Short and Tweet: Janurary 2015 Reads (in 140 Characters or Less)

Confession: I have no idea what I’m doing with this whole blogging thing.

When I decided to take up the 2015 Reading Challenge via blog, I didn’t really think it through. Unfortunately, the slightly OCD part of me, which likes to be systematic and consistent, has been bugging me whenever I tried to touch this post because it’s basically setting the precedent for the rest of the year. (Cue dramatic music.) So I did what any normal person would do and kept putting it off and putting it off. Real life got in the way, various distractions popped up, books were read. (I am nothing if not an excellent procrastinator.) Suddenly I looked up, it was February and needed to write 13 posts. Opps?

So out of desperation, I’ve decided to make a catch-all January post with short, tweetable summaries and mini-paragraph reviews of each book. I’m going by the Goodreads five star scoring system, well, my version of the Goodreads five star scoring system. Also, because I’m on a time crunch, the tweet summaries will be neither memorable or clever. So nothing actually tweet-worthy today, sorry. On one hand, I’m not sure how useful this will be, as brevity has never been a strong suit; on the other hand, you’ll be spared my rants? Think of this as an experiment, my first pancake, if you will, and bear with me. If it’s not informative, I hope it’ll at least be entertaining.

One last thing, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be the only one bothered by this, but the 2015 Challenge categories and tags may be incomplete. It’s insanely difficult to find some authors’ age (someone under 30), and I just assumed nothing I read this month was banned or won the Pulitzer. Categories in bold are the ones I’ve chosen to use for the official checklist and italics are categories I’m on the fence about or fudging a bit. Now, without further ado, I present my January 2015 reading list:

[WARNING: The following post may contain (minor) spoilers]

Lizzie Leigh, Elizabeth Gaskell
A book by a female author/set in a different country/more than 100 years old/you can finish in a day/set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit/by an author you’ve never read before
Summary: Man dies, widow and sons move, search for long-lost (fallen) daughter, eldest falls in love. Search, sorrow, secrets. #morality #family (Yes, I used hashtags as a cop-out. Sorry.)
Tags: short stories, British lit, 19th century lit, classics, books with a MESSAGE
Review: [Rating: 2/5 stars] Lizzie Leigh is included in the “Contexts” section of the Norton Critical Edition (which is quite possibly the most beautiful classics’ edition out there) of North and South for historical context or another example of Gaskell’s work or something. (I read North and South at the end of 2014 in case you’re wondering why it’s not here, but I’ll give you a quick review: I missed Austen’s wit, but it was a decent love-hate 19th century romance.) Back to Lizzie Leigh. It’s good enough short story (i.e. actually has a plot, feels resolved at the end, etc.), but it’s kind of boring. There are some short stories that are clearly meant to be short stories and leave the reader, not only completely satisfied, but in awe of all the author managed to accomplish in such a short amount of page. Lizzie Leigh is not one of them. Lizzie Leigh is like a short story waiting to become a real story. It reads like a bare bones draft that needs to be fleshed out for useful things like character development. The problem, though, is that even if that were to happen, I still don’t think it’d be very interesting. It’s not that original (though I’m not a 19th century audience, so who am I to judge?), somewhat predictable, and kinda preachy. She clearly has an agenda in writing Lizzie Leigh. I’m all for having actual messages behind stories (more power to you), but when the plot, characters, and storytelling devices are all used for the sole purpose of pointing to the moral of the story…not so much.

