Short Book Reviews: A Powerful Life-Swapping YA Novel

Not Myself Today, by Muriel Ellis Pritchett (Black Rose Writing)

I picked up this book, knowing little more about it than it partakes of the character-wakes-up-in-the-body-of-a-stranger-who-died-at-the-same-time story trope. Fine, I thought. I’m a fan of Drop Dead Diva. I’m game.

Our viewpoint character is Lindsey, college-bound high school soccer star, articulate, self-confident, with an awesome father and super best friend. In other words, a golden girl with a golden future. After collapsing at the end of a crucial soccer game, she wakes up in the hospital in a much younger body, beaten to a pulp. As the story unfolds, Lindsey goes through the expected motions of trying to convince her father that this bruised, unwanted fourteen year old is really her, while fending off a smelly, repulsively dependent girl who claims to be her roommate.

The story flows seamlessly from “Freaky Friday” to darker themes. It doesn’t take long for Lindsey to realize that her new body is that of a teenage runaway sex worker and the man who assaulted her was the pimp she’d been desperate to get away from. As Lindsey comes to understand the realities of her new identity, she also finds the courage to speak up for exploited girls like her. What begins as a light-hearted identity-swap story grows, as its narrator grows, into a mature, challenging, and transformative novel. One of the things I liked most about Lindsey’s growth was her acceptance that her new life will be different: she’ll have to repeat high school, albeit from a more mature perspective; soccer will be out of the physical capabilities of her new body, but not track and field or perhaps something else. And the geeky younger boy who idolized her infuriatingly might just turn out to be her new romance.

Although the body-swapping is technically a fantasy element, the story itself has a mainstream sensibility; nevertheless, fans of Young Adult fantasy will find the character development and meaty topics rewarding. Highly recommended.

 

Short Book Reviews: A Reincarnated Chimera

Race the Sands, by Sarah Beth Durst (Harper Voyager)

I loved this world, in which Becar, a precarious desert kingdom, politics are based on karmic “readings” by Muses of a person’s past lives. The stressed, disenfranchised populace is distracted by races involving vicious, mindlessly destructive chimeric monsters called kehoks, the reincarnated souls of those so evil and depraved as to be beyond hope. When the King dies at a youthful age and quite unexpectedly, his brother cannot take the throne until the King’s spirit is identified, presumably in a traditionally noble beast. The search intensifies as neighboring kingdoms scent weakness and prepare for an invasion. Unstable conditions like this form the perfect settings for taut, dynamic stories, don’t they?

Enter a failed Muse student who finds a new life as an apprentice jockey, a woman who trains racing monsters to pay her daughter’s tuition at Muse academy, her patroness, a socialite with a flair for politics, a Muse agent charged with locating the King’s spirit, and assorted other characters. What links them together with the Prince is the black-iron lion, a kehok even more volatile and dangerous – and intelligent -- than others of his kind. With him, the trainer and her new apprentice jockey have a chance to win the grand championship, and with it, financial security and independence. With war brewing and the search for the King’s spirit intensifying, with their rivals resorting to ever more desperate sabotage, it’s a race against time as well.

An added delight was the effortless skill with which Durst moved from inner to outer action, her subtle handling of tension, her compassionate portrayal of her characters and their situations, and her imaginative magic. Recommended for adult as well as YA readers.