Library & Literary Miscellany

Montmorency On The Rocks by Eleanor Updale

Following his ignominious rise to the status of gentleman in the series’ first book (Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman (2004)), Montmorency also known as Scarper returns in Montmorency On the Rocks. Montmorency continues to fight against being consumed by Scarper’s proclivities. On a trip with his friend Lord George Fox-Selwyn, Montmorency begins taking a noxious drug. This drug brings Scarper out in full force in near obliteration of all that Montmorency has striven to become. After their return to London, Montmorency continues consuming the drug, or rather, letting the drug consume him: “The drug had long since ceased to bring him happiness, and yet he couldn’t help himself.”

Straits are so dire that Fox-Selwyn decides to help the man who can’t seem to help himself by removing Montmorency away from the prying eyes (and underground temptations) of London society. Fox-Selwyn takes Montmorency, along with his other friend Dr. Farcett, to Scotland.

After Dr. Farcett’s hubris and surgical error caused a patient’s death, he is facing his own demons. However, Dr. Farcett once saved Montmorency’s physical life, and now he is called upon to reach deep and recall his desire for helping make sick people well in order to help Montmorency overcome his substance abuse. In so doing, Dr. Farcett begins to face his past mistakes so that he might embrace his future.

Even as Dr. Farcett helps Montmorency detoxify, the three friends stumble upon another mystery on the island of Tarimond off the Scottish coast. Dr. Farcett’s skills are called upon to uncover why the babies on the island are dying within a few months of their birth. A parallel crisis calls for Montmorency to return to London and apply his  skills of camouflage and subterfuge to the task of finding the bomber that is loose in London. With this charge, Montmorency once again dons his Scarper persona in the heart of London–this time in the service of his country.

Unlike the first book that largely focuses on developing Montmorency’s complex identity, this second book expands to include not only Montmorency’s perspective but also the thoughts, actions, and complex personalities of Lord Fox-Selwyn and Dr. Farcett. Interestingly, Updale employs these three aristocratic characters to showcase the complexity of human nature, the harsher aspects of life for the impoverished, and the colossal inequities among social classes in Victorian England (a la Dickens).

Montmorency: On the Rocks is every bit as thrilling and as full of historical detail, adventure, and intrigue as the first book. Montmorency/Scarper ’s story continues in the third book of this series Montmorency and the Assassins (2006) and the fourth book Montmorency’s Revenge (2007).

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Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman by Eleanor Updale (2004)

“But it is time for you to go. Your possessions will be returned to you downstairs. You have been given the chance of life, 493. I hope you will take the opportunity to make that life one of industry and law-abiding behavior.”

So says the warden to Prisoner 493–also known as Montmorency also known as Scarper. While languishing for three years in the bowels of a Victorian England prison, Montmorency vows to reinvent himself–multiple reinventions really–as a thief, a liar, and a gentleman.

Montmorency’s time in jail is the result of his having been caught as a thief. During his capture, he suffers grievous physical injuries. In fact, Montmorency’s injuries are so grave that an up-and-coming London doctor, Doctor Farcett, is permitted to perform experimental treatments on him.

The treatments save Montmorency’s life and begin to heal of his physical injuries but, simultaneously, they augment his emotional pain over life’s inequities. As a part of his treatments, Montmorency attends meetings of the Scientific Society where he is humiliated as a specimen under examination but also where he learns about the underground sewage system of London. The seeds of a plan for revenge against society’s upper classes begin to sprout.

Montmorency resolves to create dual identities—he will enter London’s underground as Scarper, a sewer navigator who uses the routes to accomplish his thefts and to pave the way for the success of his above-ground persona, Montmorency. Using the goods he attains as Scarper, Montmorency lives the life of a refined gentleman and, in so doing, he defies the seemingly insurmountable Victorian class divisions of his day.

Updale fills her story with secret identities, complex characters, period details, scatological references, daring deeds, narrow escapes, and more vice than virtue. Social and economic disparities drive much of the action–while wealthy gentlemen spend the days at their club, the poorer classes spend the days doing what it takes (legal or no) to survive. Montmorency’s dual identities begin to foster identity confusion, and Montmorency/Scarper finds himself facing choices as to which version of himself he wants to control of his life–the thief, the liar, or the gentleman.

