Mike > Recent Status Updates

Since there's a movie adaptation coming up, and I really like Alan Moore, I figured I should read this book to see what it's like. I'm not particularly familiar with Batman, so maybe this book will make no sense to me, but Alan Moore is a pretty good writer, so I'm hoping that'll get me through it.

I'll say this at least: Haze and Jack are both pretty well-rendered characters. Admittedly, it's hard to appreciate, because the writing is so bad that it's constantly distracting, and the structure isn't doing them any favors either. But I don't think this novel is entirely redeemable, even if it's very badly broken. There might yet be a good novel inside this flawed package.

There's definitely a lot going on this book. Yet, for some reason, all I can think of to say is to reiterate how good the prose and dialogue are. It's going to take a while to develop coherent thoughts on this.

This still feels like scenes you'd see in the opening of a book, rather than scenes in the middle of the rising action. I really do want to like this - it certainly the most interesting Larbalestier book I've seen since Liar - but it's a very, very flawed book.

Well. This is bizarre. No, seriously, this section wasn’t at all set up by anything in the previous 300 pages, and it’s totally at odds with the tone of the book. It also kills the tension and brings the dramatic structure to a sputtering halt. It’s like I hit a wormhole and got transported to a totally different novel. This is one of the most aggressively incompetent books I’ve ever read.

I almost feel like this book works better if you don't pay much attention to the plot, and just appreciate the atmosphere. I'm certainly having some fun with it on those grounds. But the plot itself is very slow and doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and it's constantly interrupted by infodumps.

I feel like I'm missing a lot of the symbolism in this book, and what makes it powerful. Time to read some analysis!

I was really worried that this wouldn't hold up compared to how much I liked it a couple years ago. But no, this is almost exactly as good as I remember it. The artwork is good, the characters are great, and the story is fucking hilarious. I wouldn't call myself a huge manga fan, but this is easily one of the best that I've read.

This prose is very, very bad. There are lots of odd word choices, sentences start and stop in weird places (lots of run-ons, lots of fragments), and most of the scenes flow very poorly. This is very obviously published independently, which is very unfortunate.

That said, I like Barnard's sense of humor, so it's possible that this isn't hopeless. If the story is good enough, I might not hate this novel.

I have to say, I feel a little distant from Janie. Maybe it's just because the dialogue takes a lot of effort for me to read. And don't get me wrong, she's a very well-developed character. I'm not quite sure what it is that puts me at an arm's length from her.

I do love Kelpie as a character, so much. It's almost enough to make up for the sloppy prose.

I'll say this: there are some good ideas in this book. The idea of a dystopia with no food is extremely gimmicky, but a story about the privatization of resources, with a privileged narrator who thinks she's rebellious but actually isn't... those had potential. This didn't have to be terrible. But the execution ruins those good concepts at almost every level imaginable.

I really love the dialogue and the characters, but I will say, the story isn't doing that much for me. It's not bad, exactly, it's just kind of slow and not that compelling. This is still a very good book, but it's not as great as my initial impressions of it were.

I'm excited for the climax, even though I already know exactly what's going to happen.

I was going to say that this tied up all the plot threads fairly well, but then with no warning, Erskine introduced a new one. We'll see where this ending goes.

I thought maybe Thalia would get some sort of arc involving facing consequences and responsibility for her privilege. But no, Basil didn't actually mean anything he said in his rant. She loses nothing for her flaws, and everything she does is easy. I hate this book.

Also, this dialogue is TERRIBLE. Nobody talks like this.

Reading analysis of Ophelia is much more interesting than actually reading about her. She had a lot of potential as a character, but Shakespeare really underutilized her - until the end, her basic purpose was for Hamlet to abuse her in order to characterize him.

This is not a bad play at all, but having read all but the last act, I have to say that I prefer Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.

Alternating between this and Hungry is like spending one night at the Ritz and spending the next in a Burger King bathroom.

(To be clear, this is the good book, and Hungry is the abysmal one.)

There are so many well-written scenes in this book that I can't totally write it off. (See what I did there?) It's a very flawed book, but Erskine is a good enough writer that it didn't have to be.

This is so didactic. Swain doesn't trust us to infer the message, she has Basil say everything outright. It's obnoxious and amateurish.

Also, the pacing is so rushed. The character motivations and stakes change too quickly for us to get any feeling of suspense and tension - sections rush by before we get a chance to fully appreciate them.

Janie is such a well-written character. It's been a long time since I've read something this subtle and well-crafted. It is genuinely hard to believe Hurston wrote this in only six weeks.

The scene between Hamlet and his mother was super well-written. I have no idea why that scene isn't famous - it's incredibly intense. It's the first scene so far that's truly lived up to how good people told me this play is. But now that Polonious is dead, I'm expecting things to look up in general, because I hate him, and he was super annoying, and he clashed with the tone of the play.

I'm no longer sure where Red's character arc is supposed to be going. Erskine seems to have a vague idea of where she intends to take it, but it feels a little half-formed and vague.

I guess this is improving somewhat. I at least know why this world is supposed to be so bad, and Thalia is a little less of a special snowflake. But Swain still writes characters like plot devices - Thalia and Basil are in love not because they have chemistry, but because the plot needs them to be. It's cheap and unnatural.

Also, that was the most awkward, bizarrely-written trans woman I've ever seen.

I may have been a bit too quick to call this one of my favorite books. This isn't a bad book by any means, it's actually quite good, but it's a little too low-key (so far) for me to call it my favorite of the year or anything. It's more just... pleasant company. It's enjoyable and profound, without being hugely impactful. (Again, so far - I've been told this changes.)

My biggest fear for this book is that only white kids will be able to relate to it. I really do think Thomas (the only black character Red's age) should've been much more present in the book - we don't get much of his perspective, only what Red assumes his perspective would be. While I'm gaining a lot from this, I don't know if a black kid would.

When we got to the rehab facility, I thought, "Finally, this might be interesting." But no, less than ten pages later, Thalia was rescued by the boring love interest. Our impression of the place was rushed; I think Swain wanted to build up mystery for some later reveals, but the setup is just awkward and confusing.

Also, Thalia has no character arc and she's annoyingly perfect and the writing still sucks.

I feel like I would like this play a lot better if it were about Ophelia dealing with Hamlet abusing her. Which I know isn't very Shakespearean, but I can't help but wonder if there's a modern retelling along those lines.

Not a whole lot to say about this book so far. It's definitely a quieter, more subtle story, so I think it'll be more clear later on what I'm supposed to be taking from all this. But I just really love the atmosphere and the prose so far.

Much as I'm enjoying this, I wish the main plot were more focused. I'm still not sure what exactly the overarching conflict is supposed to be, which is a bit of a problem this far in.