CANR
WORK TITLE: Jane, Unlimited
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1976
WEBSITE: http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 254
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/74817-q-a-with-kristin-cashore.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1976, in PA.
EDUCATION:Williams College, B.A.; Simmons College Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, M.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and novelist. Formerly worked as a legal assistant, New York, NY; former freelance educational writer for K-6 market; worked variously as a dog runner, a packer in a candy factory, and an editorial assistant.
AWARDS:Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature, SIBA Book Award for Young-Adult Literature, Best Book for Young Adults designation, American Library Association, Andre Norton Award finalist, and Indies Choice Book Award finalist, all 2009, all for Graceling; Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, and Best Book for Young Adults, American Library Association, both 2009, both for Fire.
WRITINGS
Also author of a blog, “This Is My Secret.” Author’s work has been translated into more than thirty-four languages, including Spanish, German, French, Vietnamese, and Turkish.
SIDELIGHTS
“I remembered when I was 11—oh, how miserable I was when I was 11—and how I escaped into books, and books got me through,” Kristin Cashore recalled in an interview with School Library Journal interviewer Rick Margolis. “And I thought, ‘Oh, I would love to be able to do that for young people.’” As the author of the young-adult novels Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue, Cashore has accomplished her dream; when Graceling was released in 2008, Kliatt reviewer Deirdre Root hailed it as a “stunning” fantasy fiction debut, and New York Times Book Review critic Katie Roiphe dubbed it “eccentric and absorbing,” with a heroine who “comes from the tradition of … Pippi Longstocking.”
An avid reader since childhood, Cashore attended Williams College and obtained a degree in English literature. After a short stint as a legal assistant, she returned to school, earning an M.A. in children’s literature at Boston’s Simmons College. At Simmons Cashore started her first middle-grade novel—yet unpublished—and realized that the writing life was worth the risk.
In Graceling, which launched the “Graceling Realm” series, readers are transported to a medievalesque world of seven kingdoms where they meet Lady Katsa, an eighteen- year-old warrior who works for her uncle, the brutal and unjust King Randa. Possessing one green eye and one blue eye, Katsa is “graced” with a unique skill, the ability to kill. While serving as Randa’s mercenary, Katsa hopes to turn her talent to good by forming a secret society dedicated to righting the kingdom’s wrongs.
Together with other graced individuals, such as Prince Po, Katsa soon finds herself facing a king with a skill more powerful than her own in a tale that “treats readers to compelling and eminently likable characters,” according to School Library Journal critic Sue Giffard. The novel “grapples with questions of identity, authenticity, and autonomy,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, and Katsa “is an ideal adolescent heroine” due to her combination of self-confidence and introspection. Praising Cashore’s “gorgeous storytelling,” Giffard deemed Graceling “exciting, stirring, and accessible,” while in Booklist Carolyn Phelan predicted that the “well-crafted and rewarding fantasy will leave readers hoping for more.”
Set thirty or forty years before the action in Graceling, Fire takes place in the rocky, barren Dells, across the mountains from the seven kingdoms. A land of monsters, the Dells is also the home of Fire, a teen monster in human form, who has the ability to read minds and possesses a human’s sense of right and wrong. Living in relative isolation at the start of the novel, the seventeen-year-old is drawn back into the political machinations of the Dells.
In School Library Journal Giffard described Fire as “shot through with romance and suspense” and featuring “a larger cast and … more complex canvas than Graceling. ” A Publishers Weekly critic described Cashore’s theme in her second fantasy novel as “embracing your talents and moving out of your parents’ shadow,” while in Kirkus Reviews a contributor observed that Fire “inverts the trope of the exotic, gifted, irresistible fantasy heroine” with the monstrous Fire. The resulting novel is “fresh, hopeful, tragic and glorious,” concluded the Kirkus Reviews writer. In Horn Book Claire E. Gross praised the author’s “inventive world-building” and asserted that Fire “surpasses Cashore’s debut and paves the way for further exploration of a world in which readers will happily immerse themselves.”
