The Blue Girl (Newford, #15) by Charles de Lint

The Blue Girl (Newford, #15) Reviews

• 
  oliviasbooks

  This review was originally posted in 2008 after I had read the book for the first time:
  
  "The Blue Girl" by Charles de Lint has been one of the most satisfying snatches from the fantasy shelves for me last year.
  
  Is has it all:
  
  1. A very warm-hearted and detailed description of a forming unlikely friendship between tough punk-girl Imogene, who had a criminal gang-member-record in her hometown and a childhood spent mainly on her own because of her drug-consuming carefree hippy-parents, and anxious, smart and conservative outsider Maxine, who has difficulties coming out of her shell because of her ever-present controlling mother.
  2. Dark, mysterious fantasy tightly interwoven with reality. Imogene's imaginary childhood friend Pelly - something in the middle between hedgehog and boy with bunny ears and a monkey's tail - turns up in flesh after a long absence and warns her: Somehow Imogene has angered the malicious band of faeries living on the school grounds and therefore her life is suddenly on stake. In her efforts to get light into the matter, she meets the ghost of a former high-school-student whose death was caused by faeries as well. Imogene finds out that faeries are by far not the most dangerous creatures in town. Bonded with Pelly and Maxine the long-time loner learns a lot about trust and friendship and wins in the end.
  3. Last but not least there are some interesting sub-plots like Imogene's dealings with the school's bullies, her relationship with her brother and the slowly growing romance with a music-shop-guy - whose granny comes from Ireland and believes in faeries as well...
  
  I will definitly read more books by this author and recommend for anyone who likes finely tuned characters and dark fantasy to have a try as well.
• 
  Algernon (Darth Anyan)

  From the very first pages I felt this is familiar territory. I'm a big fan of the highschool comedies of the 1980's, and The Blue Girl starts with a couple of outsiders making common front against loneliness and bullying. Imogen is the new kid in school - a wild one, with hippie parents and a troubled history, and Maxine is the studious, timid high achiever with old fashioned clothes picked by her mother. Each has something to learn from the other. If you're wondering where the book title is coming from, be patient, it will be made hilariously clear in the second half.
  
  The first person narrative made me quickly involved in the fate of the protagonists. The supernatural part of the story - a ghost, wild faeries, dangerous entities of darkness - is slight in the beginning, but it develops well to take center stage towards the end.
  
  Compared to my previous Newford book (The Onion Girl) this feels lighter in tone and streamlined / customized for a YA audience. I had no problem with this, in fact I think de Lint did a sterling job of mixing the fun parts with the darker content of the story without dumbing down the characters or sugar-coating the issues.
  
  "Fairy tales - real fairytales, not the ones that end up in picture books or Disney cartoons - are all about danger and pain and terrible things happening. People get hurt in them all the time"
  
  This particular quote reminded me of the original Grimm Brothers stories that gave me quite a few scares in childhood.
  
  There's a particularly good scene with Maxine and the novelist Christy Riddell where they discuss writing techniques and the need for the fantastic elements in a story. I didn't take notes, but basically if a story makes you look at your life from a new angle and reevaluate your options, it doesn't matter if it is invented or not.
  
  And one final quote from a dialogue between Imogen and her mother - one of the best characters in the book:
  - We're not going to have a normal life, are we?
  - Would we want to?
  
  I'm not planning to read the Newport books in order, I may miss some references to the back stories of recurring characters, but the main story both here and in Onion Girl was self-contained. I plan to return to this setting, but I don't know yet which book it will be.
  
  
  
  
• 
  TailFeather

  If you're new to de Lint's books, and are looking for something with substance, I urge you not to read this one. Try the other Newford books first, or Someplace to be Flying.
• 
  Chris

  I'm not a big YA fan, even for a Newford book. It wasn't a bad book! And I did enjoy the tiny cameos and mentions of a few of the established Newford folks.
• 
  Jillian Reynolds (Jillian Loves Books)

  One of my favorite books I read in middle school. I remember being legitimately creeped out by her imaginary friend, Pelly. This is one I'd like to revisit to see how it aged.
• 
  Deborah Ideiosepius

  This is a re-re-read for me; One of the authors magical tales of a reality that is not ,i.quite,/i. the same reality as the rest of us live in.
  
  Imogene's mother has just moved them to Newford where she has a new school to contend with, never an easy thing at 17. But Imogene has had a very different sort of 17 years, growing up in a hippy commune, running with a 'tough gang' at her last school... This time she just wants to blend in as much as her individual, feisty nature allows, make a friend or two perhaps, get on with life.
  
  It does not seem she will be allowed to, she makes friends with Maxine, an intelligent funny girl who is nevertheless the school's outcast making her an instant butt of the school bullies, she can see the school ghost who is fascinated by her and next she starts dreaming about her own forgotten imaginary friend in company of fairies. These are not fairies in oink dresses with fairy dust on their wings, these are the fairies that got referred to as 'the good folk' because everyone was terrified of getting on their bad side...
  
