I can't really post a review until August 20th since that's one of the requirements from Ballantine, but I'll post a mini "should you or shouldn't youI can't really post a review until August 20th since that's one of the requirements from Ballantine, but I'll post a mini "should you or shouldn't you buy it" synopsis for now.
This isn't an awful book, but it is different from the two that preceded it. It's worth checking out for the most part, but I would say that if you went into this with as high of an expectation as I did, that you should lower it some.
(ARC provided through Netgalley)
Merged review:
I can't really post a review until August 20th since that's one of the requirements from Ballantine, but I'll post a mini "should you or shouldn't you buy it" synopsis for now.
This isn't an awful book, but it is different from the two that preceded it. It's worth checking out for the most part, but I would say that if you went into this with as high of an expectation as I did, that you should lower it some.
If there's one thing that initially struck me about this, it's how short the book is. In the long run (ha!) I suppose that suits the way these storiesIf there's one thing that initially struck me about this, it's how short the book is. In the long run (ha!) I suppose that suits the way these stories were written: in 120 characters or less.
For the most part this was an incredibly cute & funny read that I couldn't help but share with my coworkers (we especially liked the stalker tweet). There are a few that didn't work as well as others, though. I also couldn't help but wish that there were just a few more stories in the book. The good thing about this book is that the author has allowed you to set your own price via smashreads so you don't have to pay huge amounts of money for it.
Final thoughts: (120 Characters or less)
Overall this was just plain fun to read. A little short, but hey- so are tweets! Pretty cheap on smashwords, so check it out!
Merged review:
If there's one thing that initially struck me about this, it's how short the book is. In the long run (ha!) I suppose that suits the way these stories were written: in 120 characters or less.
For the most part this was an incredibly cute & funny read that I couldn't help but share with my coworkers (we especially liked the stalker tweet). There are a few that didn't work as well as others, though. I also couldn't help but wish that there were just a few more stories in the book. The good thing about this book is that the author has allowed you to set your own price via smashreads so you don't have to pay huge amounts of money for it.
Final thoughts: (120 Characters or less)
Overall this was just plain fun to read. A little short, but hey- so are tweets! Pretty cheap on smashwords, so check it out!...more
I think that the best endorsement I can ever give a work or product is when I'm willing to keep reading beyond my initial requirement and/or purchase I think that the best endorsement I can ever give a work or product is when I'm willing to keep reading beyond my initial requirement and/or purchase it with my own money. In this case, I was barely started with the first issue of Monstress when I requested the other six issues. A few pages later I ended up buying the first volume because I liked it so much. That's as good of a recommendation as any, that I spent hard cash to collect the first volume.
I can't even begin to tell you why I fell in love with the comic without discussing the artwork. It's lavishly detailed and absolutely gorgeous. The story is fantastic as well, but I've gotten into more than one series just because I loved the art style. It also helps that it suits the story very well, as there's something unique and well, "old" about the style. It's polished in its own way while avoiding the slick feel you get with some of the contemporary graphic novels and comics in the genre - this last part isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not always the right fit for every story and I'm glad that Liu went in this direction with the series. I hope that she sticks with Takeda for the series' length, as series art tends to do better when you have the same crew working on the piece from beginning to end, at least on the main pieces.
Story-wise, this is fantastic and what you'd expect from Liu's work. She does an excellent job with Maika, as the character is sympathetic without being a woobie. You can feel sorry for her without feeling like she's an absolute victim, which honestly has become fairly important to me over the years. Maybe it's because we've had so many works of fiction where the author crafts the character as someone everyone should feel sorry for because reasons - we get far too much of that and in many cases very little reason to actually feel sorry for the main character because somewhere along the line the author forgot to make the character actually sympathetic or anything beyond what's been done to them. (cough*Anita Blake*cough) In any case it's just great when we have a character that isn't written solely to garner sympathy and reduced to what things have been done to them.
I can't recommend this enough, especially to fans of series like Saga.
(ARC provided by Netgalley, but I purchased a copy on my own at a local comic book store)
Merged review:
I think that the best endorsement I can ever give a work or product is when I'm willing to keep reading beyond my initial requirement and/or purchase it with my own money. In this case, I was barely started with the first issue of Monstress when I requested the other six issues. A few pages later I ended up buying the first volume because I liked it so much. That's as good of a recommendation as any, that I spent hard cash to collect the first volume.
