Escape, Tweet Cute
When I pass through the kitchen I can feel my blood pressure jump whenever I hear the news. I know it's not good for post-stroke me, and it can't be good for anyone else, but ours is one of those households where one member cannot not be devouring the latest political disaster, even when it's recycled for the billionth time, or maundered over by talking heads who actually don't know much more than we do.
So my personal campaign is escape.
Especially at the end of the day, when my brain is fried, my hands hurt, or in the middle of the night if I can't get back to sleep and I don't want to pick up historical reading, or get up to watch another ep of the current Asian series I'm deeply involved in. I want something that will engage me, and promise me a happy ending so I can smile and get back to sleep.
Everyone has sure-fire tropes that will draw them in. Fellow writer
sholio hosted a recent discussion about hurt comfort as a sure-fire trope. (Which I like fine, but only part of a larger story.)
Surefire tropes for me, especially escape reading, are banter, a hilarious voice, enemies to friends/lovers, epistolary.
Like a recent NetGalley pick that I intended to read a chapter of a couple weeks ago, when I was wakened in the middle of the night, and I ended up reading until dawn. This was Tweet Cute, by Emma Lord. (All the more impressive as it's a first novel.)
When I saw in the description that this YA romcom features two of my favorite tropes (enemies to lovers, and epistolary) I had high expectations.
The author managed to meet them and surpass them.
The book has had a ginormous publicity push-if you take a fast look at Goodreads, you’ll see that it has ten times more reviews before its pub date than many books get over their lifetime.
So I’m not bothering with a description. Instead, I want to ramble about what made me enjoy this book so much.
First, the voices. Lord differentiates Pepper and Jack’s voices, so reading their opinions of the other was interesting, often hilarious. I thoroughly enjoyed their banter over the social media app that Jack invented, in which schoolmates take on identities as animals. I loved the fact that he designed it to deflect the toxicity that social media can swiftly turn into, especially in highly-cathected circs between the young and hormonally fuel-injected. What that said about Jack (besides his being bright) made him interesting as well as admirable.
The descriptions of the foods, especially the pastries, made me hungry. (Except monster cake. That sounded horrible!) I loved the side characters. The respective parents and siblings are all complicated as well as sometimes wry, even funny, without either descending to stupidity or overwhelming the story. The attention stays firmly on Jack and Pepper as they negotiate the various landmines they encounter as they inadvertently find themselves drawing closer.
Finally I really loved the backbone of the book: the exploration of what happens to families who find themselves far more successful than they dreamed. While hiding secrets. That gave it some grit.
If you're dealing with whatever stressors are going on by escape media, which things work for you and why?
This entry was originally posted at https://sartorias.dreamwidth.org/1018651.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
So my personal campaign is escape.
Especially at the end of the day, when my brain is fried, my hands hurt, or in the middle of the night if I can't get back to sleep and I don't want to pick up historical reading, or get up to watch another ep of the current Asian series I'm deeply involved in. I want something that will engage me, and promise me a happy ending so I can smile and get back to sleep.
Everyone has sure-fire tropes that will draw them in. Fellow writer
sholio hosted a recent discussion about hurt comfort as a sure-fire trope. (Which I like fine, but only part of a larger story.)
Surefire tropes for me, especially escape reading, are banter, a hilarious voice, enemies to friends/lovers, epistolary.
Like a recent NetGalley pick that I intended to read a chapter of a couple weeks ago, when I was wakened in the middle of the night, and I ended up reading until dawn. This was Tweet Cute, by Emma Lord. (All the more impressive as it's a first novel.)
When I saw in the description that this YA romcom features two of my favorite tropes (enemies to lovers, and epistolary) I had high expectations.
The author managed to meet them and surpass them.
The book has had a ginormous publicity push-if you take a fast look at Goodreads, you’ll see that it has ten times more reviews before its pub date than many books get over their lifetime.
So I’m not bothering with a description. Instead, I want to ramble about what made me enjoy this book so much.
First, the voices. Lord differentiates Pepper and Jack’s voices, so reading their opinions of the other was interesting, often hilarious. I thoroughly enjoyed their banter over the social media app that Jack invented, in which schoolmates take on identities as animals. I loved the fact that he designed it to deflect the toxicity that social media can swiftly turn into, especially in highly-cathected circs between the young and hormonally fuel-injected. What that said about Jack (besides his being bright) made him interesting as well as admirable.
The descriptions of the foods, especially the pastries, made me hungry. (Except monster cake. That sounded horrible!) I loved the side characters. The respective parents and siblings are all complicated as well as sometimes wry, even funny, without either descending to stupidity or overwhelming the story. The attention stays firmly on Jack and Pepper as they negotiate the various landmines they encounter as they inadvertently find themselves drawing closer.
Finally I really loved the backbone of the book: the exploration of what happens to families who find themselves far more successful than they dreamed. While hiding secrets. That gave it some grit.
If you're dealing with whatever stressors are going on by escape media, which things work for you and why?
This entry was originally posted at https://sartorias.dreamwidth.org/1018651.html. Please comment there using OpenID.