Tag Archives: book report

Frail

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Frail (Dust, #2)Frail by Joan Frances Turner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I loved this book when I began reading; the combination of lyrical prose and zombie dystopia appealed to me on every level. Unfortunately before I was a hundred pages in the style changed, the language became more common. There was a period in the middle of the story where there were so many characters, all with suburban names (Amy, Lisa, Billy…really? An evil overlord named Billy?) Some character names began with the same first letter, adding to my confusion. I made notes to tell them apart. The style then took yet another turn, and it seemed as though the author was channeling Dean Koontz during his Christopher Snow period, which might have been a good thing except the tale became somewhat surreal and even more difficult to follow. Also the odd combinations of simile and metaphor became distracting.

I give this book two Ds–one for Disjointed and one for Disappointing.

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in which I send my first rejection letter

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That’s right, SEND. Me, sending a rejection.

A self-published author sent me a message on goodreads. It said:

As you may recall, you entered to win my book [REDACTED] from the Goodreads giveaway.

As I would like to have a few more reviews for the book, I am writing to offer you a copy of the book, free of charge, if you would be willing to read it and post a review on several of the online book sites (Amazon, B&N, GoodReads, your blog).

Of course, I would ask that you give the book a completely honest review.

If you are interested, please let me know. I can send the book in any format (Kindle, Sony, Epub, Palm, PDF or a printed copy).

Thank you in advance.

Warmly,

[REDACTED]


I have no recollection of entering any such giveaway, but that doesn’t mean anything. Thank goodness goodreads has a page of giveaways I’ve entered. (This link will probably only work if you’re a goodreads member and have entered giveaways.) Anyhow, I gleefully pounce on the link to see whether my CRS has struck again or what, and nope–this book isn’t on it.

My reply:

Actually I don’t recall, and goodreads has no record of it either. Regardless, I’m extremely busy and can’t guarantee I’ll review any books at this time, much less promise to post reviews on multiple sites.

Thanks for thinking of me, though.


Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like someone was trying to hustle me here. As a result I am NOT HAPPY.

As an aside, maybe my mother did too good a job of pounding it into my head, “If you can’t say anything nice, just keep it to yourself,” but I never post bad reviews. Just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean it has no merit, or that other people won’t adore it, and just because a story is not to my personal taste doesn’t mean I’m all cool with making the author’s job harder. The Silmarillion springs to mind. Also Twilight, or pretty nearly anything with monsters as sex objects. I like my monsters ugly and eating people… No one’s really tickled my “monstrous and sensuous” bone since Claudia.

And yeah, sometimes books are not just not to my taste. Sometimes they’re really bad. But I am not the book police, and at least you know when I rate something highly, I really mean it.

the hunger games

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The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was surprised by how much I liked this story. It was a quick read in first person present tense–naturally. It didn’t put me off the way many YA novels do, by spending far too much time on dialogue and exposition. There’s enough action, and it’s well done. At no time did I pray for the death of the female protagonist. This is a rare and wondrous accomplishment, although I may have wanted to shake her once or twice.

This book is an odd blend of Witch World and The Long Walk, but it works.

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a book devoured

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It took me rougly eight tries to make it through Stephen King’s The Stand. At first he kept losing me after he turned his camera away from Stu Redman. I just didn’t care for Frannie, and I outright disliked Larry. Everyone said what a wonderful book it was though, so I kept trying, and Nick was okay. It was M-O-O-N, and that spells Tom Cullen, who led me through the rest of The Stand–although it took a couple of more tries, because King lost me again at a certain spoilery plot point late in the game.

It never pays to get too attached to King’s characters.

So another month, another attempt to make it through, and finally–success! I had finished reading The Stand. I didn’t care for the ending much at all. With King, and for me as a reader, endings are hit or miss, and he is one author where I never skip to the end to see what happens and then back track to find out why and how it happened. With King, the why and how might be the only part I want.

And with his science fiction, I might even want the why and how only once.

Is The Stand SF? Technically yes, although it’s softer SF than some. When I think of King’s SF, I’m more inclined to think first of The Tommyknockers and Dreamcatcher. I’ve not been able to make it through either of those a second time despite multiple attempts, and despite the fact that I enjoyed them just fine the first time through. Under the Dome was ok, but I doubt I’ll ever try to read it again. And…the jury’s still out on Cell. I actually want to read that one again (since I’ve forgotten most of it) but I’m afraid it will fall under the Curse of the SF Re-reads.

Which brings me the long way ’round to my actual topic, which is his latest novel, 11/23/63. I very much enjoyed it, far more than UTD, more than any of his books since Lisey’s Story, which is one of my favorites. In this book, a teacher travels back in time to avert the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This premise tickled both my socks off, because godlight originally was supposed to be about someone travelling back in time to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, which was going to lead to a chain of events that put a Lincoln decendant in the White House at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

See, too often have I come up with what I thought was a fantabulous story idea only to discover (or realize) King has been there first. The Pool Where We All Go Down to Drink from Lisey’s Story explains this metaphorically, but has never made me feel any better about it. I love you, but DAMN YOU, STEVE! I still haven’t forgiven you for Gray Matter, of which my version was called Couch Potato…

But this time, I drank first. This makes me happy.

godlight ended up nothing at all like that original premise, no backward time travel, no changing the past, nothing of the sort. And it’s win-win, because King obviously writes better than I do, and his story is miles and miles better than mine could ever have been.

Oddly, I didn’t care much about the whole JFK/Oswald plot line until just as it came to a head. Until then, King kept my attention with other things, including Oswald’s wife, and other characters also. Especially engrossing was the love story between the teacher and a woman from the past. When the time finally came and the teacher had to decide whether to return to his own time or not, it mattered hugely to me. (This same question failed to matter in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, sad to say.)

Are there ramifications to changing the past? How will we know if the protagonist never returns to the present?

The answer to those questions are spoilers. They are also quintessential Stephen King, and I hardly got any sleep until I found out.

So this book I give a big hooray to. Maybe even enough to forgive him for Gray Matter.

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My Top Ten Stephen King Novels (subject to change and re-ordering almost daily)

The Talisman (co-written with Peter Straub)
Lisey’s Story
It (Bev saved my life)
Dolores Claiborne
11/23/63
Firestarter
Rose Madder
Hearts in Atlantis
Insomnia
Bag of Bones