Mike > Recent Status Updates

I've been told that this is the worst book in the series. Although considering that the previous book is generally regarded as the best, and I didn't like it as much as the others, I'm having a little trouble believing them. Still, I'm a little worried, especially since the series seems to be going downhill somewhat.

This doesn't have much direction. I thought I'd gotten used to that in contemporary YA, but I guess not.

Charlotte's songs are really, really cheesy. Which I guess fits the book, but still - it's a little difficult to take seriously.

This is alright, I guess. I'm not as engaged as I was with After the Kiss or Criminal.

I am excited for this. I hope this is as good as the last two McVoy books I read.

Princes - Kinda disjointed, but otherwise successful.
Breaking and Entering - Very melodramatic, but in a good way.
Skipping the Prom - Not as entertaining - a little bland.
A Romantic Inclination - Too much narrative summary for my taste, but the concept was interesting.

THIS BOOK IS SO BADLY WRITTEN. There is no excuse for prose this bad. Absolutely none.

The Alumni Interview - Very funny and well-written.
The Good Witch - Less funny and interesting.
The Escalator, A Love Story - Concise and cute. Surprisingly successful.
The Number of People Who Meet On Airplanes - A little sappy and conflict-less for my taste.
Andrew Chang - Another less interesting one.
Flirting with Waiters - Ditto
Lost Sometimes - I like this a lot better now than the first time I read it.

Oh, required reading. Why must you be so terrible?

Miss Lucy had a Steamboat wasn't as good. It relied too much on narrative summary, making the ending feel forced. Although I really liked the protagonist.

There are a lot of silly, simplistic ideas here, but I'll take out one for special abuse: the idea that TV makes us vote for shallow reasons. Do you think that didn't happen before TV? Ask Grover Cleveland - one campaign against him said that he was unfit to lead because his parents weren't married. Just for example.

Starbucks Boy was kind of pointless, but also kind of cute. I get the impression this is going to be a cute anthology overall.

At least 1984 was a good essay. It was a terrible story, but Orwell really knew what he was talking about, and it was well-written. This is poorly-written, poorly-plotted, AND a terrible essay that makes no sense whatsoever.

I have to admit: I genuinely did not see that coming. That was a very, very good ending.

The predictions that Bradbury makes were perfectly valid when this book was written, but now that they've been proven almost 100% false, WHY do people still assign this shit? Bradbury can't be blamed for not having an understanding of mass media before it had truly taken shape, but today, this feels like a crotchety old man complaining about how much better things were in his day.

"Her body was dehydrated from lack of water..."
Wow. I don't know if that's because of the translation or because of Takami, but either way... wow.

"The pink face of Beaty now showed the faintest panic in the door."
The dumbfounded eyes of Mike couldn't believe what he was reading. This book makes me sick.

*sighs* This is unbearable. The most common interpretation of this book is that it's about censorship, but I just don't see it. The only symbol of censorship is book-burning. No, this is clearly a book about how evil technology is and how it's going to destroy society.

This is really, really good. I'm surprised by how good it is, considering the premise.

Well. This writing... it's not what I'd expect of a classic, to put it nicely. It's not constantly terrible, but it's kind of repetitive and runny.

This is not going where I expected it to go. And I think I like it for that.

I keep finding myself guessing which girl is going to kill herself next. And then I feel like a bad person for doing so.

This is gonna be good. I can sense it in my bones.

That was really interesting. Takami is definitely adding to the themes of suspicion and paranoia.

The scene with Mitsuko was very effective. More of that, less of Shuya treating Noriko like delicate china.

I'm starting to feel like 42 students was maybe overkill. I mean, there definitely needed to be random students who weren't main characters, but 25 of them? That's a bit much.

I like the undertones of distrust and paraonia. Takami really captures how scary it would be to have your friends be out to kill you.

I don't think anyone died in the last 30 pages. Very unusual indeed.

Of course the gay character is effeminate. Of course he is. Man, the characterization was looking really good until that rolled around.

Hey. Hey, guess what? MORE PEOPLE DIED! I'm shocked, too.

On a more serious note, the characters are getting harder to keep track of. It was actually easier in the beginning, weirdly enough.