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    Charm & Strange: A Novel
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    Charm & Strange: A Novel
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    Charm & Strange: A Novel
    Ebook219 pages2 hours

    Charm & Strange: A Novel

    By Stephanie Kuehn

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The 2014 Winner of the William C. Morris Award

    When you've been kept caged in the dark, it's impossible to see the forest for the trees. It's impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

    In Stephanie Kuehn's brilliant debut Charm & Strange, Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

    He's part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

    He's part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.
    Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.
    Before the sun rises, he'll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths-that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJun 11, 2013
    ISBN9781250021939
    Unavailable
    Charm & Strange: A Novel

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    Reviews for Charm & Strange

    3.5/5

    9 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wow! This Book was way more powerful than I expected. I think I choked up and cried at least three times while reading it. I really didn't expect such a short book to be so wrenching, so moving. I wish it had been just a little bit longer, maybe just one or two more chapters with Andrew, Lex and Jordan. I finished this book a couple of hours ago and I am still having trouble writing this review because I just can't seem to put the emotions I am feeling after reading this book into words because powerful, wrenching, moving, they dont seem to do it proper justice. I think all I can say is you have to read it yourself. It's a fast read, so read it, maybe you'll be better at defining it than I am, but I doubt it.
    • 4/5
      Subject matter tackled 5 stars, execution of story line 3 stars. The main character is Andrew Winters, a sixteen year old boy. The story goes back and forth in time between the present day when he is in boarding school and his past with his family. Something bad happened to him in the past and it skewed his thought process. Unfortunately the reader is left to see the story through his fragmented thoughts that don't make much sense for most of the book. If the book wasn't so short I might have given up. For a lot of the book Andrew talks about having a wolf inside of him and not knowing what this book was about I actually thought I was reading a werewolf fantasy book. When all is finally revealed it's like a punch to the stomach. I am glad I read it but it was a strange journey.
    • 4/5
      3.5 ... more a short story than a novel ..
    • 1/5
      1.5. I really forced myself to finish this one. I seem to have read a few too many books lately which have alternating past/present chapters and it's starting to feel a bit played out. Not this book's fault, I know. This book was going for something different and while it was not your typical YA fare, (and I do realize I am not in the target demographic of this book) it all just felt a little too try-hard to me.

    • 3/5
      Thanks to Netgalley.com and St. Martin's Press for allowing me access to this title.

