C.A. Gray's Blog, page 59

Review of The Selection Series

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Review of The Selection

I love revisiting old favorites, and this is such a creative (at the time) combination of the dystopian genre with the reality TV phenomenon, and even a little bit of the Cinderella story. A very brief synopsis: in a post-WWIV world where people are separated into castes based on wealth, privilege, and career opportunities, the royal family hosts a Selection of women among the commoners in a beauty pageant to marry the prince. America doesn’t want to put her name in, but she does so for the financial benefits to her family… and because her boyfriend, Aspen, asks her to. He is in the caste below her, and doesn’t want her to spend her whole life struggling to survive, when she might have a shot at something better. When America gets selected, Aspen breaks up with her, sending her heartbroken to the palace to meet a prince whom she’s sure is a stuck up jerk.

A few negatives (that didn’t totally detract from the story, but still jarred me out of it): America was WAY too harsh with Prince Maxon in their first two meetings. It was dramatic, but completely unrealistic. It also made her less likable as a character. Also, while I get America’s conflict between Aspen and Maxon, her reasons for (spoiler alert) not telling Maxon that Aspen is her ex-boyfriend when he shows up at the palace as a guard seem pretty flimsy, to the point of dishonesty. Granted, It’s a double standard that Maxon can date multiple girls at once, while all of the girls have to be available only to him. But that’s what they signed up for, and they gave their words that that’s what they would do. So for America to go back on that and engage in secret trysts with Aspen called her character severely into question. I still rooted for her only because she was the protagonist and I saw the story through her eyes, but in real life, I wouldn’t have.

Periodically, rebels (vague though they are) show up at the palace to wreak havoc and mischief, lending more of a dystopian feel to what would otherwise be a futuristic version of the Bachelor. But I thought that worked, really–it created just enough outside tension to keep the book from being entirely a romance. Kiera Cass definitely does a great job of creating an emotional experience for the reader!

My rating: **** 1/2

Review of The Elite

“The Elite” was about on par with “The Selection,” I thought–it served to progress the story, and is distinctive from “The Selection” only insomuch as the group of girls competing for Prince Maxon is now much smaller. America still has her private liaisons with her ex-boyfriend-turned-palace-guard Aspen, though to her credit, in this book she finally makes up her mind and decides that Maxon is the one she really wants. But while Maxon was clear from the beginning that he was in love with America and would choose her early on in the process if she would have him, this book introduces some clever complications: when America’s best friend in the Elite, Marlee, is punished severely and publicly for what should be a minor transgression, America begins to wonder if she really wants to align herself with the royal family. This drives Maxon to consider other options… which makes America jealous and resentful, eventually speeding her toward a stunt that (*spoiler alert*) nearly gets her kicked out. Meanwhile, the rebel attacks get closer, more frequent, and their true aims begin to take shape.

The only reason I knocked off half a star is because of the way America handles the love triangle. Again, I get being torn between the boy she’s loved for years and the prince, the one she’s falling in love with now… but I don’t respect her for actively playing them both. It makes me like her less in general. But in every other way, I think she’s a sympathetic character.

My rating: **** 1/2

Review of The One

Sigh. YES. That was such a satisfying ending!!!

For all the back-and-forth of the love triangle, this book wraps it all up nicely. America seems steady. Decided. There are of course moments where the tension of misunderstanding looms, and I HATE that, but it doesn’t last long. And the way it’s done really makes the climax that much more satisfying.

I also love the fact that the rebels come front-and-center in this one, making the story so much more than an episode of The Bachelor. America not only earns Maxon’s love and respect, but the nation’s as well. Her character helps him to recognize what really matters, and how he can use his power to benefit the country.

Enemies become friends, good triumphs over evil, the bad guys get theirs, and the declaration of love is everything is should be. Very, very worth reading!

My rating: *****

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Review of The Odyssey

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I listened to the Audible version read by Claire Danes. It was accompanied by a very long foreword and note from the translator, which I actually enjoyed more than the story itself. These gave a lot of context in terms of how the Odyssey influenced culture in Ancient Greece, and how it continues to do so today; other works that referenced it, and how the translator made the decisions she did when translating it into modern English.

I had read at least an abbreviated version in high school but I didn’t remember it very well. The version in modern English was I think far easier to read, and I felt better doing so after listening to the translator’s note that said archaic English is no closer to the original Greek than is modern English, so you might as well translate it in such a way that will resonate with your own time! I also listened to most of it while in Santorini, so that gave it a lot more gravitas.

