Review: April Lindner, Jane

Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorite novels. The first time I read it, I was in high school, and I liked it so much that as soon as I (weepingly) finished the last page, I immediately began rereading it. I've probably read it a dozen times since then (addictive personality, what?) and each time it evokes new emotions, new questions. Why does Jane, the most sensible person in the world, not try harder to get a direct answer out of Rochester about the mystery in the attic before agreeing to marry him? Is Bertha's madness purely due to genetics or does Rochester has some culpability for bringing her out of her natural habitat in the exotic West Indies into oppressive Victorian England? What does it say about gender in 19th Century England that Jane and Rochester can't get together until Rochester has been made a cripple, robbed of his physical robustness and independent lifestyle?

April Lindner's Jane is a modern day, YA-geared take on Bronte's classic, in which Jane Moore is a 19 year old nanny to ultra-famous rockstar Nico Rathburn. It just so happened that I was in the midst of an 8th or 9th honeymoon with the original (inspired by the new Masterpiece Theater adaptation, by far the best one out there in my opinion) when I heard about this book. I preordered Jane on my Kindle and counted down the days until it was released. After which I sat down and read it in one sitting (yesterday).

Jane is enjoyable and frustrating at the same time. Lindner does do justice to the main characters - although perhaps more so to Jane than Rathburn. I was impressed, for the most part, at how well both characters' voices translated from Victorian English into modern day American vernacular (though I did miss phrases like "Deuce take me!"). Rathburn is still prone to the vulgar outbursts and ironic quips that have made female readers of the original swoon for nearly 200 years--and Jane still responds to him with that calm, succinctly worded logic that we all wish we could possess in the face of such a dead-sexy (if occasionally violent) master.

While I do adamantly believe that it's essential in these types of projects for the characters to stay true to the original, I find it irritating when the plot is a direct replica. And this is where Jane failed for me. Every single scene that happened in Jane Eyre is replicated in Jane, such that it's impossible to ever, for even a moment, stop comparing the two. And in doing so, Jane, of course, always falls short. The whole idea of turning Rochester into a rockstar was a creative spin on the 19th century English aristocrat concept, but that's about where Lindner's imagination ends. She should have been bolder, more confident in her own creative abilities, and less chained to Bronte's plot in its every minute detail.

Let's consider for a moment another modern day adaptation of a 19th century English classic: Clueless. Here, the characters are recognizable to those in Emma, and by the end of the movie they basically end up at the same place as they did in Emma. But along the way there are numerous variations, so that you really can forget for huge gaps of time that you're watching a "remake." Clueless can stand alone as a great movie in its own right, whereas Jane will never be more than a carbon copy of Jane Eyre.

That's not to say Jane isn't a fun read, or a thought-provoking one either. I liked Lindner's interpretation of the relationship between Rochester and Bertha (Bibi, here). Bibi is not just some lunatic with a genetic disorder - she's a woman that Rathburn actually deeply loved, once upon a time, and, we're led to believe, could love again if she could ever be cured from her insanity. Rathburn's negative influence (through the drugs, alcohol, and generally wild lifestyle of a rockstar) on her was a direct cause of her descent into madness, and he has never been able to forgive himself for it. The true history of Rochester and Bertha is one of the biggest mysteries of Jane Eyre and I found Lindner's take on it very interesting and believable.

For me, aside from the boring scene-by-scene imitation of Jane Eyre, the other low point was the final few chapters. Without giving away any spoilers, I'll just say that these final chapters seemed rushed and lacking in feeling compared to the rest, which was very disappointing for me, as I am always overcome with emotion when reading the final chapters of Jane Eyre.

3/5 stars

Review: Susan Beth Pfeffer, The Last Survivors trilogy

3.5/5 STARS

I was in various stages of non-completion of several books, including: City of Bones (which I've been trying to finish for almost a month now - something must be wrong with me but I just can't get into it!) and Sabriel (have been trying to read this once for a decade but haven't made it past the 3rd chapter yet), when I arrived at work one day and saw that a friend had left Susan Beth Pfeffer's moon trilogy on my desk. Drawn in by the yummy promise of postapocalyptic doom + teenage angst, I abandoned everything else I was reading and dove in.

