Nov 18, 2009

Little (Grrl) Lost

by Charles de Lint

A few days ago I decided to ignore the heaps of books lying beside my bed and visit the library. I checked out half a dozen books by Charles de Lint. The first one I picked up was Little (Grrl) Lost. It's an urban fantasy about two teenage girls, one just moved from the countryside into the city, the other running away from home. Besides the fact that the country girl is a "goody two-shoes" and the runaway a punker with a prickly attitude, there's another huge difference between them: size. Runaway-girl is only six inches tall. She's one of the "Littles"- diminuitive people who reside in the walls of houses, out of sight of their hosts. Now, I read all the books in the Littles series by John Peterson when I was a kid, and some of the Borrowers by Mary Norton too, so I liked approaching a modern take on this idea. But sadly, Little (Grrl) Lost did not keep my attention. The characters felt kind of flat, the dialogue uninteresting, and not much seemed to happen. Even when it did, I found I didn't much care. This frustrated me, because I really wanted to like the book. But after getting halfway through and realizing I was only skimming, I put it down. Maybe it's just my mood. Try some of the other reviews, listed here. They liked it better!

Abandoned ........ 271 pages, 2007

More opinions at:
Ravenous Reader
Someone's Read it Already
Words by Annie
Bookshelves of Doom
Rhinoa's Ramblings
Stuff as Dreams Are Made On
Puss Reboots
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5 comments:

  1. Peter S.11/18/2009

    Hi, Jeane! I've never read a novel by de Lint yet, although I've read lots of good things about his YA novels though. Thanks for posting this review. I'll be sure to check this one out when I visit the bookstore soon.

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  2. Jeanne11/19/2009

    Too bad--I wondered if this was any good, because it's based on a short story I read and liked, from the Firebird Anthology. Maybe short is better, in this case.

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  3. Jeane11/23/2009

    Peter- Well, this might not be the best one to start with but I don't really feel qualified to make a recommendation.

    Jeanne- I didn't know it was based on a short story until I read a few more reviews, after the fact. I've heard the short story is better! but I don't read many of them.

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  4. pussreboots4/23/2010

    Little (Grrl) Lost was my fourth Charles de Lint book. The other three I loved but my reaction to this one was just like yours. I ended up skimming it just to see how it turned out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jeane4/23/2010

    Pussreboots- Well, at least I'm not alone in finding the story dull! Did you like the other de Lints you read?

    ReplyDelete

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