Noll's 2014 Reading

[Michelle]

Thanks for the ideas Noll - in return, I recommend you look for More Than This by Patrick Ness. I can't say much about it without giving things away, but my brief thoughts are here - http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/11986-more-than-this-by-patrick-ness/

[Nollaig]

Oooh okay, I love A Monster Calls by him so I'll definitely check that out.

[Signor Finzione]

Agree about THG being overrated, Noll. I was especially disappointed with the third book in the trilogy - I didn't really like it at all, and the ending really disappointed me.

 

I liked your review of Montezuma - I read it when I was fairly young and remember bawling my eyes out at the end, and then turning back to the beginning and reading the whole thing all over again!

 

Have you ever read anything by Garth Nix? I really enjoyed reading the trilogy of Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen a while ago; maybe you'd like 'em too.

[Nollaig]

Have you ever read anything by Garth Nix? I really enjoyed reading the trilogy of Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen a while ago; maybe you'd like 'em too.

 

Yep, read them years ago, they're very good (the hard drives my brother uses that I'm networked to are named Sabriel and Lirael )

 

 

I finished reading Unwind by Neal Shusterman.

 

Synopsis: The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: The Bill Of Life, which renders life inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of 13 and 18, however, parents can have their child "unwound"; whereby the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. This has become an everyday, socially accepted norm. Connor is constantly fighting at school, and is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is among the statistical excess which must be culled to cut orphanage costs. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised for the sole purpose of being unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

 

Review: This is, quite frankly, the most compelling, complex and well-thought-out modern YA dystopian novel I have ever read. And it came out in 2007, so it was being the best modern dystopian around before dysoptians became a modern fad. Its sociological subject matter is an extreme echo of an issue we face today - how do we define a person, and at what point does a person become a person, or stop being one? How do we estimate the value of a person, and at what point should our control over the life of another person cease? Is one person divided worth less than the lives of the many they save through organ donation? Each of the three main characters represents an angle of the fallout of the Bill Of Life - the social issues, legal issues, and moral (including religious fanaticism) issues which arise. The element which makes the story so successful in my eyes is that is doesn't necessarily attempt to answer these questions - but rather openly poses them in an unfamiliar, rather disturbing, arguably absurd context; the author merely introduces the discussion without ever openly taking one side or the other.

 

In addition, the questions rest on solid grounding - there is so much originality in the plot, it moves along at a terrific pace, and right up until the final page it kept me gasping, giggling and tearing up. It is brilliantly written - every character has a role to play, or offers a new perspective, and the hard-to-swallow reality of this future society is made more believeable by little details, like the urban legend of Humphrey Dunfee - which I'll let you discover for yourself. While not as immersive as an adult novel might be, it is told from the perspectives of each of the characters in turn, so we get to sufficiently explore their individual experiences, motives and more than that, their progression in coming to find an answer for themselves about what is ultimately right and wrong. Though it is clearly aimed at a YA audience, is not an easy read. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Absolutely the most original, chilling and fascinating YA book I've read in a long long time.

 

Rating: 5/5

Edited January 18, 2014 by Nollaig

[Michelle]

Unwind isn't calling to me, but I just looked him up, and The Skinjacker Trilogy looks interesting. I really should wait until payday, so it's gone on my amazon wishlist.

[Nollaig]

I actually didn't even make it as far as looking at his other books because I got so immediately caught up in Unwind, but I have heard that pretty much all his series and stand-alones are great I'm sure I'll get around to checking out that trilogy at some stage, too. I'm dipping into More Than This now, before I proceed with the Unwind series, because if I don't I know I'm gonna end up looking at reviews!

[Nollaig]

More Than This by Patrick Ness
 
Synopsis: A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this. . .
 
Review: Egad. This is a tough one to review without spoilers, so I'm just gonna have to tag spoilers, as I do want to present my thoughts.

