Whales on Stilts! | |||||
M.T. Anderson | |||||
Harcourt, 200 pages | |||||
A review by Charlene Brusso
For those unfamiliar with Anderson's work, this Boston-based writer is probably best known for the disturbing young
adult SF novel Feed, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for YA Fiction and a finalist for
the National Book Award. Feed was dark, dystopian, and dense with invented slang, Whales is just as sly, but also
funny, a satire which loves the genre it's sending up even as it pokes fun with deadpan asides and brisk, even
perky, story-telling.
The story begins with unlikely heroine Lily Gefelty's chilling Career Day discovery: her dad works for a mad scientist
who wants to rule the world. Dad, of course, has no idea of his boss's evil plan -- despite the fact his company is
housed in an abandoned warehouse, full of guards with big guns and with an enormous laboratory that screams 'top secret.'
Dad's in Sales and Marketing, and as far as he's concerned, his workplace is "a mid-sized company devoted to
expanding cetacean pedestrian opportunities." That's right. "We make stilts for whales. See? Nothing
suspicious." But Dad's boss Larry wears a damp grain sack over his head with two holes cut out for his eyes, and
has blue, rubbery hands. Then Lily hears Larry recommend that Dad not take the family to visit Lily's grandmother
in Decentville next month, because that's where Larry will begin his campaign to take over the world!
Lily doesn't have much faith in her own ability to stop Larry's evil plot. She does, however, have two best
friends, Katie Mulligan and Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, who are more than up to the challenge. After all, both
are famous for defeating the bad guys, and each is the star of their own young adult adventure series. Plucky
Katie lives in Horror Hollow, "a suburban development just off Route 666", and has plenty of experience fighting
zombies, werewolves, flesh-eating viruses, and other nightmarish things. Jasper, on the other hand -- a
gallant adventurer in his gray wool shorts, long socks, Norfolk jacket, and aviator's cap -- is an intrepid
inventor and staunch defender of good, traveling the world to defeat smugglers, spies, and yetis in diamond
mines while uttering phrases like, "Dash it all, chums, this sounds a mighty pickle."
The very best thing about Katie and Jasper, of course, is that they are honest and loyal friends who know Lily
is "a hero just waiting to happen." Together the trio contrives a plot to stop Larry's evil scheme, despite
inopportune attacks from stilt-walking whales with laser beam eyes, and interruptions from writers
from the Horror Hollow series.
Anderson's humor is a step beyond that of Lemony Snicket, fearlessly poking fun at the details while never
discounting our heroes' courage in the face of danger. That approach makes for a novel to entertain both
young readers, who may happily take it at face value, and older folks, who'll find a tasty multilayered
satire which does the good deed of never talking down to its readers.
Charlene's sixth grade teacher told her she would burn her eyes out before she was 30 if she kept reading and writing so much. Fortunately he was wrong. Her work has also appeared in Aboriginal SF, Amazing Stories, Dark Regions, MZB's Fantasy Magazine, and other genre magazines. |
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