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A review by fallingletters
The Rambling by Jimmy Cajoleas
4.0
Update: One of my course assignments was to make a book trailer, so I made one for this book. Check it out here.
Review originally published 25 March 2019 at Falling Letters.
I read Cajoleas’ debut middle grade, [b: Goldeline|29540283|Goldeline|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1503735156s/29540283.jpg|49840715], last summer. Unfortunately, I liked the cover more than I liked the book. Fortunately, The Rambling is a marked improvement over Goldeline!
This story lives up to that marvelously eerie cover. If there’s one word I would use to describe this book, it would be ‘atmospheric’. Cajoleas excels at describing the setting. I could imagine the air changing around me when reading about Buddy and new friend Tally drifting through and hiding in the swamp. More than once I squirmed and had to stop eating a snack when Buddy described encounters with creepy crawlies. I feel like it’s been awhile since I read a middle grade book with such an evocative setting.
The game of Parsnit is another aspect of the book that Cajoleas writes well. In Parsnit, two players take turns drawing cards from their decks. They ‘orate’ a story around the cards – the best storyteller wins. But as the story progresses, we learn that there’s more to Parsnit than just being a game. It took me awhile to realize Parsnit is based on tarot with a greater infusion of magic and storytelling. (If you’re familiar with the cards that make a tarot deck, you might catch on sooner). Parsnit games didn’t appear as often as I thought I would have liked. But once they do start happening – it was worth the wait. Cajoleas doesn’t take the easy way out by skipping over the actual orating that takes place during a Parsnit duel. Readers get to hear Buddy share his story as he plays Parsnit.
The Rambling also features one of my favourite middle grade tropes – the young main character learning about his parents’ past and grappling with his feelings about it.
The Bottom Line: It seems to me The Rambling improves on everything Cajoleas' was aiming for in Goldeline. If a creepy swamp setting or a magical storytelling game appeal to you at all, give this book a go.
Original thoughts (Mar. 24): It’s atmospheric, that’s for sure! Further thoughts to come. Bumped it to four after sleeping on it. If Goldeline is 3.5, then this is a 4 (so goes my somewhat arbitrary decision making of whether a book is 3 or 4 stars).
Review originally published 25 March 2019 at Falling Letters.
I read Cajoleas’ debut middle grade, [b: Goldeline|29540283|Goldeline|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1503735156s/29540283.jpg|49840715], last summer. Unfortunately, I liked the cover more than I liked the book. Fortunately, The Rambling is a marked improvement over Goldeline!
This story lives up to that marvelously eerie cover. If there’s one word I would use to describe this book, it would be ‘atmospheric’. Cajoleas excels at describing the setting. I could imagine the air changing around me when reading about Buddy and new friend Tally drifting through and hiding in the swamp. More than once I squirmed and had to stop eating a snack when Buddy described encounters with creepy crawlies. I feel like it’s been awhile since I read a middle grade book with such an evocative setting.
The game of Parsnit is another aspect of the book that Cajoleas writes well. In Parsnit, two players take turns drawing cards from their decks. They ‘orate’ a story around the cards – the best storyteller wins. But as the story progresses, we learn that there’s more to Parsnit than just being a game. It took me awhile to realize Parsnit is based on tarot with a greater infusion of magic and storytelling. (If you’re familiar with the cards that make a tarot deck, you might catch on sooner). Parsnit games didn’t appear as often as I thought I would have liked. But once they do start happening – it was worth the wait. Cajoleas doesn’t take the easy way out by skipping over the actual orating that takes place during a Parsnit duel. Readers get to hear Buddy share his story as he plays Parsnit.
The Rambling also features one of my favourite middle grade tropes – the young main character learning about his parents’ past and grappling with his feelings about it.
We stayed dead still, Tally holding my hand, the two of us crouched and quiet in the bottom of the boat. The tree swaddled us with its moss, big limbs draped around us like a giant wretched mother’s arms, bony and gaunt, bugs crawling all over them. The water was grayer and murkier here, it swirled in a baby little whirlpool that kept bumping the skiff into the trees. The trees were something else too, bark, carved on by human hands, symbols and scratch marks like how you figure a witch’s spell book looks. Above us dangled bones clacking together like wind chimes, another daisy chain of digit bones, jawless skulls wedged between branches and in the knots of trees, gaping at us, all those empty eye sockets watching. (pg. 25)
The Bottom Line: It seems to me The Rambling improves on everything Cajoleas' was aiming for in Goldeline. If a creepy swamp setting or a magical storytelling game appeal to you at all, give this book a go.
Original thoughts (Mar. 24): It’s atmospheric, that’s for sure! Further thoughts to come. Bumped it to four after sleeping on it. If Goldeline is 3.5, then this is a 4 (so goes my somewhat arbitrary decision making of whether a book is 3 or 4 stars).