Madapple by Christina Meldrum

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
A surreal and maddening book. I read this book while home sick one day, and the next day I was telling a friend about how weird and unsettled I felt upon reading it, how I felt transported into a skewed view of reality. “So maybe it was a good book, then?”, she suggested. Yes and no. The author really does draw you into Aslaug’s unconventional world view, filled with Nordic and pagan mythology and theology, native Maine herbology and wildlife, and the scars of psychological abuse and isolation. But the story is way out there, joining together an improbable chain of events that transpire between an isolated family, interspersed with court transcriptions as we piece together why Aslaug is being put on trial for murder.

I stuck with it due to the various starred reviews and ALA & YALSA recognition, but I really didn’t feel pulled in until about 1/3 of the way through, after which I felt compelled to finish it despite my feelings of uneasiness while reading. It’s one of those books that I think teens would either love or hate, and unfortunately, I would expect the latter in most cases.

View all my reviews.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 11th, 2009 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.