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Please review your cart. You can remove the unavailable item s now or we'll automatically remove it at Checkout. Continue shopping Checkout Continue shopping. Chi ama i libri sceglie Kobo e inMondadori. Unavailable in Russia This item can't be purchased in Russia. But as their strange friendship blossoms, Corey abruptly leaves for Europe. Without friends or family to help, Loa begins to cope with her condition through, of all things, theoretical astrophysics.
This melancholic contemporary novel has many stellar moments that will appeal to issue-driven novel readers, but will need to be handsold through booktalking to reach a wider teen audience. The bold cover photo of a human heart suggests the dark and sometimes graphic nature of the story. Those readers drawn inside will be won by the vivid characterization and fresh style. A strong debut about learning to see yourself apart from the reflection you cast off. Blythe Woolston is a reader. Open Preview See a Problem?
Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston. The Freak Observer is rich in family drama, theoretical physics, and an unusual, tough young woman Loa Lindgren. When her younger sister dies, year-old Loa's clockwork galaxy collapses. The Freak Observer is a startling debut about death, life, astrophysics, and finding beauty in chaos.
Hardcover , pages. Morris YA Debut Award To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Freak Observer , please sign up. What is the theme if this book? Heather Campsmith it is using the application of physics to ask questions of us and make us think about life and death. The observations are also Loas way of working …more it is using the application of physics to ask questions of us and make us think about life and death. The observations are also Loas way of working though her sister and friends death.
See 1 question about The Freak Observer…. Lists with This Book. Feb 10, Crowinator rated it really liked it Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Okay, this won me over -- just when I got so fed up with the relentlessly sad life the narrator, Loa, is living seriously, I just about lost it when the dog dies in the story , things start to improve for her; yes, it improves slowly, and it's only a little bit, a glimmer, but that's realistic and doesn't undercut all of the reasons for her PTSD and depression. Also, I love a non-linear, character-driven story, so the structure and the voice held me through the rough patches.
Still, if it wasn't Okay, this won me over -- just when I got so fed up with the relentlessly sad life the narrator, Loa, is living seriously, I just about lost it when the dog dies in the story , things start to improve for her; yes, it improves slowly, and it's only a little bit, a glimmer, but that's realistic and doesn't undercut all of the reasons for her PTSD and depression.
Still, if it wasn't for Woolston's writing, I never would have gotten past the first 90 pages. I don't normally enjoy reading such sad stories, and I can't really say I enjoyed this one. There were just too many sharp, wry, observant passages I was marking off with sticky notes to stop reading, and I'm glad that the story ends on a quietly hopeful note. This is the kind of book I will think about long after finishing and probably read again, to catch all the nuances I missed the first time around. If they weren't, power couldn't get swapped back and forth. We would just hover in our self-contained envelopes producing everything we need and eating our own shit.
I am not a widow, for example, and I've never found my husband pinned under the axel after the rig he was working on slipped off the blocks. I am not fascinated by whippets or Judge Judy or the guy in the blue and white trailer who is running a meth lab. He was all about goals and, I guess, dislike for phone books. View all 4 comments. Sep 09, Nova Waite rated it liked it.
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So far, as an English teacher, I could criticize so many things about this book. But if the author is reading this review out of curiousity I will temper my criticism with praise first--I thought the physics problems at the beginning of each chapter were outstanding pieces of craft. I'm a big fan of compositional risk, and especially look for "what has not been done before" in a book.
I've never seen physics problems as a way to introduce chapters in a realistic fiction book. The writer scores So far, as an English teacher, I could criticize so many things about this book. The writer scores points for that. However, I was a lazy reader and didn't really stop to connect the dots on how each chapter intro connected with all the others--but I can see that they connect as brilliantly as constellations.
This is the kind of book you have to actually think about--if you "fast read," you're not going to get the subtleties.
When I re-read, I will look at the connections between chapter intros more closely. I'd love to assign that as a student project, but some of the book's content is inappropriate, and so I would ask for parent's permission before even recommending it. I like to be as "realistic" as realistic fiction It also has, though not explicit, 1 or 2 "adult content" references. The author could've deleted this easily--it was uneccesary for this to be included--the book was good enough without it.
However, we all know that in real life, you're going to hear profanity. We all know what young adults are being taught in health class. That being said, just because these things are "realistic" doesn't make the book seem any more realistic to me. First off, there are way too many conflicts.
