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How I Live Now
by Meg Rosoff, Kim Mai Guest
by Meg Rosoff, Kim Mai Guest
Kat Kennedy's review
bookshelves: kat-s-book-reviews, should-have-been-bad
Oct 24, 10
bookshelves: kat-s-book-reviews, should-have-been-bad
Read from October 15 to 24, 2010
In all fairness, I had plenty of warning. I'd read Tatiana's review so I should have been well prepared.
Conventional wisdom states that when cousins get freaky, you're likely to end up with something like this:
No! No! Noooooooooooooooooo!
But nobody told Daisy and Edmond that. Nothing says true love like boinking your underage, nicotine addicted, telepathic first cousin while a war is going on.
This book was infinitely better when Daisy and Edmond weren't doing things against all the laws of God and man*.
Like Justin Beiber...
The story of Daisy and Piper's struggle to survive in an occupied territory whilst finding their family and Daisy overcoming certain issues was fantastic. I really enjoyed the writing style, voice of the main character, the pacing most of the contents of this book.
It just never lost the squick factor though and my rating of four stars is really 3.5 stars because I was wondering how even half of Daisy and Edmond's relationship made sense. Their relationship always held a strange trifector of intrigue, horror and hypnotizing squick.
Like 8 manips of Robert Downey Jr as a 1950's perv fantasy.
Nobody else in the book was horrified at their relationship. I mean, they're modern day Brits! It's not like we're in a culture where this is normal practise! His family all accepted it as normal and I simply can't imagine why!
Okay, nevermind...
So over all it was a good read. Weird but interesting enough and otherwise well written enough to keep my interest.
*Just so that I don't get any smartarses in the comments section:
1. Yes, I'm fully aware that the Bible actually never forbids the marrying of cousins - only brothers and sisters and so TECHNICALLY cousins marrying isn't against all the laws of God and man in the strictest sense.
and
2. Yes, I'm also aware of the buttload of research that shows that children of first cousins aren't actually statistically more likely to suffer from birth defects. Who really wanted to research that? Was it people trying to validate their "lifestyle" choices? I guess I just don't get it but then again, none of my cousins were hot...
Conventional wisdom states that when cousins get freaky, you're likely to end up with something like this:
No! No! Noooooooooooooooooo!
But nobody told Daisy and Edmond that. Nothing says true love like boinking your underage, nicotine addicted, telepathic first cousin while a war is going on.
This book was infinitely better when Daisy and Edmond weren't doing things against all the laws of God and man*.
Like Justin Beiber...
The story of Daisy and Piper's struggle to survive in an occupied territory whilst finding their family and Daisy overcoming certain issues was fantastic. I really enjoyed the writing style, voice of the main character, the pacing most of the contents of this book.
It just never lost the squick factor though and my rating of four stars is really 3.5 stars because I was wondering how even half of Daisy and Edmond's relationship made sense. Their relationship always held a strange trifector of intrigue, horror and hypnotizing squick.
Like 8 manips of Robert Downey Jr as a 1950's perv fantasy.
Nobody else in the book was horrified at their relationship. I mean, they're modern day Brits! It's not like we're in a culture where this is normal practise! His family all accepted it as normal and I simply can't imagine why!
Okay, nevermind...
So over all it was a good read. Weird but interesting enough and otherwise well written enough to keep my interest.
*Just so that I don't get any smartarses in the comments section:
1. Yes, I'm fully aware that the Bible actually never forbids the marrying of cousins - only brothers and sisters and so TECHNICALLY cousins marrying isn't against all the laws of God and man in the strictest sense.
and
2. Yes, I'm also aware of the buttload of research that shows that children of first cousins aren't actually statistically more likely to suffer from birth defects. Who really wanted to research that? Was it people trying to validate their "lifestyle" choices? I guess I just don't get it but then again, none of my cousins were hot...
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Reading Progress
| 10/24/2010 | page 45 |
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100% | "Wait... What?!" |
Comments (showing 1-32 of 32) (32 new)
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Tatiana
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rated it 3 stars
Oct 24, 2010 05:37am
LOL. I knew you would like it regardless of cousin loving. But I kept asking myself while reading this book - why was it even necessary?
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Kat, as a Canadian, let me apologize personally for Justin Bieber. We Canadians like to say sorry a lot. It's a national pasttime, I'm told. Great review!
Um, actually, in Greece first cousins cannot get married. Or second for the matter. After third it's ok. A guy and a girl who have the same godmother are thought as cousins from the church and can not therefore get married either. No matter the fact they share no blood...
