Stones

I may have only started reading this book, but I have subject to think it is pretty good. Garnet is a character that many people could be able to relate to, along with Raphaella. After a few days of thinking this book was actually about stones, I decided to actually read it and find out what it is really about. Truth is, the reason behind the title isn't actually about the stones, but how the stones are used. So after an hour or so of asking people, "guess what my book's about?" I now know the correct answer to my question.

The test of good teen literature is that it not sound like teen literature, and Bell passes the test. His characters are credible and well drawn, especially Garnet. Though too resourceful for an 18-year-old in my reckoning, his thoughts are those of a real teenage male. "Love at first sight-what a crock. The whole notion had probably been dreamed up by some tenth-rate dramatist in the old days, some loser with a quill pen who needed to move the story along quickly and was too lazy or unimaginative to develop a believable love affair between his characters. So he wrote a scene where the man and the woman catch sight of each other, and BANG, they're in love. Sure." (p. 14). The intuitive, spiritual Raphaella is refreshingly original and does not fall into any teen stereotype. Garnet's Dad, the antique dealer, provides the comic relief. He shares just enough of Garnet's cynical sarcasm for the reader to know where Garnet got his, as in the following exchange: "Garnet, what's that project you're working on?" "Oh, nothing really." "Sounds interesting." (p. 181). Bell falls short only in his drawing of Garnet's mother, a career-obsessed foreign correspondent. Mom fits the Absent Parent stereotype so well that her character does little more than fill the category. As a result, the reader winds up not caring during a false crisis near the novel's end in which Mom is almost fatally injured while covering a story in East Timor. Minor flaws aside, teen readers will enjoy Stones because Garnet and Raphaella grapple with issues that real teens do: the temptation to drop out of high school (which Garnet almost does), fear of the spiritual, arguments with parents over careers, and sex. Authors of adolescent literature have a gentlemen's agreement with parents and book-award review committees that they will not portray or promote teenagers having sex. The challenge for the author of a teen romance novel, then, is to skip the sex without preaching. Bell handles the issue with poise. "Kissing, hugging, holding hands. She [Raphaella] wouldn't go any further, not even when I felt her heart beating against my chest...She would stop and push me away." (p. 117) That settles the issue as far as Bell is concerned, and the story gets back to work. This is the right approach for a book like this because Garnet's story is not about the dynamics of teen romance; it is about an ostracized personality who finds a friend in whom to grow. Bell's writing style is vivid and confident and never descends to a teen level. The dialogue is convincing throughout, and the plot builds steadily and patiently without dawdling. Like all good writers of fiction, Bell reveals background facts to the reader using a variety of devices, sometimes through Garnet's first-person narratives, other times through simple dialogue. Bell takes too much license in only one instance: the solution of the novel's main mystery comes to Garnet in a dream, which Bell seems to hope