Without spoiling the book by revealing specifics, conflicts include: And the problems are solved way too easily with a snap decision from Dad that came out of nowhere. His answer to it all is to start over--people in real life can't just "start over. Although I found Loa's nightmare "sequences" to be fascinating, probably the best writing in the book, her inner thoughts didn't "ring true" to me, and I can't quite put my finger on why. The relationships between characters also seemed hollow. Yes, relationships become strained after a traumtic event I never saw it much in the book, not between Loa and her siblings, Loa and her parents, Loa and her friends.
The closest relationship was between Loa and Corey, and as a lover of horror, I was pleasantly Pleased by Corey's psychotic postcards from Europe. Sep 04, Donna rated it it was amazing Shelves: Carolrhoda Lab for the win yet again! Their books are so rich and deep that you just get sucked right in and you don't even realize you were under water until you emerge breathless.
Now this is literary YA that I can sink my teeth into. It's succinct but vibrant. Loa doesn't pity herself even tho Carolrhoda Lab for the win yet again! Loa doesn't pity herself even though she is probably someone that should. The story is relatively plotless, with Asta's death happening before the story even starts. When you first enter, you're walking into Loa's shit storm of a life without an umbrella and you can feel every ping and fleck of poo as it hurls at her. The main antagonist is someone that exists only in Loa's mind, The Bony Guy.
He's always there, haunting her, keeping her alone in life.
The Freak Observer – Greenhouse Literary Agency
And her loneliness is tangible. Her parents don't see her as their child but as a burden, especially when she falls out of line, like getting hit by a car. Such a bad kid. Her only friend moves away but she finds something out about him that makes her doubt the relationship for most of the book. Her little brother is kept at a distance by her parents, as if they're afraid he'll catch something from her.
This girl leads such a loveless, lonely life that you can't help but feel for her. The good thing as if there's only one is that Woolston doesn't drag the drama out for hundreds upon hundreds of pages. The story is poignant, telling the parts that need to be told for Loa's mind to get from point A to point B and then it's done.
It's literary without the heinous, door stopper fat. I feel like all I'm doing is expounding on the fangirlishness with this review but it is that level of amazing. It's a character study with a glimmer of hope at the end. It's near hopeless but not quite. Loa is one of the most amazing characters I've seen and to have gone through everything that she has, it's a miracle she's not in the fetal position sucking her thumb by the end of the story.
At the end she's standing up straighter than at the beginning. And for that she's all the more amazing. Dec 13, Louisa rated it really liked it Shelves: Sometimes with books like this, I can't bear to get through them. I read like ten pages at a time, I start another book--all in hopes of avoiding a seemingly inevitable outcome that results in the horrible wasting away of the teenage protagonist. And by books like this I mean books where the teenage protagonist just gets the shit kicked out of them--physically and emotionally--by life.
I guess I'm a bit of a coward like that. However, in this book like that, Blythe Woolston's, The Freak Observer , Sometimes with books like this, I can't bear to get through them. I read it all the way because as the storm of shit seeks to destroy Loa, our sixteen-year-old protagonist, I was utterly convinced that she would be fine. Loa, unlike a lot of the weak, needy girls that appear throughout YA literature masquerading as heroines, is a survivor. And I mean a bloody survivor--and not in the Destiny's Child sort of way that means wearing a lot of military-inspired booty shorts--and she's smart.
Emotionally intelligent and pretty gosh darn good at math and science. Finally, a book to pass along to my teenage girls that I'm not ashamed of A story with a very strong voice, a very fragile girl, and a family that make you kind of grateful for what you have. I enjoyed the voice, which reminded me of Speak, and I did like being in Loa's head Not bored of her, but bored of the story. Nothing was in order, so I was constantly confused. Was this before her friend died, or after? There's also quite a lot of talk about death and people's coping mechanisms.
It made for quite a depressing read. My main concern for the b A story with a very strong voice, a very fragile girl, and a family that make you kind of grateful for what you have. My main concern for the book was that mainly it was remembering the past without a whole lot of interaction.
Just Loa's take on everything. I craved for her to have an actual conversation with someone that lasted more than half a page. This wasn't that kind of book, and I couldn't quite finish it. I might try again. But right now it gets 3 stars because, though it was beautifully written in a 'stay inside a characters head' sort of way, it wasn't the kind of book I personally enjoy. Did make me go hug my dogs, though. Jun 30, Phoebe added it Shelves: One of those books that don't need a rating.
