The first book that we ever read by Nina Kiriki Hoffman was in the early 1990s called The Thread that Binds the Bones, a freaky out-of-this world take on magical families that completely side-stepped the usual genre tropes: vampires, fairies,wizards, etc. It was an amazing book. Spirits That Walk in Shadow takes place in the same lineage, placing Jaime, one of the magical wild-kids, at her first week at a "normal" Oregon college with a "normal" human girl named Kim who has a very creepy magical problem. Kim is a synsthate -- she sees the world primarily in washes of seething color -- and that makes her irrestistable to magically-parasitic stalkers.
The things I loved about this book was how the normally combative Kin were so protective of Kim, the really imaginative magical background of the family, the different cultures and types of magic, and Kim's amazing color-world. (Hoffman's magic is so stunning that she has either placed or one for every major fantasy award there is.) However, what I didn't love about this particular story was a full third of the book takes place in the space of a morning, and the slow pace and angst of the characters kind of tangled up for me. Since Jaime and Kim alternate chapters, it didn't help when their points of view covered the same moments.
Lessons for Writers: I think it best when an event is covered by one point of view, and not diluted by other points-of-view. I know I've done this in my own writing, but in reading this story and others, it sure looks like there is a "right" point-of-view to use, even in the moments of a scene.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman can take you to unique magical places, here.
The things I loved about this book was how the normally combative Kin were so protective of Kim, the really imaginative magical background of the family, the different cultures and types of magic, and Kim's amazing color-world. (Hoffman's magic is so stunning that she has either placed or one for every major fantasy award there is.) However, what I didn't love about this particular story was a full third of the book takes place in the space of a morning, and the slow pace and angst of the characters kind of tangled up for me. Since Jaime and Kim alternate chapters, it didn't help when their points of view covered the same moments.
Lessons for Writers: I think it best when an event is covered by one point of view, and not diluted by other points-of-view. I know I've done this in my own writing, but in reading this story and others, it sure looks like there is a "right" point-of-view to use, even in the moments of a scene.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman can take you to unique magical places, here.
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