 

What did I think of it at a surface level? Despite an intriguing opening, the first section was ultimately far too long and full of far too much nothing. I don't find Ness's writing to be particularly noteworthy - I didn't in A Monster Calls, either, that was just a superb concept. If you're going to write about mostly nothing for a large chunk of book, you need to be a wordsmith, and for me personally, Ness is not. I was indifferent to most characters and felt the plot was stretched thinly across too many pages. It failed to draw me in and the only thing that kept me reading to the end was the desire to find a resolution. The ending was not satisfactory. In fact, it was incredibly frustrating. The entire book is frustrating.

 

Spoiler time!

 

 

 

 

The ending was not satisfactory because the ending states that all debate about the nature of the worlds and what actually happened is irrelevant. That none of it is the point, that KNOWING, is not the point. So basically the only thing that carried me through the novel (wanting to know the truth) is dismissed at the end as being not the point.

 

There seem to be two main reactions to this book. People utterly baffled by what happened, but okay with that and loving the book because 'not knowing is the point, and (they) think (they) know what Ness is trying to say'. They seem to be alluding to some philosophical insight they recieved at the end which I clearly missed out on.

 

On a purely surface level the philosophy illustrates the paradox inherent in living a social life while innately isolated in the mind of an individual. The idea that our indivdual experience makes it easy to think everything is about us (Owen being hurt is Seth's fault, his death is Seth's fault, his parents lack of affection is his fault, fault implying faculty, responsibility, it being on him - also the idea that we can be the absolute in another person's life) versus the idea that nothing is about us (Owen was killed by someone else, Seth and Owen were left alone by their mother, Gudmund not being the absolute in anyone's life, because there are no absolutes). In the course of his journey, the self-centred Seth comes to realise he is not in fact the facilitator of all events in his life, and that there is *cue groans* more than this/me/I/you/individuality. In fact, all we can do with that knowledge is try to be sure of who we are and attempt to allow for the immensity of all that exists beyond ourselves. By extention, this implies that we simply cannot know everything about anything, and that we do not need to in order to progress. (Because even if you don't know why an automaton which may or may not be real stuck you with its own leg and then healed you, you know that it did, that you survived, and that is enough to be getting on with.)) However, these are realisations the average early-teenager comes to in the course of growing up - and so maybe that is all the point there needs to be for a YA novel. In which case, it is my being a cynical adult which has spoiled it for me. Any meaning beyond that, I'm afraid, has eluded me, so maybe I'm just not clever enough.

 

The other reaction to the book is to thoughtfully consider which reality was real and why. Which, as the author himself states in the one page final chapter, can be illustrated as follows:

 

Since I have clearly missed the point in my inability to derive any deep meaning from the book, I will have to settle for ignoring that big red dot until any one of the myriad reviewers I have seen saying "I think I get the point" cares to actually EXPLAIN the point. And as such, here's a brief consideration of the only potentially interesting aspect of the book (had it been more compellingly written) - was it The Matrix vs. Terminator or was it The Five People You Meet In Heaven? Either the world actually ended, and Seth's prediction of events was just a massive series of coincidences, or the entire thing was in fact narrated by Seth, presumably as he died, in his head, possibly with some divine/angelic intervention to help him along the path to peace before shuffled off any coils. If it's the Matrix, which is a far-more fleshed out alternative, then the ending was utterly inapproriate because the imagery of Seth being laid down in a coffin really does lend itself to the former theory. So who knows. I doubt Patrick Ness even knows. Because for him, it's not the point.

 

All in all, an immensely frustrating book which seems to allude to some greater meaning that is utterly lost on me.

 

I have to make the obvious pun. As soon as I read the last page and realised that was it, my first thought was, 'surely there's gotta be more than this?'

 

 

Rating: 3/5 (It gets points for managing to at least provoke an essay.)

 

 

[Michelle]

Wow - you and I seem to have opposite opinions on YA books, I guess anything I like you'll know to avoid! 

 

With regards to the above review, I didn't dig too deep, it was either one thing or the other, and I didn't mind not knowing. There was no point to not knowing, it's just the way it is, and it kept me thinking because it wasn't made clear.

