{"id":2064,"date":"2013-10-02T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2015-01-26T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T16:12:08","slug":"the-chaos-by-nalo-hopkinson-book-review-myth-to-reality-on-city-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=2064","title":{"rendered":"The Chaos, by Nalo Hopkinson (book review) – myth to reality on city streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Book<\/a>“Sasquatches, demonic Tinker Bells,
\npurple hippos wearing party hats;
\nthey were all real now.” (p.167)<\/p>\n

Auntie Mryss, cousin of Scotch’s white Jamaican dad, has been waiting for the End Times<\/a> – looks like maybe they’re here and somehow related to the tarry growths inching along Scotch’s chocolate brown skin.<\/p>\n

Hopkinson’s comments on “Noticing Race<\/a>” are worth hearing, as you can well imagine that questions of race and identity have threaded through Scotch’s life for a long time before the Chaos brings every bedtime story and nightmare to life in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Grab this imaginative novel at your favorite local library<\/a> or independent bookstore<\/a> and get ready for a mind-blowing ride through the dream-tainted city.<\/p>\n

**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/strong>: The Chaos \/ Nalo Hopkinson.\u00a0 Margaret McElderry Books, 2012.\u00a0 [author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0 Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n

My book talk<\/strong>: Fitting in at school becomes the least of Scotch’s worries as legendary creatures descend on Toronto with terrifying results and her big brother goes missing.<\/p>\n

Scotch (like the Jamaican hot pepper) doesn’t stand out for being biracial at this more-diverse school. Her dancing is stand-out good, like her big brother’s rap poetry. Their conservative parents don’t like either gift. And how they turned in their own son to the police for one joint! Chuh!<\/p>\n

The black gooey growths on Scotch’s arm worry her, the hallucinations she sees flying all over worry her, then everything goes crazy as a bubble of light zings her and Rich disappears!<\/p>\n

A volcano erupting in Lake Ontario, monsters from myth stomping through the city streets, cell phones not working – Scotch tries to help people as she doggedly makes her way to Auntie Mryss’s house. And those things from nursery rhyme dreams appearing everywhere? Mryss is sure that Scotch is the key to fixing it all…<\/p>\n

Why are all these subconscious images becoming real now?
\nWhy is the black goo spreading over Scotch’s skin so fast?
\nWhere is her brother? Where!?<\/p>\n

Jamaican author Nalo Hopkinson brings the myths and stories of many cultures into this nightmare reality threatening her adopted Canadian hometown where a heroine who doubts her own strength perseveres amid The Chaos<\/em>.\u00a0 (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Sasquatches, demonic Tinker Bells, purple hippos wearing party hats; they were all real now.” (p.167) Auntie Mryss, cousin of Scotch’s white Jamaican dad, has been waiting for the End Times – looks like maybe they’re here and somehow related to the tarry growths inching along Scotch’s chocolate brown skin. Hopkinson’s comments on “Noticing Race” are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,19,30,41],"tags":[90,22,7,4,75,92,20,5,37,16,220,18,40,44,43,39,38,96,184,31,12,21,35,33,60,3,6],"class_list":["post-2064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-fiction","category-legends","category-paranormal","tag-abandonment","tag-behavior","tag-beliefs","tag-belonging","tag-brothers","tag-canada","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-death","tag-determination","tag-diversity","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-friendship","tag-growing-up","tag-love","tag-magic","tag-mental-health","tag-mothers","tag-non-us-author","tag-refugees","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-survival","tag-tbr2012","tag-teens","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4969,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions\/4969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}