mora55's review against another edition
This was not that great. I reread it simply because it had so many quotes that have stuck with me for years and years.
What little plot there is was underdeveloped and anticlimactic and a little confusing, and I didn't care about any of the characters. However, the writing is beautiful and there are a lot of good quotes. (Not enough that I would recommend you read the book to find them, though.)
(Though I started reading this on Saturday, August 8, which has a lot of significance in the book, and the coincidence kinda creeped me out in a cool way!)
What little plot there is was underdeveloped and anticlimactic and a little confusing, and I didn't care about any of the characters. However, the writing is beautiful and there are a lot of good quotes. (Not enough that I would recommend you read the book to find them, though.)
(Though I started reading this on Saturday, August 8, which has a lot of significance in the book, and the coincidence kinda creeped me out in a cool way!)
lazygal's review against another edition
2.0
"The Green Man" is a bookstore, owned by Emily, a 70-year-old poet; O, her teenage niece has been sent to spend the summer with her while O's father travels to Italy to research Ezra Pound. The store is dilapidated, with an almost Hoarder-esque interior and O sets out to clean and organize. She realizes that there's something odd about the store: she sees people that aren't really there, hears noises and smells roses where there are none.
Interspersed with O's story is the tale of a night at a magic show for children and the tricks the magician does (like the Indian Basket and the Human Salamander). The problem isn't the tricks but the overwhelming sense of evil that emanates from Professor Mephisto.
Over time the odder, eerier elements take over and the "rips in the fabric of time" more evident. While the bookstore's poet-ghosts are benign, it's unclear what the motives of "Rimbaud" and several other characters are. Ultimately, everything comes together but the climax doesn't live up to the build-up.
ARC provided by publisher.
Interspersed with O's story is the tale of a night at a magic show for children and the tricks the magician does (like the Indian Basket and the Human Salamander). The problem isn't the tricks but the overwhelming sense of evil that emanates from Professor Mephisto.
Over time the odder, eerier elements take over and the "rips in the fabric of time" more evident. While the bookstore's poet-ghosts are benign, it's unclear what the motives of "Rimbaud" and several other characters are. Ultimately, everything comes together but the climax doesn't live up to the build-up.
ARC provided by publisher.
cmbohn's review against another edition
3.0
Themes: secrets, magic, books/stories, poetry
This one was an ER book I got through Library Thing. It had a definite supernatural theme going through it, with ghosts, evil magicians, secret identities and so on. But it also revolves around a bookstore and features two women, one younger, one older. I did like this one, and didn't really foresee who the Big Bad Guy was, but it had a little too much going on. A little confusing at the very end. But it was pretty good.
This one was an ER book I got through Library Thing. It had a definite supernatural theme going through it, with ghosts, evil magicians, secret identities and so on. But it also revolves around a bookstore and features two women, one younger, one older. I did like this one, and didn't really foresee who the Big Bad Guy was, but it had a little too much going on. A little confusing at the very end. But it was pretty good.
avanders's review against another edition
5.0
Review based on ARC.
What a lovely teen fantasy. Bedard pays tribute to bookstores, creativity and poetry, and the Green Man himself in his aptly named book. The Green Man is the bookstore owned by Ophelia's ("O") aunt Emily, named after the legend of the Green Man, a protector who stands between the worlds and where life began. While O's father travels to research Ezra Pound, he sends O to Emily for the summer in a dual effort to ensure both are taken care of. Initially, fifteen-year-old O and seventy-year-old Emily clash in some to-be-expected ways, but eventually their similarities and common love of poetry and all things related thereto draw them into a very close relationship. Although each believes she is really taking care of the other, Bedard has deftly created an actual dual relationship that feels organic and true.
While visiting Emily at the Green Man, O learns about not only the magic of poetry and poets, but also about a recurring sinister plan that continues to plague her aunt and the town in which she lives. Saying much more about the plot would ruin it, so I won't.
