Martine Leavitt

Finally, a YA that's not overly simplistic or filled with tropes. Short, yes, as fables are. But still, there's philosophy, science, adventure, psychology... and even a little spirituality and romance in here. Sounds like a lot for such a short immersive read, but it's put together with such grace that it works. It works well.

And no, you don't even have to be a fan of Watterson's strip to like this (though you should have a basic familiarity with it... and if you don't, I gotta wonder why show more you don't).

Now I want to check out the similar-ish movie "Harvey" because I don't remember it, and to check out Leavitt's other books. show less

I chose to read this book after 'Rebekah' because in that story, Keturah is Abraham's concubine after he is widowed. But the Keturah in this book has no connection to the Biblical figure at all.

This book is a Gothic Folktale, relating in a very pure, fairytale style a story of a girl who follows an enchanted hart into the forest and meets with Lord Death. '1001 Nights'-style, she holds off the handsome and regal Death by telling him a story and withholding the ending, eliciting promises from show more him that she will be spared if she finds her true love. With a charm from the village witch, and now feared by her neighbors due to her connection to the uncanny, she desperately seeks both for love and to fend off the plague (that Death has prophesied) from her village.

Leavitt skillfully weaves together elements from many traditional tales with a good dose of originality and a smooth, enjoyable writing style. The only problem here is that I kept finding jarring inconsistencies in her portrayal of the life of the village - I think the book would have benefited from a closer adherence to the actualities of life in medieval England, since that is where it is ostensibly set. (If food is in such short supply, villagers would not be 'portly'; if lemons are worth their weight in gold, oranges would not be worthless; where did all the resources for a fair and town cleanup suddenly come from, etc, etc.)

Still, I loved the overall concept and aesthetic of the book, and would definitely read more from this author." show less

This has been on my to-read list for awhile. Keturah and Lord Death tries very hard and almost succeeds as a fairytale fantasy exploring what would happen if Death chose to take a bride. Keturah, a simple village girl, narrates her story of meeting Death and striking a bargain with him on the subject of true love.

The reason this doesn't quite succeed is a slightly artificial flavor to the whole thing. Keturah's just a bit too perfect and her relationships with the villagers a bit too, I show more don't know, patronizing. It's like she sees herself as their keeper. She has two good friends who apparently have no envy whatsoever of her astonishing good looks and who get neatly married off at the end. She makes the local lord's son fall in love with her without half trying. Some random villager makes a long journey just to get Keturah lemons to make a special pie (okay?). Ben Marshall's family vow of only marrying the woman who wins Best Cook is clumsy and artificial as an awkward impediment to their relationship.

Reading over this review, it sounds like I really disliked the book, but I didn't. It was rather compelling as I was reading; I wasn't entirely sure of what the ending would be. And Leavitt's writing is graceful and certainly a cut above mediocre. But overall it left me feeling a bit deflated, and I don't think I'd recommend it. show less

* Thanks to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for providing an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for a review.

This book was a unique one for me and I’m really hoping that everyone will love it as much as I did. I’ve never read anything featuring a schizophrenic main character or even side character. I also found it interesting because it was written basically as one long letter from Calvin to Bill Watterson, the creator of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips, though it didn’t really show more feel like a letter.

Calvin’s belief in the comics, as well as his condition were what really drove the story, that and the characters. Susie, Calvin’s childhood friend, had drawn away from him in favor of new and more popular friends. But the appearance of Hobbes draws them back together. She goes to see him in the hospital and he reveals his plan to walk across Lake Erie into the United States to prove his devotion to Bill Watterson (wait what?). This will be his cure, not medicine but adventure, which may seem a bit…odd, but you must remember that he is a recently diagnosed schizophrenic. And maybe Susie’s a bit crazy too, because instead of alerting his parents as she originally intended, she ends up joining him in this journey. From there, everything goes sort of crazy (well…more crazy) and the two teens really start really to grow as characters. They meet an amazing group of people while on the lake, made more amazing by the fact that they are on the lake, who really pushed me to think. Though, truthfully, the entire book drove me to think. Take Hobbes for example, though he may be a figment of Calvin’s imagination he still has quite a few amazing things to say…

*"Hobbes: Remember what it feels like to wake up on a summer morning and not think about anything except going outside and sitting under a tree? You’ve forgotten. I bet Bill has, too. Instead of a heart you’ll have an iPhone. Instead of a brain you’ll have pings that tell you what has to be done that day and that minute. You’ll never sit in a tree house again, or build a snow fort. You’ll rake and shovel walks, instead. But it doesn’t have to be that way, ol’ buddy…"

I don’t know about you guys, but I find that kind of profound, especially for an imaginary tiger. And speaking of imaginary, another reason that I loved this book so much is because I never felt entirely certain whether or not the things that were happening and the characters that were actually real or only real to Calvin. But I didn’t really care if they were real or not in the end, because they were real to Calvin and that ended up being good enough for me.

*please note that this quotation has not been checked against a final copy of the book. show less