Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Not Death, but Fate. Creepy.


First off I want to say that Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now was hands down my favorite title of 2004. Even before it got the Printz. So let's just say I was rather looking forward to Just In Case.

It's so very different from her previous novel. So much so that it's impressive. If you took the name off the cover I would never have guessed that it was the same writer. Of course, it's been about two years since I read How I live Now so this may just be a transitory impression.

David Case suddenly realizes that Fate is after him. It comes with the startling acknowledgement that he is mortal; that at any moment he could be snuffed out by any number of hostile and random events. He becomes paranoid and thinks that he can elude Fate by becoming someone other than himself - by becoming his own alter ego - Justin Case. Fate finds this very amusing. Fate decides to play with Justin. Poor Justin.

Rosoff had me completely in her grips. She didn't quite go where I expected, and this, as with How I Live Now will require some pondering and discussion. I'm not as sold on it as I was the first, but it was very interesting.

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