Malavika Kannan

Anybody could be invisible. The real miracle was to be known, to be loved as you were.

I think I tend to have a preference for invisibility. It's probably not my preferred superpower (that would be flight, also a revealing choice) but it's all too often I feel like being able to vanish would be the best option. I wonder what would have happened if I'd had a high school year like Maya's, or even a book like this. Perhaps I'd be a little less avoidant, or perhaps I'd just have more practice at it. The vexing thing with visibility is that I want to be seen, I want the validation just like anyone else. And yet it's agonising; every piece reminds of you of the lack, of your own awareness of your own flaws. It's particularly intolerable when it's coming from a parent, when you're their "whole hearts". There's no other time when I want more to disappear. And yet the nature of joy is apparently wrapped up in the intolerable - the distinction from pleasure is supposed to be accepting this kind of discomfort, the pressure of becoming known. That's the miracle, if I can let it happen.… (mehr)

A precocious teenage author has written a pretty darn good fantasy tale here. Although geared for a young adult audience I enjoyed it. The book's fantasy world is well conceived. Magic is not allowed here and bookweavers are a banned group. Reva (the main character) is a bookweaver's daughter and when her father is killed she must take over the "family business" so to speak. She is eventually captured and must use wile and guile to survive. If Miss Kannan can write this well as a teenager the sky is the limit in her future career.… (mehr)