Jaslyn's Reviews > The Young Unicorns

What a bizarre and lovely instalment in this series. The first introduces the Austins and their home life, the second focuses on Vicky's angsty rebellious teenage phase as they roadtrip their way around America to New York, and where we land here is when they've settled in New York. But this book is so unlike the first two. It's my favourite so far - it rocketed up there when I realised what a topsy-turvy, tightly-woven explosion of a book it is.

TYU is incredibly atmospheric. It's creepy. It's melancholic. It's vibrant. It's got a vaguely gothic urban fantasy feel to it. The themes, the storytelling, the pacing, the many moving pieces are all just fantastic. And it has some of the best bits in this series so far: of prickly Josiah Davidson, as tightly closed as a fist, trying and failing to resist the opening power of love; the patchwork neighbourhood community in a city as dense and busy as New York City; the palpable fear of a parent for the safety of their child; the ugliness of evil and the beauty of goodness; the gathering of many different people (scientists, children, priests, rabbis, cranky piano teachers) into a circle of kindness. TYU also talks about a surprising range of things: power-hunger, free will, knowledge vs. wisdom, individual thought vs. groupthink / isolation vs. community.

FASCINATING STUFF!!! I would love to reread this again sometime, especially focusing on themes of innocence (childhood or ignorance) and corruption (dangerous knowledge or learning wisdom or maturity).

Some of my favourite parts:
- "I believe that people become trustworthy only by being trusted" (Dr Austin, 117)
- "If no demand is put on you, then you are in a sense excluded." / "From what?" / "Life itself. To be demanded of gives us dignity." (Rabbi Levy to Rob, 126)
- "Think of taking a vicious degenerate, someone whose willful descent into evil has made him subhuman in every way. A brief and painless touch by the Micro-Ray can turn him into a happy law-abiding citizen. What do you think of that?" / For a long moment Tallis did not answer. Then he said, "My Lord, I think that is monstrous, too." / "Why?" / "Because it would be to take away man's freedom, my Lord. Because to take away a man's freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person." (139, Bishop Fall and Canon Tallis)
- "...it's all about what Grandfather's always saying, how we can't love each other if we separate ourselves from anybody, anybody at all, and how anything that happens to anybody in the world really happens to everybody" (142, Suzy)