Monday, March 11, 2019
FICTIONISTAS UNITE IS NOW ON WORDPRESS
Click here to go to the new Fictionistas United
I got a new blog on WordPress and that is just going to be the one that gets more traffic to be honest. This blog gets almost nothing now. With the death of Google Plus, a Blogger community is not going to be easy to come by also. So WordPress it will be.
This blog is always going to be up unless Google kills Blogger. I don't want to get rid of all my reviews and articles. They will be here for posterity. However, I will not be moving the rest of the blog entries over to WordPress unless Blogger ever goes away permanently. That is far too much work. If you would like to check out older reviews, this is the blog to check out. Just be aware that I will probably no longer be posting here. Edit: WordPress has given the blog new life and I have moved my writing blog there too. The link is on my new homepage; please check it out!
Still, please follow my WordPress blog because that is where new posts are going to be. And hopefully, there will be much more blogging to come.
Thank you to all that have made Blogger the experience it's been.
The "Missing Father" Trope: Other Ways To Handle Deadbeat Dads
The Hypnotist's Love Story
The Breakdown
The Kiss Quotient
Never Let You Go
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Wild
My Not-So-Perfect Life (somewhat)
A Dog's Journey
The Storyteller
Pupcakes (with a mom rather than a dad)
Harry Potter series
My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry
Silver Linings Playbook (strained father relations)
The Bassoon King
The Other Woman
A Simple Favor
You (only watched the series, but this is presumably in the book too)
Keep in mind I don't have THAT big of a bookshelf.
All these books were ones I read pretty recently. The missing father aspect in most of them was in no way necessary, and in some cases it distracted from the overall story. (I'm especially looking at The Hypnotist's Love Story, which significantly lessened the quality of an otherwise great book.) In a few, it worked (Harry Potter, for example, and that was before the trope took off anyway; and The Breakdown; and Never Let You Go; and The Bassoon King was a memoir so it made sense). Other times, it just seems forced. Like my oft-complained about YA romances, missing fathers tend to distract from the plot when the author realizes that maybe we'd rather hear more about that.
So why is this such a thing? I guess because it's an easy way to add conflict, and it can be easy to relate to. Still, it's getting very overdone and boring. What other angles might an author take?
The protagonist can have a good relationship with their father.
I know that family issues aren't uncommon, but neither are good family relationships. Yet for some reason I see this pretty rarely. This was the case in My Not So-Perfect Life, but it was still mixed with some angst. I wonder why this isn't done more often.
Show the divorce process.
Wouldn't it be interesting to see a YA character grapple with living with one or the other? It's something new to bring to the table.
Introduce a different father figure.
This could be a teacher, an uncle, or even a friend's father. The Book Thief did this really well with Liesl's guardian....and they did a male friendship really well too. Both good ideas!
Show strained relations with a different relative.
A cousin rivalry, a grumpy grandmother, or a twin would give the novel some sort of a different twist.
It's not a bad thing to have fathers in books. Let's just show a little more variety.
How do you feel about fathers in books?
Don't mention the family.
Maybe the main character is on her own. Authors shouldn't feel obligated to include family characters just for the sake of including them. This is when the trope becomes a problem. Writers feel the need to include family members and then have no clue what to do with them, so they resort to the missing father.
Make the book a comedy.
Picture this: a comedy about Lila White's crazy grandmother. The grandmother robs banks to get money for her granddaughter, calls herself Atomic Grandma, and replies with "I'm not YOUR grandma; I'm HER grandma!" whenever anyone but Lila calls her Grandma White. So when she goes missing, Lila knows that she has to track her down before Grandma does any real damage!
These were characters I created in my childhood. Making a story lighthearted--maybe not quite to the extent I described--would provide a different look at the "missing relative" without all the angst.
It's not a bad thing to have fathers in books. Let's just show a little more variety.
How do you feel about fathers in books?
Friday, March 8, 2019
Life on the Leash: Victoria Schade
Life on the Leash: Victoria Schade
Genre: Chick Lit/Romance
Published: 2018
Pages: 343
Cora Bellamy loves dogs. She loves them so much, in fact, that she's started her own dog training business. Based on a philosophy of love and understanding, she wants to prove the harsh well-known trainers that they're wrong. So when she gets the opportunity to audition for a dog training TV show, she jumps at the chance.
There's still one thing standing in the way: her latest client. He's charming, handsome, and seems to like Cora back. The problem is that he's taken. What's a girl to do? Luckily she has the acquaintance of another client to help her. Eli is a great assistant, and little does Cora know that she may be attracted to him as well.
***There may be minor spoilers.***
I often enjoy a fun, chick-lit novel. I always enjoy dogs. And I also enjoy supporting local talent. So I knew this book had to be mine!
The story focuses on the life of dog trainer Cora Bellamy. She doesn't have a ton of problems in her life, per se, as she's gotten over her ex-fiance and is enjoying her dog training business. But excitement is about to manifest itself in the possibility of a new dog training show.
You have several chick lit tropes here for the most part and most are well-drawn.
The clumsy protagonist who leaves her corporate job to start a quirky business: Cora. Her story was interesting and different.
Her party-loving voice of reason best friend: Maggie.
The evil ex: Aaron. He really has no purpose here, and it's often distracting. More on that in a bit.
The evil corporate-esque giant who is a bully but somehow has a following:Donald I mean Boris Ershovich
The gay best friend who loves clothes, acts feminine and uses words like "darling": Darnell
We interrupt this post with breaking news...
HOW TO WRITE GAY CHARACTERS
BY FICTIONISTAS UNITED
1. Follow the exact same character-creating process you use for straight people.
2. Make them attracted to people of the same gender.
3. Um, that's it.
It really annoys me when writers try to be "diverse" and then write characters according to their cardboard cutout stereotype. Schade obviously tries to be diverse here, maybe to a fault (do we need to know the groomer friend's lesbian backstory?) I did actually like Darnell. I'm just sick of seeing him show up in every book I read as the gay side character.
My main issue with the novel was that it seemed to focus too much on events that weren't important to the narrative, while it didn't often focus enough on the things that were important. The whole balance was a little off. The first half is almost entirely about dogs and there's not a lot of romance there. (Which was fine, save for the fact that again, there's not a lot of love development in the second half either so maybe there should have been more of a love story there.) Characters spend so much time complaining about a certain famous dog trainer that I was like, "Enough already! We get it." Then in the second half, nobody mentions him anymore. Hardly.
This lack of focus creates a few problems. First: I didn't always care. I really didn't care about seeing drawn out scenes of Aaron's reality TV show when I could have been seeing the chemistry grow between Cora and Eli and Charlie, something we desperately needed more of. Second: there is no time for any chemistry to develop. When a fight breaks out between the two, it comes out of nowhere and is clearly just there because "it's chick lit, and a fight always happens at this point!" It had to be rushed, because, well, there was no time for development. They're not even in a relationship! And then it was resolved way too quickly with no effort. Actually, I almost started laughing when I read it because of how far out of left field the "argument" came from.