I can't even begin to tell you why I fell in love with the comic without discussing the artwork. It's lavishly detailed and absolutely gorgeous. The story is fantastic as well, but I've gotten into more than one series just because I loved the art style. It also helps that it suits the story very well, as there's something unique and well, "old" about the style. It's polished in its own way while avoiding the slick feel you get with some of the contemporary graphic novels and comics in the genre - this last part isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not always the right fit for every story and I'm glad that Liu went in this direction with the series. I hope that she sticks with Takeda for the series' length, as series art tends to do better when you have the same crew working on the piece from beginning to end, at least on the main pieces.
Story-wise, this is fantastic and what you'd expect from Liu's work. She does an excellent job with Maika, as the character is sympathetic without being a woobie. You can feel sorry for her without feeling like she's an absolute victim, which honestly has become fairly important to me over the years. Maybe it's because we've had so many works of fiction where the author crafts the character as someone everyone should feel sorry for because reasons - we get far too much of that and in many cases very little reason to actually feel sorry for the main character because somewhere along the line the author forgot to make the character actually sympathetic or anything beyond what's been done to them. (cough*Anita Blake*cough) In any case it's just great when we have a character that isn't written solely to garner sympathy and reduced to what things have been done to them.
I can't recommend this enough, especially to fans of series like Saga.
(ARC provided by Netgalley, but I purchased a copy on my own at a local comic book store)...more
I think that the best endorsement I can ever give a work or product is when I'm willing to keep reading beyond my initial requirement and/or purchase I think that the best endorsement I can ever give a work or product is when I'm willing to keep reading beyond my initial requirement and/or purchase it with my own money. In this case, I was barely started with the first issue of Monstress when I requested the other six issues. A few pages later I ended up buying the first volume because I liked it so much. That's as good of a recommendation as any, that I spent hard cash to collect the first volume.
I can't even begin to tell you why I fell in love with the comic without discussing the artwork. It's lavishly detailed and absolutely gorgeous. The story is fantastic as well, but I've gotten into more than one series just because I loved the art style. It also helps that it suits the story very well, as there's something unique and well, "old" about the style. It's polished in its own way while avoiding the slick feel you get with some of the contemporary graphic novels and comics in the genre - this last part isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not always the right fit for every story and I'm glad that Liu went in this direction with the series. I hope that she sticks with Takeda for the series' length, as series art tends to do better when you have the same crew working on the piece from beginning to end, at least on the main pieces.
Story-wise, this is fantastic and what you'd expect from Liu's work. She does an excellent job with Maika, as the character is sympathetic without being a woobie. You can feel sorry for her without feeling like she's an absolute victim, which honestly has become fairly important to me over the years. Maybe it's because we've had so many works of fiction where the author crafts the character as someone everyone should feel sorry for because reasons - we get far too much of that and in many cases very little reason to actually feel sorry for the main character because somewhere along the line the author forgot to make the character actually sympathetic or anything beyond what's been done to them. (cough*Anita Blake*cough) In any case it's just great when we have a character that isn't written solely to garner sympathy and reduced to what things have been done to them.
I can't recommend this enough, especially to fans of series like Saga.
(ARC provided by Netgalley, but I purchased a copy on my own at a local comic book store)...more
**spoiler alert** I'm going to include spoilers because honestly, I found that knowing these ahead of time made the book much better for me. I don't w**spoiler alert** I'm going to include spoilers because honestly, I found that knowing these ahead of time made the book much better for me. I don't want to keep using the spoiler tags, so I'm going to just spoiler the entire thing.
Also a big, BIG warning to the content: the book has themes of racism, violence, mental health.
So what's the big twist? The huge twist here is that none of the book is real, at least not in the way that Felix perceives it. Felix is undergoing a huge psychotic break, during which he murdered his wife and best friend since childhood because they were having an affair. It had started with a drunken hookup with Felix's wife Elsa a year prior to the book's start and they kept going. At least, that's how Felix perceived everything. That's part of the brilliance of the novel: Felix is an extremely unreliable narrator, to the point where we don't know how much of the revelations are actually real. All we really know is what he personally sees and thinks. We know that something happened to ruin his friendship with Thomas and that it stems from a drunken threesome Thomas had with his wife and Elsa. We know that Felix killed them. That's honestly all that can generally be confirmed.
