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L. J. Smith's series is, overall, very simplistic and insipid. It's an easy read about a beautiful, popular girl and her brooding vampire boyfriend. That's about it.
Those who read this book or want to will know exactly what they're getting into: The prose is on par with nearly every other YA novel ever written. The heroine and hero are so incredibly gorgeous they could be models and every other character is madly in love with them. The romance is squeezed into a few brief encounters, resulting in Elena pledging her undying love for Stefan before they've shared even a hundred words. Elena's actions are pretty problematic, not simply because Stefan cuts through her hard despondency so easily, but also because she is willing to forsake all her friends and family for a boy with whom she has an obsessive and unrealistic relationship, and the reader is not meant to question the nature of this romance.
There is not much to recommend about this series aside from its quick-readability. It's cliched and vapid, like a story written for a high school English class. It's certainly better than Stephenie Meyer's vampire novels, if only because this series acknowledges the connection between vampirism and sexuality, and Smith probably had an editor, but it offers nothing new or honest.
For those who enjoy one-dimensional YA fiction or devour vampire fiction indiscriminately, this is probably a perfect pick. For those readers who want something meatier and more interesting, it's probably better to go back to Stoker and Lefanu.
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(10 of 20 readers found this comment helpful)
I don't usually have high hopes for either YA or fantasy fiction, but I was pleasantly surprised by Malinda Lo's debut novel. After reading her AfterEllen columns and the short previews for the book online though, I was very excited to read Ash.
Yes, it is a retelling of the Cinderella story, but the book feels less about reaching the fairy tale ending and more about Ash's emotional and physical journeys toward the one she loves. Her romantic interactions with both Sidhean the fairy and Kaisa the huntress are a joy to read, thanks to Lo's good ear for dialogue. The story may be set in a time long ago, but the speech feels honest in a contemporary way. Lo also has some fabulous descriptions. She uses beautiful language in a manner that makes her prose feel entirely cinematic. When she describes the way the trees bend to welcome Ash or the way Kaisa slices the skin of an apple, it's easy to picture the action and scenes in your head in what I would call an artistic manner. It feels less like simple prose and more like brushstrokes within the story.
Some plots and characters are not quite as developed as they could be, which is understandable, considering this is a first novel, but the joy of Ash and Kaisa's love- a love that feels truly earned, unlike that of most simplistic YA novels- and the beautiful descriptive language more than make up for the novel's shortcomings.
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(8 of 16 readers found this comment helpful)
As a reader who appreciates realism and depth in literature, perhaps Sophie Gee's New York Times review of this poorly-written novel should have tipped me off that this was not my sort of book.
I have no problem with romance in literature, but in order for it to be affecting, it must feel honest. The characters must be able to relate to one another. In order to do this, they must also be real people. Davidson's characters are more like cardboard cutouts than real people. The nameless narrator and his lover Marianne are, at the novel's beginning, both ethereally beautiful, intelligent and talented, like a pair of orphans from a V. C. Andrews novel, and though the former is mangled in a horrific car accident, his suffering is less a real hell than it is a recitation of medical procedures. While both characters suffer from self-destructive natures, the motivation behind their actions is unclear. The narrator's drug addiction is given very little time and, though it leads to a series of fantastic confrontations, we're supposed to believe it grasps him with a vice-like grip though the author allows for less than two pages in the novel's entirety to express such a failing. Likewise, the narrator's love for Marianne is one-dimensional and tepid at best for the majority of the book. They don't seem to have anything in common or to share any stimulating conversation, even during Marianne's retelling of their former love during the fourteenth century. We're simply meant to accept that they have an epic love because that's what the author says. Perhaps it has something to do with the obscene amounts of food Marianne cooks.
Reportedly, it took seven years of research for Davidson to compose the novel, and while this is certainly an ambitious undertaking, it's disappointing that it amounts to poorly developed characters, cheesier (literally) descriptions and dialogue than anything written by Stephenie Meyer, and a regurgitation of facts about Icelandic, German and Japanese culture that feels less like epic storytelling and more like a Wikipedia entry. The religious content of the novel is similar to that found in Dan Brown thrillers: based on facts but still superficial. The narrator's religious convictions (or lack thereof) flip like a light switch, much like his feelings for Marianne, which come tumbling out in an unintentionally kitschy heap like bad teenage poetry. But Davidson tells us it is so, so it must be.
Perhaps if the author had spent more time developing the characters and their relationship(s)- and less time listing items of food consumed, including one laughably memorable moment involving pizza and Marianne's left nipple- it would have been an accomplishment of a first novel, instead of a book a few slots above cheap paperback.
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(9 of 17 readers found this comment helpful)
Daniel Handler is one of the most inventive contemporary novelists currently writing. That much was apparent from "A Series of Unfortunate Events," written under his pseudonym, but he really gets a chance to shine when writing for adults. Each of his earlier novels addresses the narrative in a new way, and "Adverbs" is no difference.
