JJ (sjaejones) - Astoria, NY (320 books)

JJ is now friends with Robb Skidmore

JJ gave

to:

The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green

read in January, 2012

My rating:

Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus. I kind of can't write a review of this one--too emotional (me, of all people, getting "too emotional" over a book!), but I'm pretty much weeping as I write this. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

JJ gave

to:

Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)
by Tahereh Mafi (Goodreads Author)

read in August, 2011

My rating:

Honestly, I don't quite know what rating to give this book.

Here's the thing: Tahereh Mafi is totally gifted. She is a gifted writer. There is talent bubbling there and I think she's destined for great things.

Here's the "but": Her talent is compl...moreHonestly, I don't quite know what rating to give this book.

Here's the thing: Tahereh Mafi is totally gifted. She is a gifted writer. There is talent bubbling there and I think she's destined for great things.

Here's the "but": Her talent is completely wasted on this novel.

I like metatextual playfulness as much as the next literary snob, but what I felt was a mediocre and crassly commercial story was tricked out in too many gimmicks to be any good. (To be fair, I also love a great commercial story as much as the next mainstream consumer.) To be frank, this novel was a bit of a mess: chock full of figurative language that limps as often as it soars, typographic elements used willy-nilly and to little effect, not to mention a steamy romance that steamed without setting any fires.

But. Oh, but BUT.

For every 25 times those "literary" gimmicks fail, there's 1 that scores. And it's that 1 that makes me believe this woman is gifted. She's got talent. She can be amazing. And I think what frustrated me most about this book wasn't that it was overambitious and overreached itself (as is often the case with gimmick books); it was that I felt her talent was wasted. With more focus, with more precision, and frankly, with a better vehicle, Mafi could have written something truly brilliant. Of course, it isn't fair to judge a book on the writer's potential; one should evaluate the text as it is.

Which again brings me back to the point that I simply cannot decide what rating to give this. A three for "yet another" dystopian (after working in editorial, I'm starting to feel glutted on these types of story--okay, maybe not "starting", but "have been for months now") which is neither here nor there, a two for the effectiveness, and a four for the momentary flashes of brilliance. I suppose it all averages round again, but make no mistake: this is not a bland book. This is a book for which I had all sorts of FEEEEEEELINGS, which, I suppose, is what an author wants from his/her audience anyway.

Edited to add: The further away I am from this book, the more its flaws begin to bug me. Some of the bloom is off the rose, so to speak.(less)

JJ gave

to:

Imaginary Girls
by Nova Ren Suma

read in December, 2011

My rating:

Right, so I imagine this book, like Tahereh Mafi's SHATTER ME, is the sort of book to drum up a love/hate sort of relationship. However, unlike SHATTER ME, I actually fell in love with this one.

To be honest, I knew very little about IMAGINARY GIRLS...moreRight, so I imagine this book, like Tahereh Mafi's SHATTER ME, is the sort of book to drum up a love/hate sort of relationship. However, unlike SHATTER ME, I actually fell in love with this one.

To be honest, I knew very little about IMAGINARY GIRLS aside from a vague notion that it was "literary". What I knew poking around the author's blog was that she had a way of writing about emotions that was gut-wrenching and slightly self-conscious, the way MFA students or poets are often praised for being. (My thoughts on the MFA are...another matter--suffice it to say, very few people actually benefit from having one in that very few people actually walk away with a book deal.) Luckily for the author, I found the first 80 pages of IMAGINARY GIRLS online as a freebie from her publisher, and I fell immediately under the spell of her prose.

This is everything I had asked for while I was in the depths of my YA fatigue. Fascinating, complex characters, unreliable narrators, literary, magical realism, and absolutely no FEEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS to get in the way. This, to put it simply, is simply a magical book.

It's hard to describe what it is succinctly, but at its heart, it's a story about a possibly haunted little town, control and power, the dangerous side of manic pixie dream girls, and two sisters--Ruby and Chloe--whose attachment to each other borders on obsession. This is most decidedly NOT your fluffy YA popcorn read. This novel is SINISTER. The book opens with a dare to swim across a reservoir, in which our protagonist happens across the dead body of her classmate. The answer to the central question of the series is found within that first scene, cleverly laid in. How Ruby is involved. Who or what Ruby is. What happened that night Chloe took the dare to swim across.

It's hard to categorise a work like IMAGINARY GIRLS, which is part psychological thriller, part murder mystery, and even a tiny bit supernatural (although it is decidedly not supernatural--only that the book can possibly encompass the superatural--such is the definition of magical realism, I feel). There is a certain type of reader who is naturally drawn to and feels affinity with a novel like this, and it's hard to describe who they are except I am one of them. The spell Suma weaves with her prose is equal parts literary craftsmanship and nostalgia--nostalgia for a place and a time I never lived.

This isn't to say that IMAGINARY GIRLS isn't without some flaws, some objective, some more subjective. On the objective side, I have a feeling IMAGINARY GIRLS might have begun its life as a short story--the beginning is nearly perfect in its brevity and diction, and later scenes in the novel start to feel like just that: scenes. Forward momentum is slow at best. On the more subjective side, I can imagine people absolutely HATING everyone in this book. I don't, but that is perhaps because I have known my fair share of Rubys, and like Chloe, have wanted to be one myself. And I might have. It's hard to tell.

