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tartinisdream's Reviews (1.26k)
Okay, so I read it. It took me way too long to read it but, you know, college and I’m taking five classes this term. Right now, I’m reading more college textbooks than anything else. It sucks.
Anyway, thanks internet. *shakes fist at computer*
As I read this book I kept being reminded of this time when I was a kid and the Catholic church felt that hell was going to rain down on Earth all because of a movie called The Last Temptation of Christ. My parents loaded us up in the car and we drove 40 miles to the nearest college town, where the movie was playing, just to watch it. I thought the movie sucked. If The Church had kept their damn mouth shut, no one would have gone to see this movie. But my interest in all things with controversy surrounding them was firmly planted and so I have watched a lot of mediocre movies and read a few mediocre books. I’ve also stumbled across a lot of really great books and movies, too.
So, what’s that got to do with anything, right?
I had never heard of Kathleen Hale until I happened across her article detailing her obsessive reaction to a bad and inaccurate review of her book on Goodreads. I found her article interesting enough that I clicked over to Goodreads to: a) check out her book, and b) see if I could read the offending review. I read the publishers write up and thought, “hmmmm.” I breezed through some of the reviews and thought, “meh.” I looked for the offending review and couldn’t find it. Whatever. I’m out.
A day or two later, I noticed that the internet seemed to be coming apart at the seams. A response to Ms. Hale’s article had been posted. People were outraged (okay, they still are). I clicked back over to Goodreads to look at the book. The page had exploded with 1-star reviews from people that were flat-out stating they weren’t going to read the book, they had burned their copy, the author kills puppies (wait, what?), etc., etc. (For the record, the author did not kill puppies. The author wrote a satirical piece written from the point of view of her childhood pets, all of which are now dead. That’s stretching it guys.)
That goofy looking sweater cover was starting to look a bit shiny. Hmmmm
Twitter was melting. Everyone had something to say (mostly negative, some of them passive aggressive) about Kathleen Hale. A person would have needed whatever god it is that they believe in to save them if they tried to defend her. (A list of supporters to blackball does not do ANYTHING to help reviewers argument that authors are the ones that are doing bad things for readers.)
I’m not really sure how I should feel about the whole brouhaha. I did finally see the review that sparked Ms. Hale’s obsession. But it wasn’t a review. I was a series of Goodreads status updates. It does contain inaccurate information, possibly do to a misreading of a few pages of the book. I’m sure someone is going to tell me I should be outraged that Ms. Hale stalked this person. I’m not. I think she should have skipped the showing up at the reviewers house part but I see no problem with outting a person that was using someone else’s online persona as her own. Using a pseudonym is one thing. Using someone else’s identity across several social media platforms is something else. Although, I’m not sure I would call it identity theft.
Well, by this time I just had to read the book to see what all the hate was about. (I’ve realized that I only do this when the hype goes south around a book or movie. If all the hype is positive around something, I loose interest.)
So, the book:
No One Else Can Have You is supposed to be a dark comedy about 16-year-old Kippy’s search for the murderer of her best friend. I think the publisher equates it to the movie Fargo. A movie. *sigh* Although quirky in spots, I don’t think it worked overall. I found myself thinking, more than once, this would make a better movie.
I’m not normally a big review reader for a couple reasons. First of all, I have found reviews on sites like Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever else skewed from the get go. Secondly, I’ll make up my own mind, thank you very much. Unfortunately, I read many reviews about No One Else Can Have You and some things stuck with me as I read.
I was not pissed off by Kippy’s trivializing comment about PTSD (something about a “post war flip out”). Why? Well, she’s 16-years-old. What does she know about anything? I’m a veteran. I live with PTSD. I’ve heard adults say worse.
Jokes involving domestic violence? Yes, there is one. Kippy and Davey use the ruse that he is her abusive boyfriend to attend a support group. Someone tosses out something like: maybe next time you’ll hug your girlfriend rather than beating her (NOT A DIRECT QUOTE sorry, I didn’t go back to look for it). It’s a bad joke. I’m not even sure that it’s a joke. See, there are real life assholes in the world that say jackass things like this. Some people even think they are funny. Hmmmm the author put something in her story that might make it seem believable. The. Horror.
Cloudy Meadows. I think I am the only one amused with the name of the mental institution. I also think this is were a lot of people wanted Ms. Hale to write a very different book. This is not a book with social commentary on the mentally ill. It’s a book with a mildly amusing plot point that involves an involuntary commitment and escape. I read nothing truly offensive here and I wonder how many people would have found these scenes funny had this been a movie vice a book.
Here’s something that I haven’t seen anyone else comment on: interest in Norse mythology equals racist Aryan Nazi. Now that makes me respond with a Fuck You.
Overall, I thought the book was just interesting enough to keep going. I would call it an airplane book as it can be read quickly. Had I found it on my own, without the help of controversy, I would say that by next year I won’t remember much of it. Thanks to all the hate, I don’t know that how long it will hang around in my head but probably longer than it should. I thought it was a decent first book from a new author and her craft will improve as she writes more books.