Unlike some end of the world science fictiony trilogies we know of, this one actually does contain three books: Life as We Knew It, The Dead and the Gone, and This World We Live In. The premise, if not groundbreakingly original, does make for a pretty nail-biting read, from the first page to the last. An asteroid hits the moon and knocks its orbit closer to earth. This might not seem completely catastrophic at first - until you remember that thing about the tides and how the moon is responsible for them. So a closer-to-earth moon = higher tides. Which means places like Florida, California, or New York City, for example, get tsunami'd out of existence within minutes.

The first book is a series of journal entries by Miranda, a 16 yr old basically normal girl who lives with her mom and two siblings in Pennsylvania. She starts writing in the diary a couple days before the asteroid situation happens, intending to use it to record typical 16 yr old type problems like when will I get a boyfriend? Why is my mom so protective - I'm practically an adult, you know! Will the 82 I got on my math test prevent me from getting into a good college? etc. Then the asteroid hits the moon, and things begin spiraling out of control. It's a slow spiral at first. Sure, there are news reports estimating casualties in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in coastal areas. Which is devastating but feels a long way off. Life goes on kind of as it did before at first...until food begins to run out, and former friends and neighbors go into survival mode and turn on each other. Bodies begin to pile up. Volcanoes erupt in places like Montreal and Nevada, pouring ash into the atmosphere so the sun can't penetrate and there is frost in August. With no electricity, oil, or gas supplies, and rumors of a horrible flu epidemic, Miranda and her family aren't sure whether hunger, cold, or sickness will kill them first.

In some ways, these books reminded me a bit of the Hunger Games. Miranda has a bit of Katniss in her - she's prickly and can be selfish and fickle. She has a dry sense of humor. She's very protective of her family. But at the core, her own emotions and happiness are what matter most to her. She did feel like a real person to me, even if not always an immensely likable one, so she gets points for that.

By the third book, things are so grim that family members are contemplating murdering each other just to put their loved ones out of their misery. That reminded me a lot of "The Hanging Tree" theme in Mockingjay. That "Hanging Tree" song was one of the most haunting parts of the book - definitely got to me more than all the blood and gore of the "pods."

But I digress. This moon trilogy is a quick read - you really can't put it down - but it's not as creative or deeply felt as The Hunger Games or Catching Fire (can't really lump Mockingjay in there...am still so upset over it). For one thing, the 2nd "companion book" in the trilogy has basically the exact same plot as the first one, only it's told from the perspective of a boy in New York.

Another thing I found disappointing was the way certain relationships developed in the third book. The most powerful relationships in the first two books were those of family. The love and sacrifices of Miranda's mother for her children, of Alex Morales for his bratty sister Julie, and so on. The way these family members cared for each other reminded me - (sorry to keep going back to it) - of Peeta's love for Katniss. Pure and strong and certain. But in the third book, a few characters begin forming new romantic attachments that seem whimsical and not grounded in anything other than hormones. And suddenly it is these new relationships that matter more than anything - more than the family ties that have allowed these characters to survive against all odds for the last year.

But...I guess people can't be expected to act rationally in a world where half a can of sardines is considered a hearty meal and picking valuables off bloated corpses in the street is a savvy trick for survival.

Ok I have rambled on long enough. I do recommend these books. They're not classics in the genre the way things like The Hunger Games or The Giver are, but they're definitely worth reading.

Review: Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay (Hunger Games, #3)

I intentionally waited five days after I finished Mockingjay before writing my review, thinking this would give me time to process my thoughts and emerge from the cloud of doom that began smothering me about one chapter in and didn't let up again, ever.

