THIRTEEN REASONS WHY
A guy receives a package of tapes in the mail. Turns out they're from a girl (Hannah) who killed herself recently. The chapters switch (seamlessly, I must say) between what's being said on the tapes and what our hero is thinking/doing as he listens to the tapes.
If I don't really know what to say about a book I'll have a read through the Amazon reviews, here are some highlights:
fattychocolate says; "It's a sad genre (suicide) but is poignant"
Charlotte says; "I found tears pouring down my face when I finished it, lol."
eeksqueak says; "...I just wanted to tell poor old Hannah to grow up. Having said that, I doubt she would have coped at all well with the trials of college and adult life, so perhaps it's just as well she topped herself sooner rather than later."
Mostly I read them for yuks, but it does remind me of good points, bad points and what the book was actually about. With Thirteen Reasons Why it was mostly bad points. Hannah is bitter and off-putting; the guy listening is completely wrecked by the tapes and spends the book wandering around town sobbing, clutching a walkman. What good has it done to send out these tapes? None. Spiteful egomaniac doesn't get her way, so she kills herself, but not before arranging a complicated revenge for the people who annoyed her/talked about her/failed to read her mind and cater to her needs. The premise is intriguing but Hannah is just so unlikeable. One of the thirteen reasons is SPOILER ALERT, that she saw someone being raped and didn't do anything about it. This happened in two other recent books. I guess watching rape is the new being raped in YA fiction. Maybe the whole tape thing is Hannah's bitchy, roundabout way of alleviating her guilt for keeping schtum about the assault she witnessed. Probably not though.
WAKING THE WITCH
The latest Women of the Otherworld book takes the series back to its supernatural-solving-crimes roots. It's not the most thrill-ridey mystery novel but Savannah, who first appeared as a child in Stolen and has grown up throughout the series, was enough to keep me reading. What's she like now? Ooh, she has a motorcycle! She's so sassy! Look at her in her wife-beater. Et cetera. It's certainly a few notches above stultifying lupine rut-fest Frostbitten, which I read back in January. Waking the Witch is blessedly rut-free! I really like Kelley Armstrong's books but her sex scenes are just awful. They're too long and have involved (among other things) a middle-aged man opening a pair of french doors slightly and sticking his thing through the gap, to the surprise and delight of his partner. Call me a prude but I really prefer the action to cut off before the french doors open and resume again when it's all over.
THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS
Murder! Disguises! Espionage! Barely more than 100 pages long! Now don't raise an eyebrow, I'm not afraid of long books. It's just that the sense of achievement I get from finishing a long book is the same feeling I get from finishing a short book, so may as well go for a short book, save time, be more triumphant. It was okay. Very dated; today's audience expect more from spy novels. Hell, even audiences in the fifties and sixties; James Bond would wipe his amphibious car with turn-of-the-century ditherer Richard Hannay. This story is very straightforward, narrow in characterization (where are the femmes fatales? Where are any women?) and setting. Just don't bother with it.
THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA
This book was on sale at Oxfam in Ilkley for only £1.25. An unheard-of bargain. I've been Zuckerman-only so far on Roth (apart from Portnoy's Complaint). I was reluctant to give any of his other characters a try incase they're not as good, but I needn't have worried because this is bloody brilliant. I wouldn't say Philip Roth shits all over every other living writer, but he certainly pees on them a little.
TEMPTED and BURNED
Thank God these two are the last of the House of Night books for now. Any more talk of warriors, crow-men, nuns and "brown pop" and I'd probably cringe myself into a coma. Yes, I am about 15 years too old for these books. Thanks for asking.
LORD OF THE FLIES
Until now, everything I knew about Lord of the Flies I learned from season nine Simpsons episode "Das Bus," so I was expecting something of a black comedy. Intended as a remedy to jolly adventure tales of bluff, hearty British boys making their way in the world of pirates and savages and the like. Leader Ralph is caught between mundane, sensible Piggy who clings to his civilised ways and bloodthirsty Jack, who just wants to paint himself and hunt. Lord of the Flies looks into how long the bluff heartiness holds up when no-one's looking. Answer: not very long. It's pretty great. The ending is fantastic.
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