Something about winter makes me crave speculative fiction. Being tucked away under a blanket while the wind tries to sneak in through the windows makes fantastical worlds seem particularly inviting. Jo Walton's Among Others was just the ticket for my winter break. I picked it up because Rainbow Rowell raved about it all last year and, well, enough said. This was the first book I finished this year and I've spent the month attempting to figure out how to talk about it. It's Welsh, it's quiet-yet-strong, it's fantasy in a very slight way. Reading it felt very personal (it is impossible to be an odd book-ish girl and not relate to this book), but I also didn't adore the ending? All of these things piled up into me putting off this review. 
 Among Others takes place in 1979. Mori's twin sister died in the past year and their evil witch of a mother (no, literally) may have had something to do with it. Mori runs away and ends up with her long-absent father, though he promptly ships her off to school. She keeps a journal of her happenings and her writing is what we, the reader, get to experience. She's only fourteen and her journal is filled with the musings of a whip-smart teenager who doesn't quite fit in combined with the mundane aspects of boarding life and a bit of magic, as Mori can still see the fairies that her and her sister would play with when they were young. Most people lose the ability when they're kids, but Mori, due either to her fantastical and abusive upbringing or to her commitment to her now-dead sibling, still interacts with the fairies. You can either choose to believe that this is a thing that really happens or that it's just Mori holding on to the make believe that defined her childhood. 
 One of the best things about Mori is that she's a huge sci-fi nerd. It's one of the ways she finds to relate to her father. Books are how she grounds herself--they represent both a way to ground her life and protect and/or barricade herself from other people. Like I said, if you were a teen who lost yourself in books, it's impossible not to see yourself in these pages. She's constantly listing what she's read in her journal. (I recently looked through my high school journal and I would keep lists of the books I read and the episodes of M*A*S*H that I would watch in a given day. Again, lots to relate to here.) She adores libraries and this warmed my cold librarian heart. I tried to find one of my favorite quotes, but I couldn't narrow it down. Here are four of my favorites. (For a slew of others, see the GoodReads quote page.) 
 "I helped Miss Carroll stamping and shelving some new books. They all looked awful, being of the category of books about teenagers with problems--drugs, or abusive parents, or boyfriends who push for sex, or living in Ireland." 
 "Interlibrary loans are a wonder of the world and a glory of civilization." 
 "I'll belong to libraries wherever I go. Maybe eventually I'll belong to libraries on other planets." 
 "Libraries really are wonderful. They're better than bookshops, even. I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts." 
 If anything, this book taught me the word karass, which Mori herself took from Kurt Vonnegut. It means a group of people who are linked in a spiritual way. I love that. I've had karasses in my life, but I'm missing one at the moment. Like Mori, I'd love to find my karass. 
 I had a hard time with the ending, but I dare not say anything here. I loved watching Mori grow up and decide things for herself. Oh, one more note. This sits on the fence between YA and domestic fantasy. There's a lot of teen appeal here, but I think it's more for people who were once nerdy teenagers or ever felt like they didn't quite belong. Among Others will stay with you. 
 Initial Review: Stunning and infinitely relatable. More to come. 
 {4.5 stars}