last-minute books and tv I'm not watching
I ended up reading another book by Chris Bohjalian: Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands. It's his most recent novel, the one that first piqued my interest when I heard an interview with him talking about it.
I was intrigued by the premise: a teenage girl protagonist surviving on her own after a nuclear reactor melts down... and her parents (who both worked at the plant) might have been responsible for the accident. Y'all should know I'm a sucker for survival stories by now, so this was an obvious lure.
It ended up being both more and less than what I thought. Less dystopia, more troubled teen. Warning: there's some potentially triggering material, including self-harm (cutting), prostitution, drug use, and references to child abuse.
That being said, the character voice was strong, and Emily Shepard has a pretty good handle on just how messed-up some of her choices are.
Interesting choice to make the novel very time-specific. It's contemporary, and there are references to Tumblr, cell phone use, modern slang, and lots of other things that could lead to a very dated feel in a few years.
Anyway! My conclusion is that Bohjalian is a good-not-great author at this point. His prose felt better matched for the character voice this time around; I think he does better with modern characters than with historical characters.
I'm not going to avoid Bohjalian's novels in the future, but I'm not going to wait for his next book with bated breath. Just the fact that I'm thinking this much about what worked and what didn't is something of a signal that this story didn't quite click for me at that gut level.
So there was a new episode of Doctor Who last night. I still haven't finished watching season seven. Somewhere along the way I lost interest, and I can point to Clara as the new companion as that moment: yet another woman with a mystery. How many mysterious women whose pasts are secretly entwined with the Doctor do we need? As someone who identified pretty strongly with the (ordinary human) companions, it left me feeling like an outsider.
I may watch the rest of season seven now that it's on Netflix... or I may not. I tried episode 7.06 the other day, and it wasn't an auspicious re-entry point.
Feel free to tell me why I should give season eight a try in real-time, if you wish.
Posted at Dreamwidth: http://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/280338.html. Comment where you wish.
I was intrigued by the premise: a teenage girl protagonist surviving on her own after a nuclear reactor melts down... and her parents (who both worked at the plant) might have been responsible for the accident. Y'all should know I'm a sucker for survival stories by now, so this was an obvious lure.
It ended up being both more and less than what I thought. Less dystopia, more troubled teen. Warning: there's some potentially triggering material, including self-harm (cutting), prostitution, drug use, and references to child abuse.
That being said, the character voice was strong, and Emily Shepard has a pretty good handle on just how messed-up some of her choices are.
Interesting choice to make the novel very time-specific. It's contemporary, and there are references to Tumblr, cell phone use, modern slang, and lots of other things that could lead to a very dated feel in a few years.
Anyway! My conclusion is that Bohjalian is a good-not-great author at this point. His prose felt better matched for the character voice this time around; I think he does better with modern characters than with historical characters.
I'm not going to avoid Bohjalian's novels in the future, but I'm not going to wait for his next book with bated breath. Just the fact that I'm thinking this much about what worked and what didn't is something of a signal that this story didn't quite click for me at that gut level.
So there was a new episode of Doctor Who last night. I still haven't finished watching season seven. Somewhere along the way I lost interest, and I can point to Clara as the new companion as that moment: yet another woman with a mystery. How many mysterious women whose pasts are secretly entwined with the Doctor do we need? As someone who identified pretty strongly with the (ordinary human) companions, it left me feeling like an outsider.
I may watch the rest of season seven now that it's on Netflix... or I may not. I tried episode 7.06 the other day, and it wasn't an auspicious re-entry point.
Feel free to tell me why I should give season eight a try in real-time, if you wish.
Posted at Dreamwidth: http://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/280338.html. Comment where you wish.