5 star | Care's Books and Pie

Thoughts by Gabrielle Zevin, Alfred A Knopf 2022, 401 pages

Challenge: for March 2023 Tournament of Books

Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction; friendship, gaming industry

Type/Source: Hardcover, loaned to me by a friend (thanks SuzP!)

What It’s About: Sam, age 12, is a lonely boy in a hospital, recovering from a car accident with extreme long-time physical and emotional repercussions when he meets Sadie, age 11, and they become friends, bonding over games. They are both smart, both go to Boston from California to attend college, and both are ambitious to create their own game, together. They grow up in the process. It all reminds me of the motto of Kansas, “Ad Astra per Aspera” Latin for “to the stars through difficulties.” This is about the creative process, captures a particular time for a unique industry, but basically, it is about love and friendship.

Thoughts: I had that comfortable feeling of being in the hands of a talented writer. I believe that the thread-count of this one exceeds her prior novel that I read (and enjoyed but seemed, fluffier, rather than tight?, AJ Fikry – which, by the way, Zevin wrote the screenplay for and subsequent film has been adapted! Who has seen it?!)

A truly enjoyable read. Lots of lovely vocabulary words that were fun to look up. Trenchant, collogue, sere, nihilism, echt, ersatz…

Rating: Five slices of pie. One boring mention of (pizza) pie and that is good enough:

“Sadie hadn’t eaten since the plane that morning, and she ended up eating almost the whole pie.”
39%

Finally, just want to share a fun link that a dear friend brought to my attention (Thanks Stef!)

Stuck on Your Novel? Bake a Pie! “Cliche Chicken Pot Pie”

Thoughts

Was quite shocked that we meet Georgie and he meets Pennywise the Clown SO EARLY in the book! Talk about WHAM BAM – let’s get right into this, shall we?

I adore young Ben Hanscom. oh! such a sweet kid. LOVED his back story and how cool he is that he doesn’t even realize he is lonely until he meets his first friends. OH!

When we meet Bev as an adult – don’t you get the impression she is going to make the most change in character and finally become the bad ass she has to be? LOVE her and hope she has the strength to pull them all together. [I wrote this post back in August and finished the book last night. OMG! What she does to “pull them all together”!!]

King is absolutely amazing with his back story. And his parents – most of them are fabulous! Mike’s dad – wise and understanding and Richie Tozier’s dad – such encouragement and wit. Awesome.

Kansas Street. I’m from Kansas. Love to see it represented. I wish I had kept a count.

Having not yet looked but wasn’t the Nebraska town Ben was living in the town or near the town that Abigail from The Stand was from? [yes]

They really do say ‘ayup’ in Maine. Just saying. Of course, you wouldn’t even doubt that, would you? It’s just odd to me that it was THIS YEAR that I really noticed it and identified it as a Maine thing. Anyone want a bumper sticker that says AYUP, let me know. I am sure I can arrange it.

I am enjoying this more than The Stand. Maybe this thought is my MID-POINT-of-IT thought and I can’t quite compare to my MID-POINT-the-STAND thoughts since my love/enjoyment of The Stand cooled after so much of that one. Can’t say if I will love IT as much when I finally complete it but right now, I would give it a 5 star just because I am enjoying this very much.

King can tell a story and pull at your heart strings in character development.

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HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

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