The Wannabe Knight: a Page on Words

Book Review: “Meridian” by Amber Kizer

June 16, 2011 at 12:27 PM (Book Reviews) (agency, Amber Kizer, books, fantasy, Meridian, mythology, reading, review, romance, YA)

Meridian by Amber Kizer

Since she was a baby, the dead and the dying have been drawn to Meridian Sozu.  On her sixteenth birthday she is at the scene of a deadly car crash, and her world as she knows it is irrevocably changed.  She is separated from her family and sent to live with her aunt, who is also named Meridian.  Once our narrator completes the difficult trek there, she learns the truth: she is a Fenestra, a being who helps souls in death, also a being who is being hunted by those with dark agendas.

I’m going to be honest.  I have been hauling home tons of books from the library just because of interesting covers or premises, putting them in my summer to-read pile.  For some time now, I’ve gotten into the habit of reading the first few lines or even the first page of each book before putting it down to do more pressing things.  Even though most of those first glimpses are interesting, when I opened Meridian, I couldn’t put it down until the library closed hours later.

The narration and story are engaging.  I am usually resistant when things happen too quickly at the beginning of a story to get the plot going, but I didn’t feel that resistance so much with this book.  Perhaps because the premise is so different.  I wanted to know more about Meridian’s associations with the dead, and I also cared that these associations brought her so much physical suffering.

Something I admire about this story is the handling of agency.  Agency has been a major issue for me in my writing in the past couple of projects, so I’ve been trying to keep an eye out for how it is handled.  The role of the Fenestra is fairly passive.  I won’t spoil it with details, but they are not angels of death.  Their mere presence is the key to helping the dying.  And Kizer has managed to give Meridian enough need for struggle against certain happenings related to this role that keeps the Fenestra nature from falling into dangerous writing craft territory.  There are external and internal and spiritual issues to be dealt with, which is a very good balance to have.

For how much I enjoyed this book, there are a couple of issues that struck me as well.  The romance, though not heavy-handed (thank goodness), doesn’t really feel organic to the story.  Meridian does not ruminate on specific physical characteristics to which she is attracted to, which is not bad in itself, but she doesn’t seem attracted to the guy’s personality either.  It feels like the relationship blossoms out of the fact that the two are closer in age and together a lot and in danger (a lot).  I think this is one level in which more agency might have been helpful.

Another issue is the ending.  It feels a little too rushed.  I suspected early on the nature of the threat, which may have been purposeful, but there is also little page space devoted to dramatic tension during the pivotal scenes.  What happens, happens, and I’m glad it goes down that way, but I don’t really feel invested in those scenes.  As a result I’m missing the emotional turns that are being presented to the reader.

Still, despite the issues, I’m leaning toward buying this one, and the sequel (which is due out in mid-July).  I’m a huge fan of mythologies and the supernatural and the laws of thermodynamics (you’ll get it if you read the book), and Kizer has done a great job with building a mythology for my mind to play with.

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