Girl in Landscape

Girl in Landscape 

Since the beginning I got a close relationship to the leading character, a sense that I could be in her mind and in her shoes. As a female reader the way the character describes how she needs to deal with her brother and family, and the coming of age it becomes closely relatable since the beginning. Also Having spent much time in New York reading the description of this familiar places, the subway the beach, sound like a copy of what it could have been my diary.

Even though located in a future, being able to relate completely to the depiction of the past (which is my present) really made feel part of past history and be able to see what the future could be like by the author. The futuristic aspects does not feel too unrealistic, relating it mainly to the degrading environment which I know it’s a fact; the sun burning, and the abandoned Coney Island all do seem like things that will happen in a near future.

After being hooked immediately with the characters and the anxiousness of going to a new planet, which seemed really exciting and promising, the death of the mother anticipated that the drama was going to be bigger and the transition to this place more painful. It also created a stronger bound for me as a reader with the character, seeing that the future is not that far and that the problems are the same.

The mix of sadness, devastation and excitement made the transition of a relatable future to a completely unknown situation smooth and barely notable. The mix of feelings were so great that even though as a reader I was located in a new unknown environment it didn’t let me get lost in the unknown.

After the first few scenes in the new unknown planet I got disconnected to the story and I think I can attribute to the number of unexpected events and situation. Being on another planet with unknown creatures, the entire family structure change, and strange happening with unknown causes leaves the viewer with many incognitos that drive away from the story and the characters.

Another aspect that caught my interest and defining aspect in the story was the sexual gender confusion happening in Pella’s mind; the existence of the Archbuilders as an unknown gender made up with both gender but at the same time independent to sexuality, but also the sexual tension with Efram. It represents for me what it can be the lost experience of the coming of age in an exaggerated way.

Before the collapse of this new planet happened, another interesting and important aspect is the way they deal with this new location, which really reminds me of the idea of a utopian society, for example when they are trying to build a school with this grant idea of integration.