Reading roundup, including The Neon Court

[hamsterwoman]

21. Jonathan Kellerman, Killer -- so this totally did the job of hooking me instantly and getting me to finish it within 24 hours of having picked it up t the library, like these books normally do. It was interesting / rather different from most Delaware books in that

Comments

[etrangere]

this would be the point where i started having issues with all the dead ladies...

[hamsterwoman]

It's a very odd feeling, because on the one hand, like 90% of the cast *is* ladies, so I can't really complain that the body count has skewed demographics. And once I started counting, there have actually been plenty of dead men, too -- the Neon Court guy who died in the same confrontation as Dees, e.g. But the emotionally significant losses -- for Matthew and therefor the reader -- do seem to be all women. But at the same time, so are the emotionally significant characters, period. So I keep arguing myself around in circles.

But regardless of demographics, I'm just really sad not to have Dees or Oda around anymore, or Vera or Dana Mikeda.

(Did you do a write-up about these books? I couldn't find them in your tags and would love to read your thoughts if you've shared them!)

[etrangere]

yes, it's not in term of amount of characters killed, it's the amount of characters are liked and were important in term of narrative that are now dead.

Nope, I still haven't done any books review on my journal since december. Sorry.

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, I didn't realize these were a recent read for you -- I thought I had remembered somebody mentioning having issues with all the dead ladies in these books, and thought it might have been you.

[meathiel]

How do you manage to read so many books at the same time? I usually don't read more than 2 at the same time ...

[hamsterwoman]

They're not all in "active circulation", so to speak -- having just finished two last night, I think The Carpet People and probably Codex Born will become my primary reads -- I can do 2-3 at a time, say, one in my backpack for the work commute and one on my bedstand. Although the first 4 on that unfinished list are on my Kindle, and so always accessible to me as well, and I occasionally dip into them when my primary read is not working for sufficient commute distraction or staying awake :P

I just not infrequently put books I'm in the middle of on "pause", read something else, then go back and promote the unfinished book to primary status again to finish.

[meathiel]

I've never really done that. I usually read a book until the end and then start a new one. Except when I go on holiday and want to take a new book. Though that isn't a problem anymore with the Kindle, either!

[hamsterwoman]

I tend to alternate between reading books sequentially and in parallel like this, but for the most part, I typically have 2-3 I'm in the middle of at the same time, whether I'm actively reading or taking a small break to swallow a new book that's a quick read. This many is rather unusual even for me!

[lunasariel]

For some reason, the fact that Shel Silverstein is dead totally slipped my mind - I have a feeling that I knew it at one point, but have since blocked it out, having literally read three copies of Where The Sidewalk Ends to pieces. It sounds like it's not quite worth seeking out on its own merits, though, so I'll probably just look up the poems you recommend individually.

Also, how's Raising Steam going? Have you gotten to the good bit yet?

[hamsterwoman]

I'd also kind of forgotten he'd died, or at least didn't realize it was so long ago -- all the way back in 1999. I would say, if you find this book at the library, it's worth checking out -- the poems are short, after all, so it's not like you'd be wasting a lot of time on the less-than-amazing ones, and some of them are still amusing. But definitely no reason to rush out and buy the book -- another copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends would probably be a better investment ;)

Raising Steam is getting better! I kind of put it on hold to finish the Matthew Swift book, and in the interim I came across the recent(ish) edition of PTerry's The Carpet People -- the book he wrote when he was 17 -- which I randomly came across at the library the other week. I think I should probably not try to read them in parallel, but we'll see which one wins out...

[alenky_cveto4ek]

I’ll... try not to be too messy in my ramblings XDD

I find Penny an enjoyable character as well, and I definitely know what you mean about her being around having an effect on Matthew as a character, revealing certain things about him. Since he doesn’t really connect to people (or tries very hard not to), him being so... human around Penny, caring about her to the point of willingly offering physical contact as comfort definitely had an impact.

I don’t normally read reviews of books I like on goodreads or wherever, but I think I saw the “so many women dead” complaint somewhere, and personally, I don’t think that’s the right wording. I can agree to “so many characters dead” and discussions on whether that was really necessary, but the fact that Griffin wrote so many different and fantastic women into the narrative in the first place that killing off anyone would in 90% cases result in a female death is the strongest for me here. I don’t do feminism much, but I think the fact that all these women are very capable, interesting in

[hamsterwoman]

caring about her to the point of willingly offering physical contact as comfort

Yes! That was a very striking scene, in a way that highlighted for me something I hadn't really realized -- how little physical contact (that isn't getting the crap beaten out of him) Matthew gets on a normal basis.

re: "so many dead women", I keep going back and forth on it, honestly. I think the part I personally, instinctively object to is "so many dead characters", because it's definitely the individuals I miss and not some abstract gender-based quota. I don't think one can complain about the dead women in the series itself, because, yeah, other than Matthew himself and maaaybe Sinclair, who else *is* there whose death would have any sort of emotional impact? But I think the reason people make the "so many dead women" argument, and the bit I keep snagging on myself, is sort of the broader view, beyond the series -- which is maybe not even fair, but... Like, at the end of the third book, we've got a male (albeit nonconventional) protagonist pretty

[alenky_cveto4ek]

That scene had a similar effect on me as well, both because it highlighted Matthew’s continuous lack of non-violent physical contact and because it just felt very...emotional, I guess, real. I’m not sure how to explain it better.

re: "so many dead women". Well, so long as it’s not about feminism...I can definitely understand why the death toll could be a problem - it’s not like I don’t miss the characters or don’t wish they were alive. I could come up with a few explanations why Griffin chose to walk down that particular path, if we assume there’s an idea behind it and not, you know, “the book wrote itself and that’s how it flowed”. When I was reading the books, I was sad over so many great characters dying, but accepted it without consciously criticizing the author, so I guess it was a little different for me. Alternatively, in Magicals Anonymous series she hardly kills off anyone, but I don’t think it has any impact on my opinion on the series, either positive or negative

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, I see the connection to the poem, definitely, and I see why you like it, too; I think it’s a good one.

I'm glad I'm not just imagining the similarities. ("Aubade" has been my favorite poem for the last, oh, probably almost 20 years, and every time I reread it, I get the same chill from so many lines...)

I could come up with a few explanations why Griffin chose to walk down that particular path, if we assume there’s an idea behind it and not, you know, “the book wrote itself and that’s how it flowed”.

If such speculation is interesting to you, I would love to hear those ideas!

(And that's reassuring to hear that the characters don't die nearly as much in the other series.)

For us confused-by-two-magical-Londons people the breaks might be an actual necessity lol.

Haha, you could well be right!