A Corner of White

A Corner of White isn't quite like anything else I've ever read...but I really, really liked it. Primarily a quirky nonsense fantasy---reminiscent of Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, and Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland series---it also contains elements of a contemporary young adult novel, where the 14- and 15-year-old protagonists come to realize some uncomfortable truths about themselves in the context of their normal, everyday lives. The combination is fresh and fun and unexpectedly compelling, and I can't wait to read the next book in the series. ...Which will arrive rather sooner than later, I hope.

A character-driven contemporary fantasy that kept me guessing all the way through. It reminded me a little of The Magician by Lev Grossman, as this author also played around with fantasy conventions and subverted my expectations of where the story would go. Much of the magic revolves around a very original take on colour. I was enamoured with the Kingdom of Cello and look forward to reading more.

Fourteen year old Madeleine Tully lives with her eccentric mother (and her mother's sewing machine) in an attic in Cambridge, England, The World. She is convinced that her father will soon come looking for her and take her back to a life of luxury.
In the meantime, she is homeschooled with her friends Jack and Belle, learns about Byron and Isaac Newton, rides her bike around Cambridge, and leaves letters in a broken parking meter for Elliot.
Even though she thinks the world Elliot describes is one he made up.

Fifteen year old Elliot Baranski lives with his mother in Bonfire, the Farms, the Kingdom of Cello, a place where crops are failing, seasons roam erratically and Colours attack. Elliot believes his missing father was abducted by a show more Purple and is planing yet another attempt to find him.
In the meantime, he fixes things and hangs out with his friends and leaves letters for Madeleine in the TV sculpture a friend made.
Even though he knows it is illegal to fail to report a crack through to The World.

A Corner of White also includes extracts from a travel guide to Cello, and a newspaper column written by Cello's princesses. However, most of the narrative is third person, omniscient. It jumps backwards and forward between Madeleine and Elliot, and then between them and the people around them.
All this jumping seems random at first. As do the details of Madeleine and Elliot's lives, which are presented quite matter-of-factly, with explanations drifting slowly in.

What makes both these worlds feel real, however, is the characters - their convictions, their conversations and their relationships. That's where the heart of the book is.

A Corner of White is unusual, gorgeously written, whimsical and witty. A tale of growing up, friendship and dealing with absent fathers. Peppered with fascinating facts about history of science and the science of colours.

I thought it was lovely and was enjoying it enormously.

AND THEN! And then, unexpectedly, the pieces suddenly start falling together! I had thought I was seeing random glimpses into Elliot and Madeleine's respective worlds and then I discovered there was a bigger picture! A mystery!

This was incredibly exciting and satisfying and unexpected.

Dear Internet, when is the sequel coming? show less

I enjoyed the heck out of this book—Moriarty is a refreshingly original voice in YA fantasy literature.

For the first chapter or so, I was concerned about the level of whimsy, but light, quirky tone is balanced by a world that is grounded and complex. The story itself is quiet, yet exciting and well-told.

Recommended for Pratchett fans, aficionados of Pushing Daisies, and anyone who enjoys non-traditional fantasy fiction.

This is a very odd book. Not odd bad at all just odd. This is a book filled with a strong narrative voice, a quirky cast, and no one but two rather unusual environments. Don’t get the sense that this is a disjointed literary ramble, though, because even unconnected things end up fitting better than you could have imagined.

The story opens with an excerpt from a travel guide, only it’s about the Kingdom of Cello, a fantastical place that clearly exists only in imagination. When the story begins with Madeleine transplanted from her life of glamour and riches to a small flat in Cambridge, England, with her rather strange mother, the connection to the travel guide is unclear. It’s the voice that keeps you reading. But Madeleine is only show more one of a large cast of point of view characters who move in and out of the center stage smoothly. Some of these characters are confined to our world while others live in Cello itself, a place not so imaginary after all though it retains its fantastical character with a vengeance, a place where people have odd talents and colors attack out of nowhere.

Connections between the two dimensions had existed in the past and are occasionally discovered (and destroyed) even now, after the plague crossed through with devastating effect. Elliot, of Cello, risks banishment and death when he discovers a note from the other world and begins a conversation with Madeleine that is instrumental in both of their growth, these two playing the main characters around whom the story revolves.