As a work for young adults, Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman is unusual as its characters are not young adults (the same holds true for the subsequent works in the series), and its main character is more antihero than hero. Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman harkens back to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in which one man confronts some unpleasant facts about the conflicting parts of his nature. More modern offerings that contain elements of history, mystery, adventure, and crime in historical England can be found in works by authors such as Chris Priestley, Iain Lawrence, Avi (Traitors Gate), and Paul Bajoria (Printer’s Devil). Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman is the first book in the series starring Montmorency.

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Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (2007)

Omnes mundum facimus
(We all make the World)

Omnes mundum facimus is a central belief of the branch of a secret crime-fighting organization known as the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons (nickname: Bad Monkeys). The Bad Monkeys department works alongside other branches of the organization such as the Department for Optimal Utilization of Resources and Personnel (nickname: Cost-Benefits) and the Department of Ubiquitous Intermittent Surveillance (nickname: Panopticon) to expunge evil from the world by whatever means necessary.

Bad Monkeys kicks off with Jane Charlotte, a woman claiming to be a Bad Monkeys operative, narrating her story from within the walls of the psychiatric ward of the Las Vegas Clark County Detention Center. Dr. Vale enters “the nut wing” to interview/interrogate her, ostensibly to determine her sanity. Jane obligingly recounts for him all of her experiences leading up to her present position in the nut wing (in addition to possible insanity, she’s being held for murder).

Jane tells Dr. Vale that her actions with the Bad Monkeys organization have all been for the express purpose of ridding the world of evil. As Bad Monkeys personnel, she has the authority and the intel to eliminate “bad monkeys” who have evaded society’s usual modes of justice.

Jane’s conversation with Dr. Vale shifts back and forth between present day dialogue and flashbacks of Jane’s J.D. (juvenile delinquent) youth. Jane details her life pre-Bad Monkeys as well as her experiences after joining the Bad Monkeys.

As Dr. Vale listens to Jane’s story, he frequently requests clarification and points out incongruities. While Jane always has a ready answer, readers are left to wonder about the veracity of Jane’s tale and about the very existence of the Bad Monkeys organization.

Organization tools such as the N.C. (natural causes) gun nudge the book over into the realm of science fiction, but there’s a great deal of psychological drama and suspense here as well. In a book replete with plot twists and page turning events, just who’s a bad monkey and who’s not Ruff leaves up to debate until the book’s final pages.

Bad Monkeys is an adult book that may well also enthrall many young adults. For those looking for more, there’s always Ruff’s other works and/or the Bad Monkeys super secret website to explore (shhhh…). Or you could try choosing a book from one of the following booklists:

Overbooked: Psychological Suspense Crime Fiction Booklist This list contains “Darkly atmospheric stories, disturbing mind games, engrossing and compelling characters - stories that generate a sense of unease . . .” which seems to aptly match up with the ambience of Bad Monkeys.

Hennepin County Library: A Child’s Look into an Adult World: Quirky Psychological Fiction “This list is made up of books that deal with heavy subjects but are narrated by children, offering a somewhat innocent look at the highs and lows of modern life. If you appreciate a good mystery told from a psychologically unique perspective, some of these books are absolute winners!” (Note: the books on this list are Bad Monkeys read alikes in the sense that they contain psychological drama, but, by and large, they don’t have as much emphasis on the crime and/or suspense aspect).

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The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean (2007)

“The transporter room aboard the starship Enterprise is rubbish in comparison with a little child’s imagination.”

Sym’s fourteen now, but she feels the same way about imagination. After her father’s death, her imagination becomes an even more vigorous coping mechanism, and she brings to life in her mind her deceased Antarctic explorer hero, Captain Titus Oates (Wikipedia entry: Captain Lawrence “Titus” Oates).

When Sym tells her classmates that she’s happy imagining, they label her the mad girl–sad, frigid, and mad. Her response: “So that’s when I sealed myself inside. Laced up the tent, so to speak. Filled the locks with water so that they would freeze. That’s when Titus and I looked at each other and decided we could do without them, as long as we had each other”.

Sym’s got Titus for support but she’s also got her Uncle Victor and her mom. Her Uncle Victor is the one who got Sym hooked on all things Antarctic. When he surprises her with an Antarctic expedition (unbeknownst to her mother), she’s thrilled…at first.

