This is the second short story that I picked up from Tor for free - again, I was drawn in by accolades - this was a Nebula Award nominee - but mostly...moreThis is the second short story that I picked up from Tor for free - again, I was drawn in by accolades - this was a Nebula Award nominee - but mostly I was hooked by the cover. I LOVE the cover... it's almost vampiric, like the taller woman is breathing the life right out of her victim. I love the haunted quality the woman in white has, and the way she seems to be basking in the theft of her. I love the kind of greedy sensuality of the cover.
These are the things that I thought when I picked this up. I didn't notice the paintbrushes, and despite the title, I didn't really think of this book being about art. I don't really read book descriptions much, and I didn't read this one. I read it while I was reading the story though, and I almost wish I hadn't, because even the one sentence teaser of a description caused me to assume things about the story. Which is why I don't like to read them in the first place.
I was not thrilled with the other free Tor story I picked up. It told everything and showed nothing, it lacked substance and meaning and just did nothing but disappoint me. In comparison, Portait of Lisane de Patagnia had all of that. The writing was evocative and descriptive, and the story was interesting and compelling. I wanted to know where it was going.
It seems like I've been reading a lot of stories about art as a method of creation, but not very many stories about art as a method of destruction. But really it wasn't so much about the art, this story. It was more about the relationship between this particular artist and her subject, between teacher and student, lovers. It was about the bitterness that can be created when hopes and expectations aren't met, and how that bitterness can create something new and powerful in its own image.
I really enjoyed this little story, though there were times when I was a little confused, because the narrative jumped around from present day to scenes from the past, and there wasn't always a clear delineation between them. But it wasn't difficult to keep up with the story, I just had to backtrack a couple times.
I can't say that I really liked the characters, but I could identify with them and I had no trouble understanding them. I am always a little impressed by this in short stories, because it seems to me that identifiable characters are hard for many to write even in full length novels, so to do so in only 32 pages makes me happy. There are only a few authors that I've seen write stories this short (or shorter) that have well-written characters, and they are among my favorite authors. I take this as a sign that I may need to search out more of Swirsky's books. (less)
I picked this ebook up when Tor was offering it for free a while back. Apparently this story was nominated for an award, and based on that, and the ti...moreI picked this ebook up when Tor was offering it for free a while back. Apparently this story was nominated for an award, and based on that, and the title, I thought that it would be the kind of story I'd like. Sadly, I am disappointed instead.
I really don't know why this story would have been nominated for anything other than a re-write. It had potential to be really great, but everything that it could and should have been was missing, which is a shame. Everything in the story is just told to the reader: Ian died. Sinead did this to Brigid. Brigid did that to Sinead. Their mother cried. Their father stomped upstairs. Everyone was angry at everyone else, and most of it was misplaced. This last was literally told to the reader just like that. Cold. Distant. There's no reader investment in the characters, or the story, no emotional content at all, despite this being what could have been a really emotionally charged story of two sisters' relationship changing in the wake of their brother's death. There was no growth, no change, nothing was learned, there was no ending... this story just contained a bunch of things that happened and then ended as more things were happening.
I don't even know what the point of this story was. I thought I knew, while I was reading, but it was like a square peg being jammed into a round hole. It just didn't fit.
The more I think about it, the more disappointed I get. It's a shame, really. This honestly could have been a great story if there was just some spark of life in it somewhere. Some growth, something in the characters that made me feel for them. Instead it was just sad in a I-feel-sorry-for-this-book way, not in an emotionally sad way.
Despite like 20 people I know having read (or wanting to read this), I'd never heard of it until discussing the best Urban Fantasy books and series......moreDespite like 20 people I know having read (or wanting to read this), I'd never heard of it until discussing the best Urban Fantasy books and series... And then, because I'm half-demon myself, this one stood out from the crowd and sounded like it'd be something I'd really enjoy. To be quite honest, I'm a little tired of the vampires and the werewolves and whatnot, so demons and ghosts seemed like a nice change.
And it was.
I really enjoyed this book. I've been in a bit of a slump lately, and so it seemed like it took me forever to read this, but I got there in the end and I liked it a lot. I loved the kind of... gritty realism the book had. It felt less like fantasy than real life - if real life had ghosts and demons and those who were capable of seeing and dealing with them.
This book seems to come with an intertwined recommendation: If you like The Dresden Files, read Felix Castor. And vice versa. (Again, odd, because last year I read EVERY SINGLE HARRY DRESDEN BOOK THERE IS and Felix was mentioned not one time to me... HMPH!) Anyway, I can kind of see why, because Felix and Harry both kind of have that snarky, just-a-guy-who-can-do-stuff thing going on. But, they were quite different, too. I've been thinking about it this morning, and it's taken me a little bit of time to realize it, but in SOME ways, I liked Felix more than Harry. (What? Like it's WEIRD to brood over fictional characters or something. Pfft.)
I don't want this to be come off sounding like a criticism of Harry, because it's not. Some of the things that I'm going to mention are parts of WHY I love his character so much. But they work in HIS world - not so much the one that Felix lives in.
First, Harry has this kind of (to use Hermione's words from The Order of the Phoenix) "saving people thing". He's chivalrous and kind-hearted with a dirty mouth and a quick temper. He has a lot of internal doubts about his ability to be the man -or the wizard- that he needs to be. Which is, of course, what makes him that man/wizard. Harry Dresden knows who he is and what his powers can do, and he has a kind of feeling of responsibility to use them to help people. I love these things about Harry, because the man that it makes him (without giving anything away) is one that I love and pity in equal measures.
But Felix was... just a guy. And I liked that. OK - maybe just a guy who was slightly more in tune with the no-longer-alive than most other people. He didn't have the hero thing going on. He didn't really head out into the fray to protect "his" city or to do good deeds... he just got caught up in a mess. He has his own doubts, his own dark history, his own fears. I really hope to see more of this in the remaining books in the series.
I liked the plot as well, and I think that it lent a good deal to the realism of the story. This was an already fucked up situation that went completely FUBAR, and then some. There are books (like The Dresden Files) where the fantasy is so entwined that to remove it would be impossible - and I wouldn't want to. But then there are books like this one, where the fantasy aspect is more... like an addition. Take away the ghosts and demons and whatnot, and you STILL have a really good story. With them, and you have a really good urban fantasy story. And I really liked that. But the fantasy aspects never felt tacked on or like an afterthought. They meshed perfectly with the story and the world, especially old city London with all its history, and I loved it.
I will definitely be reading more of this series. (less)
I picked this up for free a while back for my Nook, because, come on - that cover is cute! I just now got around t...moreErrr... Right. Where to even start?
I picked this up for free a while back for my Nook, because, come on - that cover is cute! I just now got around to reading it, though, and, well, it wasn't the best.
This whole story, novella, whatever, just felt unfinished. Starting from a whole chapter of Mike's monologue to someone about how his wife/girlfriend (I think gf, though) died, and then another chapter from Trent's perspective with his own monologue... and I started to wonder that each section would be that kind of story-progressing-dialogue-I-hate - only with a twist of not actually being dialogue at all, but just one person talking to themselves...
Oh yes, quite. I agree. Juvenile and awkward. Quite right.
(Yeah, like that.)
So then things move along, shifting around from perspective to perspective, and in the end I just found myself wondering what the actual story was. There were a lot of Things That Happened, but there seemed to be missing one of those plot thingies.
The Quick Rundown, and there will be spoilers: Mike's girlfriend/maybe-wife is dead and haunting him because she thinks he killed her. He claims it was an accident, and that they argued after she cheated on him with the flamboyantly-gay-no-only-mostly-gay neighbors, and he slapped her, she fell and hit her head and died. Only, there's no body. And the girlfriend/maybe-wife is haunting him until she gets it back. Only to find out that, uhh, it's not available. Because... Mike barbequed her and fed her to the very same flamboyantly-gay-no-only-mostly-gay neighbors she was supposed to have cheated on him with - or did he ask her to do it? Nobody seems to really know.
But, gaping plot-(haha what plot?)-holes... If Genius Mike claimed that the death was an accident, how, exactly, did he plan to make that stick when there's no body? Even if he wasn't being haunted and harassed by his murder victim? I mean, logistically, there's got to be blood evidence out the wazoo to have cut her up into cookable and eatable pieces. Hair, bones, bloody clothes... all things that would leave lots of mess and wouldn't have been served at the neighborhood cook-out.
