Monday, March 18, 2013

Review: Insatiable by Meg Cabot

Book: Insatiable (Insatiable #1)
By: Meg Cabot
Published: William Morrow
Published by: June 8, 2010

Description: Sick of vampires? So is Meena Harper.

But her boss is making her write about them anyway, even though Meena doesn’t believe in them.

Not that Meena isn’t familiar with the supernatural. See, Meena Harper knows how you’re going to die (not that you’re going to believe her; no one ever does).

But not even Meena’s precognition can prepare her for what happens when she meets—then makes the mistake of falling in love with—Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side . . . a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire-hunters, would prefer to see him dead for.

The problem is, he already is dead. Maybe that’s why he’s the first guy Meena’s ever met that she could see herself having a future with. See, while Meena’s always been able to see everyone else’s future, she’s never been able look into her own.

And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare.

Now might be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future . . .

If she even has one

My Thoughts: Boy, am I glad to be finished reading this book. I got it in audiobook format, the format that, in my opinion, I can almost always listen to a book in and kind of like it. Unfortunately that wasn't the case with Insatiable.

I'll start by discussing my main issue with the audiobook format of this book. It was the part that made me want to rip the headphones from my ears and go to my bookshelf to pick up the actual book (yes I had the actual book format too. I couldn't find the urge to read it so I figured audiobook format was the way to go) The narrator seemed like she was too busy trying to make her voice sound cute to actually read it like a normal person. I found myself unable to connect. It also didn't help that the beginnng of the book absolutely sucked. I read a bunch of reviews and almost all of them hated the beginning of this book. The fact that they all said it picked up eventually was the only reason I was able to continue with it. Even still, my attempts to just get to the good part almost felt like I was pulling teeth or something. Luckily for me though, it finally made it there. Once the story really got going, it was pretty interesting, though not at all original.

This story follows Meena Harper, a girl who can see when people are going to die. She hates anything vampiric, until she falls in love with a vampire. As these stories normally go, the vampire is a powerful vampire and a war is brewing between vampires, and she's stuck in the middle. A bunch of stuff happens and people die and that's about it. The storyline was one that was tried and true, and for that reason, and a few others I will discuss, I feel a bit melancholy, if not downright annoyed with it.

First, almost all of the characters were annoying. Meena is self sacrificing with a hero complex, that instantly falls head over heels in love with Lucien, the vampire who is dangerous and wants to change his ways for Meena and all that crap. Meena often goes straight past hero and directly toward stupid girl in her attempts at protecting others. Lucien has creepy stalker tendencies, and breaks into buildings, and does most of the things he does "for her own good." I'm sure you know what that means. Meena's terrified of him, which makes me wonder why on earth she even loves him. It reminds me of those girls who make up excuses for why her boyfriend/husband beats on them, and there was even a section in the book that compared her to those women.

Meena's brother, Jon, is another character I hated. He's her brother and yet he doesn't protect her. He cares more about himself than her, and basically ruins her life. If I were Meena, I'd have put him out on the street long ago.  Even the bad guys were weak and sucky characters. The other supporting roles were pretty shallow. I hated almost everyone, except Alaric, the vampire hunter, who I barely liked. He was the only one who seemed kind of normal.

This book often took forever to get to the point. I would be waiting to hear the answer to the question, and it would go on and on in description of something else until I would finally scream at the book and ask it myself, hoping it would answer the freaking question. It passed anticipation and made its way over to annoyance. Told in multiple POV's with a definite love triangle, this book combines to become one of my worst books ever read.

