Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
Title: Charm and Strange
Author: Stephanie Kuehn
Genres: Young Adult, Mystery and Abuse
Published: June 3rd 2013, Electric Monkey
Pages: 259
Blurb: No one really knows who Andrew Winston Winters is. Least of
all himself. He is part Win, a lonely teenager exiled to a remote boarding
school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts the whole world out,
no matter the cost, because his darkest fear is of himself ...of the wolfish
predator within. But he's also part Drew, the angry boy with violent impulses
that control him. The boy who, one fateful summer, was part of something so
terrible it came close to destroying him. A deftly woven, elegant, unnerving
psychological thriller about a boy at war with himself. Charm and Strange is a
masterful exploration of one of the greatest taboos.
Because blood
is blood, and every family has its own force.
Its
own flavor.
Its
own charm and strange.
Charm
and Strange was confusing as hell. The book is split into two parts; before and
after. In the before part the chapters switch from matter and anti matter. The
before-matter chapters tells us of a day in the life of Win on a full moon and the
before-anti matter shows us the past of Drew and what happened to him as a
child.
Drew
has anger problems, ever since he was young he’s been having random episodes of
really intense anger hitting him full force and he cannot control it. This
leads to him being intensely violent towards people and him being forced to
have therapy and continuously being drugged up.
“I chase the
night and it’s so obvious. Me. It’s been up to me all this time.”
Win
in the present day has been at a boarding school since he was 12 and has
changed his name to Win not Drew. He is constantly battling with his inner wolf
– everything bad inside him – which has been restless but isn`t coming out. He truly believes he will transform on the day
of the full moon and when it happens he doesn`t. He is helped by an old and new
“friend”, they take him to get the help he needs.
“About how they’d
died and who I was and what I’d done. About what it all meant. About what I would
become. What I had to become. My destiny.”
The anti
matter chapters show how Drew was impulsive and self harming himself because he
couldn`t control his emotions/feelings. His older brother tried to protect him
until he couldn`t. One summer Drew and his brother go to live with their
grandparents where they meet their cousins. The cousins part I honestly didn`t
get! It was weird/confusing when he told them about his dream - ????
Spoiler Alert – Anyway we find out that when
Drew was younger his dad used drugs to intoxicate him and abuse him. Ever since
this Drew has struggled with drugs and puking and not dealing with the abuse.
The confusing part was that it’s not clearly shown and you have to sort of
figure out for yourself what happens.
Also
Drew changing his name and moving to a boarding school is because he and his
siblings were so afraid of ending up being like their father and letting their
inner wolf take control they decided to create a suicide pact. To choose death
than be the monster they thought/knew they might become.
“Yes. Siobhan
and Keith, they knew what we were. What the future held for us. And we all made
a pact not to become…..that. To never grow up and hurt anyone. But I wasn’t strong
enough. I’m weak. And so I lived.”
“I looked at
Keith and he looked at me. I didn’t have to pull my hand back before they
jumped. He let go.”
That was their end, but it was not my
Blurb: No one really knows who Andrew Winston Winters is. Least of all himself. He is part Win, a lonely teenager exiled to a remote boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts the whole world out, no matter the cost, because his darkest fear is of himself ...of the wolfish predator within. But he's also part Drew, the angry boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who, one fateful summer, was part of something so terrible it came close to destroying him. A deftly woven, elegant, unnerving psychological thriller about a boy at war with himself. Charm and Strange is a masterful exploration of one of the greatest taboos.
Because blood
is blood, and every family has its own force.
Its
own flavor.
Its
own charm and strange.
Charm
and Strange was confusing as hell. The book is split into two parts; before and
after. In the before part the chapters switch from matter and anti matter. The
before-matter chapters tells us of a day in the life of Win on a full moon and the
before-anti matter shows us the past of Drew and what happened to him as a
child.
Drew
has anger problems, ever since he was young he’s been having random episodes of
really intense anger hitting him full force and he cannot control it. This
leads to him being intensely violent towards people and him being forced to
have therapy and continuously being drugged up.
“I chase the
night and it’s so obvious. Me. It’s been up to me all this time.”
Win
in the present day has been at a boarding school since he was 12 and has
changed his name to Win not Drew. He is constantly battling with his inner wolf
– everything bad inside him – which has been restless but isn`t coming out. He truly believes he will transform on the day
of the full moon and when it happens he doesn`t. He is helped by an old and new
“friend”, they take him to get the help he needs.
“About how they’d
died and who I was and what I’d done. About what it all meant. About what I would
become. What I had to become. My destiny.”
The anti
matter chapters show how Drew was impulsive and self harming himself because he
couldn`t control his emotions/feelings. His older brother tried to protect him
until he couldn`t. One summer Drew and his brother go to live with their
grandparents where they meet their cousins. The cousins part I honestly didn`t
get! It was weird/confusing when he told them about his dream - ????
Spoiler Alert – Anyway we find out that when
Drew was younger his dad used drugs to intoxicate him and abuse him. Ever since
this Drew has struggled with drugs and puking and not dealing with the abuse.
The confusing part was that it’s not clearly shown and you have to sort of
figure out for yourself what happens.
Also
Drew changing his name and moving to a boarding school is because he and his
siblings were so afraid of ending up being like their father and letting their
inner wolf take control they decided to create a suicide pact. To choose death
than be the monster they thought/knew they might become.
“Yes. Siobhan
and Keith, they knew what we were. What the future held for us. And we all made
a pact not to become…..that. To never grow up and hurt anyone. But I wasn’t strong
enough. I’m weak. And so I lived.”
“I looked at
Keith and he looked at me. I didn’t have to pull my hand back before they
jumped. He let go.”
That was their end, but it was not my
beginning. My story began earlier, back
in Charlottesville, beneath the light of
the moon, at the hands of my father. It’s
the story that was too big for me to tell,
the one that grew to fill the depths of my
being and the far corners of my mind.
It’s how I lost my system of meaning.
But I haven’t lost everything.
Somewhere, somehow, adrift in the
sea and far from the stars, I’ve found
faith.
In myself.
And
that makes all the difference.
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