The Freak Observer (Audible Audio Edition) Blythe Woolston Jessica Almasy Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : The Freak Observer (Audible Audio Edition) Blythe Woolston Jessica Almasy Audible Studios Books
The Freak Observer is rich in family drama, theoretical physics, and an unusual, tough young woman - Loa Lindgren.
For eight years, Loa Sollilja's world ran like one of those mechanical models of the solar system, with her baby sister, Asta, as the sun. Asta suffered from a genetic disorder that left her a permanent infant, and caring for her was Loa's life. Everything spun neatly and regularly as the whole family orbited around Asta.
But now Asta's dead, and 16-year-old Loa's clockwork galaxy has collapsed. As Loa spins off on her own, her mind ambushes her with vivid nightmares and sadistic flashbacksa textbook case of PTSD. But there are no textbook fixes for Loa's short-circuiting brain. She must find her own way to pry her world from the clutches of death.
The Freak Observer is a startling debut about death, life, astrophysics, and finding beauty in chaos.
The Freak Observer (Audible Audio Edition) Blythe Woolston Jessica Almasy Audible Studios Books
Grade: C-Loa is one of the saddest characters I've read recently. Ever since her younger sister died of Rett Syndrome, a degenerative disease that left her infantile, Loa's family has fallen apart. Her often intoxicated parents treat her like she's the cause of their problems. Then she witnesses one of her friends run over by a car. Now Loa is friendless and has to work to help support her family as she watches her dreams of college fade with her grades. And, a new friend might be the most harmful of all.
THE FREAK OBSERVER, while filled with gorgeous prose and metaphors for life and science, is a novel without a plot. In many character driven stories, the protagonist develops insight while undergoing growth and maturity. Loa's arc feels almost nonexistent. Her circumstances improve negligibly.
Blythe Woolston can certainly write beautifully. I would have enjoyed the story much more if positive secondary characters in her life played a bigger part, even though her family was realistic in its emotional abuse and dysfunction.
THEMES: family dysfunction, siblings, death, grief, PTSD
THE FREAK OBSERVER might not appeal to all readers, but those with difficult home lives will relate to Loa.
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The Freak Observer (Audible Audio Edition) Blythe Woolston Jessica Almasy Audible Studios Books Reviews
All Loa got for her troubles was a smack upside the head with a toilet plunger. No "I'm soooo glad you are safe." No "I love you," just a dirty old plunger. "Same-ol, same-ol" in the Lindgren family. Her friend, Esther, had been splattered across the road by a truck. She could picture her running down the embankment and then . . . the driver was out in the road yelling and puking. The trooper had tried to console her in his own funny way by saying that some people ran toward an accident while others ran away. So what kind of person just froze in place and time? Her only consolation prize was that plunger and her father saying, "You could'a been the dead one." It wouldn't be very long before Loa probably wished she was.
Mrs. Bishop, the guidance counselor at school, wasn't much help and everyone else thought of her as "that dead girl's friend" and that simply wasn't cool. Loa had a "glitch in [her] brain" and in her dreams she saw Esther's heart in the laundry basket. She didn't want to sleep because she'd see that heart. Cleaning all night solved that, but she couldn't stay awake forever. They used to call it "shellshock," but now it's called PTSD. They gave Loa six weeks of "grief counseling" because of her screaming at night and nightmares that brought everything back. At the end of her counseling she was supposed to be all cured up, but she knew that Esther couldn't "be alive and dead at the same time like Schrödinger's imaginary cat." Esther was dead and that was that.
It used to be that everyone had their own little orbit around her younger sister, Asta. Now "there were pages missing from Asta's book" and everyone had to tend to her because she never walked, talked, and had to wear diapers. Even Little Harold's life evolved around her until "The Bony Guy" came to get her. Loa knew she had problems and knew that "At least 25 percent of trauma victims have repetitive dreams of the event with feelings of intense rage, fear, or grief," but when the heck was she going to recover from this funk? Was anyone ever going to look at her instead of seeing a dead girl in her eyes? Was the best she was going to get was a toilet plunger up the side of her head?
