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Oct. 6th, 2010 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyBook time!
I finished The Dead Tossed Waves. You learn what the Sisterhood or whatever they were called was hiding. And... it wasn't really worth the wait, truth be told. The big reveal was that... the Sisterhood was intentionally cutting the village off from the rest of the world. Rightio. I think we knew that before, didn't we? Whatever. I expected more.
There's a twin reveal because of COURSE what this series is missing are identical twins! It's the fucking zombie-pacalypse and what are we reduced to? Hoping the freakin' Wakefield twins can save us. If I were you, Gabry, I'd be hoping Annah is more like Margo than either Liz or Jessica.
I miss the creeping dread and the atmosphere of the first book. The second does give us child zombies (though book one brought us baby!zombie) and a freakin' canyon of the dead. Which is pretty damn scary to think about right before bed.
Can we declare a moratorium on love triangles? I've more than had my fill. I'm good. Really. Isn't there some other way of telling a story? Or could we have a love triangle that isn't 2 dudes and a girl who is convinced she's not worthy but it's okay because she TOTALLY IS.
And now The DUFF. I don't remember how I found this. I just know it was on my oooh-shiny! shelf on Good Reads and the library had it. So I picked it up. Surprise. Surprise. There's a love triangle in this one, too.
But at least this one doesn't actually try and get you to feel for the short end of the triangle-stick.
Let's cut to the chase. Spoilers
Bianca is the ugly friend in the group, who is totally not really ugly, she's just not as pretty as her model-esque best friends Casey and Jessica. By the end of the book she will totally be hot, but there will not be a makeover montage and for this I am utterly sad. Even I have been on the receiving end of the makeover montage at least twice and y'know? It's just as much fun as you'd expect. I mean, really. Who doesn't want their hair straightened, then curled and then shellacked and then pinned in unnatural ways while their makeup choices are critiqued by a cast of three and a fish that refused to die until his tank was cleaned? EXACTLY.
I jumped ahead, didn't I? Back to Bianca. Her mother is constantly away giving inspirational speeches and avoiding her crumbling marriage. Bianca's father is a recovering alcoholic who stopped drinking before B was even born, so this is obviously going to jump up and bite us in the ass, isn't it? Indeed. B's mother sends her father divorce papers and he falls off the wagon. Instead of talking to her father or Casey, who spends 90% of the last three fourths of the book asking if B is okay, B goes out with Casey and Jessica where she kisses Wesley, the guy who insulted her the last time they spoke. Insulted her and introduced her to the concept of the DUFF.
Right up until this point, which the book jacket tells you is coming, I could relate to B. Sarcastic, bitter, not a dancer, and totally the DUFF. The standing by while someone punished their liver so severely... not so much. But maybe at 17...no. At 17 I would have/did say something so no. But hey. It's fiction. Roll with it, right?
Then she starts hooking up with Wesley. And things get a little harder to figure out where I stand on this. On the one hand, for the most part Bianca enjoys the sex life she's choosing to have. The keyword being "choosing" because she's the one calling the shots. On the other hand, really? I've never been able to figure out the whole is the entire school having sex other than me or not debate. You've got people on both sides telling you things you probably didn't want to know.
But B has made her choice and it really doesn't take too long to realize what B refuses to see, and that's Wesley actually cares, on some level, for her. He has no idea that Duffy, his nickname for her, hurts her feelings, possibly because she lies to him when he asks her about it? Yeah, that might be it. Other reviewers act like Wesley is horrible to Bianca but aside from Duffy, he's taking his lead from B. She wants an antagonistic relationship with him, so he gives her what she wants. When B realizes she's actually falling for Wesley, she breaks up with him.
Sadly this comes after her father calls her a whore during a drunken rage and it's pretty much straight out of an 80's after school special. Really. This is a quibble I really do agree with. It did not ring true, and I will feel like a huge bitch if it really happened to someone recently. Anyway, Wesley worries about her even after she makes it clear that she's avoiding him.
While avoiding Wesley, B has managed to work herself into a relationship with Toby, the guy of her dreams. Only Toby is never presented as much more than a cardboard cutout and I'm not entirely sure if this is intentional or not. I believe that it is, because B is never really ready for him to be real to her. She still wants Wesley. So Toby does and says all the right things, but never pushes for more, and B uses Toby as an escape in a different sort of way.
After Wes punches B's dad out, Dad climbs back on the wagon and Mum returns to town again and all is good (well, the parents are still getting divorced) and... I dunno. It's a good book if you believe that a good book compels you to read it and that you feel some connection with at least one character in the story, even if that person is NOT the main character.
I give it a thumbs up and if someone were to ask, I would say they should read it, but I don't think I would hand it out on the corner like some books that I love.