      I almost didn't finish this one as it was a little different and hard to keep track of, but I'm glad I did. It turned out a lot different from what I thought had happened. A good read for those who like a little bit more thinking to a book.
    • 4/5
      A quick older teen read that is well-written and much better when you don't read any reviews first. Win is at a boarding school far away from his family and a mysterious event that occurred years earlier. As an evening at a non-school sanctioned party unfolds, we learn, through flashbacks, why Win feels isolated and alone.
    • 4/5
      Win Winters, a boarding school student, struggles with his present and past in alternating chapters, moving between his present encounters with new girl Jordan and ex-roommate Lex and a summer in Connecticut some years past, spent with his grandparents, cousins and brother Keith. Kuehn feeds the reader small clues to something horrific in Win's past, while in the present he is trying to fulfill his belief that he will transform into a wolf. At first I rolled my eyes, thinking this was another werewolf book, but as I kept reading, I realized this book was much deeper, not to mention well-written and gripping. For a similar unreliable narrator, from a female point of view, try 17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma.
    • 4/5
      I was a bit apprehensive about this book, a lot of the reviews said that you never really knew where you were or what was going on throughout the story then it just kind of ends. Well i can see how maybe people did get a bit lost as the chapters go back an forth between the past and present without actually telling you so you could get half way through the page before you realize your in the past again however this didn't throw me at all, its easy when you get used to reading it after a few chapters. I thought it was really good, there isn't a chapter where something exciting isn't happening, its shrouded in mystery and again it was another book i found difficult to put down, especially as the chapters are quite short, you can always squeeze another one in and before you know it you've read half the book! It is kind of fantasy the whole way through until you get to the ending and every thing clicks into place and it becomes really sad/dark and actually not fantasy at all. Although it reads slightly as young adult its definatly not for children. I'm glad i read it, its very different and i wasn't expecting the ending at all.
    • 5/5
      Win is away at boarding school. He doesn't see his family anymore and in chapters that alternate between the present and the past, Win, with the help of new girl Jordan and former friend Lex, works to come to terms with the curse within his bloodline.Kuehn does brilliant things here with voice and plotting. As the reader moves deeper into the story it becomes apparent that Win is quite the unreliable narrator. With the chapters alternating between present and past, why Win is unreliable becomes a mystery to be solved with Kuehn giving clues that draw the reader further and further into Win's story. Kuehn does some very fine work with theme as well, drawing from both physics and paranormal tropes to highlight the horror of Win's past and his rocky road to recovery.I loved, loved, loved this book although it was brutal to read. The focus on how Win had to choose to not just survive, but live past his childhood was beautifully done. I'm also a sucker for this kind of puzzle mystery.
    • 3/5
      I was conflicted in rating this book as I honestly did something I never do and that is read other reviews before I wrote mine. I was a bit baffled by how much other felt the book was an exceptional piece of fiction. I started to second guess myself but I just don't get it. To me, This book is pretty directionless to the point that when I finished it I scratched my head and said "So what?' The story is a mixture of child abuse, depression and a werewolf, wolfboy theme. If the book would have stayed focused on the struggle the lonely protagonist was having in his life it would have been effective. But contemporary fiction to be popular seems obligated to have vampires, werewolves and some supernatural creatures and that fell flat for me in this case.
    • 5/5
      This is a tale of 16 year old Win/Drew coming to terms with his inner wolf or past. Along the way, we, and eventually he, come to realize despite his attempts at thwarting friendship, he does have friends who will help him with his troubles.The story alternates between past and present frequently, which may be daunting for some readers/writers/formats; however, in this book, if flows quite fluidly. The characters and story and multi-layered. Emotional and scenic descriptions are lush and vivid.Overall, an intense read!
    • 3/5
      This is one strange ride of a book. I can't really explain it as there are so many things that happen. It involves abuse, coming-of-age, friendship, werewolves and so much more. It kept me guessing throughout and I found I could not put it down. If you like odd, obscure books, this one will peak your interest.
    • 5/5
