The Wikkeling is a creepy, well-written children's book by a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop named Steven Arnston. The main character is Henrietta Gad-Fly, unliked by her fellow classmates and parents, terrible in school, and quite unattractive with a "blockish figure," she makes a great heroine. The world is made of plastic and old things are regarded with disgust. There is a strange creature stalking the main characters, giving them headaches. The entire story was set up with such care that it was a pretty big disappointment when Arntson completely drops the ball and doesn't explain anything in the end. I figured the Wikkeling would be some awesome metaphor for the way people were living but it turns out it's not really anything except maybe a computer program? And it was created to fight something that never gets explained. Pretty disappointing. Anyway, I'd still recommend this book. Just don't expect it to end as well as it began.4.5/5
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