The “further exploration” referred to by Gross in connection with Fire occurs in the third novel of the series, Bitterblue. The novel is set some eight years after Katsa kills King Leck in Graceling, allowing his daughter Bitterblue to ascend to the throne as queen of Monsea. Bitterblue is now eighteen years old, and she is struggling to hold her kingdom together in the wake of her father’s brutal, sadistic thirty-five-year reign. She is bogged down in paperwork, and she believes that her advisors are sheltering her from harsh truths. Feeling disconnected from her subjects, she disguises herself as a commoner and escapes the palace at night to visit local story rooms. There she can listen to tales of her father’s reign and learn how she might repair the damage he did. During one outing she meets Saf, a young thief who becomes her love interest, and she grows to believe that Saf and his friends can help her understand her kingdom and its people. At the same time, so-called truthseekers are being hunted and silenced because of what they know. As Bitterblue learns more about her kingdom’s troubled past and present, she is forced to reevaluate all that she has been told. She does not know whom she can trust, and to uncover the realm’s secrets and rebuild it, she has to deal with spies, ciphers, false testimony, disguises, mazes, conspiracies, thieves, and puzzles. A Publishers Weekly contributor concluded: “Devotees of the earlier books … will relish this novel of palace intrigue.”
Reviewers responded to Bitterblue with praise, although some were uneasy about the novel’s length and complexity. For example, Carolyn Phelan, writing in Booklist, referred to the “painfully slow revelations of old secrets”; nevertheless, she also wrote that “readers drawn to Cashore’s novels by the strong, complex protagonists, their love stories, and their adventures will find similar elements here.” Similarly, Cynthia K. Ritter wrote in Horn Book that “the complexity of this weighty tome … is at times overwhelming.” Although she found the novel’s conclusion “lackluster,” Ritter applauded other features of the novel, noting that its “sophisticated prose propels the plot” and that “the believable maturation of Bitterblue’s character is worthy of praise.” Kathleen Beck, writing in Voice of Youth Advocates, noted that the novel is “complicated, but readers will gallop through it, eager to catch up on beloved characters and hopeful that the Seven Kingdoms can at last find peace.” Beck also referred with approval to the “astonishing and sometimes heartbreaking discoveries” Bitterblue makes. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the novel a “rich and poignant fantasy” and singled out the author’s ability to create “gorgeous, textured prose.” Finally, Lauren Newman wrote in School Library Journal that “Cashore’s imagined world is brilliantly detailed and brimming with vibrant and dynamic characters.”
Jane, Unlimited is a “genre-busting departure for a lauded fantasy author,” observed a Kirkus Reviews writer. Here, Cashore combines several different genres—gothic for the setup, then mystery, thriller, horror, science fiction, and fantasy—to create a novel that transcends genre in telling its story. Protagonist Jane has recently dropped out of college in the aftermath of the death of her aunt Magnolia. Magnolia had raised the orphan Jane. Now that the woman is dead, Jane is consumed with grief and doesn’t know what to do with herself.
An unexpected invitation from Kiran, an old friend, gives Jane a temporary direction and sets up the story. Kiran invites Jane to visit Tu Reviens (French for “you return”), his family’s ancient, moody mansion. The house is situated on an island and is well known in the area. When the invitation comes, Jane remembers that Aunt Magnolia had made her promise to go to the mansion if asked. She accepts Kiran’s invitation and sets out on an adventure that will cross multiple genres of fiction.
The Tu Reviens mansion holds plenty of eerie, gothic secrets. The patriarch of the place is a depressed recluse. The servants may not be who or even what they say they are. The massive old house contains priceless artwork, shadowed corners, and architectural features that give it a creepy atmosphere. Jane meets Kiran’s twin, becomes acquainted with a peculiar basset hound named Jasper, and meets a person named Ivy. Jane quickly begins to notice mysterious and suspicious activity going on everywhere around her.
As the staff prepares for the mansion’s annual spring gala, Jane becomes determined to find out what secrets Tu Reviens and its unusual occupants hold. From this point, the novel splits into five separate genres, and the story restarts each time a new genre is introduced. Jane works her way through these different environments, determined to find answers, especially answers to why she was invited to Tue Reviens in the first place.