Third: the book skipped from problem to problem so much that it's easy to forget details. The main characters all go to a party at some point that Cora was apparently invited to. I couldn't ever remember that happening because it was glossed over so fast. This brings me to the fourth and biggest problem: the book can't find an issue to focus on. Was it about the dog training show? Was it about Cora finding love? It doesn't stay on one problem long enough to answer that. This could have been helped if the author spent less time going in-depth about Cora's roommate's job issues, drawn-out shopping scenes, Aaron's TV show, and scenes of partying at clubs (le snore). There are several issues presented that could make for great drama: an evil client possibly holding stake in Cora's life, going head-to-head with a popular brutish dog trainer (also, I found it strange that Schade implied Cora was going to take him down when they weren't going head-to-head or even meet); and so forth.
As for the romance itself? Exploring Cora's moral dilemma with her taken love interest was also exciting, as you don't see that very often. I know a lot of us who are interested in love have been tempted to date someone in a relationship at some point. It's easy to guess who she'll choose, but I wish there was more relationship development. There wasn't enough here to get me completely invested in these relationships. I also felt that this climax was pretty weak, even for the genre. It tried to be quirky but didn't make a lot of sense (remember the left field fight I mentioned?) Additionally, Cora doesn't face a whole lot of obstacles so not much is at stake and it falls flat. It might have been better to spend more of the book showing Cora hosting the show instead of having her wait on the audition results. Waiting does not good drama make. Changing the focus to the show alone could have solved many of the book's issues.
Okay, let's talk about the good, because this really isn't a bad book. I did like some of the subplots, despite how they were distracting. I was especially drawn to one about a woman called Beth Ann, a troubled woman with a poodle living in a tough situation. I was rooting for her. I loved the dogs and their personalities, and there were lots of dogs to love here. Ultimately, I also liked the characters. The dialogue was real, the setting was established, and from a basic perspective it all flowed fairly well. There's not a lot to talk about, but the story itself was entertaining.
This was a cute, fluffy book that wasn't perfect. I did enjoy seeing what would happen next and looked forward to picking it up again to see the characters. Because there was no clear goal in mind, and the one that existed couldn't be solved by anything but waiting, it fell somewhat flat. Honestly, I feel like it just needed a few more rounds of edits than anything, because in addition to questionable choices, there were definitely some errors I picked up on. It's a fun piece of chick lit. If you like dogs, you should go for it because the dog stuff definitely overshadows the romance. Still, don't expect it to win awards any time soon.
Genre: Chick Lit/Romance
Published: 2018
Pages: 343
Cora Bellamy loves dogs. She loves them so much, in fact, that she's started her own dog training business. Based on a philosophy of love and understanding, she wants to prove the harsh well-known trainers that they're wrong. So when she gets the opportunity to audition for a dog training TV show, she jumps at the chance.
There's still one thing standing in the way: her latest client. He's charming, handsome, and seems to like Cora back. The problem is that he's taken. What's a girl to do? Luckily she has the acquaintance of another client to help her. Eli is a great assistant, and little does Cora know that she may be attracted to him as well.
***There may be minor spoilers.***
I often enjoy a fun, chick-lit novel. I always enjoy dogs. And I also enjoy supporting local talent. So I knew this book had to be mine!
The story focuses on the life of dog trainer Cora Bellamy. She doesn't have a ton of problems in her life, per se, as she's gotten over her ex-fiance and is enjoying her dog training business. But excitement is about to manifest itself in the possibility of a new dog training show.
You have several chick lit tropes here for the most part and most are well-drawn.
The clumsy protagonist who leaves her corporate job to start a quirky business: Cora. Her story was interesting and different.
Her party-loving voice of reason best friend: Maggie.
The evil ex: Aaron. He really has no purpose here, and it's often distracting. More on that in a bit.
The evil corporate-esque giant who is a bully but somehow has a following:
The gay best friend who loves clothes, acts feminine and uses words like "darling": Darnell
We interrupt this post with breaking news...
HOW TO WRITE GAY CHARACTERS
BY FICTIONISTAS UNITED
1. Follow the exact same character-creating process you use for straight people.
2. Make them attracted to people of the same gender.
3. Um, that's it.
It really annoys me when writers try to be "diverse" and then write characters according to their cardboard cutout stereotype. Schade obviously tries to be diverse here, maybe to a fault (do we need to know the groomer friend's lesbian backstory?) I did actually like Darnell. I'm just sick of seeing him show up in every book I read as the gay side character.
My main issue with the novel was that it seemed to focus too much on events that weren't important to the narrative, while it didn't often focus enough on the things that were important. The whole balance was a little off. The first half is almost entirely about dogs and there's not a lot of romance there. (Which was fine, save for the fact that again, there's not a lot of love development in the second half either so maybe there should have been more of a love story there.) Characters spend so much time complaining about a certain famous dog trainer that I was like, "Enough already! We get it." Then in the second half, nobody mentions him anymore. Hardly.
This lack of focus creates a few problems. First: I didn't always care. I really didn't care about seeing drawn out scenes of Aaron's reality TV show when I could have been seeing the chemistry grow between Cora and Eli and Charlie, something we desperately needed more of. Second: there is no time for any chemistry to develop. When a fight breaks out between the two, it comes out of nowhere and is clearly just there because "it's chick lit, and a fight always happens at this point!" It had to be rushed, because, well, there was no time for development. They're not even in a relationship! And then it was resolved way too quickly with no effort. Actually, I almost started laughing when I read it because of how far out of left field the "argument" came from.
Third: the book skipped from problem to problem so much that it's easy to forget details. The main characters all go to a party at some point that Cora was apparently invited to. I couldn't ever remember that happening because it was glossed over so fast. This brings me to the fourth and biggest problem: the book can't find an issue to focus on. Was it about the dog training show? Was it about Cora finding love? It doesn't stay on one problem long enough to answer that. This could have been helped if the author spent less time going in-depth about Cora's roommate's job issues, drawn-out shopping scenes, Aaron's TV show, and scenes of partying at clubs (le snore). There are several issues presented that could make for great drama: an evil client possibly holding stake in Cora's life, going head-to-head with a popular brutish dog trainer (also, I found it strange that Schade implied Cora was going to take him down when they weren't going head-to-head or even meet); and so forth.
As for the romance itself? Exploring Cora's moral dilemma with her taken love interest was also exciting, as you don't see that very often. I know a lot of us who are interested in love have been tempted to date someone in a relationship at some point. It's easy to guess who she'll choose, but I wish there was more relationship development. There wasn't enough here to get me completely invested in these relationships. I also felt that this climax was pretty weak, even for the genre. It tried to be quirky but didn't make a lot of sense (remember the left field fight I mentioned?) Additionally, Cora doesn't face a whole lot of obstacles so not much is at stake and it falls flat. It might have been better to spend more of the book showing Cora hosting the show instead of having her wait on the audition results. Waiting does not good drama make. Changing the focus to the show alone could have solved many of the book's issues.
Okay, let's talk about the good, because this really isn't a bad book. I did like some of the subplots, despite how they were distracting. I was especially drawn to one about a woman called Beth Ann, a troubled woman with a poodle living in a tough situation. I was rooting for her. I loved the dogs and their personalities, and there were lots of dogs to love here. Ultimately, I also liked the characters. The dialogue was real, the setting was established, and from a basic perspective it all flowed fairly well. There's not a lot to talk about, but the story itself was entertaining.
