Meridian (edition 2009)

2.5 stars

You can’t help but be intrigued by the summary: “As a child, insects, mice, and salamanders would burrow into her bedclothes and die.” Whaaaaatt??? Creepy right? I totally loved the introduction into the story, loved learning about her childhood and all that she had to endure as her parents never fully understood her.

On her sixteenth birthday when she witnesses a tragic car accident right in front of her house, her parents proceed to tell her that she must leave town immediately to stay with her great-aunt in Colorado. And… that’s about where it went downhill and into predictable-YA land for me.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is an extremely interesting story and I was extremely interested in learning all about ‘Fenestra’s’ and I loved how even though the story obviously has to do with angels it didn’t go overtly religious and the author had the decency to not associate angels strictly with Christianity.

The main problem I had was the main character was your typical annoying and immature YA character; she pretty much drove me crazy. The other problem I had was even as interesting as the story was to me, the actual writing kind of fell flat for me, was a bit choppy, and overall predictable. The fact that I enjoyed it as much as I did regardless of the problems I had with it I would still be interested in picking up the next in this series to see where the author continues to take this story.

Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog! ( )

Although she doesn't know it, Meridian is a Fenestra; a being who helps the dying soul with the passage to heaven. Aternoctis guide souls to hell. Meridian is helped by Tens, who is fairly uncommunicative but protects her, and Auntie who reveals very little even though she has information that Meridian needs. I'll definitely read book two to see how the story develops because I enjoyed the originality of the plot in book one. ( )