From there, the plot darkens–survival is a constant battle and love and trust are concepts that were left behind in civilization. As Sym puts it, “I felt wiser now. Though sometimes a dose of enlightenment tastes a lot like swallowing bleach.” Sym receives many such doses of enlightenment from the moment she begins traveling with her Uncle, each dose hitting her viscerally and leaving her reeling and feeling utterly alone on the Ice Shelf. The fact that she continues to put one foot in front of the other as the mysteries of her life unravel and lay bear disturbing truths shows admirable strength of character.

The White Darkness stands out as a young adult novel that’s lyrically and inventively written and that crosses multiple genres–adventure, survival, thriller, mystery, psychological fiction, and coming of age. The setting has a prominent role as much of the novel’s action springboards off the physical circumstances. Sym’s internal journey and struggles parallel nicely with the external perils.

It’s a gripping story that includes some historical (mainly about former expeditions to the South Pole) and factual detail (did you know that penguins stink?) along the way. McCaughrean’s remarkable story was recently recognized as such when it won the 2008 Michael L. Printz Award.

Quote to ponder:

“It’s true: Everyone needs a reason to stay alive–someone who justifies your existence. Someone who loves you. Not beyond all reason. Just loves you. Even just shows an interest. Even someone who doesn’t exist, or isn’t yours. No, no! They don’t even have to love you! They just have to be there to love! Target for your arrows. Magnetic Pole to drag on your compass needle and stop it spinning and spinning and tell you where you’re heading and…someone to soak up all the yearning. That’s what I think. That’s what I deduce.”

For readers who enjoy survival stories a few other books to try include the following:

Nonfiction:

• The Coldest March: Scott’s Fatal Antarctic Expedition by Susan Solomon
• The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
• Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis by Pete Nelson
• Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales; Fire Fighters: Stories of Survival from the Front Lines of Firefighting by Clint Willis
• In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
• Survive: Stories of Castaways and Cannibals by Nate Hardcastle (includes fiction and non-fiction)

Fiction:

• Blizzard’s Wake by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Overboard by Elizabeth Fama
• Storm Catchers by Tim Bowler
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
• Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Alden Carter
• The Shark Callers by Eric Campbell
• A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer
• Wild Man Island by Will Hobbs (and other works by Hobbs)
• The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence (and other works by Lawrence)
• Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
• Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
• Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (and other works by Paulsen)
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (post-apocalyptic adult fiction)

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Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson (2007)

“‘I don’t know where to start,’ Tom said.

‘According to some people, the beginning is a good place.’

Tom puffed his cheeks. The beginning? His day dying. Jeffrey Veatch chasing his mom. Refrigerator deliverymen. Packing foam.”

At eleven years old, Tom already has quite a few stories to tell. Leepike Ridge is just a piece of Tom’s story–Tom’s life after his father’s death. It’s his life with his mother in their home on top of a rock in which he misses his father terribly and loathes his mother’s new boyfriend Jeffrey Veatch. And it’s his struggle to survive and to find the light again when he is pulled underwater metaphorically by the weight of his burdens and also literally by the current.

This struggle for survival begins in earnest when Tom decides to ride the packing foam down the local stream in the middle of the night (he can’t sleep after being informed that his mother is “considering” Jeffrey’s proposal). Tom awakens to being pulled underwater into a series of underground caverns from which there is seemingly no escape. This fact becomes all the more trenchant when Tom meets Reg, a man who has been stuck underground for three years with little light, with negligible diet variation (crawdads, crawdads, and more crawdads), and with no company save for the occasional visit from a partially lame canine named Argus. Reg tells Tom of his underground lair, “The hard part wasn’t finding this place; that was an accident. The hard part is staying alive, wanting to stay alive when you can’t get back out.”

Yet, together Tom and Reg (and Argus the dog) help each other to hope and to search for a way out. Reg tells Tom, “If you die trying, I’ll die alongside you. It would be a nice change of pace from firelight and pasty-looking crawdads.”

Above ground, Tom’s mother Elizabeth refuses to give up hope that Tom’s still alive. In searching for Tom, she discovers that her husband’s death may not have been accidental. Throw in a villainous group of men who pretend to search for Tom but are actually searching for treasure and who will stop at nothing to get their hands on it and a sinister dimension is added to an already gripping mystery-survival story. N.D. Wilson’s first novel for young children is a riveting adventure that cries out to have its pages turned to the very end in order to find out whether Tom will ever again see the light of day.

