Rita’s Comments (group member since Jul 23, 2010)

Rita’s comments from the Unlocking Books group.

I'm going to be disappointed that the series ends. I don't really want the story to end.

So we have now listed to the Fablehaven audiobooks for #3 & #4, and we just started #5.

You were right, Stephanie... Seth really changes, and he's becoming my favorite.

So disappointed about the twist at the end of #4. When we first discovered the truth, my mind worked hard to find a way that it wasn't true. I had really liked him! (Is that vague enough to not give anything away while still allowing those who have read it to know what I am talking about?)

...threw the banana-carrot cake at the ...

that more mice poured in. The elephants went...

Behind me, the door I had just stepped through was gone, and a gray mountain replaced the brick wall of the tunnels. The stooped man crawled up a steep staircase carved out of the stony face.

"Hey, wait." I rushed up the mountain after him.

"Hello?"

Nothing but my own voice echoed back to me.

A short man, wearing tattered robes of various colors, scuttled into the room. His back stooped as though he carried heavy burdens, but his arms were empty. He mumbled to himself as he opened another door and disappeared inside.

"Excuse me!" I hurried after him.

...refused to...

butter-cream icing. It attracted mice, which...

...decided to start a new business (an elephant spa), featuring...

No, I wasn't ready. In way over my head, I turned around to go back...

...and bumped into an invisible barrier. It sizzled, zapping my skin, and I jumped away.

Nowhere to go but through the door.

selling banana-carrot cakes. But nobody wanted them but the ...

danced. The moon flowers...

That sounds fascinating. I'll try to pick it up when we finish the Fablehaven series.

Happy Birthday!

You are just like me!!! I read books for fun that would put hair on your chest.

Here's our new thread: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

I plan to read this book, and Kriss (another member here) is currently reading this book. Sooooo, I wanted to open a thread for discussion.

I'm still impressed, even if you are reading it for a class. I think I'll get a copy and read along with you. We can even start a thread to discuss it.

I am currently reading Going Bovine. I have read all of Libba Bray's other books, but this one is boring me.

(1) I don't identify with the character Cameron.
(2) A related issue: Cameron is not likable--he's self-centered, apathetic, and cruel.
(3) I am uncomfortable with watching characters do drugs. Even if the character overcomes their addictionin the end (i.e. Valiant by Holly Black), the getting to the character growth part is painful for me.
(4) It took a long time to get to the point of the story where anything interesting happens. Watching Cameron wander around apathetically, spouting nasty comments to everyone he meets, while he goes to English class, thumbs through records at the music store, and watches Wile E. Coyote while high on marijuana, was not very interesting.

I'm sticking with it for now, but I'm really hoping the book improves now that the mad cow diagnosis has taken place. The hallucinations he's started having have been interesting. And I liked the little old woman who snuck into his hospital room.

How did you enjoy Dante's Inferno??? I've read some books recently that referenced it, and it sounds like a beautiful read. But it also seems so daunting.

I was just so frustrated with the keeping information secret but hinting at it. The character explains how some time in the distant or not-so-distant past, she had died and if people knew what really happened...

What really happened? She never says.

Then she's at a party and her cousin asks her if she saw a light when she died before they brought her back, and she expertly dodges the question by quoting what scientists and experts say about visions at death, all the while thinking how she can't tell them what she really saw because they'd be in danger. Still leaving us in the dark. At this point, I'm not sure I really want to know anymore.

Then she remembers this strange man she had seen when she was 7 years old. And doesn't tell me why I should even care about this memory.

Then she hints that she was kicked out of school for some shady behavior but doesn't tell me what it is.

Then she's back to her death again and why she has to keep what really happened a secret, and I'm rolling my eyes.

Then she leaves the party because she's getting claustrophobic and she can't tell anyone what is really bothering them because then they'll be in danger. Eye roll again.

She's on her bike and she finds herself heading to the cemetary where she saw that man when she was seven. So mysterious and it was a big secret she should never tell. Eye roll.

All these secrets sound like they would be so interesting, but I no longer care.

Then she finally tells me about the memory about the mysterious man in the cemetary and the day she dies, describing in boring detail how and why she fell into the water and ends with the cryptic, "But she can't tell anyone what really happened and the psychologists told her it was all an hallucination caused by firing synapses just before death, blah, blah, blah, but she has proof (not that she tells us what the proof is) and she can't tell them about it or they'll be dead. Bad things seem to happen to people around her (not that she tells us what that is) just like at the school that kicked her out (not that she tells us why they kicked her out)."

Then she's at the cemetary, and HE is there. Not that she tells us who HE is, but their conversation refers to many things in their shared past that she doesn't tell us anything about.

And I keep thinking, this story could be so cool if she'd stop telling us what happened in the past and just let us live it with her.

So rather than paying attention to the story, I'm rewriting it in my head:

Prologue: the man in the cemetary. no secrets, everything's revealed.

Chapter One: she's trying to save a bird, slips into the pool, and drowns.

Chapter Two: the world she sees on the other side.

Wow, I've been ranting. Sorry.