Little (Grrl) Lost / Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint’s book Little (Grrl) Lost came across to me as a decent story on the surface with a fair amount of crunchy stuff underneath. It’s quiet. Some of its elements came back to me a few times in the couple of days since I’ve finished the book.

Fourteen year old T.J. Moore’s family has moved from the country to Newford’s suburbs and T.J. isn’t happy about it. She misses the horse that they can’t keep in the suburbs. She’s resentful of her parents for losing the family’s savings, which is why they had to move. Nevertheless, she’s a goody two shoes who loves them anyway and always tries to follow their rules.

Sixteen year old Tetty Elizabeth Wood is a punky teen who storms out of her parents’ house to run away because she doesn’t like their reclusiveness. That’s her on the cover with the awesome Doc Marten style stompy boots. She’s packed her bags and left the house to run away when she meets T.J. Elizabeth is also a six inch tall Little, a magical race of people descended from birds. Small and vulnerable is why the Wood’s stay hidden and reclusive.

The jacket copy for the book talks about Elizabeth and T.J. questioning and learning to trust each other. But really they hit it off right away and can depend on each other. Trust issues are at the center of the book, but not about each other. The two kids spend much of their ink meeting new people and finding out whether or not they can trust them, sometimes the hard way.

I like how the story’s moral isn’t honor thy mother and thy father. In real life, parents are just as prone to screw up things as anyone else. Granted, they have better judgment than teenagers usually, but I hate how lots of books turn back to the tried and true cliché’s where the parents turn out to be right in the end. T.J.’s parents mess up. Right at the beginning they’ve already lost the family’s money. Throughout the book they are loving and nevertheless over-protective to a fault. In addition to the kids trusting the wrong characters sometimes, so do the parents.

In a nice bit of underplayed humor, de Lint has Elizabeth, a mythical creature, disbelieve in other mythical creatures.

I also quite liked the plot structure for the book. I gotta repeat myself again, but it ends with a quiet climax that isn’t overplayed. No battle between good and evil finishes this. Just two teenage girls find their way in the world.

Stuff I didn’t like? Mostly one male who is a stereotyped control freak. He’s introduced as a nice guy, but then goes ballistic partway through. I’ve yet to meet any control freaks who don’t exhibit at least subtle signs of their psychosis in most interactions. It really would have been nice to have some of those red flags show up early. Trusting your gut is one thing, but a person’s gut reactions are informed by little behaviors that we can learn to recognize.

Also, I should mention that this book passes the Bechdel test with flying colors. I think that’s especially good in young adult books.

A few other blogged reviews:

• The Hungry Readers
• Stuff as Dreams Are Made On
• Ravenous Bookself
• Stepdadding
• Someone’s Read It Already
• Miss Print

Title: Little (Grrl) Lost
Author: Charles de Lint
Cover creator: Scott Fischer (artist) / Nancy Brennan (designer)
Imprint / publisher: Viking / Penguin
Format: Hardcover
Length: 271 p.
Publication date: 2007
ISBN-13: 978-0-670-06144-0
Subject: Runaways — Fiction
Subject: Size — Fiction
Subject: Moving, household — Fiction
Subject: Friendship — Fiction
Subject: Fantasy
LC classification: PZ7.D33954Lit 2007