What I will say is that I loved this little YA novel that is atmospheric, soft, and lovely. It has ghosts and books and hot summers. It lifts up jazz and pays homage to the receding world of used bookstores. There is also darkness and hard life, an acknowledgment of the deterioration of such a world and the effects it can and does have on real people. It is somewhat gothic and somewhat romantic. It is simple as a YA, but will appeal to book and bookstore lovers alike. To me, it gave just a little of a lot, just enough to satiate, just enough to squeeze your heart and then leave you for a peaceful night's sleep.
Highly recommended.
FOUR AND A HALF of five stars (boosted to 5 on sites w/o halves).
I note that I am *not* typically a fan of poetry. While this novel is about poets at its heart, and the power of poetry to those moved by it, and while this novel occasionally drops a poem here and there, it is not overdone and definitely did not turn me off, despite my natural disinclination to poetry.
What a lovely teen fantasy. Bedard pays tribute to bookstores, creativity and poetry, and the Green Man himself in his aptly named book. The Green Man is the bookstore owned by Ophelia's ("O") aunt Emily, named after the legend of the Green Man, a protector who stands between the worlds and where life began. While O's father travels to research Ezra Pound, he sends O to Emily for the summer in a dual effort to ensure both are taken care of. Initially, fifteen-year-old O and seventy-year-old Emily clash in some to-be-expected ways, but eventually their similarities and common love of poetry and all things related thereto draw them into a very close relationship. Although each believes she is really taking care of the other, Bedard has deftly created an actual dual relationship that feels organic and true.
While visiting Emily at the Green Man, O learns about not only the magic of poetry and poets, but also about a recurring sinister plan that continues to plague her aunt and the town in which she lives. Saying much more about the plot would ruin it, so I won't.
What I will say is that I loved this little YA novel that is atmospheric, soft, and lovely. It has ghosts and books and hot summers. It lifts up jazz and pays homage to the receding world of used bookstores. There is also darkness and hard life, an acknowledgment of the deterioration of such a world and the effects it can and does have on real people. It is somewhat gothic and somewhat romantic. It is simple as a YA, but will appeal to book and bookstore lovers alike. To me, it gave just a little of a lot, just enough to satiate, just enough to squeeze your heart and then leave you for a peaceful night's sleep.
Highly recommended.
FOUR AND A HALF of five stars (boosted to 5 on sites w/o halves).
I note that I am *not* typically a fan of poetry. While this novel is about poets at its heart, and the power of poetry to those moved by it, and while this novel occasionally drops a poem here and there, it is not overdone and definitely did not turn me off, despite my natural disinclination to poetry.
groundedwanderlust's review against another edition
3.0
I don't really know how to express my feelings on this book. I liked it, but it had serious flaws. The fantastical elements were completely unexpected, and not in a good way. There was no hint of magic until it was suddenly there and very in your face. The romance wasn't developed at all. Like the magic, it wasn't there and then it was. I also didn't realize this book was a sequel. There are many parts of the book that didn't make sense, but might have if I read the other book first.
koz108's review against another edition
3.0
I received this book as a giveaway at the OLA Super Conference and I wasn't sure what to think of it. As I began reading, I thought that this was a coming of age story with O coming to better know herself through her poetry and her relationship with her aunt. While this was partially the case, there was a whole other element to this story with the mysterious evil magician.
I didn't realize this was a sequel, and wish I had read the first one before beginning this one. I don't usually read YA fiction (anymore) but I still found it enjoyable.
I didn't realize this was a sequel, and wish I had read the first one before beginning this one. I don't usually read YA fiction (anymore) but I still found it enjoyable.
scottyreadsstuff's review against another edition
5.0
I reread this book and like almost every other book I read for the second time; I loved it even more!!! :)
lawralthelibrarian's review
4.0
When O (just O, not Ophelia) goes to stay with her father's sister Emily (just Emily, not Aunt), she's already wary of poets and scared/excited about becoming one. Poets are crazy, Emily being the most convenient example. This is not the meat of the story, but it was interesting to see O's reactions to reading about the lives of poets, increasingly "crazier" as the book goes on, alongside Emily's growing eccentricity about an evil magician in her dreams. Of course she's crazy; even O, who grows close to Emily, thinks so. But as Emily ramps up the precautions and weird things start to happen, including a dream boy for O and a dream haul for Emily, O starts to believe.
