When I wrote about Some Sing, Some Cry, I was struck by how difficult it is for books to be successful. It takes a magic combination of timing, marketing, critical reception, and, yes, inherent quality. The more cynical you feel, the less weight you will give the last item.
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (2012) by Ambelin Kwaymullina is, while a very different book, another one that deserves more success than it seems it will receive. Let me be clear: Some Sing, Some Cry may, at the end of the day, be an important book. Ashala Wolf is a well-crafted young adult thriller with a female protagonist. It has far more in common with The Hunger Games or Divergent than Some Sing, Some Cry.
But that’s pretty high praise, at least in terms of its potential for commercial success. It’s a nicely done tale, a young girl who leads the Tribe, an outlawed collection of youth who all possess special abilities (some are Sleepwalkers, some Boomers, others Skychangers–it’s a book that is big on capital letters and easily-identifiable superpowers).
Ashala has been captured by the nefarious Bureau of Citizenship, and has to navigate a nearly overpowering attraction to one of her guards, an escape, and a rebellion. All of the beats and notes are hit: the fire of young love, the ingenuity of youth, the triumph of an ecologically-based revolution.
Oh, and there are dinosaurs. Big ones that can communicate with people.
It really should be a movie. My suspicion is, as hard as it was to track down a copy, it never will be. On the one hand, that is too bad as there are distinct resonances to Kwaymullina’s voice that stand out; on the other, it is a tale we’ve seen before.
#WhatIWishICouldDo
Embrace the YA genre fully and enthusiastically. It seems so freeing: the adults can be ciphers, the relationships are all so vibrant and young, etc.