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Couldn't keep going, I don't think I'm up for a book all about how depressed a woman is because she believes her daughter died. Maybe I'll give it another chance in the future.
Setting this aside to finish another time. It's good so far, but I just can't seem to read more than ten pages at a time right now.
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
I really loved [b:Uglies|24770|Uglies (Uglies, #1)|Scott Westerfeld|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1296159834s/24770.jpg|2895388]. It was in the first wave of books I read when I began to read dystopian YA in earnest, and I was completely sucked into Tally's world. She was interesting, I loved the world building, I wanted to know more about all the secondary characters she met along the way. We even got to interview Scott Westerfeld about the manga accompaniment to [b:Uglies|24770|Uglies (Uglies, #1)|Scott Westerfeld|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1296159834s/24770.jpg|2895388] at Girls Read Comics Too, and I'm excited to read it. So, when I finally cracked into Pretties, I was crushed at how much I didn't enjoy it. It makes sense that Tally would be a bit changed after going through the pretty surgery, but it was just so jarring -- she wasn't the same girl I'd come to love. On top of it all, the increased pretty-talk really got to me, and I had to stop reading before I saw another "bubbly" and punched myself in the face like a "crim" until I was "brain-less."
Maybe I'll give it another chance some day, now that I know what I'm getting into. I just knew that when it was time to take it back to the library and I hadn't finished it yet, I didn't care enough to get the book renewed.
I really loved [b:Uglies|24770|Uglies (Uglies, #1)|Scott Westerfeld|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1296159834s/24770.jpg|2895388]. It was in the first wave of books I read when I began to read dystopian YA in earnest, and I was completely sucked into Tally's world. She was interesting, I loved the world building, I wanted to know more about all the secondary characters she met along the way. We even got to interview Scott Westerfeld about the manga accompaniment to [b:Uglies|24770|Uglies (Uglies, #1)|Scott Westerfeld|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1296159834s/24770.jpg|2895388] at Girls Read Comics Too, and I'm excited to read it. So, when I finally cracked into Pretties, I was crushed at how much I didn't enjoy it. It makes sense that Tally would be a bit changed after going through the pretty surgery, but it was just so jarring -- she wasn't the same girl I'd come to love. On top of it all, the increased pretty-talk really got to me, and I had to stop reading before I saw another "bubbly" and punched myself in the face like a "crim" until I was "brain-less."
Maybe I'll give it another chance some day, now that I know what I'm getting into. I just knew that when it was time to take it back to the library and I hadn't finished it yet, I didn't care enough to get the book renewed.
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
24 Girls started out strong, but as I reached the half way point, I realized that I'd slowly begun to care less and less what happened to our hero. It's a really interesting premise, where a likeable guy's best friends post a joke ad for a prom date and he gets a list of possible girls, all of whom are not right in some way because he's been talking to someone called FancyPants online and we all know where that's heading. As much as I enjoyed the opening, it lost steam after the first third and I really didn't care anymore. I skimmed the last part of the book just to find out who FancyPants was.
24 Girls started out strong, but as I reached the half way point, I realized that I'd slowly begun to care less and less what happened to our hero. It's a really interesting premise, where a likeable guy's best friends post a joke ad for a prom date and he gets a list of possible girls, all of whom are not right in some way because he's been talking to someone called FancyPants online and we all know where that's heading. As much as I enjoyed the opening, it lost steam after the first third and I really didn't care anymore. I skimmed the last part of the book just to find out who FancyPants was.
3.5 stars
The perfect bit of romantic fluff to brighten anyone's day. Anna is a great character, one of the few incredibly well rounded, non-annoying female POV characters I've read in a long time.
The perfect bit of romantic fluff to brighten anyone's day. Anna is a great character, one of the few incredibly well rounded, non-annoying female POV characters I've read in a long time.
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
I really loved Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins's debut, so when I heard of Lola, it immediately went in my to read list. It's hard not to compare Lola to Anna (St. Clair and Anna even show up in this one as secondary characters, and yay, their love!), so I'll get this out of the way first: Lola is just as fun, but I enjoyed Anna more. (And I think it's kinda telling, to see why people enjoy one over the other.) But Lola and the French Kiss has a style and flair all its own, owing to Lola Nolan and her ever changing fashion, quirky love-crush Cricket, and the genuine teen anguish she goes through. What works here is that it Lola doesn't just start liking Cricket when she's still with her current boyfriend, punk rocker Max, but she's always liked him. That her feelings are established and thus get all churned up when Cricket comes back keep it from being shallow. Plus, she's got two gay dads, an awesome best friend, lives in San Francisco and works on a full on Marie Antoinette dress for a school dance. Lola might be a little too quirky for me in real life, but in print she's great, and so is this novel. Yay for good YA chick lit!
