My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf

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My Friend Damhmer
by Derf Backderf

One of the books I read this week was Derf Backderf’s graphic novel, My Friend Dahmer, an Alex Award book from the 2013 list. It provides a chilling account of the author’s interactions with a socially awkward classmate who would grow up to be one of the most notorious serial killers.  Derf’s black and white illustrations work incredible effectively with his prose to recount his recollections of his encounters with Jeff Dahmer, mainly from their years as sophomores until they graduated from Revere High School. In this memoir (researched meticulously using interviews with other high school friends and neighbors, FBI files of Dahmer’s crimes and numerous interviews with profilers and psychiatrists, newspaper accounts, and other sources), Derf points out how Dahmer’s odd and troubling behavior somehow managed to fly under the radar of the adults in Dahmer’s life: school teachers and administrators never noticed anything unusual in his behavior above and beyond that of a typical burn-out student from that era, and his habitual drinking and skipping class mostly went unremarked; his parents were too wrapped up in their acrimonious divorce to notice Jeff’s fascination with road kill or his spiraling alcoholism. It’s only his fellow students, members of the Dahmer Fan Club, who at first encourage his bizarre spastic episodes, that ultimately one by one realize there is something wrong with this guy. Derf’s most memorable episode where he realized Dahmer had serious issues was when he witnessed him guzzle a six-pack of beers in the back of the car on his way to play spastic at the town mall for money that some of the high school kids had pooled together. Another friend of Derf’s recounts an episode where he invited Dahmer to his dad’s pond; Dahmer caught a fish and just cut it to pieces instead of throwing it back in the pond as he’d been instructed. Derf’s graphic novel lays the blame at all the adults in Jeff’s life who could have intervened in some way, but didn’t. Derf writes in the intro, “It’s my belief that Dahmer didn’t have to wind up a monster, that all those people didn’t have to die horribly, if only the adults in is life hadn’t been so inexplicably, unforgivingly, incomprehensively clueless and/or indifferent. Once Dahmer kills, however—and I can’t stress this enough—my sympathy for him ends. He could have turned himself in after that first murder. He could have put a gun to his head.” Derf’s graphic novel is an unflinching account of a kid who fell between the cracks, whose mental problems went undiagnosed and untreated, until he became the monster who would kill Steven Hicks, a hitch-hiking teen from a neighboring town.  This final descent into madness took place during the six-week period when Dahmer was abandoned by his mother and before his father, who had left right before the divorce, moved back in. Ultimately, Derf explains in the various notes after the book, Jeffery Dahmer would go on to kill 16 more victims while living in Milwaukee; a 17th managed to escape and bring police attention to Dahmer.

As the book mostly recounts Dahmer’s teen years, it’s not surprising that this dark memoir would have teen appeal and be awarded an Alex Award.  It’s well researched, chillingly recounted, and creepily illustrated, though it’s worth noting that Derf is not at all sensationalistic in his visual imagery (it could easily have been much more gory and Derf chooses to avoid that).  It’s worth noting that Derf credits underground comix legend Robert Crumb as one visual influence to his art style. This is a book that takes an unwavering and nuanced look at a troubled teen who ultimately went over the brink.

The Physics of Responsibility

Brown, Molly. The Physics of Responsibility: Alternate Worlds and Adolescent Choices. Mousaion, 2011, 28:2
http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/19825/Brown_Physics%282011%29.pdf?sequence=1

