Maze Runner (3)

The Death Cure

by James Dashner

Definitely a let down.

I am flummoxed. This story had such potential. A disease ravaged world, with an crazy levels of technology… and we spent Goodness knows how long reading about Thomas‘ feelings for Brenda!? Can you say irrelevant?!

I’ve always hated these completely unnecessary romantic entanglements. I feel like the author is trying to hide a lousy story behind a forced and fabricated emotional twist. And, sometimes, that’s not even the case.

I think The Death Cure would have gone down better, with me at least, with a more complicated and complex love-hate-distrust relationship with Theresa, than how it went trying to force this other new and totally untrustworthy female character into it.

Andtalking about superfluous characters, what the heck is up with that Jorge guy. I don’t think James Dashner could have possibly come up with a more cliché character. It is so bad, it’s almost offensive.

At the end, this book had more a feeling of “Let’s flee from the zombies” than even World War Z had. There wasn’t a lot a really liked, but there wasn’t much I actually hated either.

Except for one thing. One thing that pissed me the hell off: Killing your friend out of mercy.

And I’m not saying that it is a horrible idea. That letter, at the beginning, where Newt asks for it, was one of the reasons I kept on reading this book. It’s a totally relevant issue, especially because we’re talking about a long and dehumanizing terminal illness.

I guess this could inspire a very heated debate, and I totally understand those who simply can’t do it but, did we really need a whole chapter of indecision?! He either does it, or he doesn’t. Don’t drag it out!

Would I do it? I couldn’t tell you. I would hope so. What about you?

Would you kill your friend out of mercy?

All in all, I wouldn’t recommend this book. Nor this series, actually.

Fey and technology

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

I’d like to believe that most women of my generation and younger, like me, enjoy and prefer the stronger take-charge can-save-myself heroines. But I just have very little patience for whining.

And the first two-thirds of this story we got nothing but whining. And this main character, Megan Chase, starts out our story just like that. And when she’s not martyring herself, she’s making half-ass decisions without considering the consequences in the slightest.  Like giving away a memory. I thought that was a terrible idea even before we got to glimpse what the oracle took.

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

By the time we get to see Megan get into the frey as an equal, there’s only a couple of chapter left in the book.

She’s supposed to be the daughter of a Fey King! She lacked a little… something… oomph, maybe.

Another thing that bothered me was how things develop between Robin Goodfellow, Megan and Ash. The girl falls in-love with the handsome an dark prince while ignoring and allowing him to override his trust for his life-friend? Doesn’t that sound like the beginning of  potentially abusive or destructive relationship to you? That is without considering that she’s all in-love with this guy, who she doesn’t even really know. That has always been a pet peeve of mine when it comes to love story plots.

Of course, she doesn’t really know her long-time friend either, but that’s a whole other thing… isn’t it?

To make a long story short, i didn’t really enjoy this book much. i think reading Empire of Storms at the same times didn’t help much. So, there’s that too. No fae prince can really measure up when compared to Rowan Whitethorn… what else can I say!

I do have the whole series, The Iron Fey. I got it in a bundle before I even started the first one. So, maybe… and let me remark on that, MAYBE… I’ll end up reading the rest of them. I understand that in the third one, Megan Chase actually becomes The Iron Queen, so that might be worth reading about. I’m not in any hurry, though.

 

Closure

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

I really didn’t like that ending. It simply felt anticlimactic.

I understand it. Really, I do. This is a book about grief and self-discovery, but I really didn’t like that ending.

It all started good and exciting. The mystery of the Runaway Aunt, the meaningful task that were meant to actually teach her something…

… But then, it all started to go downhill.

It did feel realistic, thou. All trips have a certain amount of failed expectations, and you had to consider that this one was planned by a reckless woman that was in fact already dead… So, of course, things had to fall through some.

By the end, it was exhausting and all I wanted was to get to the end of the tasks… Give the whole thing a sense of closure… And be done with it. But then…

SPOILER ALERT

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

… The whole buch of envelopes get stolen. And we don’t get to discover what was it that the Aunt Peg really wanted from Ginny.

Of course, that too feel tremendously realistic… Getting your stuff stolen is kind of a rite of passage when it comes to international travel. One of those thing that you simply have to go through. But I think this book needed a bit less realism. At least for my taste.

