Photo credit: mrbill78636 via Foter.com / CC BY
Like most people, I was in need of some serious comfort back on the morning November 9th. I decided it would be a good day to hide in some YA fantasy rather than deal with the shit show I had just watched the previous night.
Fortunately, the universe provided. I was crying while walking my dog when we passed one of my local Little Free Libraries. I stopped to look in and found this beauty by Traci Chee. And I do mean beauty. Have you seen the cover? It’s gorgeous. I had seen it in Barnes & Noble just a few days before and had refrained from buying it, so I was super excited to find I could read it for free!
This book was just what I needed. It starts a little slow, but you have to trust that Chee knows what she’s doing, because she definitely does. She drops little hints and clues as to everything that’s going on, but she doesn’t reveal enough for you to make all the connections until the very end.
The main character, Sefia, is a teenaged orphan who’s carrying around a book while hiding with her Aunt Nin in the woods from the authorities. It’s unclear why the authorities are after them, although we know Sefia’s parents have both been murdered and it all has something to do with the book Sefia has hidden at the bottom of her pack. Although she knows it’s important because of the lengths her parents went to protect it, Sefia does not know how to read and does not even know what a book is.
But her parents had taught her just enough about letters before they died for her to figure the rest out on her own. It comes slowly, but soon she’s as engrossed in this mysterious book as any avid reader. But she has to keep it all a secret.
The world Chee has created is one in which only a very few people are taught to read. Most of the world relies on symbols and logos to tell what things are and what belongs to whom. Sefia doesn’t even know what a library is.
Sefia and Nin are on the run when Nin gets captured by the authorities. After that, Sefia teaches herself to read and teams up with a mute she decides to name Archer, who also turns out to be a highly-skilled, trained killer. Good for hunting. Bad for the people who are hunting them.
Of course Sefia and Archer fall in love, but it’s a minor side story. The focus is on the book and what Sefia can do with it. Around the time she teaches herself to read, she also discovers she has the ability to look at things and people and see their entire past, as well as their future. She can even manipulate objects without touching them using her Vision. This also takes practice to control, but Sefia is a quick study, highly talented, and she does manage to get some training from a similarly-talented sailor.
But the book Sefia’s carrying does more than just contain a story. It contains the full past and history of everything that has ever happened and everything that ever will happen. Turns out, that’s why the Guard is so set on hunting down Sefia and reclaiming the book – so it won’t fall into “the wrong hands.”
I highly recommend reading this book and I recommend doing it old school with a physical copy of the book. Every few pages you’ll find a word printed next to the page number at the bottom of the page, and if you pay attention to them, they have their own message to tell.
There are also certain lines of print that are blacked out or fade into nothing and it’s all intentional because it directly relates to what’s happening in the book at the moment. There’s even the occasional fingerprint smudge in the margins as if you’re holding the same book Sefia has held. They are all very cool ways to bring the reader into the world Chee has created and I loved it all! A+
“This is a book,
And a book is a world,
And words are the seeds
In which meanings are curled.
Pages of oceans
And margins of land
Are civilizations
You hold in the palm of your hand.
But look at your world
And your life seems to shrink
To cities of paper
And seas made of ink.
Do you know who you are,
Or have you been misled?
Are you the reader,
Or are you the read?” ~ Traci Chee, The Reader.
What did you guys read this week? Any other comfort reads after going through a rough time?