My rating: ***

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The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins

This week’s podcast comes from this blog review of the entire Hunger Games trilogy. 

Check out this episode!

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Review of the Twilight Series

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Review of Twilight:

The experience of reading this series is such a strange contradiction. There are so many things I dislike about it… and yet, I want to keep reading.

First: if we cut out the number of times we’re told about Edward’s glorious perfection, I think the book would be 25% shorter. OKAY. WE GET IT.

Second, Bella seems to have two modes of operation: gushing over Edward, and pouting over one thing or another (which everyone around her seems to find endearing, for some reason. But I just find her whiny.)

Third, the first 75% of the book is just Bella and Edward meeting, the tension of her not knowing that he’s a vampire, her finding out he’s a vampire, and then them getting to know each other. The conflict is almost an afterthought… as if the author realized, ‘oh yeah, this isn’t really a book yet, it’s just a scenario. Better throw in some conflict.’ The actual conflict feels pretty flimsy, too. So many of the situations are just damsel-in-distress moments for Bella, so that Edward can swoop in and save the day.

Fourth, it’s slightly creepy that Edward, technically eighty-something years old, is completely obsessed with a seventeen year old girl. He might *look* like a seventeen year old himself, but surely that many decades of life experience should render him so mature that he’d have no patience with an actual teenager.

…And yet. Despite the fact that I rolled my eyes almost constantly, I still ripped through the book quickly, *and* this is the second time I’ve read it. The first time was years ago, when I was in a very different life stage; therefore at the time, I found it to be far more addictive and absorbing then than I did this time. But despite my exasperation, there’s something about it that not only kept me reading, but made me pick up the next book too.

What is that something? I feel like this book is a caricature of THE classic female fantasy. The main character is (in her own eyes at least) plain, clumsy, boring, weak, ordinary… not special or talented in any way. And yet, this perfect, god-like man is utterly and unconditionally obsessed with her. He’s protective, capable, and completely selfless, ready to die for her, commit suicide for her, kill for her, or let her go if any of the above are the best choice for her. And while this is a very human incarnation of the story, I think that this is so desirable because it’s an allegory of the gospel, intentionally or not. (“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”… the perfect god-man, whom “we love because he first loved us,” who cares intimately about every detail of our lives and who came to give us “abundant life.”) That’s my theory, anyway.

Years ago, I think I stopped halfway through the third book in this series, perhaps because the story diverged so thoroughly from this core thread that the intrigue was gone for me, leaving nothing but pure exasperation in its place. We’ll see if I make it further this time.

My rating: ***

 

Review of New Moon:

I remember liking this less than Twilight the first time I read them, yet somehow this time I saw it as a huge improvement!

Bella is way less annoying in this one… probably because for the bulk of the story, Edward isn’t around. Edward is so perfect and the disparity between them is so extreme that Bella has to resort to whining in order to create conflict. But with Edward gone, Bella is around actual peers and equals, so she seems like a normal, relatable person. Not even all that self-centered. I also could sympathize with her unrequited desire for Edward in his absence, as well as her drive to do whatever it took to hear his voice again — and it was a really interesting device that she *did* hear his voice pleading with her to stay safe whenever she put herself in danger (even though this was never explained. At all.) The tension of their separation really carried the story, I think. It also meant that there necessarily wasn’t so much mooning over Edward’s perfection, because he wasn’t there for her to do so.

But, while I like Bella a lot better when Edward isn’t around, she’s the POV character, so I identify with her. So even though I think Bella would be much better suited to Jacob, I can’t really root for Jacob, because Edward is perfection itself. Jacob is just a moody teenage boy. If I’m identifying with the character who gets one or the other of them, then clearly there’s no contest.

And yet (spoiler alert)… as satisfying as Bella’s and Edward’s reunion is at the end, it becomes *painfully* sappy once the immediate danger passes. Like, take-you-out-of-the-story, can-I-even-bear-to-listen-to-this sappy. Bella immediately reverts to the same weak, whiny, mooning character she was before.

…But I’m still reading on! Something about the emotional experience created by this series, even with all its flaws, still makes it so compulsively readable.

My rating: ****

 

Review of Eclipse:

I have mixed feelings on this whole series so far, and this book is no exception. It’s definitely better than the first book, but probably about on par with New Moon. Both books 2 and 3 have more action, and the dynamic of the werewolf pack and the rivalry between the wolves and the vampires adds an extra dimension to the rivalry between Edward and Jacob for Bella. Toward the beginning of the story, Edward was a bit too much of a parent to Bella, but that was short-lived. Bella continued to be whiny with him, and her behavior with Jake was completely inappropriate (who holds hands with a guy friend when she has a boyfriend and thinks that’s okay?!) But aside from that, Bella was likable enough for maybe the first 2/3 of the book. Identifiable, at least.

