So I read the new Stephen King

[cleolinda]

...because the two or three weeks after Christmas are my traditional Book Wallow. And I really like Stephen King's short stories, which tend to be more high-concept and less tangential than his novels. That is to say, you get a handful of really interesting ideas, rather than one idea that goes on for three hundred pages longer than it should. Full

Comments

[tezmilleroz]

which sets off my Sparkle Motion sensors

Coincidentally (or not), Ally Condie and Stephenie Meyer share the same agent.

[cleolinda]

AH JESUS

[beth_shulman]

Heh. Although if Condie is a good writer, that isn't so bad, because frankly there is no evidence of an editor in the Twilight books.

[r_a_black]

Nah, there were sentences in that book that made me burst out laughing they were just so strange. She tries really damn hard to make her protagonist come off as ~thought-provoking~ and to make her sound ~enlightened~ but it's all so contrived that you can't really do anything but laugh.

[beth_shulman]

Definitely something I'll skip, then.

(Also there is so much good YA why is it that bad books become famous)

[r_a_black]

I have no idea. Or, well, I guess it might have something to do with constantly feeling intense emotions with these recent YA books. The romance often has deep, inexplicable connections involved, it's like romantic sensationalism, which often does get unwary readers addicted. Twilight was very much like that, with Bella constantly feeling all kinds of intense emotions all the time that involved Edward or even Jacob at times. I've found that other YA tries to do the same without bothering to flesh out the relationship, they just hang on to the really passionate aspects.

[beth_shulman]

This makes a lot of sense. I seem to remember reading a blog post by an editor who said that she couldn't stand Twilight, and yet while she was reading the book, she couldn't put it down, because of that emotional rush.

[r_a_black]

That's what I felt through my first read (well, my only read, but I've read so many recaps/quotes/reviews I may as well have read it twenty times) because I was one of those unwary readers I mentioned earlier. It wasn't until I took the time to actually stop and think that I realized there was a lot of stuff seriously wrong with the books. Things did bug me as I read, but I was so caught up that they stayed at the very back of my mind.

And I guess that's possibly why the fans are so rabid sometimes. Being Bella, getting these intense emotional rushes whenever Edward's around, is probably part of the reason they feel so defensive when people say negative things about him.

[beth_shulman]

Ha, same here. The only thing I noticed that really bothered me as I read them was the writing. (I read the first three over one weekend, my cousin told me they were the best thing ever. Heh.)

[ftsor]

They also share the same Mormonism. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but its underpinnings are everywhere, and even though Condie said in an interview that this was her first book with "no religion in it" (or something along those lines), it's...still...in there. A lot.