It would have been more emotionally satisfying to have Virginia go through has all envelopes, even if the tasks fell through or even if she decided to not mod them.

The not knowing is what bothered me the most. This were her beloved aunt’s last words to her, and now they are lost forever. It’s just downright depressing.

Big guns and corruption

Killing Floor by Lee Child

I have to say that I’m very, highly, so disappointed.

This book was not what I expected, not at all. But, you know, I could have lived with that. I didn’t need a super detective that could have the crime solved in a matter of pages. That would have made for a very short book. But this was such a slow slow thing, it became tedious.

The descriptions were insane. Of course, you can always appreciate a good description, it gets you into the correct frame of mind, it can help immerse you into this world and help you see everything from the point of view of the main character… until you get descriptions of things that seem (and end up) being useless or irrelevant,or when you get to hear the same descriptions over and over again.

Killing Floor by Lee Child

On top of everything else, I found Killing Floor to be absolutely predictable. I knew who were the bad guys by the end of the first chapter, and what was going on by the time I was half way through. There was no mystery to this crime. We had more than one investigator/detective working the thing, and it felt like they all lacked imagination. I don’t know if it is because this is an old book, or because I have watch very very much crime-solving TV, but I felt like all those smart experience investigators missed the point until it was smashed on their faces.

Then, there was the ending. It was crazily out of proportion. I mean, they almost blew up the town! There were roof flying off and buildings leveled out. How crazy can you get? And then it all felt kind of patched up.

Like someone said: “Well, no. You cannot blew up some building, no matter how insignificant the town, and expect nothing to happen”. So they had to send in all the cavalierly. All those guys that weren’t paying one bit of attention while a government official was suspiciously murdered while conducting a very sensitive investigation.

It was absurd.

I really, really didn’t like it… but I always feel guilty about saying that a book is bad. I rather not. Some books are just not for me, and Killing Floor is just one of those. I guess I will have to stick to the Jack Reacher movies.

Half-demons

Stained by Ella James

This was a relatively short story, which I picked just for the author.

I didn’t like it at all. And the worst part it wasn’t even about the story itself, but about the telling. The whole thing felt as if I were missing something. I would’ve been sure someone took pages out of my book if it weren’t an eBook.

Stained by Ella James

I spent most of the time trying to catch up with what was happening, and absolutely confused with the timing. From the very beginning I felt like I started reading the story midway, and had to go online to make sure I had the first book in the series and I was not missing part of the story by mistake.

Sometimes I felt like we jumped forward too fast, and I missed half the interactions, specially when the feel of the relationship between the two main characters changed too quickly. One moment they were strangers and the next they are BFFs, then suddenly something seems to be going on out of nowhere and then they are not talking to eachother. And for no reason, they are a couple. It was insane.

And that is saying nothing about the plot. I have no idea who this Julia is, even when she’s suppose to be the main character. I have no problem with a story full of mysteries and unknown enemies, but when you’re not even sure who your main character is, it all gets way too weird and confusing.

For what I can gather, there are some kind of half-demons hunting this girl for unknown reasons that may have something to do with a weird birthmark she has. But there are also others that are looking for her and may or may not have evil intentions.

Then there was the guy, he might or might not be evil. He has powers, and might at someplint been in the same team as the bad guys.

Honestly, it was bad. Totally consuming and weird, and not in a good way. There are two more books (I think) to this series, but no… Hell, no…. I will not be reading those.

If you are interested, check out my page  …when they come in a bunch for this and other book series.

Bookworm compulsion.

Let me tell you about my compulsions…

I wash my hands a lot. And I do mean A LOT! At least 15 times a day.

I tap my fingernails on all available surfaces when bored. The break easily because of it.

I don’t like leaving food on my plate. Left over from my childhood and the classic “You don’t leave this table until your plate is empty”.

I finish every book that I start.

… Once I’ve started reading a book, I feel compelled to finish it, to know how the story ends. And usually it is not a problem, loving a book or hating it have both the same effect on me: I read faster.
Every now and then, I have to stop, put the book aside and take a break from that story… but I eventually always return and finish it. Even if it takes me a while.
But, on very strange occasions, I’m faced with the unbearable. As back as I can remember there has only been a handful of times when I have had to stop before the ending of a book without intention of finishing it.

