Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Happily, this book is fiction so I don't have to feel guilty about not liking a story that deals with a suicide victim.  Hannah Baker is a high school student who is having a very hard time adjusting to teen aged life.  While all parties in the book, and surely those reading as well, can agree that suicide is never the answer it was very hard for me to feel moved to pity on her behalf. 

Clay Jensen is the latest recipient of Hannah's tapes in which she has recorded the reasons that led up to her taking her life.  There is a back up copy of these tapes that Hannah claims will 'get out' and be made public (by means never truly made clear) should each of her intended listeners not listen to them and then pass them along.  (I was also never clear as to why she wouldn't want this tapes made public considering she'd have a chance to come clean about so much without any repercussion to herself.)  She calls people out, she does a bit of ranting, she exposes some horrible things that she was privy to that the general public doesn't know about.  Clay has no idea why he is on the tapes; and curiosity is his primary reasons for bumbling around town listening to all that Hannah has to say.

The book contains two narratives; each constantly interrupts the other.  Every time we get into a steady stream of Hannah's anecdotes we are told what Clay is doing as if only to make sure we don't forget that Hannah is telling this story from the grave and that Clay is doing other stuff.  Sometimes we are interrupted once a page; sometimes ten times a page.  It got annoying very fast.  It was a hiccup, or super esoteric punctuation, or wearing shoes three sizes too big and being told to run a 5K without ever stumbling.  That said, the story flies by.  Clay hunts down a cassette player then proceeds to play, pause and stop his way through Hannah's thirteen tapes.  I was initially gonna pass on leaving comments on this book as I felt it was the first young adult fiction I read that I wasn't able to connect with and I thought that lack of connection was solely because of my age difference in comparison to the 'intended' audience.

Most of Hannah's complaints are about people's treatment of her, or neglect--intentional or otherwise--of certain issues.  These topics range from gossip, a who's hot and who's not list, to her first kiss.  It all felt so superficial and pouting more than once I turned on my admonishing Holden Caulfield voice and sad, "Get over yourself.  Take your Prozac and stop whining."  

I cut Hannah more than just some slack when I learned she was sexually harassed.  Perhaps it was the cumulative effect of all that she had been through that finally made her mindset interesting to me by the time she witnessed or as she would say 'enabled' another student to be raped.  The book didn't necessarily get interesting as events grew darker, but the truly traumatic moments happen so late in the book with no feeling of build up or climax that getting to the 'good stuff' was an exercise in patience.  

My real problem with this book was Clay.  On the tape that Hannah has dedicated to him she explicitly says, 'You don't deserve to be on these tapes.'  Clay is a nerd.  He studies on weekends and doesn't go to parties he's excited about being valedictorian.  He's had a crush on Hannah and never the balls to tell her so.  Not only is he boring and one-dimensional but I never saw a single reason as to why he would be interested in a girl like Hannah considering the people she associated with; friends or not.  Of all the people on the tapes, Clay is without doubt the weakest choice for the story's living narrator.  He's likable and he's nice.  He's also kinda boring.  While many of the other people on the tapes were manipulative bitches or outright sexually aggressive creeps and while readers might not have liked those choices as I'm sure most did Clay, seeing things and hearing Hannah's voice play through anyone else mentioned on the tapes' head may have made for a much more compelling (perhaps even more disturbing) read.

Thirteen Reasons Why is a great idea, a really unique presentation and story mechanic; added to which everything works.  But considering the lowest points that led up to Hannah taking her life and how universally awful they were I can think of at least "Nine Reasons" she never would have dwelt on long enough to record on tape in the first place.  A fine writer and certainly one to watch.  All in all a good book and one that even manages to feel original.         

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

This is not what I was expecting.  I was expecting more of the same from Clockwork Angel: find and chase the hastily identified bad guy, figure out what-the-hell-manner-of-life is Tessa, perhaps see some other downworlders get their asses beat in spectacular fashion.  Not only did none of the above happen, but I loved this book just the same as if I got everything I wanted out of it and then some.

Plausibility for events of Clockwork Prince (a great misleading title with so much unfulfilled potential) is right where we left it in the previous book; which hadn't progress too far since it began.  I thought this book would develop the erstwhile evil genius, give him character and personality.  While we did get motive he never developed enough to become either sympathetic or convincing as a threat.  To this end, I'm not sure if it's good or bad that seemingly no time was dedicated to bringing him down.  While main story or 'series arc' events seemed to stagnate the remaining cast took part in many little 'side quest' that not only propelled events forward but even managed to upstage the climax that never was. 

