A Midsummer Tights Dream

Two reviews in two days? She must be crazy, you say. She must have loads of time on her hands, despite working on a degree. Or, someone might whisper, she might have found a book easy enough to whip through with funny loveable characters that keep you reading until the last page without putting down the book once. Ding ding ding, we have a winner with contestant number three!

            Apparently having read two Louise Rennison books in two days has made me start to write like one of her characters as well, which is quite fun although occasionally exhausting. I’m not sure how our dear Tallulah Casey does it, keeping the flow of fresh and ridiculous epithets and observations coming in such force. A Midsummer Tights Dream is chock full of Tallulah’s original perspectives on life at Dother Hall, and made me laugh even more than the first book in the series. Remember how I said I had been left with plot points hanging everywhere last time? Well now I am left with new plot points hanging in different ways, but with some of the old ones wrapped up neatly. Rennison has done an excellent job in keeping the reader interested in this fast paced world that seems to revolve around understanding teenage boys while also making crazy “art.”

            We meet up with Tallulah beginning her second term at Dother Hall, back in the cozy arms of her quirky group of friends. Tallulah seems to be falling into the whirlwind of teenage romance, as she sorts through her feelings towards Charlie, the boy who kissed her but has a girlfriend, Alex, the dreamy (and unavailable) older brother of Ruby, and Cain, resident misunderstood bad boy who seems to be toying with Tallulah for his own amusement. I hate to say that Rennison is falling into a tried and true path, but this is much the same formula that works in the Georgia Nicolson series. One girl, many boys, however will she choose? In fact, much of this second novel began to remind me of Rennison’s other series, with some of the characters beginning to form personalities not all that different from Georgia’s Ace Gang. The fact that Tallulah’s friends are called the Tree Sisters doesn’t quite add that definitive stamp of originality quite yet. However, I read the first series because I found them funny and I’m willing to read this series because they are shaping up to be just as, if not more funny.

            I enjoy Tallulah’s take on the boys in her life, but also appreciate that she doesn’t let her entire story become about them. She still goes and visits the owlets with Ruby and is involved with her life at Dother Hall. In A Midsummer Tights Dream the reader is starting to get an idea that Tallulah does actually want to be a star and find some sort of talent within herself. We are realizing that she is a born comedian, and slowly with the help of a few kind teachers, Tallulah is seeing that spark as well. She is cast as Bottom by the evil Dr. Lightowler in the school’s production of A Midsummer Nights Dream by Shakespeare, and manages to steal the show with her silly Irish dancing and general out of control legs. We see another side of Tallulah as she often writes down various thoughts in her performance notebook, all of which are hilarious but also hold the small ingot of real imagination, or at least creative vision.

            Again, the only real fault that I will find in the novel is the hasty wrap up at the end. We’ve been told Dother Hall has fallen into financial ruin and the play is supposed to raise money to help keep it open, however this is resolved within a paragraph by nearly magical means. Tallulah becomes involved with Cain only for us to have that cut short as well. I’m not sure if Rennison is realizing that her book is running on a bit and decides to just leave off, or if she is intentionally trying to build suspense for the next installment in the series. The later certainly works on me, since I am now going to wait impatiently until February 2013 to find out what Tallulah will get up to next. So again, definitely read this book, indulge in a quick read that will have you at least grinning if not chuckling and let yourself be a teenager again. An English teenager stuck in a Northern world surrounded by crazy pseudo artists, but a teenager nonetheless.

Withering Tights

I remember back when I was a teenager reading The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson series and literally laughing out loud in the middle of a crowded freshman study hall at the crazy British antics of Louise Rennison’s memorable heroine. In her new series, Rennison has introduced us to a new leading lady, Tallulah Casey, fourteen and a half, fresh off to performing arts college and a sweeter counterpart to her older cousin Georgia. The first book of this new series, Withering Tights, lands London dwelling Tallulah in the middle of Yorkshire at Dother Hall, a performing arts college that is running a summer program for aspiring artists. Tallulah is an immediately likable protagonist, for despite being fourteen and typically worried about lipstick and when she will ever be able to wear a bra, she is quirky and awkward, a bundle of long legs and a big heart that lacks the meanness of a typical teenage girl. In fact, Rennison has created an entire group of young girls who don’t feel the need to hide who they are (except around boys) and are not the vindictive mean girls America is so used to. Tallulah’s friends Jo, Vaisey, Flossie and Honey are each adorable portraits of girls trying to find themselves while hitting some speed bumps along the way.

