Mike > Recent Status Updates

There's very little worth discussing here. The is mostly technically fine - there are dialogue tags, and it's occasionally awkward, but it's mostly readable. But Cammon doesn't have much to say here, nor does he have a very interesting story to tell. None of the characters are well-rendered, and the story isn't particularly original.

This is kinda funny I guess. Certainly very weird.

I thought I was following this book fairly well, but I'm not sure what the overarching conflict is supposed to be, so maybe I'm not. I'm understanding each of the individual scenes, but not how they fit together. Reading old books is hard.

I'm working on Human Remains by Clive Barker, and it's okay so far I guess. The prose is certainly pretty good, although the dialogue... hoo boy, is it ever cheesy. I can't really tell if it's because it's so dated, or if Barker just isn't that good at writing dialogue. But anyway, the story is alright, if perhaps a tad bit slow.

I consider my edition of this book to be a true relic. It's an anthology containing a Neil Gaiman poem, but it's so old that Neil Gaiman's name wasn't on the cover yet. The book is from 25 years ago, before Gaiman was the literary superstar he is today. Maybe I'm just a nerd, but this is really cool to me.

This is just boring. I have no idea why anyone would look at the summary of this book and decide they want to read it - if this book does happen to look good to you, there are dozens of other books exactly like it. None of the characters are interesting enough to overcome this, nor does the worldbuilding do it any favors.

This is actually kind of funny. Nobody told me this book had a sense of humour.

I'm on page 30 of Bay City: Maybe I only say this because I've read too many shitty indie books. But when I see the bland prose, with abundant dialogue tags, in a world and style that shows obvious influence from Buffy... all I can think is, "I'm really not gonna like this." I suppose that's not entirely fair - other than the dialogue tags, Cammon's biggest crime so far is just not being very interesting. But it's a

Maybe I only say this because I've read too many shitty indie books. But when I see the bland prose, with abundant dialogue tags, in a world and style that shows obvious influence from Buffy... all I can think is, "I'm really not gonna like this." I suppose that's not entirely fair - other than the dialogue tags, Cammon's biggest crime so far is just not being very interesting. But it's a gut feeling.

It's bizarre to say that a novel written in verse with a biracial protagonist set in Japan after a tsunami is forgettable, but... honestly, this is exactly what you'd expect going into a disaster novel. Cheap sentimentality, obvious themes about moving on and regaining strength, ect. Kai isn't an interesting character, and the 'verse' here is pretty much just narrative summary with line breaks.

This is becoming more of a personal story now, albeit a cliched one. I would like this better if the poetry contributed to the narrative in any way, but honestly, I see no real reason for this novel to be written in verse.

Man, I'm just not feeling this the way I hoped I would. Maybe it's because I just don't like reading poetry very much, but... yeah, this isn't doing it for me. Kai is a very bland character, and the story feels like an attempt to imitate the typical story of a tsunami survivor as much as possible. It's shockingly forgettable.

I'm not sure how I feel about this so far. I guess I wish the poetry did a better job of characterizing Kai - so far, he seems pretty bland to me. Still, I at least appreciate that I've never read anything like this, not just in YA but in any genre.

I'm trying to figure out why this is so well-remembered. It isn't bad by any means, but I don't see what's so great about it. Maybe it's just Sienfeld is Unfunny Sydrome, and this was wildly innovative when it was released.

White by Tim Lebbon: 4/5 This story was very well-written - it's probably the most authentically atmospheric story in here. I also liked the protagonist. There were enough horror cliches and interchangeable side characters to prevent this from getting a 5/5, but I'd probably call this the best story here.

Aftershock by F. Paul Wilson: 4/5 Kinda predictable, but well-written, with an interesting premise.

A Fish Story by Gene Wolfe: 2/5 Too short to make any real impact.

Jimmy by David Case: 1/5 (DNF) Confusing, racist, badly-written, cliched.

Naming the Dead by Paul J. McAuley: 3/5 Well-written I guess, but pretty predictable, and a bit hard to follow. I'm putting it as a 3 instead of a 2 mainly because I know I dislike this genre, and the story is probably better than I'm tempted to give it credit for.

Today, my TBR list reaches 500 books. I remember when I started this site, I planned on it being a short list of books I was going to read in the immediate future, and I didn't plan on it ever containing more than 20 or so books. Oh, how naive I was...

This is rather flawed, but it's also one of the most important YA books I can think of. The last YA book I really liked was Sex and Violence, and while I do love that book, we don't really need more than one of that. I want this book to be influential over YA - I want more books that tackle difficult moral questions like this. It's an experience that YA just doesn't see that often.

Burden by Michael Marano: 3/5 Not a very good use of second-person, and overall just kind of didactic. But it's at least well-written and somewhat moving.

On one hand, I don't 100% buy this world anymore, and the writing can be a bit awkward and repetitive in places. On the other hand, it's very rare to see questions this large and existential tackled in YA with ambiguity and grace. I'm not loving some of the technical aspects of this books, but it's extremely important that YA has books like this one.

The Ballyhooly Boy by Graham Masterton: 2/5 I guess it was well-written, but it was very cliched, and not at all scary.

Welcome by Michael Marshall Smith: 3/5 The writing was pretty bad, and the ending felt like a cop-out. But at least the main character held my attention.

There are so many small moments in this book that are unbelievably ridiculous and/or baffling, that I don't have space to share in these status updates. I almost recommend this book, just because it's a trip to read something this bad. I'll at least say this - I've never read anything like it.

Also, this book has no plot. Whatsoever.

Riley is literally the most catty character I've ever read. Imagine the dumb blonde character from the worst, most over-the-top teen movie you've ever read, then multiply it by a hundred. That's Riley. It's unrealistic, lazy, and beyond frustrating.

Also, why is the glee club called Vocal Harmony? Wouldn't that be like calling a football team The Starting Lineups?

Lauren is the biggest Special Snowflake I've ever read. She doesn't even have any informed flaws - she is basically canonically perfect. The accident isn't just a big deal because it's the only bad thing that's happened to her privileged life, it's also the only time she's ever messed up.

There's some excellent worldbuilding here. This is a very viable idea of what the world might be like ten or twenty years from now.

This is mildly clumsy in the execution - the pacing still feels a bit too fast to me - but it's an excellent premise, and for the most part, Pearson is really getting us in Jenna's head very well.

I'm learning a lot about the Victorian stereotypes I see in parodies. They're... kind of more accurate to the feel of this novel than I expected them to be.

To this book's credit, at least there's more suspense in wondering which team Lauren will get on than in wondering whether she'll get into Canterwood. I even felt a slight bit of suspense. Of course, this was largely ruined by the fact that Burkhart can't write for shit, and completely failed to capture feelings of nervousness before a test, but it's a start.

The pacing here is somewhat rushed. But this has a very unique premise and tone so far, so I'll try to forgive it. I badly want this book to be good.