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The Blue Girl, by Charles de Lint
Dec. 31st, 2004 04:47 amI am, generally, a de Lint fan. I read his work avidly, even to the point of picking up hardcovers sometimes rather than waiting. I know I will reread them and this is hardly true of all the books I read - and I know that my urge to do so may come at any hour.
The Blue Girl is set in Newford, which is de Lint's large Canadian city, probably Ottawaesque, in which all manner of interesting urban fantasy can and does take place. It is populated with familiar characters to those of us who read de Lint regularly, characters whom we would like to know or meet along the way - the Crow Sisters, Christy Riddell, Saskia Madding, and a host of others...
The Blue Girl is about a transfer student to one of the area high schools, o fwhich there are many, inside the greater Newford area. Imogene is intent upon making friends with somebody and selects Maxine because she is sitting alone during lunch.
Maxine is a nerd. (Just ask her) Imogene is... well... a gifted underachiever who hung out with "the wrong crowd" because they were the only ones who treated her as if she were a person, first. But that was her crowd in the old school. Here, she hangs with Maxine.
Imogene's mom is a hippy. Maxine's is straight-laced and uptight.
The intereactions between the two girls, the girls and their moms, the girls and their school, and the girls and the supernatural that just has to be there, are rich, textured, and deserving of time and attention from the reader.
This is some of de Lint's finest work, in my opinion - and unlike The Onion GIrl, I think it stands alone pretty well. Christy Riddell's presence is non-intrusive and you wouldn't know he is a major character elsewhere.
More to the point, if you enjoy reading about the lives of the disaffected in our schools, this is a fine read.
The Blue Girl is set in Newford, which is de Lint's large Canadian city, probably Ottawaesque, in which all manner of interesting urban fantasy can and does take place. It is populated with familiar characters to those of us who read de Lint regularly, characters whom we would like to know or meet along the way - the Crow Sisters, Christy Riddell, Saskia Madding, and a host of others...
The Blue Girl is about a transfer student to one of the area high schools, o fwhich there are many, inside the greater Newford area. Imogene is intent upon making friends with somebody and selects Maxine because she is sitting alone during lunch.
Maxine is a nerd. (Just ask her) Imogene is... well... a gifted underachiever who hung out with "the wrong crowd" because they were the only ones who treated her as if she were a person, first. But that was her crowd in the old school. Here, she hangs with Maxine.
Imogene's mom is a hippy. Maxine's is straight-laced and uptight.
The intereactions between the two girls, the girls and their moms, the girls and their school, and the girls and the supernatural that just has to be there, are rich, textured, and deserving of time and attention from the reader.
This is some of de Lint's finest work, in my opinion - and unlike The Onion GIrl, I think it stands alone pretty well. Christy Riddell's presence is non-intrusive and you wouldn't know he is a major character elsewhere.
More to the point, if you enjoy reading about the lives of the disaffected in our schools, this is a fine read.