[Nollaig]

Well to be fair to you Michelle, I LOVED A Monster Calls  - it's one of my favourite books, and it's by the same author. It's wonderful. And we do share opinions on quite a few other books. As I said, it's not that I actively disliked More Than This, it just felt wordy and meandering while posing with an air of 'I know something you don't know', and I just found that frustrating. I really WANTED to like it, I just, was left feeling a bit nyeh. It's very possible that I'm too demanding!

 

I'm definitely glad I read it, and that I read it to the end, because there is a lot in it that I should have liked - I love The Matrix, I love last-man-on-earth scenarios, I love philosophy, and I did love little Tommy (such a funny kid) - I just, didn't feel it all came together in the end. So definitely not a bad suggestion, and I don't doubt I will thoroughly enjoy debating it with people for months to come!   

Edited January 19, 2014 by Nollaig

[Athena]

Great reviews! Unwind is on my wishlist, it sounds like a great read .

[Nollaig]

Thanks Athena! I hope you enjoy it - a couple of others are looking out for it too, so it'll be nice to hear everyone's thoughts!

[Michelle]

I loved A Monster Calls because it made me cry at the end - I came in from work one day, and was able to read the 2nd half of the book straight through uninterrupted, which I'm not often able to do. And despite telling myself I wouldn't, I was crying by the end. 

[Nollaig]

I loved A Monster Calls because it made me cry at the end - I came in from work one day, and was able to read the 2nd half of the book straight through uninterrupted, which I'm not often able to do. And despite telling myself I wouldn't, I was crying by the end. 

 

I read the entire thing in one sitting, the first time, in two sittings the second time. It's just such a wonderful, wonderful concept. I adored the Monster's stories, because they had no right or wrong, and were such a simple introduction to the idea that, much like in More Than This, there are multiple perspectives on everything which complicate the rightness and wrongness. And yes, I too cried at the end.

[Nollaig]

Finished two more books.

 

The Program by Suzanne Young

 

Synopsis: In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.
Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate.  Under constant surveillance at home and at school, the only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment.. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

 

Review: The first thing I will say about this book is the first thing I saw in a review, that whether you (like me) believe the author missed a trick in not doing so, what she does not do in this book is offer any kind of commentary on depression or mental/emotional disorders in general. Don't go in expecting any insights on that front and you won't be too disappointed.

 

The first part of this book cracked me up. It's entire purpose is to illustrate the depth of love Sloane and James have for each other, and their absolute fear of the Program but to be honest it's not very well written. James seems to see Sloane as little more than an object of sexual gratification and Sloane seems to merely depend on James for reassurance that he will protect her from the Program. I did nearly give up at this point. However, I am including this particular aspect in my review primarily to prepare anyone who chooses to read this book for it - once you get past that section, it's actually not a bad read at all. I read the rest of it in one sitting, curious to find out what happened, and quite liking the characters other than James that showed up. It's still not the most amazing piece of writing I've ever come across, but I think it might just have had a compelling enough plot to make me pick up the next installment. Maybe.

 

TL:DR: Not brilliantly written, but a fun bit of mindless YA dystopia.

 

Rating: 3/5

 

****

 

Dante & Aristotle Discover The Secrets Of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

 

Synopsis: Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

 

Review: I read this book far too quickly, in an attempt to get to the end. I'm impatient, but I would recommend to anyone else to take your time and really enjoy the beautiful prose. I think the entire point of the story is self-evident, in the title and definitely in the above synopsis. Take a wild guess about their 'special friendship'. It's a guess worth making, I believe, in advance of reading the story, because the story is told from the point of view of an emotional brick wall named Ari. Ari is a loner by nature, raised in a family of secrets and few emotions. As such, this novel lives inside a head where truths are seldom faced and confusing feelings are shoved aside with a little anger. And that, I think, is the absolute beauty of it.