Knowing the basic twist: that there was no Rotterdam Mansion and that Felix had killed his wife helped me pick out several very subtle signs that something was up. One of the most obvious was the characters name dropping the film Identity, a book about multiple personalities and a killer. Other hints centered upon the fact that Thomas and Felix kept referencing back to the idea of haunted houses as people, rather than haunted by ghosts.
More subtle are the hints that Felix is an unreliable narrator. He makes some mention of stress in his marriage, but really only focuses on them as it applies to his unsuccessful writing career. Glossed over are the hints and references that he seems to have a drinking problem, a bit of an anger problem, and a childhood history of mental illness. The childhood history is especially glossed over. Felix doesn't exactly hide it, but he does mention an unhappy childhood where he spent much of his time with Thomas and Thomas's family. He also mentions an event that caused him to lose time, as he was in somewhat of a fugue state. That last one is a huge hint that something is going on with Felix and that it's likely untreated, at least nowadays. There wasn't a huge emphasis on therapy in the book, so if he was getting treatment, he was hiding things from them. Other little things that are worth mentioning is that Thomas is more well off than Felix AND that Elsa was the one leading Thomas and his wife to the bedroom. It all points towards several major points that made Felix a ticking time bomb:
- Felix had an unhappy marriage. - Felix relied very, VERY heavily on Thomas for emotional support. He also relied heavily on Elsa for both financial and emotional support. - Felix has a history of mental health issues. (My personal theory is codependency and an avoidant personality.) - Felix has a drinking problem, as shown by his inability to drink without getting slobbering drunk. - It is implied that Elsa was the one who initiated the initial threesome.
Getting back to the main point of why I enjoyed this: these spoilers all made it much easier to pick out what was going on. I didn't know everything that was to come, but I knew the big twist. It also made me wonder which parts of the book were "real" and which were Felix's brain trying to shelter him from the truth. Did Thomas ever actually say any of his admissions? For that matter, was Thomas really having an affair with Elsa? Or was this something Felix made up because he simply couldn't believe that the threesome (assuming that actually happened either) was a one off? Keep in mind, Felix killed his wife and best friend, the two most important people in his life, in a jealous rage. In order to keep protecting himself he has to convince himself that they deserved it.
So... do I recommend it? Absolutely. If you have an Audible membership you can listen to it for free. Spoil the basic twist for yourself, it makes the listen a lot more fun. I was enjoying the book beforehand, but knowing the twist gave it that little extra edge - and made the abrupt ending a bit more acceptable. I can see where that would have made me mad if I wasn't already prepared for it....more
I'm calling it. I really, really wanted to like this since I love Amanda Ronconi and I think in other hands I'd have given up long ago. I'm going to pI'm calling it. I really, really wanted to like this since I love Amanda Ronconi and I think in other hands I'd have given up long ago. I'm going to put this into two parts: what I liked and what I didn't. If you have seen my reading progress notes you can guess what will be in the second part.
What I liked: Amanda Ronconi does an amazing job as narrator. She's a talented woman with a gift for voices. It's why she's able to bring Molly Harper's works to life. I also liked the basic mystery here and I kept reading/listening enough until I learned "whodunnit" and the info about the MacGuffin (no spoilers on this end since it's one of the things I liked about the work and don't want to ruin that for others). I also more or less liked the police officer, one of the few characters I did like in this book.
What I didn't like. Hoo boy. Buckle up.
I really didn't like the ghost characters. Part of the issue here is that they just weren't portrayed as very nice or likeable characters, despite the author telling us that we should like them.
Paul was narrow sighted and didn't seem to care about anyone or anything, as long as the case got solved. I mean, there's a scene where (view spoiler)[ our narrator was detained by the police after discovering a dead body. In an office she broke into because Paul told her to, in order to make a copy of her deed. When she got home it's clear that SOMETHING bad happened, but does he bother to ask her if she's OK? Nope. He immediately starts pestering her about the deed and when he learns that the police confiscated it, he scolds her. And, by the way, she was also surrounded by people who presumably didn't know anything about the ghosts or the fact she could see them. There was every reason for her NOT to respond right away, as for all she knew, they could have sent her right to the hospital to check for a mental break. For all his self-praise for his detective skills (despite only ever having one client, Maxie), he didn't even think of that? (hide spoiler)]
Then there's Maxie. From the start she is hostile to Alison. Hostile because she's there. Hostile because she's alive. Hostile because Alison doesn't want to immediately investigate the murder. The only person she's actually nice to is the daughter, but we don't really see any of that because it's all done off camera since we only see what Alison sees. If we're supposed to sympathize with her, then we actually need scenes of her being sympathetic, as opposed to just people telling us that Maxie is having a hard time.
Then there's her sexual assault of Tony. From the moment she saw him, Maxie starts acting like the animated horn dog. All she needed was an "awooga" horn and her tongue rolling out. However it's made clear from the start that even if he knew she existed (in ghost form) that he would not reciprocate because he was a very happily married man. Alison even tells Maxie this. But does Maxie care? Nope. All that she cares about is Maxie. So at one point in the book she gives Tony a very passionate kiss. I wouldn't be surprised if tongue was involved, given how it's described as a super passionate kiss. It was generally played off for humor and while Alison is upset, it's repeatedly stated that Maxie is oh so upset that Tony didn't enjoy or appreciate the kiss. So we're supposed to feel sorry that the man she sexually harassed and assaulted didn't appreciate her unwanted advances (that up to that point he was unaware of).
Now, here's the thing: if Maxie was "Max" and Tony was "Antonia", this scene would have likely been written far, FAR more different. "Max" would have been scolded up and down for his unwanted romantic/sexual advances. Especially if he made the comment "When I kiss them, they STAY kissed", something Maxie herself says. Something else to take into consideration here is that the book also apparently mentions sexual harassment earlier in the book, as it's where Alison got her payout - she had been sexually harassed by her boss. Yet at no point does Alison (or the author) mention that sexual harassment against men is also bad.
Why does this make me so heated? Because this is just another example of the trope "It's OK if it's female on male". It's a gross, disgusting trope that needs to die a terrible death and go away. I'm aware that this was written in 2010, before #METOO became a thing and before more candid discussions of sexual assault were made. But it's also not like it was written back in the 80s or 90s, when stuff like that was frequently played for humor. Now, I'm aware this is fiction. That it's unlikely to make someone make light of sexual harassment and assault against men. But the thing is, men already have a hard time being taken seriously when they report rape, harassment, and assault. It does seem to happen less frequently, but keep in mind that just as women are blown off or ridiculed by police, so are men, which is why they too are less likely to report assault to the police. It's not the author's job to raise awareness on this exactly, but I do think she and others need to do better.
Plus the whole reason the scene happens? To show to Tony and his wife that ghosts exist. However there are a ton of other ways this could have been accomplished. It didn't need harassment/assault to occur to prove it.
Maybe the series gets better. Maybe at some point we're given actual reasons to like Maxie rather than the author telling us (via the main character) that we should feel back for her and that she's not a terrible person. Maybe the author even realizes that she handled this poorly and goes back and calls out Maxie for sexually harassing and assaulting Tony. But I'm not going to read future books to see if this is ever revealed. I refuse to read a book where sexual harassment (some may debate the kiss being assault) is played for humor, especially if earlier in the book there's mention that the female lead experienced it herself. And when she expresses any displeasure she's told to lighten up and how sad Maxie is and how the lead is "mean" for not treating a horrible garbage person nicely. I'm aware that the loss of a single reader isn't going to make the author lose any sleep, but I have to at least say my piece.
It's just a shame, as the mystery was pretty decent. ...more
**spoiler alert** I'm going to mention some spoilers, but I'll hide those behind spoiler tags.
The long and short is that this book was kind of underw**spoiler alert** I'm going to mention some spoilers, but I'll hide those behind spoiler tags.
The long and short is that this book was kind of underwhelming. It's not bad exactly, but I do view it as one of the weaker Aliens novels. Why? Because it took so freaking long to get where it was going. Once it was there, it was fantastic.
