Award-winning Maryam Master’s beautiful midgrade fictions reflect these simple truths; sentiments with which she boldly begins her latest novel.
You’re not supposed to laugh at funerals.
This sharp opening line sets the scene for slight absurdity, questionable motives and tenuous friendships in a novel that zings with wit and winsomeness. Ziba, more commonly addressed as Zee, is a curious outsider.
Her frames of reference revolve around her literary heroes like Oscar Wilde. She shuns human contact and all of its trivialities.
She doesn’t mince
words or waste meaning on thoughtless conversation combining her linguist
acumen with thirteen-year-old sass that renders her more catus than kitten to
cuddle up to. In short, she is a loner with no friends at least none that still
breathe.
To remedy what they believe is a major malfunction in her psychological wardrobe, her parents send her off to Youth Fusion, a week-long camp designed to remodel and remake young tweens. Zee takes to this idea like a live rabbit would to greyhound racing. However, instead of sprinting for the hills, she succumbs and inadvertently forms an incongruous friendship circle with social darling, Tiffanee (with two Es) and a set of ‘super nerd’ brothers.
Each of these characters bring quirk and multiple
reasons to smirk to the storyline which centres around camp goers attempting to
solve a ‘who-dunnit’ mystery a bit like those Host a Murder dinner party games.
Zee is suitably intrigued until things get a bit too ‘real’. The fearsome, new
fledged foursome however remain resolute and set out to solve the murder and the
mystery while remaining in one beleaguered piece.
Told in energetic first person, Zee’s narrative is sure to capture the hearts and minds of young tweens and teens. Her lapses into script-like dialogue aids emotional distancing and provides interesting scope for those reading this book as a group in classroom settings. Sprinkled with illustrations that underscore various moments of mirth or mayhem, I loved this slight departure from Master’s ‘usual’ topic matter for its playful, banter-based focus on the modern-day expectations and burdens of Gen Zers. For those who’ve ever been thrust into an uncomfortable environment (read: camp with strangers) or lost their best mate, or need to find their own song, to laugh is to withstand and therefore, perhaps laughter really is the best ending.
To enjoy more great reads by Maryam Master, read Dimity's review of No Words and Jo's of Exit Through the Gift Shop.
Title: Laughter Is The Best Ending
Author: Maryam Master
Illustrator: Astred Hicks
Publisher: Pan Macmillan, $16.99
Publication Date: 13 August 2024
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781761560132
For ages: 10 – 14
Type: Middle Grade Fiction