Just Finished Reading: Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer (FP: 2016) [354pp]

The first time was in 3^rd period – Pre-calc with Mr Mellick. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be the last time. Mara was right there but didn’t see a thing. At least she didn’t see it happen and probably wouldn’t have believed her eyes if she did. She was distracted and suddenly there was a loud ‘pop’, a sudden deadly silence and then screaming. LOTS of screaming. In those brief seconds Katelyn Ogden was gone – popped like a balloon – and covering most of the classroom in blood. Looking back it was amazing how quickly everyone almost got used to that – almost. It was weeks until the second time and then the loud ‘pops’ of would-be graduating students seemed to be going off on a daily basis. After the tests and the quarantine and the mass exodus from the town of frightened families the authorities realised that this wasn’t some sort of attack (probably) or new plague (probably) as it only seemed to be affecting one year in one high school. Without much in the way of information the students and the town were left to ponder links between the ‘poppings’ and anything the victims had in common. Was it drug use? A new and very public ‘gay plague’? As the bodies failed to pile up the links become more and more tenuous and the theories less and less credible. Mara had a few ideas of her own but none of it really made much sense or helped in the face of her school friends randomly disappearing in a cloud of bloody vapour. So, there was really only one thing to do – get ready for graduation and have some fun along the way.

This was honestly a strange one. I caught the trailers for the movie (starring Katherine Langford as Mara) and was totally blown away [lol] by the idea and the main actress’s style – complete with voice over. When I found out it was actually from a novel I pretty immediately bought it. Although I haven’t seen the movie yet the book does have much of the ‘feel’ of the trailers so I expect that the film makers pretty much nailed the tone of the book and the ‘voice’ of Mara. I did find myself from the first page reading it in Mara’s voice over which was kind of fun. The overall story is strange – as you might imagine – and I still haven’t managed to classify the genre yet. It’s almost borderline SF but not really. It’s not a techno-thriller or a crime novel. It is a sort of coming-of-age teen-comedy romance with people randomly exploding along the way to graduation. I imagine it’s a metaphor for something: growing up in today’s hyper-media age maybe where a single misstep can ruin your life (as it blows up in your face?), but I’m not sure about that. Despite the aura of confusion around the ‘meaning’ (if any) of the text this was a fun an interesting, if very odd, read. I think it helped seeing the trailer so I had Mara/Ms Langford’s voice in my head (if the name seems familiar she played Hannah Baker in 13 Reasons Why) throughout – as she essentially narrated the whole plot in the book – but you can still enjoy it without having done so. Given the background to the story there’s obviously a bit of blood/gore throughout the book but it’s not really dwelled upon, there’s also some sex and sexual discussion, drug use, alcohol consumption and some swearing – but nothing too bad. After feeling in a bit of a rut with my history and historical novel reading this was a much needed change of pace. Definitely recommended if you want something weird to wrestle with (in a good way!) for a few days. More strangeness to come….