“Throughout the book, Cashore’s prose is smooth and elegant, given to producing evocative images and then handing them to the reader with a sort of understated shrug,” observed a review on the website Vox. “With its references to works ranging from Doctor Who to Rebecca to Winnie-the-Pooh, this is pleasantly peculiar and unpredictable,” remarked Horn Book writer Deirdre F. Baker. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Jane, Unlimited “An ambitious departure for Cashore that will reward (and perhaps demand) many re-readings.” The Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded that Jane, Unlimited is “Not for everyone, but adventurous readers will find it charming, thought-provoking, and utterly sui generis.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 1, 2008, Carolyn Phelan, review of Graceling, p. 42; March 15, 2012, Carolyn Phelan, review of Bitterblue, p. 58.
Horn Book, November- December, 2008, Claire E. Gross, review of Graceling, p. 697; September-October, 2009, Claire E. Gross, review of Fire, p. 554; May-June, 2012, Cynthia K. Ritter, review of Bitterblue, p. 78; September-October, 2017, Deirdre F. Baker, review of Jane, Unlimited, p. 86.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2009, review of Fire; March 15, 2012, review of Bitterblue; July 15, 2017, review of Jane, Unlimited.
Kliatt, November, 2008, Deirdre Root, review of Graceling, p. 8.
New York Times Book Review, November 9, 2008, Katie Roiphe, review of Graceling, p. 33.
Publishers Weekly, July 21, 2008, review of Graceling, p. 697; December 22, 2008, interview with Cashore, p. 24; July 20, 2009, review of Fire, p. 141; April 2, 2012, review of Bitterblue, p. 59; June 26, 2017, review of Jane, Unlimited, p. 183; September 19, 2017, Sue Corbett, “Q&A with Kristin Cashore.”
School Library Journal, October, 2008, Rick Margolis, interview with Cashore, p. 34, and Sue Giffard, review of Graceling, p. 140; August, 2009, Sue Giffard, review of Fire, p. 99; April, 2012, Lauren Newman, review of Bitterblue, p. 156; August, 2017, Jane Henriksen Baird, review of Jane, Unlimited, p. 99.
Teacher Librarian, October, 2012, Kathleen Odean, review of Bitterblue.
Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 2012, Kathleen Beck, review of Bitterblue, p. 172.
ONLINE
Graceling Realm Web Site, http://www.gracelingrealm.com/ (December 7, 2012), author information.
Vox, http://www.vox.com/ (September 19, 2017), Constance Grady, “Jane, Unlimited Is a Spy Thriller, Space Opera, Gothic Horror Story, and More. It’s Great,” review of Jane, Unlimited.*
Series
Seven Kingdoms Trilogy
1. Graceling (2008)
2. Fire (2009)
3. Bitterblue (2012)
Novels
Jane, Unlimited (2017)
Kristin Cashore
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Cashore at the Texas Book Festival in 2012
Kristin Cashore (born 1976) is an American fantasy writer. She grew up in the Pennsylvania countryside, the second of four children. Her debut novel, Graceling, was published in October 2008.[1] The book has been nominated for the Andre Norton and William C. Morris awards, and is held in over 1000 libraries.[2] Her second book, Fire, came out in October 2009, and is described as being a 'prequel-ish companion book' to Graceling.[3] Her third book, Bitterblue, was released 1 May 2012. All three books were a part of the Graceling Realm series.[3][4]
Books[edit]
Graceling, 2008
Fire, 2009
Bitterblue, 2012 (released 1 May 2012)
Jane, Unlimited, 2017 (released 19 September 2017)[5]
Q & A with Kristin Cashore
By Sue Corbett | Sep 19, 2017
Comments
Photo: Laura Evans.
Kristin Cashore.
Kristin Cashore’s first novel in five years is a fantasy—and a science fiction story, and a thriller, and a mystery, and a horror story. Jane, Unlimited tells the story of a highly eventful weekend at an island mansion, in five different genres. The heroine, Jane, is a guest at a swanky party where everyone has secrets, even the dog, a sentient Basset Hound. What the new novel is not is a story set in the Graceling Realm, which the author knows will surprise some of her most ardent fans. PW spoke with Cashore about stepping away from the world of the books that made her a bestselling author.
This book is quite a departure—did you feel the need to do something radically different than the Graceling novels?