Fans of adventure-survival stories like those of Gary Paulsen, Will Hobbs, Harry Mazer, and Jean Craighead George (as well as fans of the more classic adventure authors such as Daniel Defoe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. Rider Haggard) will likely feel they’ve struck gold in reading Leepike Ridge.

Takeaway quote:

Reg: “After three years down here, I’ve not learned too much. But one thing I do know is that our bellies aren’t big enough for revenge. It turns sour and eats you up. We’ll get out, but we’ll get out for the sun, the moon, and mothers, not for small-souled enemies, though we’ll deal with them when we get there.”

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The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian (2007)

Double Bind (definition from Dictionary.com)

n. A psychological impasse created when contradictory demands are made of an individual, such as a child or an employee, so that no matter which directive is followed, the response will be construed as incorrect.

Laurel Estabrook is nineteen years old when her life is irrevocably altered by a brutal attack. She was riding her bicycle on the roads of Underhill, Vermont when the attack happened, and she has subsequently given up bicycle riding and she avoids any and all mention of Underhill. Not only does she give up bicycling, but she also withdraws from life in many other respects. She occupies herself with “safe” pursuits–her photography and her work at BEDS, a homeless shelter in Burlington. It is at BEDS that Laurel meets the fifty-six-year-old transient Bobbie Crocker.

Bobbie’s claims of past fame were regarded as those of a mentally ill man when he was alive. It is not until his death when he is discovered to possess a photograph collection that supports his claims. BEDS workers (Laurel, in particular) begin to wonder who Bobbie was and where he came from. The collection contains old photographs with famous people–musicians, sculptors, and more–as well as more recent photographs from Underhill. Mysteriously, a few of the photographs show a dirt road and a girl on a bike. Also in the collection are photos of a mansion–the home of Pamela Buchanan Marshfield, daughter of Tom and Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby fame.

Bohjalian’s complex and enigmatic intertwining of the stories of Laurel, Bobbie, and Pamela renders the ending as a surprise but also as an ending that, in retrospect, makes complete sense. He augments the significance and mystery of his story by playing off the plot of The Great Gatsby such that as Laurel digs into Bobby’s past the secrets of the Buchanans become increasingly central.

If you like psychological thrillers where you have to dig and keep reading to uncover the real story, then Bohjalian’s The Double Bind will be a good pick. The book does skip among characters and perspectives and time frames, so it can be confusing. In the end, you may still not know what constitutes the real story, but through turning the pages of Laurel’s story you may have an increased insight into the dire straits of the homeless, the vulnerability of the mental ill, and the long lasting scars from past trauma.

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Acceleration by Graham McName (hardcover 2003, softcover 2005, other editions available)

Duncan has earned his status as a troubled teen—he has committed crimes with his friends, and he continues to be haunted by his failed attempt to save a girl from drowning the previous summer. This summer he attempts to withdraw and to forget by placing himself deep in the heart of the Toronto subway system working in the Transit Commission’s lost and found department.

Duncan soon discovers what it truly means to be troubled, however, when during one of his shifts at the Lost and Found he stumbles upon a mysterious journal with some utterly troubled content. The journal’s owner appears to be an animal torturer, woman-stalker, and sadistic serial killer who keeps notes regarding his past conquests and future targets in his journal. Duncan concludes, “The world is full of ugly, twisted people. There, that’s my Mr. Rogers thought for the day.”

And while Duncan tries to leave it at that, he finds himself spurred into action. He finds the journal so deeply disturbing that despite his own best interests he feels compelled to hand it over to the police—the same police who believe him to be a troubled teen with recurring delinquent behavior. The police disregard Duncan’s concerns, and the chase and race against time begin as Duncan decides to try to track and find the journal’s owner and to save his next target before she becomes the next victim.

As the trail heats up and Duncan encounters the basest of human nature, he faces difficult decisions that will change him forever. Readers who enjoy suspense and thriller books with a touch of serial murder will want to prepare to accelerate with Duncan as he discovers the strength of his character, the depth of his friendships, and the redemption he’s been seeking since the previous summer.

Acceleration earned multiple honors such as the Edgar Allen Poe Award (2004) and the YALSA Best Books for Young Adults (2004) .

Just a few YA Readalikes:

• Body of Evidence series by Christopher Golden
• The Killer’s Cousin by Nancy Werlin
• Tenderness by Robert Cormier
• What Happened to Cass McBride? by Gail Giles

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