Devin’s Comments (group member since Sep 12, 2016)

Devin’s comments from the Are We Not Entertained? group.

Coming back to the group celebrating the feast of St. Patrick. :P This month's prompt is "Green."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGkJX...

I'll be reading "The Street" By Lee Gruenfeld.
How about you?

Becky wrote: "I finished Homegoing on my lunch break. So disappointed. I was promised beautiful writing. Obviously, I have a different definition of beautiful writing than other people. I am also feeling let dow..."

Ah man, that's pretty disappointing to hear. I couldn't do Homegoing for AWNE because it legit looked like something I would enjoy. haha I may have to give it another look :P

Alright we're almost two weeks out from June. So Here's a call to you guys, any suggestions for the group pick for June? And come to think of it, is there a couple of suggestions, cause July and August aren't far away either.
I do have an idea for July, but I'm going to wait and see if you guys have some other ideas first.

So I've been mulling it over for a few days, but then I was reminded that a certain title was released on the 3rd. I am now 12 chapters deep into my AWNE pick this month.

The Black Witch. - A YA fantasy that intentionally explores racism/sexism without apology. People on GR have voted it down to a 2 star read, but to be fair most of the negative reviews I've seen are from people who state they have not and will not read it.

The problem with it is this world the author created is rife with racial and gender imbalances and racism is fairly normalized by a lot of the people in the protags life. So this isn't a Carve The Mark where people are taking things that could be interpreted as racist... legitimately the main characters aunt goes on a rant about how tragic it is that the university is "integrating" a number of lesser beings. peasents, half-breeds, and even things I imagine to be demonic in nature.

This is also without question a hardcore Patriarchy. Magic is passed down through families into males far more common than females. Some women have magic but they are uncommon... so men make the decisions.

So I can see how this world would be universally hated by people sensitive to these issues. But, the people who reviewed it without touching on those topics seem to really enjoy it.

And now, 12 Chapters in. I am so far among them. The racial tension is not something being glamorized in it. The protagonist is a 17 year old girl who was raised "under a rock" so to speak she has preconceived notions about certain peoples and races but not so much they aren't challenged, but going in she's just ignorant to it.

Her uncle after using his male-authority to stand up for her against her aunt, is IMMEDIATELY explained by the protag as being opposed to how women are viewed in their society and how he hates using that particular kind of argument because it's not right.

The protags "racist" inquiries seem to come from a place of genuine curiosity and misconception - I hope as this goes on she learns more and it becomes more reinforced.. even when another character is being cruel to a servant character, the protag acknowledges how cruel it was.

Anyway, that's my long ramble.
I'm reading Black Witch to see if this intentionally racist book can actually have some merit and to see how it actually handles the conversation of racial tension or discrimination. :P

How bout y'all? :PThe Black Witch

May is a pretty hectic month for people. Summer is about to ramp up, school is coming to an end and vacations are being planned. So considering we don't have a specific pick already on the docket, how about we take May as a wildcard month.

Basically, There isn't an official group-pick, but leave it up to yourself to read something that would normally fit under the AWNE criteria. So basically take something you don't expect to enjoy and give it a read, we can talk about what we decided to read and what we thought about here in this thread.

Meanwhile we'll come back in June with a group-pick. :P

Becky wrote: "I started reading this last night. I got about 20ish pages into it. Woof...this is depressing. I thought I was going to hate the lack of quotation marks, but I think it is appropriate for this book..."

Oh yeah for sure. It's like it's a lack of structure but it perfectly mimics the atmosphere of the story. Like kind've like how it's post apocalyptic and pretty much civilization is gone and collapse.. so too has the rigid structure of the prose itself - proper punctuation, quotation marks, the apostrophes seemed to be used at random times and omitted at others :P

heh very depressing.

Alright so, the general feeling of "Holy shit I just read a literary novel" is beginning to wear off on me and coherent thoughts are starting to return to my brain. hah.

How are you all finding it/have you started yet?? :)

Tina wrote: "Guys I'm so late to the party but I'm going to comment anyway.

I struggled for the first 2/3 of the book, the whole 'we don't know how to work a solar cell or a generator' it was too much. And th..."

It's never too late to talk about these books! :)
That's very well put, I agree. Using Clark as the device to keep things connected and together was a good idea - though I think you may be right and it was the first part she wrote lol

In my video I said this was a dystopian genre story trying to be a literary. I definitely stand by that statement, moreso now that I'm ACTUALLY reading a literary dystopian.