This was a cute, fluffy book that wasn't perfect. I did enjoy seeing what would happen next and looked forward to picking it up again to see the characters. Because there was no clear goal in mind, and the one that existed couldn't be solved by anything but waiting, it fell somewhat flat. Honestly, I feel like it just needed a few more rounds of edits than anything, because in addition to questionable choices, there were definitely some errors I picked up on. It's a fun piece of chick lit. If you like dogs, you should go for it because the dog stuff definitely overshadows the romance. Still, don't expect it to win awards any time soon.
3 stars
Thursday, February 28, 2019
The Breakdown: B.A. Paris
The Breakdown: B.A. Paris
Genre: Thriller
Published: 2017
Pages: 328
Cass Anderson's life changes forever when she drives past a woman sitting in her car on the way home from an outing with her coworkers. She could have stopped (and actually did for a moment), but did nothing to help her. The following day, the woman is found dead.
As her guilt begins to set in, she finds herself forgetting everything, from where she parked to the gift she'd say she'd ordered for a friend of hers. Not comforting is the fact that her mother had early-onset dementia. But when she begins to receive strange phone calls and believes that someone is entering the house, she wonders: is she going crazy, or is someone actually looking for revenge?
This novel is a thrill ride from the get-go that kept me reading.
At first I wanted to roll my eyes. There is a mention of Cass' missing father just a few pages in. At first, I wanted to be like "UGH SERIOUSLY MORE MISSING FATHERS, B.A. PARIS??" (In case you couldn't tell, this is one of my biggest writing trope pet peeves these days because they're in almost every book I read lately and often have no place in the story.) Fortunately, this issue dissolves making me wonder why it's there in the first place. But I have to give Paris credit, because there may actually be a reason for the mention of the dead dad. Finally! (If you'll forgive a minor spoiler, if that, I was also happy to see that the "surprise pregnancy" trope wasn't here either.)
There is action in this story from the beginning. Cass is enjoying her simple life as a teacher with her husband until the night of the wreck, when things turn upside down. Readers, including Cass, may believe that the victim's murderer is following her because she neglected to help the woman in the car. But Cass makes a lot of false assumptions throughout the book, and her faulty memory doesn't help. Between her legitimate fear of dementia, the possible people or things following her, and her readers won't know who to trust. This suspense is enhanced by the cast of characters: Cass' fellow schoolteachers including a guy that might like her, her loyal childhood best friend, her husband who just gets more and more annoyed by her memory issues as time goes on, people passing through (like the man installing their house alarm). There are plenty of possible people that could be behind anything. Also interesting is the story of the victim herself. It's someone that Cass may have ties to. Additionally, the actual crime of the woman's murder and what is going on in Cass' life seem to be different stories at times. I enjoyed seeing how everything came together. Yes, it was slightly convoluted. But I wasn't able to guess anything either and I enjoyed the mind trip.
One thing that I was afraid of was predictability--I think most readers familiar with the genre will guess who or what is behind Cass' breakdown very early on. (To be fair, there is another possible culprit I had in mind.) However, what makes up for this is that figuring out that particular who/what is only one part of the story. There is more going on than meets the eye, and I doubt readers will be able to figure out the entire thing. At least, I didn't.
The one thing that did disappoint me was the ending, or rather how it was handled. Cass finds out the reason for everything and...that's it. It's very abrupt and there's not even a thrilling climax with a confrontation or anything. It's a little exposition-y, and we don't even see other characters' reactions. That disappointed me. Although the action and suspense is full speed ahead from page 1, the place where it should have come to a head was lacking in both.
Still, this was an exciting read and I couldn't wait to keep coming back for more. I think that her first novel, Behind Closed Doors, is going to be a must-read for me. Again, readers familiar with the genre might find a couple of things predictable but I enjoyed it nonetheless. That does, though, make it a good book to start with if this is your first thriller foray.
4 stars
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Stories of My Childhood: Captain Underpants
Welcome to a new series that I plan on exploring this year. I want to talk a little bit about the stories I loved as a kid and why I love them now. You're never too old to outgrow your favorite story. My first pick? Captain Underpants. I recently finished writing a party quest for my Captain Underpants party on my party planning site, and it got me thinking back to old times.
Potty humor. Misbehaving boys. Superheroes. Not exactly what a third grade girl would be interested in, right? You'd be wrong.
What is the book about?
Tired of their cruel principal, George and Harold order a 3-D Hypno Ring and use it to make him do crazy things...just long enough to get their pranking stuff back from his office. Their joke goes too far when they hypnotize him into believing that he is Captain Underpants, and he jumps out the window to go and fight crime. This pays off, though, because a villain just happens to be on the brink of destroying the world. Throughout the series, George and Harold bring back Captain Underpants to save the world from talking toilets, evil professors, alien lunch ladies, and more.
How did I discover it?
I think it was from a school book fair. Posters of Captain Underpants hung on the walls at school, but I never really paid them any attention. Then my mom bought the first book for me. I wasn't thrilled, but on one weekend afternoon, I sat down and read it. It was hysterical. There was a particular scene with a villain called Dr. Diaper looking like he pooped himself. I laughed until I cried.
I then bought book 3, and then 5, and then 2...yes, out of order. Book 4, the plot of Professor Poopypants, came last. I'd also brought a spinoff, Super Diaper Baby, to a reading event at school one day and struggled to not laugh until I cried, not wanting to disturb the entire class.
What do I love about the books?
Author Dav Pilkey is a really cool guy, and still one of my most admired authors. He takes a lot of inspiration from things that happened in his life, and the books reflect that. There are tons of fourth wall jokes. There are fun comics drawn by George and Harold, the creators of Captain Underpants. There are ridiculous jokes seen in the pages, particularly within drawings of signs, posters, and book covers.
I also love George and Harold's sense of fun. They're not bad kids; they're just creative, as we're told to see them. Despite what protective librarians and gatekeepers might say, they didn't encourage me to act out in school or misbehave. They did encourage me to be creative...more on that below. Finally, I thought the superhero story was clever and well-drawn, but you don't have to like official superheroes to enjoy these books. It's not realistic fiction when you add in all the technologies, super powers, and aliens that appear in later novels. Even the first book isn't too realistic when you consider that a little guy in a diaper is using robots to help him blow up Earth...but before that, the book seems strangely plausible! The world is real (mostly), and that's fun too.
Digging deeper into the fandom
I'd always noticed links to websites on the back covers where you could visit to play games. One was Scholastic's; the other belonged to the author. My dad suggested one rainy day that I try it, and I did. My sister and I, who I'd also gotten to read the books, had a blast playing the arcade games and using the comic creator.
Pilkey.com was a whole different level of awesome. Fun facts about the books, legendary arcade games, pages created just for jokes (actually, one was literally a joke page), and facts about the author all made for hours of fun. Later on, there would actually be Captain Underpants songs that came out that we loved.
My sister and I invented many games together, and eventually we started playing Captain Underpants. I would strip down to my underwear and a cape I had, and she would pretend to be his sidekick Harold. We'd go around the house pretending to fight the evil villains seen in the books.
Favorite memory involving the books
My sister and I played many games of Captain Underpants as mentioned above. Those were good times. At one point, though, we'd decided to put on a play for our parents. Act 1 featured me as George and her as Harold. Act 2 featured me as Captain Underpants and her as Deputy Doo Doo, a cowboy-hat wearing turd that was featured in the Super Diaper Baby book. The play was going smoothly until my sister decided to deliberately botch it. During random moments, she would take her cowboy hat, take a bow, and go, "Howdy, partner!" This was something she was only supposed to do once, but she would. not. stop. doing it. It drove me nuts, but we all laughed anyway.