  While this is a 'YA' in that the characters are teenagers at school, as usual De Lint's writing makes it totally accessible to all ages. The beautiful writing of both the characters and locations in the story make for a very visual reading experience. Imogene is a complex character, her honesty and straightforwardness make her very likable and in that way she surely does come across as youthful; we are seeing her before life roughens the sharp edges and dilutes the directness. The complexity is refreshing, many books aimed at adults do a lesser job of building complexity in a character.
  
  The magical realism of the plot is fascinating also, while there are no major explosions or melodramatic events, the slow buildup of the plot, the intentions of those involved and the repercussions of events are simultaneously fascinating and soothing.
  
  The ending when it comes is very satisfying, so you close the book with a feeling of pleasure at a book beautifully written and well read.
  
  
• 
  Lacy

  I love a book that takes an familiar trope and turns it on its ear. Forget what you know from other books about fairies; Charles de Lint's fairies aren't particularly beautiful, but they are a little bit wicked. I loved the way he mixed elements from fantasy, science fiction, even horror to create his world.
  
  The characters are realistic and believable, and the issues they deal with are real as much as they are fantastic. Bullying, oppressive parents, parents who don't care enough, image and one's real self all come into play. Not to mention soul sucking shadow creatures, fairies, ghosts, angels and an imaginary friend named Pelly who is half boy, half hedgehog, half rabbit.
  
  Great book, probably for slightly older YA audience. 14+ for good measure.
• 
  Jessica-Robyn

  When people ask me what my favourite book is my default answer is The Blue Girl. One of my first experiences with urban fantasy I found The Blue Girl to be the perfect combination of weird and wonderful. I'm sure that in the coming years I will re-read this book to see if it holds up to my previous experience and when that happens I'll be sure to give it a proper review. In the meantime, I highly recommend you check out Charles de Lint. His Newford series is really interesting and worth it for anyone who loves world building and companion series.
• 
  Rida Imran

  This book has so much going on and yet i was so dettached to it all.
  Most of the things happen without mention like all of a sudden we find out about this Thomas guy being Imogene's boyfriend with absolutely no previous mention.
  This book written is in alternative first person narrations but they all sound so similar and unreal.
  Not once was I even worried about the main characters.
  
  If you want to read great urban fantasy check out
  Black Fall
• 
  Jensownzoo

  Classic de Lint...well-developed characters from many walks of life with a touch of enchantment. Never "dumbed down" for the YA audience that this is actually shelved under. The story takes place in Newford, but the city's presence is only peripheral and hardly mentioned. Deals with a lot of the godawful parts of high school as well as why it may not be such a good idea to draw the attention of the fairies that inhabit it...
• 
  Jane Lee

  It was a good book... although there was some... inappropriate parts. So if you're someone who doesn't like a spirit liking a human romantically [spectrophilia], then I advise you to proceed with caution.
• 
  LibraryCin

  Imogene ran with a bad crowd in her last school, but when she, her mother, and her brother move to Newford, she meets a girl, Maxine, who gets picked on and they become best friends. Imogene decides she’ll try to be straight and narrow. At the same time, she is no stranger to standing up for herself against the school bullies – in this case the head cheerleader and her football-playing boyfriend. When Adrian sees this from a distance, he falls for Imogene. But, Adrian is a ghost… with friends who are fairies. When he actually meets Imogene, he manages to get her into something dangerous. In the meantime, Imogene’s childhood imaginary friend, Pelly, shows up, but there’s something different about him.
  
  I don’t believe any of my summary is a spoiler. It’s all on the blurb on the back of the book, and it’s all revealed very early on in the book. I really liked this! I do love the references to other characters in some of de Lint’s other Newford books, as well. The viewpoint changes between Imogene, Maxine, and Adrian, and a bit of back and forth in time, but you are told at the beginning of each chapter whose POV you are following and when, so I didn’t find it too tricky to follow. I would love to read more from Newford, but always hard to choose which one next!
• 
  Иван Величков

  Мога да разбера защо това е най-популярната книга на де Линт, макар на мен да не ми влиза в топ 5. Още от началото попадаме на познатата територия на тийнейджърските гимназиални комедии, но с доза де Линт свръхестествено.
  Имоджин е корава пънкарка с минало на член на банда, когато се преселва в Нюфорт решава да започне отначало и се сприятелява със зубарката Максин. Въпреки че се опитва да страни от неприятности, бързо попада в радара на гимназиалните хулигани с пънкарския си вид и голяма уста. Нещата се влошават, когато я забелязва училищния призрак и палавата му банда браунита, които насъскват Тъмнината по петите ѝ.
  Написано така не показва как това е една топла история за приятелство, порастване и вземане на трудни решения, но книгата е точно това, макар и посмекчено за детската аудитория. Все пак си остава в границите на мрачното фентъзи и засяга доста щекотливи въпроси от всекиднените реалии.
  Понеже действието се развива в Нюфорт, не можем да минем без споменаването на обичайните заподозрени, като тук писателят Кристи има немалка роля, както и... абе четете, за да разберете.
• 
  Cynthia Parkhill