God, this book is amazing. An absolute breath of fresh air so close to the end of a year which had grown increasingly stale. I would absolutely recommend it to lovers of magical realism, although a more general recommendation has to be qualified by the fact that this simply might not be up your alley. To each his/her own.(less)

JJ gave

to:

Liar's Moon (Thief Errant, #2)
by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Goodreads Author)

read in December, 2011

My rating:

I really loved Elizabeth C. Bunce's debut novel A CURSE AS DARK AS GOLD, so of course I had to pick up her next output, a series of high fantasy novels about a girl thief, full of magic and political intrigue. This is the second book in the series, a...more

JJ gave

to:

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan

The Dark and Hollow Places (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #3)
by Carrie Ryan (Goodreads Author)

read in November, 2011

My rating:

This had been sitting in my TBR pile for a while now and I think it says something about the state of YA literature right now that I just didn't have the stamina to crack it open. I liked Ryan's debut THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, which I thought wa...moreThis had been sitting in my TBR pile for a while now and I think it says something about the state of YA literature right now that I just didn't have the stamina to crack it open. I liked Ryan's debut THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, which I thought was gorgeously written, emotionally intense, and DAMN SCARY to boot (and with an amazing title!). A perfectly awesome book. However, I was less impressed by the follow up THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES, which in my opinion, was the exact same story as THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, but the novelty had worn off. Needing some distance from the series, I held off on reading THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES for months.

After some time away, I remembered what it was about Ryan's writing I so enjoyed, but none of the problems I had with the previous installments went away. I don't mind bleakness in a zombie novel--zombie novels are all about our inevitable mortality after all--but quite frankly, I got bored. None of the questions I had about how the Return started were answered, which is what I had hoped to see by this last book. Zombie books are all well and good, but zombie books ought to SAY something about us. About human nature. About what could go so wrong as to cause a zombie apocalypse. I thought THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH was a wonderful book about the human instinct to live and survive and THRIVE in the face of unrelenting bleakness, but the two follow up novels didn't impress me as much because they added nothing to that discussion.

Still. What I like about Ryan's writing is how she is able to write about female emotions in a way that is both real and empowering, but without resorting to typical "kickass" tropes. There are different kinds of strength in all her female protagonists, which I really, really appreciate. I liked Annah of THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES much more than I did Gabry of THE DEAD TOSSED WAVES, but not quite as much as Mary of THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. Despite the narrative flatness of these books, I look forward to seeing what Ryan has coming out next.(less)

JJ voted for Beauty Queens in Best Young Adult Fiction in the Final Round of the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards.

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JJ is now following Susan's reviews

JJ marked as to-read:

Larkstorm (Larkstorm, #1)
by Dawn Rae Miller (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

JJ is now following Malinda Lo's reviews

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JJ is now friends with Robb Skidmore
Feb 08, 2012 09:35am
JJ gave to: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green read in January, 2012	My rating:
Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus. I kind of can't write a review of this one--too emotional (me, of all people, getting "too emotional" over a book!), but I'm pretty much weeping as I write this. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
Jan 12, 2012 08:32am · see review
JJ gave to: Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1) by Tahereh Mafi (Goodreads Author) read in August, 2011	My rating:
Honestly, I don't quite know what rating to give this book. Here's the thing: Tahereh Mafi is totally gifted. She is a gifted writer. There is talent bubbling there and I think she's destined for great things. Here's the "but": Her talent is compl...more
Dec 06, 2011 05:45am · see review
JJ gave to: Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma read in December, 2011	My rating:
Right, so I imagine this book, like Tahereh Mafi's SHATTER ME, is the sort of book to drum up a love/hate sort of relationship. However, unlike SHATTER ME, I actually fell in love with this one. To be honest, I knew very little about IMAGINARY GIRLS...more
Dec 06, 2011 05:43am · see review
JJ gave to: Liar's Moon (Thief Errant, #2) by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Goodreads Author) read in December, 2011	My rating:
I really loved Elizabeth C. Bunce's debut novel A CURSE AS DARK AS GOLD, so of course I had to pick up her next output, a series of high fantasy novels about a girl thief, full of magic and political intrigue. This is the second book in the series, a...more
Dec 05, 2011 12:03pm · see review
JJ gave to: The Dark and Hollow Places (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #3) by Carrie Ryan (Goodreads Author) read in November, 2011	My rating:
This had been sitting in my TBR pile for a while now and I think it says something about the state of YA literature right now that I just didn't have the stamina to crack it open. I liked Ryan's debut THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, which I thought wa...more
Nov 28, 2011 12:22pm · see review
JJ voted for Beauty Queens in Best Young Adult Fiction in the Final Round of the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards. cast your vote
Nov 21, 2011 08:49am
JJ is now following Susan's reviews
Nov 14, 2011 12:07pm
JJ marked as to-read: Larkstorm (Larkstorm, #1) by Dawn Rae Miller (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Nov 09, 2011 06:23pm
JJ is now following Malinda Lo's reviews
Nov 04, 2011 12:53pm

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