      I don't think I've read a book like CHARM & STRANGE in a long time. A novel that had me asking questions on every page, that kept me turning pages to find answers, and not giving me the truth until the very end. Stephanie Kuehn's debut is brilliant and scary and heartwrenching.Win is a boarding school student who isn't so sure she's the kind of person anyone should be friends with. Which is why he doesn't really have any friends. He doesn't go to parties, and he has fallen out of touch with his former room mate -- for reasons beyond the fact that he saved said room mate from disaster not too long ago. And when there's a murder in the woods not too far from the school's rural Vermont campus, Win has to ask himself if he's to blame. He's not sure if he'd remember. And even though he's pretty sure he's still waiting for the change, he can't be sure what he's capable of.CHARM & STRANGE alternates between the present day, with Win in high school, and his childhood, when his name was still Drew, and when he was coming to terms with his unhappiness, with urges he had, and the offbeat relationships between him and his family members. In the past, Drew had no one but his brother. In the present, there's Lex, his former room mate, and the new girl, Jordan, who can't seem to leave him alone. In the past, things happened that Win still doesn't want to talk about. In the present, Win is being pushed to his limit. And he isn't sure how much longer he can wait for the change, to find out the truth. And he doesn't know how he's going to keep his secrets under wraps now that he's found himself in the presence of people who give a damn.CHARM & STRANGE is the kind of book that I know I'll be recommending to readers for a while. The voice is penetrating, the mystery is striking, and I guarantee that when you've read this, you'll be recommending it to all your friends, too.
    • 3/5
      Stephanie Kuehn's debut Charm & Strange is a lot of things: confusing, frustrating, disturbing, thought-provoking, dark, and original. Starting out a career as an author with such an unusual book shows daring. Charm & Strange will not please every reader, and I myself felt largely ambivalent towards it until the very end. Those final scenes, though, helped Charm & Strange coalesce into something harsh but meaningful, something I'm glad to have read, if not understood fully.Kuehn's writing style perfectly matches the character of Anrew/Winston (his first and middle name, which he goes by at different times of life). The narration is sort of fragmented, filled with commas and semi-colons. Punctuation breaks up the thoughts into little pieces, clearly illustrating Winston's troubled mind. He says nothing directly. For me, the writing was really tough to fathom, to piece together, which did result in a lot of confusion, but, artistically, I do think it's brilliant.Much of what's admirable I cannot really speak to, as talking about this book to any great degree would involve spoilers. Suffice it to say that the twists are both deeply upsetting, perhaps even going marginally too far, but that the way everything ties together is impressive. From a psychological perspective, the conclusion is compelling and satisfying.What brought things together for me were the final scenes. Kuehn imbues the ending with a bit of hope, but there's no happily ever after, and Winston's still got major issues to deal with. Rarely do endings like this show up in YA, with the hero or heroine still mostly broken and without a true love to cushion the loss of everything else. Still, there is that ray of hope, which shows through in Andrew's reversion to his first name and his much more easily parsed language.There were three reasons I struggled so much with this book for most of its pages. The first is our narrator. Win is a brilliant teen, but a cold, aloof one. He keeps himself distant even from the reader, not just from the other kids at his boarding school. As such, he's hard to like, because he really doesn't want the reader to know anything but his worst moments, barely even explaining why he is the way he is, because he wants to wallow in the guilt.The other two reasons are all bound up together. Win excels at science, and science terminology is dropped throughout the book. In fact, the title is a reference to something to do with quarks, and the chapter headings, alternatively Matter and Antimatter, are scientific as well. Their meaning is actually explained, but it wooshed right over my head. I was able to put together that Matter was Win in the present and that Antimatter was Drew in the past, but that was it. I feel like there's so much that I'm missing from a lack of science brain. Also, I had a lot of trouble navigating between the two timelines, finding that I would have forgotten what Win was doing by the time I finished a Drew section and vice versa.Though short, Charm & Strange is a read for a patient and well-educated reader, one with a high threshold for tough subject matter. If you're looking for an action-packed paranormal romance, you are in one hundred percent the wrong place. I will be very curious to see what Kuehn follows this up with.
    • 4/5
      Charm & Strange is an apt title for this book. Whatever preconceived notions I had about this book based on the summary alone flew promptly out the window once I read the first chapter. For so long, I didn’t know what this book was– is it paranormal? Horror? Contemporary? Ultimately, why I would say Charm & Strange defies all labels, the best genre for this book would be Psychological and at that it exceeds.