This is one of them.

I’m sure there are some out there who might and have enjoyed Firelight by Sophie Jordan, but i did NOT! I barely reached the first few sentences of Chapter 16 and felt like ripping my hair out all along the way there.
The main character spent entire chapters complaining about the desert and how it is killing her dragon against her will, vowing over and over to herself to stay away from the boy only to turn around and make overly corny descriptions of their make-out sessions.
I’m half way trough the book and still nothing has really happened.

Seriously. I refuse to keep going.

On top of it all, I’m terribly disappointed. I was so excited about the dragons. I love dragons.

I know it’s going to drive crazy, for weeks if not months. To have a book I did not finish, bugs me. I feel like the book’s looking at me… judging me. It has happened every time I leave a book unfinished, so this isn’t a flight of fancy for me.

I’ll stop rambling now. The point of this is… I’ll NOT finish this book.

Chapter 11

Ok.

This is getting to be more that I can stand…
I started to feel like ripping my hair out. Or knocking my head into a wall repetitively.
We know!! You feel like dying in the dessert, you like the boy and you know you should stay away and you made ‘a vow’ to yourself that you will not keep. We know… Is it really necessary to keep repeating it on and on?!
I mean it has been chapters and chapter and still nothing is happening but more and more whining!!
I don’t think I can take much more of this.

Teenage nature

Tell a teenager he or she CAN’T do something and then leave him or her alone the whole night.
Seriously? What do you think will happen? Is there any question?

Girl meets Boy

Oh, God! Now there’s a boy.
What the hell is he suppose to be doing there? Aren’t they suppose to be ‘on the run’? I would have expected them to get as far as possible…
Then, how can they possibly run into the same boy as before? That just feels forced.

The breakup

It is not you, it is me…

it is not the words you use, nor the overly fastidious way in which every action is depicted, or the fact that no matter how much I try, the story is just NOT grabbing at me. And, of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that i find most of those characters slightly pathetic.

…or it might be REALLY you.

Honestly, I just think I made a bad choice when it came to choosing my “classic”. It likely that I need to venture really outside the box here and avoid the English-written classics. I simply can’t seem to relate to these stories.

Latin-American literature might not be as old, but I’m sure I’ll be able to find something that qualifies.

In the meantime…

this is not working out!

and I think Madam Bovary and I will just have to go our separate ways. We cannot go on this way.

Not long ago, I read a quote:

Sometimes books don’t find us until the right time

… and it made me think that maybe this is not the right time for me to be reading this book. Maybe at some other point of my life I’ll be able to return to it and it will all make sense to me.

Maybe.

But definitely not today. So, I’ll make it a clean break and put it away. Someplace where it won’t be forgotten, but where I don’t have to look a i all the time and feel like I’ve failed.

The Beauty and the Beast

I chose A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas for my next book only on account of its author. I read her other books, and loved them, but I had not looked to see what was this one about. I expected it to delight me.

Well… there were no sparks, nor complete absorption. I wasn’t even bothered by the fact that I had to put it down for a whole week with only 4 chapters to go to deal with the preparations for the end of summer break.

When I finally picked it up again, it was a quick thing to finish it, but very unexciting.

I’m sure it was all about my expectations, but the character of Feyre is surely not one of my favorites. The silent suffering is what kills me.

She starts by enduring her self-centered sisters and weak-of-character father, and I managed that because it was the beginning and was certain something would happen to change it all. And it did! Tamlin appears and forcefully whisks her away to a different life.

And there we see something more in her, her fortitude and strengths start to show and I was getting into it, and even when she ends up returning to her family, there are new dynamics and a sister that was stronger and smarter than expected…

(which I loved, by the way. Nesta with all her hate and anger that cannot manage healthily, has a will of iron and sense of justice that should be given more often. I think I would have loved Feyre more if she had learnt something from her)

…but then she gets to the saving of this man she loves and it just lost me.

Sure, sure… there’s an evil queen and the anger is easily directed, there’s a bargain made on bad terms, a riddle which answer was kind of too expected, and a somewhat motherly woman who gave her vital advice that she ignored for one reason or another.

