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Whitcher is also the author of YA fantasy Enchanter's Glass, which I recall as interesting but flawed.
The Fool Reversed is... wait for it... and interesting but flawed YA novel distinguished by the precise delineation of emotional states and by the WTF turn it takes halfway through.
The first half of the book is a painfully realistic story about a naïve teenager’s abusive affair with a horrifically plausible total jerk of an adult poet. Aspiring poet Anna’s romantic view of their relationship makes it even more clear how Thorn (who I bet renamed himself from the original Bob or Tim) is both taking advantage of it and caught up in his own fantasy. Meanwhile, she’s involved in a theoretically healthy and appropriate relationship with Dylan, a boy her own age; I had issues with this that were different from the ones Whitcher had.
It’s all quite beautifully written and plausible, Reading this as an adult is like watching an impending train wreck. A young teenager might be swept away along with Anna; I’m not sure.
Thorn’s emotional and (albeit consensual) sexual abuse of Anna is sufficient to make the point that he’s bad for her. Going further than that was not necessary, and tipped the novel into territory bordering on OMGWTFPOLARBEAR! Or at least OMGWTFPOLARBEARCUB.
( Okay, so technically there was no actual Satanism. )
The Fool Reversed is... wait for it... and interesting but flawed YA novel distinguished by the precise delineation of emotional states and by the WTF turn it takes halfway through.
The first half of the book is a painfully realistic story about a naïve teenager’s abusive affair with a horrifically plausible total jerk of an adult poet. Aspiring poet Anna’s romantic view of their relationship makes it even more clear how Thorn (who I bet renamed himself from the original Bob or Tim) is both taking advantage of it and caught up in his own fantasy. Meanwhile, she’s involved in a theoretically healthy and appropriate relationship with Dylan, a boy her own age; I had issues with this that were different from the ones Whitcher had.
It’s all quite beautifully written and plausible, Reading this as an adult is like watching an impending train wreck. A young teenager might be swept away along with Anna; I’m not sure.
Thorn’s emotional and (albeit consensual) sexual abuse of Anna is sufficient to make the point that he’s bad for her. Going further than that was not necessary, and tipped the novel into territory bordering on OMGWTFPOLARBEAR! Or at least OMGWTFPOLARBEARCUB.
( Okay, so technically there was no actual Satanism. )