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hrjSeveral weeks ago, Alma Alexander guest-blogged here about her new YA shape-shifter novel Random. She provided me with a free e-copy of the book should I be interested in reviewing it. (This is a standard reviewer disclaimer.)
* * *
In the seeming flood of shape-shifter fiction, it’s easy to wonder if it’s even possible to come up with a new take on the topic, but Alma Alexander’s Random has done that (at least in terms of my familiarity with the field). Her Weres exist in a complex culture of hereditary Were races (with just a few hints of contagion driven transformations) and the new concept of the “random Were” whose animal transformation is imprinted from a creature present at the time of the Were’s first turning in late adolescence. The viewpoint character is a girl who, due to an early and unexpected first turning, imprints on a human rather than animal form – but one of the opposite gender. Where all her other kindred spend three days a month transformed into animal form, with no human awareness, intelligence, or memory (a feature that goes some way to mitigate the otherwise totalitarian requirement that they be caged during the change), Jazz turns into a boy and retains the memories and knowledge of her other form.
Yet it isn’t completely obvious in the first part of the novel whether this is Jazz’s story or the story of her dead older sister Celia, whose diaries make up the bulk of the exposition in the beginning (once the episode of Jazz’s first turning is past). In the story’s setting where the Weres have the feel of analogue ethnic/religious refugees from an unspecified “Old Country” to a similarly unspecified “New World”, the attitudes toward shape-shifters stand in for a somewhat ramped-up anti-immigrant prejudice and Celia’s fate is bound up with toxic school bullying and the isolation resulting from both cultural and generational divides. As the story progresses, we get a braiding of Celia’s story (through her diaries), Jazz’s first explorations of social connections outside her over-protective homeschooled environment (a direct consequence of her sister’s fate), and her brother’s own struggles with Were identity when he looks to be “aging out” without ever turning at all.
It is perhaps inevitable that the prejudice and bullying toward the Weres in this story (especially as experienced by teenagers) feels like an allegory for gender-identity/sexual-orientation bullying. In that context, I was somewhat uncomfortable with certain gender-essentialist themes in Jazz’s experience of shifting between male and female form. The motif has some interesting consequences and possibilities, but I don’t know that I’d be comfortable recommending it for those looking for fiction on transgender or gender dysphoria themes (with the caveat that I have no personal expertise in those topics).
As the story works towards its climax, we get the specter of sinister government experimentation, mysterious elite Were clans, secret Were internet hacker networks, and … a cliffhanger ending that clearly signals More To Come. There were enough clues to anticipate the cliffhanger “reveal” (although until I hit the end, I thought they were red herrings because we were running out of book). I’m not really a fan of cliffhangers, especially ones that are this abrupt. Those who are will be left eagerly anticipating the continuation. If teenage shape-shifting computer geeks are your Thing, I recommend Random as an original and intriguing take on the experience. Not quite my thing, but I can appreciate the detailed and innovative world-building that went into it.
* * *
In the seeming flood of shape-shifter fiction, it’s easy to wonder if it’s even possible to come up with a new take on the topic, but Alma Alexander’s Random has done that (at least in terms of my familiarity with the field). Her Weres exist in a complex culture of hereditary Were races (with just a few hints of contagion driven transformations) and the new concept of the “random Were” whose animal transformation is imprinted from a creature present at the time of the Were’s first turning in late adolescence. The viewpoint character is a girl who, due to an early and unexpected first turning, imprints on a human rather than animal form – but one of the opposite gender. Where all her other kindred spend three days a month transformed into animal form, with no human awareness, intelligence, or memory (a feature that goes some way to mitigate the otherwise totalitarian requirement that they be caged during the change), Jazz turns into a boy and retains the memories and knowledge of her other form.
Yet it isn’t completely obvious in the first part of the novel whether this is Jazz’s story or the story of her dead older sister Celia, whose diaries make up the bulk of the exposition in the beginning (once the episode of Jazz’s first turning is past). In the story’s setting where the Weres have the feel of analogue ethnic/religious refugees from an unspecified “Old Country” to a similarly unspecified “New World”, the attitudes toward shape-shifters stand in for a somewhat ramped-up anti-immigrant prejudice and Celia’s fate is bound up with toxic school bullying and the isolation resulting from both cultural and generational divides. As the story progresses, we get a braiding of Celia’s story (through her diaries), Jazz’s first explorations of social connections outside her over-protective homeschooled environment (a direct consequence of her sister’s fate), and her brother’s own struggles with Were identity when he looks to be “aging out” without ever turning at all.
It is perhaps inevitable that the prejudice and bullying toward the Weres in this story (especially as experienced by teenagers) feels like an allegory for gender-identity/sexual-orientation bullying. In that context, I was somewhat uncomfortable with certain gender-essentialist themes in Jazz’s experience of shifting between male and female form. The motif has some interesting consequences and possibilities, but I don’t know that I’d be comfortable recommending it for those looking for fiction on transgender or gender dysphoria themes (with the caveat that I have no personal expertise in those topics).
As the story works towards its climax, we get the specter of sinister government experimentation, mysterious elite Were clans, secret Were internet hacker networks, and … a cliffhanger ending that clearly signals More To Come. There were enough clues to anticipate the cliffhanger “reveal” (although until I hit the end, I thought they were red herrings because we were running out of book). I’m not really a fan of cliffhangers, especially ones that are this abrupt. Those who are will be left eagerly anticipating the continuation. If teenage shape-shifting computer geeks are your Thing, I recommend Random as an original and intriguing take on the experience. Not quite my thing, but I can appreciate the detailed and innovative world-building that went into it.