Well, five days out, the cloud is gone. In its place? Numbness. Actually, numbness might be giving it too much credit. I think apathy might be more accurate. When I finish a really great book, like the first two in the Hunger Games series, or the 7th Harry Potter book, I don't want to read anything else for awhile. My thoughts and emotions are too tied up with the book I just finished -- I either want to reread it again immediately, or just meditate on it for awhile. Reading something new right away is unthinkable.

**SPOILERS***

Not so with MJ. My interest in MJ faded before I even finished the book. Suzanne Collins systematically beat out of me every last smidgeon of emotion or investment in the story. I was so drained by the end, I really did not even care who Katniss wound up with. I could vaguely remember being pro-Peeta at the end of Catching Fire. But Peeta is unrecognizable in this book; he's brainwashed into a monster. Until, of course, that cheesy epilogue where he is magically cured (aside from those sporadic bouts of Having To Grip The Chair).

Yes, I thought the epilogue was cheesy. The cute little domestic life Peeta and Katniss have finally arrived at, and the two paragraphs or whatever it is that Suzanne bothers to describe it in, seemed forced and insincere. It's like throwing a dog a bone after you beat it within an inch of its life. (Dear Reader, you are the dog.)

***END SPOILERS***


I think I liked Katniss in the first two books, but Mockingjay made me forget why. Her character is all over the place. This may well have been intentional on the author's part--another statement, I suppose, about the horrors of war, etc--but it made for very tedious reading at times. Katniss would spend paragraphs justifying every decision she made. I had a hard time following her reasoning, but suddenly she would arrive at a conclusion like, "Therefore, I have to be the Mockingjay!" or "I vote yes!"--which she seemed to be indicating was, of course, the only possible conclusion she could have ever reached. Rather than sit back and try to follow her reasoning, I would sigh and turn the page, hopeful that it would all be over soon and I could just go to bed.

For me, it was that feeling of "when will this all be over, please let it be soon" that was the ultimate failure of the book. When I am reading a really great book, I never want it to end. With Harry Potter, I would get increasingly angsty as the page numbers stacked up, knowing that it would be over all too soon. With Mockingjay, I just wanted it to stop. I grieved and grieved and grieved - until, about 50% in, I became basically desensitized.

Now, I know there are plenty of professional literary critics out there who, if they were to read this, would make some sneering comments about how literature's not just meant to amuse and please you, little girl. To which I would reply: get over yourself, butt-munch. If I wanted to feel hopeless and numb all the time, I'd watch the news more, or I'd read contemporary adult "literary fiction." I can handle some darkness, but it needs to be tempered with hope.

3/5 stars (because it's still well written and I <3 FINNICK!!)

mockingjay dunzo

It's 2 am and I've just finished Mockingjay. I had better not review it now because of a) deep fatigue and b) SERIOUS ANGST AND DEPRESSION. I need to think on this a bit. But my initial reaction is not one of extreme enthusiasm! Katniss ....ugghh - who is she really? The book was just so freaking dark! I mean that's to be expected to an extent in a series that involves kids having to murder each other. But good lord. It really did devolve into an utter blood bath and the darkness never lets up.

Anyway...I will write a full review in another day or so when I have had a chance to process this. But let the record show I am feeling very conflicted about the whole situation at present.

blog hop (7)

Aaaand another week has passed, marking the steady death march into winter. This week was not a productive one in terms of reading and blogging. I only completed two books: the first two in the Night Huntress series. I think I'll start City of Bones next - people seem to rave about that series and I've avoided it so far because of the hideous jackets and the Stephanie Meyers endorsement. But now I have a copy thanks to goodreads' amazing book swap program - so I guess I need to get off my high horse and plunge in. Although everything will of course have to go on hold when Mockingjay is released on Tuesday, yessssssssssssss.

Anyways. This week's question for the hop:

how many blogs do you follow?

Apparently I am following 81, though I definitely do not visit each of those on a daily basis. I basically just scan google reader from time to time. I do have a creepy obsession with a handful of blogs that I check regularly on my own even if I don't see them in the reader. I wish there were more hours in the day! Between work, reading, my own blogging, and the occasional demands of my social life, if you can call it that! - it is hard to find the time to be as active in following other blogs as I'd like.