But to add insult to injury and hobble this "story" a little more, Mike then goes ahead and tells the neighbors what they just ate, so that they'd have to, I dunno, cover for him. I dunno about you, but I don't get it.. It's not like they were in on the murder, so why tell them? Because he's clearly not the brightest bulb on the tree (one), and because Trent wouldn't have his deus ex machina drunken flamboyantly-gay-no-only-mostly-gay neighbor spill the beans and wrap up the story (two).
The characters were one dimensional, lifeless (ha-ha, see what I did there?), and moronic caricatures in the extreme.
Don't waste your time on this one. The only good thing I can say about it is that reading it on the smallest font size on my nook apparently counted as two pages each, so it was over really fast.
This was a cute and fun book (yeah, I'm saying that about a schoolbook - what?) about the origins and history of Quidditch.
I missed Harry's notes in...moreThis was a cute and fun book (yeah, I'm saying that about a schoolbook - what?) about the origins and history of Quidditch.
I missed Harry's notes in this book though - perhaps he had a little more respect for this book than a Care of Magical Creatures book, eh? (less)
I have had a run of books that have bored me, or annoyed me, or just did nothing for me. This one is... You know, I don't even know...more13% and I'm done.
I have had a run of books that have bored me, or annoyed me, or just did nothing for me. This one is... You know, I don't even know how to describe this one.
I pretty much hated it from the first page. I do not understand the high rating on Goodreads for this book. I can barely stand the thought of picking it up again and reading more of the words telling me things about characters that I could not possibly care less about.
We have Tomas, whom we meet standing on his balcony and vacillating between whether he should ask a woman that he's "in love with" (read: met in a chance encounter and became infatuated with) to move in with him. He's saved from making any kind of fucking decision by her showing up on his doorstep (literally) with her bags packed and ready to move in. Which she does. And then she clings to him (literally) every night - to the point that he controls her sleep patterns. He even, charmer that he is, fucks with her partially-asleep mind and tells her that he's leaving her forever, so that she'll chase him and drag him back home.
Tereza (that's the woman - I had to look up her name) begins to have nightmares that he's cheating on her and forcing her to watch after finding a letter from a woman in Tomas's drawer describing that very thing. So then, in the course of a sentence, we learn that Tomas has never stopped womanizing, then that he lied to Tereza about it, then tried to justify it, and now just tries to hide it from her, but won't stop.
And she stays. He gets her a dog, because the dog will hopefully "develop lesbian tendencies" and love Tereza, because Tomas can't cope with her and needs help.
So yes, Tereza not only stays, but marries him.
Why? *shrug* The book said so.
So then war comes, and they relocate... but after a while Tereza leaves Tomas (taking the female dog that they named Karenin and now refer to using male pronouns... Maybe to make Tomas feel as though Tereza has a lover as well? Who knows. This book is so stupid...).
She leaves him, and I think, "About frigging time." There's no reason for her having decided to leave him NOW, as opposed to any day of the 7 previous years of dreading him coming home smelling of another woman, of fearing that every single woman she sees will be her husband's next conquest. She decided to leave now... because the book said so.
And then he realizes that he can't be without her, and goes to her, and she takes him back, and then he realizes he feels nothing for her but mild indigestion and "pressure in his stomach and the despair of having returned".
I am a character reader. I need characters that I can identify with, that I can understand, maybe like... but these were none of those things. I don't know them, I don't understand them, I don't identify with them in any way... and I don't want to.
Ugh. This will be a rant... Just warning you ahead of time.
Seriously, I'm pretty annoyed right now. I just finished Girl of Nightmares, and I'm really...moreUgh. This will be a rant... Just warning you ahead of time.
Seriously, I'm pretty annoyed right now. I just finished Girl of Nightmares, and I'm really wondering why Kendare Blake went the New Moon direction with the story rather than the rather more interesting and meaningful and purposeful "Let's save my Dad" direction. Because she could have, easily, and it would have been a better story for it.
I mean, this duology had the potential to be amazing. Book one was almost there, but the stupid romance instant connection THAT I STILL DON'T GET AND WAS COMPLETELY POINTLESS (other than making me want to throatpunch the main character every 3 or 4 pages), and it sapped the awesome right out.
Book two started with that awesome-deficient romance-y, mopey, ghost-longing shell of a story, and then proceeded to stab it repeatedly with the plot line from New Moon. Which, I mean, is less a stab than a kind of wet and pathetic flopping, but you catch my drift, right?
At one point, I was calling the main character Casbella. Because that's pretty much how I thought of Cas in this book. He was no longer the witty, sarcastic teen from book one... now he's a mopey little bitch who can't explain why he loves or is drawn to Anna but he JUST IS! GAH! CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?! *foot stomp*
Nevermind the fact that she's dead. Nevermind the fact that they spent less than 9 months "together". Nevermind that they have nothing in common except an unwillingness to change their clothes. They are in lurrrrrrve. So Cas needs to save her from the awful meaniepoopoohead that oh yeah... alsohappenedtokillCas'sfather... if we want to be specific. But he's PICKING on ANNA! *stomps foot*
I can't even begin to generate enough angst to impersonate Cas. Because there isn't enough in my body... or even my neighborhood. And there's a school two blocks away.
*deep breath*
OK. Before, I said that this could have been a better story if Blake had gone in a different direction with it. Lemme 'splain why I feel that way. First, some points: 1) the Obeahman murdered Cas's dad when Cas was 7, and since then, Cas has been researching and training to fight and kill the creature that killed his dad. 2) Anna, the dead luuuuuuuuurve of Cas's life, dragged the Obeahman out of the world at the end of book 1. 3) Anna then started to appear to Cas (shades of Edward in New Moon), because apparently cutting her with the athame one time linked her to it, and he decided to save her. 4) The "saving" involved Cas and Thomas and Carmel meeting the Order of the Black Dagger, who let Cas cross over to try to save her... where he does so, and ohyeahhisdadistheretoo.
Yes. His father, the murdered guy who helped bring Cas into being and who saved people from murderous spirits is relegated to a damn AFTERTHOUGHT!
WHY was saving his DAD not the plot, since we KNOW he is linked to the athame since it's been a bloodline weapon since page ONE. Why go in the "I have no meaning in my life without her" route? SHE IS DEAD ALREADY, and cursed or not, had killed dozens of people, and again, their "relationship" was only a period of months. There was no meaning there. Not like there is in a parent/child relationship. So shunting the "I do this to avenge my father" purpose to a fucking afterthought in favor of 200+ pages of whiny teen brooding is just... It's SO AGGRAVATING.
This book ruined my day today. I started it yesterday and flew through 80% of it, forcing myself to stop around 1am because I had to work today. But,...moreThis book ruined my day today. I started it yesterday and flew through 80% of it, forcing myself to stop around 1am because I had to work today. But, I stopped right when things were getting really intense, and I couldn't stop my brain from trying to continue the book in my head. So I didn't get very much sleep last night, and therefore today dragged by in a haze of exhaustion and crankiness.
This was not improved upon arriving home to find my boyfriend sleeping on the couch. I want to sleep, dammit! But NOOOO... I have to make dinner and be the responsible adult... blah blah blah. Being a grown up sucks.
ANYWAY. So I finished the last 20% of the book, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Some of it was a bit horror movie predictable, but all in all, I liked it a lot.
I liked the mystery, and the investigation, and the way that real life people were tied into the story. I liked the feel of it, the vibe I got from it, and I like that not everything was explained.
Good stuff, and I've already recommended it to a couple of the guys at work, who I think would enjoy it. :)(less)
I remember watching Star Trek with my dad when I was a kid. It would come on after school, and I loved it. The adventures, the crazy escapes, the clos...moreI remember watching Star Trek with my dad when I was a kid. It would come on after school, and I loved it. The adventures, the crazy escapes, the close calls... It was good stuff.
I had SUCH a crush on Will Riker when I was younger. Not baby-faced Riker, but more mature, bearded Riker. Man I loved him. (And to this day, I love a man with facial hair. But that's beside the point. LOL)
As much as I loved the show, I'm not much of a tie-in fiction reader. I love Star Wars too (yeah, I swing both ways) and but struggled through the tie-in story collection I read. And I read a Firefly tie-in and thought it was OK. I haven't really tried any others though... Maybe I will someday, but it's generally not a "genre" that calls my name.
So a friend chose this book for a group of us to read, and I enjoyed it. I didn't love it, and I think that there were times when things felt a little much, especially the romance, but overall, I did like it. I think that the characters were true to the characters that I've loved from the show, and I enjoyed seeing them here.