Definitely squick. I thought the writing was enough to overcome the ickiness of the incest, but still. I agree with Tatiana, there was just no reason for it. They family could've easily been related by marriage or something else conveniently non-incestuous.
In much of the US, first cousins are free to marry. I actually have a cousin (by marriage) who married her first cousin this summer up in Maine. I thought it was weird, but I objected more strongly that he was 15 years her senior (she's 19) and still lived with his mom. For a girl in a top flight bioengineering program at a local university, she's dumb as a sack of bricks sometimes.
Well, my theory is that she likes to be a big fish in a small pond. So marrying a 34 year old dimwit with little in the looks or job prospects department ensures that he'll always worship at her feet, as she's young, blond, "smart" and uh, "top-heavy."The whole thing's just so goddamn icky, though. Since we made our displeasure known, she's cut the entire family out, including her parents. But, it's not technically incest between cousins, so marry they did.
Ridley - I have no words...Tatiana - I know! I kept thinking that he could have been a neighbour... or some good friend or related by marriage instead of blood...
Alkyoni - first cousins marrying is legal in Australia too. It explains a lot in my opinion...
btw, this Bieber doesn't really exist here in Korea, so I have no idea who he is, apart from the fact that he seems to be a singer;p must check him out.
ok, I saw "never let you go"... I felt kinda embarrassed to see a 12-year-old boy seducing a girl with two wrist watches. (loved one comment on youtube: it seems that he is trying to get kids into dating)
Ah Kat, aren't you being a bit hard on the Bieber? ;)I may have to read this now, incest doesn't bother me, not after reading Game of Thrones. George R. Martin desensitized me to such things years ago.
Jay, I think Beiber will live! If she finds this upsetting then I'm sure her boyfriend, Usher, will comfort her.
Kat: This is the funniest damn review I've read in ... FOREVER!! I haven't read this books, but now I feel like I have to just so I can then read your review again and be in tears laughing all over again! Great job! Thoroughly entertaining/worth spending "life time" on! ;D
K.
this review was hilarious!!! Your pix were borderline make you pee in the pants from laughing so hard!!!
Brittany, I'm perfectly aware of that. Aristocracy in most cultures are interbred but the modern Brittish family still thinks marrying cousins is squick. It's not a common practise for them.
And in any case, they had nothing on the Ancient Egyptians marrying siblings to each other:
The origin of sibling rivalry, no doubt:
Jay: I agree. SO many books and movies have incest, many of them with brothers and sisters... how can you still care? You're going to miss out on a lot of great literature if you can only handle conventional relationships.
I tried to finish this book but I was unable to. Sure the cousins having sex thing weirded me out, but that wasn't the only thing that gave me pause. While reading I kept wondering what other new shocking trick the author was about to shove in my face. First there is the disfunctional father who remarries the Antichrist, then there is the eating disorder, then the moving to England with cousins she's never met, then the chain-smoking 15 year old (soopah-hawt) cousin who already drives (????). Then a convenient disappearance of the only adult. Then telepathy, because seriously, there wasn't already too much of the ridiculous in this book. Then sexytimes between first cousins, then The End Of The World! Then everyone is cool with the first cousins bumping uglies. Then the cousins are separated...Then what??? I stopped reading, that's what. I figured Sasquach was due to make an appearance and rape everyone, so I quit. And anyway, I heard teen pregnancy is the HEA of this book. Awesome.
between cousins, its not incest in many cultures, most cultures and religions, including christianity. cuz they dont havcth same parents. its only the western culture that thinks, and even THEY had cousin marriages (royal family, and hasnt anyone read jane austen? geargians never hesitated to fall in love with a cousin or two lol)but tht said id never marry any of my cousins, cuz besides the slight ick factor, theyre all at least three years younger lol :-P x
I live in a village in a third world country (think somewhere in western Asia) and incest is incredibly common. Perhaps not the marrying type, not the openly accepted by families type, more the pedophile brother/cousin/uncle or rapist brother/cousin/uncle that people seemingly happily ignore, and from my research I know it's common all over this country of over one billion, regardless of race, religion or culture. It certainly wasn't common or quietly accepted by families when I was growing up in Australia!But Kat, your review has made me buy the book. The actual story line didn't really interest me until I read your review and now I'm curious how it all fits together.
The visual assistance made this review brilliant, and I completely agree with you. Cousin marrying may not be as taboo in the UK as it is in the US, but it's still weird and it never became not weird.
