We're coming up on the last month of the year and I'm in the middle of a number of series that I still want to finish (or at least continue). This is unusual for me as I don't generally like to start more than one or two series at once... I need to pay better attention as to what books are the first-of-series before I dive into them!
Deep Secret - Diana Wynne Jones (1997)
"'It says,' he said, 'I Am A Hobbit.'" He bowed and walked away. 'In Elvish,' he added as he left."
Confession: this isn't a book that I would've picked out based on the cover or the brief description. But score one for friend recommendations - I'm really glad this was pointed out to me. I found Deep Secret a surprisingly different SciFi-tinged fantasy novel, very English in its wry humor. I often take issue with books that switch points of view between characters, particularly if they're all in first person, but I actually enjoyed the different voices here. And while I struggled to see at first how a book that mashed together centaurs, SciFi conventions, and royal politics could form something cohesive, I was pleasantly surprised.
The only other book I'd previously read by Diana Wynne Jones had been Howl's Moving Castle. I was a bit at a loss where to start with her other works, and now I feel like I've had a good jumping-off point.
Related Reads
Good Omens (Pratchett and Gaiman)
Dune (Herbert)
A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle)
Home - Marilynne Robinson (2008)
"You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding."
This is a companion novel to Gilead, a favorite that I read earlier in the year. Since Home takes place concurrently, I found myself wishing I'd read it sooner after Gilead so I could make better connections between the books and the core characters. Though Home is written largely from the third-person point of view of Glory, one of Boughton's daughters, not in first-person stream-of-thought journal entries of John Ames as in Gilead, I still found it piercingly relateable, and as deeply calming and lyrical in style as its predecessor.
Related Reads
Gilead (Robinson)
The Little Friend (Tartt)
Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon (2015)
"Just because you can’t experience everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experience anything."
I came into this book with no background, although I'd been seeing a lot of hype around it for some time. It's Young Adult Fiction, which I somehow wasn't expecting, and the format is of journal entries interspersed with occasional lists, drawings, and chat records.
The style wasn't what bothered me, though; it was the romance portion of the plot that seemed too forced and like it was the only catalyst for change (the "girl falls in love and everything changes" trope). The "twist" near the end vaguely disappointed rather than surprised me. Overall, I didn't find the book a bad read - it was easy to get through without feeling overly light, for one, and it's definitely a strong first novel from the author - I just felt it could've gone further in terms of plot.
Related Reads
The Blue Castle (Montgomery)
The Sun is Also a Star - Nicola Yoon (2016)
"Do you think it's funny that both of our favorite memories are about the people we like the least now?" I ask.
"Maybe that's why we dislike them," she says. "The distance between who they were and who they are is so wide, we have no hope of getting them back."
I liked this book better than Yoon's first novel (Everything, Everything). The format here switches between viewpoints of not only the two main characters, but also other minor characters that they run into throughout the day. It feels like there's a lot that could be said about this book; in brief, it explores cultural differences, fate, small actions leading to potentially life-changing consequences, family, and love at first sight.
Related Reads
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)
Americanah (Adichie)
A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas (2015)
"You didn't tell me this would happen."
"You didn't ask. So how am I to blame?"
Okay, I have to say it... I wanted to like this more than I did. The first part of the book was very reminiscent of The Hunger Games, though that in itself wasn't necessarily what bothered me (in fact, Fayre's struggle of survival in the real world was one of the highlights for me). For one thing, the characters - especially the main one - seemed too perfect and one-note. But it was the romance portion that was my main sticking point. I found myself honestly confused as to why the main characters were suddenly in love with/attracted to each other. It seemed very forced to me, even with the later (fairy-tale inspired) "explanation" for it. And there was so many instances of sexual tension and situations that I was beginning to feel like I was reading a bodice ripper.
With all that said, I was still intrigued enough by the world and overall story to continue the series. As I read, I was feeling more and more like it would be a struggle to finish, but the book picked up for me in the second half. I'll try to reserve my overall judgement until I get through the entire series.
