The Shell House

Rating:
Summary: The Shell House
Review: i got this book for boxing day and i wasnt seen until the next day!!, i sat down and enjoyed this book so much, it ties in romance, teenage problems and history, the teenage conflicts are so sad at some points i was in tears. id recomend this to anyone with a heart.

Rating:
Summary: Just get past the first 50 pages...
Review: If you can get past the first 50 pages of this book, you will find that it starts to grow on you. I put the book away, came back after a week, plowed on--and then I finished the last 3/4 of it in a flurry, needing to know what happened next.

As you read, the characters become more alive and rounded, and their interests and experiences more developed, nuanced, and believable. The novel also has an ending that keeps you kind of guessing as to what eventually Greg tells himself about his own sexual identity. It is not a foregone conclusion that he will "come out" to himself or continue to think of himself as "definitely not" gay. The author has created in Greg a teenager who is still able to be quite turned on, physically, by girls, but who hasn't yet discerned whether his attraction to Jordan is something more than just aesthetic (he's a truly beautiful swimmer for Greg to watch and photograph) and platonic (he's a low-key but deeply-thinking friend).

About the novel's language: I am an American, and this book is thoroughly British, so I have no idea whether the dialogue is appropriately realistic. Do people say "yobs" and "gits"? I didn't care, because as I read, I became more convinced that I could see it happening.

The novel tries to weave together some big themes besides sexual identity, including the value of religion (trust in God vs. trust in the physical world, including sex), the tragic fighting of World War I, and, underlying both of those issues, the meaning/meaninglessness of suffering. I was skeptical that all this could be pulled off, but the author succeeded. Only occasionally are there too text-book-like phrases (such as the "3 questions of theodicy" put into the mouths of "normal" teenagers--but hey, I kind of like that "too-smart-for-real-teens" kind of talk once in a while, too. Think Dawson's Creek).

As I reflect on the book, some of the minor characters stand out most brightly. Greg's crude friend Gizzard is completely imaginable, as is Dean, the punk who causes him problems, and Dean's selfish mother. Their brief appearances deserve notice. Even more brightly drawn, but given too small a part, is Tanya. Tanya at first repulses Greg with her blatant sexual desire; she later proves to be a refuge for him (the most descriptive language about sex I've read in a teen novel occurs in Tanya's and Greg's encounter); finally, near the end, she appears in Greg's wet dream, her body blending (as in a dream) with the body of Jordan, the swimmer. I may go out on a limb here and state that Newbery seems able to create more believable "bad" characters than "good" ones. But it's said that it's harder to write good characters than bad.

Finally, as someone who did some "bargaining with God" in my own teen years, I can say that I found believable this novel's recurrent issues of wanting to believe in God, asking God for a sign (especially when something tragic occurs), and yet still basically thinking that God probably doesn't exist. The answers to the novel's questions are left hanging in the air--literally!--at the novel's conclusion, the meaning of which will be well debated by those who have read the book.

Rating:
Summary: Ripe novel for discussion
Review: It is impossible not to compare this book to this year's Carnegie Award winner, for it is the perfect companion novel to Aidan Chamber's Winner Postcards from No Man's Land (Dutton Books, 2002). Both books delve into issues of world war and burgeoning sexuality with passion, elegance and authentic characters.
In The Shell House, shutterbug Greg is lured to the ruins of a mansion, where he meets a girl whose family is intent on a volunteer project to restore it. Faith becomes a pillar between his internal storm between Greg's libido and his heart as he tries to figure out his sexual and spiritual identity.
Greg's story is contrasted with that of Edmund, a gay soldier who once lived in Graveney Hall whose is struggling with similar issues. An element of mystery is thrown in, as Greg and his friend the aptly named Faith are trying to discover the history of the hall and its inhabitants as they assist with the restoration.
Abundant in metaphor and symbolism, the historical detail is excellent and characters and situations realistic but bit dramatic. Still, this would be an excellent book for discussion on many levels, and a possibility for history curriculum frameworks for mature students or progressive schools.

Rating:
Summary: Ripe novel for discussion
Review: It is impossible not to compare this book to this year�s Carnegie Award winner, for it is the perfect companion novel to Aidan Chamber�s Winner Postcards from No Man�s Land (Dutton Books, 2002). Both books delve into issues of world war and burgeoning sexuality with passion, elegance and authentic characters.
In The Shell House, shutterbug Greg is lured to the ruins of a mansion, where he meets a girl whose family is intent on a volunteer project to restore it. Faith becomes a pillar between his internal storm between Greg�s libido and his heart as he tries to figure out his sexual and spiritual identity.
Greg�s story is contrasted with that of Edmund, a gay soldier who once lived in Graveney Hall whose is struggling with similar issues. An element of mystery is thrown in, as Greg and his friend the aptly named Faith are trying to discover the history of the hall and its inhabitants as they assist with the restoration.
Abundant in metaphor and symbolism, the historical detail is excellent and characters and situations realistic but bit dramatic. Still, this would be an excellent book for discussion on many levels, and a possibility for history curriculum frameworks for mature students or progressive schools.

Rating:
Summary: 'The Shell House', Hachneyed, cliched and BAD
Review: There are almost no words to express how bad I thourght this book was.
It is a very nice love story but I am convinced that if the two couples were hetrosexual rather than homosexual then nobody would think that it was any good. Being able to write about gay people takes neither wit, talent nor skill merly a little imagination, which is no recomendation at all.
The prose was awful and if possible the dialogue was even worse. I hated the war peoms and feel that the opinions expressed about the first world war, however valid in themselves, were both hackneyed and cliched with no basis on real experience or research.
The only saving grace of the whole book was that the author didn't use the traditional streotypes of gay men, but any merit achieved by this was distroyed by her use of streotipical religious charcters.