Among Others by Jo Walton

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If you're a book lover, if you've ever looked at life through the prism of fiction, no matter what genre, if you've ever walked home from the library with an armful of books - you must read Among Others by Jo Walton.

Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. Then her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, and Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled--and her twin sister dead.

Fleeing to her father whom she barely knew, Mori was sent to boarding school in England–a place all but devoid of true magic. There, outcast and alone, she tempted fate by doing magic herself, in an attempt to find a circle of like-minded friends. But her magic also drew the attention of her mother, bringing about a reckoning that could no longer be put off…

Next to Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Among Others is one of the most quotable books about literature I've ever read. 75% of my Goodreads Quotations gidget is from this book:

"Interlibrary loans are a wonder of the world and a glory of civilization.”

“Libraries really are wonderful. They're better than bookshops, even. I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts.”

“It doesn't matter. I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books.”

As you might be able to glean from the above, the narrator of Among Others, Morwenna or Mori, for short, is a great reader, an outsider who finds refuge in fantasy and science fiction books. Mori is one of the more refreshing voices I've ever encountered mostly because she reminds me of the way I used to look at the world as a child (and the way I sometimes look at it now): through books. Not only is the narrative full of references to authors and novels and fictional characters, but Mori approaches each unknown experience by comparing it to something that happened in a book.

Because of her great love of sci-fi and fantasy and imaginative perspective, the matter-of-fact references to dark magic, witches and fairies in Mori's real world at first seemed as if she perhaps had too much imagination; that maybe in order to deal with the trauma of her twin's death and overwhelming anger at her mother, Mori created a fantasy world of her own. I was never sure one way or another for the first half but in the second half, the momentum was in full force, culminating in a spectacular climax worthy of the genre Mori so idealizes.

The magic elements in Among Others are mostly subdued and depicted by Mori, despite her love of the fantasy genre, in a matter-of-fact way, as natural as leaves and stones and shadows. She laments that real magic doesn't work the way it does in books. The fairies she encounters, for instance, are nothing like the ones in Tolkien; although for lack of anything better to call the one male fairy she befriends, she names him Glorfindel in her head.

The one thing I was uncomfortable with was a scene involving Mori's dad which dealt with a very troubling matter. In typical fashion, Mori starts examining it via novels she's read: I don't like it, but perhaps it's okay in some situations because it happened in this book - kind of reasoning. It seemed to take her biblio-minded perspective to an unhealthy extreme.

Otherwise - a very solid recommendation from me. You don't have to like science fiction or fantasy to love Among Others by Jo Walton, but if you've ever said, "That's like something out of a book" or believe in the magic of books, this one's for you.