The Blue Girl

Reader reviewed by Jessica

This book is amazing. I read it twice and made my sister and one of our friends read it and they both love it. If you like fantasy I think you might really like this book. im 17 and its probably one of the first books I read and finished and between now and then I have read many books and its still on my tops. you should deffinitly read it!

Reader reviewed by Kathleen

Urban Fantasy is a genre defining word thrown around now a day with the same carelessness as How do you do? People have come to the conclusion that Urban Fantasy is any story that is fantasy and takes place in the real world. This isnt exactly true. Charles De Lint has been considered one of the forerunners in excellent urban fantasy for several years and if you want to know what urban fantasy really is, just read any one of his books. They are gritty, real, and fantastic all at the same time.

The Blue Girl is one of De Lints only young adult novels. The story is about a young girl name Imogene who has just moved to a new school and is determined to have at least one friend whos not in a gang. She wants to break away from her old, rebellious punk life that she had at her previous school. Finding a promising looking wallflower during lunch Imogene walks up to her, sits down, and tells her that she looks just like her old imaginary friend, Pelly. This of course is not true because Pelly has long ears, big eyes, and comes out of her closet at night to visit (what, doesnt yours?) Almost immediately, Imogene attracts the attention of the school bullies with her weird clothes and ever changing hair color, and catches the eye of the school ghost. All of this brings Imogene to the attention of an even darker, unknown force that Imogene will need to learn to fight or be consumed.

I loved the character of Imogene. She was very straightforward and clever. This isnt exactly a romantic story, and I liked that every boy in the entire story didnt fall in love with her on the spot because that seems to be a regular occurrence in Young Adult Fantasy. Imogene wasnt a goody goody either. Too often, heroines in stories are shy outsiders who are trying to find where they belong. Coming of age stories add an almost too easy sub plot and character development. Imogene knew exactly who she was and where she should be. Even though she didnt have a ton of friends, she was fine with it. She made her life what she wanted and didnt take no for an answer.

Unfortunately, this whole book wasnt told from Imogenes point of view as much as I would have liked it to be. It was told from three different characters points of view, its told in first and third person, and past and present tense. While De Lint doesnt change over in the middle of chapters, it does get really annoying and I kind of wish he had locked into one point of view and let us hear the story from them *cough*Imogene*cough*.

However, the plot is fantastic. The characters are fantastic. The writing is fantastic. This book is a definite 9/10 and it was a really fun, at points, really creepy spine tingling read.

Reader reviewed by Razz

This book was one of the best books I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time. The simplicity yet inter-connectiveness simply blew me away. The way that the words were written was... wow.

It was original I have never read one book like it. Anybody who likes mysteries, or anyone who like fantasy would enjoy this book.