This book is not without flaws. The biggest for me being the jump from nothing to everything that happens in a few different instances. First, O and Emily's relationship. They start prickly, which is understandable considering they don't seem to know each other at all and one of them is a chain-smoking septuagenarian and the other is a health-food eating teenager. Then suddenly, they're close, in a routine, and friends, not just I-don't-want-to-see-you-have-a-heart-attack friends but actual friends. The second being Emily's suspension of disbelief. She goes into the summer afraid of the legacy of crazy poets, her aunt being no exception. She doesn't believe Emily's story about the evil magician who returns to town only when August 8th falls on a Saturday in a leap year (so many details!). She worries about her aunt talking to herself in the shop when she thinks she's alone. And then, out of nowhere, she can see and is fine with the ghosts of poets hanging around; she doesn't talk to them like Emily does, but she treats them like any other fact of life of used bookstores. You have dust, you have teetering towers of books, and you have ghosts. But until it's actually happening, an evil magician is just too much? The book does span an entire summer, and it's hard to tell how much time has passed at any given point. For all I know, there's a skipped month there in the middle. If that had been more clear, I might have been more able to make that jump with O.
All that aside, I loved this book. It is not super suspenseful or super action packed, but I had a really hard time putting it down. It's compelling. And packed in with a compelling story is O's (and to a lesser extent Emily's) musings about poetry. I'm not a big poetry fan and not one to like a book with teen angst poetry scattered about. Luckily, this was not that kind of book. The poetry O writes is not about tru lurv and it is (blessedly) sparse. Bedard manages to convey her love of poetry and writing without showcasing her and her fellow poets' work. Instead, he showcases their passion.
Though there is romance, it is beyond chase (it's more of a crush), and though there is an evil magician intent on killing children, it is not scary. I think this book could skew young or old for the right reader. The kind of middle grade or high school reader who is always reading, longs for old bookshops, secretly (or not-so-secretly) dreams about what would happen if magic was real, and does a lot of scribbling in notebooks. You know the one.
Book source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers
This book is not without flaws. The biggest for me being the jump from nothing to everything that happens in a few different instances. First, O and Emily's relationship. They start prickly, which is understandable considering they don't seem to know each other at all and one of them is a chain-smoking septuagenarian and the other is a health-food eating teenager. Then suddenly, they're close, in a routine, and friends, not just I-don't-want-to-see-you-have-a-heart-attack friends but actual friends. The second being Emily's suspension of disbelief. She goes into the summer afraid of the legacy of crazy poets, her aunt being no exception. She doesn't believe Emily's story about the evil magician who returns to town only when August 8th falls on a Saturday in a leap year (so many details!). She worries about her aunt talking to herself in the shop when she thinks she's alone. And then, out of nowhere, she can see and is fine with the ghosts of poets hanging around; she doesn't talk to them like Emily does, but she treats them like any other fact of life of used bookstores. You have dust, you have teetering towers of books, and you have ghosts. But until it's actually happening, an evil magician is just too much? The book does span an entire summer, and it's hard to tell how much time has passed at any given point. For all I know, there's a skipped month there in the middle. If that had been more clear, I might have been more able to make that jump with O.
All that aside, I loved this book. It is not super suspenseful or super action packed, but I had a really hard time putting it down. It's compelling. And packed in with a compelling story is O's (and to a lesser extent Emily's) musings about poetry. I'm not a big poetry fan and not one to like a book with teen angst poetry scattered about. Luckily, this was not that kind of book. The poetry O writes is not about tru lurv and it is (blessedly) sparse. Bedard manages to convey her love of poetry and writing without showcasing her and her fellow poets' work. Instead, he showcases their passion.
Though there is romance, it is beyond chase (it's more of a crush), and though there is an evil magician intent on killing children, it is not scary. I think this book could skew young or old for the right reader. The kind of middle grade or high school reader who is always reading, longs for old bookshops, secretly (or not-so-secretly) dreams about what would happen if magic was real, and does a lot of scribbling in notebooks. You know the one.
Book source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers
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