Original Review You know, you read about how agents are hungry for new ideas, new writers, for diverse voices, for innovative styles. And then something like this comes along and gets popular and you wonder how much bullshit that is. Hey, I understand. I want to write something that sells. But not like this. I can think of very few redeeming things about this book, and they are mere sprinkles. My hate is nowhere near the Jackie Morse Kessler type, but everything about this book feels like a step backwards. The characters are uninteresting and fall into the same tropes as Twilight – girl hates nice guy, then likes him. The…
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The Top Three and Bottom Three of 2014
When I rate books, I use the “desert island” test: three stars or above means “if I was stuck on a desert island and could bring infinite books with me, I’d put it on the list”. If I decide I wouldn’t bring it with me, it gets two or less. Well, this year didn’t have any one stars for finished books and very few unfinished. But also, not many five star books. I guess it was a middling year for me. That or I’m getting more critical. However, I need to recognize a certain work: “Y: The Last Man“. This, and another, were the only two things that got five…
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The Books I Read: November – December 2014
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews It’s kinda funny. It eschews notions of romance, and really, it’s more about the friend, who reminds me of Tony Goldmark. I couldn’t get that image out of my head — the deadpan, Internet snarker-troll, self-deprecating, black comedy hamball. And that’s what the book is really about. This guy is an amateur filmmaker and it talks about his love of weird, foreign, independent cinema and his friendship with Earl, a black urban youth. And in the background is Rachel, an acquaintance who is forced by Tony’s mother to hang out with because she’s dying of cancer. The story’s not about…
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The Books I Read: September – October 2014
I Shall Wear Midnight (Tiffany Aching #4) by Terry Pratchett The last of the Tiffany Aching books and an excellent ending to the series. Besides the first, I think this might be my favorite book of the four. Tiffany has finished her “apprenticeship” and is now the resident witch of her hometown. This means she’s taking care of the community the way true witches do — helping the sick who have no one to take care of them, easing the elderly to the next stage of life, fixing domestic disputes so no one knows she’s really doing it. She’s confronting anti-witches and land-grabbers and old fundamentalist ladies who simply don’t…
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Single Dads in YA Trend
It could be just coincidence, but I’m noticing a trend of YA novels where the father is the one raising the kids and the mom’s out of the picture or the deadbeat. Fangirl, The S Word, The Girl Who Became a Beatle. All have moms as the irresponsible one. Not all these came out at the same time, but they were within the last year or two. Is this a new thing? I have no problem with it, but I have a question. Is this a literary device for more conflict or is it illustrating a trend in parenting? In all these books, it’s a girl being raised by her…