Charlotte and Henry, leaders of the London Institute of Shadowhunters, are given two weeks to track down the man responsible for the recent uprising against Shadowhunters.  Despite the clock ticking and this built-in mechanism for tension and forward drive events move rather leisurely.  This isn't a bad thing, only more of a surprise.  A plan is devised; nothing comes to fruition and instead of a book about Shadowhunters hunting we get a book in which we learn about Shadowhunters.  Stranger still the book didn't feel like five-hundred pages of exposition. 

There are some major revelations.  There's a reason why Will is an ass.  It's a really, really good reason and I've no clue as to why readers couldn't be let in on this secret in the first book.  As we learn of Will's past it becomes very easy to like him.  He's endearing, and sympathetic and his position becomes very easy to understand whereas in the first book he was a jerk without reason, stiff, and shallow.

The strongest development was all the romantic involvement between characters.  It worked on every level, and the main reason why was that everything felt organic: the attraction; the tension; and the setup.  Things get rather hot and heavy considering this is 19th century England but it seems Shadowhunters are excused much in terms of propriety.        

Clare does the romantic tension wonderfully well but the super saccharine, overly sentimental resolution of these affairs is close to stomach turning.  Two character reaffirmed their love for one another and I had to listen to the death metal band "SKULLCRUSH" to balance out what I was reading and not lose my lunch.  Then there is a proposal scene between two others and "OMG!"  Who snuck that mess in past the editor's final approval?  Those two moments aside, the romantic conflict is excellently done and it could be argued it's the heart of the book. 

My two complaints from Clockwork Angel come prepackaged.  I was hoping for a new Shadowhunter power to be unveiled: that Will would kill some downworlders or clockwork baddies merely by his opponent noticing just how blue his eyes were, not being able to handle said blueness, and then exploding into a blinding shower of blood and nastiness.  Or at least someone should have had an aneurysm when coming to terms with just how absurdly silky his hair is.  Because I couldn't handle his hair; poor Tessa had multiple existentialist crises in coming to terms with Will's hair.  Then there is the eyes and hair combo...  BOOM!  The bad guys never stood a chance.  And Jem was so fragile and delicate that his fragile delicateness made me turn the pages with unconscious tenderness that I've never before expressed while reading as I was fearful of damaging a fragile and delicate page on which Jem's name was written.  The repetition from the first book carries over and Clare launches far past cloying and achieves straight up nauseating.  In fact,  I believe that in the audio book version Will and Jem (happily, the repetition of all things are limited to them) have leit-motives accompanying every mention of their name as composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Enough of this gripe: Clockwork Prince will never be a movie because no two people exist that are beautiful enough to play Will or Jem.  Oh, and just like Clockwork Angel, neither one acts seventeen; they are still far closer to forty though the bumbling through the romantic aspects helped show them to be more adolescent than adult. 

The two weeks go by and while there is no progress made toward the primary stated objective (no progress at all) the character development is so strong, convincing, and enjoyable that it's easy to get wrapped up in what is given as opposed to thinking about what was expected. 

There is no middle-book-boring-to-def syndrome going on here.  Color me surprised; but I loved this from start to finish. 

The Month in Review and of Things to Come

Not a whole lot of reading going on in January or at least not too much to show for my efforts.  I finished two books: The Prestige and The Fault in Our Stars both of which I'll recommend to anyone.  I've reached the half-way point in two other books Firebirds Rising and Sailing to Sarantium.  The former hasn't proven to be very special and the latter is excellent only extremely leisurely (as is my experience with many of Kay's works.)  I do look forward to finishing them both in February.

I started and finished Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare a few days ago and I'll probably have thoughts up on that later today.  (I'm now a hopeless fanboy of this series; help.)  It was an odd book but excellent.  Actually the more I think on how odd it was and how successful it was the more I think it may take me longer to get my thoughts together.  Needless to say I'm all kinds of excited for the third book in this series to come out next month.

While struggling to find something to stick with to my immediate liking I've raided my library many times this past month.  I'm going to continue with A Series of Unfortunate Events as it has continually proven to be awesome commuter prose for my trips into town on the train.  In terms of upcoming reviews expect to see comments for Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.  I'm also hoping against hope that the queue for Bitterblue by Christine Cashore moves quickly and that I'll be out of the thirties sooner than latter.

I was hot for a minute in January; actually it was around eighty degrees for a week and that was awesome.  Then the storms came and everyone wanted it to be cold again as we remembered how overrated tornados are.  Now it's cold to def and I think I'm getting sick and I'm not too excited about it.        