I could have ignored all those fairy tale references, but it was the dragging up of the tests that annoyed me. All that with Rhysand felt completely unnecessary, and somewhat degrading, and she kept belittling herself the whole 3 months she was imprisoned! I felt it took away from the character.

Ok! They have magic and superior senses and all that s**t, but that in no way makes them better! The fact that she thinks it somewhat does just pisses me off…

But well… At least I can say that the end of the trials was quite good. It felt right, all of it. The evil witch queen is dead and all is right in the world again.

… if you ignore the fact that she owes a fourth of her life to this unsavory guy for the whole length of her now very immortal life.

The fear of the unknown

I have a bunch of books that I only got because the names appealed to me, and if you were ever to take a look to those titles together they might tell you something about my personality. I’m definitely not a sunshine-and-rainbows kind of person.

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Braken, is one of these books. And I have to say that I expected something a little darker, but I guess this is what I get for wandering around the YA section. What can I say?! I’ve found some great books there.

I digress…

Back to the book. It was good. Not great, not just OK. Good. It felt a little like an X-MEN story, but a tad more dramatic considering most kids died instead of getting “super powers”. It felt a bit less comic book and more real, though. In the sense that, I cannot imagine a government or society not responding drastically to some catastrophe like this one.

Their kids are dying when they reach 10, and those who don’t, acquire abilities that clearly go beyond their immature minds to manage responsibly… and of course! Let’s put them all together somewhere faraway, where hey can’t hurt me and I don’t have to think about them.

As bad as it sounds, I seems like what most would do.

But then, of course, it ends up being counter productive. What did they expect the children that grew up in those “rehabilitation camps” would end up doing? I’m sure you can see where this is taking you…

I did expect the main character Ruby, to be more damaged… after all, she spent all her formative years in what is basically a prison, and without love ones. But I guess we can always say: “Kids are resilient”. Right?

All in all, it was an interesting read, but it honestly didn’t really get my blood pumping. There are two more books that follow Ruby’s struggle with herself and what I would call “the grown-ups”, and two more novellas that take on other perspectives for the same events, an make up the whole series… but so far I have not added them to my to-read list. I don’t know if I will…

Your gut is always right

Your gut is always right.

A few days ago, I came across this quote online…

And it was all I could think about while reading Unremembered by Jessica Brody.

It all about this girl who has no idea who she is or where she comes from. Violet, as people start to call her, is found at the scene of an airplane crash without a scratch nor any memories whatsoever. Obviously, this is a mystery that entices everyone around. The media goes crazy with it as well as the authorities that have come to be responsible for this girl.

And among all that, comes this boy. And in all her confused and scared logic, she is weary of him. But then there are these feeling she cannot understand. Who to trust when you lack the memories to remind you why you should? I think that’s the absolute point of the story. How far should you be led by instinct alone?
The only things that comes to mind in answer to that is another quote I once heard:

“Follow your heart, but take your brain with you”.

There are more books that follow Seraphina’s (because that’s her actual name) escape from her past and I’m already into Zen’s view of their story: Undiscovered. I’m not sure if I will read the rest of them. So far, I’m rather happy thinking of them two happy together somewhere safe.

I am not insane.

I’m still trying to catch up with all the books that I’ve already read this year, and Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, is the one that has given me the most trouble to write about. I just don’t know what to say.

I liked the scratching of sentences, it was pretty cool. It gave me that not-so-mentally-stable feeling, that I feel is completely appropriate to this girl that has spent so much time locked up in an asylum without any human contact whatsoever. Her ramblings during the first part of the story were the part I liked most.

I could be that it was the only part I liked, actually.

I’m not saying that it was horrible. It wasn’t even bad! It was quite entertaining and somewhat interesting, but it just didn’t captivate me. It could be that it requires a younger audience, but I refuse to believe that for it would mean that I’m getting old and that’s just unspeakable!

Or it could be that I just don’t enjoy those truly goo guy vs tortured bad guy kind of love triangles. I find them a bit juvenile. I don’t think I found them acceptable even when I was a teenager myself.

I don’t know, maybe I should pass it to one of my younger cousins, maybe they would enjoy it. In the mean time, I have no plans of reading the rest of the books in this series. Especially not the ones from they boys’ point of views. They sound too much like the last chapters of Allegiant, definitely not for me.