Freakin' headache rages, but that's due to sometimes it sucks to be a girl and not because my brain is attempting to escape through my ears. To distract myself, I'm going to go back to finishing my laundry and re-dressing my AG dolls. Thus far Sam's in her Middy outfit (note to self: You still need Oxy clean), Nellie's in Sam's school outfit (minus the ribbon, woe! and she needs shoes), Kirsten's in her own school outfit*, and Felicity decided to try the outfit I bought for Ruthie from Terri's Touch on Etsy. Despite her mob cap being white and the dress being cream, I really like how it looks on her. :)
That leaves Ruthie, Sonali, Jess, Elizabeth, Ivy needs boots put on (and socks), and possibly HTA will change out of Felicity's original Meet dress. We'll see. How the fuck did I end up with ten of these dolls? I had three for... thirteen years, give or take, and in the last two years I more than doubled that number. o_O Curse you, Ruthie Smithens.
*- Last year's archival might have ripped my heart out and stomped all over it, but it did provide me with I think the single best haul of stuff. It was incredibly satisfying buying all of Kirsten's stuff that I still wanted and not freaking out too much about it. Felicity's stuff isn't calling to me the same way and thus I am denied the "muhahaha!" moment. Go figure.
I've decided what I shall blow my money on come payday/by the end of the year, situations permitting.
If there's a sale/code of some sort, I'll snag Lanie's animals and divvy them up for stockings. Not that I want a giant stuffed squirrell, but hey. Maybe it could maul someone. (That's Lanie's accessories, Lanie's Nature Outfit, Pretty & Plaid Dress, this year's Holiday Accessories, and the Bitty holiday dress that I want to put Bitty of the Damned in because I think she'll look all kinds of wrong in it.)
That reminds me. I don't think I ever truly pic-spammed Bitty of the Damned, who is also known as Bitty of the Corn. Did I? She's been here a year. I don't know why exactly she has been, but she has. I didn't buy her; Cass did and then had her shipped here. I cleaned her up (she had a raging glitter!coke habit) and she's been sitting around naked for a year. It's sad. I never remember to buy her stuff when I haunt ebay and it irks me to spend a small fortune on baby doll clothes, y'know? Bitty needs to wreak some havoc this year for the Halloween season. What to do, what to do...
Oh, and two outfits from Etsy that I will not share until I've bought them because I do not want to jinx things anymore than I might be already.
Must remember to leave enough money for Ghoulia in case she does appear sometime soon. Also need to buy Ari's presents and a card. Bother.
I finished The Dead Tossed Waves. You learn what the Sisterhood or whatever they were called was hiding. And... it wasn't really worth the wait, truth be told. The big reveal was that... the Sisterhood was intentionally cutting the village off from the rest of the world. Rightio. I think we knew that before, didn't we? Whatever. I expected more.
There's a twin reveal because of COURSE what this series is missing are identical twins! It's the fucking zombie-pacalypse and what are we reduced to? Hoping the freakin' Wakefield twins can save us. If I were you, Gabry, I'd be hoping Annah is more like Margo than either Liz or Jessica.
I miss the creeping dread and the atmosphere of the first book. The second does give us child zombies (though book one brought us baby!zombie) and a freakin' canyon of the dead. Which is pretty damn scary to think about right before bed.
Can we declare a moratorium on love triangles? I've more than had my fill. I'm good. Really. Isn't there some other way of telling a story? Or could we have a love triangle that isn't 2 dudes and a girl who is convinced she's not worthy but it's okay because she TOTALLY IS.
And now The DUFF. I don't remember how I found this. I just know it was on my oooh-shiny! shelf on Good Reads and the library had it. So I picked it up. Surprise. Surprise. There's a love triangle in this one, too.
But at least this one doesn't actually try and get you to feel for the short end of the triangle-stick.
Let's cut to the chase. Spoilers
Bianca is the ugly friend in the group, who is totally not really ugly, she's just not as pretty as her model-esque best friends Casey and Jessica. By the end of the book she will totally be hot, but there will not be a makeover montage and for this I am utterly sad. Even I have been on the receiving end of the makeover montage at least twice and y'know? It's just as much fun as you'd expect. I mean, really. Who doesn't want their hair straightened, then curled and then shellacked and then pinned in unnatural ways while their makeup choices are critiqued by a cast of three and a fish that refused to die until his tank was cleaned? EXACTLY.
I jumped ahead, didn't I? Back to Bianca. Her mother is constantly away giving inspirational speeches and avoiding her crumbling marriage. Bianca's father is a recovering alcoholic who stopped drinking before B was even born, so this is obviously going to jump up and bite us in the ass, isn't it? Indeed. B's mother sends her father divorce papers and he falls off the wagon. Instead of talking to her father or Casey, who spends 90% of the last three fourths of the book asking if B is okay, B goes out with Casey and Jessica where she kisses Wesley, the guy who insulted her the last time they spoke. Insulted her and introduced her to the concept of the DUFF.
Right up until this point, which the book jacket tells you is coming, I could relate to B. Sarcastic, bitter, not a dancer, and totally the DUFF. The standing by while someone punished their liver so severely... not so much. But maybe at 17...no. At 17 I would have/did say something so no. But hey. It's fiction. Roll with it, right?
Then she starts hooking up with Wesley. And things get a little harder to figure out where I stand on this. On the one hand, for the most part Bianca enjoys the sex life she's choosing to have. The keyword being "choosing" because she's the one calling the shots. On the other hand, really? I've never been able to figure out the whole is the entire school having sex other than me or not debate. You've got people on both sides telling you things you probably didn't want to know.
But B has made her choice and it really doesn't take too long to realize what B refuses to see, and that's Wesley actually cares, on some level, for her. He has no idea that Duffy, his nickname for her, hurts her feelings, possibly because she lies to him when he asks her about it? Yeah, that might be it. Other reviewers act like Wesley is horrible to Bianca but aside from Duffy, he's taking his lead from B. She wants an antagonistic relationship with him, so he gives her what she wants. When B realizes she's actually falling for Wesley, she breaks up with him.
Sadly this comes after her father calls her a whore during a drunken rage and it's pretty much straight out of an 80's after school special. Really. This is a quibble I really do agree with. It did not ring true, and I will feel like a huge bitch if it really happened to someone recently. Anyway, Wesley worries about her even after she makes it clear that she's avoiding him.
While avoiding Wesley, B has managed to work herself into a relationship with Toby, the guy of her dreams. Only Toby is never presented as much more than a cardboard cutout and I'm not entirely sure if this is intentional or not. I believe that it is, because B is never really ready for him to be real to her. She still wants Wesley. So Toby does and says all the right things, but never pushes for more, and B uses Toby as an escape in a different sort of way.
After Wes punches B's dad out, Dad climbs back on the wagon and Mum returns to town again and all is good (well, the parents are still getting divorced) and... I dunno. It's a good book if you believe that a good book compels you to read it and that you feel some connection with at least one character in the story, even if that person is NOT the main character.
I give it a thumbs up and if someone were to ask, I would say they should read it, but I don't think I would hand it out on the corner like some books that I love.
Freakin' headache rages, but that's due to sometimes it sucks to be a girl and not because my brain is attempting to escape through my ears. To distract myself, I'm going to go back to finishing my laundry and re-dressing my AG dolls. Thus far Sam's in her Middy outfit (note to self: You still need Oxy clean), Nellie's in Sam's school outfit (minus the ribbon, woe! and she needs shoes), Kirsten's in her own school outfit*, and Felicity decided to try the outfit I bought for Ruthie from Terri's Touch on Etsy. Despite her mob cap being white and the dress being cream, I really like how it looks on her. :)
That leaves Ruthie, Sonali, Jess, Elizabeth, Ivy needs boots put on (and socks), and possibly HTA will change out of Felicity's original Meet dress. We'll see. How the fuck did I end up with ten of these dolls? I had three for... thirteen years, give or take, and in the last two years I more than doubled that number. o_O Curse you, Ruthie Smithens.
*- Last year's archival might have ripped my heart out and stomped all over it, but it did provide me with I think the single best haul of stuff. It was incredibly satisfying buying all of Kirsten's stuff that I still wanted and not freaking out too much about it. Felicity's stuff isn't calling to me the same way and thus I am denied the "muhahaha!" moment. Go figure.
I've decided what I shall blow my money on come payday/by the end of the year, situations permitting.
If there's a sale/code of some sort, I'll snag Lanie's animals and divvy them up for stockings. Not that I want a giant stuffed squirrell, but hey. Maybe it could maul someone. (That's Lanie's accessories, Lanie's Nature Outfit, Pretty & Plaid Dress, this year's Holiday Accessories, and the Bitty holiday dress that I want to put Bitty of the Damned in because I think she'll look all kinds of wrong in it.)
That reminds me. I don't think I ever truly pic-spammed Bitty of the Damned, who is also known as Bitty of the Corn. Did I? She's been here a year. I don't know why exactly she has been, but she has. I didn't buy her; Cass did and then had her shipped here. I cleaned her up (she had a raging glitter!coke habit) and she's been sitting around naked for a year. It's sad. I never remember to buy her stuff when I haunt ebay and it irks me to spend a small fortune on baby doll clothes, y'know? Bitty needs to wreak some havoc this year for the Halloween season. What to do, what to do...
Oh, and two outfits from Etsy that I will not share until I've bought them because I do not want to jinx things anymore than I might be already.
Must remember to leave enough money for Ghoulia in case she does appear sometime soon. Also need to buy Ari's presents and a card. Bother.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-07 03:07 am (UTC)BTW, I think you must've heard about The DUFF from me. My old company publishes it and I'm friends with the editor and the agent and know the author as well (from Twitter and a few book events).
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-07 01:41 pm (UTC)And it is entirely possible I heard about The DUFF from you. Or maybe the 2010 Debs that I found out about when you posted a link to the 2009 Debs LJ comm. *muse* Which still makes it you.
Mystery solved!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-07 09:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-07 09:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-10 04:05 pm (UTC)