I really loved Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins's debut, so when I heard of Lola, it immediately went in my to read list. It's hard not to compare Lola to Anna (St. Clair and Anna even show up in this one as secondary characters, and yay, their love!), so I'll get this out of the way first: Lola is just as fun, but I enjoyed Anna more. (And I think it's kinda telling, to see why people enjoy one over the other.) But Lola and the French Kiss has a style and flair all its own, owing to Lola Nolan and her ever changing fashion, quirky love-crush Cricket, and the genuine teen anguish she goes through. What works here is that it Lola doesn't just start liking Cricket when she's still with her current boyfriend, punk rocker Max, but she's always liked him. That her feelings are established and thus get all churned up when Cricket comes back keep it from being shallow. Plus, she's got two gay dads, an awesome best friend, lives in San Francisco and works on a full on Marie Antoinette dress for a school dance. Lola might be a little too quirky for me in real life, but in print she's great, and so is this novel. Yay for good YA chick lit!
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
First off, I really, really like the idea behind White Cat. Magic being prominent and just another thing people do, the idea of curse working and magic blow back, the mystery of it all and a pretty cool con-man protagonist in Cassel Sharpe.
I was just totally not on board as I read, and I have no frigging clue why. I swear, I got to page 200 and realized I didn't know where I was in the plot, what was happening, or why Cassel was doing anything he was. Well no, that's a lie, I got a lot of it, and as the book finished I got that, but in my memory the middle of it is all muddled. I get that the nature of the mystery itself (which -- damn, that was a good twist) led to a bit of an unreliable narrator, but I'm still baffled.
And that's not a bad thing! I'm just gonna sit here and say that what I got out of the book I enjoyed, and I'll be checking out the next in the series, but WTF, self.
First off, I really, really like the idea behind White Cat. Magic being prominent and just another thing people do, the idea of curse working and magic blow back, the mystery of it all and a pretty cool con-man protagonist in Cassel Sharpe.
I was just totally not on board as I read, and I have no frigging clue why. I swear, I got to page 200 and realized I didn't know where I was in the plot, what was happening, or why Cassel was doing anything he was. Well no, that's a lie, I got a lot of it, and as the book finished I got that, but in my memory the middle of it is all muddled. I get that the nature of the mystery itself (which -- damn, that was a good twist) led to a bit of an unreliable narrator, but I'm still baffled.
And that's not a bad thing! I'm just gonna sit here and say that what I got out of the book I enjoyed, and I'll be checking out the next in the series, but WTF, self.
I picked this up because A) I needed a break from all the paranormal/YA I've been reading, B) the movie trailer is cute despite my aversion to Katherine Heigl and C) it was time for a pure popcorn book.
One For the Money totally hit the spot for me; that sort of light, fast read that tends to clear the book-reading part of my mind. I liked Stephanie Plum for her can-do attitude, her sort of adorable bumbling way of doing things, and the slow growth we see in her as a person and a not-so-kickass bounty hunter by the end. Actually, I really liked that she was still dorky and all by the end of the book, despite going through everything Evanovich puts her through.
I enjoyed the secondary cast of characters, especially Grandma Mazur in all her kookiness. I mean, I'll never get the image of her wearing hot pink bike shorts out of my mind any time soon. Joe Morelli is a great romantic foil, one of those guys who would drive me absolutely insane in real life but I love in fiction. Ranger's pretty cool as well, and though I finished the book just yesterday, you'd be hard pressed to get me to remember the names of any other characters.
Oh, and I loved how dated the novel is, considering it was published in 1994. All those bike shorts, the cars, the car phones. It makes me wonder how we'll see the books of 2000-2010 in another ten, twenty or thirty years.
As for the negatives...it's not negative so much as a personal preference, but ugh, we could have done without the stalker/rapist side plot. I applaud Evanovich for remembering that having her main character be attractive in certain places means she'll be attracting the wrong sort of attention, and nobody understands that sort of fear like other women do, but I felt it was taken a bit too far in this.