The story was a little more complex than I expected, in all honesty, and jumped around quite a bit. It was a bit hard to follow, considering that the ebook formatting was atrocious and there weren't line or chapter or section breaks where they should have been.
The last 50 pages of the book were by far my favorite. I liked the humor here, and the way that things came together. It was a little too perfect, but... enjoyable. I'd recommend it... (less)
I cannot even... That last 25 pages was like... Whut.
Apparently, among my circle of friends and Dresdenites, I am...more4.5 Stars
OHHHHH SNIPPITY SNAP. O_O
I cannot even... That last 25 pages was like... Whut.
Apparently, among my circle of friends and Dresdenites, I am an odd duck, because as much as I liked Changes (and I did) I liked Ghost Story more. It just spoke to me. So after I finished Ghost Story, and was told "Oh, you... just wait for Cold Days!" I expected a story that spoke my language. One that was BAM! Right in the Hallmark Brand overactively emotional empathy gland.
But... then it wasn't. Cold Days, dare I say it... the beginning left me a little cold? Ba dum bum. Just a little... and really not for long. Because once things started happening, they fucking happened.
This is my first read through of the Dresden series. I say first, of course because there will be more read throughs of Dresden - duh. So, first time, I don't really think that I can have caught all the nuances of the series so far. I mean, things are coming together. They are, slowly but surely, starting to form a whole - but for much of the series I've been reading these as standalone character books with a chronological tie. Not really as they deserve to be read, which is as a single overall story. I have unintentionally done this despite knowing, academically, that they are a single story.
But no longer, because Cold Days has really driven the point home, and I get it. I get it. This isn't some series that just happens to share a character and a world among all of its books, a series that doesn't know when it should have ended, like some series I could name but won't because that series's main character is an idiotic mind-reading 3/16ths fairy fang-banger waitress and she already knows I'm talking about her...
*whispers* I think I hurt her feelings. Oops. ;)
Anyway... THIS series has substance. It has a point. It has a STORY! Things are starting to come together in this story, things that I care about, and that I want to experience and kinda half fear, because that's how GOOD stories make me feel.
Things. Are. Happening. And OH MY SHIT will things be happening in book 15, because that last 25 pages just flipped some shit. And it was great.
PS. I'm so glad that Jim Butcher writes fairies/faeries/fae in a way that makes them interesting and not irritating to read about. I think they've actually grown on me, from way back in Summer Knight when they first made an important plot appearance. I don't like reading about fairies/faeries/fae because too often they are just... boring. Butcher's fae are anything but, and their curveballs are wicked.
I'm going to assume that if you're reading this review, you've read all of the Dresden books up to and including Ghost Story. So, if you haven't, don'...moreI'm going to assume that if you're reading this review, you've read all of the Dresden books up to and including Ghost Story. So, if you haven't, don't complain if I spoil this for you, because I just don't think I can vague-ify this one. Here we go...
Reaction immediately after finishing Changes & Aftermath (from Side Jobs):
Reaction while reading Ghost Story:
Reaction after reading Ghost Story:
So like... if you know me, you'd know why this motherfucker right here got 5 stars. It made me cry. Many times. I don't really know how many because I didn't count, but I was kind of surprised it happened at all. I mean, I'd recently finished Changes, and I remember how emotional that one was, how much Harry lost, how much his world, his life, changed. How he gained a daughter that he could never know, how he had to murder someone he loved to protect that daughter. I remember these things and the way they affected me. And it was good. I'd never felt that way reading a Dresden book before.
But this one upped the emotional ante and (dare I say it?) went all in. I'll probably be turning right back around after Cold Days and saying, "Remember how I said Ghost Story was fucking raw?? Well, color me fucking short-sighted..." If that happens, I admit it, I'll be thrilled. Because I'm deranged like that and love when books gut-punch me. By the way, Ghost Story was fucking raw.
I loved all the little ways that this hurt me. From Murphy's distrust that Harry's shade was really Harry, to the way Molly changed after losing Harry, to the fact that it was 10 pages before the end of the story before Harry lets himself think of Thomas... and all that those things imply, the emotional aspect of this one was ratcheted up. I loved (and hated) feeling Harry's loss through his friends, through the city itself, and how it's gone wild in such a short time without Harry's influence there, and I feared what permanence might mean. I loved Harry's growth and insight, and his concern for his friends even after death. I loved all these things, and how they all tied in together to show how much I'd grown to love Harry over the course of twelve books. I mean, I knew I'd loved him... but I don't think I knew how much until I lost him. Yeah... I said it. Cliche FTW.
This used to be a series that I enjoyed, but to me it was like candy. Really good candy, satisfying candy, but candy nonetheless. I like it, but I don't need it, I can't live on it. Now the emotional impact has been upped and this is ranging more in the soup and a sandwich zone. It's now got substance and nourishment and it's filling... but leaves me wanting more a few hours later. Pleasepleaseplease let Cold Days graduate to dinner! I'm hungry!
Technically, aside from the details, this was kind of what I expected... had I expected anything. Dang, that sentence really doesn't make much sense. I mean, once it started and I knew what kind of story I was working with, the storyline kind of went where I thought it would. Or... rather, where I was fingers/toes/legs/eyes-crossed/hair braided hoping it would. The route it took to get there was unexpected and different, but still. I'm thankful it DID get there, and didn't go the closeish route of having Harry join Captain Murphy's team. While I'm sure that would have been interesting, and Harry'd have found some method of interaction, I was hoping for the full Monty. THANK YOU, Jim Butcher, for letting me have that. I can't wait to see where Cold Days goes. (I'm a little frightened too, though.)(less)
I read and discussed this one with a couple friends, and though all three of us have very different reading personalities, we pretty much all felt the...moreI read and discussed this one with a couple friends, and though all three of us have very different reading personalities, we pretty much all felt the same way about this book: It had potential, but was ultimately just a mess.
There was just too much going on in this book, and not nearly enough story to support it. It felt manic, like the author tried to cram every cool idea he had into it, but didn't explain anything in a way that felt natural or even coherent. Everything was just presented, world-building, magic system, characters, plot, investigation, resolution... All just told, and the reader has to accept it because we have nothing else to go on. Everything that happened in the book was like this and it was frustrating.
We don't get to know why something happens, or the significance of an event, or how anything works, or what the point is, or even what IS happening until after the fact, or until the very end when the epilogue tells us everything that couldn't be followed in the story, point by point. One of my friends said it felt Holmesian, except that Sherlock Holmes will explain HOW he came to the conclusions he did, not just that he came to them.
There was a lot of cool stuff in this book. A lot of fantastic ideas that, more carefully formed and better presented, could be amazingly good. But this book felt unfinished. Just when I'd expect to learn something, about the magic system, for instance, I'd see WHAT it can do, but not how or why, which is the basic building block of creating something that feels real. You can tell me something until the cows come home, but until it's presented in a way that allows me to KNOW it, it doesn't stick - it's not real.
I'll give you two examples: 1) Alt Couloumb(sp?): (The fact that I'm not even sure how to spell the setting even after finishing the book, is a bad sign.) As I was reading this, I kept picturing AC as a kind of old gothic town, lots of high and dark church steeples, narrow alleyways, cobbled streets, a port, steam-powered... You get the picture. There were centers of activity - the church of Kos Everburning, and the vampire/Craftsperson's club, but otherwise, this city in my head was practically empty. In my head it was population 5,000 maybe.
So imagine my surprise when I read the book description after finishing and see that this city, this "metropolis" actually has 4 million residents. FOUR MILLION. I don't know where they all were. The city I live in has less than a million residents, but I see people all the time. Walking down the streets, going about their business, doing what they do. I see them. I am one of them. But Alt Couloumb was filled with driverless carriages and not much else from what I could tell.
It just wasn't real. It was like an impressionist painting where the onlooker can get the idea of what's being presented, but the detail isn't there. In art, I'm OK with that. In world-building for a book series, I'm not. If I'm going to invest my time and energy into a series of books, I want to LIVE in that world.
Tolkien is a master world-builder. I'm not just reading about Middle Earth, I'm there. That is how a fictional world should be. I shouldn't have to fill in an author's gaps to make it work.
