So, I'm not sure that I like it, or if I'll power through, but I'll try. The premise is brilliant. Girl touches people, people die, girl is used as weapon against her will. Fun times. The writing is so annoying. It's bad, the punctuation is horrible, so many awful metaphors, and the strike-through thing, and the repetition is driving me insane, but I want to know what happens so I might power through it. We'll see.
Ah, yes.
I’ve been planning to read this book for like years. Finally read it, because
I’m so brilliant. Anyways. It’s a book made up of 6 stories with 6
protagonists, who are connected to each other. I think the thing that struck me
the most was the writing. The stories are set in six different times, the
1850s, 1930s, 1970s, the present day, the 22nd century, and the 24th
century. The writer sticks to the prejudices and the language of the time in
the first four stories. In the two other stories he obviously has to make up
his own way of language. He also makes up his own sort of mythology, which I
found impressive, the language seems to have had a very likely progression,
which I found interesting. I think the stories are interesting, I like how they
all link together. I liked the Luisa Rey and Sonmi-451 stories best. I liked
all of them, but the Sonmi-451 and Luisa Rey stories were my favourites.
Essentially I really liked it, although I was a bit confused every now and
then.
I like
words, I like them even more after reading this book because I discovered words
that encompass whole sentences and feelings. It was so much fun. Words that
mean more than just one word are awesome. That is the best sentence I’ve ever
written. But words like ‘Tatterdemalion’ (a chap whose clothes are tattered and
torned) are good words. It is a book about words that are uncommon and that
only exist in weird dictionaries or books. Forsyth has arranged them after
which time of day you might use them, which is brilliant. No other dictionary
does that. It’s not just a list of words, he explains them, their origins, he
is a hilarious writer. And you need to know what to call your alarm, alarm is a
boring word, ‘expergefactor’ is a fantastic word on the other hand, and it
means anything that wakes you up. And next time it rains you can use your
‘bumbershoot’ which means umbrella. Thumbs up. Also Mark Forsyth looks like a
very, very English teacher. I love him.
by Jenny Lawson
What to
say? I don’t know really, except that it made me laugh out loud, which I think
is basically the best critique. I laughed out loud even when I sat in crowded
rooms with people who had no idea what was happening. So I have made myself
seem slightly insane to the people at my school, which is nice for them. She is
so honest, and she is so cool, and she is a good writer and the stories makes
you think that it could never be real, but at the same time it has to be real,
because no one could make it up. Lawson is a blogger, and writer and has
written her memoir. It is ‘mostly true’ so people can say that didn’t happen to
salvage their own credibility, I think all the stories are freaking awesome.
Obviously there is sadness, and some things seem so awful, but it is about how
she deals with the things and how she writes about them. It was awesome. I
would marry her if she wasn’t already married (yes, that is the biggest
obstacle). Thumbs up.
Shatter Me by Veronica Rossi
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Horologicon by Mark Forsyth