Books inhaled
Feb. 17th, 2010 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizbeeI hit the library a couple of weeks ago, and carried away the teen section. Three out of five were enjoyable; the other two went unfinished.
The good:
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
Naomi wakes up in hospital following a head injury, only to find she's forgotten the last three-and-a-half years. Her parents have split up, her boyfriend and best friends are total strangers, and the more she learns about the last few years, the less she likes herself.
Amnesia's one of those Terrible Cliches that hardly gets written anymore, which is a shame, as I secretly love it. And this was great -- looking at her life from an outsider's perspective, Naomi is funny, frustrating, terribly likable. She falls in love with a Brooding And Angstful Boy, the best handling of such a relationship I've seen in YA lit for a few years. But the best aspect is her relationship with her best friend, her sharp-witted yearbook co-editor. Naomi and William have a Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday sort of relationship that is terribly fun to read.
For cheap laughs, check out the hilariously bad photoshopping on the cover -- here's a high res version that makes it all too obvious. Here is an extract.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Over Christmas, we were inundated with teens begging for this book (and its sequel), and hopeless parents and grandparents peering at email print outs and saying, "Um, I think it's about some kind of anorexia game?" So I was pretty eager to check it out.
Overall, I was not disappointed. In a dystopian future North America, the elites of the Capitol demonstrate their dominance over subject districts by forcing two children from each (chosen at random) to compete in games to the death. Which are televised. This is an elaborate punishment for a previous rebellion (like feeding Athenian children to the Minotaur), with compulsory participation and viewership.
The worldbuilding was not totally convincing -- only one district out of twelve is agricultural? The Capitol has access to advanced genetic and material manipulation, but is dependent on coal for fuel? -- but it was an enjoyable yarn with likable central characters. Katniss, the narrator, is a hunter and a survivor, whose main emotional attachments are to her mother and younger sister. Peeta is the son of a baker -- as middle class as you can get in District 12 -- and he's in love with Katniss.
The strongest points were in the games themselves -- the narrative is totally manipulative, and works very hard to protect Katniss and Peeta from difficult choices, but the strategy and situations are compelling nonetheless. It would make an amazing game, for the five minutes it would be on sale before the moral outrage drives it underground.
In short: I was not totally and wholeheartedly sold, but I liked it enough to grab the sequel from the library this afternoon.
The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
A retelling of the Maid Maleen fairy tale, set in a world based on Mongolia. Which, I might add, I completely failed to notice until I stopped and actually looked at the illustrations -- somehow, despite all the talk of steppes and yaks, I had been fooled by the European-style tower on the cover illustration. (Which is a different kind of white washing, and if anyone is interested, there is one edition that doesn't have European imagery on the cover, and that is what I think of as a Headless Girl Cover.)
ANYWAY. This was an unexpected little gem. Dashti, the maid, is clever, resourceful and funny, and her relationship with Khan Tegus, the prince, is enjoyable in the extreme. I take issue with the blurb, which describes the princess as a brat; it would be more accurate to say she's not very bright, woefully uneducated, and suffering from profound psychological trauma. The villain, I have to mention, is ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING.
The not so good:
Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty
I loved Moriarty's first three books, was eh on The Spell Book of Listen Taylor, and completely unmoved by I Have A Bed Made Of Buttermilk Pancakes. Looks like this might be a case of diminishing returns, as I couldn't even finish Dreaming of Amelia. It's set at the same school as the first three books -- and some characters even have the same names as in those books, although I honestly could not tell if they were meant to be the same people -- but for once, Moriarty's conceit of narrating the story through the characters' own documents didn't work. What seemed artless in the earlier books felt laboured, and frankly, some of these characters cannot write. It was all too much work, and the story wasn't interesting enough to make it worthwhile.
The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
I had saved this one for last, as I had heard nothing but good reports, and I always enjoy seeing fic authors turn pro. Possibly my expectations were too high; the concept was derivative, the dialogue was glib, the characters ranged from unlikable to dull. I got through five chapters, then returned it to the library. But as everyone in the world has stopped to tell me that I am wrong, your mileage may vary.