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In her article, “The Physics of Responsibility: Alternate Worlds and Adolescent Choices”, Molly Brown concludes that Diana Wynne Jones and Phillip Pullman both use the concept of heterotopia as a way to discuss the infinite possibilities of adolescence. Heterotopia, as Brown uses it, refers to “a move away from unitary or even a binary conception of the universe towards an acceptance of the possibility… that we may, in fact, be surrounded by seemingly endless number of dissonant and dissimilar world” (Brown, p. 2). In Fantasy series like Jones’ Chrestomanci series and Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, the fantasy worlds from which the protagonists live are only part of a much largest tapestry of interwoven worlds, an infinite possibility of worlds sometimes like or sometimes dissimilar from their own. In these fantastical multiverses, Brown implies, the authors present “a shifting perspective of limitless possibilities that mirror both the enormous potential and the terrifying insecurities of adolescence” (Brown, p.8).  Brown writes, “Finally, too, it would seem that both Jones and Pullman use heterotopia not only to reflect the liminal uncertainties of adolescence, but to question and reshape what Tolkien calls “eucatastrophe” (1977[1964]:70), the “happily ever after” that is perhaps, in the end, the most illusory element of all fantasy. By rejecting this comforting and traditional narrative formula, these innovative writers show their readers that life is not a story to be neatly resolved at a single point, but a continuous struggle to make and preserve meaning both for ourselves and for others” (Brown, p. 11). The challenge for teens is to turn their backs on all the different choices that they are not choosing, and instead embrace and fully experience the single world they are making for themselves. The challenge of adolescence, as presented by these two authors, is to learn to live a single life to its fullest. Maturation and adulthood come with the closing of possibilities and acceptance of the life choices one makes.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorw

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Little Brother
by Cory Doctorow

One of the books that I read this past week was Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother.  In it, Marcus Yallow and three of his best friends, Jolu, Daryl, and Van are skipping school to play their favorite Alternative Reality Game (ARG) the afternoon a terrorist attack destroys the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.  The four are detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and treated as suspect in the bombing.  Marcus resists giving his captors passwords to his phone and email, and they immediately respond by increasing their pressure tactics on him.  Marcus eventually cracks, giving up his passwords and phone passkey, and three of them are released.  Daryl, however, is not.  For the bulk of the novel, Marcus is unsure if Daryl is still detained, but he vows to bring down the DHS and bring their torture tactics to light.  Once home, he doesn’t tell his parents about the DHS detention, and he discovers his laptop has been bugged.  He then decides to hack a free Xbox Universal with a freeware OS, ParanoidLinux, and begins to distribute DVDs to help other do the same.  This becomes the Xnet, one of the last truly secure networks.  Marcus and the Xnetters constantly find ways to disrupt and undermine DHS’s escalating surveillance and monitoring tactics. Marcus’ hope is that by adding sand in the ointment, the general population will realize that DHS’s tactics aren’t making San Francisco any safer, they are simply repealing civil liberties for the sake of security theater.  Through Jolu, Marcus meets Ange Carvelli, a fellow Xnetter and love interest. The two decide to stage a press release within one of the MMORPGs in Xnet, but the efforts seem to backfire as the press takes large parts of his and others’ explanations for their actions out of context. After discovering that Daryl is very much alive and still in the hands of the DHS, Marcus Marcus then decides to come clean to his parents about his DHS detention, and his mother seeks out the help of an investigative reporter his parents know, Barbara Stratford.  Along with Daryl’s father, who had previously assumed his son was killed in the attacks, Marcus and his parents meet Barbara and explain everything that they know about the DHS detention facility on Treasure Island. Barbara warns that she will investigate further to corroborate his story, but it is out of his hands and she will write the story as she sees fit for The Bay Guardian.  She’ll give Marcus a warning before she goes public, but she warns there could be repercussions. Marcus is contacted by another teen working with the DHS, Masha, who tells him that he is still very much on their radar and he has only a few days before they close in.  Masha offers him the chance to escape with her if he’ll help her created an Xnet diversion.  Marcus and Ange decide to trust her and stage a Vampire-themed LARP for the Xnetters.  Marcus and Ange are separated during the confusion, and Masha practically kidnaps Marcus on her way out of town. Marcus steals her phone and runs away. He’s eventually captured by DHS, but not before he is able to get Masha’s phone and incriminating video safely to Barbara. Once in DHS’s detainment facility, Marcus is waterboarded for his information, and he nearly gives up hope when suddenly the facility is raided by the California State Troopers under the guidance of Stratford.  Stratford warns Marcus that he’s still under arrest and it may be a few days before they can have a hearing to post him for bail, but that from here on in, it will all be done under the normal course of the judicial system, not through secret DHS prisons.  Marcus is eventually charged with a small misdemeanor for stealing Masha’s phone, and the rest of the charges are dropped.  The story ends with the news that the woman in charge of the facility was found not guilty of wrongdoing in a closed military tribunal.

