Disfigurement – DaneCobain.com

John Darnielle – Wolf in White Van | Review

Title: Wolf in White Van

Author: John Darnielle

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 216

Rating: 3.5*/5

John Darnielle – Wolf in White Van

This book took me a little while to get into, but I think that’s almost the point of it. It’s a multi-layered little thing, something you could re-read a bunch of times and pick up something different every time.

It’s actually kind of hard to explain what this book is about, but I guess I’ll give it a stab. We follow a kid with a facial disfigurement who runs a sort of cross between a Choose Your Own Adventure book and a game of Dungeons and Dragons via postal correspondence. And while there is a plot of sorts, it’s not necessarily linear, so the book itself is both confusing and kind of rewarding.

It’s also written by John Darnielle, the lead singer/songwriter of The Mountain Goats, which is one of my favourite bands. I guess that could potentially bias me in the book’s favour, but the truth is that it made me a tougher critic than I would usually be. Still, it was definitely an interesting book that was worth reading, I’m just not sure whether I actually enjoyed it.If anything, it was more like a workout for my brain, and that’s fine.

John Darnielle

Click here to buy Wolf in White Van.

R. J. Palacio – Wonder | Review

Title: Wonder

Author: R. J. Palacio

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 316

Rating: 4*/5

R. J. Palacio – Wonder

I’ve heard a lot about this book over the last few years, but I only actually picked it up after seeing it in a charity shop. After all, if you can get it cheap then it doesn’t matter if the book is any good or not. Now, after finally picking it up, I can safely say that it’s worth paying full price for, too.

Wonder follows a kid called Auggie who was born with a facial disfigurement, and it’s basically a coming-of-age story as he starts going to a public school and coming to terms with life. I’ve heard this described as middle grade and I suppose it does follow a middle grade protagonist, but it works well as an adult as well and it’s earned its comparisons to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

Of course, life isn’t always easy for kids like Auggie, but he’s still a pleasant kid and as the reader, you only want the best for him. In terms of its writing style and easy readability it reminded me of Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, but personally speaking I preferred this one. Either way, they’re both about accepting other people and I think that’s an important message to share. I have a lot of respect for books that try to do that.

All in all then, I wouldn’t say that this is necessarily a must-read, but it is still a pretty good book and I’m glad that I finally picked it up. I think that Palacio is starting to milk it with the number of spinoffs that she’s releasing, though. I was going to check out more of her work but it seems like all she has is more random Wonder stuff. It’s a shame, but oh well.