The Revenge of Seven (Lorien Legacies #5), Pittacus Lore (aka James Frey and Jobie Hughes)
A book with a number in the title/with nonhuman characters/you can finish in a day/with magic
Summary: Teenage aliens, action, bumbling, action, heart of Lorien nonsense, imminent invasion, gimmicky cliffhanger. Seven gets no revenge/action.
Tags: series, YA, the Chosen One(s), alternating POV, action/adventure, sci-fi/fantasy, aliens, orphans
Review: [1.5/5 stars] …and the shamelessly prolonged series continues. Disclaimer: I’m not and have never been a fan of this series. In fact, I kind of strongly dislike the series with a burning passion and have since I first started I am Number Four…and yet I’ve continued to plough through book after book after filled-with-unnecessary-short-stories book because I must be a glutton for punishment or something. (Actually, it’s just because my stubborn self hates leaving series, no matter how awful, unfinished.) Anyways, the series is dreadful; if you haven’t started, don’t, and if you have, I’m sorry and hope you’re smarter than I am and stopped long ago. With each book, I keep thinking it must be the last book, and I felt almost certain this had to be the end. (Hint, it’s not.) Revenge of Seven is actually marginally better than its four other counterparts (stuff actually happens), but it still has all the same problems as its siblings (flat writing, one-dimensional characters, alternating narrators who sound exactly the same, and the same terrible, hole-ridden plot). Here’s hoping book six puts us all out of our misery and ends the series. Hope springs eternal, right?
P.S. Do aliens count as nonhuman characters?

Strobe Edge (Series), Io Sakisaka
A book by a female author/set in a different country/based entirely on its cover/you can finish in a day/with a love triangle/set in high school/graphic novel/by an author you’ve never read before/originally written in a different language/based on or turned into a TV show
Summary: Clueless, sweet girl + popular, stoic heartthrob = unexpected friendship. First crush + drama + love triangles all around= it’s complicated.
Tags: manga, shoujo, series, in love with Mr. Popular, love triangles, drama, bubblegum fluff
Review: [Rating: 3/5 stars] I read this early in the year when I was sick, couch-ridden, and coughing up a storm. Okay, it wasn’t really that bad, but I was sick and bored out of my mind and needed some light, fun distraction that didn’t require too much brainpower. Anyways, I alternated between binge-watching episodes of The Voice and reading Strobe Edge as a throwback to my anime/manga obsession days. I picked it up because I kept seeing it everywhere and because the cover was cute. It was a good enough series; I’ve read better, and I’ve definitely read worse. Strobe Edge is pretty much your standard cutesy, predictable, shoujo manga series with a ditzy, heart-of-gold heroine who’s first love happens to be the much sought after, aloof, unattainable, dark-haired male lead. They go through meaningless high school events with your typical cast of characters: the childhood friend who’s been pining for years, the cocky, obnoxious playboy, and the gorgeous rival-in-love. Plot-wise, everyone and everything is conveniently connected, and all events just serve to dish up more drama/romance between the main characters. Overall, it’s light and fluffy and perfect for sick days on the couch, but other than that, nothing special.

Background of The Grisha Trilogy in one gif.

The Grisha Trilogy (Shadow and Bone; Siege and Storm; Ruin and Rising,)  Leigh Bardugo
A book with nonhuman characters/set in a different country/that scares you/based entirely on its cover/you can finish in a day/with antonyms in the title/trilogy/with a love triangle/with magic/by an author you’ve never read before
Summary: Darkness. Monsters. One girl holds the light. A kingdom at war. The world is changing. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Tags: series, YA, love triangles, tall/dark/handsome, dark fantasy, fairy tale-esque, the Chosen One, orphans, guilty pleasures
Review: [3-4/5 stars] Okay, sorry for the terrible summary, but avoiding spoilers for an entire series is tricky. I really only started this series because whoever is in charge of running The Lunar Chronicles (which I LOVE) site kept reblogging stuff about The Grisha Trilogy, so I had no idea what to expect and didn’t even know what the series was about. Anyways, I’m reading along, and one minute I’m distracted by all the random vocab being thrown at me (seriously, why do you need two different names for the same Grisha orders?), trying to figure out how committed I was to learning a whole new world, the next I’m totally riveted by this crazy, captivating, fantasy world and planning how I can pick up the rest of the series from the library as soon as it it opens. Most of the reviews I read had an issue with the fact that Bardugo grossly misrepresents Russian culture/mythology; however, since I don’t know anything about Russian culture/mythology nor was I expecting to learn anything about Russian culture/mythology through The Grisha, it wasn’t an issue for me. The series actually has a lot of your typical YA fare: plain-Jane, orphan girl, first-person teenage protagonist; attractive childhood friend/unrequited lover; suddenly discovered latent powers that can save the world; attention from tall, dark, and handsome; boarding school; makeovers; mean girl rivals (mostly related to aforementioned tall, dark, and handsome); and, of course, the dreaded love triangle, but, for whatever reason, I didn’t mind it. It’s fast-paced and has more twists and turns than Lombard Street. Bardugo basically tried to pack everything and the kitchen sink in three books; I got whiplash a couple times speeding through the series. Also, she totally ruined my favorite character (Sturmhond) for obvious and necessary plot reasons, but, still. Such a waste of a great character. Basically there’s no reason why I should’ve like the series, but I did. Weird, huh? Side note: I was telling a friend about the series, and we discovered Amazon rated it for older teens, which I think is totally appropriate because it is kind of dark, so…probably not the best bedtime story for children and early teens.

The Princess Bride, William Goldman
A book that became a movie/with nonhuman characters/funny book/set in a different country/a friend recommended/you can finish in a day/by an author you’ve never read before
Summary: Only the “good parts”: Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love. Very meta. Inconceivable!
Tags: action/adventure, fairy tale-esque, movie adaptations, cult classic, Renaissance-era
Review: [4.5/5 stars] Don’t hate me, but I watched The Princess Bride in my 8th grade English class and hated it. I watched it again a few more times when I was older, and I’m still not a fan. I’m not sure why. I feel like I should like the humor and it’s quotable, which I love, but something just didn’t click. Anyways, when my friend who also happens to be a die-hard fan of the movie recommended the book, I was wary because of her obvious bias. Maybe it’s because of my low expectations, maybe it’s because I’ve always been a book, rather than movie, type of person, who knows, but for whatever reason, I actually really liked the book. Yes, it’s pretty much the movie (the quotable parts are practically verbatim), but it’s also so much more. The story within the story (or is it just the story?) of Goldman and his dad and future generations of Goldman men and Morgenstern and even his fictional physiatric wife captured my attention. I actually enjoyed reading the introductions (yes, all of them)! Even though I knew exactly what was going to happen, I was hooked. If that’s not the sign of a good storyteller, I don’t know what is.

Ender’s Game (The Ender Quintet, #1), Orson Scott Card
A book that became a movie/with nonhuman characters/set in a different country/popular author’s first book/a friend recommended/you can finish in a day/set in the future/by an author you’ve never read before
Summary: Precocious kids: save the world! Ender’s special, BATTLE ROOM, Ender’s special, military academy, Ender’s special. Darn buggers. Oh wait.
Tags: sci-fi/fantasy, distopia, movie adaptations, YA, series, cult classic, super kids, the Chosen One, kids playing grown-up, loved by English teachers, books with a MESSAGE, outer space
Review: [3-3.5/5 stars] This was my first actual sci-fi (i.e. it came from that section in the library I usually never visit), so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The Goodreads reviews I read seem to place readers on two extremes: people either really love it or really hate it. I’m kind of in the middle. The Good. The whole Battle Room idea is entertaining enough, you get caught up in The Game and its excitement, etc. etc. Even the child genius and military aspect is pretty interesting too. (Disclaimer: I’m neither a prodigy or a soldier, but it’s supposedly a good representation of life for both.) The Bad. Scott Card has A POINT he wants to make, and to really make sure you get it, he kind of beats you over the head with the POINT. He doesn’t just beat the dead horse, he picks it up, throws it down, and body slams it a few times to win the battle and the war. (Or, as Adam Levine would say, he didn’t just slay the dragon, he slapped it in the face to make sure it was dead.) The Ugly. Everyone in this book is absolutely crazy, and the kids spend 30% of the time running around naked (does nobody do laundry in space?). And don’t even get me started on the ending.

