Well, classes at Auburn began again today. Since my classes only meet on Monday and Tuesday nights, I haven't actually had a class yet. So I'm doing one final blitz of summer reading before academia crashes the party.
Here are reviews of those I've read since finishing A Dance with Dragons.
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
This book is about some distant future in which the world is run by corporations, and people live on the beaches of the Gulf Coast and work day and night to break down and salvage materials from wrecked ships (especially big oil rigs and tankers). The main character of the book is a 15 year old boy who works on one of these crews (yes they even work children.) Nailer (the character's name) works with no real understanding of commerce, and he never sees or can fathom what the ship's salvaged steel, iron, and copper are useful for. His (and everyone's) existence revolves around the back-breaking and never-ending work on the ships. Then, a luxury cruiser/sailboat crashes on the beach (after a huge hurricane or "city killer"), and the only survivor on board is a super duper duper rich girl, who has on GOLD *gasp* jewelry, and many more valuable possessions. Turns out the girl is just a pawn in the corporate games of other rich people, and she is on the run. And she had no idea that her father was profiting from the hard work of people like Nailer. The book is about Nailer's realization that there is more to life than savage work and blind obedience to people with money. And in the course of the book's events he comes to realize exactly what qualities make up a valuable, useful, and good human. I liked it, but it's very "young adult," so it sometimes felt a little simple, when I really wanted the author to go all out there with the complications and elaborate explanations.
The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano
Romance meets crime drama. And not in a good way. The book started out pretty cool with a look at the inner workings of the Federal Witness Protection Program, but then the main character goes all Bella Swan on you and you can't get back to liking her. I mean, if a mafia guy wakes you up in the middle of the night with a knife to your throat, you pee yourself, and then scream...you don't think to yourself how beautiful his eyes are! No thanks. Too mushy. Not enough action. But I'll allow that there's some pretty cute romantic stuff, and I think it didn't annoy me because I was too busy appreciating how emotionally charged a DUDE'S romantic scenes were. No sex though, and I was expecting that from a dude author. Oh well. I probably don't really recommend this to anyone. Now that summer's over, it's a little hard to recommend something as beach reading.
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (duh, pseudonym)
Another YA read, and this one was recommended by Courtney a while back. She saw the movie before reading the books, and I found myself wishing I had done the same as I read. Which is a pretty rare thing, right? Yeah, the writing was pretty hard to follow. There were too many things to try to visualize: battles, secret power development, suspenseful events. But there weren't good descriptions of these! Just kind of nebulous estimations of what is going on. The writers (there's a tag team, apparently) focused too much on the main character's whiny feelings, and they were trying waaaay to hard to make it a romance. BUT, the plot concept is still pretty cool. (The last survivors of an alien race, hiding on Earth, are slowly being picked off one by one, and in a specific order. Number Four knows he's next, but doesn't know where the attack will come from. ) I'd recommend it; it interests fantasy people, sci-fi people, and teenage girls looking for the next great Twilight.
And now, I'll tell you how I'm ending the summer......
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Just look at the cover!! It's so creepy! And I'm so excited! I guess I'll have to be done by Monday, so look for its review soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment