Headley, Justina Chen - North of Beautiful
Sun, Feb. 8th, 2009 12:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterTerra Rose Cooper is gorgeous: tall, thin, blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Or she would be, if it weren't for the port-wine stain covering the entire right side of her face. Her life is also perfect, or it would be, if her father didn't emotionally abuse everyone in the family, if her brothers in China and Seattle would only check in, if her mother didn't fear driving and overeat since her sister (Terra's aunt) died in a car accident.
But Terra can't control any of this, so she channels her energy into controlling her life, her body, and her face, at least until Asian goth-boy Jacob lands in her path.
I was a little disappointed in the first half of this; it reads like most emo white-girl YA, and though I love the genre, I felt Headley was too heavy-handed early on. The map metaphors in the narrative voice, the symbols of Terra's controlling nature, the coolness and rebelliousness of goth Jacob all felt a little rote, as though they were surface characteristics, but not character. Terra's conversations with Jacob felt particularly boring; there was too much banter about her controlling nature and Jacob trying to push her not to be, and it felt like too many other YA books I've read.
Part of the problem is that it reminds me too much of Dessen's Just Listen, and Headley doesn't handle her characters with the same understated finesse.
But then, in the second third of the book, Headley went somewhere I completely hadn't expected, and the book starts to concentrate more of Terra's relationship with her mother, which I very much enjoyed. There's a little about Jacob's angst as well—he's Chinese and adopted by a white family—but the bulk of the book is Terra's. I loved learning more about her two brothers and her aunt, and I really loved watching her mother find herself again.
I still wish we had gotten more of Jacob; by the end of the book, he still felt like a bit of a mystery to me. Some of the ending scenes also didn't work for me, particularly Terra in the orphanage, which I think was meant well, but felt too much like "Nice White Lady" to me. And though I didn't have huge issues with the largely-white cast and China, some bits ("You're more Chinese than the Chinese!") were a bit grating. Still, given Headley's past record, I don't begrudge her much, and I really hope her next book is a bit more racially diverse.
I didn't love this as much as Girl Overboard, but it's still a solid book.
But Terra can't control any of this, so she channels her energy into controlling her life, her body, and her face, at least until Asian goth-boy Jacob lands in her path.
I was a little disappointed in the first half of this; it reads like most emo white-girl YA, and though I love the genre, I felt Headley was too heavy-handed early on. The map metaphors in the narrative voice, the symbols of Terra's controlling nature, the coolness and rebelliousness of goth Jacob all felt a little rote, as though they were surface characteristics, but not character. Terra's conversations with Jacob felt particularly boring; there was too much banter about her controlling nature and Jacob trying to push her not to be, and it felt like too many other YA books I've read.
Part of the problem is that it reminds me too much of Dessen's Just Listen, and Headley doesn't handle her characters with the same understated finesse.
But then, in the second third of the book, Headley went somewhere I completely hadn't expected, and the book starts to concentrate more of Terra's relationship with her mother, which I very much enjoyed. There's a little about Jacob's angst as well—he's Chinese and adopted by a white family—but the bulk of the book is Terra's. I loved learning more about her two brothers and her aunt, and I really loved watching her mother find herself again.
I still wish we had gotten more of Jacob; by the end of the book, he still felt like a bit of a mystery to me. Some of the ending scenes also didn't work for me, particularly Terra in the orphanage, which I think was meant well, but felt too much like "Nice White Lady" to me. And though I didn't have huge issues with the largely-white cast and China, some bits ("You're more Chinese than the Chinese!") were a bit grating. Still, given Headley's past record, I don't begrudge her much, and I really hope her next book is a bit more racially diverse.
I didn't love this as much as Girl Overboard, but it's still a solid book.