Vinegar Girl: The Review

I tried, people, I really did. I wanted to like this book, mostly because I understand the work that goes into writing a book and I hate bashing someone's efforts but...yuck.

I suppose I should start by saying that Vinegar Girl is a retelling of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," so in terms of plot, the ideas were pre-formulated and the author does a very good job of altering various element's of the play to fit into her story.

In this version, Kate Battista, 29-year old nursery school teaching assistant, spends most of her life catering to the whims of her father, a scientist working on a supposedly cutting edge project. Father has a lot to say about what to eat and how to run the house and most of it seems pretty ridiculous, particularly as it puts a tremendous burden on Kate. For her part, Kate likes to think of herself as a straight talking, no nonsense woman, but in reality, she puts up with a lot of nonsense.

And then her father totally loses his mind and suggests that Kate marry his lab assistant, the sort of likeable Pyotr, so that Pyotr can get a green card and stay in the US to continue working on their project. The idea, of course, is totally ridiculous, but Kate's dad almost acts like she owes it to him, in spite of the fact that he has all but abandoned Kate and her younger sister in order to pursue his work goals. At first, he seems to try to get the two of them to actually like one another, but later,lets Kate know that he doesn't think she's ever going to find anyone else, so why not? Kate explodes and tells her dad to go to hell, right? Nope. Not even a little bit.

In the end, the men in this story are allowed to act like jerks and Kate even dismisses their behavior by feeling sorry for men because they aren't allowed to express their feelings honestly as it puts them at risk of looking unmanly. What is this, the 1950s? I thought my head would explode.

Likewise, in addition to the antiquated ideas, there was quite a bit of old-fashioned vocabulary: in a snit, conniption, quick as a wink. Most young women just don't speak like that - even the nerdy ones.

I will forego the usual lame scale since this is a book for adults and that really applies to YA, but I think you get the idea.

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Review of The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender

So I'm a little bit of a, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all," kind of person, but then I don't have any business reviewing books if that's the case, do I?  Yeah, so this book, not a big fan.

First off, let me say that I absolutely loved this author's book Bad Girls Don't Die because she understands exactly what makes a book scary.  I'm a little over saturated in spooky stuff what with the forty thousand paranormal shows I watch on a regular basis, so it's a little hard to scare me.  I'm convinced that I would be the world's worst ghost hunter because no matter what weird thing happens or what unexplained noise I hear, I tend to ignore it completely.  That said, I was so excited to find Bad Girls Don't Die to be an actually scary story, full of the plot and setting details that make a tale frightening.

The same, more or less, can be said for The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall.  There were all of the usual spooky details - and more.  The story also surprised me not once, but twice, with plot twists I didn't see coming.  That in and of itself is an achievement as I have read so many, many books that I nearly always have the plot figured out in advance.

What's the problem then?  The characters.  Ugh.  The characters.  The main character, Delia, her parents, her sister Janie, an odd assortment of ghosts: I didn't like any of them.  They were reasonably well developed but they just weren't likeable.  And their interactions.  Yuck.  They need some intensive family therapy.  I kept hoping they would learn things over the course of the story and redeem themselves, and while there were some changes, I just didn't find them to be enough to make me like them.

Likes and dislikes are personal things, of course, so check it out for yourself.  The setting, the surprises, and the creep factor may be enough to catch your interest.

LAME FACTOR: Sadly, I would give it a 2/5

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR: Only if they don't want you reading about the paranormal.

BRAIN POWER:  This is well written but within the reading abilities of an average YA reader.

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What Do You Like in a Character?

For me, the characters are what make the book.  Obviously, there needs to be an engaging plot, excellent writing, and an interesting setting, but if I don't like the main characters, I most likely will not enjoy the book.

What is it we look for in the characters we read about?  I often find myself drawn to those who have the qualities I admire most: intelligence, resourcefulness, goodness.  Jane Eyre and her level-headed, no drama self is probably my favorite, even if she isn't always the most fun.  In modern, YA terms, I've really enjoyed Grace Brisbane in Shiver and Eleanor Douglas in Eleanor & Park.  Grace and Eleanor are each more mature than the adults who should be guiding them and while each deals with vastly different issues (Shiver being paranormal and Eleanor & Park, realistic fiction), they both do so with a minimum of unnecessary drama.

It's interesting, then, when I come across a character who is the complete opposite of these things and still find him incredibly appealing like Marshall Holt in Places No One Knows by one of my favorite authors, Brenna Yovanoff.  The word I run across most often when reading a description of Marshall in reviews is "loser," and yet I didn't think so at all.  Yes, he is everything I usually hate: a slacker, a stoner, etc., but the way the author infuses him sweetness, sensitivity, and innate goodness, makes me want to forget about that.  Instead of being attracted to the super genius, perfectionist Waverly Camdenmar, I was Team Marshall all the way.  In the end, I suppose it is the author's talent for developing complex characters that sent me in this unexpected direction.

So what is it you like in a main character?

My progress on The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall with the help of Sherlock

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The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender

I have read thousands and thousands of books, one every two or three days for years, so I generally have a good idea of where a story is headed right from the start. It's a little bit like a Hallmark movie: watch a few and you can roughly figure out the plot of the others.

So I can't believe that I'm super shocked by the turn of events in this book and I'm only on page 61. I'm really looking forward to seeing just how wrong I am.  It's nice to know that books can still hold surprises!

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Happy Birthday, Pablo Neruda!

Absorb these words of wisdom about reading from Pablo Neruda:

"The books that help you most are those which make you think the most.  The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty."

It's thinking like that that will get you a Nobel Prize.

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The Review of All The Light We Cannot See - Finally!

One of the interesting things about having your knee replaced is the amazing amount of difficulty you have sleeping.  Who knew? With many extra hours of the day (night?) on my hands, and only so many Gilmore Girl reruns I can watch, I recently took a break from the YA books to read All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.  It was absolutely astounding.

The story itself is highly engaging.  Set in World War II France and Germany, the book alternates between the stories of the blind French girl, Marie Laure LeBlanc and the young German, Werner Pfennig.  Each grows and develops over the course of the story, starting as young children with interests, hopes, fears.  Ultimately, the war intrudes on their lives and teaches them about suffering and cruelty, but also about kindness and the ability to find joy in small things, as well.  The plot, the characters, the setting all weave together to build a story that is rich and complex and, ultimately, goes beyond entertaining the reader to making him/her think.

While I read, I also found myself thinking how impressive it is that the author appears to have a very expansive knowledge of a wide variety of subjects including history, natural science, and mechanics.  Reading the book from that perspective, I found myself almost as interested in the information I was learning as in the progress of the story.  The author’s setting details were particularly on point.  I’m fortunate enough to spend every other summer in France with my husband’s family and I could clearly envision all of the people and places I know in the author’s descriptions.

As though all of these things aren’t enough to make the story great, the biggest reason I enjoyed it so much was the beauty of the language.  In thinking over the story afterwards, it occurred to me that the language was used to describe things the way one would explain them to a blind person – the sights, the smells, the sounds, the sensations.

This book is way too good for me to even suggest it might be lame, so I’m going to skip that particular part of my usual review.  Let me just say that this should most absolutely be your next summer read.