Swamplandia!

Great kid's stories show kids or young people left to their own resources and devices, with no reliable adults to protect them and solve their problem. A few of my favorite examples of this: [b:The Outsiders 231804 The Outsiders S.E. Hinton https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442129426l/231804.SY75.jpg 1426690], [b:The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon 11564 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580235339l/11564.SY75.jpg 1836389], and [b:Coraline 17061 Coraline Neil Gaiman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493497435l/17061.SY75.jpg 2834844]. The kids in Swamplandia! are teens left to cope and make their own decisions and of course they make horrible, life-endangering mistakes. As a mom, I want to beat the living crap out of the dad who abandons and endangers Ava, and Ossie. However, I can still put myself in the place I was as a young person though and appreciate that these were the kind of tales I loved the best.The two lead characters, Ava and Kiwi, are endearing and clever but both overestimate themselves. When the chips are down, though, they come up with the courage they need. Swamplandia! Has a unique setting and story elements and is cute and quirky and an easy read. It's definitely a YA book, I'm not seeing the horror, magical realism, or fantasy aspect. Most of the “weird stuff” that happened, supposed ghosts etc., are easily explained as a projection of the character's minds.The Prose is a bit much at times with needlessly obscure descriptions that don't feel right in the “voice” of the character telling the story. They sound self-consciously like a writer and not at all like the thoughts of the person they're supposed to belong to. Also, and this is just my personal pet peeve, but I hate it when writers flip from a first person narrative to a third person without any compelling reason. Russell could have just stuck to third-person omniscient and we still would have known Kiwi and Ava's thoughts and feelings. This would be good for young adult readers who like offbeat stories.