  Charles de Lint is one of my favorite authors, for his infusion of magic and fantasy into everyday modern cityscapes. Having recently read and enjoyed The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, it was an unexpected treat to discover an uncorrected bound proof of The Blue Girl in my favorite second-hand bookstore. Complete review at
  http://cynthiaparkhill.blogspot.com/2...
• 
  Claudia Staude

  What a great story about friendship and loyalty wrapped in a setting of urban fantasy!! This novel was intriguing from the first chapter. Imogene is a complex character who deals with life on her own terms. I loved seeing her help her friend Maxine bloom as a person! This is my first foray into the writing of Charles de Lint - and I will be reading more of his work!
• 
  Colin

  A surprisingly fun little fantasy story. 3.5/5.
  
  
• 
  Shaitarn

  When 17 year old Imogene’s family move to Newford, she decides to change her ways – a bit. Rather than running with a gang, she’ll make an effort at school and try to stay out of trouble. She quickly makes friends with Maxine, a girl who seems to be her exact opposite, and tries to ignore the resident school bullies. But the attention of the school’s resident ghost and a bunch of malevolent fairies (to say nothing of the reappearance of Pelly, Imogene’s imagery friend from her childhood) soon mean the two friends have more to worry about than the spitefulness of their classmates.
  
  I’ve read several of de Lint’s novels before and make no secret of the fact that I love his work – and if I don’t love this as much as some of his others, that’s more a reflection on the high standards of his other novels than a criticism of this one.
  
  Like much of de Lint’s works, this is set in his fictional town of Newford, a place tinged with a touch of magic. This is urban fantasy, but not the werewolf and vampire kind: this is about fairies, and not the cute flowery type: these are more the beings from the original tales, not really evil (mostly – some are quite nasty), just indifferent to humans.
  
  The friendship between the two main characters is beautifully realistic, and the characters in school are equally well drawn. We’ve all met (or been) characters like these: the loners, the mean girls, the bullying boyfriends. Before that rings warning bells, these characters aren’t just clichés, but well-formed, fully fleshed characters. I loved the relationships both girls had with their families too; they felt very ‘real’. Oh, and the romantic relationships are just mentioned casually in passing, not stuck slap-bang in the middle of the plot – surely a first in this market?
  
  The mysterious dark world of the supernatural that brushes the edge of this one is equally well drawn; I’d loved Pelly’s few comments about the faery realm and the comments from ‘Esmerelda’ about her work chasing the unseelie! And it’s just well-written; de Lint has a great feel for language and is a delight to read.
  
  If I have any reservations it would be that the ending seems a little anti-climactic, but this wasn’t a major problem and in no way affected my enjoyment of the book. If you haven’t read any of de Lint’s work, than I recommend you pick up one of his novels or anthologies soon; but perhaps don’t start with this one.
  Dreams underfoot or
  Memory and Dream might be a better choice.
• 
  Shirleon Sharron

  I remember reading this book when I was in Jr. High or High School. I don't remember if I loved it or not but it made me want to read it again. While it was a good story filled with ghosts and fairy's and imaginary friends, I still felt as though the story was missing something. It didn't fall flat per se, but there wasn't a lot of meat to it.
  Everyone in the story took to believing Imogene's story about the ghost and the fairies. I didn't mind her best friend Maxine believing too, but EVERYONE believed right away. Her boyfriend conveniently was Irish and had seen a banshee when he was a kid. The mom and brother were all hippie like so of course they believed. Christy wrote about the stuff but he wasn't just a writer gathering stories, he believed too. And then Esmerelda who happened to be some woman guarding the gate to the Fairy World or something. I feel as though it would have been better if at least a few of these characters looked at Imogene like she was crazy.
  Esmerelda could have been some creepy fairy trying to lure Maxine away or into their world. Christy could have been a mean old skeptic and turned the girls away, laughing at them for even believing him. The boyfriend, could have started out skeptic and even pushed Imogene away, but eventually he could have seen and then believed her. It would have been interesting if maybe the mom, giving up her hippie was and thinking, could have tried to get Imogene committed, at least there would be some tension.
  All in all, I was expecting different things to happen but then it all ended up too easy for Imogene and Maxine. I would recommend this book only for those who are looking for an easy read but not for someone who is looking for something with a little more meat to it. I would steer you more towards Holly Black for that.
• 
  D.M. Dutcher

  Not as good as I hoped.
  