2) Craft: This is the magic system in the story, and from the little that I learned of how it works (regarding starlight and soulstuff), I will admit that it was pretty cool. However, and this is a BIG however, there was no rule set or limitations to the way it could be used that I ever saw. Craftspeople learn how to use it, and then they're off! Apparently anything they can imagine is possible. I can't recall seeing a single limitation. Not one thing that couldn't be done with Craft. Yet at the end of the book, one of the characters mentions that she's surprised that an engineer wouldn't cotton to the rules of Craft...
Which left me a little mind-boggled, because it doesn't seem that there were any until it was convenient to say there were to tell another character (and the reader) how certain things happened.
Blah. I need structure. I don't enjoy "Anything Goes" magic systems. It's uninteresting to me... there's no danger if all you have to do is imagine your way out of a pickle. "Anything Goes" magic systems are built in deus ex machina devices, and that's just unimaginative. I don't want to see a character succeed at everything simply by using magic. Which is exactly what happens in this book.
No really. Our main character is newly-graduated/evicted from school (no idea why the eviction, though), and is hired on a trial basis for a hugely important trial regarding deicide, and then she's made responsible for the investigation, the trial proceedings, and other stuff besides. Yup. This untried rookie is made lead in a murder case for a GOD. Nopressure.
But never fear, Tara's here! There's never any chance she'll fail, because she'll always just Craft her way out of anything. She's got a backdoor or a trick up her sleeve, or the perfect solution for every fucking situation imaginable.
Gah. This is getting long. I'll wrap this up quickly.
The first trial: Ridiculous. Evidence? Who needs evidence! This is a cage-match.
The second trial: No need for proof or evidence here either. Pure conjecture allowed.
Pronouns when dealing with default or unknown persons: This was really annoying to me throughout the entire book. Almost always, the pronoun used for someone whose gender or identity is unknown was feminine. Being a woman, you'd think that this would be refreshing, but instead it was just baffling, because there seemed to be no reason for it. This wasn't a matriarchal society. There wasn't anything feminist that I could tell. There wasn't even a greater number of women in the story. The only thing I can think is that the author was trying to score brownie points with female readers.
But it was inconsistent. ALMOST always it was feminine, but not every time, and not consistently depending on whose POV we were seeing either. Likewise with Craftswoman (usually), Craftsman (sometimes), Craftsperson (occasionally). It was just random.
The Plot: I really have no idea. I asked my co-readers what the firm was even hired for (still can't remember the name of the firm either, despite seeing it maybe 20 times), and that's just really not good. The plot was just so convoluted, and there was so much that the reader just had to accept and keep track of, that what seemed straightforward in the beginning ended up just wandering around for a while until everything just magically (Craftily?) came together at the end, and then the reader was told the missing pieces we couldn't know.
*sigh*
Like I said at the beginning... This had potential to be great. But it wasn't anywhere close. The execution just wasn't good enough to make this a coherent, enjoyable story. Maybe the second book will fill in more of the history and world-building and magic system rules and character personality... but I need that stuff to draw me into the series.
It's not enough to try to hook me with mysteriousness. I need substance, not smoke and mirrors. (less)
That was my immediate reaction after finishing this book. Pretty clearly that's not how it ends. It doesn't END that way. Yet, when I tapped Shadow's...more
That was my immediate reaction after finishing this book. Pretty clearly that's not how it ends. It doesn't END that way. Yet, when I tapped Shadow's screen to turn the page (Shadow's my Nook's name, FYI) - there were only acknowledgements.
And then I thought about it... I gave it just a few minutes' thought, and I decided that I thought the ending was appropriate. Fucked up? Oh my, yes. But fitting too, in a way. We do dig our own graves, don't we?
This book kind of reminded of Lemarchand's Box. Every time you try to figure it out, it draws you deeper in, and in the end, reveals the kind of depravity that seemingly knows no bounds. Ineffable.
And I kind of loved it.
I thought I had this book figured out so early. I even thought I was being clever, despite knowing, KNOWING, that I was being carefully, artfully led to these conclusions. I was creative though. I had it all figured out. All I was waiting for was the vindication when the book caught up with me.
And then WHATTHEFUCK?! The twist. Oh my. I never, never saw it coming. Despite having accidentally seen the table of contents, which kind of give it away. But, then if you know me, you know that I don't want to know anything - so I put it out of my mind. And I'm glad that I did.
The first line of the Chapter of the Twist floored me. I read it four times, and still felt sluggishly stupid. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I had never read Gillian Flynn before, only knew that her stories were dark, thriller types. But in that one sentence, I wondered if all along I've been reading a haunting story and not even realizing it. In a way that was right, but it's just haunting in the wrong sense. Or the right one, depending on your point of view.
This book kind of... resonated. It's easy to get caught up in it - or it was for me. I could see myself, my boyfriend, my friends and their significant others, pretty much ANY relationship, in this book. And that's disturbing. Everyone changes in a relationship. Everyone. I thought, early on, "Oh, this is a story of how relationships go bad when expectations aren't met - when people change, and grow lax in their status quo relationship..."
And it was, in a way. If the When-Relationships-Go-Bad-O-Meter goes to 11. Why not just make 10 more intense? Because this one kind of situation requires it go to ELEVEN.
The thriller aspect of this book was fantastic. It's not one of those non-stop rollercoaster thrill-ride books, where every page turn is another exciting development. This was like watching the water drain out of a tub, slowly, allowing you to see, little by little,what lies under the surface. And you realize that it's recognizable but stunted and deformed, horrifying, and clearly dead inside. But you can't quite stop looking. I loved every second of it. Learning about Nick and Amy's relationship, both how it was so right, and how it went so very wrong. The characters were real, disturbingly real. Every word was expertly placed to take the reader along on this journey, and it was brilliantly done. Loved it.
The moral of this story: Make an effort. It won't kill you... ;)(less)
I am not a romance reader by nature. That's not to say that I don't enjoy them from time to time, but I just don't usually gravitate toward romance. A...moreI am not a romance reader by nature. That's not to say that I don't enjoy them from time to time, but I just don't usually gravitate toward romance. And to be completely honest, I had absolutely zero intention of reading this book, ever. But then it was chosen as my October Bookclub book, so my intentions just became irrelevant.
So, now that I've read it... Umm... Well. I think that this book did have an interesting premise, and in another author's hands, could have been fantastic. But most of the time while reading this, I just kept feeling, well, manipulated and skeptical. All I kept thinking as I read this was how implausible it all was. And I'm not just talking about the time-travel.
Just to forewarn you, this long (really long) Ranty McRanter Review may contain spoilery stuff.
This book's description says "[...]this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap[...]".
Uh huh.
"Impossibly romantic trap"? Well. A trap of some kind, anyway.
My biggest issue here is that Clare's life has been entirely determined by Henry, with a little help from his unknown ally, the Catholic Church. Henry's told her what her life is and will be: She will be his wife. And because of her Catholic upbringing, the concept of predestination is not at all foreign to her (remember, God has a plan for us all), and so she accepts it as a matter of course. She sees him as her closest friend, the person who knows the most about her in the world, the person who loves her the most in the world, and as a young girl who is just starting to form ideas about romantic love, I'd imagine that to her he's like a God. An all-knowing (he knows her future) but mysterious (because he won't tell her about it, or anything about himself), unconditionally loving (I don't think I need to explain this one), metaphysical or supernatural being (time traveler, remember?), and who is just waiting for her to accept him (well, actually, just to get old enough to do so). I don't think it's much of a stretch, honestly.
So, leaving aside the paradox of their relationship technically being impossible (they only meet in the present because of Henry telling her where they will while visiting Clare in the past), it strikes me as incredibly unfair to Clare that from 6 years old, when she meets a naked man claiming to be a time traveler in the meadow near her house, her life becomes tethered to Henry. Now, I can see a 6 year old accepting a story of a time traveler. A 6 year old's imagination is a wild thing, and children can accept and cope with concepts that would drive adults to drink. But as Clare gets older, and learns more about her life with Henry - that they are married, specifically - it becomes less and less plausible to me that someone would be able to accept that.
How does she know that he's not lying to her, or manipulating her into the life he claims she will live with him? She doesn't know anything at all about him other than the fact that he shows up naked in her yard repeatedly and claims to be her husband in the future. To me, the time travel itself isn't enough evidence. He could be a time traveler AND a liar.
It just seems to me like a waste. A waste of a life that Clare could have had that would have been fulfilling and satisfying without Henry in it. Considering the fleeting nature of their relationship, and the massive extent of time she spent waiting for him, I just don't think it was worth it, and to me, Henry is incredibly selfish for pursuing that life for her.
The waiting is just endless...