The novel is in many respects a dystopian novel based on the fears of what would happen is a terrorist attack on the same scale as the 9/11 attacks were successfully pulled off in San Francisco.  The villains in this novel are not the terrorist so much as the draconian surveillance state that the DHS creates in order to prevent further attacks.  In this novel, Doctorow imagines many of the real-world ant-terrorism tactics used by DHS but turned on a hactivist teen from California, someone with which the readers can empathize.  Marcus is an intelligent, charming high school student with a bit of an anti-authoritarian streak who just happens to be at the wrong place and the wrong time. Doctorow’s novel warns of the civil liberties that have been lost on the battle for the War on Terror, real losses made more evident in this dystopian vision of what is to come if we allow unrestrained powers to the NSA, FBI, and DHS in response to terrorism threats.  Part of the immediacy of the text is that it places the anti-terrorism tactics of rendition and interrogation in the back yard of San Francisco, not in some remote country like Yemen or Syrian.  I really liked this book; the novel is part dystopia, part romance, and part hacker manifesto.  Doctorow, who is one of the co-founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, laces his fiction with realistic and useful explanations of the basics of cryptography, trust webs, RFID hacking, privacy rights, and open source software, sometimes leaning a bit on the preachy side, but for the most part his explanations help further the plot of the story. I really enjoyed this novel and think it has great teen appeal, as it has a lot of quick pacing and great suspense as the story unfolds.  The technology is a little bit dated, but not so much that a current teen would find it too stale.  The ever-present smart-phone and gaming systems in current use are just the next generation or two after the ones used in this fictional world. I think this novel would be a great way to discuss practical issues such as using encryption for personal mail and data backups, preserving privacy rights in a post 9/11 world, and real world civil rights organizations like the EFF and ACLU.

The Diveners by Libba Bray

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The Diviners
by Libba Bray

One of the books I read this week was Libba Bray’s The Diviners.  The novel is urban fantasy, borrowing elements of horror, murder mystery, fantasy, teen romance, and historical fiction.  The book is set in New York City during the roaring twenties, and features a cast of characters whose lives intersect as a result of a series of occult murders.  The book rotates between Evie, a young flapper from Ohio who can read objects for their history; her uncle Will, who runs a museum on the paranormal and is a musty academic learned in the history of the supernatural; Memphis, a teenage numbers runner who used to be a faith healer until he lost his powers trying to heal his own mother; Sam, a thief and con man who has the ability to fade from notice when he wants people to not see him; Theta, a Ziegfield dancer with a secret past; Henry, Theta’s roommate, best friend, and piano player; and Jericho, Will’s beefy assistant and ward.  Evie has been sent to stay with her uncle, and on her first week in New York City she and Will are brought into the crime scene of a brutal murder.  Evie accidentally reads a shoe from the victim, and has visions of the poor girl’s last few impressions.  The whole city is enthralled with the mounting bodies, each one mutilated and left with occult notes left from the Pentacle Killer.  Eventually, Evie’s visions from the various murder scenes and Will’s research puts them on an unbelievable trail for a murderer who was hanged 50 years prior.  Somehow, Naughty John, aka John Hobbes, has managed to come back from the dead to fulfill the eschatological prophecies that mark The Brethren’s rituals to summon forth the Beast; their chosen one will herald the end of the world and bring in a new age.

