The Bone Season Promise

Every once in a while there is excitement for a new book akin to a much awaited blockbuster. It promises to change your life, or at least enrich it. There was no greater literary enthusiasm than before the release of the last few installments of Harry Potter’s adventures. To declare a new book the next Harry Potter, and its author parallel to the greatly loved J.K. Rowling, is promising the reader the moon, the stars, and all the heavens light years away.

When the to-be seven-volume series of The Bone Season was heralded as the filler of the void the end of Potter had left us with, the promise was so supernaturally great that, despite the plot’s supernatural thread, there was no way it could reach Potter-levels of acclaim. And with only book one available for consumption so far, it’s impossible to compare it to a completed series; it’s like calling a TV show the next Friends during the pilot episode. (Even Friends wasn’t Friends during its pilot episode. ) The Bone Season, as it stands now, is not the next Harry Potter.

 

It is though, an awesome book. Samantha Shannon has created a visceral alternative world in The Bone Season, one where clairvoyants of varying talents and skills live in the criminal underworld of Scion London. Full of rich, multilayered characters that are just begging for Benedict Cumberbatch to play at least one of them in the movie version, Shannon’s tale is told from the perspective of 19 year old Paige Mahoney. Paige is perhaps the most complex character of the bunch, as her past slowly unweaves for us to see. Yet it’s her future that both she and the reader are unsure of. It’s this tension that propels you from one page to the next.

Shannon is so comfortable with her world that at times the reader can get the details confused. There’s even a diagram at the beginning of the book to help the reader recall different classifications and skills. Unlike Harry being on the same footing as the reader when it came to his new reality, Paige grew up in a world where clairvoyants are outlaws. There’s no reason for another character to walk the main character/reader through the new world. In The Bone Season you start off running and don’t really stop.  But it’s okay if the details blur a bit; the plot is focused enough that the reader won’t trip.

 

Ignore the promise of its hype and instead focus on the promise within its own pages  – stay with me, see where I go, and even though it won’t be on the Hogwarts Express, it’s still going to be a hell of a trip. After all, if Paige Mahoney had been a student at Hogwarts, I’m pretty sure she would have been hanging out with Fred and George. And let’s face it, their story was just as awesome as Harry, Hermione and Ron’s.

The Great Depths Beneath – The Perks of Being a Wallflower’s Best Friend

The Perks of Being a Wallflower focuses on a boy, Charlie, trying to grow up with the ghosts of a traumatic childhood. His story is captivating, breathtaking and easily one of the most profound stories in YA fiction. The movie, directed by Perks’ author Stephen Chbosky, stays close to the novel. Yet the film has something the novel does not; the best BFF ever in cinema – Emma Watson.

For eight films she played Harry Potter’s intellectual and loyal guide. Her friendship kept Harry going; emotionally, and sometimes physically, giving him a much needed push to do what needed to be done. Hermione Granger is one of the most loved friends there is and Emma Watson gave her a voice that we could all easily cherish.

 

In Perks, Watson did it again. Playing Charlie’s crush Sam, Watson conveyed more depth than any main character’s crush has ever had before. Given the limited time a film can portray a supporting character, especially one that is supposed to encourage romantic feelings, Watson’s Sam said more than all of Shakespeare’s sonnets with just a look in her eyes. Being both tragic and heroic, she gave the character of Charlie more weight for recognizing just how special Sam was. In another actress’s hands, Sam could have easily come across as flighty, entitled and even a bit cruel. In Watson’s hands, Sam was a person to love; perfect in all her imperfections.

Growing up on screen, things haven’t always been smooth for Watson. But in The Perks of Being a Wallflower she glides across the screen, not becoming, but being her character.

 

I’m sure there will be times in Watson’s career that will have her playing less than admirable characters, but judging from her recent performance, she’ll somehow manage to always make us feel the great depths beneath.