It's easier to classify the book as a series of connected short stories, all about a group of assorted people in the way in which they fall in love. Though Handler offers that the characters are not necessarily constant, many of the names are repeated and characters seem to know the same people, so it's arguable that they are simply being presented in separate circumstances. As in his previous books, the narrators should be considered unreliable, as the information of different stories is not always constant. This pendulous nature should not be seen as a deterrent, however. Instead, it is demonstrative of the nature of the emotions Handler chooses to present. The love of his stories does not always make sense, but it is consistently honest and representative of the love of the young.
Those of appreciate the ironic tone of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" will probably enjoy the book, though it should be said that Handler's novels deal with decidedly adult issues. Although a subtext of sexual menace is present in his fiction for younger readers, "Adverbs"- and his other novels- address sexuality in far more fluid terms than his previous series. Labels of "gay" or "straight" do not apply in this book. Instead, the role of orientation further expresses Handler's sense of new and contemporary love in our modern age of disorientation and disconnect.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(8 of 16 readers found this comment helpful)
It should first be said that this is not a book for everyone, but Rosoff's ambitious prose will be appreciated by many readers.
This pseudo-apocalyptic novel is billed as YA fiction, though it deals with complex issues of war, death and incest in a very mature manner. Stylistically, it's similar to Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," one of the most brilliant novels of the past few years. Rosoff utilizes stripped down dialogue and descriptions, which maximize the desolateness of the country after invasion and express Daisy's detachment from the horrors she witnesses. It is a bit frustrating at first, and I'm sure some will criticize her writing style as sophomoric, but the further into the novel one gets, the more her mode of simplistic prose enhances the experiences of the characters.
The only real criticism I can lobby against this book is Daisy's over-zealous relationship with Edmond. It is not characterized particularly well, and I was annoyed at times by her obsessive infatuation, especially when I had no real idea why she would seemingly dedicate her existence to him. It's unfortunate that the relationship was not expressed in any realistic manner. It makes the novel feel a bit like "The Road" crossed with V. C. Andrews's Dollanger saga, though some might think this makes the novel seem even more enticing.
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(8 of 13 readers found this comment helpful)
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Christy Valentine has commented on (18) products.
The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and the Struggle by L J Smith
Christy Valentine, September 15, 2009
L. J. Smith's series is, overall, very simplistic and insipid. It's an easy read about a beautiful, popular girl and her brooding vampire boyfriend. That's about it.Those who read this book or want to will know exactly what they're getting into: The prose is on par with nearly every other YA novel ever written. The heroine and hero are so incredibly gorgeous they could be models and every other character is madly in love with them. The romance is squeezed into a few brief encounters, resulting in Elena pledging her undying love for Stefan before they've shared even a hundred words. Elena's actions are pretty problematic, not simply because Stefan cuts through her hard despondency so easily, but also because she is willing to forsake all her friends and family for a boy with whom she has an obsessive and unrealistic relationship, and the reader is not meant to question the nature of this romance.
There is not much to recommend about this series aside from its quick-readability. It's cliched and vapid, like a story written for a high school English class. It's certainly better than Stephenie Meyer's vampire novels, if only because this series acknowledges the connection between vampirism and sexuality, and Smith probably had an editor, but it offers nothing new or honest.
For those who enjoy one-dimensional YA fiction or devour vampire fiction indiscriminately, this is probably a perfect pick. For those readers who want something meatier and more interesting, it's probably better to go back to Stoker and Lefanu.
(10 of 20 readers found this comment helpful)
Ash by Malinda Lo
Christy Valentine, September 15, 2009
I don't usually have high hopes for either YA or fantasy fiction, but I was pleasantly surprised by Malinda Lo's debut novel. After reading her AfterEllen columns and the short previews for the book online though, I was very excited to read Ash.Yes, it is a retelling of the Cinderella story, but the book feels less about reaching the fairy tale ending and more about Ash's emotional and physical journeys toward the one she loves. Her romantic interactions with both Sidhean the fairy and Kaisa the huntress are a joy to read, thanks to Lo's good ear for dialogue. The story may be set in a time long ago, but the speech feels honest in a contemporary way. Lo also has some fabulous descriptions. She uses beautiful language in a manner that makes her prose feel entirely cinematic. When she describes the way the trees bend to welcome Ash or the way Kaisa slices the skin of an apple, it's easy to picture the action and scenes in your head in what I would call an artistic manner. It feels less like simple prose and more like brushstrokes within the story.
Some plots and characters are not quite as developed as they could be, which is understandable, considering this is a first novel, but the joy of Ash and Kaisa's love- a love that feels truly earned, unlike that of most simplistic YA novels- and the beautiful descriptive language more than make up for the novel's shortcomings.