But then she suddenly becomes insufferable, when (spoiler alert) she decides she’s in love with BOTH Edward and Jacob. I could *maybe* have understood if she claimed to be confused about her feelings (even though one of them is a paragon of selflessness while the other is cocky, whiny, manipulative, and immature). But no–Bella claims that she knows exactly how she feels, and she is actually in love with them both… she just happens to love Edward better. I really can’t understand what either guy sees in Bella. Her mother says that she was “born middle-aged,” but I can’t think of a single scene in the series so far that demonstrates her maturity.

I kept reading, though. Still. I don’t know why, considering my disgust with the protagonist. But I will give it this: even though this series is primarily a romance, it does not glorify sex. There’s discussion of it, and given the main subject matter it can hardly help that. But it still remains clean.

My rating: *** 1/2

 

Review of Breaking Dawn:

I finally stopped reading maybe 1/4 into this one. I enjoyed Bella and Edward’s wedding, even though Bella’s extreme aversion to all things marital seemed a bit unprovoked (but she tends to have strong negative reactions to nearly everything.) I could even buy her getting pregnant with some sort of incubus creature eating her from the inside, though that seemed pretty hokey.

…But then Edward and his family start trying to abort the child to save Bella, and she’s not willing, so Edward tries to get Jacob to convince her–with the enticement that she can have children later with Jacob instead, if what she really wants is children. Like they’ll just share her. I get having a love triangle for the sake of tension, but after she’s made her choice and married Edward, now the plot doubles back to Jacob again, and they’re going to be swingers? That’s just a whole new level of weird, to the point where the story was no longer enjoyable to me. I don’t need to finish it that badly.

No rating (did not finish)

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An Enchantment of Ravens, Margaret Rogerson

Today’s podcast comes from this blog post, An Enchantment of Ravens.

Check out this episode!

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Review of The Hunger Games Trilogy

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Review of The Hunger Games:

This is one of my all-time favorites, right up there with Harry Potter (though probably below it, because there’s a lot less fun and whimsy in this story). The concept, while grisly, was so completely new at the time when the story came out–no wonder it became such a sensation. The characters were also memorable, and the action nonstop. Even though I’ve watched the movies over and over again, the books still hold their own. There are so many details that necessarily can’t be included in a film version, because they happen inside of Katniss’s head.

The first time I read this, I thought the star-crossed lovers routine between Peeta and Katniss was a little contrived, there only to heighten the tension and add some romance for a YA audience. I didn’t think so this time, though: I totally bought why the Capitol would eat it up, and why Katniss would get the message that she had to go along with it if she wanted them to survive.

The part I still did think was a bit weak was (spoiler alert!) the poisonous berries at the end. Haymitch and Katniss both think that she’s in so much more danger after the Games are over, because she and Peeta forced them into choosing them both as victors by their threatened double suicide, and this somehow made them look foolish. This made very little sense to me–I didn’t see how they could possibly have viewed that as an act of rebellion. It was self-preservation, pure and simple. But I could easily suspend my disbelief there, because that vital point was what spawned the rest of the series. I just felt that there could have been a stronger motivation for the Capitol to suddenly view Katniss as a revolutionary.

I also like the fact that Katniss doesn’t go into the Hunger Games thinking of Gale romantically at all. (That’s less clear in the films.) She also truly believes that Peeta’s declaration of love for her before the Games was just a strategy, and doesn’t figure out it wasn’t until the very end. Maybe she’s clueless, but I bought it. Both of these facts make her behavior with Peeta, both in the arena and after, significantly less despicable. There’s a love triangle, yes, but not because she can’t make up her mind. There is a lot more at stake.

I’m excited to listen to the rest of the trilogy again!

My rating: *****

Review of Catching Fire:

Ugh. Man. I’d give this series six stars if that was an option. There are some stories that just make me ache, in a good way–like I just WISH I could write something so amazing, and at the same time I want to celebrate that *somebody* wrote it and it exists in the world. Everything comes together so beautifully in this trilogy: the creativity of the story (even though the market has since been glutted by copycats), the perfect characterization (nothing seems to happen to keep the plot moving; it all seems organic, like it couldn’t happen any other way), and the themes that seamlessly illustrate what truly matters. There’s the perfect balance between external cataclysmic conflict, and interpersonal conflict–and no easy answers for any of it.

