How Dumb Can a Book Possibly Be?

Here is a post that I started like, almost an entire year ago.  It was supposed to be Read This, Not That Part 2, but apparently I never came across a similar but good book to recommend in its place.  I just reread the post, and I think after reading it yourself you might understand why.

Okay.  So I've come across some really not-so-great books lately.  Like four in a row.  Two I managed to finish (though for the life of me I can't figure out why I bothered) and two I had to put down after the first few chapters.  So I thought, instead of just recommending good books, maybe I should warn people away from those terrible time-wasters.

Today's  DO NOT READ title is Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan.

I really liked her earlier work, (see post here) and was looking forward to reading her latest novel (its been four years since she finished her last trilogy).  But I must say, I was sorely disappointed.  The book started out promising, but quickly fell apart.  It had a nice concept - cruise ship disaster, only three survivors - a senator, his son, and a teenage girl, but the senator and his son lie about what really happened.  Interesting.  Unfortunately, as the story progresses, it becomes so implausible I couldn't get past page 93.  And believe me, it was a struggle to get even that far.

So, what was so unbelievable that it made the novel too annoying to read?  Well, for starters, the premise that there are uber rich people (who coincidentally already have their own personal yachts) on a cruise with plain old middle class people was a little dumb.  Then, the main character, middle class Frances, becomes bff's with uber rich Libby (who dies on the life raft, one half hour before their rescue) and they like, know everything about each other after like four days.  It turns out that these girls have barely turned 14 and yet they are so in love - like real, true love- like soulmate love - with these two guys.  Seriously?  Libby is in love with her adopted orphaned Mexican brother, Sheperd (named this by his Mexican parents - again, seriously?)  Frances has fallen madly in love with the senator's son (who she just met on the cruise).  While waiting to be rescued from her life raft, she thinks,

It didn't matter that I'd known him barely a week, it had been long enough to fall for him with an intensity I'd never experienced before.
He was my first love.  And he'd told me I was his.

Oh, pleeeeeease.

After the disaster, Libby's father convinces Frances to take the place of his daughter (because, you know, Frances now has NO LIVING RELATIVES.  AT ALL.) so he can protect her until they find out what really happened, because supposedly she would be in less danger that way (you know, from the perpetrators who caused the real ship disaster that is being covered up by the senator) than if he actually adopted her instead.  Umm, I'm not sure why one lone survivor who knows the truth would be in any less danger than a different lone survivor who knows the truth.  Of course, the father does mention that he just isn't ready to give up his dead daughter yet, but apparently when they get home he just ships Frances off to a Swiss boarding school anyway.  Oh, but first he gets her plastic surgery.  So she can look almost like Libby.  But just almost.  Seriously. 

There aren't enough seriously's in the world to get through this book because it gets much worse.  The story jumps to four years later, where Sheperd has apparently been waiting for Libby this whole time (because that's what fourteen year old boys do, right - pine away their entire teenage years for a girl they fell in love with in eighth grade).  I don't know what happened to the whole finding out the truth agenda, because the father has recently died without any mention of any type of investigating going on, and now Frances - aka Libby - is just set on revenge against the senator.  She begins enacting her carefully calculated plan by getting close to the senator's son and poisoning the senator's wife multiple times.  Whaaatt???  Add to this nonsense the fact that the author tells us like 6 times in one chapter that Frances/Libby keeps quirking up one side of her lip when she smiles, just like she has been practicing so she can look more like Libby.

Uugh!  This book was just stupid. I don't know why it was even published. Don't waste your time on it.  I'm not even going to put the part at the bottom with the ratings and stuff because, seriously, I highly recommend that you NOT read this book, ever, for any reason.

What I've Read Lately - June

Okay.  So if you have been paying attention, you will notice that my last 'What I've Read Lately' post has a June date, even though it says May in the title.  That's because I wrote the draft and never published it.  So here I am, a month later, writing about what I have actually been reading in June.  

I'm only going to talk about one book today, the one I just finished last night.  I've had some extra free time over the last week and a half, so I've read six books already (did I say extra free time?  I meant a lot of extra free time.)  The book (series) had been on my to-read list for awhile, but I wasn't actually planning to check it out on my latest trip to the library.  What I was planning to check out was nowhere to be seen, but lo and behold, I noticed  Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi on the shelf and grabbed it instead.

"YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME,"

I whisper.

I'M LYING,

is what I don't tell him.

HE CAN TOUCH ME,

is what I'll never tell him.

PLEASE TOUCH ME,

is what I want to tell him.

But things happen

when people touch me.

Strange things.

Bad things.

