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Book Review of Among Others

Among Others
kayladaila avatar reviewed on + 33 more book reviews


I do not normally like memoirs, so you can image my surprise when I realized this is a memoir of sorts. Somehow though Jo Walton has written her quasi memoir as a sci-fi fantasy. The story starts out in 1975 with a small glimpse of Morwenna and her twin sister Mor when they are just 11 years old. The girls are carrying out a quest the fairies have given them. It then moves on to 1979 Mor has died in a car accident, Morwenna was seriously injured and she has run away from her mother who she believes is a witch who caused the car accident that maimed her and killed her sister. She has lived in Wales her entire life, but has now gone to live with her estranged father in England. The father Daniel lives with his three sisters. The sisters decide that Morwenna should attend the same boarding school they attended as girls. Morwenna feels that they dont really want her and even though she hates the school there is no real resentment towards them. The story follows Morwenna through the many SF books she reads. She connects to her father through SF. She has very few friends at school, but she joins a SF book club at the public library and connects and makes friends through SF literature. There is magic and fairies and beautiful descriptions of Welsh and English landscapes. The character Morwenna is also a bit of a foodie. She seems to really love food and she describes when its bad as well as when it's good. All of the characters are really wonderful, they seem so real, but possibly because they are. I loved this book and have looked up a number of writers that are mentioned. I looked forward to discovering new (to me) authors to read.