This is an amazingly funny, yet tragic story about Loa Lindgren, a girl who is suffering from PTSD. Loa is so into her own mind that her intellect isn't quite holding hands with reality. The story emanates from the inner reaches of her mind. We not only learn about her fears, but also in this tragicomedy we are treated to Loa's remarkable sense of humor. For example, when someone tells her to take care she claims she won't be responsible for her actions if she hears it again because she knows how to take care. "I can wash dishes, pull out slivers, sharpen a chainsaw, thaw out frozen pipes, pack a lunch, mop floors, serve five hot plates to a table, get poop out of little boy's underwear, and sterilize a nasogastric tube." I haven't read such a good YA novel in some time and had a hard time putting it down. If you want to read a stunning, well written tragicomedy, this is definitely the book to pick up!
Teen life is extra complicated for our heroine, who lost a sister and whose father lost his job. The characters and their situation are finely drawn, with no easy answers.
Unable to put this novel down, I finished it in one long bite. It is phenomenal. Smart, sad, honest, gritty, and beautiful. I loved Woolston's odd yet apt connections and the way she refused to dumb anything down.
It's difficult to believe that this is Woolston's first book - I hope she has many more in her. This is a piece of writing I won't soon forget.
Brilliantly written, THE FREAK OBSERVER takes the reader on a journey through Loa's intriguing mind as she tries to deal with the events taking place in the present while making sense of her past. Told in the first person, the character's unique voice draws the reader in as Loa discloses challenging situations in her life and family. The full story gradually unfolds, building toward a satisfying resolution as Loa seeks to make sense of her life through a keen sense of observation, analysis, and emotion.
With so many elements -- science, the death of the fey baby sister Asta, the Wrong [Maybe] Boyfriend, Cory, and the Right [Maybe] Boyfriend, Arno, the death of the [Maybe} Best Friend, Esther, an out-of-work mother and family living in near-poverty in the woods -- as well as the brilliant but ambiguous notion of the freak observer -- Woolston has marvelous ingredients that almost weaves together with the skill of a Michael Chabbon. Perhaps it was aiming at a YA audience, with page constraints, or freshman hesitation, but she narrowly misses the mark.
It almost doesn't matter because the novel is haunting, like a dream that keeps coming back at odd moments of the day. Brava for a brave book!
I was drawn to this book like the TV tells me girls my age are drawn to shoes; it's shiny, beautiful and overpriced.
The book itself really is beautiful. The art on the jacket and on the cover, the style; it's just really cool looking. Not a book that you buy to look good on your shelf, but to look good in your hand.
If someone had given me a synopsis of the book I wouldn't have read it. It is just about a short period of time in the lead's life beginning the day after she sees her friend being hit by a car. She is at the same time dealing with abuse and abandonment and social angst and school...this sounds horrible to me, but somehow I loved the book.
It was engaging and interactive. Woolston is clever and smart and pulls it all off natrually, this is very rare for mainstream fiction. Your comprehension of each page depends on your having read the next one. Really good.
Grade C-
Loa is one of the saddest characters I've read recently. Ever since her younger sister died of Rett Syndrome, a degenerative disease that left her infantile, Loa's family has fallen apart. Her often intoxicated parents treat her like she's the cause of their problems. Then she witnesses one of her friends run over by a car. Now Loa is friendless and has to work to help support her family as she watches her dreams of college fade with her grades. And, a new friend might be the most harmful of all.
THE FREAK OBSERVER, while filled with gorgeous prose and metaphors for life and science, is a novel without a plot. In many character driven stories, the protagonist develops insight while undergoing growth and maturity. Loa's arc feels almost nonexistent. Her circumstances improve negligibly.
Blythe Woolston can certainly write beautifully. I would have enjoyed the story much more if positive secondary characters in her life played a bigger part, even though her family was realistic in its emotional abuse and dysfunction.
THEMES family dysfunction, siblings, death, grief, PTSD
THE FREAK OBSERVER might not appeal to all readers, but those with difficult home lives will relate to Loa.
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