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wretchedtheo
just finished my fifth reread but this is the first time I read it in the original English (my only copy before all this was my Romanian copy). It's just as beautiful and insightful and subtly sad as I remembered it...
Being a white girl rating and reviewing one of the most influential #ownvoices Black Lives Matter stories of the decade, I'm going to have to choose my words carefully. For that reason, I'll be brief. I really did like The Hate U Give, and I understand what the hype was about. The characters were likeable, and I was rooting for them all the way, but ...I hope I don't sound like an idiot for saying this, but I didn't find Starr relatable at all. This is by no means the fault of the author. The fact is that, in terms of background, culture, and upbringing, my experience was, is, and had always been very different from the one described in the book. Needless to say, I'm not surprised I didn't relate to her much and, God forbid, I'm not calling the book out on that. I still liked her - but a great part of what makes a reading experience enjoyable for me is a main character that I can relate to. (This is, I repeat, entirely a matter of personal preference!) For this reason, I wasn't as immersed in the story as other readers might've been, and it dragged for me just a little. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it well enough, and I believe the story and its message are biting, raw and relevant without being overly didactic. It did make me uncomfortable in a number of instances but I suppose that is what it is meant to do. It's a good story with solid characters, an important message, likeable writing style, and above all? It's real. It doesn't portray its white characters as universally racist and bigoted, and it doesn't portray its black characters as perfect and blameless. It exposes the flaws and prejudices of both sides as well as their qualities and I think that is part of what makes the book so compelling.
Its everything it's cracked up to be. Poetic in an unprepossesing, unpretentious way. It's just...the poetry of life. A life I'll never know. The Color Purple is a story of love and pain and pretty much everything else. Absolute classic.
This one dragged a little more than the two before it, but honestly I just loved reading more about Theo. Felt bad for all the awful stuff he goes through.
I think the greatest trouble with Suzanne Collins' writing style is that she is PRETTY MUCH INCAPABLE OF SHOWING NOT TELLING.
She assumes her readers won't understand injustice and oppression and sacrifice and cruelty. So what does our friend do, seeing as those are the very themes she wishes to yeet at us in her books? Well. She literally spells out what the reader ought to see and think. She has Katniss explain how something is unjust, oppressive, sacrificial or cruel. It's almost painful to read.
That is like...that's one of the fundamental rules you never break when writing a dystopia. You're meant to portray Bad Things, but don't baby your readers, don't tell them WHY it is bad. Your readers are NOT BABIES! The only thing you'll achieve by taking this leaf from Collins' book (pun intended) is eliminate all subtlety from your writing, and seriously soften the punch that your story might otherwise have packed. That is the effect Collins has had on hER OWN STORY and it is SAD, guys. Look, I am going to give you an example of a dystopian story that played by the rules, withstood the test of time, and is still terrifying and sobering readers to this day.
1984 is so hard-hitting because the dystopian society in it is presented so...objectively, so impassively, all while STILL portraying the characters' weariness, their dreams of rebellion, their terror and their hatred. Orwell subtly raises questions through the events and memories and conversations he writes about, and neither he nor his characters answer them - like Katniss does in the Hunger Games). The world of 1984 is horribly vivid, everything feels real, and every stab at the reader's heart hits its mark.
As for the Hunger Games? Sure, it's scary and sad enough. I'd hardly be human if I wasn't at all affected by a 12-year-old being speared to death in a fight for her life. But the overall delivery is so...mediocre that the one time I actually felt horrified and moved to tears (so far in this series in which that is clearly the reaction I am meant to be having), was when reading about Darius' fate. Yeah, that random ginger Peacekeeper. Strange, isn't it, that the character who affected me most was a minor character? One with about four lines, no more? My best guess as to why that is, is that all the more important characters were ruined by the heavy-handed moralistic tone of Collins' writing. Darius was unimportant enough that Collins hadn't over-analyzed every aspect of his being in a way that effectively rendered him tediously redundant. His suffering felt real and crushing because it just /happened/ and he simply lived it as a real person would - no unjustified efforts to break it down and moralize it and explain it away.
I could go into greater detail about the way I dislike her writing style for its swift succession of monotonously similar sentences, the way it doesn't flow and instead feels jarringly rushed, leaving me wondering what the heck I just read. But I won't, because I think I've said what was most important. I hope you'll believe me, and be advised when reading this famous book. ...y'know what, actually, be advised when reading ANY famous book. Sheesh.
She assumes her readers won't understand injustice and oppression and sacrifice and cruelty. So what does our friend do, seeing as those are the very themes she wishes to yeet at us in her books? Well. She literally spells out what the reader ought to see and think. She has Katniss explain how something is unjust, oppressive, sacrificial or cruel. It's almost painful to read.
That is like...that's one of the fundamental rules you never break when writing a dystopia. You're meant to portray Bad Things, but don't baby your readers, don't tell them WHY it is bad. Your readers are NOT BABIES! The only thing you'll achieve by taking this leaf from Collins' book (pun intended) is eliminate all subtlety from your writing, and seriously soften the punch that your story might otherwise have packed. That is the effect Collins has had on hER OWN STORY and it is SAD, guys. Look, I am going to give you an example of a dystopian story that played by the rules, withstood the test of time, and is still terrifying and sobering readers to this day.
1984 is so hard-hitting because the dystopian society in it is presented so...objectively, so impassively, all while STILL portraying the characters' weariness, their dreams of rebellion, their terror and their hatred. Orwell subtly raises questions through the events and memories and conversations he writes about, and neither he nor his characters answer them - like Katniss does in the Hunger Games). The world of 1984 is horribly vivid, everything feels real, and every stab at the reader's heart hits its mark.
As for the Hunger Games? Sure, it's scary and sad enough. I'd hardly be human if I wasn't at all affected by a 12-year-old being speared to death in a fight for her life. But the overall delivery is so...mediocre that the one time I actually felt horrified and moved to tears (so far in this series in which that is clearly the reaction I am meant to be having), was when reading about Darius' fate. Yeah, that random ginger Peacekeeper. Strange, isn't it, that the character who affected me most was a minor character? One with about four lines, no more? My best guess as to why that is, is that all the more important characters were ruined by the heavy-handed moralistic tone of Collins' writing. Darius was unimportant enough that Collins hadn't over-analyzed every aspect of his being in a way that effectively rendered him tediously redundant. His suffering felt real and crushing because it just /happened/ and he simply lived it as a real person would - no unjustified efforts to break it down and moralize it and explain it away.
I could go into greater detail about the way I dislike her writing style for its swift succession of monotonously similar sentences, the way it doesn't flow and instead feels jarringly rushed, leaving me wondering what the heck I just read. But I won't, because I think I've said what was most important. I hope you'll believe me, and be advised when reading this famous book. ...y'know what, actually, be advised when reading ANY famous book. Sheesh.
I loved it. It was just the right mix of sad and sweet. Breezed through it in two days. A fun and emotional cream pie of a read.
Overwrought, pretentious, sappy, unrealistic romance. Lost interest halfway and returned it to the library unfinished.
It's a real shame about the cover. No boy in his right mind would ever pick this up in a bookstore, and neither did my brother Dan. However, once I convinced him to read it, he was hooked. He's read it 5 times!
And I get it. This book is actually a highly entertaining, though at times honestly sad, overview of modern lower-class England and the struggles that children of celebrities face. Strongly recommend.
And I get it. This book is actually a highly entertaining, though at times honestly sad, overview of modern lower-class England and the struggles that children of celebrities face. Strongly recommend.