And here's where it gets confusing, because Henry believes that the past can't be changed to affect the future, right? So, 42 year old Henry meeting 6 year old Clare in the past leads to 28 year old Henry meeting 20 year old Clare in the present. It's destined because 42 year old Henry's past contains that meeting at 28. Right?
But, Henry's theory is kind of crap because the whole thing is a paradox. He went to a past from a future that couldn't have existed UNLESS he changed the past in order to affect the future.
And this is another reason why this book felt manipulate-y. I feel like we're not supposed to examine it in this way, and just read it for the love story and the heartbreaking sadness that this time-travel thing causes in the time traveler's wife's life. We're supposed to see this as an epic romance. We're supposed to see the relationship as the central focus, we're supposed to accept this at face value (as everyone accepts Henry's time travel and 20 years worth of him gallivanting around naked in the Newberry Library without losing his job, which is completely plausible, of course) and not give it too much thought, because if we look too closely, we can see there's not much there.
Henry is described as something of a player by everyone but Clare. A cheater, a heartbreaker, emotionally unavailable... yet we never see this. Not one time. Ingrid (who we don't see with Henry in a Clareless present) is the bitter, devastated ex, and whatshername Celia? is the one trying to catch Ingrid on the rebound, so of course she's going to play up the Henry-the-Dog thing. But I don't buy it. Pics or it didn't happen, as they say. If you're going to claim someone's a player, you need to back it up - in real life and in fictional time travel stories. Show him time travel back and interrupt his younger self mid-affair. Then I'd believe it.
Whoops!
Instead, all we see is Henry the Totally Devoted To Clare. He loves her more than love ever loved love and therefore they are DESTINED, and so it shall be. Henry knows what's going to happen, and therefore he doesn't even try. He just sits back and let's the future come to him. Kendrick's going to be his doctor because he is. It happens because it has already happened. So no need to get all rowdy and make an effort or anything. *Yawn*
In fact that's another thing. There's absolutely ZERO conflict in this book. None. Henry gets arrested for indecent exposure on a freeway in 1963? Conveniently he disappears before he's booked. Want something? Take it. Something's weird? Accepted. Family troubles? Just introduce your new wife, then all tension is gone. If there's a snag, it's always a momentary one, and it always works out in the end. UGH. Jeez!
Anyway! Where was I? Oh yes, characters. Clare. She is... Well. This is going to be unpopular, but Clare is just an older, slightly (very slightly) less annoying version of Bella Swan. She has no life other than Henry. Her friends become his friends (because it's not like he has any of his own. Oh, wait, his old Korean babysitter counts, I guess). Her life is completely engrossed by his and there's no part of it that is Henryless. She's completely devoted to this guy who had to ship in an extra to appear at his own wedding because he's too unreliable to actually be there in present time. Just the kind of life every girl dreams of on their big day! :D
Oops, close, but not quite!
Supposedly Clare's an artist or something...? Yeah. Something like that. I guess. I live with an artist. And the art TAKES OVER EVERYTHING. There's art and art supplies and potential art supplies and scribbles and drawings and markers and paint and art... just... EVERYWHERE. It's not a hobby, it's a part of the Boy's LIFE. This creative need. So when Clare is described as making stuff like 3 times in the book, complete with step by step directions and an accompanying Create-It-Yourself! shopping list for the reader... it rings false with me. I don't see her as being an artist. I see her as being a toy that Henry picks up and plays with when he's around, and who sits on the shelf and waits for him to come back and play with her again when he's not around. And when it's convenient (aka: will reinforce the romance, like when she sketches Henry), Niffenegger sticks her in a studio with some art supplies and calls her an artist. That's not character development, that's just lazy. Oh but wait, you say, what about the bird sculptures? Oh right, those, how could I forget, because they were so massively important to the story that they were mentioned like one time. Henry's job is mentioned a bazillion times, and Clare's work mentions I could count on one hand. Lazy. For real. The book is called The Time Traveler's WIFE, why is there not more about Clare? Why is there not more TO Clare?
And, speaking of shopping lists, seriously, I don't need an entire recipe recitation for each and every meal they eat. And the kinds of meals they eat are ridiculous. I don't believe that a 20 year old and her 2 punk-rock rebel anarchist roommates are drinking merlot and eating wild mushroom risotto. I can't even roll my eyes enough at that shit. But that's not even the best. I mean, Niffenegger's descriptions are insanely long anyway (the quality of the light glinting off of this or that, dew on the thinger I don't care about at all, the texture of the whatchamajig, blah blah blah) but at one point Henry is unpacking groceries and EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. is listed before getting to the point of the list: a shocker item. THERE WERE 32 ITEMS. THIRTY-EFFING-TWO!! I counted. Unlike Clare, I am not fascinated by celery stalks and cans of creamed corn. So I gave approximately 0% of one shit about 31 of the items that were listed before the SHOCKER ITEM. Gah. Thirty-two. Seriously.
Another thing that really bugged me were the miscarriages. There were times that they were written in such a way that I wasn't sure if it was a nightmare of Clare's or reality - I'm still not sure, but I think it was supposed to be reality. I admit to skimming quite a bit, so maybe I missed something. Blood-soaked sheets and bed, and a little tiny fetus breathing its last in her hand? What? Maybe Niffenegger isn't familiar with the stages of fetal development, but lungs are pretty much the last things to develop, so that's just... weird.
But then finally, FINALLY Clare gets preggers, with her husband who is time travelling from the past. She cheated on her hubby with her hubby while in bed with her hubby, who is sleeping. But hey, that's OK. They are used to being in bed with each other, eh, 15 year old Henry and 15 year & 6 months old Henry? *elbow nudge*
Anyway... Toward the end of the book there are quite a few events that feel manipulative in order to cause a certain event. Henry's feet are important to him. This is drilled into the reader time and again. He runs because he needs to run when he time travels and lands somewhere buck-naked, raising all kinds of suspicions. So of course, something happens to his feet. Not just one, which would have had the same effect, likely, but BOTH. For the shock value. And to me, it was just not necessary at all. Because THE EVENT would probably have happened anyway - it happened in an eyeblink. And the repercussions from that event are... well. We're supposed to be crushed.
I think this book is doing it wrong.
I won't lie and say that I wasn't affected, though... but it wasn't because of the characters themselves. It was because I imagine myself in the position of losing someone I love, and know how heartbroken I'd have been. But then I get angry, because in the goodbye letter he leaves for her, the one in which he tells her to live her life and be happy, he mentions - just as an aside, you know!- that he visits her in the far flung future. And that leaves her waiting for him again... for 50+ years. How horribly selfish do you have to be to do that to someone? Is that a comfort? I don't think so. I think it's exactly the opposite. It's torture to make someone wait in uncertainty for over half their life for one brief momentary visit.
Such a waste, and the more I think about this book, the more I find to dislike in it. It's not romantic, it's depraved.
Yeah... so. I could go on, like about how the different perspectives were written and how even with the abrupt shift in POV I could never tell who was narrating unless I either checked or got lucky and one was talking directly to the other, because there was no difference in character voice at all, but the longer I do, the more annoyed I get, and I have better books I could be reading. (less)
I do love me some Stephen King and Joe Hill... and writing together? Awesomeness.
This was a great little story. Intense and nerve-wrac...moreCuh-reeeeeepy!
I do love me some Stephen King and Joe Hill... and writing together? Awesomeness.
This was a great little story. Intense and nerve-wracking, and surreal and all too realistic - at least to me. Being lost in vast fields of grass or corn would be terrifying. You think you're walking out, but only pushing deeper into the field. And then you panic and disorientate yourself and things just get worse...
This story reminded me a little of quite a few other King stories, from The Lawnmower Man to Children of the Corn, to N, to The Tommyknockers, to The Stand... and specifically of My Father's Mask from Joe Hill, with his special brand of un- and surreality making things quite interesting.
I liked it. Yes indeed. I shall now carry a weed-whacker with me wherever I go. :D(less)
OH shizzle! This book was intense. Excellent though, and I loved the humor.
I actually really enjoy the faith aspects of these books too, which isn't...moreOH shizzle! This book was intense. Excellent though, and I loved the humor.
I actually really enjoy the faith aspects of these books too, which isn't something that you'll see me say very often. I just really appreciate how Butcher manages issues of Good and Evil and God, god(s) and religion, or not so much religion but faith.
I love Harry and I love these books. That's all that really needs to be said. (less)
Shirley Jackson and I have this thing. I want to like her stories, and I get all "Yay! I'm going to just LOVE this one because THIS...moreHmm. Well.