(8 of 16 readers found this comment helpful)
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Christy Valentine, August 19, 2009
As a reader who appreciates realism and depth in literature, perhaps Sophie Gee's New York Times review of this poorly-written novel should have tipped me off that this was not my sort of book.I have no problem with romance in literature, but in order for it to be affecting, it must feel honest. The characters must be able to relate to one another. In order to do this, they must also be real people. Davidson's characters are more like cardboard cutouts than real people. The nameless narrator and his lover Marianne are, at the novel's beginning, both ethereally beautiful, intelligent and talented, like a pair of orphans from a V. C. Andrews novel, and though the former is mangled in a horrific car accident, his suffering is less a real hell than it is a recitation of medical procedures. While both characters suffer from self-destructive natures, the motivation behind their actions is unclear. The narrator's drug addiction is given very little time and, though it leads to a series of fantastic confrontations, we're supposed to believe it grasps him with a vice-like grip though the author allows for less than two pages in the novel's entirety to express such a failing. Likewise, the narrator's love for Marianne is one-dimensional and tepid at best for the majority of the book. They don't seem to have anything in common or to share any stimulating conversation, even during Marianne's retelling of their former love during the fourteenth century. We're simply meant to accept that they have an epic love because that's what the author says. Perhaps it has something to do with the obscene amounts of food Marianne cooks.
Reportedly, it took seven years of research for Davidson to compose the novel, and while this is certainly an ambitious undertaking, it's disappointing that it amounts to poorly developed characters, cheesier (literally) descriptions and dialogue than anything written by Stephenie Meyer, and a regurgitation of facts about Icelandic, German and Japanese culture that feels less like epic storytelling and more like a Wikipedia entry. The religious content of the novel is similar to that found in Dan Brown thrillers: based on facts but still superficial. The narrator's religious convictions (or lack thereof) flip like a light switch, much like his feelings for Marianne, which come tumbling out in an unintentionally kitschy heap like bad teenage poetry. But Davidson tells us it is so, so it must be.
Perhaps if the author had spent more time developing the characters and their relationship(s)- and less time listing items of food consumed, including one laughably memorable moment involving pizza and Marianne's left nipple- it would have been an accomplishment of a first novel, instead of a book a few slots above cheap paperback.
(9 of 17 readers found this comment helpful)
Adverbs (P.S.) by Daniel Handler
Christy Valentine, July 28, 2009
Daniel Handler is one of the most inventive contemporary novelists currently writing. That much was apparent from "A Series of Unfortunate Events," written under his pseudonym, but he really gets a chance to shine when writing for adults. Each of his earlier novels addresses the narrative in a new way, and "Adverbs" is no difference.It's easier to classify the book as a series of connected short stories, all about a group of assorted people in the way in which they fall in love. Though Handler offers that the characters are not necessarily constant, many of the names are repeated and characters seem to know the same people, so it's arguable that they are simply being presented in separate circumstances. As in his previous books, the narrators should be considered unreliable, as the information of different stories is not always constant. This pendulous nature should not be seen as a deterrent, however. Instead, it is demonstrative of the nature of the emotions Handler chooses to present. The love of his stories does not always make sense, but it is consistently honest and representative of the love of the young.
Those of appreciate the ironic tone of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" will probably enjoy the book, though it should be said that Handler's novels deal with decidedly adult issues. Although a subtext of sexual menace is present in his fiction for younger readers, "Adverbs"- and his other novels- address sexuality in far more fluid terms than his previous series. Labels of "gay" or "straight" do not apply in this book. Instead, the role of orientation further expresses Handler's sense of new and contemporary love in our modern age of disorientation and disconnect.
(8 of 16 readers found this comment helpful)
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Christy Valentine, July 22, 2009
It should first be said that this is not a book for everyone, but Rosoff's ambitious prose will be appreciated by many readers.This pseudo-apocalyptic novel is billed as YA fiction, though it deals with complex issues of war, death and incest in a very mature manner. Stylistically, it's similar to Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," one of the most brilliant novels of the past few years. Rosoff utilizes stripped down dialogue and descriptions, which maximize the desolateness of the country after invasion and express Daisy's detachment from the horrors she witnesses. It is a bit frustrating at first, and I'm sure some will criticize her writing style as sophomoric, but the further into the novel one gets, the more her mode of simplistic prose enhances the experiences of the characters.
The only real criticism I can lobby against this book is Daisy's over-zealous relationship with Edmond. It is not characterized particularly well, and I was annoyed at times by her obsessive infatuation, especially when I had no real idea why she would seemingly dedicate her existence to him. It's unfortunate that the relationship was not expressed in any realistic manner. It makes the novel feel a bit like "The Road" crossed with V. C. Andrews's Dollanger saga, though some might think this makes the novel seem even more enticing.
(8 of 13 readers found this comment helpful)
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