Saturday, August 12, 2017

July 2017 Wrap-Up

Got my keyboard, finally. Regularly scheduled programming will now resume :). Even though I miss my computer...

 Anyway, July's been I think my worst month in a long time for reading. Mostly because I was hit by a major slump, where I would go for a week without anything to read because I really didn't want to. I was also really busy with work (teaching a bunch of 3 to 12 year olds how to ride horses) so there's that. July's my birthday month, so it is a little embarrassing I couldn't find more time to read but I need to get over stuff like that. 

 Enough excuses, let's get into it.
  July and I did not get off on the right foot with The Last Time We Say Goodbye, which strikes me as grammatically incorrect- shouldn't it be The Last Time We Said Goodbye? Regardless, this novel promised to tell us something new and exciting about grief, more specifically the grief of a suicide, but failed to deliver. Instead, we got a recycling of the same ideas I've read about over and over again. A pity that, given that the author lost her brother to suicide. In many ways, I think this book was played a little safe, and Hand was careful not to include many of the most common reactions towards someone who has died from suicide, like the idea that that person is selfish or didn't actually care about anyone other than himself. Politically correct or not, these are common thoughts to have and need to be dicussed. I felt Lex was entirely too understanding of her brother, especially so soon after the incident and believe that Hand failed to capture the emotions that come with fresh grief, and it's obvious that she wrote this book with her many years of coping with grief behind her. Also, Lex as a whole was annoying, too rational for me to like her, her love interest was tailor made for her, there were a few plot lines that shouldn't have been in (too distracting), and her home life was lifted from every YA contemporary. It ended up being perfectly in the middle of the road for me- didn't hate it, but didn't love it either.