*sigh*
Shirley Jackson and I have this thing. I want to like her stories, and I get all "Yay! I'm going to just LOVE this one because THIS is the story that people think of when they think of Shirley Jackson!"... except, that's kind of been all of them, and they all have let me down in some way.
This one... well... I think it needed more violence. The climax was just kind of "...andthenthishappenedtheend." It needed more oomph. More, "Holy shit are you kidding me? WTF!"
Oh yes, yes, I know. Shirley Jackson is the Master, excuse me, Mistress of the Psychological Whammy. I bow down before her genius and revoke my right to opinion and criticism.
Pfft. *eyeroll* She may be called the Mistress of the Psychological Whammy, but I've yet to actually GET that from her stories. To me, it always feels like... I dunno, she just gets off with writing a half-assed story with a kicker in the last line, and then we're all supposed to be awed by the immensity of the talent it took to do it.
I'm no writer, so this isn't an "I can do it better!" tirade. I just don't get why Shirley Jackson's stories are so revered. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong and not analyzing them enough. Maybe that's it.
Sure. I'll save you the work (spoiler alert):
Any tradition that leads up to murdering your neighbors is bad, mmmkay? (less)
I like baseball. Well, I like watching it. Not really reading about it, so the fact that King loves writ...moreBAAAAASSSSEEEEBBBAAAALLLLLL!!!! *shakes fist*
I like baseball. Well, I like watching it. Not really reading about it, so the fact that King loves writing about it is... Well, I forgive him. He's King.
But thankfully, this story was less about the baseball than it was about the guy watching baseball. And though this is a very short story, only 32 pages on my Nook, it was a good one. Not great, and not really up to the standards that I've come to expect from King, but good.
I think it just lacked a little something to really bring it to life. Maybe it was the length that worked against it. We got a rough sketch of the characters in the story, but King's characters are usually masterpieces, and I found myself wanting to know more about them.
Still, for what this story is, it's good. Entertaining, a quick read, and not all baseball stats and plays, which I was kind of dreading.
He made me want to read a Harlan Coben book too, which is always a plus. Thanks for the rec, Papa King! :D(less)
Another exciting addition to the series, and my oh my aren't things getting dicey! I love this world, and I love Harry and I 'specially love Thomas an...moreAnother exciting addition to the series, and my oh my aren't things getting dicey! I love this world, and I love Harry and I 'specially love Thomas and Mouse.
I love how intricately plotted these books are, and I immensely enjoy them. I don't really have much more to say than that.
Oh, except YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE TOE-MOSS. He make you silky-smooth and maybe make sticky with you. Maybe. ;)(less)
Alrighty... I've been working on this one as I go along in the series, so technically I've been reading this book for the better part of 4 months. But...moreAlrighty... I've been working on this one as I go along in the series, so technically I've been reading this book for the better part of 4 months. But I have enjoyed it quite a lot, and so I never really felt that draggy "Am I done yet??" feeling that I often do when books sit on my Currently Reading shelf for a long time.
There were some stories in here that were better than others. Some that you could tell were very early stories in the Dresden canon, but they all were enjoyable, and all were nearly perfect examples of what short stories should be: short, plotted, engaging, and resolved.
They all fell into the series pretty well, and while I think there were times that they could have explained just a little more about the situations that led to the story (like the wedding one), I never actually felt like anything was missing.
I also really liked seeing stories from other characters' perspectives. It was a nice change of pace. I loved the story from Murphy's perspective, and would have liked to see more of them. She has really grown on me as a character, from when I could not understand or like her in the first few books, to now when she's definitely a favorite.
So, overall, I really enjoyed this one, and now I'm itching to pick up the next book in the series to see what happens. O_O(less)
Another great edition in this series. I'm terrible at writing reviews of in-progress series books, and I think I'm running out of ways to say that I l...moreAnother great edition in this series. I'm terrible at writing reviews of in-progress series books, and I think I'm running out of ways to say that I love Harry Dresden, because I just finished this book and I'm completely at a loss as to what the heck to say about it.
Except that I love Harry Dresden. But we knew that, didn't we?
I did really enjoy coming back to Harry's world, and despite the 2 1/2 month gap between finishing Dead Beat and starting Proven Guilty, I picked up right where I left off without any trouble.
I like the development of the characters, especially Charity (who, I admit, was really starting to grate on my nerves in the last few books). Now her attitude makes a lot more sense, and I can understand and... well, understand it.
Thomas is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters too. I love his unobtrusive strength and steadfast loyalty to Harry. I'm really enjoying seeing them test the grounds and borders of their relationship with each other, though, being men, it's a little frustrating too.
The plot in this one was a bit all over the place, as usual, but it came together and then some. Things are starting to really pick up steam in the greater supernatural world, and there's mischief afoot. I really cannot wait to see where the story goes next. (less)
JK Rowling was not even fucking around when she said that this book was for adults. This is about as far removed from a story for kids as it's possibl...more
JK Rowling was not even fucking around when she said that this book was for adults. This is about as far removed from a story for kids as it's possible to get. There's no pigeonholing the mighty JK Rowling, that's for sure. She's like an authorial ninja... she comes out of nowhere, lays the smack down in a style of awesomeness you would never expect, and then goes about her business, leaving you reeling.
BLAMMO!
Even though I was expecting an "adult" book... I don't think it really hit me how different it really would be. I mean, like most other Potterheads, I've read the books dozens of times and I'm used to the worst language from JKR being mudblood, git, and bitch. So to see words like fuck, whore, and cunt being thrown about like it ain't no thang, I admit that it was a little bit of a surprise.
But it's fantastic. Really. It's a book that I feel like I'll need to read again (rather than just wanting to, which I do), because Rowling is so skillful with her pen that I'm not sure I caught every reference, every nuance or intended meaning.
It took me a long time to read this book. Longer by far than it should have taken, because I have a lot going on in the world outside of books. That scary place called "reality". *shudder* I'm in the midst of packing for a move so reading has been pushed to the back-burner. But even so, whenever I picked up the book, be it hours or days later, I was right back in Pagford as if I'd lived there all my life.
There's no main character in this story. It's told in constantly shifting points of view from several key members of the Pagford community. And at this juncture, I'd like to offer a little comparison. While reading this book, I had to take a break to read my real life bookclub selection The Time Traveler's Wife. Both books are told from multiple POVs, but Time Traveler's Wife abruptly changes back and forth between Henry and Clare's POV. The Time Traveler's Wife's POV switches are clearly delineated by a paragraph break (at the very least), and a header with the new narrator's name. Every time. But there were times reading The Time Traveler's Wife that I had no idea which person was narrating and would have to go back and check. There just didn't seem to be enough difference in their voices to really follow the narration switches without the headers available for reference when needed.
This is not the case with The Casual Vacancy. TCV doesn't abruptly change narrators, instead the narrative flows effortlessly among them all. Sentence to sentence the POV can change, but I never, not one time, had any difficulty following it. In fact, I'd read about 1/3 of the book prior to seeing JK Rowling in New York for her interview and signing, and this aspect was mentioned by Ann Patchett. It was like a lightbulb went off in my head, because I felt that there was something a little different about the narrative, but couldn't put my finger on it. After it was identified (Seriously, thank you Ann Patchett!), I could watch the narrative changes in action, and it was really amazing to see the shifts happen but at the same time forget that they were happening at all because it was just so easy to keep up with.
If I had one complaint about the narration style, it would be the use of parentheses. There were often asides notated in parentheses, and I really didn't think they were necessary at all, given the flowy almost stream-of-Pagford-consciousness style of the narration. The parentheses broke up the narrative and felt like an interruption to me. The info was necessary, but I wish it would have been worked into the text more seamlessly.
A little bit about the characters. First... Oh my. I would NOT want to live in Pagford, that is for damn sure. It may seem idyllic and homey and welcoming... until you actually talk to the residents. There was only one really likeable character in the whole story, and he's the one Rowling killed off about 3 pages in.
Everyone else is a complex jumble of neuroses and anger and manipulation and selfishness. It's interesting to me that the teenagers in the story, though having their own set of issues semi-intertwined with the adults' issues, were actually the more civilized among the parish. And that's taking into account the bullying, the ostracizing, the usual teen drama stuff that happens everywhere. Which, I think, should tell you something about this town.