            Tallulah lives in the village with a host family, since her parents signed her up late for the program and there wasn’t space in the dormitory for her. We get veiled hints that Tallulah’s parents are separated and incredibly distant, not so much parents but wild souls that happened to have a child. Rennison has chosen not to go into this particular plot point just yet, although I have a feeling it will come out more as the series continues. Instead, we get Tallulah’s host family, an incredibly happy couple with twin boys who are incapable of saying anything but “bogie.” Tallulah is charmed by this little family who find genuine pleasure in going outside to look at clouds or participating in the village wide skipping rope weaving project. While she sometimes longs for the bustle of the city, Tallulah takes her location in stride, something I appreciated. She becomes friends with the local pub owners daughter, Ruby, who is the most precocious ten year old I’ve found in literature thus far. The two form a wonderful friendship based on Ruby’s boy advice and the hatching of baby owls that they name after themselves. Tallulah is also half in love with Ruby’s older brother Alex, which finally begins to thicken the plot of this breezy novel.

            This is of course a young adult story, and thus boys make up much of the plot. The Dother Hall girls meet several boys their age who attend the nearby Woolfe Academy, and the entire lot becomes fast friends, pairing off into couples with astonishing speed. Tallulah finds herself on her first date and having her first kiss with someone quite unexpected, and the description of that kiss is absolutely hilarious. I won’t ruin it, but think awkward like you wouldn’t believe. Of course, there is Alex and another friend called Charlie who Tallulah finds herself drawn to as well. And then lurking in the shadows is the local bad boy, Cain. It’s unclear what his ultimate role with Tallulah will be, but he serves as a decent villain, or as much of a villain as this story is likely to have. The boys are relatively one dimensional, but I feel in time we’ll begin to find out more of their personalities, just as the girls characters will be expanded in the coming books.

            Besides boys, Tallulah’s main concern is finding her place at Dother Hall and being accepted back as a full time student for the coming fall term. She can’t sing, she can’t dance (except for some crazy Irish jigs) and overall she is the quirky tall girl self conscious about her knees who doesn’t quite fit in. We have several wonderful encounters with her various teachers; all who profess to understand the arts and how to be an artist but never seem to back that up with performance proof. Watching Tallulah find her place among these crazy people creates an endearing story, one that most readers will relate to, of trying to find where you fit in the world and hoping that your dreams are good enough to make it happen.

            The only fault I found in Withering Tights was the rather abrupt ending. I know the series is going to continue but things seemed to wrap up at an incredibly high speed and even then I was left with a lot of plot threads hanging about. I’m wiling to overlook this and praise the book overall, since I have the next one sitting on my bedside table and can start it as soon as I finish this review. Withering Tights is a ridiculously fast read, I managed it in one day of reading for a few hours here and there, and rightly so, as you are pulled in by Tallulah and her endearing journey to find herself, and some excellent friends along the way. Check it out if you are up for British humor and sensibilities and a quick, uncomplicated read for the beach or a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Becoming a New Inkling!

Hello all! I hope you don't think I've completely forgotten about this blog. I am indeed still having musings about books, however my hypothetical leather chair has moved over to Oxford England for the summer! I'm in the city that gave birth to The Lord of the Rings, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, His Dark Materials and even scenes from Harry Potter. Couldn't be better, right? I'm working on the first summer of my master's degree in English, studying Shakespeare until I feel like I"m having a rather intimate affair with the ol' bard.
Have no fear though, I managed to pick up some new young adult fiction by one of my favorite British authors today, so you will have reviews to look forward to very soon. As a slight side note, there will be a small increase in the amount of YA novels that I start to review. I'm beginning to realize that looking at them from an academic point of view, as I did with my undergrad senior thesis, is actually quite awesome and something I might take further. In the meantime,  thank you for waiting patiently and you will be rewarded soon, I promise!
Cheers from Lincoln College, Oxford University,
Hallie