Chime

In many ways, Franny Billingsley’s Chime is a difficult novel to describe. While targeted to young adults, many of the themes are predominantly adult and rather psychological in nature. The supernatural elements are understated, making the reader question whether they are a figment of Briony’s active imagination or are indeed real. In addition, Chime contains elements of a traditional murder mystery as well as a romantic coming-of-age story. However, it is neither of these things in its entirety. Instead, the various elements combine to form a completely new type of story, one that does not fit easily into any one genre and yet manages to maintain a poignant and powerful simplicity.

Briony is one of those deliciously simple show more characters who insist on making things more complicated and difficult than they are or need to be. In Briony’s case, it is her unwavering opinion that she is not only a witch, but one that uses her powers for selfish means. Her entire life is spent secretly atoning for sins she supposedly committed when she was younger. Yet, the reader instantly spots that there is more to Briony’s story than even she is aware. One’s desire to uncover the truth and ultimately save Briony is the driving force behind the novel, and with the exquisite phrases and descriptions, the reader becomes an active participant in the unfolding events, ultimately heightening the suspense even more.

Chime has an otherworldly quality that makes it difficult for the reader to determine the time and place of the novel. While Ms. Billingsley does include clues to make it known that the setting is rural England at the beginning of the 21st century, without these details, Swampsea could be in any country, and the story itself would be just as realistic set in the New World among the Puritans as it would be in the 1920s. This unearthly feature exacerbates all of Briony’s secrets, increasing the doom and gloom as well as her sense of guilt and urgency.

From the opening sentence, which is one of the better opening sentences ever read, the reader knows that Chime is going to be an amazing story. The setting is appropriately mysterious and eerie, and the unknown forces behind some of the novel’s more thrilling scenes are decidedly uncanny - supernatural without being overtly so. Briony is a young girl forced to grow up early and bear more than her share of guilt. Her frustrations with her father and with her lot in life make her extremely sympathetic, escalating the story’s overall tension and Briony’s fear of discovery. The answers, when revealed, are brilliantly simple and obvious with hindsight, but Ms. Billingsley manages to keep the truth buried beneath layers of secrets. Chime is another excellent example of a YA novel that succeeds in appealing to those outside of its target audience. show less

In my young adult literature class I wanted to pair with The Hero and the Crown a contemporary YA fantasy novel, and ideally one with some kind of representation that would have been lacking in the 1980s: racial, sexual, whatever. A recommendation from my wife led me to Chime; she was very fascinated by its portrayal of intellectual disability. The protagonist, Briony Larkin, has a sister named Rose who could be called autistic, I suspect, were the novel not set in an alternate early twentieth century, and Briony herself suffers from depression.

Unfortunately, the book is a bit of a slog at 360+ pages, and all the interesting stuff seems to happen near the end. The book for a while implies that Rose's disability has a magical cause: show more Briony thinks she did it, and thus your tendency is to think that Briony's evil stepmother did it, but both of these things turn out to be untrue, and Rose just is disabled. Which is a nice undercutting of how disability often works in fantasy stories, but the whole thing is underdeveloped.

I taught the book alongside an essay by an old colleague of mine, Abbye Meyer, called "'But she's not retarded': Contemporary Adolescent Literature Humanizes Disability but Marginalizes Intellectual Disability." Meyer build on the work of disability theorists who argue that disability should be seen as a political category, and thus YA literature should treat it as it does other underrepresented minorities, with humanization and representation. Unfortunately, then, Meyer argues, YA often falls short, as depictions of intellectual disability typically fall into three categories: 1) those without intellectually disabled characters, where the physically disabled prove their worth via a lack of intellectual disability, 2) those where only secondary characters are intellectual disabled, usually show the protagonist can demonstrate virtue through behavior toward them, and 3) those where the narrator/protagonist is intellectually disabled... but then proves that they're not by the story's end.

Meyer also argues that YA fiction can compensate for these problems by doing a few things, including humanizing disability, arguing for disability as an identity category, celebrating difference, and arguing for accommodation. Chime definitely treats Rose as a side character, and frequently as a side character who frustrates Briony and prevents her from doing what she wants, which seems to dehumanize her. The switcheroo that reveals that Rose's disability isn't a curse is a nice one in emphasizing disability as an identity category, but pushes against the weight of a novel where Briony seems to think it is a curse. Not in the magical sense, but in the sense of a burden that weighs her down. Rose does get to show romantic interest (which might even be reciprocated), which is also nice. So really, I don't think Chime does what Meyer thinks it ought very much.

But all this is largely to the side in Chime, and my students found those first two hundred pages as much a slog as the magical swamp in which the book takes place. Nothing reveals a book's pacing problems like teaching it, because for the first two of our three classes on Chime, I felt like nothing had happened worth talking about in class. My students also reacted very poorly to Briony's boyfriend, who borderline assaults her near the end of the novel... and then they just reconcile! I didn't read the scene that way, but once they pointed it out to me, I couldn't not see it.

I do think it's a decent depiction of depression, and through that it does some nice meta stuff about the stories we tell ourselves, but again, all these concepts are really paid off in the last fifty pages or so, which make it hard to teach. Which is maybe unfair, but that's the context I read it again; if I ever teach a YA literature course again, Chime will not be on the syllabus. show less

I can't say much except that this book was amazing. It was so lusciously written that I pretty much wanted it to go on forever.

Here's the synopsis on the inside cover:

Briony has a secret. It is a secret that killed her stepmother, ruined her sister's mind, and will end her life, if anyone were to know.