 

He spends the entire novel blind to the truth that the reader suspects from merely reading the synopsis, and you spend a few hundred pages with a boy trying to figure himself out, figure his friend out, figure his family out. It is an incredibly narrow viewpoint, but a touchingly human one that certainly pulled me through the story at a tremendous rate because I wanted so badly for Ari to work himself out. I enjoyed taking the journey with him, despite the frustration every time he would not respond to Dante, everytime he seemed to deny his own feelings. It seemed obvious to me what the destination was, but this book is about the sometimes painful, always difficult complexity of the journey.

 

It's less a 'story' than a collection of thoughts and ideas. A scrapbook full of clashing emotions and confusing experiences. One of the few books I've ever read where I genuinely felt I was inside the head of one person, looking out at a world they are trying to figure out in many of the same ways we all did as teenagers.There is something so authentically human in it all, and I think that is the subtle brilliance of the whole thing. Probably not a book for everyone, but personally I think it's a work of art. Not flawless, definitely not flawless, and while I'm not sure what is niggling at me to knock a point off my rating, I'm happy to heartily recommend this book.

 

Rating: 4/5

[Athena]

Great reviews ! Dante & Aristotle Discover The Secrets Of The Universe sounds intruiging, I might pick it up if I see it cheap sometime. I can't remember if it's on my wishlist or not (really have to sort it out).

[Nollaig]

I hadn't heard of it at all until I went searching for YA titles a while back. It wasn't entirely what I was expecting, but it really is very good. The kind of book you have to properly digest, it's not just a surface level light read.

[Kell]

Out is really very good. Dark as all hell, but really very good. And not as "incredibly tough" as some people would have you believe. I actually found it rather an enjoyable read. But then, I laughed my socks off reading American Psycho (which wigged out my colleagues at the time no end - LOL!). I think you['ll enjoy it. Girl Power and all that!

Flavorwire's 50 Incredibly Tough Books For Extreme Readers

 

This is a shorter TBR I've put together from the list.

 

1. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

2. Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami

3. House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

4. The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

5. Out by Natsuo Kirino

6. Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar

7. Bad Behaviour by Mary Gaitskill

8. Tampa by Alissa Nutting

9. The Demon by Hubert Selby Jr.

[julie]

Noll

I have the Aristotle book you reviewed. I'll be reading it sometime this year. Will come back and read your review after reading the book !

[Nollaig]

Oh awesome! Will be looking forward to your thoughts on it

 

Kell - it would indeed take a lot to wig me out, so I'm looking forward to the challenge of that list!

 

As for what I'm reading now, nothing at this exact moment - trying to decide whether to tackle the next Unwind book, or try out some non-fiction with Sam Harris to back up my morality course learning. Or maybe another short Michael Morpurgo to get one more book out of January!

Edited January 28, 2014 by Nollaig

[Nollaig]

Haven't updated in a few days because I haven't done much reading - I didn't get any more books out of January, unfortunately. I started reading The Painted Man by Peter Brett, and though it's taking me a while to get through it because it's fantasy, is it very very good so far.

[Athena]

I loved The Painted Man so I'm glad you're enjoying it. I look forward to read your thoughts on it when you've finished the book. It's not a short book so it makes sense it takes a while to read.

[Nollaig]

I'm two thirds of the way through now. I actually thought it was a young adult book when I started reading it, then it got rapidly very dark and I was completely taken aback! But yes, I like all three of the main characters, and I'm looking forward to seeing if the Painted Man turns out to be who I suspect he will be!

[Kylie]

Noll, have you read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs? It has struck me as a book that you might really enjoy.

[Nollaig]

Noll, have you read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs? It has struck me as a book that you might really enjoy.

 

Wow I only just saw this now as I was looking at this thread (I need to put the reviews from it onto my book blog). Sorry! I have not read it, Kylie, but I will add it to my wishlist!

[Kylie]

Great! I'll keep an (anxious) eye out to see what you think of it if/when you get around to it.