The Blue Girl

I read Charles de Lint's The Blue Girl about a week ago and have been meaning to post about it since then. For all those of you who've read Jack of Kinrowan, there are some similarities both in the world de Lint creates and in the themes he addresses in the book. One of the themes that struck me the most was the idea of new beginnings. In the second paragraph of the book the main character, Imogene, says somewhat skeptically, "I'd just transferred to Redding High, after my mom moved us from Tyson to Newford so that we could 'find ourselves.' Find herself, she really meant. Neither my brother Jared nor I was particularly lost." I didn't realize how much foreshadowing was in that comment made in passing. This book is all about Imogene finding herself, only she didn't really know it until the end. And the book never comes out and says it bluntly (though I guess the good books never really have to).

So Imogene has always been a bit of a misfit and ran around with a gang in her previous city. Here she's having to deal with an increased awareness of the Faerie-ish world, which is where de Lint pulls out the familiar theme of light versus dark, good versus evil. However, in the midst of it all you get this friendship between Imogene and Maxine, who are about as different as night and day. Only you see the progression throughout the book of the positive influence they both have on each other. Maxine is able to be more herself and see her relationship with her over-intrusive mother improve, and Imogene finds a better balance between being tough and fulfilling her potential as a person.

One scene at the end particularly illustrates this. Imogene and Maxine are having their "showdown" with the shadowpeople amamithim. Imogene realizes how they can kill the amamithim, but Maxine convinces her not to, saying "The Imogene I care about wouldn't do it." While Imogene doubts the veracity of that statement, the next day she thanks Maxine and admits that she knew she would have crossed a line if she'd actually killed them. It's a culminating point when the character and the reader realize all the changes that have been slowly taking place in Imogene, but were disguised by more interesting/immediate things. It reminds me, too, of the people of Ammon in the Book of Mormon. Change is totally possible, but you have to keep making the decisions that brought on the changes instead of letting yourself slip back into old habits. Because you'll probably fall further back than you were in the first place.

This book was a fun read, but it said a lot about having integrity and standing strong, whether that be against bullies or against the darker side of yourself.