While not a quick read (the book is nearly 600 pages long), it’s a very captivating story, as the book alternates perspectives from many different characters, including certain chapters from the point of view of the murder victims, which makes for a chilling and creepy tone. I think Bray does a remarkable job fleshing out interesting backstories for all her main characters, and their interconnected supernatural abilities and weird prophetic dreams make for an engrossing fictional world.  The novel wraps up the investigation into John’s brutal murders, but ends with enough promise for further adventures for the Diviners.  While the novel is at times pretty dark and the page count somewhat daunting, I’m sure this novel would appeal to teens, especially as most of the story is told from Evie’s perspective.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs

One of the novels I read this week was Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.  The novel follows the adventures of Jacob Portman, as he investigates the strange orphanage where his grandfather, Abraham Portman, grew up in Wales, when he was the only survivor from his Jewish Polish family who died at the hands of the Nazi pogroms.  Jacob has been seeing a therapist, Dr. Golan, ever since he’s had troubling nightmares and general paranoia after discovering his dying grandfather; Jacob could have sworn he saw a monstrous man in the shadow, but no one, not the police, not his parents, nor his therapist seem to think it was anything more than an acute stress reaction to finding his dying grandfather. With the blessing of his therapist, Jacob and his father visit the small island in Wales where Abraham lived as a child.  Jacob then discovers that the strange stories his grandfather told of Miss Peregrine and her orphanage of peculiar children were all true.  Miss Peregrine is a time-traveler, also known as a ymbrynes, and she and her wards live in a time loop, where they are safely reliving Sept. 3, 1940 over and over apart from the rest of the world.  Jacob follows Emma into their world, meets all sorts of peculiar children, such as a boy who is invisible, a boy who has bees living in his body, a girl with a second mouth on the back of her head, a boy who can animate golems, a girl who levitates, and many more. However, it appears that Jacob has endangered them all, because monstrous hallowghasts and wights, who were responsible for Abraham’s murder, have followed Jacob to Miss Peregrines loop. It turns out that Dr. Golan was a wight, who was using Jacob as a way to discover where Abraham’s friends where. Dr. Golan is able to cross the threshold of the loop, and he kidnaps Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet, transformed into birds.  Some of the children form a rescue party, and while they are unable to recover Miss Avocet, they are able to recover Miss Peregrine, who somehow seems unable to transform back to human form.  The novel ends with the children deciding to leave their ruined orphanage and chase down the hallowghasts. Jacob confronts his father and tells him that he is planning to leave with his new friends.  Some of the peculiar children introduce themselves to Jacob’s dad, and they leave him with a letter and a photograph on Emma and Abraham together, as proof that it wasn’t a strange dream.

The novel follows the definitions of magical realism and urban fantasy, where Riggs has deftly merged the horrors of World War II Axis powers with magical elements, which include a strange form of time travel, supernatural children, and paranormal antagonists, the hallowghasts and wights. As is common in many urban fantasies, the plot follows a teen who is “unexpectedly drawn into paranormal struggles… gains allies, finds romance, and… develops or discovers supernatural abilities of their own”. This novel was very well written, with a compelling story arc, interesting and fleshed out cast of characters, a decent amount of tension and suspense, and wonderful use of found photographs and other non-textual elements.  I think the interaction between Jacob and his father, a failed ornithologist who felt estranged from his own father, was one of the emotional centerpieces of the book.  This has been one of my favorite books I’ve read this semester and I very much look forward to reading its sequel, Hollow City.  I can see how this book would be very appealing to teens who are into slightly dark urban fantasy.  In many ways, it reminded me of pieces of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and The Graveyard Book, but is very much its own story. The copy of novel I had included a brief interview with Riggs, who credits John Green as both an influence and inspiration, stating “Reading John Green showed me how ambitious and engaging young adult literature could be…”

The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

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The Ghost and the Goth
by Stacey Kade