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
A book set that became a movie/with a number in the title/you can finish in a day/set in the future/by an author you’ve never read before/banned book/you started but never finished
Summary: Burn the books. Life is grand. Ignorance is bliss. Girl. Smell the roses. Save the books. Life is gone. Ignorance is blindness.
Tags: literature, books with a MESSAGE, dystopia
Review: [3/5 stars] Yes, I actually picked this up and read it voluntarily. Fahrenheit 451 is one of those books it seems like everybody and their mother has read (if only because of the American public school system), so it’s always been somewhere on my mental to-read list. I picked up my cousin’s copy during Thanksgiving (she was reading it for school) and read a bit while she was busy doing homework. It seemed pretty interesting, but turkey eating and celebrations and such got in the way, so I didn’t get through much of it. The second time around, reading it all the way through, I was slightly less impressed. I can see why English teachers love it so much: It’s artsy and flow-y and has a message that’s pretty in-your-face and just so happens to be about censorship and why books are great. The premise was enough to keep me reading, but the book never really caught or held my attention. I feel like I kept waiting for something to pull me in, but it never happened. I just keep reading but was never really engaged. Most of the time, I was too bogged down by all his descriptions to muster up the energy to care about the plot. I’m all for descriptive language and describing the setting and painting a picture with your words, but in moderation. I don’t need to know every single detail about the sidewalk and night air. Also, can someone please explain to me why a grown man needs to describe a teenage girl he randomly meets on the sidewalk with the level of detail Bradbury has Montag describe his neighbor? It’s kinda creepy.

Diamond Boy, Michael Williams
A book set in a different country/based entirely on its cover/by an author you’ve never read before
Summary: “Diamonds for everyone.” or so they said, but really, in the mines, it’s work until you’re dead. Boy becomes man. Greed has a cost.
Tags: YA, coming of age, social issues, family
Review: [4.5/5 stars] I actually think Matthew Quick‘s little blurb on the back cover is a pretty good summary of Diamond Boy: “Michael Williams astounds us with the moral dilemmas facing southern Africa; he also buoys us with a realistic sense of hope and triumph. A must-read.” I agree with everything but the “realistic sense of hope and triumph” claim. I understand why he said it, but I have disagree with the word “realistic.” Yes, life sucks, the mines are brutal, greed destroys, and life and limb are lost in Diamond Boy, but you still end up with a relatively neat and tidy ending, which is anything but realistic. Still, I think it was, overall, a good book. I’ve been wanting to learn more about diamond mining in Africa after learning about corruption in the diamond business. Since actually sitting down to watch Blood Diamond between the cracks of my fingers wasn’t all that appealing of an option, I was happy to find a YA alternative. I think Williams does a good job of accurately portraying a very real problem to an audience who might not otherwise be exposed to this kind of information. I do wish, though, that he had resisted the urge to finish with a nice, neat ending and that he included either his reference list or a list of recommendations for further reading at the end of the book.

Killer Instinct (The Naturals #2), Jennifer Lynn Barnes
A book by a female author/mystery or thriller/that scares you/you can finish in a day/with a love triangle/
Summary: You kill, they chase. They catch you…or did they? Attack. You would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids.
Tags: series, YA, love triangles, super kids, boarding school-esque, tortured past, brooding boy, cocky playboy, kids playing grown-up
Review: [3/5 stars] The series has been dubbed the Criminal Minds of YA. Now, being the type of steadfastly avoid shows like Criminal Minds on TV, I can’t speak for the validity of that statement. I can however, say that Jennifer Lynn Barnes certainly puts her advanced degrees in psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive science to good use in writing this series. Killer Instinct follows the same trajectory of the first book: crime, suspense, red herrings, plot twists and turns, followed by a random, last-minute “oh no, Cassie’s in danger!”, before closing with a love triangle boy scene (this is YA, after all.) Killer Instinct kept me on the edge of my seat and left me hoping the sun wouldn’t set for the next 48 hours after I finished the book (there are times when an overactive imagination is a bad thing). It’s well-paced and fairly unpredictable, and the UNSUB “you” sections from the criminal’s point of view interspersed throughout the novel are really well done (not to mention extremely creepy.) Sadly, Barnes does fall into many of the traps that seem inescapable in the “gifted kids in adult roles” and “boarding school” worlds of YA, but the story is written well enough that I can overlook most of the overused tropes. I really can’t stand the love triangle in the series though. It feels forced and certainly doesn’t add anything to the story, but I guess it’s hard to make a book about serial killers YA-friendly without it.