DEAD THINGS.

-inside book jacket

So, the book had been sitting in my bookcase at home in the special library book section along with the other nine I checked out at the same time.  While it was sitting there, waiting for its turn to be read, I just happened to be on Goodreads and notice the title on a list that was something like 'Book Series I just Can't Bring Myself To Finish Reading" or something like that.  You get the gist.  So I was wondering what was wrong with the series, and whether or not I would feel the same way (I don't often agree with a lot of the opinions on those lists), and I decided to read it next and see what the big deal was.

When you read as much as I do, you get to the point where you crave something different.  Something unique.  Something that has something that sets it apart so that it won't just blend into the blur of three-stars that most everything seems to become at some point.  I mean, you can only read so many books with the same basic premise before you are left saying "I liked that, but it wasn't anything particularly special."

After reading the first page, I was intrigued.  By the end of chapter two, I was getting pretty excited.  This book had something different.  More than just one something different, actually.  The author does this amazing stream of consciousness thing, using very short sentences along with long, un-punctuated or run-on sentences, combined with figurative language that often mixes up the senses.  And then, then she does something that, in the over 600 works of fiction that I have read, I have never come across even once.  She crosses out the things, the thoughts, that the character either does not want to say, or does not want to be even thinking in the first place.  The effect is incredible, powerful, helping the reader to not just know, but to almost  feel what the character is feeling. Without the author even having to tell us. Here is an example:

"Aren't you hungry?" His voice is lower now, a little worried now.  

I’ve been starving for 264 days.  "No."  The word is little more than a broken breath as it escapes my lips and I turn and I shouldn't but I do and he's staring at me.  Studying me.  His lips are only barely parted, his limbs limp at his side, his lashes blinking back confusion.

Something punches me in the stomach.

His eyes.  Something about his eyes.

It’s not him not him not him not him not him.

I close the world away.  Lock it up.  Turn the key so tight.

Blackness buries me in its folds.

"Hey -"

My eyes break open.  2 shattered windows filling my mouth with glass.

She does this type of thing again and again, but in just the right amount, so that it isn't too much and annoying, or too little and not effective.  And, for about the first quarter of the book, there is this element of mystery, where you know some things, and other things are hinted at, but you are on the edge of your seat waiting for information and wondering what is really going on and where is this story taking me and what could possibly happen next?!?!   And I'm wondering to myself, what could possibly happen to this story that would make people not want to finish reading it?

Well, eventually the story goes somewhere, and the place it goes is the same place that like, 50 other books have already gone.  And I was like No! No! No! No! No!  THIS CAN NOT BE HAPPENING!   I wish wish wish the author had taken this story someplace else.  The beginning was so full of anguish and angst and hopelessness and hope, (which, when conveyed using such creative writing, is part of why the book was so amazing) but by the end of this first book in the trilogy, those feelings are all almost gone.  The original voice is still there, but not as often, since those strong emotions are dwindling down, and by the end, well, everything is just peachy and the same ol' same ol' that I'm actually starting to get kind of tired of by now.

Of course, the book leaves you knowing that things are going to take a turn for the worse (for the characters in the plot, not in the writing.  I hope not in the writing anyway since I am already losing my excitement about it.), so there may be more opportunities for the emotional stuff, but the whole concept that the story has turned into has me thoroughly bummed.  Now I understand why some other readers out there decided that they just couldn't go on.

I'm still going to read the next book, and hopefully the one after that as well.  I will still even recommend that others read this, because it is an example of tremendously creative writing, and if you haven't already read even 10 other books with the same premise, you'll very likely be able to put this on your four-star list, even if I am just not feeling it anymore.

(Afterword:  I came across this song and the corresponding video clip a couple of months after I posted this, and I thought I'd share them with you.  This is exactly how the book made me feel!)

Music: TheFatRat - "No No No"

(download link on youtube)

(In case you didn't get it, click here for a link to a video of Shia LaBeouf repeatedly saying no as mentioned in the song above.)

Rating:  3.5 Stars
Reading Level: 4.3
Age Appropriate: Upper Grades
Page Count/Word Count:  338/ 76,089
Genre:  Paranormal/Supernatural, Dystopian, Romance, Action/Adventure
Keywords:  special abilities, romantic relationships, revolutions

What I've Read Lately - May

Soooooooo, I've been having trouble keeping up with my posts.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  For one, I started another project, namely scanning in old family letters written during WWII.  That took way longer than I thought it was going to, and I still have a (large) handful of letters to go.  Another reason is that I haven't had a lot of time to actually read, which means I haven't come across very many books that I really loved or hated, which is what I seem most inspired to write posts about.  So I figured it might be easier to get at least one post a month written if I just tell you about what I've been reading, whether good, bad, ugly, or just meh, (which is what I seem to be coming home with the most lately).  So here are a few of my most recent reads, or in one case, attempts to read:

Let's get started with that last one.  I thought the book sounded interesting - it was an idea I hadn't really come across before, and it's always good to find something original.  The book was Hotel Ruby by Suzanne Young.

