j wren pennington
the writing is really pretty good, and it's a subject that i would generally enjoy and yet still, meh.i think it might have been a lot of storytelling and not quite enough story? or maybe a lot of story (and backstory) upfront leading to an inevitable anticlimax? something like that anyway... not sorry i read it, wouldn't read it again.
this series is getting better and better.
the most remarkable thing about it is the author's ability to build on a bigger story while creating smaller arcs throughout. i am dying to know what happens in the big picture but i am distracted by the build-up and resolution of the smaller story lines within the larger story, so i never get frustrated and give up.
this is the problem with many other YA series. they come up with one big story line, then write it and divide it into three parts, published at intervals, to make more money and to make the books a reasonable length. like twilight. the important bits could fill about 150 pages, but it is padded with righteous abstinence flavored drivel. blech. or they go the route of the morganville vampire series, now up to 6 books, which starts out strong but by the fifth book, not enough is happening for me to care.
beyond that, the story has much to say about history and time and religion and a myriad other abstract concepts, while not being overly obtuse.
good book.
meh.
I applaud the effort and original ideas here but I have to admit that I just wanted it to be over around the 2/3rd mark.
there was a certain amount of drag and complexity and several characters about whom I couldn't care less. I just felt no attachment to any part of it. still, interesting premise, and decent writing.
i cannot believe i am just now hearing about this remarkable project. if you know nothing about it check out the blog at http:\postsecret.com
it's amazing how these brief messages and the images that accompany them are so robust because they are someone's real secret. someone took the time to create that artifact and put it in the mail, and wave goodbye to something so meaningful, and so integral to themselves.
yeah, wow.
sherlock holmes as asperger's affected father and son. cute, well written, culturally relevant....
good, solid ya novel.
original in comparison to many. decent amount of challenging vocabulary and not too much dumbing down of complex ideas. good for 9-11 i'd say.
there are holes of course, but the author poses some interesting questions about free will, human perception of time, and even maybe a little metaphorical demonstration of some history theory. or maybe not, but i think i could make a decent case for it.
anywho, it was totally worth a couple of hours.
amendment: there's fun little bit self-referential cake here. there is a part in the book where the protag. researchers “returners,” and when you search for it on goodreads you get many of the same topics that he gets in the book. it's silly easy, and yet kinda delightful.
my rating comes mostly from the treatment of some of the subject. the writing is good and i few complaints about the story except the relationship between the father and the son and the quasi-resolution thereof.
i'm not sure how i feel about that yet.
...but, i think that is why i like it, because it is complex and evokes complex emotions that cannot be dichotomized.
interesting.
i have a vague feeling that there is something to this, but largely i am not willing to spend a lot of time carving it, or the specific lack of it, out. there are several points, lines/events that seem to come very close to something really good and compelling, but just kind of wane away, leaving their potential to slowly melt in a pool of mild unease and disappointment somewhere in the back of your mind.
having said that, it's a decent book. it has value. i hope andersen prunty keeps writing.
this book is crap. it's like listening to an aunt you don't like go on and on about rumors she's heard about ghosts. the writing is terrible, there is virtually no structure, and the author presents herself (unwittingly, i'm sure) as perhaps the least convincing authority EVAR.
drivel.
i don't even know what to say about this....it was good? i think it is intended to be an exploration of the nature v nurture argument using a ridiculously bizarre scenario, but the n v. n could be a red herring planted to justify plain ol' weird shit. really, i'm lost here.
it was an enjoyable read, in that train wreck sort of way....
there is something terribly wrong with brian lumley. i'm not sure i can finish reading this...
this series hooked from the start. it's basically aesop's fables done gremlins style, which means with a contract and dressed in a bloody kimono. these morality tales are more complex with higher stakes and someone always dies, and man! they are entertaining.
solid YA book. the writing is good, especially for a high level 8-9th grade, mid level 10th, and just for fun 11th and up.
the story is what we are used to at this point in YA: kid with a boring life discovers something magical about himself and that monsters really exist and it's up to him to save the world. the details are fairly inventive and original. or at least i can't think of a direct corollary at the moment, but what sets this book apart from others are the photos.
apparently there are people who sort through mountains of old photographs at flea markets and the like culling the truly exceptional images. ransom riggs knows some of these people and uses these photos throughout the book. they are truly a neat addition. though pictures and images are becoming more common in non-picture book fiction (foer's extremely close and incredibly loud for instance), this seems to me to be a fairly unique use.
anywho, if you like YA it's worth a peek.
i am sort of in love with this book. it has flaws to be sure, but there are some particular lines in it that are truly brilliant, and i'm not sure if those peaks could have been achieved in any other way.
it went like this:
part 1: corn - i'm stoked! lots of science and history uncovering things i didn't know, yay!
part 2: meat - okay. not a lot here i don't already know, but i read a lot on this issue. nice description of totally sustainable farm even though the guy running it is obviously a crack pot.
part 3: i do it myself! - um, whoa. what are you talking about? and who the hell are these people who live in berkley and have large walk in freezers and spend their leisure time hunting on their personal swathes of california that must be worth tens of millions of dollars? and why do i care about you wringing your very waspish hands over shooting a pig?
ooohhh...i get it now, this is where we turn food into a “delightfully” entertaining moral and philosophical experiment that 70% of the population has absolutely no chance of identifying with; instead of something that everyone has to have to live and is therefore the single commodity whose supply is most easily reformed by individual demands to address ecological, health, and safety concerns.
i see what you did there, michael pollan.
i suppose this confuses your own point well enough to mask the fact that you obviously come out this deciding to continue to eat as you always do except for special occasions? because it made you several millions of dollars, i can see why you did it. i cannot however see any reason for anyone to read it.
a little anti-climactic, in the sense that there is just soooooo much build up. still enjoyable.
yes friends, you read that correctly, i gave this book 5 stars. i don't give many books 5 stars.
i want to think more on it before i write a lot more, but i just finished it and am grinning like an idiot.
compelling read. i only got bogged down in verbiage a couple of times.
it is however a little heavy handed. much of the artful metaphor was drug out and worded to death, though this is a fairly petty complaint.
i find all things neurological interesting so i was kind of predestined to like it. it's not a literary masterpiece but it tells one person's story more than adequately, and more importantly, tells the story of a brand new disease.
fun premise. however....
there is a serious disconnect between the story, the way it's written, and the protagonist. these three things do not fit together. for this story, written in this way, it makes no sense for the protagonist to be 16. it would make total sense for the protagonist to be, like, 12. if you really want the protagonist to be 16, there needed to be more angst, less goody goody. no cursing? no shenanigans? I don't buy it.
so I'm guessing the next book will have something that compelled this kid to be 16? clumsy error.