I have numerous agree tweets and quotes while reading this to say I agree with it needed at least another edit. In the end, I think it was just a case of her reach extending her grasp. If she would've scaled it back closer to the genre routes that it seems like the story wanted to go with .. it could've been stronger.

Tina wrote: "I read this when I was on a roll reading YA to improve my English, unfortunately it was at the end of the trend, so I was starting to despise the repetitiveness of the plots. It did not help that t..."

It's been a struggle for me to find some positives, but I got a couple for the sake of the upcoming video. One I'll say is the pacing. Maas used a common author strategy to keep the chapters frequent and short. It gives the impression of a faster pace and therefore made it easier to fly through than if she didn't do that.. :P

That is one thing about the road. If you're sensitive to depression content. good god stay away lol.
I've read and watched a lot of dystopian fiction in my day but one thing I will give the road credit for it, I've never experienced such a bleak and despressive atmosphere in any novel/movie/tv show.

There's a number of passages that make me think about the world at large and "the human condition" (As literary fiction tends to do) but what I really appreciate is how different it feels. To me this is kind've how I would expect the end of the world to actually feel like. Every decision is life or death.. something as generally overlooked as getting your feet wet or ruining your shoes. The attention to the small details is where it really punches you in the gut.
Most dystopians would have big shoot outs with raiders or finding stashes of food/ammo from abandoned buildings. Not in this one.

I'm only 1/3 the way through so I'd imagine some of this stuff will come up eventually but it's a great... but REALLY depressing slow burn so far.

Here's the thread for The Road guys.. and for a change, I've actually already started it here at the beginning of the month.

And well, it's um, DEFINITELY a literary novel. No one would confuse this writing style with genre fic. No chapter breaks, no quotation marks, strange spacing... this is something I dislike about literary works.. but I'm starting to get used to it so it's getting more comfortable.

Initial reaction.. I think this is the book Emily St. John Mandel was trying to write. A Literary dystopia. A gritty, heavy atmosphere from the start. It's not a fast, easily consumable read, but I am actually enjoying it so far.. only about 50 pages in though, so we'll see what happens from here.

penniandbooks wrote: "Indie wrote: "No disrespect to anyone who actually served in the military... but I feel like Im goin to be getting Nam-like flashbacks years from now about the experience of reading this book... go..."

I don't think I was able to intentionally turn off my brain, I think Celaena's complaining and whining beat my brain into submission such that it was afraid to show itself to me at any point and time while reading.

Lena_makridina wrote: "Normally Id finish the book at work and when I get home in the morning I record the audio for the video.... but this one is going to need some time to bake a while...

Guys I haven't started it ye..."

Haha its okay Lena :) this is a very low-pressure group. :) these threads are open for anyone to converse with any of the books at anytime. :p

No disrespect to anyone who actually served in the military... but I feel like Im goin to be getting Nam-like flashbacks years from now about the experience of reading this book... good god.
Normally Id finish the book at work and when I get home in the morning I record the audio for the video.... but this one is going to need some time to bake a while...

penniyanni wrote: "Hey guys sorry I've been on work travel hell. I'm down for reading The Road! :D"

We'll be glad to have ya! :P

From the things I've heard about it, and still have yet to read it myself. The Road sounds like a terrific choice. And Becky still haven't had a pick of her own yet, hah so I'm up for it.

Anyone else have any suggestions, or a reservation about reading The Road?

Lol If no one has something else in mind we can go with it.. though, personally 50 Shades has kind've earned a special place of hatred with me reserved for just EL James and Twilight. haha so it's kind've one of those books I was hoping to hope out on for a special occasion. :P

Since Britt's pick of Throne Of Glass got a little more attention this month I figured now would be a good time to open up the floor to the group to offer up ideas for April's pick.

I know I kind've have one in mind as well but I'm gonna wait and see if we can get a selection to pick from and I'll probably put up a poll like the first month :P

So let's hear em folks

*stares blankly like a deer in headlights*
Dear God, what have we done?? Penni's been a booktuber for like a month-ish and she's already "ship"ing people in YA..
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ;)

Oh no, not you too Becky! haha

It took literaly two pages for me to start despising Celeana. Though I'm trying not to make my mind up too early... she's making it difficult though. :P