Review: Tandem

Book One of the Many-Worlds trilogy
By Anna Jarzab
Available now from Delacorte Press (Penguin Random House)
Review copy
Read my review of The Opposite of Hallelujah

Sasha is an ordinary high school student until she's taken across worlds to impersonate a kidnapped princess.  She's none too thrilled about this, given that she wasn't asked and didn't even know that there were parallel worlds.

I thoroughly enjoyed TANDEM, Anna Jarzab's third novel and her first foray into science fiction/fantasy.  I liked that it built slowly.  The action is confined to Earth and Aurora, but Jarzab doesn't forget that her story is based on infinite possible worlds.  Despite the fairly straightforward nature of TANDEM, Jarzab has set up excellent potential for future hijinks in the sequels.  I trust her to do it well because she does it so neatly in TANDEM.  Jarzab pulled off my favorite trick: having the plot answer a question niggling in the back of my mind.

I liked Sasha, who is uncertain about what college she wants to go to or what she wants to study.  She's intelligent, but not driven.  In some ways, she responds well to having a set role as Princess Juliana, even if she hates the public, controlled life.  There is a love triangle, although not the worst sort.  Sasha and Thomas, Juliana's bodyguard who kidnapped Sasha,  have a mutual attraction.  Meanwhile, Juliana has a fiance who begins to fall for Sasha who he thinks is Juliana.  It's a little Shakespearean, with the layers of identities, which keeps it from feeling too route.

But really, the reason to read TANDEM is the cool plot and worldbuilding.  Jarzab doesn't forget character, but it doesn't drive everything to the point where the world is window dressing.  The politics are complicated and the dimensional disturbances are disturbing.  At times TANDEM felt like it was just moving pieces into place for later, but I find it hard to complain too much when it seems like the book is setting up something really fun.  My only complaint is with the villains, who go unnoticed by the heroes for quite awhile despite the fact they might as well have villain tattooed on their foreheads.

TANDEM is fun YA sci-fi.  It's on the softer edge, but it does offer some scientific explanations that show Jarzab did research quantum mechanics.  I liked that it had that scientific grounding even though the book felt like a fantasy.  It's that sort of genre blending that YA does so well.  There's even a bit of contemporary with the first part of the novel, which is a touch slow.  But by the end, TANDEM really rocks.

Review: The Opposite of Hallelujah

By Anna Jarzab
Available now from Delacorte (Random House)
Review copy

Anna Jarzab's sophomore novel is a contemporary that doesn't resemble most of the others I've been reading lately.  For one thing, the romantic plotline isn't the focus.  Protagonist Caro Mitchell's relationship with her sister and her parents is much more important to the story.  But it's also about Caro and her relationship to herself, who she wants to be and what she believes.

Caro isn't always the most likeable character.  She lies, a lot, and like most habitual liars she does it for stupid reasons.  She can also be very self centered.  But inside her head it's easy to see how confused she is and how she can barely articulate why she doesn't want to talk to people about the reality of her sister.  THE OPPOSITE OF HALLELUJAH kicks off when Caro's much older sister Hannah, now in her late twenties, returns home from the convent where she failed as a novitiate.  Caro barely knows her sister and doesn't know how to relate to someone who is quite a bit older, obviously in some kind of pain, and whom she's expected to immediately treat like a close relative.  I did like how Hannah's story trickled out in bits and pieces.

Caro's parents were intriguing characters.  Few young adult novels really bring the parents to the forefront like THE OPPOSITE OF HALLELUJAH.  I thought they were weirdly strict at first, although they seemed somewhat more mellow by the end of the novel.  But they were realistic parents, making mistakes but trying to do their best for their daughter.

Although it's nice to read a book that isn't all about the romance, I could've used more Pawel.  He's the new kid in school and exactly who Caro needs in her life after a bad break up.  He's a great guy who isn't afraid to call Caro out on her behavior when she treats him badly.  The final important character is Father Bob, the priest Caro likes to talk to despite her personal lack of religion.  Religion is one of the themes of THE OPPOSITE OF HALLELUJAH, and Bob and Caro's conversations are very interesting.  (Readers need not be afraid of being preached at.)

THE OPPOSITE OF HALLELUJAH is a wonderful novel that stands out nicely from the crowd.  It made me want to track down Jarzab's first novel, ALL UNQUIET THINGS.  THE OPPOSITE OF HALLELUJAH is an intelligent coming-of-age novel that will appeal to lovers of character-driven stories.