Every now and again I write a review for a book and a random person comes in and berates me for how I felt about that book and insists that it was a fantastic piece of literature that I was not good enough to read. What they’re basically saying is I’M WRONG DAMNIT! HOW COULD I SAY THOSE THINGS ABOUT THEIR FAVOURITIST AUTHOR?!I always marvel at this attitude as every review is going to contain a certain amount of bias. Each person experiences the same phenomenon differently, after all. However, I feel that most of my reviews contain a healthy amount of object observations that I feel help to qualify my assessment. Characterization, plot, style, pacing etc are usually factored into my review at some point, even if it is for me to remark that a particular story has none of the above. I usually pride myself on a certain professional rantism (yes, it’s a word…now) I berate books I feel absolutely deserve to be berated, I rave about books I feel absolutely deserve the acclaim and I give meh reviews to books that I don’t believe were particularly bad, but not fantastic. What I am saying, to the best of my ability, is that I TRY to be fair and base my opinion of the book on the quality of the content as opposed to solely how I feel about certain aspects and ignoring both the good and the bad qualities of the book.But in this review I’m going to fuck it all up based entirely on my own flipping prejudices. Mainly, because at its very essence, I don’t think Meridian is a bad book. 2/3 main characters are actually quite interesting and different. Meridian may be fairly typical of the genre but Tens and Auntie are actually unique-ish, badass-ish and interesting-like (yes, I am actually attempting to butcher the English language in this review!)The concept is actually kind of original! I applaud an author actually putting some time and effort into their:a) Researchb) Imagination and c) PlotSo how did it actually manage to go to buggery for me? Well, three things.One. It went sappy. You know, I actually LIKED flippant, cold and sarcastic Tens. I was actually enjoying his attitude and looking forward to Meridian slowly proving herself to him and their antagonistic relationship developing from annoyance/frustration to respect/admiration and finally to love/really good oral sex. This didn’t happen though. One minute Tens is cold and dismissive. The next he’s worrying over her like some hen-mother and brooding whilst trying to restrain his out of control feelings for her… after a whole three days of her being there. Sorry, you lost me. BORING! Bring on the next book! Maybe it’s because I’m Australian. My dear friend, Zosia, who is a Romance novel enthusiast, informs me that there are precious few romance novels written by Australian women and that they tend to seriously lack in the romance, lovey-dovey aspect. Personally, my theory is that it’s because we give really good oral sex and we can’t be expected to be good at everything, okay? So, it’s because of my nationality that I’m a cold-hearted bitch who revels in a couple arguing and bickering in a hilarious fashion before having hot, steamy nekkid time. Shoot me. So I was bored and disappointed when everything that intrigued me about this couple shrivelled up faster than your husband skinny dipping in an ice bath, after knowing each other a grand total of three days.Two. The…plot…….moved…really…….really……………….s.l.o.w.l.y…….For no discernable reason to me other than that Kizer wanted to torment us. There wasn’t really a good reason that we had to wait SOOOOOOooooooo long to find out what the hell Meridian was, who the bad guys were, and what was happening. Now, in Wuthering Heights, I was all cool with the slow build up because in chapter three it was quickly banished with the appearance of a freaky-ass ghost and because it had Heathcliff. Kizer had neither and thus I can’t forgive her.Thirdly: possibly the most personal reason of all that will likely mean nothing to you or 90% of the people who go to read this book: the bad guys made no real sense to me.The bad guys were charismatic Christians. You know, one of those megachurches which, considering the profanity and sexual innuendo contained in this review, you might be surprised to find I attend. It was like reading about your own culture from someone who’d only ever heard about your people from a fact sheet…300 years old that was written by a blind, Tibetan monk with an affinity for apple sauce and lies… or apple sauce covered lies.The bad guy is a Pastor of a mega church which somehow fits in a small remote location which we all know just doesn’t happen because megachurches require megapopulations. Its super religious fanatical, which I can kind of buy because I grew up in QLD, Australia, home of the fanatics. But here’s the problem – Pastor Whathisname runs a church which is heavily chauvinistic and fanatical. From all I could see, he wasn’t married, pregnant women were isolated and fasted for the last two weeks of their pregnancy which led to maternal and neonatal deaths, prayer was reinstated back into school as well as evolution being replaced with creationist teachings and members of the church were encouraged toward acts of violence and terrorism to those not in the church. The town newsletter was turned into slanderous, religious ravings directly controlled by the church, the town government was involved inacting Christian ordinances and laws and…well, there’s just so much that I could go on and on.The problem with this comes from the very foundation of charismatic churches which, in their fundamental nature, tend to be both incredibly progressive and incredibly old fashioned. They are progressive because they are almost exclusively run by a husband and wife team – usually very equal involvement from both members. There is also a much higher female density population in charismatic churches. This leads to more female preachers in Pentecostal Christianity than in any other Christian sect or their counter-parts in other religions and events and facilities designed specifically for women and their children in mind such as highly operational parents’ rooms and crèche available during services as well as Sunday school so the mummas can catch a break.After all, Pentecostal churches played an interesting role in the civil rights movement and were amazingly progressive for their time. Sure, they’re very non-progressive about homosexuality (which I personally wish to change) but nobody’s perfect – especially when you come to religion. Sometimes Christians bugger it all to hell (ala acts of terrorism toward abortion clinics and general ignorance) and sometimes we have great ideas like animal welfare and abolishment of slaverySo for the kind of anti-women, fanatical teachings of a non-married chauvinistic Pastor to take hold… well, I just wasn’t buying it and it was frustrating to read a bastardization of a culture that I’ve happily lived in for too many years.And finally – Creationism and prayer in public school? Sorry, excuse me while I laugh! I don’t actually endorse it. Children NEED to have studied and have a full understanding of Evolution because many courses in college, many careers, and life in general, requires education whether you endorse the theory or not. And why prayer in a public school? It’s public! Let’s be realistic here – try to bring Creationism and Prayer within a hundred yards of a public school these days – I dare you! That whole pesky not mixing religion and politics wasn’t just a dream people. Ya can’t do it! Just read the story about Rodney LeVake for further proof of that.What makes me cringe is, what I imagine to be, the many people muttering to themselves after reading this book, “This could so happen!”No. No it couldn’t. Kizer messed with my peeps and so I give her book 2 stars. Don’t like it? Then stand still while I smite you! ( )

Meridian was okay. Kizer came up with an interesting idea, but her execution was a bit shaky. The prologue is amazingly written, and I was immediately drawn into Meridian's story. I felt a connection with her right away, but as the novel continued, my connection seemed to deteriorate. Kizer did a lot of telling and not much showing. Furthermore, Meridian's relationship with Tens seemed forced. One minute he was being an abrasive jerk and the next, Meridian is in love with him. No transition at all. I didn't feel that their relationship grew to the point of a deep like, much less love.

