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Books that make my brain itch
Jan. 14th, 2006 09:50 amI've really been enjoying the book review/blog of one of my favorite authors, Charlaine Harris. Many of the authors she's recommended (Ms. McBride, Elaine Viets) have given me a lot of reading pleasure. But she recently recommended a book called "Melusine" that I'd been eyeing at the bookstore. So I saw it at the library and decided to read it.
Not to be a spoiler, but this is a book where one of the two main characters goes deeply, creepily insane (in 1st person viewpoint no less!) about 40 pages into the book and stays that way for the next 300+, until about ten pages from the end. The other character has a more typical adventure arc, but he too has no real positives in his life.
I guess I just don't have a lot of patience with novels where the only sexual intercourse described is rape, no one ever eats a meal they enjoy, no one ever has an actually good time hanging out with their friends, etc. The whole book was just one bleak, deranged, horrible, or cataclysmic experience after another. It was well written, well-paced, interestingly plotted. But it left me horribly depressed. After a few hours of reading, I had to take a break and go to the gym.
I'm assuming this book is prepped for a sequel, because there are at least three, possibly four major plot points that are raised throughout the book and not resolved by the end. I guess I just look for more tidiness and escapism in my novels. Two hundred pages inside the mind of a broken, insane, tortured victim is not my idea of fun, especially when it seems to be just fueling an adventure story and not in the service of some larger philosophical point. Gak. As I said, there's nothing wrong with the writing, and I was even entertained when I realized the fantasy world used the French Revolutionary months, since that's something I've thought of too. The naming was clever. But Gak.
Not to be a spoiler, but this is a book where one of the two main characters goes deeply, creepily insane (in 1st person viewpoint no less!) about 40 pages into the book and stays that way for the next 300+, until about ten pages from the end. The other character has a more typical adventure arc, but he too has no real positives in his life.
I guess I just don't have a lot of patience with novels where the only sexual intercourse described is rape, no one ever eats a meal they enjoy, no one ever has an actually good time hanging out with their friends, etc. The whole book was just one bleak, deranged, horrible, or cataclysmic experience after another. It was well written, well-paced, interestingly plotted. But it left me horribly depressed. After a few hours of reading, I had to take a break and go to the gym.
I'm assuming this book is prepped for a sequel, because there are at least three, possibly four major plot points that are raised throughout the book and not resolved by the end. I guess I just look for more tidiness and escapism in my novels. Two hundred pages inside the mind of a broken, insane, tortured victim is not my idea of fun, especially when it seems to be just fueling an adventure story and not in the service of some larger philosophical point. Gak. As I said, there's nothing wrong with the writing, and I was even entertained when I realized the fantasy world used the French Revolutionary months, since that's something I've thought of too. The naming was clever. But Gak.
