"Plain Kate" by Erin Bow (R2)

Plain--

Plain Kate

by Erin Bow



# Pgs: 320

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Overview:

A knife-sharp debut novel that leaves its mark.

Plain Kate lives in a world of superstitions and curses, where a song can heal a wound and a shadow can work deep magic. When Kate's village falls on hard times - crops fail, and even Kate's father falls victim to a deadly fever - the townspeople look for someone to blame, and their eyes fall on Kate.

Enter Linay, a stranger with a proposition: In exchange for her shadow, he'll give Kate the means to escape the town that seems set to burn her, and what's more, he'll grant her heart's wish. It's a chance for her to start over, to find a home, a family, a place to belong. But Kate soon realizes that she can't live shadowless forever -- and that Linay's designs are darker than she ever dreamed.

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Review:

This is a very misleading book; Plain Kate by Erin Bow. From the whimsical cover to the simplicity of Bow's storytelling, this book is misleading. It might be off-putting for some, though many might not even notice how dark this story is. For those of you who haven't read the overview or the book itself, this book revolves around the fear of witches and how people judge people based on how they look.

We're going to begin with what I didn't like about this book.

Aside from the misleading cover, there isn't much. The second half of the book goes from "ok, it's good so far" to "this is all over the place". There are so many different little complications that happen in the second half of the book that aren't exactly explaing, that are just so random sometimes, that I'm not sure quite what to think. For example, one moment everything's all hunky-dory with the main character and her gypsy friend, Drina, at the market, and the next she's getting her ear chopped off. Now I understand that this book is supposed to be dark, but there wasn't any kind of forshadowing leading up to that particular moment. The sudden moment of "oh hell, what's happening?" was just kinda thrown in our faces. That seems to be a consistantly persistant annoyance that happens throughout the novel. Not that I need some kind of build up to get to a sudden plot twist, but that's something that, as a reader, I've become used to. It's also something that's nice to read.

The best kind of books add this "quiet" hinting of darkness about the book before shoving it at you. Just think of all the imagery in Heart of Darkness for example; the extreme contrasting in the descriptions of dark and light, black and white colors. Before we actually get to what's happening so deep in the jungle with Kurtz, the imagery builds up this idea of symbolic horror; as darkness disguised as light such as with Marlow idolizing Kurtz even though Kurtz... But I'm not here to review Heart of Darkness, which if you were to read it then just a warning; this is not a book for the light hearted. Seriously, it takes a lot of patience and attention as a teenager to read.

Back to Plain Kate, it didn't have any of that kind of dramatic, symbolic, or dark and light type of imagery to build up all the horrific things that happen in this book. It gives off this sense of whimsical happenstance, here's a happy little orphan girl with her cat that's going to go off on this adventure to get back her shadow... Oh wait, everyone thinks she's a witch. And you all know what happens to witches, right?

Suddenly ears are chopped off, widows or unmarried woman, innocents, are burned, hanged, drowned, scarred, because of fear. It happens. I get it, especially in books like these where being a witch is a bad thing. I just wish that there was some sort of build up.

That said, I otherwise enjoyed the book. For something so dark, it's quite a simple writing style. Bow blends in these old traditional folktale type aspects of witches and wizardry and ghosts with her own dark fantasy type of story to create a world that, though black, is a rather... imaginative? Creative? Almost whimsical story to read. It just doesn't match the type of whimsical portrayed on the cover. Regardless, whatever it was that Bow achieved was enjoyable to a degree.

I don't much know how to describe the characters. Kate is likeable enough, I suppose. For being an orphan girl discriminated against for the trouble that seems to follow her and the colors of her eyes, it's understandable (however despicable) for her to make the decisions that she makes at the beginning of her journey. It wasn't really a smart move on her part, but it was all the choice she had. I don't know. I didn't much appreciate how naive she seemed to be the entire book, but I suppose that not all of the main characters are strong-willed, independent, and at least somewhat knowledgeable. I didn't love Kate, but I didn't hate her. I also didn't like how Kate just settled for the nickname "Plain Kate". In this way Bow drew me into the story, I suppose, 'cause if it were me I'd make sure the whole world knew that my name was actually "Kate" rather than "Plain Anything".

I'm not really a plain person. Boring, yes. Plain? Hell no.

Back on track, the relationship between Kate and Linay confused me a little. As he was old enough to be her father, yet that didn't quite seem to be the relationship they had, I'm not sure what relationship they had. It was a sort of love I've never really seen before in a novel. Not "Love" love, not friend love and not family love, but a sort of "grudging respect and need someone to love me" love. A love built on loneliness.

I think that's what I'm trying to say.

It makes sense to me, at least.

There was something else that I wanted to talk about before I wrapped this book review up, but I forgot what it was. Kinda like this book. I finished reading it a day ago, and I was all ready to review it. Two days later I found it in my locker and remembered. Maybe that's just me, but though this book is enjoyable, it's not exactly rememberable.

In any case, I'd rate this book a three out of five. Recommended to people who need to pass time and are looking for a dark, semi-whimsical type of book to read. For fantasy, old folktale type of book lovers.

Thanks for reading!

Leave a comment if you agree or disagree~