Runemarks by Joanne Harris

I picked up this novel without making the connection to Joanne Harris's work for adults (Chocolat and Five Quarters of the Orange, for example). I actually read Five Quarters of the Orange in January of this year and thought it was fabulous. However, I was not at all impressed with Runemarks.

First of all, the villain in the story is a thinly veiled caricature of Christianity. Now, don't get me wrong-- I don't mind that the villain is an existing religion. Harris has a right to rip Christianity a new one if she so desires (and she does, she really does). However, my problem is the fact that it is so thinly veiled. The Order's leader is called The Nameless, their power is called The Word-- The Nameless even refers to himself as The Ancient of Days, a Biblical "nickname" for Yahweh. On top of all that, the book that the Order uses is called the Good Book. The connection was far too obvious, and frankly, insulting. Young adults do not need every subtlety watered down for them. If the book is meant to be an allegory about the futility of religion and the cyclical (rather than linear) nature of the universe, it does not succeed. Allegories rely on NEW symbols and ideas, not using exact quotes from existing philosophy and religion.

Secondly, the characters are, for the most part, under-developed. Maddy, the protagonist, is boring and unlikeable. The reader doesn't get to know her enough before we discover her "true" self, so the impact of her change is not felt the way that it could be. Her powers and cleverness seems to come too easily to her, which makes it difficult to believe she could really exist in our world or the world of the story. Other characters slide in and out of the story, such as "Sugar-and-Sack" the goblin. Sugar's bravery at the end of the novel lacks affective impact because we haven't had the opportunity to get to know him.

In conjunction with the underdeveloped characters, parts of the plot take up too much time in the narrative without any real substance. For example, Harris spends far too much time on Maddy's initial journey to get the Whisperer, then never explains why One-Eye wanted the Whisperer to begin with. To top it all off, the voice of her young adult characters is unrealistic. I think that many teens may like the novel because of its use of unusual mythological characters, but I don't think that the novel has any deep literary value.

I'll stick with Harris's work for adults...