Stupid book of the week

[lizbee]

The Host by Stephanie Meyer hit shelves early this week.  I couldn't get through the first few chapters of Twilight, so I didn't give it a second look, but the buzz from those who've read it suggests that, as novels go, The Host makes a marvellous source of toilet paper.

We have also received two different Health Ledger biographies, a novel about Josephine Tey FIGHTING CRIME, and a work of chick lit that has the same basic premise as The Five People You Meet In Heaven, only with added stupid and bonus materialism.

On the other hand, I just got this comment on my review for A Great and Terrible Beauty:

Dude? This book has amazing literature in it. You must not no good writing. I honestly think no one should listen to this fool.

It gives you a good picture in your mind and its one of those books that when you read it, you almost see yourself as one of the charicters. That means its a well written book.

Well, that's me told! 

(I should go back to doing book posts on Vox, y/y?)

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I am relieved to know I'm not the only person who hated A Great and Terrible Beauty. Seriously.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

*CLINGZ*

Had people told me it was cracktastic badfic about baby lesbians, I might have enjoyed it. Sadly, I was assured it was a work of subtle genius. LIES!

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Cracktastic badfic about baby lesbians with an OMG SWARTHY EXOTIC GYPSY MAN WITH MAGICAL POWERS to be the resident Angel, God, I hate Buffy n'Scoobies ripoffs with such a passion but clearly it's too late to object. Still, the Victorian stuff was all exquisitely accurate, right? Uh...right?

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Sure, it was, um, totally accurate. Accurate like "Ghost Light"!

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

that is not fair to "ghost light". *glowery*

ghost light is ABSOLUTE TRUFAX.

[threeoranges.livejournal.com]

Oh come now, did I ever use the phrase "subtle genius"? I've already apologized for misrepresenting it by using phrases like "I think you'll like it", but I'm pretty sure I never used words like "subtle" or "genius" wrt AGATB.

That said, it IS a work of subtlety and genius when placed next to TWLIGHT.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Oh, you weren't the only person who told me to read it. You were just the most honest person...

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Fandom_secrets made me buy Twilight. Made me.

Also, yes, more book reviews, especially if you get comments like that. *nods*

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I feel like I should at least try reading Twilight again, just to get more outraged comments like that!

[ckocher.livejournal.com]

Random drive-by commenting on the friendsfriends list...

I couldn't finish AGATB - it was just... gah. Stabbity. And I couldn't figure out how so many people kept raving about it.

On the other hand, I liked the Meyer books. Fun YA romp. I sure wish I had stuff like that around to read when I was a youngun.

[forked.livejournal.com]

I kinda want to read the one about Tey fighting crime.

I'm actually enjoying Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit) (http://www.cottagetales.com/books/HawthornHouse.shtml) solving mysteries. Well- the mysteries are weak, but I still like the series.

On the negative side- the one with Jane Austen made me want to smack myself in the head. With an ax.

And more book reviews? Yes please!

[drjon.livejournal.com]

It looks better when shouting...

YOU MUST NOT NO GOOD WRITING!!!

I heartily concur. Not no good writing! Let us take it up as our credo...

[livii.livejournal.com]

Oh, I almost got AGATB from a rec, just for something light and about gothic lesbians to read. V. glad I didn't!

Re: Twilight, after an appearance on ONTD this week, I pulled out this gem to share on JF, and like it so much I'm going to re-post it in your comments. I think it sums everything up (minus one unfair personal comment I'm going to redact this time). (To be clear, this is from some random poster on ONTD, not me. I only wish, only that would mean I'd have had to have read the book...)

A girl named Bella moves to Washington State to live with her dad. She's an ugly whiny loser, and nobody at her old school liked her; however, at her new school, all the boys think she's fabulous, because she's the biggest fucking Mary Sue on the planet, [comment redacted]. Anyway, despite her array of courters and her ~fabulous~ new friends, she meets a dazzling young guy named Edward Cullen, who is adopted and lives with a doctor and his wife (a proper artist with a knife) and his four-ish adopted brothers and sisters - idk, I kind of lost count. Anyway, one minute he hates her, one minute he loves her, he's like the biggest fucking cocktease in the whole world. Bella falls madly in love with him despite the fact that he's a stalker and treats her like shit, because female empowerment is for dykes, not fabulous young girls. So Edward ~dazzles~ her, frequently, and then oh yeah she finds out he's a vampire. He's like a hundred years old, and his "father" is four hundred. So basically he's a child molester. Some evil vampires come along, and one of them chases her to Phoenix, and the way that they all casually travel on planes really pissed me off, like it's so fucking easy to be 17 years-old and just pay for a plane ticket. I mean what the fuck was with that. Anyway, the evil vampire chased her to Phoenix, where he mom lived, and he fucked her up a bit, but they told everybody that she ~fell down some steps~. Oh yeah, and she went to the prom. The end.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

