That it's not in any way, shape, or form a young adult novel.

Well, there's no objective way to define a YA novel, but - to me - it reads like one. As I say, it reminded me of Joan Aiken more than anyone else, although John Masefield is another reference point. Put it this way, if you gave me Northern Lights and JS&MN blind and told me one had been published for children and one for adults I'd not be able to guess which was which. That, in itself, isn't a criticism of Norris, just an observation.

I didn't like the book - I thought her prose was mannered and smug, and she couldn't construct a proper sense of period, and I got so bored in the Venice section that I never picked it up again - but that's not because it was a kid's book, it's cos it wasn't a very good kid's book.

I agree it's not a very good kids' book because it's not a kids' book. Which is neither a defense nor an insult; I love many YA books, including Joan Aiken's. I wouldn't call it a mystery novel either, which is no reflection on what I think of mystery novels.

It has sentences with fairly complicated and mannered syntax, it's deliberately aping old-fashioned history textbooks, and its protagonists are a middle-aged man and a full-grown adult whose concerns don't easily translate to the concerns of children or even teenagers. That is, where its protagonist isn't entirely intangible, since I think the people who say the protagonist of the book is really the history of English magic have a point.

It would never be published as a YA novel because there's nothing in it to appeal to what publishers consider the YA audience.

If you'd said the publishers called it "Harry Potter with magic" because it otherwise wouldn't have done any better than novels published as adult fantasy or science fiction, I'd have no quarrel with you. I think it's exceptional (Jo Walton was right when she said it seemed to come out of an alternate history where Hope Mirlees and Lord Dunsany rather than J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the foundational novel of twentieth-century fantasy), but it's an exceptional work that fits perfectly well into the field of fantasy.

Okay, so here's an issue.

I posted a review of a novel by someone whom I know is on LJ, and in fact is on my friendsfriends list. My review was mixed: there were things I liked, and there were things I didn't like. I maybe focused too much on the things I didn't like, but I wasn't entirely dissatisfied by the novel, and I think I made that evident.

Someone forwarded a note to the author, and she came by, and we got into a discussion. She was fairly cool about it, we went our separate ways, neither of us having convinced the other. Not that we were supposed to.

Well, I just stumbled across a comment on her LJ about how my review was "thoroughly uncomplimentary". And I -- argh. Someone tell me not to post in response? It really wasn't, but this isn't gonna get any better, is it?

Best just to let it go, probably. You've already realized you're not going to change her mind, and further engagement will only cause frustration.

I saw that, too, Connie. I'm afraid she's just (as many are) hypersensitive. Let it lie.

Just finished A Game of Thrones over lunch -- wow, that ending was intense. I think I'm going to stop at the library on my way home from work to see if I can grab up the second book.

I'm sure you're right. I just loathe being misrepresented. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

Ah, well, I'll just stew a bit.

::pats hair::

It's her first published book. I'm sure anything less that "I worship So-and-so's sneakers" would feel like a bad review.

A co-worker gave me an interesting book the other day; a collection of three mystery novels. The collection is Bell, Book, and Murder, by Rosemary Edgehill, and are murder mysteries set in the NY Wiccan/Pagan/Magick scene. A fun read, and if you have spent any time AT ALL around Wiccan, Pagan, or 'alternative spirituality' communitites, you have the added fun of nodding your head and saying "Yep, I know someone just like her. Oh, and someone like him, and I've been to a very similar store, and ..."