Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Misty (Book Rat)

Lucy Scarborough has a fairly normal life for a 17 year old.  That is,
until she is attacked and finds herself pregnant and under a curse that
has plagued the women in her family for generations.  Now, Lucy has 9
months to figure out a way to perform 3 impossible tasks and break the
curse before her daughter is born and Lucy is taken by madness.  Lucy
must break the curse not just for herself, but to keep it from happening
to her own daughter, just as it did to her mother and all of the lonely
Scarborough women, and now to her.

But unlike her own mother, and their mothers before them, Lucy is not
alone; but will it be enough?

Based on the "Scarbarough Fair" ballad, Impossible is a retelling with a
disturbing twist.





  You may recall from a past Friday Face Off that I was excited for this
one because of this gorgeous winning cover.  And in some ways, it lived
up to my excitement, while at the same time, falling short in others. 
Werlin presents a very modern, disturbing slant on the age old ballad. 
She layers the book with enough realism and negativity (nothing is ever
falsely sugar-coated; Lucy is a realist, if nothing else) that I was
able to believe that things may not be wrapped up with the expected
"happily ever after."  I like having that doubt when I read a story,
because I like thinking that an author is going to do what's right for
the story and the characters they have created, and not cop out with an
easy, happy ending.  Because of this realistic streak and
clearheadedness from Lucy, the magical elements of the story, no matter
how far-fetched, seemed more balanced and true, which I definitely
liked.  Lucy felt real, and I cared about her and the plight of the
Scarborough women.



And I liked what Werlin did with the ballad.  In her afterword, Werlin
talks about how the book came about, saying she loved the Simon and
Garfunkel version as a kid, but as she got older and really listened to
the words (in which a man requests that a woman complete impossible
tasks to be his true love), she had an epiphany: he doesn't love her, he
hates her.  Faced with this new 'understanding' of the ballad,
Werlin set about fleshing out their story; clearly, there was once
something between them, but something soured it.  Her story of
Impossible grew from this seed.  This idea really struck me.  I liked
the idea that she was revisiting something and approaching it from a
fresh angle, and that whole "thin line between love and hate" element
was brilliant, I think, and a very adult take for a YA novel.  I really
liked this aspect.



Unfortunately, it was inconsistent.  Werlin's adult application to the
story wasn't carried throughout.  Sometimes the writing was very adult
and forward, and sometimes it was almost juvenile and a bit weak for
me.  The characters, too, were inconsistent.  The Elfin Knight (bad guy
of yore) was very villainous, for sure; at times he made my skin crawl,
which was great*.  But there are more fine lines than the one between
?/hate, and his villain-line was occasionally crossed into cheese
territory.  I wish she would have dialed it back just a bit at
the end.  And though Lucy felt fleshed out and real to me, the other
important characters felt occasionally cardboard.  Not always, by any
means, but I just found myself wishing for a little more from them.



Now, all this being said, I didn't dislike the story.  It didn't live up
to the excitement generated by its cover or the subject matter, or to
the really good threads I saw running through it -- but it wasn't a
failure, either, and I don't regret buying it.  I could tell it was well
researched and plotted out, but it just had a tendency, especially in
the beginning, to feel a little clunky and young.  In spite of this, I
found myself engaged, and I didn't ever not want** to read it; I found
myself thinking about Lucy and the tasks, and the story in general, and
that's a good sign. With a little more finesse, I think I'd give it an
enthusiastic recommend, but instead it's a reserved one.  If you like
fairytale retellings and stories that make you a little uncomfortable,
you'll like this one and will likely be able to overlook the issues; if
you don't, I'm just not sure...



*Yep.  Great skin-crawling.  But that means it was effective, so that's
a  + in my opinion.

**If that made any sense...

Originally posted:  http://bookrat-misty.blogspot.com/2010/04/impossible-by-nancy-werlin.html