While in KS I read the Fallen series by Lauren Kate. They were okay...I don't think I loved them but I didn't hate them. It's just that angels don't really do it for me. I'll read the last book when it comes out, but it's not like I'm holding my breath.
At some point I read Enclave by Ann Aguire. I had really high hopes for the book. I also thought it was a stand-alone, as in, not the first book in a series. That alone was a big part of why I was so hopeful. About half way though the book, I realized it couldn't end any time soon...so I looked it up and was terribly disappointed to find that it's book one of a trilogy. The story itself was decent. Post-apocalyptic world where people live underground and have to fight for everything. It seemed like it was going somewhere interesting. Then there were zombies. I find it so difficult to take a book seriously when there are zombies. I should really take some time to consider my aversion to zombies - I don't find them scary, and in fact my first favorite movie ever was Night of the Living Dead (the original). But, I don't think of them as a serious threat. Perhaps there's too much humor surrounding all things zombie for me to consider the possible implications of real-life zombies. Maybe I'd just prefer a more realistic threat... or a threat that isn't so... transparent. Zombies just want to eat people...but they don't care about the destruction of people or society because they're mindless. Mindless things aren't evil (except....well I won't get into politics here). So, anyway... I liked the book apart from the zombies.
I also read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. With a name like that, I just knew he'd be spectacular. I was not disappointed. I also don't know if I've already written about this here or not. I know that I absolutely loved the story. There were a couple times when it was slow, but the writing was so good that it didn't matter. I've never read anything similar to this... the time loops, the circus-freak-like characters (capable of making fire or floating...and the invisible boy), THIS particular kind of magic is all new. The process of creating the story was just as interesting, to me, as the story itself. There were pictures peppered throughout - creepy old pictures. They were like old-fashioned circus freak images. The story had a very dark feel in many places, and a lot of really magnificent characters and creatures. I wish that the *love* story would have blossomed a little more, but there will be more books and more time for that later. Because the story is slow at times, I wouldn't recommend this one to everyone. But, for those who appreciate the craft of writing, this is an excellent example of doing it right.
Just this afternoon I finished Crossed, the second in the Matched trilogy by Ally Condie. I found nothing but problems with this book. The chapters switched back and forth between the two main characters, but neither was well-developed...so I kept forgetting which character I was reading. The story that was started in the first book was a rather typical dystopian teen love story. Girl gets matched to perfect guy, but there's a mistake and she's also matched to the bad boy. Naturally she falls for the bad boy. He gets kicked out of the Society, and she goes to find him. Book two is about her finding him and him finding her. Then it turns into her wanting to find the Rising...and him not wanting to find the Rising. There wasn't enough going on...not enough about the Society or anything interesting. It wasn't emotionally engaging at all. There were a couple things that were a little interesting, but they weren't explained...stuff just left for the next book. I was horrified to see that someone had compared it to The Hunger Games. At this point, I'm not sure I'll be reading the final book in the series.
Now for a list of things I've tried to read but gave up on, for whatever reason...
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro. I tried. It was boring. Despite all the great things I've read about the book...it wasn't able to hook me in the first little bit, so I gave up.
Life as We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer. I didn't try very hard with this one. I hate journal format. I also hate when the entire premise of a book is scientifically impossible. If you're going to write sci-fi, write it well... don't assume your reader is too dumb to fact-check.
Starcrossed - Josephine Angelini. This is actually unfair to list here, since I do want to read the book. The only reason I gave up was that the formatting didn't convert... the pdf to mobi thing sort of...ate a bunch of letters and/or punctuation. I read a few books missing letters, and my brain gets it after a bit... but when there isn't any punctuation, it's difficult to tell what's going on.
ANYWAY. Like I said...saving the best for last. It's not often that I become completely absorbed in a book. It's not often that an author creates a world so beautiful and magical that I actually want to live in it... but Erin Morgenstern did just that with The Night Circus. I fell so in love with the feeling of the book... the style and skill and emotion expressed. A while back, NPR had a list of books for people who were sad that Harry Potter was over... had this book been published at the time, it would have topped the list. It's the story of two magicians who are raised to compete against each other... but they aren't told much more than that. An entire circus is created as their competition - and it is amazing. They compete, collaborate, and... every single thing about the book is magical. I wish it would have ended with Prospero's lines from The Tempest... but I love it anyway. It's right up there with HP and The Hunger Games...amazing from start to finish.
And...now I sleep.
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