Review: Jeaniene Frost, Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, #1)

MY RATING: 4.5/5 STARS

This is gonna be a quick & dirty (henceforth Q&D), because, frankly, I'd rather be reading book 2 in Jeaniene Frost's fabulous Night Huntress series than blathering on about book 1 on here. Plus, good reviews are so much harder - and let's be honest, way less fun - to write than bad ones. Yes, I've already bought book 2 on my kindle. I know, I know, book 2 was not mentioned in yesterday's In My Mailbox post.  Five other books were, but those are going on the backburner because I need another Cat & Bones fix - STAT. (Mostly I need to flush my kindle down the toilet because Amazon is rapidly bankrupting me!)

Anyways. Halfway to the Grave. Well. This had been on my to read list for awhile. As with many of my great new urban fantasy discoveries, I heard about it over at the Vampire Academy Amazon message boards. I'm telling you, people who love VA enough to post regularly on the message boards have really good taste in books! (by which I mean, they tend to have roughly the same taste as me :-)

Ok I said this was going to be a Q&D but here I am, three para's in and I haven't even started actually reviewing the book. Even now, I am procrastinating. Ok. Here it goes. For real.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. Possibly, it is my favorite UF discovery since Chicagoland Vampires. Cat and Bones are both hilariously witty. They're also quirky, but consistently so, and each in their own special way. They have very stimulating banter - awesome chemistry - and yet the book isn't just page after page of them mooning over each other. The secondary characters are entertaining and pretty well developed. There is a highly complicated and exciting plot. Certain scenes are so outrageously over the top that you just want to give Ms. Frost a big congratulatory hug for her boldness. The whole thing is just really well-written, laugh-out-loud, solid good fun.

Cat is a half-vampire who believes all vampires are evil (her vampire father raped her human mom, so this prejudice has been drilled into her from a young age). In order to atone for her mother's rape, she spends her nights hunting vampires at the sleazy clubs they like to hang out in. She's pretty good at it, too, considering she's never had any real training.

Then one night she crosses the wrong vamp and wakes up handcuffed in a cave, a smirking, irritatingly cheerful Englishman beaming down at her.  Meet Bones, 200+ year old English gigolo turned Australian convict turned vampire. I basically fell in love with Bones the moment he opened his mouth (have always had a thing for snarky English blokes), but it takes Cat awhile longer. Which is understandable, as their first interaction is a bit rocky. To give you an example of the delicious banter between Cat and Bones, here is an excerpt from the scene when she wakes up handcuffed in the cave. Bones accuses Cat of being made of the same stuff as he - vampire. She haughtily replies,

"I am nothing like your kind! You're all monsters, preying on innocent people and caring nothing about the lives you wreck. The vampires I killed attacked me--it was their back luck I was ready for them. I might have some of this cursed blood in my veins, but at least I was using it to--"


"Oh, stick a sock in it already," he interrupted me with an irritated tone you'd use to scold a child. "You always ramble on so? No wonder your dates went right for your throat. Can't say I blame them."


Speechless, I gaped at him. With absolute clarity I understood the phrase adding insult to injury. First he'd slapped me soundly, now he was going to slander me before murdering me.


"I hate to interrupt your sympathy session over the other dead vampires, but are you going to be killing me soon or what?"

Isn't that fabulous? And it only gets better. They end up partnering together to bring down a truly evil vamp, but soon things get out of control as they uncover a conspiracy that goes way deeper, into the very backbone of the US government. Ahh!

The book ends on a truly cruel cliffhanger, which is why I have to wrap up this review immediately so I can begin book 2. Adios amigos!

in my mailbox (1)

In my mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren.

For the upcoming week, I received (through Goodreads book swap):

Received from the good ol' public libe:

And I purchased (on my kindle):

Ahh, that's a lot of books for one week. I started Sabriel yesterday morning but then put it aside to begin Halfway to the Grave, which I'm about 25% into - so far so good! Cat is pretty awesome. Review soon...