"Stay tonight. Stay forever."

When Audrey Casella arrives for an unplanned stay at the grand Hotel Ruby, she's grateful for the detour. Just months after their mother's death, Audrey and her brother, Daniel, are on their way to live with their grandmother, dumped on the doorstep of a DNA-matched stranger because their father is drowning in his grief.

 Audrey and her family only plan to stay the night, but life in the Ruby can be intoxicating, extending their stay as it provides endless distractions--including handsome guest Elias Lange, who sends Audrey's pulse racing. However, the hotel proves to be as strange as it is beautiful. Nightly fancy affairs in the ballroom are invitation only, and Audrey seems to be the one guest who doesn't have an invite. Instead, she joins the hotel staff on the rooftop, catching whispers about the hotel's dark past.

Welcome to the Ruby.

The more Audrey learns about the new people she's met, the more her curiosity grows. She's torn in different directions--the pull of her past with its overwhelming loss, the promise of a future that holds little joy, and an in-between in a place that is so much more than it seems... - excerpt from author's website

It turns out I didn't like the book at all.  The first chapter was pretty good, but it all went downhill from there.  I got about a quarter of the way through the novel, and still nothing had really happened except for the main character and her brother flirting with these mysterious other residents of the hotel and talking about it to each other.  Not really the kind of book I was looking for.  So I quit reading it.  Even though I never did get to find out what that 'dark past' of the hotel was all about (I kinda figured, based on how the book was going so far, that the book wasn't going to focus so much on the mystery part, and I didn't want to agonize through the rest of it just to get a little bit about the reason I chose the book in the first place). Maybe if you give it a try, you'll like it better than I did.

I also picked a book called Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas.

When the glass slipper just doesn’t fit…

The tale of Cinderella has been retold countless times. But what you know is not the true story.

Pin has no recollection of who she is or how she got to the Godmother’s fortress. She only knows that she is a Seamstress, working day in and out to make ball gowns fit for fairy tales. But she longs to forsake her backbreaking servitude and dares to escape with the brave young Shoemaker.

Pin isn’t free for long before she’s captured again and forced to live the new life the Godmother chooses for her—a fairy tale story, complete with a charming prince—instead of finding her own happily ever after.

This book, I actually liked.  I wasn't so sure after the first chapter, because it was written in a way that leaves the reader with absolutely no idea what is actually going on.  But it turned out to be interesting, with a take on the whole fairy godmother concept that was so original, I haven't encountered anything even remotely close, ever.

If you like reading new and different versions of fairy tales, then you should definitely give this one a try.


Now for the book that I just finished reading yesterday.  It was The Diary of Pelly D by  L. J. Adlington.

Pelly D thinks her whole glorious life stretches ahead of her; but young building worker Toni V has just found her diary, buried in a water can, in rubble, in a construction site. There's a note: Dig, Dig Everywhere.

It's forbidden, Toni V knows, but curiosity drives him on - he hides the diary, and begins reading. Pelly D seems like any ordinary girl talking about clothes, parties, boys - but below her words, Toni V senses something very different, sinister and scary unfolding. Set far in the future, on a distant planet, Pelly D's diary bears witness, through her unsuspecting young eyes, to the terrifying impact of genetic classification of people.

The funny thing is, I almost didn't finish this.  In fact, I read it out of order.  I got through the first few chapters, and I didn't really like it; I actually found it quite annoying to tell the truth, but I thought, this book is kind of different, so I'll plug away a little longer.  After a few more chapters, I didn't really want to put up with it anymore, but I was curious about what had happened, so I skipped to about the three-quarter point in the book and started reading again.  That was a little confusing, but I started to realize that the book was drawing a parallel to something that had actually happened in history, about 75 years ago or so (trying not to be a total spoiler here).

This would be a good book to read if you like history, or if you hate history, since it gives you a sense of what actually happened in the past without sounding like a history lesson, and without sounding like historical fiction either, for that matter. It's like history repeating itself in the future, only in a slightly more futuristic way, and with a voice that a modern teenager can relate to.

So, that's what I've been up to over the past few weeks.  And as for what I am going to be reading next, well, I'll keep you posted.