The conversation is odd because Madeleine doesn’t believe in Cello, but at the same time she’s studying Isaac Newton (she is part of a home school group and their assignment was to “become” an important person who went to Cambridge). She uses what she’s learning from Newton to respond to Elliot, blending interesting information into the narrative as well as showing how different their two worlds are.

I feel it’s hard to describe this book in any way that captures its essence. It plays with reality, science, relationships, and a sense of self. The playful, often random-seeming, voice tricks you into thinking it is fluff and easy to dismiss, but you find yourself returning for another glimpse and thinking about the characters and what they are going through at odd moments even when not reading.

Elliot and Madeleine are tied together by the loss of their fathers, Madeleine because she ran away and stayed away, and Elliot because a purple (one of those vicious colors) killed his uncle the same night his father disappeared. Seeking their fathers is a key part of the story, but not all of it by any means.

This is a complex story that works on many levels. It made me laugh at points, made me cry, and delighted me more than I could have imagined when I picked it up on NetGalley on a whim. I’m glad I spent this time with Madeleine, Elliot, Jack, Belle, and all the other characters in the book. I think you would be too. show less

This book was excellent. The premise was unique and a little unusual, with plenty of humor to chase away the grimness of the plot. It reminded me of Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey in that respect.

I loved that Elliot and Madeleine, while both extremely likable, were also flawed individuals and they sometimes messed up big time, which made it that much easier for me to relate to them. I also liked that while both characters had a core group of friends to support them, which is typical YA fare, they also had a wonderful group of adults who cared for them and looked after them, which is not always the case. Yes, I know Elliot and Madeleine also suffered from the oft-used absentee parent trope, but for both of them it was an important part show more of the plot, not just a device to allow the characters have the freedom to go out and do so many crazy things without anyone being around to tell them no way, Jose.

Oh, and let's talk about they mystery that I did not even know was a mystery until the very end. Okay, let's not, because I don't want to ruin anything, but there were so many seemingly insignificant details that came together at the end and made my jaw fairly drop.

Very excited to see what Moriarty does with the next book. show less

14-year-old Madeleine Tully and her mother are living in Cambridge, England after running away from her father and their former glamorous life. When Madeleine spies a piece of paper peeking out from a random parking meter and writes back, she thinks it’s crazy that Elliot Baranski, the person at the other end of the letters, claims to be from another world called the Kingdom of Cello…

…but Cello is real, and so is Elliot. For a year now, Elliot has been obsessed with the mystery of his father’s disappearance. As things unfold, however, the more it seems like there are more things wrong with Cello than he realized—and it turns out that Madeleine and Elliot could use each other’s help.

Jaclyn Moriarty and her epistolary novels show more were some of my favorites in my pre-blogging years. Did her latest offering live up to my now-admittedly-quite-jaded demands for quality fiction? A day after closing the book with a contented sigh, I am happy to say: yes, yes it did.

A CORNER OF WHITE possesses a sort of whimsy that is effortless and not overbearing. Reading this is not so much about understanding and relating to the main characters, or getting a complete picture of the world of Cello, but rather how Moriarty uses words that have existed elsewhere before and puts them together so that they look brand new. Her words are like color itself: surprising, vivid, and probably what we’ll remember most about the reading experience.

Many authors start their books off with attention-grabbing chapters and just sort of assume that readers will hang on through poor pacing and awkward plot twists. A CORNER OF WHITE has a fairly intriguing beginning, then doesn’t care whether or not you’re confused or ambivalent in the middle (you will be), then has a flawlessly put-together ending of Megan Whalen Turner proportions that will leave you gaping and swooning. Whether or not you understand or relate to Madeleine and Elliot, the way the story is laid out will ensnare you, so that even while you’re still exclaiming to whoever will listen that the story is confusing the heck out of you, you can’t stop turning the pages.

Not only was A CORNER OF WHITE a great reading experience for me, it also left me firmly invested in Madeleine and Elliot’s intertwined worlds and fates. The book ends satisfyingly, yet still opens up numerous possibilities to be explored in future books, which I will definitely be reading. Fans of Franny Billingsley, Catherynne Valente, Margo Lanagan, and Jasper Fforde’s writings will undoubtedly fall head over heels for this highly imaginative book. show less