People keep saying that so it must be true, but it doesn’t feel like a departure to me. Fantasies are what I’m known for so in that sense, yes, this is a bit different. But my agent, Faye Bender, told me she thought it was very much a book by me, and I agree with that.
Did you have any concerns about being pigeonholed as a writer of high fantasy?
It wasn’t really that. I’ve never really been worried about how I’m perceived based on what I write. I just got this really unusual idea and coming off Bitterblue, which had its own unique challenges, I think I needed a book that challenged me in a different way.
Do you remember where this idea originated?
Sort of. I was with my sister, Dorothy, driving to a Christmas party in Cambridge, and we started talking about the Choose Your Own Adventure books, which I had loved as a kid. I said, “What if I did something like that,” except—there’s not a lot in the way of character development in most of those books—it would be Choose Your Own Adventure, but with very developed characters. That was the first kernel.
At what point did you decide that each separate iteration of Jane’s adventure would be written in a different literary genre?
That’s a really good question. I wish I had been paying more attention to how it was happening, but the truth is this novel underwent a lot of changes before I settled on what it was. At first, it was written in the second person and my hero was ungendered. I never specified whether the main character was male or female. It’s actually a really interesting exercise. I didn’t realize how many nouns and adjectives have such gendered power. But [editor] Kathy [Dawson] finally talked me out of the second person. And she was right.
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This novel also contains a lot of allusions to many classic novels, most notably Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.
Well, if the main character was going to have all these different kinds of adventures, I realized the setting was going to be really important because it would be the backdrop against which all these adventures would be set—almost like how the setting of a video game lays a foundation for what the game will be like. So once I decided that Jane was an orphan and that most of the story would take place inside a house, it had to be a strange, isolated house where a lot of odd things could be going on. And once I settled on that I couldn’t help but think of Rebecca. And then how could I have a house of mystery without some Jane Eyre references? And then something else prompted me to include Winnie-the-Pooh, and Dr. Who, and Vermeer. What was I thinking? It sounds ridiculous.
There’s something for everyone!
Exactly! I’m stealing that.
Jane is floundering a bit when she arrives at the mansion, but she brings with her a collection of umbrellas, all of which she has made herself and which are deemed by the other guests to be high art. Why umbrellas?
I love umbrellas. I bought one in New York, maybe in 2000, which was iridescent blue on the outside and pink on the inside and I just loved it and it ignited an umbrella collection. I think I have about 14, all really special, umbrellas. So giving this to Jane was an excuse for me to imagine umbrella construction and all the possibilities.
Did your editor send you an umbrella when you turned in your final manuscript?
She’s known for a while that I have this umbrella obsession but, no, she bought me a beautiful broach in the shape of an umbrella and she sent me a necklace with a blown glass jellyfish, which is another one of the iconic things in my book. I don’t want to give the impression that she showers me with gifts. I think it’s just very easy to wander around and see something I would like.
Do you worry that once this interview is published, fans will overwhelm you with umbrella-related gifts?
I can think of worse things.
Do you have a Basset Hound or do you just love the breed?
I have never actually owned a dog. We were a cat family. But I think Bassett Hounds are the cutest things ever. I love the way that every part of them sags. Again, I don’t remember where the Bassett Hound idea came from. It may have gotten lodged in my head from The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks [by E. Lockhart], which is one of my favorite books [and features a secret society called The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds].
Are you anticipating any backlash from fans about this book not being set in the Graceling world?
I’m sure that’s going to happen and it’s perfectly legitimate for people to be disappointed, but it just doesn’t really work that way for me. It takes such passion to write a book. I can’t write a certain kind of book just because that’s what people want. That said, I could certainly write more in the Graceling realm. But I hope my readers will be open to new things. Some of my favorite writers write in all different sorts of genres. Kate Atkinson started with mysteries but she’s written many different types of novels and no matter what she writes, it’s beautiful. So I’m excited to try different types of books and hope my readers will be excited to read them.
Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore. Penguin/Dawson, $18.99 Sept. 19 ISBN 978-0-8037-4149-2
Kristin Cashore grew up in the northeast Pennsylvania countryside as the second of four daughters. She received a bachelor's degree from Williams College and a master's from the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Simmons College, and she has worked as a dog runner, a packer in a candy factory, an editorial assistant, a legal assistant, and a freelance writer. She has lived in many places (including Sydney, New York City, Boston, London, Austin, and Jacksonville, Florida), and she currently lives in the Boston area. Graceling, her first book, was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Fire is her second book
Thursday, February 28, 2008
A Short Bio
"The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads."
