Customer Reviews

Owl in Love

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You've seen them around. Those weird kids, as a lot of people would call them. The ones who don't act "normal", don't dress "normal", or is "just plain freaky" because they aren't something you are. My friend Bobby would call them freaks of nature, but let's not get into that.

Well, what if that weird kid was more than meets the eye? Sure, Owl, at 14, eats real (albeit dead) rats in her sandwiches, but who would have thought that she lived up to her namesake as a were-owl? And we thought her parents were just down-and-out hippies. Well, they are, sort of. Anyways, her eating rats in public don't go over too well with that elite popular crowd, but she doesn't care because she found her mate: her science teacher. Every night, she stalks-er, watches- her-harumph!-love from a tree. In her owl form, of course, or else she'd look like an idiot perched on that thingy. But all that changes when the new owl in town flies over the cuckoo's nest...

A really good story for the kid who always didn't feel "normal" or "didn't fit in". Try being the kid who REALLY didn't fit in or ISN'T normal.

Owl in Love takes some familiar YA stories and makes them completely new! Like the best in children's fantasy, the magical elements are treated matter-of-factly and mundanely-- making them stand out in even greater relief.

Owl is a wereowl-- girl by day, owl by night. She perches on a tree outside of her science teacher's house and pines for him. Her witch parents are worried, because Owl isn't doing enough hunting. (what a great detail-- her parents are like any concerned parents anywhere, except their lives don't really belong to 20th century America). Kids sometimes tease Owl because they rarely see her eat (she's been known to bring mouse sandwiches to school, though).

Owl finally does make a friend, and this both enriches and complicates her life. The book wraps itself up delightfully-- Owl gets over her crush in a satisfying and original way (hint: the science teacher has a tragic secret involving a child...) and Owl learns she can trust her friend with her secret.

The book's originality and magic had me laughing and marvelling, but the story of a misfit-- a girl with talents that both make her interesting and set her apart-- is one that lots of kids can relate to. Heck, lots of adults. This book is full of charm and insight and is a terrific read.

Owl is different. Her name is strange, her facial shape is strange, her food is strange (i mean, it consists of mice and rodents!) She's just plain different. And as much as she tries to hide it, either by secretly squeezing mice into her sandwiches or by making no contact with regular human children, she knows she is a wereowl, not human. A shape shifter. Different. And what makes it all worse is that she's in love. That's the real way to complicate a young adolescent's life still more, and Owl for one takes hers very seriously. Her infatuated crush may seem a little stange to readers, but Owl is plainly smitten with her thirty-something-year-old science teacher, Mr. Linstrom. And to tie the plot through, Owl finds that there is a strange lunatic boy hanging around her darling Mr. Linstrom's house. And the plot thickens.

Overall, Owl's uncanny strangeness, cool descriptions, and overall imaginative plot, you'll find this book and interesting read, despite the fact that the book is cute, fun, and interesting, rather than interllectually stimulating.

I really thought this book was quite good...it includes all the great problems and joys of being a wereowl. However, one thing I must say about this book is that you begin to find the crush on her teacher a bit shallow once you are into the book. Also, I solved it before the ending, but I enjoyed reading it, because I found the characters, and their problems quite well written out. Memorable characters include her parents, who are weird wiccan(perhaps)/hippies who live in a shack at the edge of the forest. Also, I found the teacher an interesting character towards the end. I would reccomend this book to those new to lite fantasy, or were-books.

An absolute delight: witty, charming, heartfelt, and original. Owl has some problems that will be familiar to any teenager: her difficulty fitting in and making friends; her crush on a teacher; the strange but cute boy her own age; parents who are well-meaning but don't understand. But those common issues are seen from the point of view of a character who is literally alien, as much owl as she is girl. The result is both startling and funny, and makes these archetypal problems and their resolution seem fresh and new. The characters are all sympathetic and believable, if odd. Utterly unique.

Although "Owl in Love" was not the best fantasy story I've ever read, it did have some creative elements and turned out to be a rather enjoyable read.

Obviously, nothing about 14-year-old Owl is normal. Not only does she look strange and is passionately in love with her forty-year-old science teacher, but she is also a wereowl (meaning she can transform into an owl at will).

If you can get past the first few pages or so, which really are quite creepy and a little disorienting, this book does not turn out to be too bad. It is very predictable; the story does not hide its secrets very well. It's also a very short read that you can get through in a couple of hours.

But, it's a story from a new perspective. The concept of a girl who is mostly owl was a fresh and interesting one...after you get past the initial shock of her first descriptions, this book does actually turn out okay with a nicely wrapped-up ending.

Kelli
Future Star

First of all, allow me to put your mind at rest. Despite the descriptions this book may carry, this is not some fantastical mythological version of "Lolita". Yes it involves a fourteen-year-old girl in love with her science teacher. But Kindl's twisty little plot is more interesting and appealing than it might first appear. If you can get through the first 27 odd pages, the book is actually well worth reading. A little slow at the beginning, and a little predictable in its plotting, but all in all a fine effort and an amusing little story.