I also have to address some of the common complaints brought up in reviews. The two main complaints are as follows: (And yes, I'm putting this more nicely than some of the reviews out there have)
* The representation in the book felt gratuitous and forced. * The Xenomorphs in the book did not appear to follow typical Xeno rules, nor did the Plagiarus praepotens.
First, the LGBT and representation. I'm aware that there is a small but visible portion of the reading world and Alien fandom that would complain at any given sign of someone not resembling what they would deem "acceptable" - ie, someone not being like Ripley or a LGBT person having any or too large of a role. For those, I doubt anything would really be acceptable even if they were very well written. I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt that there are some who don't care but felt that the representation was forced. I don't think that the representation was forced, but I do think it was clumsily handled. For long stretches of the book nothing much happens, which makes the weak parts of the book stand out that much more. I don't know how much of this was the author and how much of this was due to the Powers That Be. Let's not fool ourselves: while the authors are given leeway, the Aliens novels are a lucrative part of the Aliens franchise. The PTB have a vision for what they want the series to have, do, and be, so they almost certainly have a general outline for how they want the series to progress. Sort of akin to how authors have to follow a script when writing a movie novelization.
I think that Ballantine was given a list of characters and an outline, as well as the general fates of who would and wouldn't survive. In order to make the deaths of minor characters more interesting, she tried fleshing them out by discussing their personal lives. Unfortunately it just didn't really work that well since otherwise many of them felt paper thin and to be honest, pretty unnecessary. I think that the author could have halved the characters with any major "screen time" and the story would have been stronger for it. For example, (view spoiler)[ I found Nathan to be largely irrelevant. His girlfriend could have chosen to stick around purely because she was a good person. There was also no need to have him go to town to discuss the Engineer/Builder door (ie, to sell the info so they could get out of bondage) since that went nowhere. I do think it may have been included for a future series plot point, but there could have been other ways to do that. He was also used as a way of infodumping content about the critters on the planet, but again, other ways to do this. (hide spoiler)] Many characters felt unnecessary like that. They were given very brief glimpses and when they were killed, there wasn't any emotional payoff. Unfortunately it just felt kind of boring and forced at times because it wasn't all that interesting, not when we've getting teased about more exciting things like an alien door, possible Xenomorph sightings, and so on.
Next is the Xeno stuff. To that I just have to say that what happened in the book wasn't unreasonable. There are several short stories that address what happens when facehuggers implant embryos in the bodies of various planetary "bugs". They do have Xeno characteristics, but overall they largely take on the look and physical characteristics of the critter. Now when it comes to the black goo, there's not a lot of info about this out there and I think it depends on the amount, the person/organism, and the type of black goo. The doomed and wonderful Blue Marsallis turned into a Xenomorph herself, keeping her mind only because of her iron will - and only somewhat successfully at that. Into Charybdis showed that there were people who "grew" Xenomorph creatures on their body, so it looks like the goo reacts differently or can be engineered to be different. You also have to figure that (view spoiler)[whomever was attacking the planet clearly had access to Engineer tech. The Engineers are clearly able to use the Xenos as guard creatures for themselves, so who's to say that they couldn't engineer the goo to do whatever they want? And if so, then what's to stop whomever grabbed the tech from using this to their advantage? (hide spoiler)]
Now all that said and overlooked, the main issue I had here is that the first half was just so darn slow. This really should have been a novella or short story because it just didn't feel like there was enough plot to justify it being a full length novel. I think that the big reveal about the ship (view spoiler)[that it wasn't piloted by Engineers and was instead piloted by a SYNTH, who may or may not have been under the control of someone else (hide spoiler)] was the main reason this was turned into a full length, since they want to make sure that people are aware of this plot point. Mae's existence and the (view spoiler)[animosity levied at her by other\ synths (hide spoiler)] is another factor and one I found incredibly interesting. There's a lot of potential there for future strife if (view spoiler)[it ends up that the synths weren't operating under human control. (hide spoiler)]
I suppose I was also irritated with the narrator as well. For the first half of the book she read with a soothing bedtime story/ASMR voice, which only really changed once the action picked up. The woman is clearly talented, but her narration style didn't fit the first half of the book.
