From all the excited chat I'd read about this book, I was expecting it to be the seminal YA romance. What I got ... was cracked-out, leftover-seventies hippie bullshit.Let's examine this: The 'magic' in the story involves drinking herbal concotions and getting high. Throw in some meditation and 'inner landscape' focuses and they might as well be wandering around in flares and discovering the word 'dude'.(view spoiler)[The original witches, Winter and Miryam, are focused on saving their ... farm. I can't say I really feel this. (In other words, make me give a shit.) I can all too easily imagine them dancing 'moon-clad' with the cows, though. There is a smug emphasis on how the terrible commerical beast has taken over all these lovely fields and ... fields, and other fields. YAY FIELDS! is the message. Me, I'm more for: internet connections, television coverage, loads of shops with a huge variety of (gasp! horror!) disposable goods and cars - you know, those things that get you places really fast. I am whatever the opposite of an eco-warrior is, for good reason. I hate the outdoors. Mahy did not even attempt to sell me on their greatness and superlative need to be 'saved': it was just assumed that if you were reading this book, you were pro-trees and anti-nice shoes. That level of superior pomposity made me grate my teeth all the way through. Then there was the description of Sorry (stupider nickname! try harder!) wearing a black dressing gown (I refuse to even imagine the alternative CAFTAN) and rings on every finger. I got the impression that this was actually supposed to be attractive. YEAH I DON'T THINK SO."It needs its battery recharged; probably needs a new one." Kate gritted her teeth. "They're so expensive."I changed my battery for fifty euro. I bet twenty-seven years ago they were even less expensive. It was also creepy reading about people not having telephones - not just mobiles, but landlines - but I forgave that for the time period.Also, Mahy is allergic to the verb 'said'. Clearly it's a fatal anaphylatic reaction, but at this point, I'd rather stand over her with an epi pen than have to read one more piece of dialogue 'exclaimed/cried'.Kate had some good lines, particularly regarding her marriage, but nothing that saves this book from being utter tripe. (hide spoiler)]
I love this book so much that when I could no longer find it at a public library, I hunted it down on the used market. (That probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's been one of my public library repeat reads since I was a kid; it was like an every three years ritual for me.)Do I still love this book now? Yes. It's scary, sensual (in a non-graphic way), smart, magical, empowering and in many other ways fabulous. Plus, it's set in New Zealand, which as a kid growing up in one of the landlocked parts of the US, that seemed kind of magical in and of itself. Anyway, I still vividly recall certain scenes, and the wonder of reading those scenes is still there for me as an adult. Here's a quote from one of those scenes. I'm not sure if it's my favorite, but it's a good representation of the heroine, Laura Chant, and her ally, Sorry (Sorenson Carlisle) as she makes an object of power under the supervision of the witch Winter (Sorry's mother):"Stamp, your name is to be Laura. I'm sharing my name with you. I'm putting my power into you and you must do my work. Don't listen to anyone but me." She thought for what seemed like a long time, though it was really only a single second, and in that time, oddly enough, the picture of the old, whistling kettle at home came into her mind. "You are to be my command laid on my enemy. You'll make a hole in him through which he'll drip away until he runs dry. As he drips out darkness, we'll smile together, me outside, you inside. We'll " (she found her voice rising higher and growing a little hysterical) " ... we'll crush him between our smiles." She looked up at the reflected witches and said nervously, "Is that enough?""Quite enough," Winter said, and behind the fine lace of her age, Laura saw a reflection of Sorry's wariness."Terrific!" exclaimed Sorry. "Chant, can I be on your side? I'd hate to be your enemy."
What do You think about The Changeover (1994)?
This was a delightful read. The plain language of the book's description doesn't do justice to the evocative language describing even the humdrum details of Laura's ordinary life in the outskirts of a city in New Zealand, even before magic starts to creep in round the edges.The style is reminiscent of Madeline L'Engle, maybe Lois Lowry or Edith Nesbitt. It has a quality that I associate with Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale, except toned down and blended in enough with more ordinary prose that it enhances, rather than dominates, the story being told.It's a good story, too, and a very fine coming-of-age tale. Fourteen year old Laura copes with school, her three-year-old brother, her mother's job that doesn't pay very well so they're chronically short of money, and life after her parents' divorce. As the story unfolds, she comes to understand more about the complexities of life and love and sex and romance and happiness and sorrow in the grownup world on whose threshold she bides.
—Victoria Gaile
Laura is a girl a little bit separate, with just enough of the Sight to see things which are different, to receive warnings about important things. She received a warning when her father left her family for another. She received a warning about Sorensen (Sorry) Carlisle - the ever-so-perfect prefect, who she knows very well is only pretending to be a model student to distract from his witchy nature.The biggest warning, however, is about her beloved brother Jacko, and she doesn't know what to do with it, can't stop the danger which threatens to sap the life from him. What she can do is ask Sorry Carlisle for help."The Changeover" is thoroughly described by its title. At fourteen, Laura is barely beginning to approach concepts such as boyfriends and sex. She hasn't yet come to terms with her father's abandonment. She's less than ready to deal with her understanding and friendly mother making something new with someone new. This is a story of growing up, letting go. Inevitabilities. But sometimes things happen which makes it necessary to take shortcuts, to swing a sudden right turn, and meet something different.There's so much I enjoy about this novel. The very real family relationships, the tangible awkwardness of fourteen. The language - Mahy makes play with words, sports with them, takes them out for games and whirls them home breathless. And most particularly this book has Sorry, who is so very much a teenager, and yet so very broken, and you'll love him most when he stutters, but almost as much when he is at the opposite end of his vulnerabilities, pushing limits because his heart was beaten out of him.Can't recommend this book enough.
—Andrea
This was fantastic. The writing was really well done. The main character is a girl going through some coming of age things, and yet I was never annoyed by incessant teenage quibble. There was a part near the beginning that brought up fears in me so real that I had to put the book down for a few days. The story itself isn't really a horror story, but it's written so well that the moments of fear are very striking. I also found it refreshing to have a realistic ending to a love story. Highly recommended.
—Jessica