To this day, this infamous play still gets brought up on occasion.
How did the books inspire me?
I made my own comic book, just like George and Harold did! It was about a smoothie (a type of character my best friend and I had invented that looked more like an ice cream cone) who had a sleepover at their friend's house and woke up in a land of evil villains. It was called The Adventures of Cool Chocolate.
My thoughts on the books now
I definitely took a peek into the later books on Amazon. Sadly, what I saw, I didn't love. The plots get convoluted, the villains repeat, and at one point, Pilkey gets too carried away with snide political jokes. (I chuckled at the first one, but a whole chapter's worth...meh.) Still, I do love the first five, or even the first seven. Actually, I wouldn't mind reading book 8 either, which has the concept of an alternate universe.
But I love the first books as much as ever!
But I love the first books as much as ever!
Captain Underpants was one of my favorite book series. Did you have any favorites? Feel free to share below.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Why Do We Love Memoirs?
Take a look back at many of the books published over the past several years. You will probably notice a huge amount of memoirs. Most of them are by celebrities, but others are by nobodies and still manage Goodreads choice nominations. Sometimes I wonder why everyone needs a life story so badly...but then again, I am fascinated by people's lives, and continue to pick something up.
So why do we love them so much? I have a few ideas.
So why do we love them so much? I have a few ideas.
They humanize people.
When we read a book by someone well-known, it puts us in their shoes. I just finished reading Michella Obama's book. She was a completely normal girl on Chicago's South Side, and still tries to raise her kids to be normal people as well. You stop viewing them as "a celebrity" and see them as a regular person that is easier to relate to. Plus, once I read one, I think differently of the person when I see them on a talk show or doing a public appearance (in a good way). It's like: "hey, I know her!"
They remind us we all have a story to tell.
These aren't fictional, but the challenges and characters featured could be seen in any novel. After all, don't novels tell us about life? Memoirs can arguably be an even better version of fiction because they're real and about people we actually know.
They tell us more about people we like or admire.
At their most basic level, memoirs tell us a little more about their lives. Did you know that Rainn Wilson is just as much of an oddball as his TV character? You'll also learn more about his charity initiatives, an important part of his current work. It gives us more insight into some of our favorite people and help us to feel more connected.
They inspire us to reach to new heights.
If these people can change the world, implement new policies, or create significant change in a community that needs it, why can't we? Many authors touch on issues that are important to them and can speak candidly about how they were affected. We can understand other people better by listening to their stories. By listening to a political figure, we may get inspired to make change and look at a situation from a new perspective...if we have the open minds to do so.
Memoirs I Recommend
Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Stories: Mindy Kaling
Yes, My Accent is Real: Kunal Nayaar
The Bassoon King: Rainn Wilson
The Rocket Boys: Homer Hickam Jr.
The Rocket Boys: Homer Hickam Jr.
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Becoming: Michelle Obama
Becoming: Michelle Obama
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2018
Pages: 421
Michelle Robinson grew up on Chicago's South Side, surrounded by the love of her family in a neighborhood that was destined to fail. Given her background, and living in a United States that was just moving out of segregation and still dealing with pressing civil rights issues on a regular basis, it seemed unlikely that she would ever become America's First Lady.
But become she did. This book chronicles her humble beginnings and recounts the teachers and adults who helped nurture Michelle's talent in the classroom, two Ivy League schools, and ultimately at work. Not thrilled with practicing law, Michelle would struggle to find her purpose. As she was "checking off the boxes" of success, she would meet Barack Obama, and her plans would be thrown into disarray. Suddenly thrust into politics and starting a family, eventually she would become First Lady. But she doesn't tell her story without asking us the question: who do we as people, and as a country, want to become?
All I have to say is: This book. What a step up from the last, a 1-star rating that I just couldn't stand to finish. I need to thank Michelle for bringing me out of somewhat of a "book slump." Just by telling her life story, she is a better writer than several of the last I've read! But is this book truly worth all this hype? My answer is yes.
What I love about memoirs is that they humanize people. Right off the bat, Michelle and I had several things in common. As kids, we both liked to settle our stuffed animals around us at bedtime. We took piano lessons at age 4 (her with great aunt Robbie, me with Miss Sarah). We met a love interest in the same way--by one of us mentoring/training the other at work. We even reacted to the 2016 election in the same way: going to bed before the winner was announced so we could avoid hearing the outcome. This kind of humanization is especially important, and now probably necessary, when it comes to politics. Michelle is just as real as any of us.
The first third touches on Michelle's early childhood and paints a vivid picture of her Chicago childhood before introducing us to political life and finally life in the White House. Even as a student, she noticed the inequalities between students with privilege and those without, and wanted to do something more about it. I also quickly fell in love with her parents, brother, and grandparents. In a way, it's a tribute to all the people who helped to nurture her talent and an appreciation for tight-knit family culture. You may recall how "chill" the president could be at times, which is something talked about on Tumblr occasionally. This attitude shines through in Michelle, too. She isn't afraid to poke fun at her husband--the first mention of him literally reads "Barack Obama was late on day one"--and mentions the tough time she has getting him to be on time. Of course, there are politics too., but not before Michelle gives us her background and shows us that she is relatable.
This isn't a book about politics or a presidential biography, so she doesn't go much in-depth on a lot of issues or what Barack did on a daily basis. Instead, it touches on what the important issues were at the time, especially to her. We also hear a lot about Michelle's initiatives as First Lady, including projects to decrease childhood obesity and help military families. These projects were inspired by her own life and experiences, including her visits at military hospitals and her daughter not getting enough nutrition due to their busy schedule. These were things I certainly knew about, but I didn't know a lot of the details at the time, and I was interested to know more.
I also enjoyed her portrait of White House life, which she does talk a lot about. Living in the White House isn't always as glamorous as one may think and it presents certain challenges. (Yes, the president and his family do get charged for expenses!) Michelle got along with Secret Service agents and even saw some as friends, but that didn't mean that being tailed by them was easy. She could barely even leave the building without permission, as shown in her recount of the night that same-sex marriage was legalized. She and daughter Malia had to stage an escape just to get outside and see the lights and the crowds. I had to laugh, as I remembered her sharing the same story on the Ellen show. Many aspects are discussed, from the anxious anticipation of election night, to meetings with the Queen and Nelson Mandela, to dealing with criticism, to the Thanksgiving turkey pardon. There is something for everyone here; she never lingers too long on any particular topic but spends just enough time on everything, ensuring the book flows nicely.
She is also pretty straightforward about saying that she is not happy with the current administration, and sometimes it seems like she is going after Republicans. But before you call "partisan!", readers should keep in mind that the Obamas had to work with one of the worst, most partisan Congresses of all time and ended up leaving the White House as a bully was coming in. She is just telling it like it is. (This, and Trump, are something I, she, and many others should not be afraid to speak out about. This is not normal politics, as Michelle put it.) As she shares her frustrations about Congress blocking many bills and measures, and her frustrations about Trump, maybe skeptical readers will understand where that frustration is coming from. She doesn't go on a lot of Trump rants or anything, but does feel the need to acknowledge the problems the administration is causing. But her message fits in nicely: keep working at it.
