Feb/Mar Book Post!
Yup, I only decided to start a reading challenge a few weeks ago, but better late than never. 50 books in one year is totally possible right? lol O__o.
Anyway, what have I been reading?
Fifty Shades of Grey: there has been a lot of buzz around this book (it's been selling almost purely because of word-of-mouth). AND I DON'T KNOW WHY. This is a sad excuse for a book. Fun fact: this book was originally Twilight fanfiction. That's right. The author took the story, changed the names (Edward to Christian, Bella to Anastasia) and published that awful drivel. Just Google and you can download the original fanfic and actual book online to compare. The premise of the story: boring, no-personality, regular-girl meets young but extremely rich/successful tycoon and there's unexplained attraction/electricity between them (ugh, that cliché is so tired).. and basically the rest of the book is them doing the nasty (and the guy's dark secret is that he likes whips/chains and exerting absolute control over everything/one). The story is one thing.. but the writing is atrocious. The writing is really basic, and the author loves to abuse certain words/phrases over and over again (like 'inner goddess' and 'he pressed his mouth into a hard line').
Interview with the Vampire: I saw the movie when I was much younger, and it is indeed one of my favourites. Unfortunately, I can't unspoil myself, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed the book too. Anne Rice is a fantastic storyteller.. her characters are captivating and the descriptions beautiful and fluid. My only small complaint is that sometimes the descriptions are long-winded. The book also makes you think too, about religion, good/evil, purpose, eternity.. Normally we think that having immortality can only be a good thing, but we quickly learn from her vampires that not all have what it takes to live forever. All of her characters are compelling and far from simple - there are no clear lines between who is hero or villain.
The Vampire Lestat: the sequel to IWTV. Lestat is defintely my favourite character in this series. And this book presents a much different character than we see in the previous book. Louis (who narrated IWTV), though I like him, plays the mopey, tortured hero. Lestat, the "brat prince," is the vain, ruthless anti-hero, and in this book, we get to see the vulnerable and naive side of him (as a human and in early vampirehood). His snarky personality makes for great narration too. What I didn't like: the middle portion of the book was pretty boring (the parts with Marius explaining his story and the story of the first vampires ever).
The Queen of the Damned - Akasha, the Mother of all vampires (and the big bad villain) is awoken from her <6 thousand year slumber by rockstar Lestat and she tries to take over the world. This is the 3rd book of the 10 part Vampire Chronicles series.. and honestly, this is probably where the magic is starting to wear off for me. I might try the 4th book but I probably will not see the series to the end. As much as I do enjoy Rice's writing, the plot and many new characters just didn't engage me. The book is split into 6 parts (and the first part itself contained a gazillion other parts).and a lot of it was just too draggy. I haven't seen the movie adaptation of this yet, so I'll try to watch it sometime (even though I've heard that it is atrocious).
Anna and the French Kiss: did not enjoy this one either. A fluffy YA novel about a girl who bemoans getting shipped off to boarding school in French (which doesn't make sense at all. who wouldn't LOVE going to school in France). And of course she meets this dreamy, American-English-French boy English (pretentiously named Etienne St. Clair), but oop - he has a girlfriend, so they become 'just friends' but somehow senses weird/forbidden chemistry between them.. blah blah blah. I haven't read fluffy YA books in a while, so I don't if it's just the book that's bad, or that my tastes have somehow 'matured.' These clichéd story lines simply irritate me now. There's nothing special about the writing style either - bland and elementary.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven: I needed to take a break from longer, complex books (aka IWTV and TVL) and awful books (FSoG and AatFK) so I decided to read this. It's definitely short, but wow, very moving. It's about an old man, who dies, feeling like his life has been meaningless, and meets five people in heaven (duh). Mm I don't really have a lot to say about it. The story is nice and touching.
Confessions of a Shopaholic & Shopaholic Takes Manhattan: another case where I've seen the movies first, but I enjoyed these books as well. Sophie Kinsella's writing is great.. it flows effortlessly and is really sharp and funny. And the character of Becky Bloomwood.. sometimes you love her, and sometimes you just want to throttle her. She's incredibly irresponsible, delusional at times, and a compulsive liar, but she's very endearing and hilarious. Extra points to the author for creating lovable secondary characters too (that's another problem I had with Anna and the French Kiss - author was really lazy with the secondary characters). This is definitely a high-quality fluffy/chick-lit series.