For those of you that wish Kathleen Hale nothing but ill will, I suggest that you just stop talking about her. I am proof that your outrage will gain her book sales.
Anyway, thanks internet. *shakes fist at computer*
As I read this book I kept being reminded of this time when I was a kid and the Catholic church felt that hell was going to rain down on Earth all because of a movie called The Last Temptation of Christ. My parents loaded us up in the car and we drove 40 miles to the nearest college town, where the movie was playing, just to watch it. I thought the movie sucked. If The Church had kept their damn mouth shut, no one would have gone to see this movie. But my interest in all things with controversy surrounding them was firmly planted and so I have watched a lot of mediocre movies and read a few mediocre books. I’ve also stumbled across a lot of really great books and movies, too.
So, what’s that got to do with anything, right?
I had never heard of Kathleen Hale until I happened across her article detailing her obsessive reaction to a bad and inaccurate review of her book on Goodreads. I found her article interesting enough that I clicked over to Goodreads to: a) check out her book, and b) see if I could read the offending review. I read the publishers write up and thought, “hmmmm.” I breezed through some of the reviews and thought, “meh.” I looked for the offending review and couldn’t find it. Whatever. I’m out.
A day or two later, I noticed that the internet seemed to be coming apart at the seams. A response to Ms. Hale’s article had been posted. People were outraged (okay, they still are). I clicked back over to Goodreads to look at the book. The page had exploded with 1-star reviews from people that were flat-out stating they weren’t going to read the book, they had burned their copy, the author kills puppies (wait, what?), etc., etc. (For the record, the author did not kill puppies. The author wrote a satirical piece written from the point of view of her childhood pets, all of which are now dead. That’s stretching it guys.)
That goofy looking sweater cover was starting to look a bit shiny. Hmmmm
Twitter was melting. Everyone had something to say (mostly negative, some of them passive aggressive) about Kathleen Hale. A person would have needed whatever god it is that they believe in to save them if they tried to defend her. (A list of supporters to blackball does not do ANYTHING to help reviewers argument that authors are the ones that are doing bad things for readers.)
I’m not really sure how I should feel about the whole brouhaha. I did finally see the review that sparked Ms. Hale’s obsession. But it wasn’t a review. I was a series of Goodreads status updates. It does contain inaccurate information, possibly do to a misreading of a few pages of the book. I’m sure someone is going to tell me I should be outraged that Ms. Hale stalked this person. I’m not. I think she should have skipped the showing up at the reviewers house part but I see no problem with outting a person that was using someone else’s online persona as her own. Using a pseudonym is one thing. Using someone else’s identity across several social media platforms is something else. Although, I’m not sure I would call it identity theft.
Well, by this time I just had to read the book to see what all the hate was about. (I’ve realized that I only do this when the hype goes south around a book or movie. If all the hype is positive around something, I loose interest.)
So, the book:
No One Else Can Have You is supposed to be a dark comedy about 16-year-old Kippy’s search for the murderer of her best friend. I think the publisher equates it to the movie Fargo. A movie. *sigh* Although quirky in spots, I don’t think it worked overall. I found myself thinking, more than once, this would make a better movie.
I’m not normally a big review reader for a couple reasons. First of all, I have found reviews on sites like Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever else skewed from the get go. Secondly, I’ll make up my own mind, thank you very much. Unfortunately, I read many reviews about No One Else Can Have You and some things stuck with me as I read.
I was not pissed off by Kippy’s trivializing comment about PTSD (something about a “post war flip out”). Why? Well, she’s 16-years-old. What does she know about anything? I’m a veteran. I live with PTSD. I’ve heard adults say worse.
Jokes involving domestic violence? Yes, there is one. Kippy and Davey use the ruse that he is her abusive boyfriend to attend a support group. Someone tosses out something like: maybe next time you’ll hug your girlfriend rather than beating her (NOT A DIRECT QUOTE sorry, I didn’t go back to look for it). It’s a bad joke. I’m not even sure that it’s a joke. See, there are real life assholes in the world that say jackass things like this. Some people even think they are funny. Hmmmm the author put something in her story that might make it seem believable. The. Horror.
Cloudy Meadows. I think I am the only one amused with the name of the mental institution. I also think this is were a lot of people wanted Ms. Hale to write a very different book. This is not a book with social commentary on the mentally ill. It’s a book with a mildly amusing plot point that involves an involuntary commitment and escape. I read nothing truly offensive here and I wonder how many people would have found these scenes funny had this been a movie vice a book.
Here’s something that I haven’t seen anyone else comment on: interest in Norse mythology equals racist Aryan Nazi. Now that makes me respond with a Fuck You.
Overall, I thought the book was just interesting enough to keep going. I would call it an airplane book as it can be read quickly. Had I found it on my own, without the help of controversy, I would say that by next year I won’t remember much of it. Thanks to all the hate, I don’t know that how long it will hang around in my head but probably longer than it should. I thought it was a decent first book from a new author and her craft will improve as she writes more books.
For those of you that wish Kathleen Hale nothing but ill will, I suggest that you just stop talking about her. I am proof that your outrage will gain her book sales.