This isn't a bad book, but I think that some of the criticisms were probably levied at it because of the super slow first half and because of how long it took for the payoff to arrive in the second, which moved much faster but was still sort of slower. I do think that some of the people were complaining because they don't want LGBT representation in books at all, which I find incredibly stupid. Stuff like that (politics, sexuality, etc) has ALWAYS been part of science fiction and a huge way of discussing these topics in a "safe" way. (In other words, when they talk about war between alien civilizations it's a way of discussing war and strife between countries and races. Same as when you have super sexy alien people appearing during a time when sexuality in general was not really all that acceptable.)...more
I'll admit it. I have a lot that frustrates me with this book but as a whole I absolutely love it. The romance is easily the weakest point here and I I'll admit it. I have a lot that frustrates me with this book but as a whole I absolutely love it. The romance is easily the weakest point here and I still think that Alten could have left it out entirely. There have also been some frustrated readers who have pointed out inaccuracies and stereotypes, specifically that several characters lean too hard into media stereotypes of Scottish men and women. An example frequently brought up is Brandy, who is your stereotypical red haired Scottish spitfire. As far as inaccuracies go, those seem to be more brought up by those very familiar with Scotland's history and politics/laws. The one example I saw mentioned was that if convicted, Angus would be put to death - however the death penalty was abolished in Scotland in 1965, whereas this book is set long after that. I'm trying to remember if anyone other than Angus and his lawyer mentioned that he could face the death penalty because if so, it could have been a manipulation tactic. That would be in keeping with his character, but that would also have been a point far too subtle for this book. It's not that type of work.
Where this absolutely excels is in the action and the description of Loch Ness. Granted I don't know how much of the non-Nessie stuff is accurate, but I will say that what was described sounded incredibly cool. I think I got just as excited about the history and science of the Loch as I did about Nessie and in some scenes, even more excited. From what I can see, it really is its own little (relatively speaking) world down there. Everything sounds so intriguing that as far as IRL stuff goes, I think that Nessie may just be one of the least interesting things down there (assuming it exists). And I find the monster pretty interesting, obviously.
The audio for this is great as well, although at times I got frustrated because I wanted to know what would happen next and I knew that I could read faster than the narrator could read aloud. I'll probably check out the next in the series, even though I've heard some say it was pretty underwhelming and really went in a weird direction. ...more
**spoiler alert** OK. I'm going to be honest. There are going to be spoilers here because a lot of my issues and praise of/with the book deal with spe**spoiler alert** OK. I'm going to be honest. There are going to be spoilers here because a lot of my issues and praise of/with the book deal with specific stuff. Some of them don't really feel like spoilers because there's a lot here that's predictable, but I will discuss things that will be out and out spoilers. If you're wondering if I recommend this, I do. It's a fun read, albeit one that won't stand out like some of the others in the LN world with similar themes and storylines.
Spoilers abound from here on out.
My main issue here was that it didn't really devote itself to the political intrigue angle as much as it could or should have in some areas. The main focus here was fluffy romance, which it did pretty well all things considering. The timeline was also a bit weird here and there as well, as I wasn't too clear on the characters' ages at times when it came to the discussion of the past war. It made it seem like it was a long time ago, but then there were also mentions that it was done during the childhood of both the princess and the protagonist.
This made the age of the love interest a bit weird. He was old enough to fight during the war, but not too old to be the love interest? I think the war happened about 10-15 years prior to the book's start and I *think* that the FL is about 18. Was the love interest a child during the war? There was mention of him killing his mother when he was about 3 years old, so was he that age or close to it during the war? I tentatively pegged him at 20-30 years old at the book's start. If it was closer to 30 then the age difference would have been weird, but not unrealistic for political marriages. I would have just liked some discussion on that end.
Where the book really kind of fell apart was with the villains. I suppose the ex boyfriend could be considered one but he was pretty much brought up at the beginning and then dropped fairly quickly. He was mentioned from then on out, but mostly in a compare/contrast perspective here and there. The adoptive king's villainy was better fleshed out, but then they dispatched him very quickly towards the end, in favor of playing up the villainy of the princess. That's where I was kind of disappointed since her appearance kind of fizzled. They made her aware of everything that the king had done, but honestly... I think it would have been better to make her someone spoiled and unaware. That would have made the "but he killed my parents" thing have more of a punch, because then they could have had her do something like "Oh wow, I didn't know - but it's natural that he wants to protect me and give me what I want."
