Self-Portrait With Wings
Mar. 4th, 2011 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
booksofafeatherShort review: A young ice-skater girl ends up with wings, leading to some strange experiences on the ice rink. It doesn't feel like much of a "winged person" book, more a story of a human girl's trials with unexpected wings, and any actual winged people will probably be disappointed at how human it feels. But it's very well-written as a story... just probably not the type of story most people want.
Writing: I really liked the writing. The plot isn't any big shocking thing, but in terms of just the prose, it was joyful to read, describing things well, but not overwhelming. Just as a story by itself, without the winged person element, I liked it... although since it is a typical kind of story also I probably wouldn't have read it if not for that.
From a winged person's perspective...: It's not really a book about a winged person but a book about a human with wings. Like all the books I've read so far there's a good scene about the joy of flying though. The main character does seem to feel a little affinity for wings, but soon gets tired of the trouble they cause. The wings almost seem to have some small personality of their own, which some winged people might have noticed. The girl tries to be anatomically correct while creating her imaginary wings.
Trigger warnings: Lots of wing injuries, tearing and stabbing. Talk about wing amputation. Use of words like "mutant" in reference to non-humans. A description of how "some types of wings aren't anatomically realistic" which might bother some people; it's a bit species-ist? The wings disappear in the end but not in a graphic way.
More thoughts...: First, I just feel I have to comment on the fact that in at least three books I read now (I also read Wings by Julie Gonzales which has it too, though I haven't written a review yet, since it was before I started writing these), the main character lives in a loft or someplace that has a loft feeling... hehe. It seems like that's always associated with these stories. Probably they know how nice and airy and pleasant a loft nest sounds when you have wings. （´-ω-｀） I just wanted to note that little detail....
Anyway, this is a really conflicted book for me. I can tell you right now what I would rate it... if I were rating it as a book without thinking of the winged content, I'd give it four out of five. If I'm rating it for the winged content... it's a two. This is because the main character really finds her wings more frustrating than pleasant, and also in general feels like she has very human concerns, and the wings come second to the rest of her life. Mostly, this story is about a girl who wants to beat her rival at skating, and the relationships between her and her friends. The wings are the conflict that shakes up the story, but even though they are a central part of it they're not central to her identity or her goals or dreams. The story is really a question of whether the wings can help her achieve her dreams or whether they will get in the way... they're only meaningful as long as they're useful. Which is how some humans may see it, but for the audience I'm writing for, I don't think it will be very relevant. It could also feel like someone is dismissing an important part of your life because it gets in their way... but that's just a possible feeling.
Ultimately the ending is what you expect from such a book... she loses her wings and goes back to normal. The last two chapters don't even mention the wings much at all, as they wrap up the story. Somehow I didn't mind this as much as in Maximum Ride because it felt like the story wasn't meant to be about winged people, but very clearly a story that uses the wings as a plot point and a conflict. That's very disappointing for winged people of course, but I can accept the kind of story it is.
One thing to note is that, even though it's a children's book with a soft pink cover and some pretty ice-skating girls on the front, there are a lot of injuries. Somehow it feels like the main character's wings get injured all the time and I really started to cringe about this. I don't know of course what you all out there with dragonfly wings are like, whether you have healing abilities or not... I don't know what things are like from world to world of course. But I know that at least, with an insect dragonfly, they don't heal if they are hurt! So thinking about all those injuries was really sad. Even the wings themselves seemed to be stressed out by it (which is a nice touch by the way... a wing can be a very powerful magical nexus and I've noticed sometimes my wings have a little desire of their own even before I know it).
So... as I said, if you want to read a story about young ice-skaters and their friendship conflicts, it's a good book. Not a really good winged person book though.
(Oh, but one funny thing... it does have a mention of a book that one character is reading, that seems to be the "Mail Order Wings" book... hehe. It's a sign that people writing these books are reading each other's work... there's a community of sorts of people who write about this, maybe a little... that's a nice feeling.)
Writing: I really liked the writing. The plot isn't any big shocking thing, but in terms of just the prose, it was joyful to read, describing things well, but not overwhelming. Just as a story by itself, without the winged person element, I liked it... although since it is a typical kind of story also I probably wouldn't have read it if not for that.
From a winged person's perspective...: It's not really a book about a winged person but a book about a human with wings. Like all the books I've read so far there's a good scene about the joy of flying though. The main character does seem to feel a little affinity for wings, but soon gets tired of the trouble they cause. The wings almost seem to have some small personality of their own, which some winged people might have noticed. The girl tries to be anatomically correct while creating her imaginary wings.
Trigger warnings: Lots of wing injuries, tearing and stabbing. Talk about wing amputation. Use of words like "mutant" in reference to non-humans. A description of how "some types of wings aren't anatomically realistic" which might bother some people; it's a bit species-ist? The wings disappear in the end but not in a graphic way.
More thoughts...: First, I just feel I have to comment on the fact that in at least three books I read now (I also read Wings by Julie Gonzales which has it too, though I haven't written a review yet, since it was before I started writing these), the main character lives in a loft or someplace that has a loft feeling... hehe. It seems like that's always associated with these stories. Probably they know how nice and airy and pleasant a loft nest sounds when you have wings. （´-ω-｀） I just wanted to note that little detail....
Anyway, this is a really conflicted book for me. I can tell you right now what I would rate it... if I were rating it as a book without thinking of the winged content, I'd give it four out of five. If I'm rating it for the winged content... it's a two. This is because the main character really finds her wings more frustrating than pleasant, and also in general feels like she has very human concerns, and the wings come second to the rest of her life. Mostly, this story is about a girl who wants to beat her rival at skating, and the relationships between her and her friends. The wings are the conflict that shakes up the story, but even though they are a central part of it they're not central to her identity or her goals or dreams. The story is really a question of whether the wings can help her achieve her dreams or whether they will get in the way... they're only meaningful as long as they're useful. Which is how some humans may see it, but for the audience I'm writing for, I don't think it will be very relevant. It could also feel like someone is dismissing an important part of your life because it gets in their way... but that's just a possible feeling.
Ultimately the ending is what you expect from such a book... she loses her wings and goes back to normal. The last two chapters don't even mention the wings much at all, as they wrap up the story. Somehow I didn't mind this as much as in Maximum Ride because it felt like the story wasn't meant to be about winged people, but very clearly a story that uses the wings as a plot point and a conflict. That's very disappointing for winged people of course, but I can accept the kind of story it is.
One thing to note is that, even though it's a children's book with a soft pink cover and some pretty ice-skating girls on the front, there are a lot of injuries. Somehow it feels like the main character's wings get injured all the time and I really started to cringe about this. I don't know of course what you all out there with dragonfly wings are like, whether you have healing abilities or not... I don't know what things are like from world to world of course. But I know that at least, with an insect dragonfly, they don't heal if they are hurt! So thinking about all those injuries was really sad. Even the wings themselves seemed to be stressed out by it (which is a nice touch by the way... a wing can be a very powerful magical nexus and I've noticed sometimes my wings have a little desire of their own even before I know it).
So... as I said, if you want to read a story about young ice-skaters and their friendship conflicts, it's a good book. Not a really good winged person book though.
(Oh, but one funny thing... it does have a mention of a book that one character is reading, that seems to be the "Mail Order Wings" book... hehe. It's a sign that people writing these books are reading each other's work... there's a community of sorts of people who write about this, maybe a little... that's a nice feeling.)