  If I were to make a list with all my least favorite books on it, The Fault in Our Stars would be pretty up there, if not at the 1# spot. And, unlike other books I hated at the time, but have cooled down from, like Han Nolan's Born Blue or the Prisoner of Night and Fog duology. I still don't like those books, but they haven't stuck in my mind as long as The Fault in Our Stars has. Though, perhaps that might have been different if those books had made as big an impact on the YA contemporary world as The Fault in Our Stars had. Case in point, All the Bright Places. This book is basically the same as its clear influencer- it even takes place in the same fucking state- but it's about mental illness instead of cancer. Bipolar disorder and good old depression, to be more specific. The girl's name is Violet, a color and a plant, much like Hazelgracelancaster, the boy's first name is Theodore, an old fashioned name, and I love old fashioned names but we must draw parallels to Augustus Waters, but Theodore isn't symbolic enough so he is called by his last name, Finch. This is the same tactic Harper Lee used in To Kill a Mockingbird, but you know, better. The characters are their mental illnesses, with stereotypical home lives, the boy teaches the girl how to live even after he has stopped living, and the romance is gag worthy. I was happy this book was over. All the Bright Places, though, was a book I had to read at least once, so I guess I can cross that off the list. 
  This was one of the weirder books I've read this year, and I've read some odd ones, like Universal Harvester and even The Secret History of Twin Peaks. But it's about deranged dreams and lighthouses and what more could I want in a book? It's got a very Scandinavian writing style, with simplistic, beige-y prose, and content-wise reminiscent of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers- but not really. It's one of those books that has to be read to be experienced.
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn 7/10 (370 pg)*
  Gillian Flynn is a thriller writer who is, many consider, required reading for all thriller readers. So, with must hesitation, I picked up Dark Places, even though my attempting of Gone Girl (got about 20 pages in) was still fresh in my mind despite being in March. We did not start smoothly. Unlike most good (and some bad) thrillers, it failed to grip me from the get go, something that is absolutely essential to write a good thriller. I understand setting up the scene, but if that's what Flynn was doing the scene took up half the book. It also wasn't as twisted as I wanted it to be- I mean, it was about the murder of a mom and two girls under the age of 10, Flynn could have taken this book to disturbing levels- but eh, once I actually found the mystery I liked it just fine, the characters were likable- even Libby- but obviously characters, even if she did fall a little too much into stereotypes for my liking. I mean, I liked this book just fine, enough to make Sharp Objects an interesting option for a rainy day.
  Oh boy, another one of my unpopular opinions. I was off to a good start with this insanely hyped up YA historical fiction novel taking place in the 1720s-1730s about two guys who fell in love and a girl who's in there for no fucking reason, but ended up being rather disappointed. It fell back on a lot of bad historical fiction cliches- the too modern girl struggling in a man's world, a few too modern opinions, and other really bad historical fiction cliches, like the evil father and screwed up home life. Regardless, up until the strange Marina-esque plot turn, it was a lot of fun. But after like 100 pages Lee probably got bored with the book she was writing and suddenly changed her mind, and the writing got worse, the plot started to feel more like a historical fantasy plot (boo! Hiss!) and I started to just think I should reread Marina instead. Because Marina, if you didn't know, is easily my favorite book of the year so far. That, coupled with the rather disappointing and again, unrealistic ending made me wish this book was so much more than it actually was. This is historical fiction for those who hate history, or (and as much as it pains me to say this) think history is boring (how could they!) and need fantasy elements to distract themselves from very real and very interesting historical activities. Or idiotic pirates, whatever works. And I think that's where my hatred of historical fantasy originated. Do you really need, I don't know, shapeshifters, to make the Catholic and Protestant battles during the Tudor times interesting? Or alchemy in the form of an artificial heart to make the rivalry between the Spanish Hapsburgs and the French Bourbons, culminating in the War of Spanish Succession gripping? Really? It all strikes me as very... childish if I may sound so snobby. Like when elementary school teachers use cookies to make math easier to understand. I want to like The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue but the more I reflect on this novel the more I worry for the future of my beloved genre. I wanted more diverse settings, but I don't want fantasy invading it!
  I'm not one for memoirs, but I ended up liking this one quite a bit. I knew nothing, really about Straight Inc, and my intrigue into the program made this book a quick and gripping read. I also really liked the parts about Bridgeport and growing up in Connecticut in the 80s, especially given that CT's where I call home.
  If I were to create a list of my favorite contemporary writers, Cath Crowley would be just below Markus Zusak. I love her despite myself, despite the fact she writes the exact cutesy romantic contempories I so snobbishly said in my Authors I've Never Read post I despised. The kind Morgan Matson and Stephanie Perkins and Jenny Han and Kasey West write. And yet, Cath Crowley penetrates my cold heart and makes me fall in love with her romantic contempories. And this one was definitely one of them. About a boy whose family owns a dying bookstore and a girl who wants to study the ocean but can't go near it since her brother drowned. The romance is sweet and witty and pitch perfect the same way the romances in Graffiti Moon were, the characters endearing, and the story comes with tragic undertones that I adore. While I did find a few issues, like how interchangeable Henry and Rachel's narratives felt (personally wouldn't have chose alternating POVs for this story), this book did introduce me to Derek Walcott's poetry, more specifically Dark August, so that made all flaws disappear. What more can I say? I just loved this book.
  I haven't been having very good luck with nonfiction lately. However, City of Light, City of Poison hit the spot with me. This book, about Paris' first police chief in the late 1600s and Affair of Poisons, was gripping and worked so well. It was just so much fun to read, covering everything from the occult to 17th century torture devices to Louis XIV's mistresses. Highly recommended for any history lover who just wants a bit of fun in their life. 

  How I Live Now is kind of infamous in the YA world. Of course, by infamous I mean 2005 infamous. It was written in the early days of YA, back when contemporary was called realistic fiction and was all about the real issues teens face, with novels like Speak and The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Looking for Alaska coming out and scandalizing the book world. The Dark Ages of YA, if you want to think of it like that. In that respect, How I Live Now, despite not being realistic fiction, is very much a product of its time. As the book world moved on, How I Live Now kind of died down, and now I only rarely hear it being mentioned. But Meg Rosoff has stuck around somewhat and the whole reason I even picked up How I Live Now is because she finished Mal Peet's last book and I like Mal Peet. I also remember my high school librarian telling me How I Live Now was one of his favorite books. Unfortunately, I didn't like it much at all, and I can see why it doesn't have the cult following that many of the books I've mentioned up ahead, like Perks or even On the Jellicoe Road has. But I should back up. What is this book even about? Well, it's about a 15 year old girl who goes to live with her cousins after her "evil" stepmom sends her away and ends up falling in love with her 14 year old cousin while a war breaks out. Or something like that. Imagine Elizabeth Wein wrote The Road with Tabitha Suzuma's help and you've got How I Live Now. Again, it's one of those books that got a ton of attention when it came out but couldn't really stand the test of time, and after I finished I found myself agreeing with a lot of those who were annoyed and unimpressed by Meg Rosoff's debut.

Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios 6/10 (368 pg)
  Above, I was talking about the Dark Ages of YA Lit, when realistic fiction was all the rage and, again, we got books that dealt exclusively in the dark side of teenagers, books about rape and drug use and, yes, abusive relationships. Enter Breathing Underwater. Breathing Underwater was pretty controversial when it was first published back in 2001 (it was rereleased with a new ugly ass cover and updated pop culture references in 2011) due to its subject matter. It wasn't only about an abusive relationship, oh no, it was about an abusive relationship told through the abuser's perspective. Even today, it still stands out as being interesting and different. Bad Romance, on the other hand, doesn't really stand out much at all to me. It's written like David Handler's Why We Broke Up, in letter format, albeit confusingly- Demetrios often makes it confusing as to when she's writing the letter, whether it's after or during their relationship. The main character wasn't my favorite, home life was typical, and her friends, who she tried so hard to give depth, ended up having little. Heck, even Gavin struck me as fairly run of the mill, almost cartoonishly villainous, as did her stepfather. As a whole, though I think Bad Romance's novelty comes from being a novel about an abusive relationship. I wonder if those who are over grading the book (you know, the people who rate it four stars and start out their review with "so this should really only be three stars, but it's such an important issue I'm uprating it) are those who don't remember the Dark Ages of YA and didn't realize that there is nothing new or interesting about these kinds of books, and this one is another run-of-the-mill abusive relationship book that gave us no real insight on either party.
  This was a plane book, the kind I grabbed out of my tote bag to entertain me on the way to New Orleans when I went there two weeks ago. Some people read self help or the first book they find in the airport bookstore. I just look for murder to help me get my mind off the fact I'm terrified of flying. And in that respect, it did its job. This was a cute mystery taking place at a bookstore with some dark undertones, beginning with a man's suicide. While, again, it does have its moments of darkness, it remained an easy book to read and the perfect choice for a plane book.
  In the Skin of a Monster was so underwhelming I forgot about it the day after I read it. It was kind of like Everlost crossed with The Hate List, to create a novel with a major identity crisis. Nothing new or interesting was really said about grief or school shootings or heck, even dreams despite it supposedly being about all those things. But then again, perhaps I'm just the wrong audience for it.

  I loved this book probably even more than I loved Brideshead Revisited, but in a very different way, if that makes sense. I almost can't believe those two novels are by the same writer. If I'm being technical, Brideshead is the superior work, no question, it's a true classic, but this novella is just so much fun to read, especially for someone with the same jet black sense of humor as me. That being said, this isn't for everyone. Those who get offended easily, for instance, might take offense to the variety of things being satirized here, most of them about the superficiality and stupidity of American culture, especially Los Angeles. But even so, the British expats don't come across too well, either. They are snobbish, convinced of their own superiority and intelligence, which vastly exceeds that of their American counterparts. It's clear Waugh didn't think much of either part. I haven't read any more of Waugh's satire, though if this is any indication of his talent at the genre I will definitely pick more up. Perhaps he will one day become a new favorite author.
  I think this is my least favorite book thus far! Congratulations, Kelley Armstrong! You definitely did deserve it. I hated everything about this run of the mill YA mystery. I hated the main character, who mind as well be renamed Not Katniss, I hated the whiny and broody love interest, the mystery was horrible, and the only graphic fatalities were feral dogs, unacceptable for a book that proclaimed to be a dark and twisted mystery novel. Go back to writing fantasy, Armstrong. And stay far, far away from my beloved mysteries, the poor genre can't handle anymore bad writers.


Page total: 4,488
Average rating: 6.5/10 (rounded up by not much) 
Genre breakdown: 4 contemporaries
                 3 mystery-thrillers
                 2 historical fiction
                 2 nonfiction (1 memoir, 1 historical/true crime)
                 2 paranormal
                 1 dystopian
Of those, 5 were adult and 9 were YA

 I read 14 books, pretty good given that I hit a huge slump in the middle of the month when I didn't want to read anything. I don't really have much more to say except I'm sorry again for it being so late and my first reviews of August will be up soonish.

 *e-books
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)