Trying to remember a book...help!

[Agri]

Hm. Is it A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray? Its part of a series and its been awhile since I read it, but the protagonist and her mother were definitely different from everyone else and it involved going to a different realm.

 

[agnes!]

Hm. Is it A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray? Its part of a series and its been awhile since I read it, but the protagonist and her mother were definitely different from everyone else and it involved going to a different realm.

No, sorry, but thanks for the suggestion.

agnes!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Fog Magic by Julia Sauer maybe?

 

[dakcp2001]

Now I am curious

 

[LiberalPrincess]

It sounds a little bit like The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key, which is an old classic and nice standby.

This was my first thought as well. Not an exact match, but some definite similarities. And a wonderful book.

 

[suejai]

It sounds sort of similar to a two book series by Stephen R. Donaldson called the " Mirror of Her Dreams" and "A Man Rides through" although they are probably not the ones because I'm not sure they are on a grade school level. Also they travel between worlds through mirrors, but it was worth a try.

 

[C.Ann]

Now I am curious

Me too! I keep checking back to see if the mystery has been solved..

 

[Katieinwonderland]

I keep coming back to this thread to see if anyone has figured it out yet!!! I'm really curious to know what it is - I think it sounds like a good book! I love to read, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head that sounds familiar, other than what has been mentioned.

 

[SueM in MN]

I keep coming back to this thread to see if anyone has figured it out yet!!! I'm really curious to know what it is - I think it sounds like a good book! I love to read, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head that sounds familiar, other than what has been mentioned.

Me too.
I’ve even been doing google searches to see if I can figure out.

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

This sounds like The Subtle Knife to me.

Below it talks about having to find a father, a thick fog that you can't get through, the girl's mother....


If you haven't read The Golden Compass, immediately get a copy and read it. If you're hesitating because it is a "young adult novel," remember that so are Lord of the Rings and Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy. As soon as you're finished, you'll be able to enjoy the second book in Philip Pullman's trilogy, The Subtle Knife, and learn what becomes of Lyra Silvertongue after she leaps from her world into the unknown. Of course, you'll have to anxiously await the final volume like the rest of us. (You can read The Subtle Knife on its own and understand the events and characters.)

Will Parry's family is utterly dysfunctional. With a missing father and an emotionally disturbed mother, twelve-year-old Will has learned to be the parent: shopping, cooking, coping with social services, and evading his mother's imaginary enemies. But sometimes paranoia is real. Mysterious men are after them, trying to obtain his father's letters. Will asks his piano teacher to take care of his mother and tries to save the letters, inadvertantly killing one of their pursuers.

Pullman's evocation of the struggle of a twelve-year-old caught in an impossible situation captures his bravado and naïvete perfectly. As Will flees from the scene of the murder, he worries about never seeing his mother again and about who will feed his cat. Later, after avoiding his pursuers by entering another world, Cittagazze, he writes his mother a postcard of classic understatement: "Dear Mum, I am safe and well, and will see you again soon. I hope everything is all right. I love you. Will."

Lyra Silvertongue is also in Cittagazze with her magical compass, having fled her own world. Will and Lyra are perfect foils for one another. Both are world-wise, but from different worlds, so their knowledge and abilities complement one another and enable them to survive. Cittagazze has been visited by a plague of Specters who are eliminating the adults, leaving only children to roam the streets. Once again both Will and Lyra are without their parents to guide them. Cittagazza, though a temporary haven, exemplifies Will's greatest fear: all the children have lost their parents, or will soon.

Will and Lyra are not the only ones trying to understand the world-shattering events. The witch, Sarafina Pekkala, must save another witch from torture which may reveal the witches' secrets. Lee Scorsby, aeronaut, goes on a quest to find Stanislaus Grumman, shaman and explorer. And of course, Mrs. Coulter, the "snow queen" of the first novel, still searches for Lyra. Lyra goes in search of an Oxford Scholar and finds Dr. Malone, a physicist trying to answer the same questions that Lyra is, but with theoretical physics instead of theological magic. The mysterious Sir Charles Latrom forces a promise from Will and Lyra that sends them on a quest for a magical knife. The quests converge as the various adults struggle to either protect or capture Lyra and Will.

Will, more than Lyra, is the focus of the novel. His triumph in the Torre degli Angeli (Tower of Angels) and later when he learns the importance of his ultimate task are both bittersweet moments, as he realizes that power and knowledge have a price. Although the climatic moment of the book doesn't have the raw emotional power of the instant in The Golden Compass when Lyra realizes that she has betrayed her best friend, Will's loss is still powerful and heart-breaking.

In addition to unique worlds, fascinating characters, and emotionally powerful writing, the book has a variety of other exemplary qualities. I enjoyed the touches of humor that help relieve the tension generated by Lyra and Will's almost constant flight from danger. When a fog descends for weeks at a time, Pullman writes that "there are few natural philosophers as frustrated as astronomers in a fog." When one of the few remaining Cittagazze adults explains how the Specters entered their world, Pullman plays on the differing meaning of the word "bonds" to a banker and a physicist.

Pullman's straightforward writing style gives a simple elegance to the book. This style reminds me of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy (although the books are dissimilar in plot and setting). I also enjoyed the names he uses, and again they reminded me of Le Guin. Will's cat is named Moxie: a wonderful name for a cat who saves his life, possibly more than once. 'Will' evokes determination, which he certainly has. One can "parry" a knife thrust, and he will parry the subtle knife. His father, John Parry, is an arctic explorer, perhaps descended from the nineteenth century British arctic explorer Sir William Parry?

Pullman has written a subversive novel. Following the conventions of so many British fantasies, Will discovers a door to another world. But unlike the innocent children who go through the wardrobe to Narnia or those who fall into another world in Joy Chant's Red Moon and Black Mountain, Will's life is full of pain. He is also a murderer, however accidentally. Neither is Lyra pure, being an accessory to murder when she brought Roger to her father. The one innocence they both share is sexual innocence, which their allies go to great lengths to protect.

But the subversiveness of the book is more fundamental, for this isn't the retelling of a fairy tale, like The Golden Compass. This is part of the story of the Old Testament battle between good and evil, but the usual sides have been reversed. In this revolt of the fallen angels against God, "the Authority," Lyra and Will fight with the rebel angels, not against them, in a struggle for joy, truth, and freedom. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.


Copyright © 1997 by Lela Olszewski

 

[agnes!]

We don't think it is any of the Golden Compass series, she says she never read any of them.

The book had to have been published before 2004.

agnes!

 

[agnes!]

I read through every Juvenile fiction/fantasy book's description at alibris last night...nothing was quite right.

Any other ideas?

agnes!

 

[NHdisneylover]

any chance it is one of the Earthsea books? Parts of it ring a bell (but then again other things don't at all).

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Agnes!

Did you ever find the book?

 

[agnes!]

No, we haven't come up with it .

I might have mentioned this before, but the reason DD wants to remember it is because she remembers grade school as being so awful but she does remember reading all these books and she'd like to have some good memories to hold onto of grade school.

Yeah, made me sad. I hope we figure it out.
agnes!
PS - Not the Earthsea books, she remembers those fairly specifically.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I'm sorry about that! I've been thinking about the your daughter and wishing I could help out.

I read children's/YA/Teen books when I workout (I've tried reading adult books, but kids books hold my interest better than adult books.) so I've been keeping my eyes open when I go to the thrift stores for new (to me) books. If I come across anything like it, I'll let you know; maybe it's something out of print that doesn't have a description online.