-William Styron
Nonetheless, I am always a happy chucklehead when I take a dip in my telephone bathtub.
So, here's the short tale of me: I grew up in the countryside of northeastern Pennsylvania in a village with cows and barns and beautiful views from the top of the hill and all that good stuff. I lived in a rickety old house with my parents, three sisters, and a scattering of cats, and I READ READ READ READ READ. I read while brushing my teeth, I read while chopping parsley, the first thing I reached for when I woke up in the morning was my book; the only two places I didn't read were in the car and in bed. What did I do then? The one thing I liked even more than reading: I daydreamed.
And so, without knowing it, I was planting the seeds. Reading and daydreaming = perfect preparation for writing.
At 18 I went off to college-- thank you, Williams College, for the financial aid that made this possible-- and it almost killed me. College is hard, man, and the Berkshires are cloudy. A (phenomenal) year studying abroad in sunny Sydney revived me. After college I developed a compulsive moving problem: New York City, Boston, Cambridge, Austin, Pennsylvania, Italy, and even a short stint in London, where my showerhead hung from the cutest little stand that was exactly like the cradle of an old-fashioned telephone. The best phone calls are the pretend phone calls made from your telephone tub.
During my stint in Boston, I got an M.A. at the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Simmons College. (Thank you, Simmons, for the scholarship that made this possible!) Grad school almost killed me, but I felt a lot more alive than when I was almost being killed in college. The Simmons program is stupendous. It got me thinking and breathing YA books. It got me writing.
Am I getting boring?
Since Simmons, I haven't stopped writing, not once. I've developed a compulsive writing problem that makes my moving problem look like a charming personality quirk. I can't stop! But it's not actually a problem, because I don't want to stop. I've been writing full-time for a bunch of years now, first doing educational writing for the K-6 market and now working exclusively on my novels. It's a dream job, which is another way of saying that when I shop for work clothes, I go straight to the pajamas section.
A few years ago I grew tired of all the moving and dealt with it by, um, moving, from Jacksonville, Florida, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, trading the St. Johns River for the Charles River and pelicans for geese. As a native northerner, it's nice to be back in the land of four seasons. I feel as if I've come home. :o)
And that's my story.
Kristin Cashore wrote the New York Times bestsellers Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue, all of which have been named ALA Best Books for Young Adults. Her next book, Jane, Unlimited, comes out in September 2017. Graceling is the winner of the 2009 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature and Fire is the winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award. The books are world travelers, currently scheduled to be published in thirty-four languages.
Cashore, Kristin: JANE, UNLIMITED
(July 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Cashore, Kristin JANE, UNLIMITED Kathy Dawson/Penguin (Children's Fiction) $18.99 9, 19 ISBN: 978-0-8037-4149-2
A seemingly innocuous choice leads to wildly divergent potential futures in a genre-busting departure for a lauded fantasy author (Bitterblue, 2012, etc.).Still grieving for the aunt who raised her, Jane has dropped out of college and feels left at loose ends. At the invitation of a wealthy sort-of friend, she visits the family's crazy-quilt mansion on their private island only to find it overstocked with rich eccentrics, mysterious servants, fabulous art, dangerous secrets, potential lovers, and infinite possibilities. After a contrived setup freely borrowed from the classics of gothic fiction, the storyline splits into five distinct narratives, each employing the style and conventions of a different genre (mystery, thriller, horror, science fiction, and fantasy), each intersecting and commenting upon the others, and each with a different (not always pleasant) conclusion. This can all manifest as a bit too clever, and the bewildering abundance of supporting characters from every class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation sometimes reads more like bundles of quirks than fully realized persons. Still, an understated romance (plus a perfectly adorable basset hound) helps unify the various scenarios, and the whole is grounded by the personality of the bisexual title character--the only one explicitly ambiguous in race--with her honest kindness, blunt humor, nerdy creativity, and rock-solid integrity. Not for everyone, but adventurous readers will find it charming, thought-provoking, and utterly sui generis. (Fiction. 