And yet, the idea of the Hunger Games was such a risk, probably, because the concept is so grisly, and the target audience is young adults. It’s almost surprising that this is up there with my all time favorite series, since I dislike gratuitous violence and hate anything that ends sad… but I think Suzanne Collins managed to take a grisly concept and make it both tasteful and bittersweet. These definitely all end on cliffhangers, but for the kind of story this is, I think that really works. Just so, so good.

My rating: *****

Review of Mockingjay:

As much as I LOVED this entire trilogy… I think I’ve always liked Mockingjay the least, because it feels like a bit of a let-down at the end. It’s still fast-paced, the characterization is still amazing, and there’s one major unexpected twist that I thought was brilliant. But the ending, while realistic, is just so sad. It’s bittersweet at the very end, really, but not triumphant, and not even really redemptive. Katniss just ends up broken, surrounded by ghosts of her past. She never chooses between Peeta and Gale, either–the story does that for her, which I think makes the one she ends up with feel like a default choice, even though I think he was the right one, given the way this particular installment played out. He just happens to be the only one left to her, pretty much in the entire world.

…Would I have changed it? I’d probably have had a much lower body count–of all of the books, this one I felt was the grisliest of all. I also would have left out the last and most significant death of the books, leaving Katniss with a life to go back to at the end and some residual glory in the new Panem. This also would have forced Katniss actually choose Gale or Peeta. And I might have changed the dynamic between Katniss and Gale in this book, thus altering which of them she ultimate chose.

My rating: ****

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Wish by Barbara O’Connor

Today’s podcast comes from this blog post, Wish by Barbara O’Connor

Check out this episode!

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An Enchantment of Ravens

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This story reminds me a LOT of “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” but I like it better because the main character is far more likable. (Also, while it’s still a bit on the cheesy side at times, it’s not so painfully sappy.)

Isobel is a very skilled painter whose primary patrons are Fair Ones (faeries of the various courts with the names of the seasons). There’s a law that mortals and Fair Folk cannot fall in love, or they’ll be killed — you just have to accept that. You also have to accept some of the other rules of their world: if Fair Folk do anything that can be considered a craft, they will immediately disintegrate into nothing, which is why they so greatly admire anybody who does produce craft of any kind. One day, Isobel’s patron is the Autumn King, Rook — and she starts to fall for him. But in process of painting his portrait, she sees something in his eyes that she cannot identify at first. She eventually realizes it’s sorrow, which is out of place because Fair Ones supposedly can’t feel human emotions at all. She paints it, and when Rook goes back and reveals the portrait in his court, there’s an uproar and the people no longer respect him because he’s been “outed” as having emotion. (Why they can identify it in the painting and not in real life, I don’t know–this is something else you just have to accept.) He comes back to take Isabel to stand trial for her crime. Along the way, though, they encounter a hunt that sets them in danger (I wasn’t clear on the reason for this) which delays the process, and Isobel wrests a confession out of Rook that he loves her. But since she doesn’t yet love him officially, they haven’t broken the law yet.

In order to escape the hunt, they venture into the Summer Court. They stick around for a ball, Isobel of course realizes she loves him, and they’re condemned to death by the Alder King, the king of the Summer Court. Isabel and Rook have to flee for their lives, and eventually Isobel concocts a crazy plan to save them both.

Spoiler alert: it’s a happily-ever-after story (which I’m glad about, because I like happy endings, but it did feel a little too convenient.) Still, I enjoyed the story, and liked Isobel’s and Rook’s characters fo the most part. I also really liked the fact that, unlike most faery stories, the Fair Ones aren’t *all* glamour. In Rogerson’s version (if not in other versions, I don’t know the lore that well), their glamour covers ugliness in their persons, mold and rot in their clothes and food and dwellings. They are immortal, but apparently not immune to time in other ways. The best they can do is hide that under their glamour. I thought that was an interesting twist.

My rating: *** 1/2

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Finale by Stephanie Garber

Today’s podcast comes from this blog review of Finale by Stephanie Garber. 

Check out this episode!

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Review of Wish

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Charming! I so rarely enjoy kids’ books because the themes are usually too juvenile too, but not this one. Even though Charlie’s travails ring true for a young girl, we can all identify with her readily, I think, and the environment of the story reminded me a lot of Anne of Green Gables, which is one of my favorites. The theme — finding love in unexpected places, and therefore a place to belong — is told in a way that a child could understand, but of course is itself ageless. Very uplifting.

My rating: *****

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