Dear Blogger,
So this is my first post. Hi! My name is Victoria, a.k.a. Vicky. Whichever you prefer. I am writing this as I sit at home in bed feeling kind of bleh. It's too hot outside and the heat is getting to me. Anyways, I'm a big reader, especially for YA fiction, and I am also writing novels. Trying to get published right now is VERY HARD. Just so you know. I want to talk about the books I'm reading, and I want to share my thoughts somewhere people can share theirs too. So voila.
First up to talk about is my first real book of the summer, STARCROSSED by Josephine Angelini. I follow her on Twitter and I tweeted about reading this book and guess what?! She favourited it! I tried not to freak out too much, meaning I gushed about it for a full five minutes to my boyfriend, who just kind of smiled and nodded encouragingly.
ANYWAYS I just finished STARCROSSED a few days ago and I loved it, I did. I dunno why I'm always a sucker for the forbidden love thing. And yes, I know that I'm a little late here because the sequel is already out and many have already read it. But I was busy at university all year, okay? There were a lot of elements about this book that I thought were preety unique. For example, who the heck has written about demigods in YA fiction up till now? If there has been somebody, let me know, because I sure as heck am not aware of this. I took Greek history at university this past semester, so reading this I was all like "I know what they're talking about!!" and my boyfriend was all like "That's great, honey" *turns back to his video game*. The thing I DIDN'T find unique about this book was that it felt a lot like TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer to me. Does anyone else agree? I'll explain why.
First of all, you have the non-human element. Now, granted, Bella in TWILIGHT was not a vampire to begin with, whereas Helen in STARCROSSED has always been a demigod. However, Lucas and his clan of demigods felt a lot like the Cullen family, and Noel and Esme just seemed to click into the same character in many ways. For me, Jason was Jasper, Hector was Emmett, Ariadne was Alice, and Cassandra was Rosalie (attitude-wise). Then there was the fact that Cassandra could predict the future, like Alice. Then there was the fact that Helen was an only child living with her very lovable father (Bella and Charlie)...There is so much more that it made it all just seem SO similar, but I could be the only one who sees these resemblances. And I haven't read the sequel, but apparently there's a love triangle...Bella-Edward-Jacob, anyone?
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with STARCROSSED because I really did love it and I thought the writing was (so much!) better than the writing in TWILIGHT (no offense, Stephenie Meyer), but it just felt like those particular aspects were very much the same. But I think all girls and young ladies out there can agree that it was a huge relief to have Lucas actually be nice and respectful to Helen unlike Edward is to Bella (shudders). OH! That reminds me of one other HUGE similarity...the sleeping on the Widow's Walk to watch out for Helen without her knowing about it....ring a bell?...
Please don't get me wrong with all this criticism and comparison: I totally loved STARCROSSED and am not trying to put it down (especially for those of you that hate TWILIGHT with a fiery passion). I just felt like it was veeeerrry similar and wanted to hear if I was the only one. I also wanted to hear how much y'all loved it or, sadly, hated it.
Now I want to continue on to the sequel....but part of me is a bit nervous about that. First of all, I am the type of person that needs (!) a happy ending. If things end badly in a book, or not the way I want them to, I am super depressed for a very long time. I just get too invested in the characters and what I'm reading. Basically what I'm saying is that I want Helen and Lucas to end up together because we all know that they are NOT (they can't be! D:) cousins. Based on what Pandora said right before she died, anyway. So, without telling me how it ends please, just let me know on a scale of one to ten how sad I will be. One being miserable, five being "Helen toys around a quite a bit but you might actually be okay with the ending" and ten being "Whatever person Helen ends up with, it's written in a way that you'll still love it". Sound good? Okay. :)
Now, there is another book I tried reading and just could not get into. It's called A NORTHERN LIGHT by Jennifer Donnelly (I hope I spelled that right). I got maybe fifty pages in and I just haven't been able to keep going. I personally hate those books where the author jumps back and forth between the past and the present when the past events are very slow-going and don't really seem to have a purpose in the main storyline. For example, so far the main storyline is that this chick Mattie might hold the clues to a murder, but the past events they keep showing you is how Mattie got to the hotel she is working at. I get that it's meant to show you like "Oh look, she had a tough life but if she had chosen to stay home, she wouldn't have gotten involved in this murder thing", but it just doesn't seem to matter. I think, if the story is about this murder and how Mattie is involved in it, then show me more of that and less of her picking things in a field and arguing with her siblings. However, if anyone has read it and liked it, please let me know. Give me some encouraging feedback about this book so that I can maybe keep going. I rented it from the library, so I can always pick it up again.
So here's hoping I'll hear from somebody. Feedback is always appreciated! And this is only my first post - keep checking back for more if you like what you've read! :)
-Victoria
No comments:
Post a Comment