Customer Reviews

Half World

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Half world was a good quick read, kid friendly and enjoyable. The book did have a Neil Gaiman feel to it, but I really wished it was longer and a little more involved with the characters and story backdrop. I found the environment in the book to be quite cool, but not detailed enough and also felt the same with some of the unique and fun characters within - the book just lacked a little depth. It brings forth this wonderful place and just kinda skims the surface of what's there and those that inhabit the land.

This book moves at a dead run. There are two prologues, one distant past and one recent past. The first is a pared-down legend-backstory, but the second is grab-reader-by-throat.
Then the story proper begins, as Melanie's mother goes missing, and she gets a phone call (on a disconnected phone) from the deeply-creepy Mr. Glueskin telling her what she has to do if she ever wants to see her mother again. Because the reader has already encountered Mr. Glueskin in the second prologue, this is even creepier than Melanie knows.
Melanie makes a believable young heroine, sometimes frustrated and overwhelmed, sometimes hasty and resentful, but always picking herself up and 'doing what's nearest'. She has no special powers, only determination and a loving heart--a refreshing change from the YA heroines who are billed as kickass tough girls but are passive and helpless when the crunch comes. (And hoorah, she is a chubby kid and does not become magically thin-and-pretty by the end of the story.)
The horrors she faces in Half World aren't cheap blood-splatter special effects, but subtler and weirder. I thought there was an influence both of the Japanese ghost scrolls and of the Buddhist hells, and maybe also Stephen King's Overlook Hotel, which is to say, pretty damn creepy.
So yeah, if you haven't read this book already, you should go and read it.

The unconventional protagonist and this skilled author are what drew me to this book. Goto's strange tale isn't something that's been told before although I would place it as a dark fairy tale. A coming of age story for a chubby, asian girl who seeks to rescue her mom, and must enter a frightening world of 'purgatory' where the inhabitants live in a cycle of trauma (like Sisyphus futiley pushing the rock up the hill). This is an empowering story that refuses to follow conventional ideas of what a hero or an acceptible girl is. A lovely story about sheer courage and a strong heart.
My only disappointment was that I was hoping to enter a world of Japanese fantasty, where there are demons and spirits and foxes galore (Spirited Away style). :) Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will be adding it to my physical book collection (I bought the kindle ver.) when it comes out in paperback. <3