Related Reads
The Hunger Games (Collins)
Lords and Ladies (Pratchett)
Uprooted (Novik)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Clarke)
(Continued in Part 2)
Deep Secret - Diana Wynne Jones (1997)
"'It says,' he said, 'I Am A Hobbit.'" He bowed and walked away. 'In Elvish,' he added as he left."
Confession: this isn't a book that I would've picked out based on the cover or the brief description. But score one for friend recommendations - I'm really glad this was pointed out to me. I found Deep Secret a surprisingly different SciFi-tinged fantasy novel, very English in its wry humor. I often take issue with books that switch points of view between characters, particularly if they're all in first person, but I actually enjoyed the different voices here. And while I struggled to see at first how a book that mashed together centaurs, SciFi conventions, and royal politics could form something cohesive, I was pleasantly surprised.
The only other book I'd previously read by Diana Wynne Jones had been Howl's Moving Castle. I was a bit at a loss where to start with her other works, and now I feel like I've had a good jumping-off point.
Related Reads
Good Omens (Pratchett and Gaiman)
Dune (Herbert)
A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle)
Home - Marilynne Robinson (2008)
"You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding."
This is a companion novel to Gilead, a favorite that I read earlier in the year. Since Home takes place concurrently, I found myself wishing I'd read it sooner after Gilead so I could make better connections between the books and the core characters. Though Home is written largely from the third-person point of view of Glory, one of Boughton's daughters, not in first-person stream-of-thought journal entries of John Ames as in Gilead, I still found it piercingly relateable, and as deeply calming and lyrical in style as its predecessor.
Related Reads
Gilead (Robinson)
The Little Friend (Tartt)
Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon (2015)
"Just because you can’t experience everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experience anything."
I came into this book with no background, although I'd been seeing a lot of hype around it for some time. It's Young Adult Fiction, which I somehow wasn't expecting, and the format is of journal entries interspersed with occasional lists, drawings, and chat records.
The style wasn't what bothered me, though; it was the romance portion of the plot that seemed too forced and like it was the only catalyst for change (the "girl falls in love and everything changes" trope). The "twist" near the end vaguely disappointed rather than surprised me. Overall, I didn't find the book a bad read - it was easy to get through without feeling overly light, for one, and it's definitely a strong first novel from the author - I just felt it could've gone further in terms of plot.
Related Reads
The Blue Castle (Montgomery)
The Sun is Also a Star - Nicola Yoon (2016)
"Do you think it's funny that both of our favorite memories are about the people we like the least now?" I ask.
"Maybe that's why we dislike them," she says. "The distance between who they were and who they are is so wide, we have no hope of getting them back."
I liked this book better than Yoon's first novel (Everything, Everything). The format here switches between viewpoints of not only the two main characters, but also other minor characters that they run into throughout the day. It feels like there's a lot that could be said about this book; in brief, it explores cultural differences, fate, small actions leading to potentially life-changing consequences, family, and love at first sight.
Related Reads
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)
Americanah (Adichie)
A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas (2015)
"You didn't tell me this would happen."
"You didn't ask. So how am I to blame?"
Okay, I have to say it... I wanted to like this more than I did. The first part of the book was very reminiscent of The Hunger Games, though that in itself wasn't necessarily what bothered me (in fact, Fayre's struggle of survival in the real world was one of the highlights for me). For one thing, the characters - especially the main one - seemed too perfect and one-note. But it was the romance portion that was my main sticking point. I found myself honestly confused as to why the main characters were suddenly in love with/attracted to each other. It seemed very forced to me, even with the later (fairy-tale inspired) "explanation" for it. And there was so many instances of sexual tension and situations that I was beginning to feel like I was reading a bodice ripper.
With all that said, I was still intrigued enough by the world and overall story to continue the series. As I read, I was feeling more and more like it would be a struggle to finish, but the book picked up for me in the second half. I'll try to reserve my overall judgement until I get through the entire series.
Related Reads
The Hunger Games (Collins)
Lords and Ladies (Pratchett)
Uprooted (Novik)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Clarke)
(Continued in Part 2)
No comments:
Post a Comment