One of the dead narrator novels I read this week was Stacey Kade’s The Ghost and the Goth. It tells the story of newly dead Alona Dare and her spiritual connection to Will Killian, who can see spirits just like his father did before he committed suicide.  Will just wants to survive the last few weeks of his senior year so he can graduate and then move somewhere less populous, this decreasing the number of dead ghosts vying for his attention. His plans to graduate are complicated by his troubled relationship to Principal Brewster and psychiatrist Dr. Miller, both of whom believe Will is just a troubled teen with psych problems; Brewster would like nothing more than to have an excuse to expel him, and Dr. Miller wants to send him to a psych hospital for further treatment. Will and Alona form an uneasy alliance  so that if Alona can help keep the rest of the ghosts at school at bay, Will will do what he can to help her move on to the rest of her afterlife. As the story unfolds, the narration jumps back and forth between chapters narrated by Alona and chapters narrated by Will. We discover that despite her perfectly constructed outward appearance, Alona’s home life was a shambles with divorced parents; mom’s response to the divorce was to become an alcoholic mess. Will is additionally hunted/haunted by an unnamed spirit of negative energy, which Will at first seems to think is what’s left of his father after his suicide. Ultimately, he discovers that it’s the projection of his best friend Joonie, who is riddled with guilt, shame, and anger due to her part in the accident of their mutual friend Lily. Will knows that whatever spirit had been in Lily before the accident is now gone, and there’s no coming back. Lilly is brain dead. But Joonie still hopes that she can somehow summon Lily’s spirit and put it back in her broken body to make her whole. The novel ends with Joonie finally accepting forgiveness for her part in the accident, since Alone writes to her via a Ouija board, Will explaining to his mom that he sees dead ghosts, and Alona forgiving her mother for her part in Alona’s death.

I have to admit, I had a hard time getting through this novel.  Had it not been required reading for class, I think I would have set it down after a few chapters.  In my mind, Kade takes a long time to develop Will and Alona as anything more than just clichés of the troubled goth kid and the self-important cheerleader.  While we eventually learn more about the two characters, I still think they are very flat stereotypes more so than believable teens. Perhaps it might have some teen appeal, but I think there are better books out there that have more compelling story arcs and better fleshed out protagonists.  I was also reminded of our earlier module on alternating narrators.  I think there are books that handle this literary device more adroitly than here.

YA Lit and the Deathly Fellows

Campbell, Patty. “YA Lit and the Deathly Fellows.” Horn Book, May/June 2008. Pp. 357-361. 
 http://www.hbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/may08toc.pdf

Patty Campbell concludes that YA Critic Jonathan Hunt is correct when he explains that “the dead narrator gives the narrative a sense of immediacy that is so characteristic of young adult fiction, but at the same time allows for a degree of reflection and self-awareness that would probably otherwise seem jarring for a young adult narrator (p. 361).” I think they are right on this count in that the idea of having a narrator who is dead gives the novel  a twist that allows us to believe that the narrator, while still a teen, has been through an experience that gives them wisdom and distance to be more reflective.  Death gives new depth to the narrator’s viewpoint, and is perhaps more inwardly self-aware than most living teens.  Campbell also point out that many teens view themselves as immortal and questions “Is it more comfortable for them than for adults to read close-up accounts of death, since they are theoretically further away from having to accept their own mortality (p. 361)? “ I believe that’s part of it.  As teens, the idea of our mortality is often a distanced event in the far off future, not an immediate concern. Vicariously experiencing the death of the protagonist in a novel doesn’t seem as harrowing or frightening as it perhaps does for adults who have seen parents and friends pass on, and who perhaps feel more intimately the specter of our frail mortality. But I think that’s not totally true. Many teens have seen parents and friends die, and while perhaps they still feel somewhat invincible, I think it’s not fair to our teen readers to assume that they don’t have a healthy respect for the frailty of life. In many respects, I think these novels bring forth the immediacy of making the most of the time we have while still alive, and that’s a very teen-like perspective: to live in the moment.