Tying the book together is the theme of "becoming." It shows us what Michelle is becoming, and what the country can become as well. She often looks toward a vision of "what can be" while working with what the reality is in order to inspire change, and she encourages us to do the same. Progress and change are slow, she reminds us, but we should never lose hope and stop working for change.
Even if you didn't always agree with Barack's policies, I would recommend picking up Becoming. It's an exciting yet intimate look into the life of an admirable woman and also an interesting look at what political life entails. It's very well-paced and flows nicely, one of those books that makes you want to go slowly and concentrate on every word. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will have hope for the future. And perhaps the most important message of all? To become, we have to come together and lay our partisan differences aside. (Please? I'm so tired of petty politics, and it doesn't need to be this way.)
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2018
Pages: 421
Michelle Robinson grew up on Chicago's South Side, surrounded by the love of her family in a neighborhood that was destined to fail. Given her background, and living in a United States that was just moving out of segregation and still dealing with pressing civil rights issues on a regular basis, it seemed unlikely that she would ever become America's First Lady.
But become she did. This book chronicles her humble beginnings and recounts the teachers and adults who helped nurture Michelle's talent in the classroom, two Ivy League schools, and ultimately at work. Not thrilled with practicing law, Michelle would struggle to find her purpose. As she was "checking off the boxes" of success, she would meet Barack Obama, and her plans would be thrown into disarray. Suddenly thrust into politics and starting a family, eventually she would become First Lady. But she doesn't tell her story without asking us the question: who do we as people, and as a country, want to become?
All I have to say is: This book. What a step up from the last, a 1-star rating that I just couldn't stand to finish. I need to thank Michelle for bringing me out of somewhat of a "book slump." Just by telling her life story, she is a better writer than several of the last I've read! But is this book truly worth all this hype? My answer is yes.
What I love about memoirs is that they humanize people. Right off the bat, Michelle and I had several things in common. As kids, we both liked to settle our stuffed animals around us at bedtime. We took piano lessons at age 4 (her with great aunt Robbie, me with Miss Sarah). We met a love interest in the same way--by one of us mentoring/training the other at work. We even reacted to the 2016 election in the same way: going to bed before the winner was announced so we could avoid hearing the outcome. This kind of humanization is especially important, and now probably necessary, when it comes to politics. Michelle is just as real as any of us.
The first third touches on Michelle's early childhood and paints a vivid picture of her Chicago childhood before introducing us to political life and finally life in the White House. Even as a student, she noticed the inequalities between students with privilege and those without, and wanted to do something more about it. I also quickly fell in love with her parents, brother, and grandparents. In a way, it's a tribute to all the people who helped to nurture her talent and an appreciation for tight-knit family culture. You may recall how "chill" the president could be at times, which is something talked about on Tumblr occasionally. This attitude shines through in Michelle, too. She isn't afraid to poke fun at her husband--the first mention of him literally reads "Barack Obama was late on day one"--and mentions the tough time she has getting him to be on time. Of course, there are politics too., but not before Michelle gives us her background and shows us that she is relatable.
This isn't a book about politics or a presidential biography, so she doesn't go much in-depth on a lot of issues or what Barack did on a daily basis. Instead, it touches on what the important issues were at the time, especially to her. We also hear a lot about Michelle's initiatives as First Lady, including projects to decrease childhood obesity and help military families. These projects were inspired by her own life and experiences, including her visits at military hospitals and her daughter not getting enough nutrition due to their busy schedule. These were things I certainly knew about, but I didn't know a lot of the details at the time, and I was interested to know more.
I also enjoyed her portrait of White House life, which she does talk a lot about. Living in the White House isn't always as glamorous as one may think and it presents certain challenges. (Yes, the president and his family do get charged for expenses!) Michelle got along with Secret Service agents and even saw some as friends, but that didn't mean that being tailed by them was easy. She could barely even leave the building without permission, as shown in her recount of the night that same-sex marriage was legalized. She and daughter Malia had to stage an escape just to get outside and see the lights and the crowds. I had to laugh, as I remembered her sharing the same story on the Ellen show. Many aspects are discussed, from the anxious anticipation of election night, to meetings with the Queen and Nelson Mandela, to dealing with criticism, to the Thanksgiving turkey pardon. There is something for everyone here; she never lingers too long on any particular topic but spends just enough time on everything, ensuring the book flows nicely.
She is also pretty straightforward about saying that she is not happy with the current administration, and sometimes it seems like she is going after Republicans. But before you call "partisan!", readers should keep in mind that the Obamas had to work with one of the worst, most partisan Congresses of all time and ended up leaving the White House as a bully was coming in. She is just telling it like it is. (This, and Trump, are something I, she, and many others should not be afraid to speak out about. This is not normal politics, as Michelle put it.) As she shares her frustrations about Congress blocking many bills and measures, and her frustrations about Trump, maybe skeptical readers will understand where that frustration is coming from. She doesn't go on a lot of Trump rants or anything, but does feel the need to acknowledge the problems the administration is causing. But her message fits in nicely: keep working at it.
Tying the book together is the theme of "becoming." It shows us what Michelle is becoming, and what the country can become as well. She often looks toward a vision of "what can be" while working with what the reality is in order to inspire change, and she encourages us to do the same. Progress and change are slow, she reminds us, but we should never lose hope and stop working for change.
Even if you didn't always agree with Barack's policies, I would recommend picking up Becoming. It's an exciting yet intimate look into the life of an admirable woman and also an interesting look at what political life entails. It's very well-paced and flows nicely, one of those books that makes you want to go slowly and concentrate on every word. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will have hope for the future. And perhaps the most important message of all? To become, we have to come together and lay our partisan differences aside. (Please? I'm so tired of petty politics, and it doesn't need to be this way.)
5 stars
Friday, January 11, 2019
Fictionistas Unite Book Survey
Feel free to answer these in your own blog post and include a link in the comments, or post the answers in the comments as well.
My Survey Answers
1. I have two. The first that comes to mind is Lucille from the Junie B. Jones series. She was pretty, rich, and had good dress sense. But then again, Junie B. was the one with the fun grandparents. Hmm...it was quite a dilemma. The other one was Abby from the Abby Hayes series. She liked to write, like me, and I thought her journal was a genius idea. Plus, her world was so true-to-life, and I liked being able to "be" another character for a while.
2. Favorites? Realistic fiction, psychological thriller (especially domestic noir), and chick lit as long as it isn't TOO sappy. Least favorites are science fiction and dystopia. I don't care for most fantasy either.
3. I DID technically write books, but they aren't actually in print- either on Wattpad or in draft mode. But if I had to seriously think about another book to write, I had this idea in mind: something about a girl who meets a semi-friend at camp and they fall out of touch. Then the semi-friend starts acting creepy and needy all of a sudden, and it eventually turns into a non-romantic thriller. It's based on my life (the concept, not the thriller part).
4. I have several I wrote about in an entry about my book pet peeves. The latest one that bugs me is missing fathers. UGH. It's been done to death over the past few years. Another is YA love triangles. I don't understand why every YA book these days needs a romance to begin with; not everyone is interested in that. It was so overused and so much the same every time that I gave up on the genre.
5. I don't have a reading routine necessarily, but I do like to read before bed, even if it's not a book. I'll even read yearbooks or old writing projects.
6. One of my first books was Pig William. It was very graphic and colorful and follows a day or so in the life of a pig. Pigs in Hiding was also great, but lacked text.