That ... tells me everything I need to know about Twilight AND MORE.

piecesofalice is a great fan of the ONTD Twilight chaotica, so I've been enjoying her re-enactments of those posts.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

That's actually a really fair summation. And I finished the book! I think I will read the sequels as well. I've heard horrifying things about the plot developments in them and I guess I have to see for myself.

The fandom, not surprisingly, is teeming with badfic. When I went looking for some, it was too easy.

[threeoranges.livejournal.com]

yes, that was bellichka and she was SO RIGHT :D

[bellichka.livejournal.com]

aw you cut out my favorite part of my comment ;)

[livii.livejournal.com]

Aw, sorry, dude. I just thought then people might jump on that rather than see the pure awesomeness of the rest of it.

Sorry to not credit you - I couldn't remember where in ONTD I found that. But you have done a valuable service as now I never have to read the damn thing. ;)

[bellichka.livejournal.com]

aw its okay bb I figured you just didn't want the fundies jumpin on you

and you should totally read the books, at least to be able to full participate. I'm glad that I read them, even though I'll never get those three days of my life back.

how weird when threeoranges was like "your Twilight description was quoted in somebody else's LJ"... I was like, srsly? lmao.

[livii.livejournal.com]

It just sucks when people pull out the one irrelevant part and ignore the rest, you know? Way too much experience with that. And I value those three days too much, sorry. ;)

My JF is public, same name, but we were discussing it over on fandom_lounge.

[bellichka.livejournal.com]

p.s. what is your journalfen? is it public?

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Tey FIGHTING CRIME sounds good.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Seconded !

[bruyere-75.livejournal.com]

It gives you a good picture in your mind and its one of those books that when you read it, you almost see yourself as one of the charicters. That means its a well written book.

Urge to snark... rising. Must... resist!

[biichan.livejournal.com]

I actually enjoyed AGATB, but I will admit that part of it was because I like crackfic.

[rimwalker.livejournal.com]

"This book has amazing literature in it."

I'm assuming this means they opened that book and other, better books fell out of it.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

Is The Host another in the Twilight series or something else she's working on? I'm curious because it's funny. =D

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

No, it's sci-fi this time.

[sajee.livejournal.com]

I hate AGATB so much that I have also read the second one.

Why?

I'm not 100% sure.

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHA. I'd forgotten that you were one of the few people who warned me off Bray. I re-read bits of the first two books after we emailed, and GAH, whilst I like it it really does frustrate me.

[threeoranges.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too - though I often rec it, I am not unaware of the series' failings (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3320157/1/A_Great_And_Terrible_Beauty_A_Busy_Readers_Guide). (She says, pimping shamelessly.)

[penwiper337.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I picked up A Great and Terrible Beauty and applaud my determination in managing to read 3 chapters before the urge to pull my brains out my nose became too great.

[krazykitkat.livejournal.com]

*snort*

[tempestsarekind.livejournal.com]

I...sorta think AGATB would have been a lot better as a novel about modern teenage girls in a boarding school, without the magic? I think Bray did a pretty good job of capturing that weird love-you/hate-you dynamic of teenage girls, but everything else about the novel just made me roll my eyes really hard. (I still read her LJ, though, because I think she's funny. I just don't read her books.)

I read Twilight giggling the whole way, and was immediately overcome by an urge to reread Robin McKinley's Sunshine. Where at least the vampires don't *sparkle*.

[purple-smurf.livejournal.com]

I read Twilight. When I stop twitching from the bad I may write a review. However, wild horses could not keep me from the film, to point and mock and laugh. And drool over the pretty.

*uses icon from "I try not to anymore" 'ship to illustrate why she couldn't get into Twilight* (plus, I've watched Lie to Me from Buffy too many times)