Julianne

Monday Amusements 27

27th January 2014 By Julianne Leave a Comment

I’ve been spending a lot of time with these lately, attempting to plan my life!

Everyone seems to have started the New Year determined to post more reviews, and I have several to share!

This review of Pawn by Aimee Carter, at So Many Books, So Little Time makes it sound like a really exciting, interesting read. At the same blog, Sophie is celebrating her fifth blogoversary. Make sure you go congratulate her and enter her celebratory giveaway!

Carly at Writing from the Tub reviewed How to Love by Katie Cotugno, and got me really intrigued with her description of the non-linear narrative.

Across the Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund, has a beautiful cover and, according to Quinn, a wonderful story with very strong worldbuilding.

Cicely made A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge sound so amazing that I couldn’t help but open up my local library catalogue immediately to find out if I can borrow it (I can)!

The reliably amazing Booka Uhu has convinced me to try not just one but two books I might otherwise have ignored: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake and My Friend the Enemy by Dan Smith.

On to discussion posts. Nikki Ramsey at Literary Escapism talks about her and her husband’s drastically different views on description in books. Personally, I love description as long as it seems natural and isn’t too long winded and avoids purple prose territory. As a writer, I struggle sometimes to work out exactly how much description to include. My first drafts tend to be heavy on dialogue, with some physical action, and minimal description – I usually have to add more in my second drafts!

Tanya at GirlXOXO shares 6 Speculative Fiction Books By Authors of Color Coming Out in 2014 that she’s looking forward to reading.

Is teen romantic fiction bad for boys? Or does it show ordinary romantic heroes? I definitely agree more with the second piece. I think it depends on the book, and that it can be just as bad or good for girls. Some books are full of flawlessly beautiful yet strangely needy characters, while others show teenagers as they really are with their acne, awkward teeth, and emotional ups and downs.

As always, feel free to share the best blog posts you’ve read recently, or even one you’ve written, in the comments!

Book Review: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

24th January 2014 By Julianne 4 Comments

Nick, teenage boy and bassist in an average queercore band, looks down from the stage one night and sees his newly-ex-girlfriend, Tris in the crowd. He can’t bear the thought of having to exchange greetings with her and the guy she is standing with, so he turns to the girl next to him, and asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend for the next five minutes.

Norah has a lot on her own mind – her future, music, her own Evil Ex – and if it were just her she had to look after, she’d tell Nick where to go, but he might have a van or a car, and she needs to get her drunken friend Caroline home in one piece…

My first ebook! I really liked this, it was just the kind of YA book I’d have loved as a teenager – people, cooler than me, having relationship issues and new romances, swearing a lot, and participating in makeout scenes that give those in Diary of a Crush a real run for their money! Phew!

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, as you might expect, is told from the alternating perspectives of Nick and Norah. I preferred Nick’s narration, as I expected. I’ve read solo books by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan before and I like David Levithan’s writing more. But even though I didn’t like her narration quite as much, Norah was still an interesting character with an enjoyable voice.

Both Nick and Norah tell their stories in a style that is very stream-of-consciousness, and at times I found this hard to follow, especially as the whole story takes place over the course of one night/day and the pace varies a lot. Every now and then I’d have to stop, go back a few pages and re-read to remind myself what was physically going on.

I really liked the secondary characters. There’s a whole cast of weird and wonderful individuals who show up, disappear, and re-appear throughout the novel. I loved that although Tris seems pretty horrible at first, nicer sides to her personality are revealed later on.

I saw the film adapation of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, with Michael Cera and Kat Dennings (object of much girlcrushing) a few years ago and really liked it. The book is quite different – the film has more of a plot beside the romance – but they are both enjoyable in their own right.

Julianne

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