Book Review: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I saw this book in the airport for the first time, and was immediately interested, as I've been fascinated by orphan trains since reading Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story. So I was excited to see a full-length novel about the trains.

This book interweaves two stories, that of Molly, a modern-day goth in the foster system, and Viviene, a 90-something woman whose house Molly must clean. Viviene was also orphaned at a young age and rode the trains west from New York, and her story comes out as she interacts with Molly. I couldn't wait to get back to this book every time I had to walk away. It was addictive and gripping as I went through it. I couldn't wait to see what would happen to Vivien next, how she'd escape each situation to make it to the life she has as a 90-year-old widow in Maine.

Although I understood the interweaving of the stories, and I did enjoy how Molly was able to help Vivien with technology and get her life more modernized so she could reach out to those in her past who she needed to reach for, I didn't find Molly's story all that interesting. There are stories of kids in foster care that are done with much more detail, brutality, and depth. Not to get too nit-picky, but for one thing, being a goth is expensive. Seriously. All that stuff costs a lot. There's a joke somewhere about how someone would have been a goth but couldn't afford it (it may be another book, I can't remember...if anyone knows, please let me know so I can cite it properly), and it's so true. So I wondered how Molly could afford the arsenal of goth gear while being in foster care with parents who didn't seem keen on sharing the wealth. There were several little things like that in Molly's story, things that weren't a big deal but just made her seem somehow fake. She was definitely not as developed as Vivien.

While Vivien's time with Molly was no more interesting than Molly herself, it was Vivien's time on the trains (and before and after) that so captivated me. Her life beforehand is only sketched, but her time on the trains is given plenty of time. And her time with each family afterwards is rich and multidimensional. She was a character I could understand and relate to, even though I've had virtually no shared experience with her. That's when you know a character is developed wonderfully, so much so that she becomes real--when you feel like you could have been her even though you have nothing in common with her. This character and her experiences and her life made you feel for her, root for her, become her. I love when a book grabs me and pulls me in, absorbs me so fully I forget reality. During the portions about Vivien's childhood, this book did all these things. Luckily, those parts filled most of the book, with Molly's portions being significantly shorter.

Age 14+ due to some violence and adult situations.



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Review Wednesday: After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Okay, let me start this review with a disclaimer: I am not impartial in this review. Also, this review is just as much about me as about this book, so if you have no interest in my life, hit the snooze and go to the next review.



That said, let's get on with it. This book was amazing. I realize it's not exactly heavy stuff, and that it seemed a little...I don't know, simple. But it took place in what is basically my time of greatest character development, my most impressionable of times, that young adult age where tragedy of all sorts fascinated me and I secretly wished I had been a black man instead of a mousy little white girl. Naturally, I was obsessed with Tupac.



So when I saw this book I knew I had to get it, and when I saw it was written by Woodson, an author I greatly admire, it just made it better. During the parts of this book about Tupac, I cried...yes, every time. Every mention of him brought tears to my eyes like I was still a pre-teen trying to figure out if I wanted to wear a black trench coat and a Marilyn Manson t-shirt, or Vans and a flannel shirt, or baggy pants and a bandana. Or something like that.



The rest of the story in this book is about three little girls, D Foster being one of them. Some of the parts about the three girls were great (the friend going to visit her gay brother in prison--swoon). Some parts didn't hold my interest and bordered on purple prose (going to some sort of outdoor theater and making snow angels? I can't remember, I seem to have zoned out during that part). But the friendship between the girls was touching and tender and wonderful. Their interactions with each other and the way their eyes are opened by D and her experience in foster care was genuine and engaging.



Overall, a sweet, sad book, and bonus points for making me cry a lot of times and taking me back to my own formative years with my own messed up friends and love of music and the tragedy of the rappers of that time. A bit of a nostalgic guilty pleasure book, so it's hard for me to be objective. I don't pretend this review is aiming for that.



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