7. I'm reading a memoir right now, so that's probably not going to work given the context. But for the last book I fully read, Obsession, a great song would be Stranger by Hilary Duff. One of the main characters isn't herself and they're all playing games with each other, possibly trying to make others look bad. This song fits the bill.
8. I unfortunately do not see a ton of movies based on books I've read, so this is a hard one.My mind wants to go to Harry Potter for a favorite movie adaptation because I think it gets the setting and characters right. I did like seeing Freedom Writers play out on screen, but back to annoying tropes- Patrick Dempsey was utterly useless. Other than this movie being a prime example of including a romance just to include one, it was good and inspiring.
9. Octavian Country Day School from The Clique series always sounded like a good school. The cafeteria was chill-looking and you could take yoga for a gym class- very awesome.
10. In college I really enjoyed the Maus graphic novels. Very entertaining and thought provoking.
11. Someone I have a crush on. Hmmm. I guess Austin is pretty cute from the Cupcake Cafe series by Jenny Colgan. I also like Lucas from A Dog's Way Home.
Don't forget to check out my second post, a more general survey, if you want to know your book blogger a little bit more! And please post your answers in the comments, or provide us a link to a post with your answers. I would love to see!
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
How to Fix Garfield
As I said in my last Garfield post about the evolution of Jon Arbuckle, I still like this comic strip no matter how simple it gets. That's part of the charm of the strip: they live in a simple world with recognizable characters and charm. Maybe it's too simple for some people who claim the comic strip loses appeal as they get older. But you know? I will never stop loving Garfield.
But even I have to admit that, as much as I love it, the strip has faltered a bit over the last 5 or so years and is almost becoming the fan art it's so good at selling. How could it be improved to its original charm? I have some suggestions.
But even I have to admit that, as much as I love it, the strip has faltered a bit over the last 5 or so years and is almost becoming the fan art it's so good at selling. How could it be improved to its original charm? I have some suggestions.
Add more weeklong storylines
Whatever happened to the days when Garfield and Jon would visit their family on the farm? I miss those days. Adding more storylines would help with the lack of stories and text that have been occurring lately. They could go visit Irma at the diner, or Garfield could do a show on the fence. Take Jon on a golf outing. Keep readers wanting to find out what happens next sometimes. The strip even broke barriers to do a spooky, existential plotline for Halloween at one point, and that was really cool.
Do a longer storyline once in a while, too. Remember the one where Garfield ran away from home and joined the circus? Remember when he reunited with his mother? Storylines make the comic more than just a witty (or these days, even cliche) quip.
...with the exception of the spider smashing
Yep. Just dump them. There's nothing funny about finding out you're about to get a week's worth of comics featuring all different ways Garfield can kill a spider. Or rather, a week's worth of items that Garfield can use to smash a spider.
Have things happen
I probably should have started with this one. There is so few dialogue and action in so many strips these days which is probably one of the main reasons I feel it's not quite as good. Some of the dialogue and gags are very bare-bones. Some of the time, it is a joke we've heard before all over the internet. Take a recent strip: Garfield says that life has ups and downs. He then looks at Pooky, his bear, and says that Pooky is an "up." Not a lot of humor or charm or laughter; we all know Garfield likes his teddy bear. I like the simple world, but it is sometimes too simple, like saying something about how he likes Pooky. This is especially true in the past 2-3 years.
The events don't have to be real events, either. Another thing that could be done is having Garfield return to his lively imagination. Remember the weeklong story where he was Amoeba Man? Or the Caped Avenger? Sometimes he could even get sort of philosophical. Garfield's imagination really helped to give him some personality.
The events don't have to be real events, either. Another thing that could be done is having Garfield return to his lively imagination. Remember the weeklong story where he was Amoeba Man? Or the Caped Avenger? Sometimes he could even get sort of philosophical. Garfield's imagination really helped to give him some personality.
A little less of Jon; more of Garfield
We all know Jon: that lovable geek that only got geekier over the years. It's not that he's not entertaining, but he does often take the focus away from Garfield with antics that to some may be too over-the-top. He's got a girlfriend now, we can probably make him a little more sane. Let Garfield's quirks take center stage more often. In the older days, Jon wasn't nearly as goofy as he is now, and the strip still worked very well.
Bring back old features of yore
There are some things that modern Garfield just doesn't mention anymore. Remember his sunbeam? Remember nights spent dancing on the fence? Remember Jon going on vacation or golfing? Remember him sucking up to Arlene? We don't even see the love of lasagna too much these days. These are good, vintage gags we need more of. EDIT: I actually did see a fence instance not long ago. Still, we need more of these things that made Garfield Garfield.
Also, bring Lyman back. For those of you who don't know, Lyman was Jon's roommate back in the comic's infancy. A reunion would be a fantastic idea, even if only for a week or two. It would also add a great storyline!
Don't be afraid to up the humor... once in a while
In the younger years Garfield wasn't afraid to not try too hard to appeal to a certain age group. Nowadays, many strips seem mainly for young kids. They're a punch line, and some I've heard plenty of times before that strip was even published. Make the humor come from Garfield himself a bit more by using his personality. And it's okay if the humor appeals to adults. Sometimes. Even in the early years, they never made too many "adult joke only" strips. As a regular reader of a comic, I would hate to see it get downgraded for more child appeal. This actually did happen to me once with a magazine I subscribed to. It used to be much more mature, then it seemed to slowly cater to teens who were younger and younger after some kids wrote in because they were offended about the subject material. That's frustrating. Pick an audience and stay with it.
Now some people might say this would never work as they won't really want to get rid of this new audience. But it worked with Peanuts, especially when converted into animated specials. And kids certainly won't understand every single one of those strips. Still, its characters are such that kids love them anyway and are still able to get the gist of 95% of the stories and jokes. Garfield shouldn't be afraid to steer clear of a few jokes that all ages wouldn't get.
Don't be so rigid and precise with the artwork
I used to be a member of a Spongebob fansite, and people said that the show had the same problem: the character designs had become stiff and rigid, making the design less appealing and the character less quirky. I think there's something to be said for Garfield's earlier designs with folds of fat all around. Now, even his modern look...as in the past 4 years... looks more rigid and hi-def than it used to, and he loses something that way. The old design added more to Garfield's personality. I don't have anything against the new design, which has been used for decades now, but lately he's looking a little too perky.
Stop trying to make it sell
I have heard a rumor going around that Garfield was created to be something that sells, and I can see that. Look at are the specials and artwork of Garfield out there. However, that doesn't mean the quality has to go down. It has gotten so basic that sometimes all it does is maintain a profitable character by having Garfield making half-baked smart remarks without anything especially interesting happening. Bottom line: don't make things...comics, books with popular plotlines, anything... JUST so they can sell. Garfield got away with it, but it's not trying as hard anymore, and people are noticing.
It may seem like I hate Garfield after you read this, but I don't at all. I check up on it every day, but in the last few years, I really think it could be better too.
Sunday, January 6, 2019
The Kiss Quotient: Helen Hoang (DNF)
The Kiss Quotient: Helen Hoang
Genre: Romance/Fiction
Pages: 314
Published: 2018
Stella is in her thirties with barely any dating experience, to the chagrin of her mother. She knows a lot about creating algorithms that help customers decide what to purchase. But because of her mild autism, she has more difficulty with human interactions. So to please her parents, she decides to hire an escort to show her the ropes of what a relationship is like. Enter Michael, who does this for a living. But Stella was expecting practice, not someone to fall in love with. And Michael was expecting a one-night affair, not someone who wanted practice. But as the two get to know one another, maybe they'll realize there's more to life than logic.
