bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: currently-reading
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bookshelves: absolutely-loved-it, fiction, wishlist, young-adult
After hearing good things about this book from a friend, I decided to give it a try. Now, I'm not much for science fiction, so I was surprised that I enjoyed this book so much. This book is more dystopian than science fiction, which is probably why I loved it. Farmer paints a feasible and slightly disconcerting picture of North America a ways down the road from now. This novel actually was difficult to read for me in a few places--not for language or anything, but because of the subject matter. Farmer presented an excellent moral question to her readers regarding the humanity of clones and their treatment. Granted, we haven't cloned humans yet, but the situation that Farmer creates is not so farfetched that it is unbelievable. On the contrary, it is not difficult to imagine humans down the road wanting to clone for organ harvest. But clones aren't just clones--they're humans too, which raises the interesting moral questions that Farmer touched upon. Matt's treatment at times was heartwrenching to read, but to me that just proved that Farmer knows how to write. This novel had a bit of a slow start for me, if only because the beginning was difficult to read. After that, the novel was an absolute page-turner for me. The only thing that bothered about the novel was the whole Lost Boys plot towards the end. I don't know if it was just me, but it seemed very jarring. It all arose out of seemingly nowhere, and it seemed as though Farmer just threw it in there for the hell of it. Not that it was particularly bad, but it just didn't seem to go with the way the rest of the novel had been going. Overall, though, this novel was the best YA novel I've read in a long time--since A Northern Light actually. I'd highly recommend to fans of YA or fans of dystopic novels. ]]>
"This is such a good sci-fi YA novel. This book is working its way to becoming one of my favorites!"
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: absolutely-loved-it, favorites, fiction, wishlist
This was my first Richard Bachman. From what I've heard, most people prefer The Long Walk. If that's the case, then I can't wait for that because I loved Rage.
In this day and age, this is a little rough to read, but although this is about a taboo subject, it offers a twisted perspective into the mind of a killer--of a schizophrenic school shooter.
I won't lie, this was pretty twisted and there were parts of it that I wasn't even sure I understood fully. Right now even looking back, I'm not sure I understood the point of it. I really liked it though, despite how crazy that makes me sound. It's interesting to see an even darker side of Stephen King. I think the only way to explain it is how King himself explained Bachman:
"Bachman--a fictional creation who became more real to me with each published book which bore his byline--was a rainy-day sort of guy if ever there was one. The good folks mostly win, courage usually triumphs over fear, the family dog hardly ever contracts rabies; these are things I knew at twenty-five, and things I still know now, at the age (almost) of 25 x 2. But I know something else as well: there's a place in most of us where the rain is pretty much constant, the shadows are always long, and the woods are full of monsters. It is good to have a voice in which the terrors of such a place can be articulated and its geography partially described, without denying the sunshine and clarity that fills so much of our ordinary lives. For me, Bachman was that voice."
The craziest part, to me, about that introduction is that as King was describing Bachman, a persona formed in my mind, and it's still hard for me to see them as two separate people. Stephen King's just that talented.
Anyway, back to Rage. I flew through it. Like I said, even though I didn't understand all of it, I felt so compelled to keep reading--I've always wanted to know what a schizophrenic's mind was like and now I think I have some sort of an idea. My favorite quote from this is when Charlie Decker is talking about his school psychiatrists and psychiatrists in general. He originally refers to his psychiatrist as a "mindfucker," and then says, "That's what a shrink is for, my friends and neighbors; their job is to fuck the mentally disturbed and make them pregnant with sanity." I can't really place a finger on it, but I really liked it.
I'm very very excited to read more from Bachman. If they keep getting better like what I've heard, I have a feeling that old Richard Bachman is going to become a friend of mine. ]]>