50 books...
36) Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare
Confession: I have not read Ms. Clare's first series (or indeed, anything else by her).
Another confession: it's summer, and I've been looking for some light reading to toss in between things that I am reading for work (social work textbooks and workbooks with an eye towards program implementation), and the odd heavier thing I've been picking up for fun (Nelson Mandela's "Conversations With Myself" is currently on my "in the midst of" list).
With that said, in a certain way, I enjoyed "Clockwork Angel". For me, the characters were at least somewhat new, and not just complete rehashes of previous work (as other reviewers have commented), and I enjoyed having at least a slight bit of Victorian flavour.
On the other hand... once again, I find myself reading a book for teens in which problematic romantic relationships are presented as being desirable and ideal, a la "Twilight". I will give some credit, in that Miss Gray occasionally stands up for herself to Will... but nearly so much as she should. One could, I suppose, attempt to argue that by making the comparison to Heathcliff and Cathy, the author is trying to point out how foolish it is for young women to take their notions of ideal romance from books that present unhealthy relationships... but somehow, I don't think that Ms. Clare was being that clever, nor would most of the (presumably) adolescent readers catch the reference. (Hell, the kids I know who have read this barely know who Nelson Mandela is, let alone having read Bronte!)
Might it make an entertaining movie? Well... the "Twilight" series has made millions, in spite of itself. Why do I bring movies into a book review? Because the audience this particular tome is aimed towards tend to think cinematically when they do read, and so the ability of the author to write a screenplay with some description matters.
Still... I really do wish we could move away from the trope of "brooding young man gets to be rude to all around him and still get the girl because he is somehow indescribably beautiful and thus worth her allowing her dignity to be trampled".
Confession: I have not read Ms. Clare's first series (or indeed, anything else by her).
Another confession: it's summer, and I've been looking for some light reading to toss in between things that I am reading for work (social work textbooks and workbooks with an eye towards program implementation), and the odd heavier thing I've been picking up for fun (Nelson Mandela's "Conversations With Myself" is currently on my "in the midst of" list).
With that said, in a certain way, I enjoyed "Clockwork Angel". For me, the characters were at least somewhat new, and not just complete rehashes of previous work (as other reviewers have commented), and I enjoyed having at least a slight bit of Victorian flavour.
On the other hand... once again, I find myself reading a book for teens in which problematic romantic relationships are presented as being desirable and ideal, a la "Twilight". I will give some credit, in that Miss Gray occasionally stands up for herself to Will... but nearly so much as she should. One could, I suppose, attempt to argue that by making the comparison to Heathcliff and Cathy, the author is trying to point out how foolish it is for young women to take their notions of ideal romance from books that present unhealthy relationships... but somehow, I don't think that Ms. Clare was being that clever, nor would most of the (presumably) adolescent readers catch the reference. (Hell, the kids I know who have read this barely know who Nelson Mandela is, let alone having read Bronte!)
Might it make an entertaining movie? Well... the "Twilight" series has made millions, in spite of itself. Why do I bring movies into a book review? Because the audience this particular tome is aimed towards tend to think cinematically when they do read, and so the ability of the author to write a screenplay with some description matters.
Still... I really do wish we could move away from the trope of "brooding young man gets to be rude to all around him and still get the girl because he is somehow indescribably beautiful and thus worth her allowing her dignity to be trampled".