's haunting and legitimately creepy at times.

It struck chords with me, because the heart of the story is three friends who've played and pretended together, reaching that strange in-between time. That time when the heart still wants to make believe, but when the head can't let you.

It's also about unraveling a mystery behind a china doll, and the strange mix of ash and bones that's inside it.

It's about growing up, letting go of some things and holding onto others. It's about belief and wishing and trying to understand what goes on in your own head.

There's a really heartbreaking passage toward the end, which I can't resist sharing here. If you plan on reading the book, look away. 

SPOILER:

One of the kids can see the others are pulling away, that their need to pretend isn't as strong as it used to be, as hers still is.

"It's not fair. We had a story, and our story was important. And I hate that both of you can just walk away and take part of my story with you and not even care. I hate that you can do what you're supposed to do and I can't. I hate that you're going to leave me behind. I hate that everyone calls it growing up, but it seems like dying. It feels like each of you is being possessed and I'm next."

Okay, it's safe to look again - spoiler's over.

I read this and couldn't help feeling gutted.

It's exactly how I felt when my friends and even my own treacherous brain couldn't carry on playing. When the stories were taken away. Things that had been important. It was hard seeing my friends moving away from our games, living easily without them.

The end of the story is about how the story goes on - just in a new way. Not with dolls - but with words.

Doll Bones is a little scattered. It leaves some questions unanswered. But it resonates so fully. It's honest. It took me back to the first heartbreak I knew.

I devoured these books. I need to get back to the library.