Book Review:
Jelly
by Clare Rees
Pub Date: 18 May 2021
Read courtesy of http://netgalley.com
Mash up "Moby Dick," "Life of Pi," "Lord of the Flies," "The Phantom Tollbooth," and James Thurber's humor, and you'd have "Jelly." I was drawn to the story because of the ridiculousness of the characters' situation and wanted to know how it would all turn out (though, I wouldn't rule out a sequel).
The characters weren't fully-realized people; we're provided just enough description to keep them from being mixed up with each other, which was OK because the characters weren't 'the story.' Their predicament was 'the story.' Imagine being a survivor of a catastrophic event but finding yourself existing on a humongous jellyfish. Intriguing, right? Of course! The tale of their survival - how they lived, what they ate, what their shelter was, what they wore - all made for a great story.
The only thing I might caution to those who are squeamish about animal cruelty is the way the survivors treated their lifeboat jellyfish, which was rather cruelly. However, given that the jellyfish wouldn't allow them to leave its back, one could understand why the survivors reciprocated with torturous acts.
The reader is never told how the survivors initially ended up on the back of a jellyfish, and at the end of the story, we are left to imagine what the survivors next adventure might be. This tale requires two good imaginations, one from the author ✅ and one from the reader ✅.