Briony is a witch. And she can see the Old Ones, the spirits who haunt the marshes surrounding their town--the Dark Muse, the Reed Spirits, Mucky Face, the Wykes. She is the only one who can, besides the Chime Child who sentences witches to death. Then Eldric comes along with his golden lion eyes and a great mane of tawny hair. He is as natural as the sun, and he treats her as if she is extraordinary. And everything starts to change...

The show more book hooked me on the first line. "I've confessed to everything and I'd like to be hanged. Now if you please." Actually, I advise those who pick up this book to re-read the first chapter once they finish. It's interesting.

The story is told from Briony's point of view, and it's a wonderfully rich and dark perspective indeed. Her sister, Rose, is her identical twin but there is something off about Rose. Her habits are repetitive, she has no seeming awareness of social situations, and she screams when something upsets her. Briony believes that she has damaged Rose's mind because she is a witch.

I noticed right from the beginning that the read required a lot of attention. Like full attention. Briony's thoughts are jumbled and incongruous and often bounce around to completely different subjects in the middle of them. I kept wondering if she was crazy, in a much more intricate way than her sister, but crazy nonetheless.

Throughout the book I wondered, is this the real story? I don't often think to question the narrator, but here I did. I wondered how warped her reality was, and she kept me guessing about when she would tell what happened in each event that she blamed her witch powers on. Her mind was real. It was a beautiful feeling for my brain. I especially liked the relationship she had with Eldric. She called herself the wolfgirl and he was the lionboy. I loved the way she described him and interacted with him and how strange they both were, especially together. The book was a dark mystery the way I liked it, with magic and fey beings.

The Swampsea where Briony lived seemed like an old place and part of the old world, with spirits and creatures that fear metal and survive in the swamp, even though it took place in the early 20th century. There were old fishermen and a madman in the village where they hung witches, but also a railroad and motorcars that were new wonders.

I fell in love with Briony's world and her mind. She frustrated me at times because I could see things that she couldn't deduce, but that was also beautiful because she was caught up in her wickedness and what she had done. I liked the way she would say "This is how a normal girl would react, but I'm not a normal girl." It was so natural to feel immersed in her mind. Franny Billingsley did an excellent job.

Chime can definitely be added to the list of my favorite books. It was also inspiring to improve my own writing. show less

Oh my. I hated this book. I couldn't put it down. I put it down. I picked it up. I picked it up again. I picked it up until it was finished. When it finished I wanted it not to be over.

This is a book for people who grew up with classic fantasy literature. Not easy, not simple. Beautiful, dense, aromatic language. Characters become real, complex, fascinatingly true people through the scattershot dialog of the unreliable narrator. A must read. Beautiful and lovely. And mucky and slurpy. And lovely.

This was so delightfully different, a historical fantasy set in a world so familiar it could almost be our own, but with enough skewed rules to be fascinatingly different. Briony is a splendid mix of intelligence, love, self-loathing, and vulnerability, and I fell in love with her immediately. The love story is perfect, it is so nice to watch two people meet each other as equals and gradually fall in love while having a riotous time sneaking out and having adventures.

I fell in love with this magical book. CHIME is unique, funny and utterly original and completely deserving of the 6 starred reviews it has earned. The characters are eccentrically wonderful and the story is charmingly written and full of surprises. CHIME is a YA paranormal historical set in Swampsea village in turn of the century England. It includes fantasy and romantic elements that captivated me from start to finish. In addition to the mystery and romance, mystical creatures including Witches, Dark Muses, and Old Ones help to set the stage.

The characters in CHIME really bring the story to life. Briony is unusual in that she is self-loathing, but with a witty and clever sense of humor. As a narrator she is at times misleading as she show more leaves out some details. Briony believes she is a witch and that she is responsible for the sickness and death that have fallen upon her family. She keeps her fears to herself to avoid a witch’s prosecution. Briony carries around a lot of guilt for the pain she believes she causes to those around her. She feels a terrible responsibility to protect the swamp creatures whose lives are threatened by the plans for the railroad that threaten their swamp home. She must stop the progress of the railroad before more children can be cursed with the dreaded swamp cough.

Briony starts to see herself in a new light when Eldric arrives to live with her family. Eldric is a burst of sunshine in Briony’s life that refuses to believe anything negative about her. The relationship between Eldric and Briony is very sweet and unique and one of my favorite parts of the book. They have a fun banter and respect for one another. Briony lives with her father and her identical twin sister named Rose who has some charming quirks about her. Rose is another one of my favorite characters that made me smile with her off the wall behavior. Their stepmother recently died under mysterious circumstances, and it seems like Rose knows more than she lets on.

The fantasy elements add a dark and eerie sensibility to the story. Briony tries to stifle her witch side, but keeps getting pulled into the supernatural world by the creatures that follow her around.

CHIME is a lovely and inventive story that is sure to appeal to fans of YA fantasy and fans of adult fiction. As soon as I finished the story I wanted to start reading it again. CHIME is one of my favorite reads so far this year. show less

Chime was done a terrible disservice by its summary on Kobo Books. I decided against picking it up because it sounded angsty, overwrought, and like Briony would be "saved by love". I ended up reading an excerpt after hearing that a friend liked it, but couldn't quite get over the Kobo summary. It wasn't until after talking to that friend that I decided to give this book an honest try.

I'm really, really glad I did.

Chime is a fascinating insight into depression, abuse, and the terrifying power of memory. Yes, there is a romance, but it comes second to Briony's journey into understanding herself and processing what happened to her. The last few pages were especially poignant for me. The book is about Briony understanding what happened to show more her, but the last few pages acknowledge that that is only the first step in healing, and she has a long way to go, but we're confident she will make it.

Chime is a gorgeous, wonderful book, and it will have a special place on my shelf (when I'm not lending it to friends!) show less