Mike > Recent Status Updates

Lady Shobu was alright. Certainly well-written, but the beginning was drawn-out, only for the end to be rushed and anticlimactic. Abomination, which I'm reading now, appears equally drawn-out.

This is kind of sweet, although it's a fairly typical ending.

I abandoned All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee, because that was so poorly written it was painful. Lady Shobu is much better written, and it's set in feudal Japan, making it already more interesting.

Wow. This really sucks already. I mean, it's just this one story (I hope), but still.

Shit is beginning to hit the fan. This is... alright, I guess. It's too cliched and predictable for me to totally get behind it.

This is very atmospheric. Also, it's distinctly a Newbury winner. This was born to win a Newbury.

I was gonna say I was sensing the beginnings of a shitty love triangle, but given recent events, it's rather unlikely.

The suspense is building, although this is still pretty cliche.

Gaiman's writing is always a pleasure to read, and he seems to be at his best when he's writing for kids or about childhood. This is really good so far. Normally, this kind of story would be told from Scarlett's perspective - the normal person meeting the dead guy. That's especially true in MG. It's nice to see a reversal of the setup.

Finally, things are happening. I mean, it's not particularly interesting things, but it's things.

This is the least amount of time there's been between my reading books one and two in a series. At least, in the last few years. I mean, it's been like a month since I read Stranger, but normally, it takes me at least a year to get to the sequel.

I just realized that, going with the metaphor that the last book in the series set up, this book is suggesting that gay people should resort to violent protest to create an anarchy. Which... I was going to use that as a criticism against the book, but it's actually a really cool idea.

I thought the dialogue was too exposition-y at first, but now, it's really good. Not exactly subtle, but I like the character voices.

I guess this part is a little interesting. And it's not like the book is badly written. But it just has a severe case of sequelitis.

I'm not really following this play. And to be fair, that's probably because I'm reading it rather than watching it, but it's still a bit of a problem.

Tharp definitely did show all his cards too early, although the book was still pretty enjoyable nonetheless.

I can definitely see why emotional memory would be useful for a play like this.

I guess I was expecting something more from this - something darker and more personal. As far as climaxes go, this one just isn't very interesting.

I wonder how based in reality this is. Did people actually think Batman and Robin had a sexual relationship?

This is not at all what I was expecting. In all fairness, I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. It's also not that great - the dialogue is kind of tell-y.

I just realized that this is a book about a popular kid, and I actually believe it. My respect for Tharp has increased severalfold.

Quintus is intensely annoying. To be fair, he should be annoying, but Jesus. Even when he's supposed to be sympathetic, his annoyingness shines through. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it is a thing.

600 pages! I feel accomplished. (If it wasn't already obvious. I am seriously out of things to say about this book.)

It looks like Tharp showed most of his cards early on, and there's not actually that much left to do. Damn shame.

Well that was suddenly very dark. The patriarchy makes me sad...

And the novel's winding to a close. I mean, there are like fifty pages left, but for this novel, that isn't much. I dunno, I've made so freaking many status updates that there isn't much left to say.

A year ago, I would've been instantly in love with this. Now, I'm apprehensive; it could be a bit more subtle.

There isn't much explored here that we didn't get the first time around. Meh.

It's funny - bits and pieces of this do interest me, but on the whole, I'm finding this difficult to get through.

I'll admit it - I'm kind of skimming Tag's chapters. Lucia is just a lot more interesting.