(Accidental!)Reread: Amazing Grace, Megan Shull
A book by a female author/at the bottom of your to-read list/based entirely on its cover/you can finish in a day/set in high school/by an author you’ve never read before can’t find age
Summary: Hollywood ‘It’ girl gives it all up. Undercover, small town, instalove, real life, looming paparazzi, and the search for normalcy.
Tags: YA, romance, instalove, bubblegum fluff, boy next door, secret identity
Review: [Rating: 1.5/5 stars] I’m being very generous with 1.5 stars. Amazing Grace is one of those books with an interesting cover I saw once at the library when my arms were already heavily laden with books, so it ended up on my to-read list for years because there was always prettier, more appealing books to read. I finally borrowed it and I’m reading along, when, 20 pages in, I realize: I’ve read this before. Now this can really mean one of two things: 1) it’s so predictable and full of cliches that you can easily find a dozen or so books that are essential the same OR 2) I’ve actually read it before, but it failed to leave a lasting impression because it’s so forgettable. Anyways, I read it because I’m me, but when I log onto Goodreads to add it to my shelf, surprise! It’s already there. Apparently I read it on December 28, 2011 and forgot to cross it off my to-read list. Opps. So, all this to say, Amazing Grace is, in my opinion, not worth a read. It’s a story that’s been written countless times before and a bad one at that.

Lola and the Boy Next Door, Stephanie Perkins
A book written by a female author/at the bottom of your to-read list/you can finish in a day/with a love triangle/set in high school/by an author you’ve never read before/that takes place in your hometown
Summary: (Girl met boy. Boy broke heart. Boy left forever.) Girl meets bad boy. Girl gets over boy. Girl dates bad boy. Boy comes back.
Tags: hyped, YA, romance, “series,” love triangles, childhood friends, childhood crush, bad boy, boy next door, quirky cast
Review: [Rating: 2/5 stars] For the longest time I kept seeing raving reviews about Anna and The French Kiss. Then, Stephanie Perkins came out with two more books and, according to the buzz on the internet, could basically do no wrong. I kept telling myself I would get around to her eventually to see what all the hype was about, but, being a reader who judges books by their covers, I kept putting it off. When I finally had enough of depressing and emo stories, I decided Stephanie Perkins was exactly the kind of light, fluffy, pick-me-up I needed. Because there was no way on earth I was going to read something called Anna and the French Kiss in public, I grabbed Lola and the Boy Next Door instead. Apparently it’s part two in the Anna and the French Kiss series, which really just means Perkins wanted to ride on the coattails of her success with Anna but didn’t have an actual story-sequel to tell. Instead, she gives us quirky, artsy, “every day’s a costume day” Lola, her tattooed, rock star, no regard for age of consent laws boyfriend Max, and her awkward, brilliant, first love Cricket (yes, that’s his real name). Oh, and Anna and European boy just happen to be friends with Lola and the Boy Next Door, so they make frequent appearances throughout the book that really serve no purpose other than to get fans all excited and hopefully sell more books. The story’s predictable, the characters aren’t anything special, and Perkins whacks you over the head with the setting and that fact that it’s in San Francisco. It’s a great example of trying too hard.

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So I don’t get sued: Original sources can be found by clicking on the pictures, and any Princess Bride references/quotes are the brainchild of William Goldman.