14-adult)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Cashore, Kristin: JANE, UNLIMITED." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA498345089&it=r&asid=edd9cc712ca9aa2493ce75b23ad4975c. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498345089
Jane, Unlimited
Deirdre F. Baker
93.5 (September-October 2017): p86.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Jane, Unlimited
by Kristin Cashore
Middle School, High School Dawson/Penguin 451 pp. g
9/17 978-0-8037-4149-2 $17.99
When her guardian, Aunt Magnolia, dies, Jane is left untethered and financially insecure. Then Kiran, an old acquaintance, invites Jane to Tu Reviens ("you return"), Kiran's family's island mansion. Aunt Magnolia had told Jane unequivocally that "if you're invited to Tu Reviens, go." So Jane ends up at the exotic mansion, a place where staffers are not what they say they are, and the wealthy patriarch is a depressive recluse. What's going on? Jane wonders, watching the household prepare for a gala party and noting the priceless Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Brancusi works on display. Then the story splits into five alternate scenarios. As Jane follows first one inhabitant and then four others in parallel narratives, she moves from the romantic confection the novel first seems to multiverses of surreality, science fiction, art theft, and Espions sans Frontieres (Spies Without Borders). The clues to the story's fantastical nature are playful and sly. As scenarios multiply, the story becomes light on character development and rather plot-heavy, but Cashore's glee, wit, and inventiveness are unflagging. With its references to works ranging from Doctor Who to Rebecca to Winnie-the-Pooh, this is pleasantly peculiar and unpredictable. DEIRDRE F. BAKER
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Baker, Deirdre F. "Jane, Unlimited." The Horn Book Magazine, Sept.-Oct. 2017, p. 86+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA503641805&it=r&asid=eca0814eb66e186c5747d3168e2ddf21. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A503641805
Jane, Unlimited
264.26 (June 26, 2017): p183.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Jane, Unlimited
Kristin Cashore. Penguin/Dawson, $18.99 (464p) ISBN 978-0-8037-4149-2
Cashore's first novel in four years covers an eventful weekend in the life of 18-yearold Jane, an orphan raised by an aunt whose recent death has left her niece unmoored. When a former tutor, Kiran, invites Jane to her family's island mansion, Tu Reviens, Jane accepts, arriving with everything she owns, including 37 handmade umbrellas. A cast of guests, servants, Kiran's twin, and a basset hound is quickly introduced, as are a raft of suspicious activities. The story then restarts five times in five genres--spy thriller, horror, science fiction, mystery, fantasy--sometimes repeating information verbatim from a previous section. Each new version is a little weirder than the last, and the overall effect is less Choose Your Own Adventure than Groundhog Day on acid, set within a framework that pays homage to several classic novels, most notably Du Maurier's Rebecca. These shifts require a reader patient enough to follow the story's many contradictions until Jane discovers why she's at Tu Reviens and, ultimately, what she wants. An ambitious departure for Cashore that will reward (and perhaps demand) many re-readings. Ages 14-up. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (Sept.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Jane, Unlimited." Publishers Weekly, 26 June 2017, p. 183. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA497444660&it=r&asid=6dd832e3b98e61cdd112e0bb07e13d05. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497444660
Cashore, Kristin. Jane, Unlimited
Jane Henriksen Baird
63.8 (Aug. 2017): p99.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
* CASHORE, Kristin. Jane, Unlimited. 464p. Penguin/Kathy Dawson Bks. Sept. 2017. Tr $ 18.99. ISBN 9780803741492.