To be honest, I would have also preferred that they had either went hard into the political intrigue angle or just left it out. Instead of the murdered parents angle, have FL be the daughter of a concubine and the unloved half sister. The sister coveted the ex and the king, who gave the sister everything she wanted anyway, agreed to the switch. Then you could have the sister show up in the end, get humiliated, and then have the dad have to start putting his foot down in order to save face. Or just relegate her to an offhand mention at the end about how the sister was unhappy in her marriage, as the guy was just a social climber and the throne went to their brother since the ex wasn't of high enough standing to become king. That's just me though.
Overall though, the book was fine and I don't regret buying it. I would like to see more from the author, as I think they have a good writing style and I think that the issues will work themselves out over time. ...more
This was hilarious and honestly, I'm kind of morbidly curious about the source material now.
Also I'm calling it: Ci~L is Lizzie, because if you pronoThis was hilarious and honestly, I'm kind of morbidly curious about the source material now.
Also I'm calling it: Ci~L is Lizzie, because if you pronounce her name backwards it's sort of like the name Lizzie sound-wise. And it's stupid and inexplicable enough to be something in Modelland....more
NGL, the whole reason I want to read this is because of how completely and totally bizarre this is and how it's described on here and in the podcast bNGL, the whole reason I want to read this is because of how completely and totally bizarre this is and how it's described on here and in the podcast by the Rifftrax guys. It sounds like just a strange dream brought to life. Kind of sad that there's no second book and that it looks like the series has pretty much been abandoned by Tyra Banks.
I've read Pete's review of Modelland. It's fantastic. I'm also kind of convinced that Ci~L is Lizzie because if you pronounce the name backwards, it's kind of a sound alike. It's also a silly enough plot device that I can see it happening in this book. ...more
**spoiler alert** This was an interesting book to read, to put it bluntly. If you're expecting this to be like the first, then you're going to be pote**spoiler alert** This was an interesting book to read, to put it bluntly. If you're expecting this to be like the first, then you're going to be potentially disappointed as this is much, much darker than the first one. Without going into too many spoilers, here's my review:
Wade is a darker personality in this one and I'll be frank: Halliday is an outright creep. Tortured genius, sure, but also a stone cold creep. There are a lot of themes in this that are somewhat touched upon, but never really deeply gone into, such as themes of betrayal, consent, humanity, death, and addiction. It'd be nice if Cline had delved more deeply into these as they applied to the digital technology used in the book, but I can understand why he didn't - it would have been too dark for the intended crowd.
This book definitely makes me want to read the first again and also even makes the film version a bit darker, because of what it implies of Halliday's character and personality.
Actually, screw spoilers. The more that I think about this, the more I'm let down in some forms.
Wade spent the last book and a chunk of this book idolizing Halliday. He also modeled most of his personality around Halliday, to the point where at one point even Sorrento (in this book) mocks him and other people in OASIS for living their lives in the past. I don't really see a huge shift in character for Wade, especially after (view spoiler)[he learns that Halliday created his own personal copy of Kira. What he did, viewing her memories and trying to persuade her to love him, is effectively rape as far as I'm concerned. Even if his AI or avatar selves didn't force themselves on her, going through and living her memories, wearing her skin through various moments in her life - which could include any sexual memories - is a complete and total violation of her being. Then after Halliday realized that he was a monster, he split her personality into pieces and made it part of a treasure hunt. Showing that he didn't really learn too much from viewing her memories. If he'd really learned anything he should have deleted the AI of himself because he KNEW that the AI was the worst parts of him maxed up to the nth. He should have then talked to Og and let him know what he did and what the ONI was capable of - then spent the remaining years of his life debating whether or not such a device should ever be released to the public. Not leave it up to his "heir apparent". He had no way of knowing what type of person would find the egg, as it could've been Hitler 2.0, so it could have gone very, very wrong. (hide spoiler)]...more
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