Among Others was one of the two books my friend sent, and she chose it because she'd already read it and loved it. I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own, because I've never read any Jo Walton and the cover isn't the sort of thing that would grab my attention - especially since it's a sort of reddish-pinkish-coral color scheme that I hate, and it doesn't have faeries on the cover, even though the book is about a teenager who sees and works with faeries.

I'm glad my friend thought of me, because I really enjoyed the two and a half days I spent reading it! I couldn't put it down. The story is written as the main character's journal. Most of the entries are short, so it was really easy to pick up and read between chores or while killing a few minutes until my husband got off of work or dinner was done cooking.

The story takes place in England and Wales, spanning 1979-80, and the narrator is Mori, a Welsh teenager who gets sent to an English boarding school. Oh yes, and her mother is a witch, her twin sister was killed, and she can see and speak with faeries. She's also a serious bookworm, and the book is full of references to the sci-fi and fantasy that was popular in the 70s. Despite not being familiar with most of the books and authors mentioned (oh, I've heard of pretty much all of them, but read only a few), I was able to relate with Mori simply based on the fact that I also grew up with my nose in a book.

Mori feels very real to me, which is what drew me in to the book so strongly. The author writes like someone who remembers what it was like to be a teenager, but also has an adult's perspective that allows her to portray the older characters in the story realistically, too.

There's a lot of sadness in this story, as it deals with sacrifice, and loss, and having someone horrible in your family. But there's also sweetness, as Mori makes her way through the difficulties of boarding school and finds people to relate to and build relationships with.

There's a bit of a plot that runs through the story, but it's largely character-driven. This is not an epic fantasy by any stretch of the imagination. It's a nice thing to read on a quiet weekend, maybe hiding from a thunderstorm or relaxing on the beach, when you have a couple of days to be drawn in. I think it would also be a good read for a bookish teenager. It touches briefly on sexual subjects, but there's no hardcore sex or gruesome violence or excessive language, so parents should be comfortable sharing it with any reader who is around the narrator's age.