One of the characters had this kind of affectation of being "authentic". He'd pretty much just do and say anything at all that he wanted, thinking that each action (or non-action) was the "authentic" one of the moment. But there were times when his "authenticity" seemed so staged and planned that I couldn't help thinking that maybe there was a page missing in his dictionary between "Asshole" and "Authentic" and he got them confused.
I really could mention something about every character - about how they lie to themselves as naturally as they lie to each other, about how they have more faces than Janus, about... well, many things. But I don't want to ruin it for anyone.
There are many themes in this book, most pertaining to pain of some sort. Mental illness, depression, addiction and dependency, abuse - both physical and emotional, death, etc, and the way that they were handled was pretty much spot on. Idealism has no place in Pagford, and we rarely get happy endings in the real world.
This was a sad story, in a lot of ways, but never manipulative. One of the parts that made me cry was so unexpected that I had to laugh at myself for it, because usually my waterworks are fairly predictable. My favorite character (what? I can like unlikeable characters!) is, of course, the one struggling so much against the current of Pagford's selfish will. I always root for underdogs. But, in this case, it was painful. It was heartbreaking to watch, because each scene kept escalating things, and the two forces (the character and Pagford) were at odds with each other, though not really directly and every time a step forward would be made, there would be two pushes back the other way. Honestly at times I wanted to reach through my nook to slap people... but it only would have made me feel better temporarily and wouldn't have helped the situation. It was just so frustrating! But I loved it.
There were moments of humor, but more often I was reading with a grimace of disgust at the horrible things that people can say and do to each other. But then, the mark of a great story is its ability to affect the reader, and this one definitely affected me.
Once upon a time there was a girl who read a zombie book she didn't like (What?! I know!!), and wrote a frustration-filled rant review about it. This...moreOnce upon a time there was a girl who read a zombie book she didn't like (What?! I know!!), and wrote a frustration-filled rant review about it. This review was then seen by another author working on his own zombie story, and he contacted the girl to thank her for writing her review because he said it helped him in shaping his own story. She was all pleased as punch about this, and offered to read his book to see how it came out.
This is the review of that book.
(Also, surprise! I'm the girl. :D) (In case you didn't know.)
So, what did I think of "Guns, Booze & Zombies"? Overall, I thought it was on the high end of OK to good scale, but a little spit and elbow-grease would make it really shine.
I really enjoyed the concept and setting of this story: A zombie outbreak in Prohibition Era New York. It sounded intriguing - I don't think I've seen a 30s era zombie story before. (I mean, I've seen Nazi Zombies, but that's a whole different set of entrails there.) I was interested to see how Prohibition was worked into the story, and to get the feel for 30s NYC. But as much as I liked the concept, I did have some issues with the execution.
See what I did there?
Storywise, it was a little too skewed toward the "tell" side of the spectrum, and I wanted more "show". The Prohibition aspect felt sadly lacking, as was the Depression. They were mentioned, of course, but I never truly felt the impact of either one. They never felt like hardships. Benson is evicted, but since the story moves almost right into Escape From Zombie New York, the impact is dulled and I felt as if it was almost unimportant. For another example, we're told that Benson Doss and Emma have rekindled their romance, but this doesn't quite mean anything because 1) we didn't know they had one in the first place, and 2) randomly meeting up in a speakeasy and having a few drinks doesn't exactly scream "rekindled romance" to me. That says, "They're friends, and she's a forward thinking kind of gal that will buy a down-on-his-luck guy a drink." For me to believe the romantic aspect, I wanted to see them react to each other, be attracted to each other, to maybe talk things through and discuss where attempt #1 went sour, commit to trying again, that sort of thing. All of which I missed.
I wanted to really know the characters, and care about them, but I didn't really get that as much as I'd have liked. In fairness, this is a novella - it's only 117 pgs on my Nook. But there's a lot of stuff packed in those pages, and I feel like a little more focus on the characters would have brought a bigger impact when bad things happen to them. For example, when we find out about a character's softer side, which leads into a side plot, I was able to sympathize with him more and wanted things to work out for him. But I didn't really feel anything close to that connection with any of the other characters.
Two other big story issues affected my enjoyment of this one. First, the side plot I mentioned was never resolved. Maybe there's a 2nd book in the works, which wouldn't be a bad idea, since the second issue I have is the twist at the end which came out of left field. It was just... OK, maybe not as unbelievable as one aspect towards the end was... (view spoiler)[The group of remaining survivors meet up with the Army, and the commander instantly knows who Benson Doss is, and turns over command to him...? My suspension of disbelief turned into a lead weight on that one. (hide spoiler)]... but still out of left field.
Finally, my last issue is with the lack of editing. This book is badly in need of an editor. I mention this because, to my knowledge, I was sent a copy of the final, for-sale version. There were quite a lot of misused words, missing commas, unnecessary semi-colons, misspellings, and awkward syntax all over the place. Every instance of the word "quiet" was misspelled "quite", "site" and "sight" were used interchangeably, among other misuses. Also, it seemed that words were switched out in favor of "better" ones that made the sentence awkward in many cases. Often, the simpler word will fit more naturally into the sentence than a less commonly used one. Example: "We allow the team to gather some excess sleep." This just feels clunky to me. It would feel much more natural as "We allow the team to get some additional sleep."
I actually did enjoy the story, though, despite my complaints above - I was interested in seeing where it went and what happened, and if there was an explanation for everything. I really enjoyed the goriness of the fighting, and liked, oddly enough, the sentimentality some held toward their loved ones turned flesh-eating-corpses. I would be interested in reading the sequel, if there should be one. I definitely think that G. Joseph has potential. He's one to watch. (less)
I have a feeling that this is going to be a rambling kind of review full of leg-humps and drooling.
You've been warned.
But first, I want to get the no...moreI have a feeling that this is going to be a rambling kind of review full of leg-humps and drooling.
You've been warned.
But first, I want to get the non-leg-humpy stuff out of the way. Technically, I'm giving this 4 1/2 stars, because there were a couple things that just... didn't feel right to me. Forced, one might say. They were little things, in the grand scheme of the book, but they just didn't really work for me, and took me out of the story. I know why they were there, but knowing why someone painted their house fluorescent orange doesn't make it easier to look at. Appreciating a style of art doesn't necessarily mean one has to LIKE it.
So my first issue is with the carryover sentences from the end of one chapter, to the header of the next. These are abrupt cut-off sentences hanging in the middle of a page, and the header of the next chapter finishes them.
It took me quite a while to get used to this, and it had a tendency not to stick. I don't read chapter headings. This hinders me a lot at times, because, in a book like this, the chapter headings are vital to keeping up with the story. They tell the reader where, and when, we're at in the story. But I find that chapter headers are often times spoilery, or hinty, and this annoys me. I don't want the chapter saying "Hey, watch out for this thing to happen... it's gonna be good!" I just want to read the story and get to the thing when I get to it, and be surprised. I especially dislike the cutesy ones like "Chapter 7, In Which Character A Has Things Happen To Him And Then Learns A Valuable Lesson". Ugh.
So I stopped reading them quite a while back. Sometimes it means that I get a little lost in the story and backtrack, and sometimes it means nothing because the only thing I've skipped is "Chapter 3".
Back on point - As I mentioned, it took me a long time to get used to the end of the sentence being the beginning of a chapter thing here, but I also said it didn't really "stick". What I mean by this is that there would be gaps of several chapters that ended normally, no carryover, and so the next time I'd see it (usually when it was supposed to be suspenseful) I'd have to pause and remind myself to read the next header. And not only read it, but read it as part of the previous chapter's last sentence.
Anyway... Needless to say, it took me out of the story. I've now written more about this carryover thing than some of my full reviews, and I feel like I'm starting to sound like I disliked it a lot more than I did. I actually didn't really mind it so much except that I just had to take that moment and remind myself how to continue. But it DID serve the purpose it was intended to serve, which was to make the reader pause, to wonder where things would go... to create some suspense. And it worked well in my case, for all the reasons mentioned already. Probably better than intended, actually. I tend to... skim. Especially if I'm anxious for characters and need to know what happens.
I know that this seems to go against everything that I hate about spoilers and hints, but I don't see this as spoiling myself, because technically I am reading the page - twice. One quick skim to find out what happens, and then a rescan to pick up anything I might have missed on the first pass. I don't do this with every page, or even every book. But the ones that grab me, that have hooked me and know it, they are the ones that I'm likely to skim because I just have to know what happens. It seems contrary - you'd think that the ones that I don't like would be the ones I'm most likely to skim... but no. Those my cause my interest and desire to read to fizzle out and die, and they eventually are just abandoned. Or abandoned quickly depending on how hard I hated it.