  Imogene moves to the fairy haunted town of Newford. She befriends the quiet, bullied Maxine and soon sees the ghost Adrian stalking her. Adrian hangs out with some fairies, who as a lark try and get Imogene to notice them. But they have darker motives as well, and soon some of the less friendly denizens of fairyland take notice of Imogene too.
  
  A lot of things about the book I didn't like. The first problem is that Imogene is far too competent for a teenage girl. She never argues with her mom, has no repercussions from growing up on a commune and running around with a gang, never seems afraid once, and doesn't seem like a real person. Everyone in Newford seems to be okay with fairies, but doesn't really seem to do much about them save offer slender advice. It feels more like "Hey, this is a series book so I need to name-check people from the other books in the series." They don't even seem to react when after a mishap, Imogene's skin gets dyed completely blue.
  
  Adrian was a bit more interesting, and Maxine never really seemed to get her own voice. There really wasn't much in the way of creepiness, and the book was resolved far too easily for its own good. Not much tension, and really only De Lints writing made this an okay read over a bad one.
• 
  Michael (Mai)

  This was a very good story. I thought it was solid and easy to read. So many times I feel like I'm getting watered down versions of stories because characters aren't up front with important information but that just wasn't the case with this one. Yes, Imogene had secrets but she always fessed up to the importnat tidbits when it was necessary.
  
  So, why did I only give it three stars? The truth is I absolutely hated al the characters except Pelly. It was like the author gave them a label, "tough girl," "weak girl," or "loser boy" and each character had to go over the top to live up to their label, and when they did finally start to change it seemed forced and not like the character at all.
  
  The other thing I didn't like was how dated it seemed. It's set in 2002 and 2003. I graduated from high school in 2003 and to me it seemed to be set in the mid-nineties at best. I didn't classify anyone into a "head-banger" group for sure. I don't know, the story was so good but the characters and setting were awful. How can that happen?
• 
  Jackie "the Librarian"

  Charles de Lint takes on the similar territory as Nina Kiriki Hoffmann's
  Spirits That Walk in Shadow, but not quite as engagingly.
  Imogene is the new girl at school, trying to make the best of a fresh start. No more hanging out with the bad crowd, no sirree. But she puts herself in danger by revealing that she can see the school ghost, and that gets other spirits in an uproar. Danger, danger, weird dreams and soul-eaters ahead.
  I liked Imogene's punky sensibility, she reminded me of Buffy, especially when she befriends Maxine, the smart nerdy girl.
• 
  Crystal

  I think I gave this book a fair enough chance by reading almost 200 pages in, but ultimately I couldn't finish it. Perhaps it's because this in in a series (which I never even knew before picking up this book). Or maybe it's just the authors writing style, but I didn't like it at all. I found it very uninteresting, especially with a book that obviously had a lot going on, I felt it was rather boring. I didn't care much for the characters either and the dialogue was kind of strange to me, and I think I would have actually preferred less dialogue.
• 
  Brendan

  A real rarity: a speculative fiction book where the characters are so vividly drawn and compelling that it would have been worth reading without any of the supernatural stuff. As it is, the realism of the high school setting (well, except for the ghost, but you know what I mean) and the characters helps to sell the dark and strange supernatural elements. This is both really fun and really good. I highly recommend it.
• 
  Severind Alexander

  All I remember from this is fae and a punk girl and it made my dark teenage heart THRIVE. I otherwise remember nothing, but I think this is one YA book I'd like to revisit someday. I think part of me wanted to be like Imogene. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing but hey, I loved it. And I remember sketching the tattoos on Imogene's arm from the cover during my high school health class instead of paying attention so that's something.
• 
  Indra

  Зохиолын гол дүр болох Эмүжин (Imogene pronounced /ˈɪmədʒiːn/, cool huh?) надад маш их таалагдсан. Бусад YA зохиолуудад гардаг "tough байх гэж хичээдэг" охидоос шал өөр. Байгаагаараа л tough and funny. Сонирхолтой urban fantasy байлаа. Ямар ч байсан тийм trashy бол биш гэдгийг би баттай хэлэх байна ... нтр
• 
  Nora B. Peevy

  Another Newford book that's fabulous. His wonderful world of The Good Neighbors and ghosts and rebel teenage girls rocked. And he dealt with the issue of bullying in a very creative way. This book is modern and will appeal to teenagers who enjoy urban fantasy. I wish I had Pelly, Imogene's friend, visiting fromy closet. Would be cool.
• 
  Heather Petty

  This is on my top ten books of all time. I pretty much loved everything about it.
  
  But for writers, it's a master-class on changing POV, present-tense writing, and seamlessly intertwining fantasy elements into the real world. Just brilliantly done.
  
  Highly, HIGHLY recommended.