Meridian is a good character. She's not the most interesting character I've ever read, but she's a decent person and wants to do well. Tens is the typical Byronic hero, but without a tortured past as far as I can tell. He seems to just be a jerk for no reason. He becomes nicer as the story goes on though. However, I just didn't feel the connection with them at all. Auntie was a sweet old lady, but I don't get why the whole town called her Auntie. She is Meridian's aunt, not the aunt of the entire town. I don't know if she introduced herself as Auntie or what, but whatever.

I didn't feel any emotions as I read the book. I didn't really care what happened to the characters. The plot was interesting enough that I finished the novel, but when bad things would happen to a character that I knew I should care about, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I have a feeling that if Kizer had done more showing and less telling of emotions and circumstances, then I would have been much more attached to the characters.

The novel didn't lack description, however. Kizer overly described many things. I skimmed over half of the descriptions because it was just too much. Add that to every ounce of information being given in dialogue, and the story goes from exciting to blase almost immediately. If Kizer had kept up the style of writing she used in the prologue, then the novel would have been much better.

The ending of the book sets the story up for a sequel, and I'm going to read it simply because the story drew me in. I'll check it out from the library, though.

Over all, I'd recommend this book if you're bored and have nothing else to read. I'd check it out from the library. The idea is new. A half-angel, half-human conduit for the dead is a different take on the paranormal, for sure, but the writing is a bit lackluster. ( )

I have been hauling home tons of books from the library just because of interesting covers or premises, putting them in my summer to-read pile. For some time now, I’ve gotten into the habit of reading the first few lines or even the first page of each book before putting it down to do more pressing things. Even though most of those first glimpses are interesting, when I opened Meridian, I couldn’t put it down until the library closed hours later.

The narration and story are engaging. I am usually resistant when things happen too quickly at the beginning of a story to get the plot going, but I didn’t feel that resistance so much with this book. Perhaps because the premise is so different. I wanted to know more about Meridian’s associations with the dead, and I also cared that these associations brought her so much physical suffering.

Something I admire about this story is the handling of agency. Agency has been a major issue for me in my writing in the past couple of projects, so I’ve been trying to keep an eye out for how it is handled. The role of the Fenestra is fairly passive. I won’t spoil it with details, but they are not angels of death. Their mere presence is the key to helping the dying. And Kizer has managed to give Meridian enough need for struggle against certain happenings related to this role that keeps the Fenestra nature from falling into dangerous writing craft territory. There are external and internal and spiritual issues to be dealt with, which is a very good balance to have.

For how much I enjoyed this book, there are a couple of issues that struck me as well. The romance, though not heavy-handed (thank goodness), doesn’t really feel organic to the story. Meridian does not ruminate on specific physical characteristics to which she is attracted to, which is not bad in itself, but she doesn’t seem attracted to the guy's personality either. It feels like the relationship blossoms out of the fact that the two are closer in age and together a lot and in danger (a lot). I think this is one level in which more agency might have been helpful.

Another issue is the ending. It feels a little too rushed. I suspected early on the nature of the threat, which may have been purposeful, but there is also little page space devoted to dramatic tension during the pivotal scenes. What happens, happens, and I’m glad it goes down that way, but I don’t really feel invested in those scenes. As a result I’m missing the emotional turns that are being presented to the reader.

Still, despite the issues, I’m leaning toward buying this one, and the sequel (which is due out in mid-July). I’m a huge fan of mythologies and the supernatural and the laws of thermodynamics (you’ll get it if you read the book), and Kizer has done a great job with building a mythology for my mind to play with. ( )