Anmiryam's Reviews > The Apothecary

When literary writers shift gears into writing for young adults the enterprise is risky. Will they overload the narrative with complexities of language or ambiguities of perspective that swamp the action? Will they create central characters that are believably complex children or adolescents? In Maile Meloy's case the payoff was worth the risk, though any reader of her previous works would expect this to be the case. She is a writer of deceptive simplicity whose tales are full of details that are rich and make a powerful impression without being flashy.

In "The Apothecary" she has crafted a story that is adventurous and historical without being didactic -- the bleak post-war London she evokes with a few key words comes to life in sight, sound and smell; the story uses it's Cold War setting as a fabulous backdrop to make readers think about loyalty and moral choices without preaching. Her teenagers grapple with the feelings of no longer being children, but not really being adults and not always understanding adult motivations though they are beginning to realize they have power to act, even if they don't understand everything around them. The romance between the central characters feels true and undated, despite the nearly 60 years between the novel's 1952 setting and the present. And, even better, there's magic. Magic that works with the plot and with the characters, magic that feels magical and somehow realistic at the same time.

There are flaws, of course, but they are forgivable. Does literature need another cockney kid descended from the Artful Dodger (with the appropriately Dickensian name of Pip) who nearly steals the show? Probably not, but Pip is more than entertaining and you feel he deserves every bit of the energy Meloy invests into him. Are the bad guys too simply bad, the good guys too good and some of the plot twists too obvious? For me as an adult, perhaps so, but for a reader between the ages of 10 and 16, probably not. Is the framing device a bit clunky? Yes, but it's needed to tidy up what would have otherwise been some very messy loose ends.

Small reservations aside, I'm extremely glad that the door has been left open for sequels. Let's hope Meloy decides to walk through and bring us more Jainie and Benjamin, Pip and Sarah.