I received Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique through the Riot Read Book Club. If you’re not familiar with the Riot Read program, Book Riot has partnered with Quarterly to send out books. Members pay $25 (it started at $30) a month and you don’t get to know what the book is ahead of time. I like it because it feeds my Get Out of Your Comfort Zone need. It’s a chance to read a new author or something that I might not have picked up on my own. The first book was Landline by Rainbow Rowell, which I enjoyed and I can say that I would not have read it had Riot Read not sent it to me.
Although, I don’t consider much of what I’m going to write about spoilers, some might. So, continue at your own risk.
The story takes us through the lives of two sisters in the Virgin Islands beginning around the time of the Danish to American transfer. The oldest sister, Eeona, must raise the younger sister, Anette, after the death of their parents. Eeona was raised in a more fashionable manner and struggles to come to terms with their situation after left near penniless. She is saddled with the responsibilities of raising a young child, she no longer has the status she once had to marry well, and she desperately misses the father that abused her. Yes, dearest dad has an incestuous relationship with his oldest daughter. Eeona never once refers to it as abuse. Instead, she idolizes her father and would have argued that he loved her more than he loved her mother or his mistress. Dad’s a great guy, no?
Needless to say, Eeona makes some mistakes with raising Anette. Anette is much bolder than Eeona and enjoys more freedoms than her older sister. She does not suffer from worrying about What People Will Think. She falls in love with Jacob, who Eeona can’t abide and prohibits Anette from seeing. Because that has ever worked. Eeona makes the mistake of not telling Anette WHY Jacob is such a bad match for her. And so, it is many years later that Anette learns that the love of her life and father of her second child is her brother (from the mistress). This is not a secret that is kept from the reader. Why no one ever told Anette, or Jacob, that they are related still baffles me.
I struggled to settle into this book, but it wasn’t the subject matter that blocked me. It was the speech pattern for Anette. I’ve had this problem before with reading dialects. I will readily admit that I didn’t read Huck Finn in high school because of Jim’s dialect (I did, successfully, read it later in college). The story does switch perspectives through out so, at first, I found Anette’s sections a bit jarring but I got used to it. I was on the fence about continuing when I got to 100-page mark (this is where I usually decide). I just feeling meh about the whole story and wasn’t sure I want to spend any more time on it. I set it aside for a while and read a couple something else’s until I picked this one up again. I’m still on the fence about it but it was interesting enough to keep reading. Tiffany Yanique did do a wonderful job of immersing the reader into the lives of these people and life in the Virgin Islands.
History buffs beware! The book is not historically accurate and the author admits this in the note at the end. I didn’t know it while reading the book. I don’t think it would have made a difference to me but if you are extremely knowledgeable about the history of the Virgin Islands you might be grumbling throughout the book.
Although, I don’t consider much of what I’m going to write about spoilers, some might. So, continue at your own risk.
The story takes us through the lives of two sisters in the Virgin Islands beginning around the time of the Danish to American transfer. The oldest sister, Eeona, must raise the younger sister, Anette, after the death of their parents. Eeona was raised in a more fashionable manner and struggles to come to terms with their situation after left near penniless. She is saddled with the responsibilities of raising a young child, she no longer has the status she once had to marry well, and she desperately misses the father that abused her. Yes, dearest dad has an incestuous relationship with his oldest daughter. Eeona never once refers to it as abuse. Instead, she idolizes her father and would have argued that he loved her more than he loved her mother or his mistress. Dad’s a great guy, no?
Needless to say, Eeona makes some mistakes with raising Anette. Anette is much bolder than Eeona and enjoys more freedoms than her older sister. She does not suffer from worrying about What People Will Think. She falls in love with Jacob, who Eeona can’t abide and prohibits Anette from seeing. Because that has ever worked. Eeona makes the mistake of not telling Anette WHY Jacob is such a bad match for her. And so, it is many years later that Anette learns that the love of her life and father of her second child is her brother (from the mistress). This is not a secret that is kept from the reader. Why no one ever told Anette, or Jacob, that they are related still baffles me.
I struggled to settle into this book, but it wasn’t the subject matter that blocked me. It was the speech pattern for Anette. I’ve had this problem before with reading dialects. I will readily admit that I didn’t read Huck Finn in high school because of Jim’s dialect (I did, successfully, read it later in college). The story does switch perspectives through out so, at first, I found Anette’s sections a bit jarring but I got used to it. I was on the fence about continuing when I got to 100-page mark (this is where I usually decide). I just feeling meh about the whole story and wasn’t sure I want to spend any more time on it. I set it aside for a while and read a couple something else’s until I picked this one up again. I’m still on the fence about it but it was interesting enough to keep reading. Tiffany Yanique did do a wonderful job of immersing the reader into the lives of these people and life in the Virgin Islands.
History buffs beware! The book is not historically accurate and the author admits this in the note at the end. I didn’t know it while reading the book. I don’t think it would have made a difference to me but if you are extremely knowledgeable about the history of the Virgin Islands you might be grumbling throughout the book.
