About the Book
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Author:
- Polly Shulman
BFF Charm: Meh, No, Yay?
Talky Talk: Rowlingesque
Bonus Factors: Grimm Collection, Magic
Relationship Status: The Book I Dated For Two Years Because It Reminded of My First Love
The Deal:
Elizabeth Rew is an ordinary girl. She is kind and good, and she misses her mother. Her wicked self-involved step-mother and step-sisters have spent all of her daddy’s money, so Elizabeth now has to attend the public high school where they live in Manhattan, and she can no longer take ballet lessons. No one is much interested in Elizabeth’s comings and goings, as long as she gets her chores done. So when her social studies teacher, Mr. Mauskopf, recommends her for an after-school job at the New York Circulating Material Repository, she is grateful for the opportunity, and the cash.
Once gainfully employed as a page at the Repository– a sort of lending-library for objects — Elizabeth meets her first new friends since her transfer from private school: the beautiful Anjali, the haughty (and crushworthy) basketball star Marc Merritt, and the grumpy-sarcastic Aaron. But there’s more to the repository than meets the eye, and Elizabeth finds herself drawn to the strange secrets it holds. What is the Grimm Collection, exactly, and why is everyone being so secretive about it? What happened to the two previous pages before Elizabeth, and is there really a giant bird stalking the repository employees? But most important of all: Does magic really exist?
BFF Charm: Meh, No, Yay?
My problem with Elizabeth was typical. In her teenageryness she was a bit vague. But I liked her. I liked her earnestness, I liked her awkwardness. Neither felt overwrought. But I didn’t fall in love with her, and I didn’t feel that she really grew enough during this story to make me really want to sit with her every day in the caf. Yet this story takes place over a relatively short period of time, and it was all about Elizabeth’s discoveries of the world she had just entered. That didn’t really allow for a ton of self-discovery, so I don’t fault her for that. I just felt that she could have been more, and I liked her enough to want that.
Swoonworthy Scale: 4
There’s some nice developing swoon here. I really appreciated Elizabeth’s inner dialogue about the boys in the repository, and I loved the awkward convos between her and one of said boys. The romance developed at an excruciating pace for me as an adult, when I wanted to just yell “No, he likes YOU! Come ON! SMOOCHIES, dang it!!!!” But it was ultimately fulfilling.
Talky Talk: Rowlingesque
Polly Shulman has written a book that prettily captures those first feelings of discovery of a world that existed right under your nose, but was too fantastical to believe in– something I haven’t experienced since The Sorcerer’s Stone. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of discovering the contents of the repository, right along with Elizabeth, and loved the blending of the stuff of fairy tales and folklore with modern day life. Shulman pulled this off believably.
Bonus Factor: Grimm Collection
This book had me at the Brothers Grimm. Who doesn’t love those twisted and nebulous tales? Being a bit of a history/legend nerd myself, I’ve always adored Jacob and Wilhelm for collecting these stories and making them available to us. Plus, who can forget that horrible movie? Heath Ledger + Matt Damon + Terry Gilliam should have equalled gold. What happened, Hollywood?
Bonus Factor: Magic
Okay, not that kind of magic…. I suppose. Although it may well turn out that Justin is, indeed a wizard. Seriously, though, good old-fashioned magic abounded in this story. Not only did it have stuff from the Grimm’s collection, but there was all sorts of familiar old magical lore as well. From Arabian Nights to H.G. Wells, this repository had it all! Um, seriously? Best after-school job. Ever.
Relationship Status: The Book I Dated For Two Years Because It Reminded of My First Love
This book and I were together for actually quite a while. We got along, we had chemistry… there were a lot of things I really liked about it. But one day I realized that all of those things about the book that I thought I could love were the ways in which it was like my first true YA love (You certainly have a type, Michael.). It wasn’t the books fault, it was mine. But it wasn’t fair of me to continue such a serious relationship with it when I was basing that relationship on my love for another. We’re still friends, though, and I know that there are people out there who will love this book for IT, not just how it’s similar to someone else.
FTC Full Disclosure: My review copy was a free ARC I received from Penguin. I received neither money nor cocktails for writing this review (dammit!). The Grimm Legacy is now available.