Without consulting a review, I was told so many great things about this book that I heard through Goodreads and Instagram. Plus it was a Goodreads Choice Winner. What a cute romance, people said. So fresh! So fun! And that cover! (Okay, you're not supposed to judge by the cover, but still, it's a good book design...but not for the type of book that it is.) So I had to pick it up.
Only to find that this is not a "quirky romance". This is almost straight-up erotica. At least for the first half.
Isn't it strange when everything you see about a book is wrong? And, quite frankly, you wouldn't know that this is that type of book.
It may have been my fault for not reading the description more carefully. When I saw that Stella was hiring an escort, I thought it was literally going to be that: an escort. Someone to help her navigate relationships and accompany her to events to make it look as if she's in a relationship. And that sounded really interesting--someone teaching someone else how to navigate romance. Where it lost me was that he was only teaching her sexual things. Sex and romance don't necessarily equate. I was also disappointed that Stella is only doing this entire thing to impress her naggy mother. You'd think the mother would be a little more understanding of the fact she has autism. And her mother's needs just seem to be forgotten about after the first chapter anyway. So where's the motivation for her needing a relationship?
In addition to me not caring a whim for sex scenes, it was the writing in general. The beginning was love/sex scene after love/sex scene. And not only was it way TMI for a general romance novel (Hoang uses some terminology that is almost strictly for erotic novels, which didn't help), but it was just so boring. I mean, what kind of excitement are you expecting with watching two people make out, or learning a sex position? That's a LOT of this book. Stella herself seems really interesting. Her job and her disability would be great areas for exploration, but they're not explored nearly enough. I think her character should have been explored a lot more than it was; the premise offered a lot of interest that the story itself didn't really provide because it focused so much on the drawn out scenes of intimacy. Even if I did like sex scenes, it was hard to connect to the characters because I didn't learn much about them. Stella seemed so robotic at times. Much of the plot seems to be the author's wish fulfillment. It's almost too much like Michael's so-called "Hot for Teacher" fantasy. I was really hoping for more relationship stuff and less physical intimacy, which doesn't thrill me at all.
Oh, and Michael. He has missing father issues! Gee, I've never seen that in the past two years! Authors need to find a different family drama subplot, because this one is getting so stale. So. Tired. Of. Missing Dads. Now between the two main characters, there is certainly some chemistry potential. Sadly, a lot of it is wasted on instructional sex scenes. I would also like to add in how predictable the love-at-first-sight/forbidden love thing is, but that may not be necessary. It's a romance, and sometimes I guess it's necessary to be a little predictable. Still, the two MCs are super in love right away which just isn't realistic.
Some of these things aren't necessarily Hoang's fault, either. There was clearly a marketing misfire. Many of the initial thoughts I heard were wrong, and it was trying too hard to sell a "fun romance," which isn't necessarily what it is. (Read: sex and romance aren't the same thing and they're kind of robotic at times.) There is a considerable difference between what's in the book and what it says it's about. Still, the writing and lack of action didn't thrill me, and what I saw of the family subplots was bland and cliche. It's nothing we haven't seen before.
If I had to give it some praise, I would say I enjoyed the diverse characters. It was so good seeing different ethnicities represented here, and not just for use as political props. I feel like 85% of the time that people of color play major roles, it's to prove a point about diversity, or their story revolves around racism or tolerance. It shouldn't always be that way. We need more of this; books about people in the USA who just happen to be non-white without always playing the race/diversity card.
If you're not into erotic scenes, you'll be best off skipping this one. Honestly I'm disappointed--the story had so much potential that just didn't translate. I liked what people said the book was, rather than what it actually was. I'd much rather see developed characters in a typical budding relationship doing more actual stuff together. Or maybe my values didn't line up with the ones in the book. I don't think erotic novels work, at least for me, because I have no desire to read sex scene upon sex scene. I want action, character development, and interesting plotlines, which The Kiss Quotient doesn't really have. I think that it's possible it might have improved later on, but I kept having such a hard time finding motivation to even pick it up--and when I did, I really slogged through it-- that I'll leave it alone for now. On the other hand, maybe I should have looked into the concept more. I'm sorry, but I have to maintain my original unpopular opinion here.
Genre: Romance/Fiction
Pages: 314
Published: 2018
Stella is in her thirties with barely any dating experience, to the chagrin of her mother. She knows a lot about creating algorithms that help customers decide what to purchase. But because of her mild autism, she has more difficulty with human interactions. So to please her parents, she decides to hire an escort to show her the ropes of what a relationship is like. Enter Michael, who does this for a living. But Stella was expecting practice, not someone to fall in love with. And Michael was expecting a one-night affair, not someone who wanted practice. But as the two get to know one another, maybe they'll realize there's more to life than logic.
Without consulting a review, I was told so many great things about this book that I heard through Goodreads and Instagram. Plus it was a Goodreads Choice Winner. What a cute romance, people said. So fresh! So fun! And that cover! (Okay, you're not supposed to judge by the cover, but still, it's a good book design...but not for the type of book that it is.) So I had to pick it up.
Only to find that this is not a "quirky romance". This is almost straight-up erotica. At least for the first half.
Isn't it strange when everything you see about a book is wrong? And, quite frankly, you wouldn't know that this is that type of book.
It may have been my fault for not reading the description more carefully. When I saw that Stella was hiring an escort, I thought it was literally going to be that: an escort. Someone to help her navigate relationships and accompany her to events to make it look as if she's in a relationship. And that sounded really interesting--someone teaching someone else how to navigate romance. Where it lost me was that he was only teaching her sexual things. Sex and romance don't necessarily equate. I was also disappointed that Stella is only doing this entire thing to impress her naggy mother. You'd think the mother would be a little more understanding of the fact she has autism. And her mother's needs just seem to be forgotten about after the first chapter anyway. So where's the motivation for her needing a relationship?
In addition to me not caring a whim for sex scenes, it was the writing in general. The beginning was love/sex scene after love/sex scene. And not only was it way TMI for a general romance novel (Hoang uses some terminology that is almost strictly for erotic novels, which didn't help), but it was just so boring. I mean, what kind of excitement are you expecting with watching two people make out, or learning a sex position? That's a LOT of this book. Stella herself seems really interesting. Her job and her disability would be great areas for exploration, but they're not explored nearly enough. I think her character should have been explored a lot more than it was; the premise offered a lot of interest that the story itself didn't really provide because it focused so much on the drawn out scenes of intimacy. Even if I did like sex scenes, it was hard to connect to the characters because I didn't learn much about them. Stella seemed so robotic at times. Much of the plot seems to be the author's wish fulfillment. It's almost too much like Michael's so-called "Hot for Teacher" fantasy. I was really hoping for more relationship stuff and less physical intimacy, which doesn't thrill me at all.
Oh, and Michael. He has missing father issues! Gee, I've never seen that in the past two years! Authors need to find a different family drama subplot, because this one is getting so stale. So. Tired. Of. Missing Dads. Now between the two main characters, there is certainly some chemistry potential. Sadly, a lot of it is wasted on instructional sex scenes. I would also like to add in how predictable the love-at-first-sight/forbidden love thing is, but that may not be necessary. It's a romance, and sometimes I guess it's necessary to be a little predictable. Still, the two MCs are super in love right away which just isn't realistic.
