catching up: books
Jun. 27th, 2013 12:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraThe Blythes Are Quoted, L.M. Montgomery - Didn't manage to read much of this before I had to return it. Didn't much like the first story in it, skimmed a few others, nothing grabbed me. Possibly for completists only.
Matched, Allyson Condie. Haven't finished this one either, not sure if I'm going to. I mean, look, I read this book twenty years ago, it was called The Giver, it won the Newbery and was a much more powerful book. Matched sticks in yet another generic YA love triangle where The Giver has an IMO more "universal" human connection between a boy and a baby and, look, I swear I actually love romance, but *not everything always has to be about romance*, already.
Ever and Fairest, Gail Carson Levine. Fun and super-readable, neither as annoying as Ella Enchanted, but traces of the romantic-love-is-the-most-powerful-force-in-the-universe notion that so blighted the end of Ella Enchanted can still be seen here. However I really liked the pairing/relationship in Ever, so, hey, yay romantic love, and I'll recommend Ever. Fairest did an interesting job taking on some body image issues, but also hit a few weird notes - I'd be curious if anyone else has read it, what you thought.
Bumped, by Megan McCafferty, I loved, but will maybe review in more depth when I read the sequel. Hilarious, sharp satire about teen pregnancy and the adoption industry and, even more generally, the way that late modern capitalism sells exploitation in the guise of empowerment, this decade's answer to The Handmaid's Tale. (A quick content warning - there is a secondhand story related about a mother who does not want to relinquish whose baby is taken from her against her will.)
Matched, Allyson Condie. Haven't finished this one either, not sure if I'm going to. I mean, look, I read this book twenty years ago, it was called The Giver, it won the Newbery and was a much more powerful book. Matched sticks in yet another generic YA love triangle where The Giver has an IMO more "universal" human connection between a boy and a baby and, look, I swear I actually love romance, but *not everything always has to be about romance*, already.
Ever and Fairest, Gail Carson Levine. Fun and super-readable, neither as annoying as Ella Enchanted, but traces of the romantic-love-is-the-most-powerful-force-in-the-universe notion that so blighted the end of Ella Enchanted can still be seen here. However I really liked the pairing/relationship in Ever, so, hey, yay romantic love, and I'll recommend Ever. Fairest did an interesting job taking on some body image issues, but also hit a few weird notes - I'd be curious if anyone else has read it, what you thought.
Bumped, by Megan McCafferty, I loved, but will maybe review in more depth when I read the sequel. Hilarious, sharp satire about teen pregnancy and the adoption industry and, even more generally, the way that late modern capitalism sells exploitation in the guise of empowerment, this decade's answer to The Handmaid's Tale. (A quick content warning - there is a secondhand story related about a mother who does not want to relinquish whose baby is taken from her against her will.)
