P. Kirby > Recent Status Updates

Ish! This book. On one hand, I want to know what happens to the characters. On the other, the pacing is glacially slow. How can a kid's book be soooo endless?

Wow! Definitely a "Don't get attached to anyone" kind of book. Characters getting killed in abundance. Being a cute kid doesn't exempt anyone in this book. (Not a complaint. Me likes this much!)

The pluses: cute characters, good world building with unusual species, and a compelling premise. The negatives: it's a journey narrative and feels like I've been reading for-evah, no sense of urgency, and finally, I'm not not emotionally invest in Byx.

I like Gambler, the felivet. I hope he eats someone, soon. Niiice, kitty.

"You goin' to that party over at the Snows'?"
"No, I'm just gonna stay home this year."
She [Amma] raised an eyebrow, but wasn't going to ask. She already knw why I wasn't going. "You make your bed, you better be ready to lie in it."

WTF? I really don't like Amma. She's acting like not going to a high school party is a terrible thing, rather than a nothing event, soon to be forgotten.

It was still early when we left for the tower, but already the town was more crowded than the previous day. Crowded and festive. It seemed the loss of my species was quite the cause for celebration.

Amma is a Gandalf parent. That is, the parent who believes that keeping the truth from their teenager will protect them. . I imagine I'm supposed to like Amma, but instead, I thinks she's an arrogant fuckwad of a parent.

In this case, I saw the movie before I reading the book.

The birth of a better world is not ultimately up to you, though I know, each day, there are grown men and women who tell you otherwise. The world needs saving precisely because of the actions of these same men and women.

Exactly.

The girl from Chicago understood this too, and she understood something more--that all are not equally robbed of their bodies, that the bodies of women are set for pillage in ways I could never truly know.

"I wish you'd hit my heart dead-on," I muttered, surprised to find myself capable of forming works. "At least I'd be with the others, where I belong.

Poor Byx. :(

And now for something completely different. :D

This book continues to feel like it's several drafts short of being ready to publish. Inconsistent characterization, so-so world building, and character voices that are pretty much interchangeable. Need to finish this so the "You can't review if you don't read the whole book" crowd can't bitch and moan, but...so tempted to DNF.

But a great number of educators spoke of "personal responsibility" in a country authored and sustained by criminal irresponsibility.

I came to see the streets and the schools as arms of the same beast.
... And I began to see these two arms in relation--those who failed in the schools justified their destruction in the streets. The society could say, "He should have stayed in school,' and then wash its hands of him.

Why were only our heroes nonviolent? I speak not of the morality of nonviolence, but of the sense that blacks are in especial need of this morality.
...
The world, the real one, was civilization secured and ruled by savage means. How could the schools valorize men and women whose values society actively scorned?

Yay! Gabriel is back. Hester's independent streak is great, but...the result is she constantly rushing into danger.

The narrative voices of all the characters is nearly identical. If I put down the book--as I often do--when I return, it's hard to remember who the current POV character is.

Oh, for fucks sake, Zelie, would you like some cheese with all that whine?

So Amari, is the clueless, princess-in-distress and a bad-ass fighter? Puh-leeeze! I'm just not buying it. Already starting to see why a portion of reader found this vastly over-rated.

The upcoming romance-hormonal-angst-cakes plot-line between Inan and Zelie is soooo obvious it can be seen by a blind man, wearing a welding helmet and locked a box with Schrodinger's dead/not dead cat.

I think dear old dad is the culprit.

I like Zelie when she isn't wallowing in self-pity/hatred, which happens far too often. Amari, at this point, is the helpless, sweet, suffering female archetype that I loath. Maybe she'll actually develop into something better as the story progresses. Tzain is...*shrugs*...not much yet. Nice to read a non-European setting, but thus far, this isn't as amazing as claimed by other readers.

Hester's experiences in the lunatic asylum are horrific, but I like that she remains feisty and hasn't turned into a helpless victim.

It's okay so far. Mixed reviews from my GR's peeps, though. I get bored easily and it sounds like this one get slow in the mid section.

I'm ambivalent about the love triangle and Tom's fate. Especially since Kelly, despite his obvious attraction to Hester, is willing to work alongside Tom to find the murders. Hmmmmm....

I am protector and pacifier, authority and helpmate. I am the sum of all human knowledge, wisdom, experimentation, triumph, defeat, hope, and history.

I know all that is possible to know, and it is increasingly unbearable.

Because I know next to nothing.