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Review/Rant

8/21/2015

 
Review of 'Planet Urth: The Savage Lands'.
I read the first book in this series, and although it had typos and a sappy love interest near the end, there was something about it that drew me, so I read the second book, 'The Savage Lands'. There was some cool stuff in this book, creepy even, but unfortunately it had all the flaws of the first one and added regular episodes of teen girl over-the-top lust/infatuation from beginning to end, distracting continuity error, and… drum roll please… a love triangle. *gags*. Not every love triangle I've seen has made me gag, but most of them do, and this was probably the WORST ever love triangle. I mean, we're talking Twilight level bad. At least in Twilight, Bella was more or less committed to Edward, and she was just playing the other dude for her own purposes. Yeah, she was a jerk, but this isn't a review of that book anyway, so don't argue with me about it. Avery, the heroine of THIS book, is a jerk too, but I kind of think it's in a good way, and not because she's playing anybody. She's just no nonsense and ruthless. Except when it comes to hot guys. If you're into super-sappy-I-don't-know-who-I-love-even-when-I'm-looking-at-both-of-them infatuation, then this is the book for you.


I liked Avery in the first book, and there are things I like about her in this one, but EVERYTHING to do with the male characters in the book is overdone and sappy, in my opinion. I am well aware that this is a matter of preference and not objective like the technical errors, but it's what turned me against the series. I'm sure that people who enjoy that sort of stuff are thrilled with these books, but it killed them for me. I really enjoyed the world and creepy stuff in it. I'm kind of sad that I can't stomach the swooning. Ah, well. There are worse things.

Language: Pretty sure it's completely clean.

Sexual Content: Clean unless you count 'Oh, he touched my back' and 'I feel so warm when he looks my way'. I made those examples up, but that's the general idea. There is also a set of scenes where serial rape is talked about, making it unsuitable for young readers.

Violence: Yes.

Overall Message/Plot: The message might be that slaughtering the enemy is the best way to go. Not sure about that yet, since the book kind of ended in the middle of the story. The plot 'Survival in an awesome dystopian world' is way cool and I'd love more of it. The plot 'He's so hot and so is he and they both keep looking at me but I don't know why I feel this way what should I do' is distinctly less cool.
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Review of 'Coal'

8/16/2015

 
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'Coal' by Constance Burris

I was given a free copy of 'Coal' in exchange for an honest review as a part of a blog tour with Diverse Book Tours.

Coal, the main character, is a teenaged human living in a fairly world where humans are more or less considered lowlifes, except that he's the fairy princess's best friend. Of course that's part of the conflict, but don't worry, there's more to come. The book springs from there and stays pretty fast paced with Coal's life and the adventures that result from his relationship with the princess and an ill-advised trip to the human realm. His character develops as a good character's should, and although he's not the brightest at times, he does resolve to do the right thing despite many pressures not to. When I say 'not the brightest', I don't mean to say he's especially daft, just that he's a teenaged guy with little experience and… did I say teenaged guy? I don't mean for anyone to take that personally, just take it the way you want.

Anyway, he has some interesting experiences, and some of the secondary characters are pleasantly mysterious (good, bad, just immature? We don't know for sure, and it's nice to wonder) and some are just plain weird. The story didn't go at all the way I might have expected it to, which I appreciated.

My complaints are typos and some scenes where the writing becomes very 'telling'. I lost connection to the characters in the lists of statements about things that were happening. At times this made the writing awkward, and it felt like I was reading an early draft of scenarios that had been pounded out but then not reworked to their fullest potential. Despite this, I never felt so annoyed that I considered putting it down (and I've done that a couple times lately; I may or may not bother to write about them) and I came away from the story feeling that it had been a good use of my time. Also, the ending was too abrupt for my taste, but don't worry, not a dreaded cliff hanger.

'Coal' was odd in that although it was primarily told from Coal's perspective and was named for him, I found more attachment to the world itself than to him. The world is super cool, creatively designed and intricate with magic, creatures, and sentient trees. Coal is kind of a shallow (or maybe just clueless? Not sure) guy, even if he is honorable, and that made him hard for me to relate to. But hey, at least he didn't spend all his time pining away for romance and worrying about his appearance, like most YA heroines do.

Language: Some mild foul language.

Sexual Content: Nothing more than a couple of kisses.

Violence: Pretty mild, and nothing that seemed like it would feel scary to anyone.

Overall Plot/Message: I guess you could say there were some messages, like: 'do the right thing despite pressures to the contrary', 'don't be so naïve', and 'crazy people can still be good'. As for plot, it was pretty straight forward, unlike some of the characters, and I enjoyed it. Also, marks for diversity and dealing with class issues. If you like young adult fantasy and magical worlds, you may enjoy 'Coal'. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because it was a nice diversion.

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I Don't Eat Monsters...

8/12/2015

 
The following is two Trooper stories that I wrote while we were in Ohio a few weeks ago, with a couple of follow up notes. I imagine you'll enjoy.

"For a while, the only thing I had to post was a brief story of Trooper taking apart the screen door and hiding the bolt in the dehumidifier, and I didn't really want to post just that. I'm not sure why he was being more 'normal' for a while, but the good news is that we're back to OUR normal. Trooper has been spending a lot of time with my family in Ohio, which is kind of bad in that he's learning all kinds of new mischief, but good because he loves it. Anyway, it's hilarious, so I'm not complaining. Now, if you ask him his name he'll probably answer 'Hubbabubba'. Today I said, "What about Clive White?" and he said, "No, Clive Blue." We went to see the Minion Movie, another bad influence, and I watched him watch the movie as much as I watched it myself. He was so excited that his mouth was smiling open wide and his arms were just flapping and waving all around. It was true love."

"Last night at a Chinese takeout place he was trying to steal the duck sauce from my mom's table and had us all laughing at the competition, and then he said, "Look, a dump truck!" He was so excited about it passing the window that everyone just had to look. And that's when he snagged the duck sauce and ran away with it. I'm not completely convinced that the entire thing was planned--more likely he really was excited by the truck and only thought to steal the sauce when everyone had looked away--but I wouldn't put it past him."

My favorite, favorite thing he did or said was when we were all sitting at a picnic table eating breakfast and having a lively conversation and he said, "I don't eat monsters. They get stuck in my teeth."

When we got home, I was talking to my mom on the phone and she told me that in the hustle and bustle of loading up the car and leaving their house, he had managed to turn on every light in their bedroom and bathroom (he'd been harassing her by turning on lights the entire time we were there) and then locked the door so they couldn't get in. As I began apologizing, my mom laughed and said it was OK, it had given them a good laugh and something else to remember him by.
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