It has it all-love, innocence, hate, fear, annoying and loving parents, teachers, writing, books, and sex-and lots of it! At times a bit too much sex-and coming from me that's saying something. At times it did make you slightly uncomfortable knowing that the narrator was a teenage girl and the author was a middle aged man. What is he doing getting into the head of a teenage girl? Writing so much about sex, masturbating, periods, rape and everything else which women think about but have no idea that men know about-well the shouldn't should they? One only hopes that only girls read this book other wise some of our secrets will have come out.
She's a very special girl this Cordelia Kenn and you get a strong feeling of knowing her well as the book and her life goes on. Time passes without one noticing it. Interesting enough even her voice develops through time and you can hear that she is growing up.
Does she have an exceptionally eventful life or is it the way it's told. We learn so much about her personal life that it feels like it is oneself which is experiencing what she is experiencing. Lives are brought together because of her.
I always know when i've read a book i like when i want to suggest it to everyone around me to read-but only one person i know would get this book.
Although i think all teenage girls would like it-at least the ones which enjoy reading and writing since they will then at least be able to identify with Cordelia.
It does get slightly confusing to read-but in a good way. It keeps you going. And it keeps you interested in the continuation of the book-how do you read it?
I love the spiritual level of her thinking-and i like the fact that Chambers has so clearly kept her voice throughout the book. Her thoughts develop clearly as they would do with a thoughtful inquisitive teenage girl-and he doesn't, i think, go too far. Her thoughts and questions are still immature and naive but intelligent.
The last chapter however, although it's well written and i cried floods through the whole thing, i didn't like as much as the rest of the book. This time written from a boy's perspective i got the feeling that his writing voice wasn't as strong and as thought through as Cordelia's and it wasn't as i had imagined it. I actually felt that he sounded a lot older than he was. I suspect that this might be because it was Aidan Chambers voice which was coming through instead of the 20 something boy's voice. A shame.
Overall i think Chambers has probably spent an eternity on creating this novel and the voice of Cordelia Kenn and the result is astounding and inspirational.
