Review: If I could send Marionette back through time into my teenage self's hands I would!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 16, 2013
"Reading always gave me comfort. It was a way to get away from me," so says our main character, Paige Alexander, someone I have a feeling I'd enjoy knowing in real life.I can't remember the last time I read a novel that set such a distinct mood and got under my skin, leaving me thinking long after I finished it. This is something that takes a while to read...because it's so good you don't want to rush it and there's so much to take in: family issues, suicide, college life and even some mystery.As I do a lot when I read, I jotted down notes and quotes and found myself wishing I had had books like this to read when I was a teenager. At one point our main character thinks with frustration and pain that her friend's boyfriend Wesley (most appropriately nicknamed "Weasel") is always flirting with other women and treating them badly, yet society thinks she (as a lesbian) is the "the freak, the outcast, the downfall of society."Throughout the novel, T.B. Markinson merges strong atmosphere with riveting plot and very likable characters you grow to care for deeply. She also pulls off the rare feat of making observations about society, life and human beings without sounding preachy or taking away from the storyline. ("I don't hate men. I'm just gay. I can't explain why.")Marionette is painfully funny at times ("I wish idiots would recognize they're idiots") and starkly sincere (Paige is facing more than any one person should have to face at her age and the interactions with her counselor Liddy are convincingly awkward, then, later, emotionally moving). The way the author captures the young adult voice is simply amazing. The secondary characters are not only important and complementary to all that happens, they become part of a group that proves that unrelated people can come together and form a family tighter than any blood ties.Marionette pleases in every way that you would want a book to please you and it takes a serious topic (suicide) and it gives it the care, attention and thoughtfulness it deserves. I wasn't counting on there being a rather significant suspenseful element, which in less capable hands could have been a huge detractor from everything else.Another big plus for me is how Paige's relationship with her girlfriend Jess is presented. So much fiction with lesbian themes places way too much emphasis on the physical aspects of romance. Here, Markinson pretty much draws the curtains closed on that part of life. What Paige and Jess share becomes all the more sweeter and more tender because so much of their relationship revolves around mutual love, understanding and compassion. They are happy in the bedroom, but that's not what makes their connection work, that's secondary to how they are always there for each other and just connect.Marionette is something I will definitely be keeping on my Kindle and reading again. It also makes me want to go back and read T.B. Markinson's first book A Woman Lost. I will be eagerly on the lookout for her next novel.