      The chapters alternate time lines, which is a technique I have conflicting opinions on. Sometimes, I really hate it, but not so here! The chapters are labelled by “Matter” and “Antimatter”, and it wasn’t until the book ended that I really saw how all of it, including the labels, fit together. Charm & Strange’s biggest strength is how wonderfully Stephanie Kuehn seems to have mastered the gradual plot reveal. Almost every chapter something new is revealed, but each time it leaves the reader wanting more. Kuehn does an excellent job of building up suspense without letting questions go unanswered for too long.

      Win’s narration is perfect and heartbreaking. The entire book I just got a sense of the broken boy that was Andrew Winters. I felt pity and sympathy, which is a remarkable feat. Considering how much of the book is Win hating himself, I never found him annoying or self-indulgent.

      This book isn’t for everyone. The plot is not thick or complex, besides the gradual reveals into Win’s past. At heart, it’s a psychological character study that isn’t afraid to shy away from tough subjects. There are things in this book that made me uncomfortable and at one point I almost put the book down, even though I didn’t want to step away from it. Once I started reading this book, I couldn’t stop. I got sucked into Win’s world and his story.

      This book’s pretty short, at about 220 pages, but there’s SO MUCH in those 220 pages. SO MUCH. So much pain, so much brokenness, so much uncertainty, so much beautiful writing. As stated before, this book won’t be for everyone, but I do recommend it for those who enjoy psychological stories and tough issues.

      Final Impression: Charm & Strange took me completely by surprise in a good way. It’s intricate, with a narrator whose very, very broken and confused. The writing is simple, but effective, and all I wanted the entire time is to know what had happened to Win and what would happen to Win. 4/5 stars.
    • 4/5
      Let me just start by saying, this book had me questioning my own sanity at times while reading it, it’s just that good. Talk about a book that messes with your mind, this certainly does that. It is hard to tell about this with not giving anything away, but I’m going to try this anyway.

      Andrew/Win is one complicated character. He struggles within himself emotionally and psychologically, causing him to standoffish, and comes across as being a cold person. But he’s athletic, and yes he does tend to keep to himself but not really a bad guy at all. He has a few friends that around, Jordan and Lex, and they do try to be there for him. Maybe not always in the best way, but there. And how do you help someone who doesn’t really want the help? Not know someone’s life before meeting them, doesn’t help in this department either. Win, complicated or not, I found him to be intriguing.

      The plot was one that I think it just amazing. It is told from dual POV’s, the past and the present, and doing this gives the insight into Win’s life and upbringing. Everything from his family to events that lead up to the present was a mystery and given a little at a time. And, at first I was confused as to what was happening to Win, but these two timelines come together, and wow, when it does, I was sitting shocked, mouth open, not expecting it at all. And It Was Perfect. If I could any advice when it comes to reading this, throw out everything you think it will be, start with a clean slate, because it will mess with your mind till the very end.

      Charm & Strange is a disturbingly haunting tale. The characters are well developed, and the plot was phenomenal and the writing just suck you in and is by far one of my favorite psychological thrillers.
    • 5/5
      “I am of the sea.
      I am of instability.
      I am of harsh, choppy waves roiling with all the up-ness, down-ness, top-ness, bottom-ness contained within my being.
      I am of charm and strange.
      Annihilation.
      Creation.
      Annihilation.”
      Andrew Winston Winters is definitely one strange individual. He was a star ranked tennis player and had such great potential for himself. Drew, his childhood self, was a boy of innocence. Win, his present day self, is a shadow of the boy he used to be - friendless, quiet, and quite sure that he comes from a family that transforms into wolves. He's just waiting for his own time. And as he spends the night in the forest by the boarding school with two people who refuse to abandon him, he discovers the truth that has been in front of him for so long.

      Win's story in Charm and Strange is separated into Before and After. The Before pieces of the novel is further separated into Matter and Antimatter. Matter is Win's story present day, while through Antimatter we learn of Drew and his past and what exactly happened to this boy to turn him into the solitary and sometimes violent individual that we see in Win.

      “I can no longer stand in my own way. It’s who I am. It’s what I am. From the kinky coils of my DNA to deeper still, I’m the product of the parts of me that matter and the parts I so wish didn’t.
      Nothing more.”
      It took me a while to really get into this story. I'll be honest when I say that for the majority of the book, I was extremely confused and unsure as to what direction Kuehn was taking. There were times when I just wanted to know what happened, why Win is the way he is now, why he is so alone... But once I reached the ending, I found the most wonderful and beautiful attempts that an author has made at approaching the psyche of a teenage boy who's past and family has defined him for so long. And the best part was that I did not expect it whatsoever. And it was fantastic to read about that.

      Stephanie Kuehn has shared such a creative story in Charm and Strange, and it shines even more as her writing and descriptions are both beautiful. Going through this journey with Win as he unravels the truth of his own identity and history was so emotional for me, and I truly felt as if I were right beside him the whole way. I don't know what to really say otherwise, other than this - READ. THIS. BOOK.
      “Somewhere, somehow, adrift in the sea and far from the stars, I’ve found faith.
      In myself.
      And that makes all the difference.”