How I Survived My Summer Vacation, by Tamika Flynn, Age 12 ¾ by thingswithwings (PG-13)

[sheepnamedpig.livejournal.com]

Title: How I Survived My Summer Vacation, by Tamika Flynn, Age 12 3/4
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Pairing: Tamika Flynn/Original Female Character
Categories: Action/Adventure, Romance, Horror, Friendship, Missing Scene
Length: Medium (5516 words)
Warnings: Violence, Off-screen deaths of minor OCs

Author on DW: thingswithwings
Author Website: thingswithwings

Author's Summary:

The first book on Tamika Flynn's Summer Reading Program Sticker Chart is Lord of the Flies.

She doesn't really like it.

Review:

Being a voracious reader and someone who works in education, I can honestly say that there are few things that are more tragic to witness than the decline of recreational reading. As such, How I Survived My Summer Vacation, by Tamika Flynn, Age 12 3/4 (henceforth referred to as How I Survived for my poor fingers' sake) is near and dear to my heart, the courageous tale of young Tamika Flynn, who, through literary analysis and cunning and a little straight-up murder, leads her fellow Summer Reading Program peers to triumph against the public library's monstrous librarians. (And finds a little love along the way.)

How I Survived is a celebration of literature and a very Night Valean bildungsroman, subtly comparing and contrasting the respective literary milestones of our world and the world of Welcome to Night Vale with the finesse of a particularly well-written expository article. It reminds us of our own experiences with the books we read during childhood, books like The Giver, Bridge to Terabithia, and even Harry Potter, and shows us those same books from the perspective of children who read them not out of enjoyment or obligation, but as a method of survival. Literature becomes a weapon in the hands of Tamika Flynn and her fellow Summer Readers in a way it no longer is for those of us in the 'real world', and when the children escape from their Program to rejoin their families, the reader is right there with them, celebrating the triumph of literacy and the miracle of literature.

How I Survived My Summer Vacation, by Tamika Flynn, Age 12 3/4

EDIT: Many thanks to mothlights for telling me about Rhea's podfic version of How I Survived. Check it out!

Comments

[mothlights]

Your review seriously makes me want to read this! I'll have to give it a look when I get a sec.

Also, for anyone who's interested, I just saw that Rhea posted a podfic of this today:
Podfic by Rhea

[sheepnamedpig.livejournal.com]

I hope it's okay that I edited the rec post with a link to the podfic. Also, you should absolutely give it a look. It's one of that minority of WtNV fics that isn't focused on Cecil and/or Carlos that tends to get overlooked, but is still a stellar read.

[mothlights]

Certainly that's okay. Thanks for adding.

And that story is fantastic from start to finish. Everything about it! Thanks for the rec.