Review: Millhouse

By Natale Ghent
Available now from Tundra Books
Review copy

I kept guinea pigs as a kid.  (One of mine even lived longer than a decade.)  You can bet I read all of the Dick King Smith books I could get my hands on, because those books had guinea pigs in them.  Even now, at twenty five, I picked up Natale Ghent's MILLHOUSE in an instant, just because the main character is a guinea pig.

Set in a pet shop (run mostly by the innattentive Weekend Boy), MILLHOUSE is the story of a guinea pig raised by a thespian who just wants to get back to the stage.  He'll have to survive a hungry ferret, befriend a strange rat, and endear himself to the other animals despite his lack of a fur coat before then.  Ghent's illustrations fit the book perfectly - they're cute and ever-so-slightly old fashioned.  MILLHOUSE is brand new, but you could almost believe it came out twenty years ago.

As I write this review, I find myself influenced by Charlotte's recently posted questions for "mouse" fantasies:

1. If all the mice and other animal characters were people, would the plot be appreciably different?  Would my emotional response be any different? 

2. And following from that, is there any "mousiness" to the main character?   If I were never told he or she was a mouse, would I suspect that there was something not-human going on?  Does the fact that the rodents wear clothes and fight with swords distract me?

I think MILLHOUSE passes.  The pet shop, with its potential owners and cages, informs the actions, desires, and fears of the characters.  Certainly nothing you'd expect in a story about humans.  Millhouse's acting aspirations are rather more human than anything the other animals express, but he's still clearly a guinea pig.  For one thing, his reaction to danger is to freeze and faint.  And there isn't much clothes wearing, aside from a few props.

I thought MILLHOUSE was quite charming and perfect for the child who loves animals.  It's a very quick read, suitable for reading aloud or beginning readers.  (I'd say it's about the length of Beverly Cleary's THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE.)  The themes of appreciating misfits and pursuing your talent aren't pushed overly hard, and they're certainly fitting for a children's book even if they aren't revelatory. 

Review: The Winner's Curse

Book one of The Winner's Trilogy
By Marie Rutkoski
Available now from Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR (Macmillan)
Review copy

I was under the impression that THE WINNER'S CURSE was almost entirely about the romance between Kestrel and Arin.  I was wrong.  Their love for each other drives many of their decisions, but THE WINNER'S CURSE is about much more than two teenagers in love.

Kestrel is the seventeen-year-old daughter of a general, and thus a high-ranking Valorian.  She must marry or enlist in the army by the time she is twenty, but until them she is determined to find her own path.  Things go a bit awry when she stumbles across a slave auction and makes an impulsive purchase of a young Herrani man.  You see, Kestrel lives in the Herrani peninsula, where the Herrani where enslaved after the Valorians took over.  The Herrani are obviously unhappy about this, which Kestrel is a bit blind to, despite her strategic mind.  She is uncomfortable with slavery, however; initially she ignores that she bought a person.  Then she starts using Arin as her escort, for single Valerian women must be escorted and she trusts him to let her do what she wants.

I didn't always buy that Kestrel and Arin fell in love (she owns him!), but I loved the complicated dance between them.  Arin has his own motives and his own clever mind.  Kestrel is terrific at getting out of tricky situations using her powers of observation and intelligence.  Despite my crack at her strategic mind before, THE WINNER'S CURSE is not a case of being told about a character's skills.  Kestrel shows her abilities over, and over.  Thus, THE WINNER'S CURSE is about two capable, crafty survivors who are unwilling to let their people be the one's thrown over the bus.

I wasn't familiar with the term before this, but "the winner's curse" is an auction term referring to win the winner pays too much for what they receive.  Kestrel invokes it when she buys Arin.  And, as the story goes on, it seems that one of them will have to invoke it again, to save either their love or their country.  Author Marie Rutkoski is not afraid of making things complicated.

I devoured THE WINNER'S CURSE in a single afternoon, and the unexpected ending has me eager to read the next book.  The romance between Arin and Kestrel might be a slow burn, but the story is fast paced and thrilling.  Notably, Rutkoski makes both sides sympathetic to the reader.  The characters are sometimes vile and sometimes charming, no matter which side they're on.  Killing people always has weight.  But slavery is always bad, thankfully.  Man, I just have to know how things turn out.