There's Holden, and then there's Loa. Jul 03, TheBookSmugglers rated it really liked it. The Freak Observer falls somewhere in between those two for me. Loa Lindgren is having a terrible time: The story then revolves around Loa, and her family trying to find their way again, after living so many years orbiting around Asta, who was effectively the centre of their family life. At school, she gets to work on a special physics project about Freak Observers — a hypothesised self-aware entity that pops-up in the universe to make sense of the chaos.
Loa herself needs to be her own Freak Observer of her own small universe and make sense of the reining chaos in her life. Perhaps, this might explain the causal distance I felt when reading the novel. I do appreciate that as I appreciated many other things about the novel. Like the lovely writing, for example: In an old house like this, everything you touch is connected to another moment. The cupboard is full of ghosts. The bookmarks between pages are ghosts. The photographs of my unattractive ancestors on the wall are most certainly ghosts. Even the morning glories that grow by the back porch are ghosts.
My mom plants them every year. She soaks the little black seeds and nicks them with a nail file so they will be able to crack open and grow. She plants them because there were morning glories blooming the day she came to the house. As the story progresses it is easy to see how both are simply good, loving people, struggling with the terrible thing that has happened to their child and dire financial distress and doing regretful things as a result.
These are not excuses but explanations and in the end, there is a sense that this family is moving forward, in the process of healing and that includes Loa as well. It is a sad story but also a beautiful and hopeful one. You know, the sort that wins well-deserved awards. Sep 08, Mary rated it it was amazing Shelves: In the months between when I put this book on my list to order for school and today when I read it, I forgot why I ordered it.
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I do remember that the heart and brain cover is what first attracted my attention, because I still find the cover intriguing. Good reviews and the Morris Award certainly played a part, and I would definitely have read summaries within those reviews and on the book distributor's site. Still, when I pulled it out of my bag last night, I wasn't sure what I was about to be r In the months between when I put this book on my list to order for school and today when I read it, I forgot why I ordered it.
Still, when I pulled it out of my bag last night, I wasn't sure what I was about to be reading, and I approached it with a bit of trepidation because I was more in the mood for something light and escapist than what I expected this to be. Now that I've finished it, I think I understand that a summary cannot adequately describe the experience of reading this book. And, for me, this was a book that was about my experiences of reading it rather than its plot or writing style or characterization though I like all of those things about it.
The Freak Observer immersed me in a period of time in the life of Loa, while forcing me to look outward at the real world from the high school experience to current events to how other people might view parts of the book. Loa tells her story out of chronological order starting with her return to school following the death of her friend Esther and returning to fill us in on how that happened as well as some of the other recent tragedies in her life Asta, her dog Ket, her father's job, Corey, a bicycle accident.
But before you get to any of those tragedies, you are thinking about the toilet plunger bruise on her jaw, and thinking you know something about her life. There are no simple characterizations in this book. These are some of the most frustratingly, realistically complex people in fiction, though Loa's love for and care of her younger brother and sister are almost saintlike, and many parents would be pleased to have a child as helpful as Loa has generally been. I love the physics, biology, math, and dream science problems or information at the start of each chapter.
They are interesting to think about in themselves, and the way they introduce the ideas of their chapters and fit together as a whole is almost magical. I love the inclusion of "Stars at Tallapoosa," though I do regret that it must be the English teacher who is heartless. And, the mention of the artists of the postcards Corey sends Loa are still more references to look up and learn more about. When I finished chapter 12, I had to stop reading while I dealt with my anger over popular attitudes and perceptions of beneficiaries of social welfare programs which doesn't directly apply to the Lindgren family.
Before reading chapter 14, I stopped to have a conversation about Dolly the sheep. Then, after reading it myself, I read pages top aloud to my husband. There is humor in this book, but it's a dark and cynical humor. Somewhere along the way I remembered Wendy Mass's book Pi in the Sky, written for a very different audience, and wondered if she has read this book which I think she'd like. While it seems as though this book may be unrelievedly depressing, as Loa deals with more grief than you'd think any teen could handle, she is strong, resilient, intelligent - and lucky.
So, there is progression through the stages of grief, and there is growth in her character, and her family is not stagnant either.