Review: A Corner of White

A Corner of White
The Colors of Madeleine, Book 1

Author: Jaclyn Moriarty
Pages: 384
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine
Source: For review from YA Books Central

Description from Goodreads:
The first in a rousing, funny, genre-busting trilogy from bestseller Jaclyn Moriarty!

This is a tale of missing persons. Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life, under mysterious circumstances, and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge (in our world).

Elliot, on the other hand, is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle was found dead. The talk in the town of Bonfire (in the Kingdom of Cello) is that Elliot's dad may have killed his brother and run away with the Physics teacher. But Elliot refuses to believe it. And he is determined to find both his dad and the truth.

As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds -- through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. But even greater mysteries are unfolding on both sides of the gap: dangerous weather phenomena called "color storms;" a strange fascination with Isaac Newton; the myth of the "Butterfly Child," whose appearance could end the droughts of Cello; and some unexpected kisses...

First Sentence: "Madeleine Tully turned fourteen yesterday, but today she did not turn anything."

Review:

A Corner of White is one of those stories that either is going to work for you or it's not. I don't really see there being too much of a middle ground on that. Either Moriarty's world, storytelling and characters will entrance you or you'll be bored and confused. Now, sadly, I fell into that latter camp of readers, but I really don't want to tell anyone not to pick up this book, because I can see where it will work really well for other people.

The world building in A Corner of White is seriously kooky, and well-matched to the vary unique narrative style that Moriarty employs. The story concerns alternate universes, the world we know and a magical kingdom called Cello. A sort of hole opens up between the two allowing teens Elliot and Madeleine to communicate by means of parking meter (on her side) and broken TV (on his side in Cello). The story has a fairy tale vibe to it, and I could see A Corner of White pleasing readers who enjoyed Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted, another very popular fairy tale that never worked for me personally. It's just not the kind of quirky that works for me personally.

My biggest problem is that I read primarily for characters. I can put up with a lot for vibrant characters, but I always felt very distanced from Madeleine, Elliot and the others. I think partly this stems from Moriarty's cinematic narrative style, in which she always sets the scene before focusing on the characters. Moriarty describes the characters over and over as she zooms in on them during scene changes. Other readers, though, really liked the characters, so I suspect this may have to do with how well the writing sits with you personally.

Without that connection to the characters, I was bored all the way through this 373 page book. My reading slowed down a lot because I found myself not wanting to go back to it. I just didn't care about the people involved, so I couldn't get invested in their goings on. At the end, a character might have died but I'm not sure and don't care enough to find out for sure. Every single time I picked this book up, I would go from alert to exhausted. Within seconds of beginning to read, I would be yawning up a storm.

As I said, I think this book will be very hit-or-miss with readers. If you're curious about it, give it a try. If Moriarty's writing makes you laugh and comes alive like the technicolor explosion that it is, then the book is for you. If, like me, you feel like maybe Moriarty was trying a bit too hard, then it might not be for you.

Rating: 2/5

Favorite Quote:

"Your guess is as good as mine.
     Well, no, I doubt that actually. My guess would probably be better than yours."