Some of these things aren't necessarily Hoang's fault, either. There was clearly a marketing misfire. Many of the initial thoughts I heard were wrong, and it was trying too hard to sell a "fun romance," which isn't necessarily what it is. (Read: sex and romance aren't the same thing and they're kind of robotic at times.) There is a considerable difference between what's in the book and what it says it's about. Still, the writing and lack of action didn't thrill me, and what I saw of the family subplots was bland and cliche. It's nothing we haven't seen before.
If I had to give it some praise, I would say I enjoyed the diverse characters. It was so good seeing different ethnicities represented here, and not just for use as political props. I feel like 85% of the time that people of color play major roles, it's to prove a point about diversity, or their story revolves around racism or tolerance. It shouldn't always be that way. We need more of this; books about people in the USA who just happen to be non-white without always playing the race/diversity card.
If you're not into erotic scenes, you'll be best off skipping this one. Honestly I'm disappointed--the story had so much potential that just didn't translate. I liked what people said the book was, rather than what it actually was. I'd much rather see developed characters in a typical budding relationship doing more actual stuff together. Or maybe my values didn't line up with the ones in the book. I don't think erotic novels work, at least for me, because I have no desire to read sex scene upon sex scene. I want action, character development, and interesting plotlines, which The Kiss Quotient doesn't really have. I think that it's possible it might have improved later on, but I kept having such a hard time finding motivation to even pick it up--and when I did, I really slogged through it-- that I'll leave it alone for now. On the other hand, maybe I should have looked into the concept more. I'm sorry, but I have to maintain my original unpopular opinion here.
1 star
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Obsession: Amanda Robson
Obsession: Amanda Robson
Genre: Thriller (domestic)
Published: 2017
Pages: 454
Carly and Rob. Craig and Jenni. That's the way its been for a while. The two women met while pregnant and have been friends ever since.
Until one night while Carly is on vacation and drunkenly asks Rob who else he would choose to be with given a choice. She didn't expect him to say Jenni. Believing that the two are conspiring, paranoia soon takes over Carly's life as she tries to expose them. But as their lives begin to unravel, is Carly the one to blame? Who can any of them really trust?
***Warning: there are some mild spoilers.***
This book essentially starts off as a bare-bones cheating scandal with not a lot of new things brought to the table. For a while, I thought that was what I was going to get. Of course, it ended up being a little different.
First off, the title is a bit misleading. "Obsession" implies an intense longing for a relationship, and that's kind of what we get, but not quite. (There are plenty of sex scenes that I didn't love which I guess is where the "obsession" part comes from. Maybe it's just me, but some chapters were just plain erotica. That's not my thing at all.) It's true that the main characters spend time thinking about each other, but not to the degree that people may think.
The first 120 pages are basically watching everyone cheat on each other and getting mad at each other for it, and there's not a whole lot more. There are some subplots introduced that want to add to the story, like Jenni's mother dying, but they are abandoned within the first 60 pages making me wonder why they are there in the first place. I also found the motivations to be a little confusing. Basically the premise is that one woman gets mad at her husband because she thinks he's cheating, but then she does the same thing with her friend's husband...and then, so does everyone else. So they all find it okay for themselves to cheat, but when their friend or spouse cheats on them it's time to fight to the death? If the women are so much happier with each other's husbands, why don't they just swap husbands? Hey, that's a great idea! Why not have them both just get together with the other guy and live happily ever after? I guess that would have made for a shorter book.
EDIT: I think this logic problem got caught in proofreading, because someone at one point quickly brushes it off as "because of their Christianity, they don't want to divorce." I don't buy it. If you were that Christian, you probably wouldn't cheat in the first place. It seemed like a very last-minute, hasty explanation.
The main problem is just that nobody's a very good person here. Then, when lives are turned upside down, everyone is shocked because they "don't deserve it." Um, okay. Sure you don't.
Character motivations come out of absolutely nowhere. Told in limited first person through alternating POVs, readers see events from the characters' perspectives. The catch? They might not be telling us everything. This technique sort of works, and sort of doesn't, since we have to make some assumptions for ourselves. I'm especially looking at the court case. We never find out whether the defendant is truly guilty or not because when we are reading from their perspective, they act innocent, but of course that may not be the case. Also, the person behind the initial evil acts shows absolutely no sign of actual evil throughout the book. I don't mean that it was a masterful twist; I mean that the actions they took completely went against their entire personality and thus didn't really make sense.
The characters also seem to frequently go back and forth with their feelings for each other. When Jenni and Craig reconcile, for example, it seems like they flip back and forth between loyalty and wanting to cheat again. It's like a switch is toggled, and suddenly they're in love with someone else. The switch is toggled again, and they're back to loving their spouse. Rob and Carly do the same thing. One moment, Rob is wanting to protect Carly and seems genuinely in love with her. The next, he's thinking highly of another woman. That was confusing. Is he in love with her, or not?? I guess that's kind of the point, but it seemed like the characters had multiple personalities.
That said, let's talk about Carly. Halfway through the book it's revealed that her paranoia is a result of some undisclosed mental illness, which is an interesting use of the unreliable narrator. (I'm also glad Robson utilized a different means of unreliability than drinking itself, which these books are apt to do.) Then the switch is toggled again...she's a completely different person...nicer, loving her kids again, loving her husband again. I'm not sure that's how those illnesses work. That also means that her guesses about the cheating behind the scenes are pure coincidence and I wonder if there was even reason for the first half of the book at all...
There are a couple other nitpicks I didn't love. Regarding language, everyone kind of sounds the same. It's kind of strange how Craig and Jenni sound alike, and Rob, and Carly. I didn't love how Carly's daughter Pippa had no personality other than acting like her brothers' mother. But this is REALLY nitpicky, so moving on.
It seems like I'm complaining, but the last third was when this slow burn really picked up. I read the last quarter in one sitting, but I liked the suspense throughout the whole thing. There are court cases, jail time, and losses of life. Unfortunately, many of these intense scenes are kind of glossed over and I would have liked to see more of the reactions, dialogue, action, etc. (This is where "show, don't tell" could apply.) I also would have liked to see more of the evidence explained. Supposedly one character dressed up like one of the other characters as an alibi, but we never know why or how they accomplished that because they never tell us. I was also able to guess the final act of the book well before it actually happened.
I do give the book props for making me wonder who was behind everything. It's not as "twisty" as some other related books I've read. It's more straightforward and true to the back summary, but I enjoy the suspense of turning pages knowing that exciting stuff is coming. And even though the characters weren't likable (and I don't think they were meant to be), the plot makes up for that by showing everyone getting their due and warning us how cheating can ruin lives. If you want a happy story, you probably shouldn't look here.
This is a decent first effort by Robson, though it definitely had its issues. A little more reasoning for the events that took place and for the character motivations would have been nice. Sometimes it seems like characters are doing things just to move the plot along. The intense scenes also needed to be slowed down and the long, dry first half could have been sped up. Still, it picks up eventually, and anyone looking for a standard thriller novel might start with it. It's just not unique enough to be one of my favorites. With practice, hopefully we can see more polish from her in the future.
3 stars
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)