We've all heard about werewolves and stuff like that. Now it's time to learn a little bit about some of the lesser known were-arcana. Take wereowls for example. You rarely run across them in literature. That makes Owl Tycho all the more interesting. Owl (not the most original name she could have received, but we'll overlook that for now) is fourteen years of age and in love in a savage desperate way. She is obsessed with her science teacher Mr. Lindstrom, a man she freely admits is middle aged and pudgy, with thinning hair. Changing into an owl nightly, she sits outside his window to watch him as he sleeps. Soon, however, she notices someone else who is also interested in the object of her affections. A young man, pale and starved, has taken to staring into the house and occasionally stealing supplies from it. Unraveling the mystery of this stranger stretches Owl to the limit, testing her fragile first friendship with a human girl and trapping her in her owl-like form. She may old for fourteen, but Owl has a lot to learn about how to act with people. Especially when they're a lot more similar to her than she may think.

I had enjoyed Patrice Kindl's fabulous and nightmarish, "The Woman In the Walls" a while ago so I had high hopes for "Owl In Love". Sadly, "Owl" disappointed me a little. The beginning of the tale is a little weak, with Owl speaking in an odd stilted manner. Eventually, it becomes clear that Kindl is writing Owl as she would an actual owl in the woods. Her personality should therefore be a little aloof and alien to us, and once that idea sinks it it's a little easier to get into. For a while though, it's rough going. Then you find that you like the heroine, for all that she's a bit rude to the people around her (social niceties weren't exactly taught in her home). About the time Owl's friend Dawn mentions that the teacher Mr. Lindstrom has a son... well you can probably figure out exactly what and when everything's going to happen in this book. It's predictable, but enjoyable. That sounds like backhanded praise, I admit, but I mean what I say. Plus Kindl has a fun humor-filled writing style that more than makes up for the occasional flaw. Owl, afraid of the bus she takes to Dawn's home, refers to it sourly as a, "mobile home of the damned". She also points out the embarrassment she once felt when an older owl made a pass at her one night. "He then began to dance in a most ridiculous and undignified way, shuffling about on the branch we shared, looking like a justice of the Supreme Court performing a striptease". Visual. Effective.

So "Owl In Love" isn't the best fantasy I've read, no. But it's a fun concept and an enjoyable tale. I have heard that students reading this book have been able to identify to the book's theme of "outsiders" and "parents who cannot help their own children" to their own lives. That's the point of good fantasy, and I like to think that since the book succeeds, it should remain in the canon of late 20th century young adult fiction. You may agree with some of the things I've said and you may disagree. Regardless of how you feel about the book, I still recommend "Owl In Love" to anyone who wants a book that's fun, not too long, and exciting. Few books manage to combine these three elements in a convincing way. "Owl In Love" does it with ease.

An appropriate companion to Annette Curtis Klause's "Blood and Chocolate" is Kindle's tale about a teen wereowl, a clever and funny, yet surprisingly moral tale about acceptance of the other. As with Klause, Kindl avoids "generation gap" cliches, and focuses instead on the desire to prove one's maturity by literally leaving the nest. Without a sermon in sight, Kindle offers in this seemingly simple fairy tale a text flush with symbolism about the challenges of individual "diversity," and the responsibilities of the individual, in turn, to family and society.

In this incredibly original and fresh book, Kindl creates a totally believable and slightly magical shape shifter for a main character. She expertly weaves a brand new twist in the age old lore of shape changers and puts herself so into Owl and Houle's minds that it is hard to believe that she does not become an owl by night. This book is fabulous- full of unexpected turns and made more delicious with every detail.

WARNING: Some possible spoilers? I try to keep it as vague as possible!

I first read 'Owl In Love' when I was ten years old, at school. It sat silently on the shelf and I, the weird kid in class, started to read. The storyline first appears simple enough: a 14-year-old Owl is an outcast and is madly in love with her aging but kind teacher. Many teen stories are based on such a beginning.

Things quickly fall into place - a new friend, a naked boy, and a shoe with the toe wearing through. While I wouldn't consider 'Owl In Love' to be a book of the mature category, there is blatant talk of mating (although in a very polite and proper sense, with no foul words or pointed innuendos) and courtship. For those parents worried about children reading such content, I would like to say Owl makes it VERY clear that it is "Marriage or nothing" for her and has the imagination of a fourteen year old girl, not an older woman. It is, in my opinion, a very positive books for children, especially those interested in our more feathered friends.

Kindl writes Owl's voice terribly well. Owl is a very logical girl, not wasting a word, and Kindl manages to show that from her inner monologue and descriptions of people and situations without seeming overly scarce and completely bare of that purple prose so many current titles have. Even while Owl is puzzled over human discussions and interactions, Kindl gets the individual personalities of her characters down to an art. The teacher, the friend, and the parents all have very distinct traits and speech patterns.

In short: Owl In Love is a book I will (and have) read over and over again. It's a treasure of a little book and at a few points you can't help but be happy and cheer! Even at twenty-three, having read the story over twenty times in my life, I still get a bit touched at certain points. I highly recommend this book for adults and children alike and consider it a classsic.