My WORST BOOKS OF ALL TIME list!! (Young adult)
Here is my list of worst books ever read (young adult genre), along with descriptions and venting by yours truly. Enjoy!
What is this world coming to? I think I'll shuffle off into a corner now to mourn the time I lost on this crap... Sob!!
(i) Unearthly, by Cynthia Hand (young adult, urban fantasy)
Book summary: In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .
Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.
Here is a link to my review.
My comments: This one started pretty well. The writing was a bit too 'simplistic' or 'dumbed down' but it wasn't bad. I do think this author has potential. This novel however, is a prime example of what NOT TO DO when writing a book series. In other words, DO FINISH each installment before ending the book. This book just cuts off and you are expected to read the next one to have any basic answers relative to the story. No thanks.
(ii) Reincarnation, by Suzanne Weyn (young adult, paranormal romance)
Book summary: The ultimate historical romance: one love story unfolds over many centuries and many lives in this captivating pageturner from Suzanne Weyn.
From prehistory to the present, theirs was a love for the ages. It starts with a fight in a cave over an elusive green jewel . . . and then travels over time and lives to include Egyptian slaves, Greek temples, Massachusetts witch trials, Civil War battlefields, Paris on the eve of World War II, America in the 1960s . . . and a pair of modern-day teenagers. For readers who believe that love is stronger than time or death, this is an unforgettable novel from a wonderful storyteller.
Here is a link to my review.
My comments: Has an interesting premise which winds up being completely ruined by the author. Hey, do you think I might be reincarnated as a overweight armadillo in my next life? Does anybody care? Anybody??? Yep, I didn't think so.
(iii) The Body Finder (The Body Finder #1), by Kimberly Derting (young adult, paranormal romance)
Book summary: Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies-or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.
Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer-and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.
Here is a link to my review.
My comments: In this one, the author manages to recycle some of the worst cliches in stories involving a murder mystery. I won't give any details about this here (not because I think you should read it, but just out of habit), but suffice it to say the mystery aspect of the story is at about the same level (and about as interesting) as having the novel's narrator suddenly realize they suffer from narcolepsy and that they killed Aunt Betsy during one of their episodes, because of her propensity for wearing pink socks. Ugh.
And as a P.S.: The main character is called Violet Ambrose?? Why not call her Rosamunde Screecher or Blanche Neige Pulchritude FFS??? WTF???
There may be more books posted to this list in future. Weep for the future, my friends!! Weep for it!!!
P.S.: I realize that my list may cause some raised eyebrows, or have people label me a pompous twit, as I do list (and savage) several works which are considered classics in the so-called 'canon' (more correctly referred to as the English language or even North American English language canon, IMHO, but that's a topic for another day). My response to that is that it is merely my personal opinion and yours may certainly differ -any pomposity is unintentional. :-)
I do however think that it is important to be open to new points of view as well as to critiques of such works, despite their lofty status to date: several such works are rife with racism, misogyny and other -isms which in my opinion rather obviate the need for their review and reinterpretation.
What is this world coming to? I think I'll shuffle off into a corner now to mourn the time I lost on this crap... Sob!!
(i) Unearthly, by Cynthia Hand (young adult, urban fantasy)
Book summary: In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .
Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.
Here is a link to my review.
My comments: This one started pretty well. The writing was a bit too 'simplistic' or 'dumbed down' but it wasn't bad. I do think this author has potential. This novel however, is a prime example of what NOT TO DO when writing a book series. In other words, DO FINISH each installment before ending the book. This book just cuts off and you are expected to read the next one to have any basic answers relative to the story. No thanks.
(ii) Reincarnation, by Suzanne Weyn (young adult, paranormal romance)
Book summary: The ultimate historical romance: one love story unfolds over many centuries and many lives in this captivating pageturner from Suzanne Weyn.
From prehistory to the present, theirs was a love for the ages. It starts with a fight in a cave over an elusive green jewel . . . and then travels over time and lives to include Egyptian slaves, Greek temples, Massachusetts witch trials, Civil War battlefields, Paris on the eve of World War II, America in the 1960s . . . and a pair of modern-day teenagers. For readers who believe that love is stronger than time or death, this is an unforgettable novel from a wonderful storyteller.
Here is a link to my review.
My comments: Has an interesting premise which winds up being completely ruined by the author. Hey, do you think I might be reincarnated as a overweight armadillo in my next life? Does anybody care? Anybody??? Yep, I didn't think so.
(iii) The Body Finder (The Body Finder #1), by Kimberly Derting (young adult, paranormal romance)
Book summary: Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies-or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.
Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer-and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.
Here is a link to my review.
My comments: In this one, the author manages to recycle some of the worst cliches in stories involving a murder mystery. I won't give any details about this here (not because I think you should read it, but just out of habit), but suffice it to say the mystery aspect of the story is at about the same level (and about as interesting) as having the novel's narrator suddenly realize they suffer from narcolepsy and that they killed Aunt Betsy during one of their episodes, because of her propensity for wearing pink socks. Ugh.
And as a P.S.: The main character is called Violet Ambrose?? Why not call her Rosamunde Screecher or Blanche Neige Pulchritude FFS??? WTF???
There may be more books posted to this list in future. Weep for the future, my friends!! Weep for it!!!
P.S.: I realize that my list may cause some raised eyebrows, or have people label me a pompous twit, as I do list (and savage) several works which are considered classics in the so-called 'canon' (more correctly referred to as the English language or even North American English language canon, IMHO, but that's a topic for another day). My response to that is that it is merely my personal opinion and yours may certainly differ -any pomposity is unintentional. :-)
I do however think that it is important to be open to new points of view as well as to critiques of such works, despite their lofty status to date: several such works are rife with racism, misogyny and other -isms which in my opinion rather obviate the need for their review and reinterpretation.