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[AldeberanBlack]

Fifty Shades Darker

Spoiler: show

There is still no plot. It amazes me how authors can write novels with hundreds upon hundreds of pages and still not realise that they might need to come up with a story of some sort. Fifty Shades does not warrant a trilogy of 500 page novels. If anything, Fifty Shades is even more padded than Twilight. The Fifty Shades novels should really be no more than about 250 pages each if all the repetition and padding was excluded. George Orwell managed to fit the Soviet revolution into just 94 pages when he wrote Animal Farm.

The author drops seemingly random soap opera developments into the novel that lead to nothing of consequence. At the major publishing company she works for, Ana is harassed by a sleazy lustful boss, but it’s handled so badly by the author, I half expected him to twirl his moustache. When he’s fired, he is replaced by Ana, a 22 year old college grad, who has only been working for the company for one week, and whose only previous experience has been limited to working at a hardware store. This is a nonsensical development. Christian disappears after a helicopter crash. It seems that someone dramatic might actually occur in this series, but no, he reappears without a scratch only two pages later, offering an improbable story of survival. There is also a Dynasty-style catfight between Christian’s ex-partner and his mother.

The first novel ended with a breakup of Ana and Christian. I considered this a positive development for Ana, but she didn’t. The epic breakup at the end of the first novel lasts all of five days, during that time, Ana is tortured with pain over the loss of her boyfriend, which again seems derived from Bella’s reaction to a breakup with Edward in New Moon, then the two characters simply pick up where they left off, with Christian being controlling to a psychotic level, particular when it comes to demanding that Ana eats food whenever he commands it, which has been a bizarre running theme since the start of the first novel, supposedly because when Christian was a neglected child, he was constantly on the verge of starvation. Judging by the amount of food he’s forced her to eat since this series began I calculate that Ana’s weight would be around 200 pounds by now.

Much like the first novel, this second novel contains a great deal that is obviously “inspired” by Twilight. Like Twilight, an enemy emerges who seems to have a grudge against the lead female. In Twilight it is Victoria, in Fifty Shades, it is Leila. I desperately wanted Leila to kill both lead characters. It’s not a good sign when a reader wants the villain to actually win. But as expected any supposed threat Leila poses to Ana disappears quickly. She confronts her and nothing happens. Ana is safe and Leila is whisked away to an institution. How dramatic. Another similarity with Twilight occurs when it comes to Christian Grey’s effect on all women, who are absurdly dazzled by his mere appearance, to the point where they can barely speak coherently. The same thing happens with Edward Cullen. Christian’s father is called Carrick. No connection to Carlisle Cullen I’m sure. Christian’s parents adopt children. Again, nothing like the Cullens right? One of Christian’s parents is a doctor. Hmm…what was Carlisle’s job? I forgot.

Fifty Shades, like Twilight, is another series where the idea of the lead male and lead female getting together permanently would not IMO be a happy ending. At most, it would be an example of two bizarre people who find happiness together in their mutual weirdness. Furthermore, Ana, a college graduate, who seemed to have a potentially promising career ahead of her, basically abandons it all when she begins her relationship with Christian. I have come to the conclusion that although consent appeared to be given in the first novel, this has now evolved into an abusive relationship. The explicit nature of the relationship always had a degrading element to it, but now the relationship as a whole seems to be motivated by fear to a large degree. Even if Ana wanted to end this relationship, I don’t believe she really could. She is constantly fearful of angering Christian Grey. His presence in her life is so intrusive and overbearing he was even able to access her bank account, without her knowledge or permission. I also question whether she could live her life with no interference from Christian. When she got a job at a publishing company, he bought it, just so he could control that element of her life too. He tells her that if she changed jobs and worked elsewhere, he’d buy that company too. Whenever Christian becomes upset, it’s usually because Ana is defying his sociopathic commands and controls over her, and to console him, she constantly makes concessions to placate her boyfriend, which usually includes some consideration that she should surrender to his most extreme needs and desires. This is troubling. Like Twilight, I question whether the lead female would be attracted to the lead male if he wasn’t rich. Would Ana be so enchanted with Christian Grey if he worked at IKEA? I seriously doubt it. This adds another level of superficiality to a relationship which is already based on nothing more than physical pleasure.

Another thing I’ve noticed with Twilight and Fifty Shades is how they will not date well. Both books are filled with contemporary references to gadgets like iPods and Blackberrys, bands like Kings of Leon, and specific models of cars. That may be fine for a reader today (presuming they care about such materialistic largesse) but the references will be obsolete in a few years. If the novels were offering social commentary on the pop culture of our times, that might be acceptable, but since they do no such thing, it is clear that they are written for the here and now only, and the references contained within will be meaningless once today’s fads move on.

This series is not a love story. It’s a lust story. Aside from physical gratification needs, these two characters have nothing to base their relationship on, and while that may be a perfectly acceptable basis for a relationship for the people involved, for someone reading about it, it is tedious. The amount of explicit encounters in this series enters the realm of the ridiculous. The problem with explicit scenes is that too many of them soon become boring. They are best used in moderation, and should be used to advance either plot or character development. None of which occurs in this series. It’s just one after another and one could easily skip most of them and miss nothing of importance. It reminded me of the relationship between the Devil and Saddam Hussein in the South Park movie. Not only does it become very repetitive and boring to read, but the two lead characters appear to have stamina levels on par with Kryptonians, and they don’t even have the excuse of being extra-terrestrials. While I understand this series is fantasy, at some point logic has to be incorporated into the "plot", and that just never happens. I’d go into more detail about the lack of biological plausibility in the explicit scenes in this series, but this is a family site.

I am hesitant to use the word “character” when describing Ana Steele and Christian Grey, because they aren’t characters. They don’t have personalities, they don’t have depth, and don’t have wider interests beyond each other or display any genuine or believable human emotions. In fact “Steele” and “Grey” are perfect names for them, because they are cold and boring, respectively. When the movie adaptation is made, I am sure the cinematographer will use a blue filter for every single scene. The dialogue is just awful. I’m sure it’s supposed to be erotically charged, but it just isn’t. The amount of times Christian calls Ana “baby” is ludicrous. He sounds like Austin Powers. The books are pretentious too. Sprinkling random references to various works of classical music and literature does not elevate the novel intellectually, especially since neither character displays much intellect or insight. Much of this novel series is built on revealing the dark secrets of the lead male Christian Grey. The only problem with such a plot device is that so much is made of how important these revelations will be, that the actual reveal MUST be of something considerable (which they aren't), otherwise it will disappoint (which they do). In fact, I would not at all be surprised if Christian Grey ultimately revealed himself to be a vampire.

This series moves from the ridiculous to the even more laughable when the big secret is finally revealed. Christian (whose birth mother was something I can’t mention here) likes to indulge in extreme desires with willing women who remind him of his mother, whom he hated, and this includes Ana. How does she react to this incredibly weird revelation? Does she run? No. She eats macaroni and cheese with him. Then he asks her to marry him. Yes, you read that correctly. Does she run? Again no. She tearfully consoles him, feeling sympathy for the obvious psychopath who orders her around, forces her to eat whether she’s hungry or not, confesses repeatedly that he would like to beat her, and has never demonstrated a normal human emotion. It gets even worse when said psychopath even proposes that they have children, and once again, Ana doesn’t seem troubled by it. At the end of the novel, she accepts the proposal.

I question the mindset of the author

[Sereena]

NW by Zadie Smith 7/10

I found the book interesting and well written. My only issue was that she changed the POV from characters who were interesting and well developed to a character which came in the story rather out of the blue and had no connection to the other characters. After that, she came back to the characters she had introduced in the beginning but sadly by that time, that part diminished my interest in the story as I didn't want to read about said character. So that's my only beef. Take that part out or skip it and the novel is much better.

[xhanax315]

10/10 Old Yeller - Fred Gipson
Decided to finally read this book after seeing it mentioned in "Rabid: The Cultural History of the World's Most Dia olical Virus". I hadn't known that rabies played a part in this story, I just thought it was about a boy and his dog. It's scary to think how they handled this disease during the storys time period. It's also unsettling to learn about the fate of Old Yeller himself, especially after the reader gets attached to him when he saves his adopted family and is initially the hero of the story.

[asdfasdf17]

Perfect Strangers- 8/10
It was a great book for light reading but it was a very obvious what was going to happen and not much came as a surprise. Also, the ending was very happily-ever-after and the characters, though they were interesting, were not fleshed out as much as I would have liked. This would make one think the book should receive a low rating but like I said I think it was meant for light reading (like the type of book you take to the beach with you) plus I kind of expected it to be like that, so no complaints. Cute romance-type book.

[AldeberanBlack]

Fifty Shades Freed

Spoiler: show

Even after three novels, numbering 1500 pages, no story ever developed in this series. Fifty Shades is little more than a series of explicit scenes (which become boring after the fifth or sixth one), e-mail exchanges (which cover the exact same subject matter over and over again), and repetitive conversations that all combine to do nothing except artificially inflate a shallow book series, which when stripped down to actual character development and story would amount to one book of around 200 pages at most, to a trilogy of 500 page books. What little plot exists is nothing more than an array of soap opera elements that are dropped into the novels in what looks like a random sequence.

These include a car crash involving Ana’s sports obsessed father Ray, who I’m sure is in no way inspired by Bella’s sports obsessed father Charlie, that he recovers from within a few chapters, an arson attack, a completely ludicrous car chase and an even more absurd aftermath, and a predictable extortion plot which is resolved merely three or four pages later. Like Twilight, Fifty Shades is nothing more than a series of fantasies that the author is having about an idealised male character, with her place taken by a docile female character who is marginalised and controlled by said male when it comes to decision making, and some contrived events to give the novels the superficial appearance of actually being about something.

The selling points of this series are the explicit scenes, but the problem is, that there are just too many of them, and they serve no purpose other than indulging the author’s fantasies. I found myself skipping pages again. EL James interrupts what little story exists to shoehorn one explicit scene after another into the novels, and they are repetitive, both in what they depict and the dialogue contained within, sometimes almost word for word. Even in scenes which are not explicit, the dialogue between the two characters is just a virtual copy of previous scenes.

The same conversations are repeated time and again, usually consisting of Christian upset because he wants to inflict some sort of extreme personal desire upon Ana, and Ana saying she worries she can never satisfy his needs (although she always surrenders to them anyway), and Christian upset because Ana won’t follow his orders, and Ana complaining mildly (before she promises to obey him in future). In both cases the conversations end with Ana submitting to her psychotic husband’s extremely controlling ways, and her inner monologue acting as an apologist for it, which consists of her feeling sympathy for the fact he was abused as a child, which IMO certainly should not excuse the way he treats his wife. Ana makes excuses for her husband’s behaviour by marginalising it. She calls him “bossy” when in fact his conduct towards her is significantly more controlling than that, to the extent that it approaches totalitarian levels.

Ana is a classic unreliable narrator. It is, quite frankly, impossible to believe anything she claims. According to Ana, every woman Christian meets desires him, merely by looking at him. This is taken to an extreme level when she threatens Gia (the interior designer) with being fired simply because in Ana’s mind (and probably in her fantasy world) Gia is flirting with Christian. This is obnoxious behaviour and in no way can endear a reasonable reader to the lead female character, which is essential for later in the novel when she is threatened by the (mediocre) villain. It’s also not a good sign when a security guard background character like Taylor is significantly more interesting than the two lead characters of a novel series. The controlling element of the central relationship goes even further than ever before in this novel. Ana can’t do anything without Christian being angry, under the guise of being worried for her safety, whether she’s riding on a jet-ski (which is another similarity to Bella’s motorbike riding in Twilight), driving a car, going for a drink with a friend, or even sunbathing. The relationship never strikes me as being between adults, but a strange twisted parent/child relationship.

The Twilight similarities continue, as they have throughout the entire series. Ana talks in her sleep, just like Bella. Christian watches her sleep, just like Edward watches Bella. Neither Ana nor Bella express any opposition to this creepy behaviour. On the contrary, each character finds it endearing. Christian has never, in his entire life, been in love with a woman (despite having numerous partners) until he met Ana. Edward has never been in love with a woman (despite living for over one hundred years) until he met Bella. When Bella becomes pregnant, she nicknames her demon spawn “nudger” (because it nudged her constantly during her pregnancy). When Ana becomes pregnant, she nicknames her own demon spawn “little blip” (because that’s the sound the ultrasound made during a scan), and speaking of pregnancy, I find very strange how Ana takes absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for her contraception. All of it is left to Christian. He decides everything. Her opinions are never even considered. Christian’s reaction to Ana’s pregnancy is obnoxious, and his later conversion to being a loving and supportive father just doesn’t convince. After reading three novels depicting this psychopath, I was convinced he’d more likely be a threat to the child than anything resembling a kind and adoring parent.

The start of the novel is strange and very clumsily arranged. It’s never clear when exactly the two lead characters got married. One of the marriage and honeymoon scenes are entirely within the mind of Ana Steele in a dream sequence. There’s a ten page argument over whether Ana should change her professional name from “Steele” to “Grey”. I was half-expecting her to change it to “Swan” or “Cullen”. The lead characters referring to each other as “Mrs Grey” and “Mr Grey” is utterly tedious. Ana’s “inner goddess” is annoying. She seems to cheer and applaud every abusive thing that Christian does. I don’t think I could handle another novel written in first person perspective, especially another novel about nothing. 1500 pages of Ana Steele’s inner monologue was torture. This novel series should have been called “Fifty Shades of Purple (Prose)”. I don’t understand why authors such as EL James and Stephenie Meyer feel it necessary to repeatedly write the same descriptions of the lead male character over and over again. How many times does a reader need to be told what colour hair and eyes the guy has, or how hot his jeans look when they hang off his hips at a certain angle, or how his lips form a straight line when he gets angry? I can only conclude two things, first, that it’s padding, and contributes to get the required number of pages that the publisher demands, and two, descriptions of appearance are silly attempts to distract the reader from the fact that the guy has no character or personality.

The novel ends with the worst possible outcome. They have two children and the ending is a typical “they live happily ever after” conclusion. It’s followed by two brief chapters from Christian’s point of view. One of which is from his perspective as a child, and the other is the first meeting he had with Ana Steele, which makes Christian sound even more obnoxious than he already did, since it becomes obvious that from the first moment he saw her, Christian viewed Ana as little more than a new toy. Rewriting the first part of the novel from the male perspective once again draws upon Twilight, since Meyer’s unpublished unfinished story “Midnight Sun” covers similar ground.

Overall, this was a terrible novel series. As I said in the first review, it never rises above sounding like bad fan fiction, which is precisely what it began as. It does however offer hope to aspiring fan fiction writers. No matter how bad your work may be. No matter how much of it is drawn from an existing work. No matter how non-existent the plot may be, how awful the characters (a loose term) are, and regardless of how repetitive, self-indulgent and contrived it may be, you could still get a publishing deal and make your fortune. The novel ends with a thank you to the reader from EL James for enduring her work, and the words “that’s all……for now” which honestly sounds like a threat.

[xhanax315]

10/10 Night Shift - Stephen King
So far the scariest Stephen King book I've read so far. It's amongst my favorites of his work simply because of its intensity of its horror and because he's such an awesome short story writer. This book kept me awake late at night, peering from beneath the covers to ensure some of the entities in his stories weren't glaring down at me.

[SusanBones]

Cutting for Stone - by Abraham Verghese - 10/10

This was a really good book. It was one of those books that is always on the "recommended
" book lists but I had been avoiding. I thought the title meant that the book was about Ethiopians who worked in a stone quarry. But I finally gave it a go and was I surprised. The setting is primarily a mission hospital in Addis Abada, Ethiopia. And the main characters were the doctors, their support staff, and their children. It is very good.

[RikuStark]

Just got done with reading The Black Echo by Michael Connelly.

I'm not sure how I should rate this book because it's not a book that I normally read. It was good, and I enjoyed it. I think if you're big on crime and mystery novels then you should read it. A great main character, and the plot was enjoyable enough for even me to like it.

Overall, I'll give it a 8/10, I have no reason to downgrade a book because it has no fantasy element in it.

Edit:

Finished another book! Biting Cold by Chloe Niell. Giving this one a 8.5/10

It's the 6th book in the series and it's still pulling me back too it. My only problem with it was the repetitive element. The storylines are always new, but the main character's love for food doesn't have to be brought up a bunch of times.

[horcrux4]

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 10/10

It's very rare I see a movie and then read the book afterwards. This is one of those times, and am I glad I did! Although the film is excellent the book is even better. There are more weird characters than they put on film which makes Flora's stay at Cold Comfort Farm even more insane. I was hoping that the book might give me some clues as to what Aunt Ada Doom saw in the woodshed and in a way it did. A gem of a read.

[RikuStark]

Anna Dressed in Blood . I really liked this book, it read out like a movie almost. It had that quick pace with no sub-plots, and just got right to the point. My only problem was exactly that. Even though it was great, it would have been better with a little more substance.

The book wrapped up everything, so imagine my surprise when I find out there's a second one. I don't know how I feel about that, but it has pretty good ratings on Goodreads.

Overall rating: 8/10

[xhanax315]

10/10 The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling

Spoiler: show

I'm actually rather impressed with Jo's take on this novel. It's a completely new side of her that we've never seen before. Mind you, I think they overplayed the whole 'adult novel' thing, but it didn't turn out half bad. There's so much tragedy at the end, it's a bit overwhelming. Jo has a fondness for foul language in this one. Some people have deemed her characters unlikable in this novel, but there were a few that I rather liked. Jo deals with topics in this novel that aren't seen in the Potter novels, like drug abuse/addiction, child abuse, and some others. I enjoyed this much more than I was expecting to. I'm glad I got to savor this book more the first time I read it unlike the Potter novels. Despite what a lot of people will say about this book, I give Jo Rowling two-thumbs up.

[RikuStark]

The Crown of Embers 9.5/10 (Sequel to The Girl of Fire and Thorns)

I loved this book. A great followup to the first one. The characters, once again, make me love them to death(or hate them). My only problem was that it almost felt like a filler book before the finale. Regardless, I swept through, and was not disappointed. I'm just sad that I have to wait until next year for the 3rd book.

Edit:

Finished another book! Witch & Wizard.....ah..6.5/10. I enjoyed it, it was a very quick read, but besides the two main characters, you really have no reason to feel anything for the rest of the characters. Actually, I take that back, you can't really feel for any of the characters. I liked them, but there was zero connection. The main villains were...laughable. No dimension. The book was a little too simple, and I feel a little generous giving it a 6.5.

[MmeBergerac]

A Brief History of Time. From the Big Bang to Black Holes, by Stephen Hawking - 6.5/10

Well, I never thought that relativity theory and quantum physics could be explained to normal people, but this book does it, and in a very understandable way. The fact that it still is too metaphysical for me isn't Mr Hawking's fault.

[RikuStark]

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. 9.5/10

I loooooooved this book. It kept me interested the whole time, and the main character is amazing! The only thing I didn't like....The ending. Why? I don't want to wait for the next book to come out to see what happens.

[Yoana]

Mother: Portraits by 40 Great Artists It's a book of 40 paintings by famous artists of their mothers, with commentary on the work of art, the artist and his or her relationship with his or her mother. Frida Kahlo's was my favourite:

Frida Kahlo's parents:    

---

I'd read Lover: Portraits by 40 Great Artists before that.

[merry18]

I've read a number of books since the end of summer.

Abandon & Underworld by Meg Cabot - A modern take on the myth of Hades and Persephone. I picked these up because I luuuurve the Princess Diaries and All-American Girl series, but I'd be lying if I said her new series wasn't a little disappointing. The writing style that I've always loved is still there, and there were definitely some excellent twists in both books. But one of my least favorite tropes in YA literature is predictability when it comes to the main romantic relationship, and I found the relationship between Pierce and John to be a little underdeveloped. It was obvious where it would go eventually, but it went there too fast. I was also a little disappointed that Pierce wasn't earthbound longer, because I would have liked to see more her relationship both with her mother and her uncle. There is still another novel left, so I'm hoping the third book finds a way of resolving these issues. 7/10 for both.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - Yeah, I'm one of the people who saw the trailer for the movie and decided to pick up the book. Which I loved. I've seen it compared to Catcher in the Rye (love), and I think it's a fair comparison, because a lot of the same themes are present. But while I noticed the similarities to Catcher in the Rye, I still felt like I was reading a book that was unquestionably unique. 10/10.

The Diviners by Libba Bray - It blows my mind that Bray's books aren't more popular. Blows. My. Mind. She really has a knack for developing a variety of characters and imbuing them with realistic and relatable traits, and her writing is both accessible and well-executed. The Diviners is a supernatural thriller set in the roaring 20s, and students of History will appreciate mentions of Typhoid Mary and Rosewood (which aren't exactly well-remembered incidents) in addition to the flapper culture embraced by the main character, Evie. As I mentioned in my review for Meg Cabot's new series, I positively loathe predictability when it comes to the romance in YA, so it thrilled me to bits when Bray didn't take the predicable route. Granted, this is only the first book of the trilogy, so there's still time for Evie to re-route to the predictable romantic partner...which I wouldn't mind in this case because of how this plot was handled in the first book. But the romantic plot is a very minor one, and the main mystery plot is creepy and well done. 10/10.

[xhanax315]

10/10 Unlikely Animal Friendships - Jennifer S. Holland
This book is filled with such unbearable cuteness. There are many who believe that animals don't have emotions like us humans. However, throughout the years and across many countries there have many unlikely relationships between some of nature's natural enemies. This book shows some of those most precious relationships. There are some stories which are quite ridiculous like a chance encounter with a human and a sting ray, which I don't really see as a friendship, but it's still a cute, easy read.

[asdfasdf17]

Delirium (book one) by Lauren Oliver- 4.5/10

I didn't like this book much and I only got about half-way through before I stopped reading. The plot is interesting; its about a dystopian society where love is considered a disease and everyone gets an operation on their 18th birthday so that they are rid of the disease. The main character, Lena, falls in love with a boy just before her 18th birthday.
But I didn't like the book because the characters were flat and uninteresting to me. They seemed a bit forced and unreal. My least favorite was Lena (main character) who was constantly worrying and uninteresting. Also, the plot was too slow for me. Most of the time, Lena was contemplating something or worrying about something or thinking too much and it filled up paragraphs. Those parts were so boring I had to skim over them. Also, Lena's relationship with the boy she likes didn't interest or grab me and it seemed very cliche. There was this whole theme, or at least that's what I picked up, of rebellion, and throwing over the government because it's awful and all that stuff. Since this theme is very prominent in dystopian fiction, if not done correctly it make the book seem boring and cliched and this book certainly felt that way. I ended up not carrying for what happened to her or any of the other characters so I stopped reading. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

On a side note, Oliver's debut novel, If I Fall, is actually much better than this book and I liked it more than I thought I would, so I'd recommend that.

[RikuStark]

Just started and finished today, Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey.

I enjoyed more than I thought I would, I usually can't get that into the 'Once Upon a Time' books, but this one did have me sit down and almost read it in one sitting. The first part of the story was done well, but I found my interest wane a bit during the second half. I always loved Mulan growing up, so that's probably why I liked it. I just found it a bit unbelievable at parts, and went a little too fast for my taste. I'm giving it a 7.5 or 8/10

[MmeBergerac]

Memoirs of a Geisha -6.5/10

Interesting and well-narrated (the accuracy, I can't judge), though it raises more curiosity than passion; for me, at least.