Ordinarily, I like long books, historical fiction (especially pre-historic era) and young adult books.

And since I love love love Philip Pullman, I was drawn in by the cover quotation from him calling, The Kin by Peter Dickinson, "A magnificent work from one of the real masters." Frankly, I was very excited to buy this 628 page novel about 6 children living 200,000 years ago.

Unfortunately, The Kin is dreadful. I kept trying to convince myself I liked it, giving up on that about 200 pages in, and then just reading for the endurance factor.

On the inside back cover, the author says, about writing this book, "It shouldn’t have happened, really." He is so right.

What I disliked about this book:

• Nearly all of the sentences are very short, 3-5 words.
• Most of the characters say things like, "I, Ko, ask this,"  "I, Suth, say this," "I, Noli, thank," and "I, Tun, praise."  Occasionally they get to say more, or think more, but mostly they announce who they are and then say no more than 3 more words.
• When they aren’t saying that, they say, "I am bad, bad," or "I am tired, tired," or "I am hungry, hungry." Reading this dialog is boring, boring, and painful, painful.
• To be fair, part of the premise of the book is that many of the
  characters are pre-lingual humans. But Jean Auel was able to write
  interesting, intelligent books about pre-lingual humans.
• Even worse than the main storyline, every chapter is separated by an invented creation myth. Although those include more complex sentences, and no one says they are "lucky, lucky" or "I, Mana, give" they don’t resonate and they aren’t compelling. By the end, I could barely stand reading them.

I did think the premise was cool, and I liked the way the little girls and women were portrayed as equally important as the little boys and the men.

But in the end, I’m sorry that Philip Pullman is so much worse as a critic than an author.

Charles De Lint is a wonderful author, and Onion Girl is a nice addition to his collection of tales about the city of Newford, an American anycity where magic and ancient spirits live in parallel to the rest of us, if only we could learn to see it.

Onion Girl tackles some ugly issues, child abuse and how the choices abused children make in response to abuse affect their lives. It’s an optimistic story, in the end, holding the idea that if people try to help, to heal, and to make good choices, they can have happy and productive lives. But it also examines vengeance and anger, and how those choices can spiral on and on, beyond our ability to imagine.

I like Young Adult books, as you’ve noticed if you read my book lists.

But when I’m upset, stressed out, feeling alone, etc, I dive into YA lit and read like my life depends on it.

When I was in Portland, I went to Powells 3 separate times, including the airport Sunday morning. I was there for less than 3 full days.

And I read 2 ok young adult books, Daniel Pinkwater’s The Education of Robert Nifkin, and Diane Duane’s So You Want to be a Wizard.

Socks not knocked off. Both books were clever and entertaining, but I don’t feel like I want to know more or think more about any of the characters. Maybe I’d read another of the books in Duane’s series, but probably only from the library.

On the up side, they were distracting, which was what I most needed this weekend.