Book #32 of 2018: Dust

[thistlechaser]

Dust by Arthur Slade
Traditional or self-published: Self-published [Edit2: Nope, traditional! See comments.]
Rating: Loved (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



Look at that heading info again. Self-published. Loved. How rare that is! [Edit: Maybe I'm wrong about it being self-published, but I don't think so. I googled the "publisher" listed, and after much searching, found a list of books they published, and all written by this author. Also "Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC". However, both School Library Journal and Booklist reviewed this book, which I don't think I've seen for a self-published book before...]

Told from the POV of a seven year old boy, at first I was confused as to where the story was taking place. I had thought it was an alternate universe or some other planet, but it turned out to be just as interesting: The Great Depression era in Canada. (Not a spoiler, that's in the book blurb, I just don't see those on my Kindle.)

The setting was so realistic, and that made the little elements of supernatural extra creepy. A stranger comes to town, and kids start vanishing. Creepiness kept building up to the point where I was surprised this was a YA book. It was never scary, but creepy is almost worse sometimes. It really, really felt a lot like Stephen King's style from a few decades ago.

The one small issue/confusion I had was about the dust itself. In His Dark Materials/Golden Compass, the bad guys were after the kids' dust, right? Dust was used in a similar way in this book. I thought maybe 'soul dust' was a thing outside of books, but I googled and could find no connection. Just a small thing that left me scratching my head, it didn't take away from the story at all.

I'm really surprised that this book wasn't picked up by a publisher. The writing was outstanding (it's been a long time since I last highlighted sentences and phrases because they were worded so interestingly), the story was great, and it was even edited nearly perfectly.

A couple of the lines I loved:

"His gloved hand rested on Robert's shoulder with the weight of a crow."
"Let us be the threshers of men."
"Then the wrath of God. That was the order of the Bible. Next the flood. But here, under the wide blue skies, the wind was the flood. Everyone drowned in it."

Currently reading: Travail Online: Soulkeeper: LitRPG Series (Book 1). Somehow this LitRPG book escaped the purge of them. It's not as bad as self-published LitRPG books usually are, so so far I'm sticking with it.

Comments

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Looks like it was originally published in 2004 in Canada so that might be why you didn't recognize the publisher's name? The original cover (featured on GoodReads) is no where near as alluring (and the Kindle cover on there is HELLA CREEPY!)

Sounds really cool though, but I'm guessing it might be hard to find in hard copy since it is so old, YA, and also Canadian first LOL

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was a publisher and it went out of business? Googling "Dava Enterprises publisher" has no good results -- no publisher website, few mentions of it even. I had googled mid-book, as well as before posting my review, and I had found one page listing all of Dava's published books (though not an official site), and all of them were written by Slade... All that seems to add up to self-published, even though the quality of it and the official reviews of it say otherwise. So I'm really not sure.

Amazon has links to hardcover and paperback (used though). Looking for it for your library or personal reading? Ebook version not good?

Edit: I had forgotten that I found he has a LJ! Not updated since 2013 though. arthurslade.livejournal.com

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Looks like the original publisher was "Laurel Leaf" but hovering over GoodReads book covers it looks like Harper Collins might have done an edition when it go all the great reviews.

I'm too cheap to buy books now LOL, plus if I buy a book, I don't read it. And I don't really like eReaders, all I have is an iPad anyway which would burn my eyes out. :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh! That would explain it then. Good eyes! I should have tried that instead of just googling. I'll edit the post.

Could you get it through that intra-library loaning system maybe?

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Probably, but I have too many other books to read right now LOL not going to bother ILL but I'm adding it to my list haha

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ahahah I know that feeling! I feel awful that I broke 300 on my Kindle... If I don't get a new book ever, I'll still have enough books for the next six years.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

My TBR on GoodReads is 978 :\ And I have a whole pile of books on my desk that i found on carts that are NOT on that list. I don't even know why I add them to my list anymore! It isn't like I refer back to it to find what to read next EVER.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest we learn speed reading, but apparently the faster you read, the less you comprehend (which makes sense), which would lower our enjoyment. I guess that means we need to retire and do nothing but read!

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

and watch the movies and tv shows in my Netflix/Hulu/Library queue...and play all the video games I have...

I always say I will never die because death will show up and I will give her a pile of books and be like "Here! Read these and tell me if I should bother!" and we will just sit reading forever and no one else will ever die again because they will be stuck i my TBR pile...

...or Death will be all brb and go find people with smaller TBR piles

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

HA! I love that idea. Maybe Death is a reader and will give more time to folks with long TBR piles... Don't even have a conversation, Death just glances at the pile, sees a big one, and passes that person over in the list.