Gr 9 Up--Before her Aunt Magnolia died in a blizzard in Antarctica, she made Jane promise to accept any invitation she might receive to visit Tu Reviens. When her high school tutor, Kiran, extends an invitation to her family's annual spring gala at Tu Reviens, Jane knows she has to accept even though she is still deep in mourning for the aunt who had raised her. But the estate (and the impossibly rich and peculiar family that inhabits it) is far more perilous than she could have possibly imagined. Befriended by a very odd dog named Jasper and the intriguing Ivy, Jane is drawn into an Alice in Wonderland-like adventure where nothing makes sense, and danger and intrigue are the order of the day. According to the author's note, Cashore has incorporated elements of many of her favorite books into this hefty novel. The book is divided into multiple long chapters, each offering readers different paths for Jane. Each "direction" adopts the format and narrative structure of a distinct genre, sometimes to great effect, but occasionally leading readers into a confusing jumble of characters and subplots. Nevertheless, teens will willingly be pulled headlong into a novel that ranges in topics from space-travel to umbrella-making to art theft to kidnapping and international espionage. VERDICT This excellent, genre-bending title is a great pick for teens looking for something challenging to take them off the well-beaten path of standard YA fare.--Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK
KEY: * Excellent in relation to other titles on the same subject or in the same genre | Tr Hardcover trade binding | lib. ed. Publisher's library binding | Board Board book | pap. Paperback | e eBook original | BL Bilingual | POP Popular Picks
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Baird, Jane Henriksen. "Cashore, Kristin. Jane, Unlimited." School Library Journal, Aug. 2017, p. 99. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA499597887&it=r&asid=e46f77f73fefe1923d197f9aa0e34ec2. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499597887
Jane, Unlimited is a spy thriller, space opera, gothic horror story, and more. It’s great.
Updated by Constance Grady@constancegrady Sep 19, 2017, 9:30am EDT
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Kathy Dawson Books
Jane, Unlimited, a new YA novel from Graceling author Kristin Cashore, opens with the following: a young orphan girl named Jane who finds herself in reduced circumstances; a discontented heiress; and a giant and mysterious manor house full of secrets.
Rating
If you’re a fan of gothic great house books, you know there are only a few directions for Jane, Unlimited to go in. There’s the Jane Eyre direction, where the heroine wins the love of the saturnine master of the house, only to be briefly foiled by his still-living ex-wife. There’s the Rebecca direction, where the heroine wins the love of the saturnine master of the house, only to be briefly foiled by his dead ex-wife. Or, if you really want to stretch, there’s the Northanger Abbey direction, where the whole story turns out to be the product of the heroine’s over-active imagination.
But Jane, Unlimited romps joyously over all of these expectations. Why pick one road, it demands, when you could pick all of them? Having spent its first 84 pages providing Jane with a plethora of potential mysteries to investigate, the narrative pivots on a single moment of decision and then spins out from there into several parallel timelines, unraveling what might ensue from every choice she makes.
One decision leads Jane into a spy thriller. Another takes her into a gothic horror story. Another into a space opera. There are more.
What remains constant through each possible narrative is sensible, undaunted Jane, who is determined to make sense of the world she’s faced with, even when she is paralyzed by grief. Magnolia, the aunt who raised Jane, has just died, and the idea of a world without her makes no sense to Jane. So all of the parallel timelines in which Jane finds herself, no matter how heightened their tone or architecture, are equally inexplicable to Jane in their Aunt-Magnolia-less-ness.
Jane’s chief coping mechanism for dealing with her grief is to design and build umbrellas: not ordinary umbrellas whose function is solely to keep the rain out, but beautiful little collapsible sculptures that double as artworks and character development (and which also keep out the rain). Each timeline pushes Jane to make a different umbrella — one that represents Aunt Magnolia’s eyes in the spy thriller, and a deceptively simple plain black umbrella in the space opera. As a character choice, it runs the risk of feeling just a little too precious as first, but as the different timelines unfold, Jane’s umbrellas and the ways in which they interact with the rain pick up unexpected resonances that make you catch your breath in delight: Of course, you think. That’s how it all fits together.
Throughout the book, Cashore’s prose is smooth and elegant, given to producing evocative images and then handing them to the reader with a sort of understated shrug: Oh, did you like this one? I just happened to have it lying around. In a library where the books are shelved by color, “blues and greens and golds” sweep Jane “gently across the room;” in space, “tiny, bright spaceships zip now and then, twinkling like silver and gold fireflies” around “a single point of light, tiny, but so bright that it’s painful to look at.”
Between the understated richness of the prose and the playfulness of the narrative structure, Jane, Unlimited reminds me of nothing so much as the works of the grande dame of YA fantasy, Diana Wynne Jones. There are few words of higher praise within the genre.