This was my first read from Meg Cabot, and I must admit tha after reading it, I will probably never pick up another book by her. It had everything I disliked about books all packed into one unnecessary bundle of pages. I give it 1 1/2 stars. It did pick up, and I did eventually find myself looking toward reading the ending, but it definitely wasn't one of my better reads. If it wasn't an audiobook, it would have been a DNF.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

RRT: The Hatred of Ellie Watt (of The Artists Trilogy)

Hey Guys!!! This will be a regular old post for now. I havent decided if I'll be doing a video for my YouTube page but we'll see. If I do, I'll post a link here.
I just got finished reading this post over on The Experiment in Terror Official Site page talking about the backlash from women about the character of Ellie Watt; liar, thief, con-artist, and 100% bad-ass from the Artists trilogy. (See My review for the first book, Sins & Needles, here.) It seems women pretty much hate everything about her, all of her decisions they hate. Even the one bug huge decision at the end they hate; the one that shows that maybe, perhaps, Ellie Watt is attempting to be a better person. To some women readers, her decision is selfish, and in some ways maybe it is. Regardless, the decision is made.

I really dont understand the backlash. As Karina Halle, Author of the Sins & Needles book, said, we love our male characters to be bad boys. They can lie, cheat, steal, kill, rape, abuse, and do pretty much anything else and as long as they have rippling abs and sexy dark eyes and decide not to kill the one damsel in distress, they're officially swoon worthy. Excuse my language, but What the Hell? Seriously. How is Ellie this horrible person because she's made bad decisions whereas the guys are completely sexy and gorgeous? Double Standard anyone?

It's my belief that there are little bits of Ellie in all of us women. Maybe that's why it's so hard for some women to accept her. We all put on these innocent fronts for everyone around us of being good little girls who always do the right thing and only want to fall in love and blah-de-blah-de blah. We act like we would never do anything wrong, like we never lie, or cheat. We spend our time pretending we dont think badly of ourselves as Ellie does, that we dont always deserve the perfect life for our mistakes, and we therefore make even more mistakes. We act like there hasn't been a time when we hear our conscience screaming at us to just do the right thing. That this time you probably shouldn't do that one bad thing you always do, because this time you may just get caught, but you do it anyway, and stupidly you get caught. Sure our actual events may not be as serious as Ellie's or as dangerous and damaging, but still, I think we're more like her than we know. We just grew up in a different situation.

We all have skeletons that not even our closest friends know about. Yet we prefer books where the guy is the bad-boy and women are the good girls because it ensures that no one knows our secret. It ensures that no one knows that women can sometimes be just as bad, if not worse, than all those sexy men we love in the books.

I love Ellie Watt because she shows the good, the bad, and the ugly. She shows our weaknesses, not just as women but as humans in general. She shows our strengths and our ability to go on despite all odds. She show's our innate ability to survive no matter what. Her final decision in book 1 shows the sacrifice we as women make time and time again to protect those we love from getting hurt. No, it may not have been the best decision, but it was the one she could deal with.

I love Ellie Watt, I love Sins and Needles. It's my hope that we as women can see the good in her the same way we can see the good in our male book heros and stop puting her down.

What do you all think about this topic? Do you agree that this may be the reason people put down the character of Ellie Watt or do you think I'm wrong? Could it be that we hold our fellow women to a higher standard than we do men? If so, do you think that's fair?

Message to the Author: (if by some miracle you're actually reading this) Thanks so much for making all your characters as flawed as we as humans really are. It makes your books so much more real and it keeps me hooked!

Review: Glitch by Heather Anastasiu (Video Review)

Book: Glitch
By: Heather Anastasiu
Published: April 12, 2012
Published By: St. Martins Press

Description: In the Community, there is no more pain or war. Implanted computer chips have wiped humanity clean of destructive emotions, and thoughts are replaced by a feed from the Link network.

When Zoe starts to malfunction (or “glitch”), she suddenly begins having her own thoughts, feelings, and identity. Any anomalies must be immediately reported and repaired, but Zoe has a secret so dark it will mean certain deactivation if she is caught: her glitches have given her uncontrollable telekinetic powers.

As Zoe struggles to control her abilities and stay hidden, she meets other glitchers including Max, who can disguise his appearance, and Adrien, who has visions of the future. Both boys introduce Zoe to feelings that are entirely new. Together, this growing band of glitchers must find a way to free themselves from the controlling hands of the Community before they’re caught and deactivated, or worse.

In this action-packed debut, Glitch begins an exciting new young adult trilogy.


Video Review: