The Whisper of Leaves – K.S. Nikakis
Very disappointing, but given its a debut novel I feel almost as if I should cut the author some slack. Some of the mistakes made in the book, I can relate to when I’ve tried to write. Such as the tendency for characters to easily guess the motives of others, despite the fact that they’ve never met, never spoken, or hell, practically forgotten that their race existed. But people in their own ‘clan’, they can’t figure out. Such as why a father hates his daughter. Everyone knows he does, but noone can figure out why. AND IT IS NEVER RESOLVED. *grump*
Others are almost unforgivable. Characters are one-dimensional to the point where they become caricatures. If they’re lucky, they get two dimensions. This character is arrogant, with precisely zero redeeming features. This character is driven to heal others, but is reckless and often causes more trouble than she solves. This brother (chief) is thoughtful, this brother is jealous and greedy because he’s not the chief. I found there was only one well defined character in the whole mess.
The cover tells you that this is ‘… an enthralling story with characters you care about’. But I can’t care about cardboard cutouts, as much as I would like to. As for the ‘enthralling story’… well, the idea isn’t bad, I just found the writing clunky, and sometimes seemed to violate rules that I had thought any editor worth his/her salt would catch straight away. Such as entire conversations taking place in a single paragraph, to the point where I wasn’t sure who had said what.
One last gripe (what happened to that slack I was going to give the author?). While it can be good, in a fantasy setting, for characters to not speak like denizens of the 21st Century, there can come a point where the emphasis on the little quirks of the language becomes annoying and instead of allowing the reader to immerse in the story, throws one out to have to think about what they actually bloody well mean.
I wanted to like this book. I’m generally a fan of fantasy, and given this is the first in a new series I was kinda looking forward to having another series to read over and over again. Alas, this is not that series.
Just started on The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette tonight, the prologue was interesting, so I have hopes.
Reading Dangerously, First Three Books
Here are the first three books which I read ‘Dangerously’ for. If one can really call ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ dangerous!
Confessions of a Shopaholic – Sophie Kinsella
As funny as this book can be, it made me cringe an awful lot. I can’t bring myself to spend a lot of money, and I pay my bills on time, every time. Sometimes I wish I could spend more on myself and be less miserly, but it seems I’m too well trained to spend without having to justify it in terms of how long it took to earn the money. But anyway… Spoiler ahead, if you’re worried about that sort of thing.
Every time the main character (Becky) convinces herself to buy just this one thing – because it has reward points, which is really free money, isn’t it, or because she’s been looking for zebra striped jeans for ages, or, well you get the idea – I found myself wanting to scream at her. It didn’t help that her taste in fashion made me want to vomit. Seriously, zebra striped jeans? Definitely not worth the effort she goes to trying to acquire them. I think my aforementioned stinginess made it hard for me to empathise with Becky’s problems. And frankly, I think she gets off too easily at the end.
The other thing that got me is that Becky seems to be a lot like Bridget Jones. Just replace cigarettes, booze and food with clothes, makeup and shoes and we have a winner.
All up, fun, but I’ve got the wrong mindset for it. I can’t laugh along with someone in this kind of strife.
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
In a word? Heartbreaking. The story of two women in Afghanistan and the bond that grows between them, set against nearly fifty years of Afghan history. Trouble is, you only ever see through two characters eyes for any length of time. And in a book in which a large chunk of it follows the rise of the Taliban, and the way they treated women, I would have liked to see a male perspective. We hear all the time how horrible it was for women, and some of the men do nothing to improve their image, but it would have been good – or interesting at the very least – to see inside the mind of Hakim, Tariq, Jalil, or even Rasheed.
My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
I have to stop reading books that make me cry. The first few chapters are confusing with the jumps between different timeframes, different storylines, which aren’t presented as flashbacks but as straight out chapters, and for a while I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through the book out of sheer frustration. I distinctly remember wondering why I’ve heard people rave about this book. But about a third of the way in, it suddenly all came together and started to make sense. And I was hooked. The medical jargon tended to fly over my head, but that wasn’t important. This was about a family facing an almost impossible choice: do you infringe on the rights, and possibly the life of one child just to keep another alive just a little bit longer?