Knowing When To Break The Rules

The books and movies are named after their hero, the boy who lived: Harry Potter. But while his bravery and selflessness saved his world from one of the baddest of bad guys, Voldemort, Harry wouldn’t have had his moment in the forest had it not been for some very exceptional women.

It all started with his mother, who sacrificed herself in order to save Harry. She not only saved her son, but also put a temporary stop to Voldemort’s evil; allowing young Harry time to grow up and grow stronger. From that moment, mothers would play a huge role in Harry’s survival. Molly Weasley became a genuine mother figure to Harry throughout the series, making him a part of the family from the very first Christmas at Hogwarts. She gave Harry a family to care about, and that cared about him. And it didn’t hurt when Molly defeated one of Harry’s nemeses, the ultra evil Bellatrix Lestrange, with the legendary delivery of the most memorable line in the series.

 

Then there was Professor McGonagall, who became the protective, caring parent that Harry no longer had. McGonagall not only nurtured Harry’s talent and education but encouraged his bravery. And, while everyone played an important role in the final battle, without McGonagall taking the reins there might not have been anything left of Hogwarts to rebuild.

Even amongst the Death Eaters there was Draco’s mother, Narcissa Malfoy. At the chance to save Draco, she knowingly helped Harry by lying to her fellow Death Eaters.

 

Along with the mothers, there were also the friends. Most notably Ginny Weasley, Harry’s love interest, who knew when to fight by his side and when to let him fight his battles alone. More low-key in some ways but equally important was Luna Lovegood, whose most unusual of quirky aspects was her unconditional acceptance of and support for Harry. Luna was someone who, in some of Harry’s loneliest moments, reminded him he wasn’t alone. It was a strength that kept Harry fighting.

With these ladies and countless others by his side, it seemed impossible for Harry to lose.

 

Except that Voldemort had his fair share of powerful, crafty and downright deliciously evil ladies fighting on his side as well. Bellatrix Lestrange was the most notorious; her devotion to the Dark Lord went unmatched as she caused Harry some of his most devastating moments of grief. Even those women that didn’t directly follow Voldemort, but still unwittingly helped his cause, were a force that could have destroyed Harry on their own. Like Dolores Umbridge, perhaps one of the greatest villains in literature and film. She was so noxious she almost didn’t even need magic. Her strength was all in her strategy. Had Voldermort not been able to use magic and had gone head to head with Umbridge, there is no doubt she’d have him working side by side with Filch and Mrs. Norris. Her methods of intimidation and manipulation were so coolly executed you had to wonder if she wasn’t a sociopath. And then there was Rita Skeeter, casually destroying people’s lives in a different, but still just as devastating, way from Bellatrix. Skeeter held the opinion of the wizarding world in her hand, and only used it to promote herself.

Umbridge and Skeeter were each so powerful they could have destroyed Harry before Voldermort recruited a single Giant. But they didn’t, and that was because of one person… the most important female character of the series: Hermione Granger.

Nerdy, Bookish, Know-it-all, or just downright Awesome. Whatever you want to call her, Hermione’s intellect saved the day so many times. But it wasn’t just her ability to retain extraordinary amounts of information that helped Harry win; her integrity, cleverness and loyalty ensured it. Because for everything that Hermione got from her books, ultimately the most important piece of information she knew wasn’t something that could be found in a library. Hermione proved that when it comes to defeating the bad guys, although bravery and skill are important, the most pivotal thing of all is knowing when to break the rules.

It’s a sign of J.K. Rowling’s brilliance as a writer that the most notoriously by-the-book character at Hogwarts ended up as the biggest rule-breaker of them all.

Whether she was petrifying Neville, tricking Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest, silencing Rita “queen of other people’s secrets” Skeeter with her own secret, or just plain old turning back time… Hermione was Harry’s greatest weapon.

 

Harry Potter is the hero of the books and movies that bear his name, there is no doubt. It’s hard to think of a more inspiring and engaging character. But without the women fighting with and for him, Harry wouldn’t have made it through his first Quidditch match.