[My new book] starts in 1960 with a woman named Lois Rabinowitz, who was evicted from Manhattan traffic court for attempting to pay a parking ticket while wearing slacks. This was...
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Have you ever joked that someone should be a candidate for "retroactive abortion"? In the world described by Shusterman in Unwind, it's no longer a sick joke, it's a reality. After the United States was nearly torn apart by a second Civil War -- this one between anti-abortion and pro-choice forces -- the government proposed a unique and hideous compromise, fueled in part by advances in organ transplants. Abortion would be outlawed, but once a child turned thirteen, they could be signed over by their parents to be Unwound, their organs and tissues spread amongst hundreds of people.
Fleeing Unwinding is a crime, but if a child can stay free until his or her eighteenth birthday, they are legally an adult and no longer a candidate. This is the only option for Connor, whose parents made him an Unwind due to behavioral problems, and Risa, a ward of the state who is to be Unwound due to budget cuts. Fortunately, the pair stumble into an underground dedicated to hiding and protecting Unwinds -- but this comes with its own dangers from unexpected quarters.
This book was absolutely gripping, and Shusterman has created a novel that will appeal to science fiction fans looking for the next step up from Haddix's "Hidden" series, or to those who loved Collins' The Hunger Games.
The premise of this book is an interesting one: what would you do if, as a loving parent, your teenage daughter disappeared one day? And, added to that, what if you went to her workplace and they told you she'd never worked there, and they had no idea who she was?
The beginning of the novel, when a father is in just this situation, is really quite good. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes overburdened with a growing cast of characters and dozens of convoluted occurences, and the end result was a thriller with which I just could not get engaged. I actually found myself caring more about the intricacies of selling cars (the father is a car salesman) that I was about the ultimate fate of the characters.
Even if the reader makes it through this novel and enjoys it most of the way, I doubt many will be particularly satisifed with the ending, which is very abrupt and leaves most aspects of the characters' fates completely up in the air. It's barely the false closure that an action movie like "Die Hard" gives us -- it's more like the author just couldn't face the idea of trying to things up in a realistic but satisfying way, choosing instead to just stop writing and give up.
Book two in the Amulet series from Kibuishi. This series hasn't quite grabbed me completely yet. For the most part I really like the artwork (although sometimes there's a certain flatness to the character designs that's a little annoying), and the story seems to be going places -- it's just moving REALLY SLOWLY. I think this will appeal to young fans of Jeff Smith's Bone, but unlike Bone it's not likely to have much cross-generational appeal.
Book two in the Amulet series from Kibuishi. This series hasn't quite grabbed me completely yet. For the most part I really like the artwork (although sometimes there's a certain flatness to the character designs that's a little annoying), and the story seems to be going places -- it's just moving REALLY SLOWLY. I think this will appeal to young fans of Jeff Smith's Bone, but unlike Bone it's not likely to have much cross-generational appeal.
I found this memoir to be truly impressive. There are many memoirs that detail the experience of depression and bipolar disorder. There are memoirs on alcoholism, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But there are very few that give the reader insight into what it is like to be schizophrenic.
Elyn Saks is an accomplished woman: she graduated from Oxford and Yale, and is a tenured law professor. She has also struggled with schizophrenia since her late teens, and relates her experiences in such a way that the reader will never think of schizophrenia in the same way again.
People tend to think of schizophrenics and dangerous, incoherent, low-functioning, "just plain crazy." Saks has been all of those things (although mainly she was a danger to herself), but only a small percentage of the time. Most of the time, she is at least as sane as the people around her, sometimes moreso.
The prose here is mainly pretty workmanlike, but Saks does a good job of expressing what it feels like to be having psychotic thoughts and feelings, as well as the experience of being hospitalized and living with the stigma of mental illness. She is a big proponent of psychoanalysis, which is a form of talk therapy that I'm personally leery of, but she does make a good case for the effectiveness of talk therapy in conjunction with medication for those with thought disorders as well as mood disorders (for a very long time, it was thought that talk therapy was basically useless for those who have thought disorders like schizophrenia). Recommended.
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crowyhead has commented on (685) products.