Randomly, I think I'm getting into poetry and I am excited about that.

Juggling the Hat Trick

I find myself in an odd circumstance: I'm reading three books at once.  Many people do this but not me.

Firebirds Rising is delivering a solid crash and burn.  It's not bad.  It's no where near as captivating as Firebirds, and Firebirds Soaring. (Perhaps it's that middle book syndrome; didn't know it applied to anthologies.)  I'm halfway through and while everything has been solid, nothing has been particularly special. 

I'm also at the halfway point in Guy Gavriel Kay's Sailing to Sarantium.  It's everything I've come to expect from Kay: vast, expansive, well executed and a gridlocked sense of control concerning pacing.  This isn't a bad thing either, but Sailing to Sarantium is a big book and as much as I'm enjoying it. it's hard to feel like I'm making progress. 

In a further effort to pick up something that takes off and doesn't stop the library notified me that my hold for Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare was ready.  A day later I'm a hundred pages in and if nothing else Clare has a serious choke hold on forward motion.  And that is a very good thing. 

I'd much rather find one book start, and finish it.  I don't like the juggling act, but I'm trying to make it work.  I look forward to finishing Kay.  It's odd considering how much I liked the first and third Firebird installments but Firebirds Rising has got me a bit anxious.   

A Couple of False Starts; Buried Treasure in Used Books and (Wait for it...) Pictures

A long time ago Terry told me to read Possession by A.S. Byatt so I got a copy at a used book store and it's been sitting on my shelves for a few years.  A few days ago Marion re-read the book and sparked my interest again.  She also informed me that I got lucky when I bought my copy and got 'the good cover.'  

She would be correct.

Last night I sat down to start reading and it took me forever and a day to get through twenty pages.  It may have been a bad reading day for me, (I was due for one) but I wasn't connecting with the text in anyway so I'll pick it up again at a later date and try again.  It wasn't the feeling of 'This book is not for me' rather it may have been the wrong thing at the wrong time. 

So this morning before work randomly I grabbed Lyonesse by Jack Vance.  I've no idea what led me to this book but that is part of the fun in having a large selection of unread stuff; you can always surprise yourself.  Like Possession, Lyonesse also has a badass bit of full front to back cover art.  

After reading the preface, I was hooked by the non-fiction tone of voice and historical telling aspect.  After reading a few footnotes in the preface that told me to consult glossaries I-III for further information on certain details I was chomping a the bit to actually start the narrative; thirty pages into the actually story and I realized this book was going now at a snails pace.  I skipped ahead two chapters and I still couldn't find anything masquerading as tension.  Oh well... 

Two false starts of two different kinds both concerning badass cover art.

Lyonesse feels really vast and deep.  The kind of world that could not only grant sequels but wouldn't come close to being exhausted even with spin off stories.  After reading ten pages of preface and glossary--the non fiction stuff--the world feels as expansive as Catherynne M. Valente's Pentexore from her Dirge for Prester John series or Tolkien's The Silmarillion.  A very good thing so far as I'm concerned.  The story just wasn't there.

I can't seem to read a collection of short stories straight through without picking up something else.  I am enjoying Firebirds Rising though there are a couple of rankling issues but by far and away the best part of this book, which I bought used is this:

Left to me by the previous owner I should think.  I feel connected to this person and though I only have our reading material with which to judge us, we are both awesome. 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

No.  John Green I refuse to let you manipulate my emotions.  I am in control of me; and will not yield to you.  I actively started not reading this book about a year ago when it first came out and I felt the world was telling me I had to read it immediately.  In addition to feeling like I was being commanded to read the book I learned what it was about and then attempted to put even greater distance between myself and the book.  As 2012 came to a close there were very few 'best of list' that featured fiction and didn't have The Fault in Our Stars listed.  After about three quarters of a year's worth of John Green anxiety and hearing about this particular book I read Paper Towns to scratch the itch.  A year later and Green is my favorite new-to-me author and here i am adding to the limitless talk about The Fault in Our Stars.  

It's a doomed young adult romance in which Hazel, the story's main character, has terminal cancer.  I can guarantee that if I hadn't already read Paper Towns I wouldn't have picked up this book.  It's sad and you have to sign up for that before you even start reading.  It's unexpected and poignant and certainly not the cancer book you may think it is.  (Green actually addressed the stigma of writing 'that cancer book' within the narrative.)   

