46. State of Wonder, Anne Patchett
I really wanted to like this more than I did. Patchett is a beautiful, lyrical writer, but the story in this...just didn't work for me. There's medical research in the Amazon, and the main character has to go find out what happened to her colleague, and the doctors working in the rain forest are living and working with a tribe of native people who could hold the secret to post-menopausal fertility. The characters are intriguing, especially the acidic Dr. Swenson (who is leading the research team and has been for several years), but everything breaks down in the face of a very uncomfortable notion: it feels like Patchett is relying far too much on colloquial stereotypes, rather than on any actual experience or research, and ultimately I don't see that she says anything new about the issues she raises (and the rain forest itself feels like it stepped right out of Heart of Darkness - I'm sure we can all agree we don't need another definitive "savage worlds" narrative). I've heard her other books are better, so I'll give them a shot, but I was disappointed with this.
47. Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, Brandon Mull
These books are so fun! The follow-up to Mull's first Fablehaven book ups the ante accordingly, pulling in the mysterious and evil organization, offering plenty of action, and leaving you with a much crunchier cliffhanger than volume 1. I don't often feel surprised by the twists in children's/YA lit, but this one kept me guessing a little longer than most. Recommended if you enjoy kid lit fantasy.
48. Desperation, Stephen King
Hnngh. Overall, not my favorite of King's - but it DID have a whole lot of the creepy, weird, gross horror stuff which is basically my motivation for reading Stephen King. Unlike a lot of his books, Desperation hits the ground running; you don't get the slow burn build-up of The Shining or Salem's Lot. Instead, you are instantly dropped into the middle of the desert, on the highway, with a murderous cop pulling people over and dragging them back to his town (Desperation, Nevada) where he may or may not have killed every single living person.
The big reason I didn't love this one as much as others is that, while it deals with King's typical examination of evil and the relationship between good, evil, faith, and possession, it's not subtle. David, an eleven-year-old boy, is in direct contact with God. God sent them there. I'm not a fan of this trope because I feel like it takes some of the tension out. When King lets things be more subtle, when his characters are less obviously "guided by God," there's more room for uncertainty and for human error.
I do kind of love the notion that he wrote a "companion" novel, called The Regulators, under his Richard Bachman pseudonym and published the novels side-by-side (The Regulators takes place in a parallel universe, with the same characters in different positions and the same overall villain). I'd like to check that one out, just to see the complete vision of the story.
I really wanted to like this more than I did. Patchett is a beautiful, lyrical writer, but the story in this...just didn't work for me. There's medical research in the Amazon, and the main character has to go find out what happened to her colleague, and the doctors working in the rain forest are living and working with a tribe of native people who could hold the secret to post-menopausal fertility. The characters are intriguing, especially the acidic Dr. Swenson (who is leading the research team and has been for several years), but everything breaks down in the face of a very uncomfortable notion: it feels like Patchett is relying far too much on colloquial stereotypes, rather than on any actual experience or research, and ultimately I don't see that she says anything new about the issues she raises (and the rain forest itself feels like it stepped right out of Heart of Darkness - I'm sure we can all agree we don't need another definitive "savage worlds" narrative). I've heard her other books are better, so I'll give them a shot, but I was disappointed with this.
47. Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, Brandon Mull
These books are so fun! The follow-up to Mull's first Fablehaven book ups the ante accordingly, pulling in the mysterious and evil organization, offering plenty of action, and leaving you with a much crunchier cliffhanger than volume 1. I don't often feel surprised by the twists in children's/YA lit, but this one kept me guessing a little longer than most. Recommended if you enjoy kid lit fantasy.
48. Desperation, Stephen King
Hnngh. Overall, not my favorite of King's - but it DID have a whole lot of the creepy, weird, gross horror stuff which is basically my motivation for reading Stephen King. Unlike a lot of his books, Desperation hits the ground running; you don't get the slow burn build-up of The Shining or Salem's Lot. Instead, you are instantly dropped into the middle of the desert, on the highway, with a murderous cop pulling people over and dragging them back to his town (Desperation, Nevada) where he may or may not have killed every single living person.
The big reason I didn't love this one as much as others is that, while it deals with King's typical examination of evil and the relationship between good, evil, faith, and possession, it's not subtle. David, an eleven-year-old boy, is in direct contact with God. God sent them there. I'm not a fan of this trope because I feel like it takes some of the tension out. When King lets things be more subtle, when his characters are less obviously "guided by God," there's more room for uncertainty and for human error.
I do kind of love the notion that he wrote a "companion" novel, called The Regulators, under his Richard Bachman pseudonym and published the novels side-by-side (The Regulators takes place in a parallel universe, with the same characters in different positions and the same overall villain). I'd like to check that one out, just to see the complete vision of the story.