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
crowyhead, October 24, 2009
Have you ever joked that someone should be a candidate for "retroactive abortion"? In the world described by Shusterman in Unwind, it's no longer a sick joke, it's a reality. After the United States was nearly torn apart by a second Civil War -- this one between anti-abortion and pro-choice forces -- the government proposed a unique and hideous compromise, fueled in part by advances in organ transplants. Abortion would be outlawed, but once a child turned thirteen, they could be signed over by their parents to be Unwound, their organs and tissues spread amongst hundreds of people.Fleeing Unwinding is a crime, but if a child can stay free until his or her eighteenth birthday, they are legally an adult and no longer a candidate. This is the only option for Connor, whose parents made him an Unwind due to behavioral problems, and Risa, a ward of the state who is to be Unwound due to budget cuts. Fortunately, the pair stumble into an underground dedicated to hiding and protecting Unwinds -- but this comes with its own dangers from unexpected quarters.
This book was absolutely gripping, and Shusterman has created a novel that will appeal to science fiction fans looking for the next step up from Haddix's "Hidden" series, or to those who loved Collins' The Hunger Games.
Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay
crowyhead, October 13, 2009
The premise of this book is an interesting one: what would you do if, as a loving parent, your teenage daughter disappeared one day? And, added to that, what if you went to her workplace and they told you she'd never worked there, and they had no idea who she was?The beginning of the novel, when a father is in just this situation, is really quite good. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes overburdened with a growing cast of characters and dozens of convoluted occurences, and the end result was a thriller with which I just could not get engaged. I actually found myself caring more about the intricacies of selling cars (the father is a car salesman) that I was about the ultimate fate of the characters.
Even if the reader makes it through this novel and enjoys it most of the way, I doubt many will be particularly satisifed with the ending, which is very abrupt and leaves most aspects of the characters' fates completely up in the air. It's barely the false closure that an action movie like "Die Hard" gives us -- it's more like the author just couldn't face the idea of trying to things up in a realistic but satisfying way, choosing instead to just stop writing and give up.
Amulet #02: The Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi
crowyhead, October 13, 2009
Book two in the Amulet series from Kibuishi. This series hasn't quite grabbed me completely yet. For the most part I really like the artwork (although sometimes there's a certain flatness to the character designs that's a little annoying), and the story seems to be going places -- it's just moving REALLY SLOWLY. I think this will appeal to young fans of Jeff Smith's Bone, but unlike Bone it's not likely to have much cross-generational appeal.Amulet #02: The Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi
crowyhead, October 13, 2009
Book two in the Amulet series from Kibuishi. This series hasn't quite grabbed me completely yet. For the most part I really like the artwork (although sometimes there's a certain flatness to the character designs that's a little annoying), and the story seems to be going places -- it's just moving REALLY SLOWLY. I think this will appeal to young fans of Jeff Smith's Bone, but unlike Bone it's not likely to have much cross-generational appeal.The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R Saks
crowyhead, September 8, 2009
I found this memoir to be truly impressive. There are many memoirs that detail the experience of depression and bipolar disorder. There are memoirs on alcoholism, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But there are very few that give the reader insight into what it is like to be schizophrenic.Elyn Saks is an accomplished woman: she graduated from Oxford and Yale, and is a tenured law professor. She has also struggled with schizophrenia since her late teens, and relates her experiences in such a way that the reader will never think of schizophrenia in the same way again.
People tend to think of schizophrenics and dangerous, incoherent, low-functioning, "just plain crazy." Saks has been all of those things (although mainly she was a danger to herself), but only a small percentage of the time. Most of the time, she is at least as sane as the people around her, sometimes moreso.
The prose here is mainly pretty workmanlike, but Saks does a good job of expressing what it feels like to be having psychotic thoughts and feelings, as well as the experience of being hospitalized and living with the stigma of mental illness. She is a big proponent of psychoanalysis, which is a form of talk therapy that I'm personally leery of, but she does make a good case for the effectiveness of talk therapy in conjunction with medication for those with thought disorders as well as mood disorders (for a very long time, it was thought that talk therapy was basically useless for those who have thought disorders like schizophrenia). Recommended.
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