Moving on... The second thing that took me out of the story was the unlikely relationship at the end. I'm not going to give anything away here, but it just didn't seem realistic to me. I feel like I understand it, but it felt forced and... wrong, somehow. Tacked on, perhaps. And that's all I'm going to say about that. (See, I can be brief!)
Moving on to the things I loved about this book... Oh, there are so many. It will be much, much harder to specify these, and much harder to explain just why I loved it... at least without giving anything away.
First, I'll just say that this book was not at ALL what I expected. One expects, with a title like NOS4A2 (Nosferatu, if you don't speak license platenese) that it's a vampire story. And it is, but it isn't. It's so much more than that. That sounds trite, but I don't know how else to describe it. It's a book about the mind, and the power of belief, and in belief in oneself, and parenthood, and the nature of innocence... It's really so much more than I expected, though I feel like I should have known better, considering how much I loved Joe's last novel, and the reasons I loved it.
To date, I've read everything that Joe Hill has published, with the exception of his Locke & Key series, which I'll be getting to very soon. I started reading him, obviously, because he's Stephen King's son, but I've KEPT reading him because he's an amazing author in his own right. His voice is unique from his father's, he has his own style, his own way of using words and images and music to bring a story to life, and I love that about him.
But in this book, there's a distinct shift. Joe's no longer striving to separate himself, it seems, but is now incorporating... There's a kind of linking of the universes. I absolutely LOVED stumbling across the references to other books (The knife Maggie mentions was one that I thought fit perfectly into this story, though not very subtle. :P), but especially from Stephen King's. I highlighted a lot of passages - ones that Constant Readers will recognize immediately. There were a surprising number of them.
In addition to that, I felt like this book felt more like one King would write, especially post-2000 King. Don't get me wrong, Joe Hill's hand is alllll over this book, and it's incredible, but I can see an influence here, that's all. One of the major contributors to this is how Joe writes children. Stephen King is known for writing children with perfection, and it's abundantly clear that the apple did not fall far from the tree in this aspect.
I want to say a little something about the characters... but I'm not sure what I could say without giving anything away. I'll go vague then. I thought all of the characters were perfectly done. Their lives and their hopes and fears were all handled perfectly and I felt like I'd known many of them for a long, long time. Vic especially. I felt like I knew her better than she knew herself. Or maybe I just had more faith in her. I'm not sure there's a difference. I loved her, her strength, her refusal to give in... she's one to admire, if only for her determination. Goodness knows there's not much else to admire there. She's flawed, hugely flawed, and that's what makes her beautiful.
Lou was another one of my favorite characters. I was surprised at how important he became to the story, and by the way it happened, but I almost immediately came to love him. He's the perfect guy to have your back, no matter what it might mean for himself.
Anyway, I'm not saying anymore. To say more will be to spoil. I highly recommend this one, as I do with all of Hill's books. They are all amazing, and should be read and loved forever. The end. (less)
Quickie review for a quickie story. This was an ok story but not anywhere near the level I expected from CRZ. This was like a rough draft of a story r...moreQuickie review for a quickie story. This was an ok story but not anywhere near the level I expected from CRZ. This was like a rough draft of a story rather than the story itself. I wanted more from this - more substance specifically. Not bad but not as good as I wanted it to be.(less)
I am not a fan of verse even free verse. I like proper grammar and paragraphs and commas. So I was wary about reading this book when I saw crazy staggerin...moreI am not a fan of verse even free verse. I like proper grammar and paragraphs and commas. So I was wary about reading this book when I saw crazy staggering lines of text wandering around my nook screen. ***
But a friend's review made me reconsider and so I read the book and I mostly liked it. Mostly. Mostly because I still don't like verse even when it's free. Also because I want to see the picture that is being painted not just be told what it's of. I feel like too much of Sharp Teeth was telling telling telling and not enough showing. And the book is kind of schizophrenic jumping here and now there and then somewhere else randomly. Is it now? Or is it then? When is then? Who is she? ***
I liked the love story and Anthony on the beach and vulnerable. I liked the dog angle and the brutality but a single dog cannot eat an entire human and then have human dinner too. It would 'splode. ***
Not bad but I was ready for it to end when it did. ***
Interesting, but short, prequel to Leviathan Wakes. I really enjoyed this story, and the way it was told in flashback form intermixed with present eve...moreInteresting, but short, prequel to Leviathan Wakes. I really enjoyed this story, and the way it was told in flashback form intermixed with present events.
I liked seeing more of Fred's backstory here, and I enjoyed seeing how he got to where he was in LW.
This was OK... It just didn't really grab me. On a scale of 1 to 10, my interest in military battle theory is a -2, so I wasn't exactly engrossed here...moreThis was OK... It just didn't really grab me. On a scale of 1 to 10, my interest in military battle theory is a -2, so I wasn't exactly engrossed here.
There were some interesting concepts though, such as the expectations that others put on us, and those we put on ourselves, and how we don't always live up to them, no matter what the potential is. Sometimes those very expectations backfire.
This wasn't terrible, but definitely not my favorite of Sanderson's stories.
I'd still give him a good leg-hump should I cross his path though. Just a head's up, BSands. :D(less)
This is my second book by Steven Brust, and, unfortunately, I had a lot of the same complaints that I had with the first one. Which was also, now that...moreThis is my second book by Steven Brust, and, unfortunately, I had a lot of the same complaints that I had with the first one. Which was also, now that I think of it, a situation in which Brust wrote a story around someone else's work (in this case Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity world and characters, and in the other book, the Bible).
I just don't think that his style is for me. Which is a shame, because I think the stories are good. I just get annoyed while I'm reading them. His style is too choppy. Too many staccato sentences, too many interruptions and cut off sentences, too much dialogue and not enough exposition. Too many POVs, too many scene changes, too much left for the reader to fill in whenever there are gaps, and there are too many gaps. I want to know what a character is doing, and who, not just that something is being done by someone. For example:
"Sorry, ma'am. I'm in kind of a hurry. And you're not going to be able to reach your security people anyway. So, if you'll just let me . . . ugh. Which one of these . . . ? Okay, that's the direct link to the Cortex, so one of these must be, ah, I see. I don't know if I have the right connection here. Okay, this ought to—there. Yes. A guy named Mister Universe showed me how to do this. Weird name, huh? Not half as weird as the guy is. We met in flight school. Worst pilot you ever . . . okay, that should do it. Just give me half a second to make sure the cross-load worked. Yep. Okay. You can have your desk again. Thanks."
It was like reading a story that's been cut up into sentence fragments on little pieces of paper, put into a box, and then drawn out one by one. And almost every single time there's a scene change, we're in for a good chunk of time not knowing whose POV we're reading until there's a hint or clue, or occasionally, someone else comes in the scene and gives it away. That's not enjoyable to me. I want to be drawn into the story and have it feel effortless to read. I want to just be with these characters again, and not be irritated by them. I know Zoe says "Sir" a lot, but this book is only 168 pages long, and there are 206 sirs in it. I know, because I counted.
Or worse than being irritated by them is not understanding them at all, and had I not watched Firefly and Serenity before reading this book, I really don't think I would have. There just wasn't enough there. And combine that with the interruptions and everything else, and I just don't see how a person without full Firefly/Serenity experience would get much out of this book.
But, all that being said, I DO think that Brust did a good job matching the world and the characters, and the story itself was good. I just wish that his writing didn't make it hard for me to enjoy it. (less)
Another great installment in the series. These books are gradually getting darker, which seems hard to imagine when you think that t...more4.5 stars
ZOMG! :D
Another great installment in the series. These books are gradually getting darker, which seems hard to imagine when you think that the first one started with a murder by ones heart exploding out of their chest in a black magic rite, but they are.
Harry's getting a little fuzzy 'round the edges, and he's being pushed in directions he's been determined to never go out of necessity. Does that make him bad, or just human? I'm not sure, but I love him either way.
AND! This book had ZOMBIES.
Yet again Butcher rocks my socks with his unique spin on been-there-done-that stuff. He gave me absolutely the best of both worlds with his zombies - relentless, killer, is-that-what-my-tibia-looks-like fucking zombies, but with a different purpose and focus. His take on necromancy and control was awesome. Loved it. LOVED IT. (less)
![DEAD[ish]](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1288854653s/6599765.jpg "DEAD[ish]")
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