Hazel meets her boyfriend, Augustus, at a cancer support group for teenagers and while the book's infrastructure is set to accommodate the most mopey, sad book about kids with various horrible cancers that is exactly not what we get.  Green is hilarious and while he never seeks to skirt the gravity of the subject matter his characters laugh at their condition just as they are assuredly terrified of their reality.  The story is very simple as we watch Hazel and Augustus' relationship develop in spite of a rapid health decline.   

Part of me felt that events moved too fast.  Nothing came across as rushed and while Green's writing is super easy to read the absurdly funny dialogue is balanced with some very substantial prose.  In the beginning, the scenario plot points seemed to move really quickly from point a to b.  Hazel breaks out of secluded depression mighty fast.  She turned into a moody social teenager with a quickness considering how she describes her life on the first page.  There were a few other points that felt a bit false to me, but nothing that was going to keep me from turning pages. 
 
I have this hangup with dialogue, readers of my blog may already be familiar with this gripe.  While it's not a 'chatty' book, and even though nearly everything said is funny, I did at times question what was being said.  Their words were never fake or too old for their age (though a couple times came close) and while super quick witty dialogue is great and a blast to read it's also not realistic.  I was okay with all the jokes (and the feeling that some characters had a few preloaded and waiting to go) and the responses they got, but some of the speeches Augustus made made me think, 'People don't talk like this.'  I understand his situation and how it would have to alter his view on many things, but it was almost as if he had thought out these lofty ideas and principles in advance and then was merely waiting for the perfect moment to pontificate.  Which, to me, cheapened some of his interaction with Hazel, as if she were just a prop to help him soapbox.  I felt Green perhaps indulged my complaint--if not thought the same thing--when during a conversation Hazel interrupts Augustus and he makes a joke about having memorized this speech and how important it was for her to not interrupt so he can get through it.  It was funny at the time that Augustus called himself out, but it also served to focus and highlight my 'people don't talk like this' gripe.  None of this comes off as poorly done and it took me a few days after finishing to put a finger on what was bothering me.   

If you have a pulse you should expect to fall apart when reading and though you can't be shocked at what happens there certainly is a huge surprise at the end.  It's funny.  It's fast.  It will even get you thinking.  (How many other books have 'existentially wrought free throws?')  In the future I will refrain from starting my new year in reading with a book that so many thought to be the best of the previous year; doing so sets the bar way too high. 

For another take on the same book, check out what Maria has to say. 

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

The prestige is the part of a magic trick in which the audience is made to contend with something seemingly impossible and the magician gloats in the stage lights.  Priest novel's features two magicians at the turn of the twentieth century and while they each love to get the reaction from the audience more than this they want to impress and 'one up' each other. 

We see Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier start humbly and then become the top of the game in London.  The feud between them starts rather innocent and comic despite professional ethics as Borden takes exception to the seances conducted by Angier and the money he makes while deceiving the living into thinking that they are communicating with the recently deceased. 

The first part of the book is told by from Borden's point of view by way of a now forgotten book he had written.  Events are primarily comic and move swiftly.  At the conclusion of Borden's book Angier's journal begins and in it we say many of the same events from a different perspective and come to see the nature of their rivalry: the pranks, the sabotage, the attempts to embarrass the other.  We also see some aspects of their rivalry that were a bit darker in their result and much more damaging than we may have come to see in Borden's book.  We also start to see many events involving Borden that was not previously recounted.

As I started wondering 'How many Alfred Borden's are there' Angier starts thinking the same thing as Borden unveils his new illusion which makes him distinctly better and separates him from the pack.  It is as Angier tries to better Borden's trick that the books third primarily character gets involved, and at least in mind, greatly slowed things down.  

Inventor Nikola Tesla is contracted by Angier to build him a electric machine that can duplicate through science that which Angier can't understand how Borden is working his illusion. 

The Prestige is a story of success, rivalry, families and the lives people lead not being what they appear.  Priest does an excellent job of handling the characters voice and making them all sound distinct from each other. It's a very well controlled novel in which the tension between Borden and Angier is always obvious but one in which it's just as easy to tell that there are stronger narrative elements being unravelled than their feud.  It is very absorbing in trying to understand the exact nature of the duplicity that seems to become a theme in itself.  The primarily intrigue is in trying to understand current events that descendants of Borden and Angier go through and putting them in context concerning their ancestors.  It's a long little book one full of many puzzles and magic tricks; the greatest is making you want to start over upon finishing to play the author's game again and see if you got everything right.