Thanks to the Stephanie Plum case files or whatever in the end of the edition I have, I know what happens in books 2-8 and I don't have to read anymore! Woo! (Not that I would have anyway, this was a one-shot kinda deal. I liked Stephanie, but not that much.)
I give my popcorn reads a lot of leeway because I don't expect much of them. They hit the spot when I need them to, and after a while, the effect they had is gone. One For the Money was a perfect popcorn read.
One For the Money totally hit the spot for me; that sort of light, fast read that tends to clear the book-reading part of my mind. I liked Stephanie Plum for her can-do attitude, her sort of adorable bumbling way of doing things, and the slow growth we see in her as a person and a not-so-kickass bounty hunter by the end. Actually, I really liked that she was still dorky and all by the end of the book, despite going through everything Evanovich puts her through.
I enjoyed the secondary cast of characters, especially Grandma Mazur in all her kookiness. I mean, I'll never get the image of her wearing hot pink bike shorts out of my mind any time soon. Joe Morelli is a great romantic foil, one of those guys who would drive me absolutely insane in real life but I love in fiction. Ranger's pretty cool as well, and though I finished the book just yesterday, you'd be hard pressed to get me to remember the names of any other characters.
Oh, and I loved how dated the novel is, considering it was published in 1994. All those bike shorts, the cars, the car phones. It makes me wonder how we'll see the books of 2000-2010 in another ten, twenty or thirty years.
As for the negatives...it's not negative so much as a personal preference, but ugh, we could have done without the stalker/rapist side plot. I applaud Evanovich for remembering that having her main character be attractive in certain places means she'll be attracting the wrong sort of attention, and nobody understands that sort of fear like other women do, but I felt it was taken a bit too far in this.
Thanks to the Stephanie Plum case files or whatever in the end of the edition I have, I know what happens in books 2-8 and I don't have to read anymore! Woo! (Not that I would have anyway, this was a one-shot kinda deal. I liked Stephanie, but not that much.)
I give my popcorn reads a lot of leeway because I don't expect much of them. They hit the spot when I need them to, and after a while, the effect they had is gone. One For the Money was a perfect popcorn read.
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
The only Maureen Johnson I've read before this one was The Bermudez Triangle, a really well done YA LGBT contemporary novel. So, when I picked up The Name of the Star, I wasn't expecting much, but I didn't expect to be so underwhelmed by it, either. This is clearly a case of a fantastic story idea not being executed as well as it could have been.
I mean, a ghostly Jack the Ripper killing again? And our heroine Rory gets all caught up in it because she can see the ghost? There are so many directions to go with it, but the book spends half the time with Rory describing the minutiae of her boarding school life, her friendships, her budding relationship (sort of), etc. It's actually a really good portrait of a teenage girl being thrust into a new school and culture, but the book isn't only about that. Half way through the plot finally announces itself by inserting one of the most annoying characters I've read in a long time, "Boo". Seriously. Her nickname is Boo.
It's obvious where and why Boo comes in, and as the plot begins rolling along, it doesn't get too much more interesting. I really wish it were, because it's such a good premise, and I really liked Rory despite her being such an unassuming, borderline uninteresting character.
That's mostly what I've taken away from The Name of the Star: it could have been so, so much better.
The only Maureen Johnson I've read before this one was The Bermudez Triangle, a really well done YA LGBT contemporary novel. So, when I picked up The Name of the Star, I wasn't expecting much, but I didn't expect to be so underwhelmed by it, either. This is clearly a case of a fantastic story idea not being executed as well as it could have been.
I mean, a ghostly Jack the Ripper killing again? And our heroine Rory gets all caught up in it because she can see the ghost? There are so many directions to go with it, but the book spends half the time with Rory describing the minutiae of her boarding school life, her friendships, her budding relationship (sort of), etc. It's actually a really good portrait of a teenage girl being thrust into a new school and culture, but the book isn't only about that. Half way through the plot finally announces itself by inserting one of the most annoying characters I've read in a long time, "Boo". Seriously. Her nickname is Boo.
It's obvious where and why Boo comes in, and as the plot begins rolling along, it doesn't get too much more interesting. I really wish it were, because it's such a good premise, and I really liked Rory despite her being such an unassuming, borderline uninteresting character.
That's mostly what I've taken away from The Name of the Star: it could have been so, so much better.
