Unhooking the Moon by Gregory Hughes
This book is not at all what I expected. I knew it was classified as a children’s book, but I didn’t expect the writing to be quite so juvenile. It was supposed to be written by an adolescent boy so it might have been an intentional choice on the author’s part. I loved The Rat from the beginning. She was odd and embraced her uniqueness to such a full extent that it was difficult not to love her. All of the people The Rat and her brother (and the narrator), Bob, ran into during the story seemingly felt the same way – a bizarre array of hodgepodge characters that two kids came across on their surreal adventure from Canada to New York and trolling the streets of the city for their uncle. The story was a bit darker than I expected. I knew the kids parents died, but tons of light-hearted stories start with orphans. The Rat has seizures that the doctors can’t explain and when she is recovering from them, she sees strange things, possibly the future. She handles it well, but it is a little unsettling.
However, for the most part, the first three-quarters of this book gave me a Pippi Longstocking kind of vibe. They bury their dad in the backyard, smuggle themselves onto a train, live in Central Park, hustle for money in Times Square… crazy things happen and these kids are put in some odd scenarios, but they get through everything in a funny and dynamic way.
Okay, SPOILERS AHEAD. Seriously, stop reading now if you haven’t finished the book completely.
[I didn't really drink much tea while I was reading this one - it was so hot, I just wanted ice water and more ice water.]
I was completely thrown by the ending. The Rat was always seeing angels and pedophiles, but I didn’t expect there to be actual pedophiles – I took them as her way of naming bad people – and children in real and scary danger. The Rat, along with her motley crew of sidekicks, save the children from a horrific orphanage, but in the process almost everyone gets seriously injured. Characters you know get shot and stabbed and attacked – they all live, but still… What kind of a children’s book has a big gunfight climax while saving children from the pedophiles and murders running a twisted orphanage? I enjoyed the book, but I think it would’ve been so much better had the author written with a more mature and polished voice and the book had not been marketed for children. I picked it up expecting a light-hearted and funny adventure about two kids traveling on their own in search of their uncle after their father dies. This book has that, but it has so much more that makes it pretty inappropriate for children. The very, very end makes it even worse. The Rat breaks. When we catch up to modern day, narrator-Bob is 16, instead of 12 as he is when all the action happens, and The Rat is in a psychiatric hospital and pretty much catatonic. She can walk if she’s led, but she doesn’t speak or acknowledge anything that is happening. She has detached from reality… and she’s been like that for four years! Bob likens it to them being separated by one-way glass with no door. He can see her in there, but she can’t see or connect with him and he can’t get to where she is. It ends with him promising to always be there for her and to figure out how to bring her back someday… WTF?
And if the Rat's condition couldn't be diagnosed or treated (which Bob disclosed fairly early on), how did Bob know that she would deteriorate (at the end, he reveals to the reader that his father warned him that that might happen)? Why would someone assume deterioration if they have no idea why she's having seizures? And this story is supposed to be (relatively) modern-day... how can no one figure out what's wrong with her? It's just some mysterious and miraculous (if she really is seeing the future) condition.
Overall, I liked it, but I think I would’ve liked it much more had I been even slightly prepared for the ending.
And to end on a lighter note, I loved this line: "If people looked at the stars more often, they'd see how big the universe is and how small we are in it and then their troubles wouldn't seem so large."
While I like the line, I think lots of people would feel small in a bad way... but that's alright because I don't.
I just finished. So this is my take - it could have been a really good book, if it had been better written.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw it next on our list, I looked it up on Amazon, read the blurb and thought, "Meh" but then read the reviews and became intrigued. They all complained about it being marketed as a children's book, but not being a children's book - the content was too dark, there was profanity and pedophiles! So that made me curious. It also made me go into it expecting the absolute worst, like how I felt about the movie 8MM before actually seeing it. So the whole time I sort of had this dread in the back of my mind. What I found was what I could only describe as a caricature of a book, caricatures of characters. Something that was trying to be To Kill A Mockingbird but not knowing what time I was set in. A book written by someone who's only experience with America was through TV and movies, like An American Tail (turns out the author's from Liverpool, but states he's lived in the US - I don't believe it.) Sometimes the characters talked like they were in a 40's cartoon, sometimes in a black and white movie about the South.
I had the same issues as you - you have freaking cell phones and internet, LOOK THE DUDE UP!!! If he was some big shot head of a major corporation, he would have had an internet presence!
But my BIGGEST issue, the problem that made it so hard for me to get through just the first couple of chapters was this - one of the first things you learn when you take up writing is SHOW, don't TELL. This book was ALL tell. Could I get a metaphor or something, please?
But once they got to New York, the story picked up enough to somewhat overcome the odd dialogue and juvenile writing. It ended oddly, but at least it was different. I expected the pedophile thing, so the ring was at least a bit less twisted than I was anticipating, it just seemed like such an odd topic to focus on. Of course, with the revelations about the Subway guy and the general shittiness of reality, I suppose it's more timely than not.
The telling instead of showing thing is spot on - you're absolutely right. And most of the characters did feel like caricatures, especially all the people they met in New York. They all felt like stereotypes. I could get past that, though. I was not prepared for pedophiles or violence and was caught completely off guard. I was interested in the book because I liked the title and it sounded like a fun, light story. I still feel a bit unsettled by the ending. It just didn't seem to fit.
DeleteI finally finished! It took me so, so long to get through it. I'm with you guys for the most part, very juvenile writing and the whole thing seemed like a caricature. Kelly - you made a good point about time as well, it was modern-ish but full of weird shit. I also felt like the author didn't really know what he wanted from the story until about 3/4 way through. I felt like it was just kind of wandering and meandering with no real throughline or purpose for the most part. Though maybe that was intentional since the narrator was literally doing that?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't shocked by the ending. It was a bit darker than I anticipated (like you said, Bree, it didn't really suit the feel of the rest of the book). And I thought the whole pedophile thing was her term for "bad" people as well, though I kept expecting real ones to show up. I didn't expect such a vicious fight and then everyone to survive. I thought that was a bit weird, like Hughes didn't want to kill anyone off. What I was totally surprised by was the Rat's ending. Once she started getting bad (which seriously came out of nowhere. they said deteriorate, but she was pretty much the same for 10 years and then within a few days went catatonic. wtf) I figured she'd die. And then in the epilogue-style ending, when he hadn't mentioned her, I assumed I was right. Then it was like, "NOPE! SHE'S JUST TRAPPED IN HER BODY LIKE A MOVING VEGETABLE." Haha especially with her views on death, I feel like that is the worst outcome for her. Also it was super weird that they said she separated herself from reality or something... Like if that were going to happen, wouldn't it have happened when she was trapped in the pedophile orphanage? Instead of once they're relatively safe and trying to get help? I dunno, it just seemed super unrealistic & full of weird choices on the author's part.
And Kelly - I didn't even think about the internet!! How the fuck did that happen?
I know! The Rat's ending was awful and lots of it didn't make sense... oh well, onto the next book, I guess
DeleteYeah, and it was a different sort of read either way!
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