The good:
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
Naomi wakes up in hospital following a head injury, only to find she's forgotten the last three-and-a-half years. Her parents have split up, her boyfriend and best friends are total strangers, and the more she learns about the last few years, the less she likes herself.
Amnesia's one of those Terrible Cliches that hardly gets written anymore, which is a shame, as I secretly love it. And this was great -- looking at her life from an outsider's perspective, Naomi is funny, frustrating, terribly likable. She falls in love with a Brooding And Angstful Boy, the best handling of such a relationship I've seen in YA lit for a few years. But the best aspect is her relationship with her best friend, her sharp-witted yearbook co-editor. Naomi and William have a Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday sort of relationship that is terribly fun to read.
For cheap laughs, check out the hilariously bad photoshopping on the cover -- here's a high res version that makes it all too obvious. Here is an extract.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Over Christmas, we were inundated with teens begging for this book (and its sequel), and hopeless parents and grandparents peering at email print outs and saying, "Um, I think it's about some kind of anorexia game?" So I was pretty eager to check it out.
Overall, I was not disappointed. In a dystopian future North America, the elites of the Capitol demonstrate their dominance over subject districts by forcing two children from each (chosen at random) to compete in games to the death. Which are televised. This is an elaborate punishment for a previous rebellion (like feeding Athenian children to the Minotaur), with compulsory participation and viewership.
The worldbuilding was not totally convincing -- only one district out of twelve is agricultural? The Capitol has access to advanced genetic and material manipulation, but is dependent on coal for fuel? -- but it was an enjoyable yarn with likable central characters. Katniss, the narrator, is a hunter and a survivor, whose main emotional attachments are to her mother and younger sister. Peeta is the son of a baker -- as middle class as you can get in District 12 -- and he's in love with Katniss.
The strongest points were in the games themselves -- the narrative is totally manipulative, and works very hard to protect Katniss and Peeta from difficult choices, but the strategy and situations are compelling nonetheless. It would make an amazing game, for the five minutes it would be on sale before the moral outrage drives it underground.
In short: I was not totally and wholeheartedly sold, but I liked it enough to grab the sequel from the library this afternoon.
The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
A retelling of the Maid Maleen fairy tale, set in a world based on Mongolia. Which, I might add, I completely failed to notice until I stopped and actually looked at the illustrations -- somehow, despite all the talk of steppes and yaks, I had been fooled by the European-style tower on the cover illustration. (Which is a different kind of white washing, and if anyone is interested, there is one edition that doesn't have European imagery on the cover, and that is what I think of as a Headless Girl Cover.)
ANYWAY. This was an unexpected little gem. Dashti, the maid, is clever, resourceful and funny, and her relationship with Khan Tegus, the prince, is enjoyable in the extreme. I take issue with the blurb, which describes the princess as a brat; it would be more accurate to say she's not very bright, woefully uneducated, and suffering from profound psychological trauma. The villain, I have to mention, is ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING.
The not so good:
Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty
I loved Moriarty's first three books, was eh on The Spell Book of Listen Taylor, and completely unmoved by I Have A Bed Made Of Buttermilk Pancakes. Looks like this might be a case of diminishing returns, as I couldn't even finish Dreaming of Amelia. It's set at the same school as the first three books -- and some characters even have the same names as in those books, although I honestly could not tell if they were meant to be the same people -- but for once, Moriarty's conceit of narrating the story through the characters' own documents didn't work. What seemed artless in the earlier books felt laboured, and frankly, some of these characters cannot write. It was all too much work, and the story wasn't interesting enough to make it worthwhile.
The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
I had saved this one for last, as I had heard nothing but good reports, and I always enjoy seeing fic authors turn pro. Possibly my expectations were too high; the concept was derivative, the dialogue was glib, the characters ranged from unlikable to dull. I got through five chapters, then returned it to the library. But as everyone in the world has stopped to tell me that I am wrong, your mileage may vary.
