Fifty Shades of Gossip

When I first started hearing all the hype about Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, I'll admit I was intrigued.  I braced myself for the literary challenge.  I had heard that it had all sorts of S&M and that it put most "Smut" novels to shame.  I had never read a novel like that before, so decided before I embarked on the journey of Fifty Shades, I would read several erotic books so I knew what I was dealing with.  Once I felt adequately prepared for the cheesy plot-lines and predictable sexual escapades, I bought the first novel of the Fifty Shades of Grey series.
Note: This review is based on the literary aspects of the novel, not the content, or the S&M nature of the novel.

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James spins an intriguing story.  From my background research I learned that this was originally a fan-fiction story based offof the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer.  I kept this in mind while I was reading and honestly, if I hadn't known about it previously, I probably would not have picked up on the allusion towards Twilight.  There is one character named the same as a character in Twilight and the characters' backgrounds are similar to the characters in Meyer's novel, but James' plot line is pretty distinguishable from the Twilight elements.  Those who did not enjoy Meyer's novel, may enjoy James' and vice versa.

The main character of the novel, Ana, was very loquacious.  She graduated with an English degree recently and enjoys reading classical literature, which explained her advanced language.  I have an English degree as well and found her linguistics easy to understand, only having to look up a few words. (I am still trying to learn what a hoplophobe is).  However, I could understand a reader possibly getting caught up in those parts.  There are several parts where Ana references parts of classical novels or uses remarkably mature language for her age (21) in the novel, that someone who has not read those novels may miss out on the allusion.  I admire James for adding these allusions however, because it appeals to my literary researcher side, and I look forward to delving in head first to interpret her allusions' bigger purpose someday.

Most people, it can be said, won't pick up this book for the story.  They will, unfortunately, be drawn to it's racy stigmata.  However, I do recommend for readers who enjoy a slightly twisted love story, to pick it up for the actual story.  The sexual nature of the book is only in the forefront on occasion.  Quite frankly, I found it tamer than I expected.

On a literary level, this book will by no means be considered a classic.  It is a new story that hasn't been told before (removing the Twilight likenesses), I will admit that.  There are allusions and other literary techniques that convince me that James is not some amateur writer; she knows what she's doing.  However, because of its reputation already, I think that James will never be able to be taken seriously, regardless of what she writes.  It is unfortunate too, because had she published a different series before this one, she may have become one of the lucky authors to make my favorites list.

Don't listen to the hearsay about this book, my fellow readers.  Give it the chance it deserves and appreciate what it has to offer.  Read all three books, from the beginning to the end, take a deep breath, and then put the books away and read something better.

A Load of Malarkey or Not?

My blog for today is about the book titled The boy who came back from heaven by Kevin and Alex Malarkey.  The book is about a father and son who got into a car accident.  The son Alex was in critical condition for several months and in a coma.  Beginning from the moment the car crashed, Alex reported seeing the devil, angels, and being transported to heaven.  The blog that I am writing is not a reflection on the beliefs of these people, those who believe these people, or those who disagree with the Malarkeys' claim.  My purpose for the blog is to review the book and its writing style, and determine whether or not I would recommend it for reading. With that, I begin.


I did not get the impression that Kevin Malarkey had ever written a book before.  It is explained in the book that he enjoys writing letters and poetry, so I'm sure he had a bit of experience in writing, but by no means was he a well-experienced writer.  Then again, everyone has to start somewhere.  I think the voice of the book was well used, clinical terms were explained, and the entire book had a sense of formality to it.  Because of the topic it was exploring, I think it was appropriate.  Malarkey is often discussing hospital procedures, religious scripture and beliefs, and other subjects that are usually formal in nature.  The chapters that Alex is speaking in, I felt had an appropriate voice as well.  Whether Alex wrote them himself and then they were edited, or his father wrote down what Alex was saying, it is clearly coming from a child.  I enjoyed the fact that Malarkey gave Alex a chance to speak, especially considering the book is mostly about Alex's injuries and experience in heaven.

I will admit, this book took me quite some time to read.  Usually I can read a 200 page book in about an hour to two hours.  If I am reading the book very closely to study it and write a research paper then I will still be able to finish it in one evening.  This book took me over a week to read.  I am still unsure of what it was that made the book so hard for me to read.  It could have been the content, but because it is such a controversial topic, I continued to read.

There were other elements about the style that bothered me as well.  For example, the book was written with individual chapters, but each chapter also had subsections.  Then, there were letters or quotes from scripture added into each chapter as well.  Perhaps it was more of an editing problem, but I was troubled because often I would be reading a section, and then a letter or piece of scripture would be there, and while it was separated by lines and italics, most of these started in the middle of a story or sentence and it made me feel very disjointed as a reader.  I did enjoy the texture of the book added with the scripture, Kevin's own poetry or letters, and then the testimonies of others.  It made the story truly show the reader how many people had been affected and involved and created a greater sense of reality for the book.  I simply wish that when they had been added, they had been put at the end of the chapter, or beginning, and not simply in the middle.

Also, when reading, I had a lot of trouble with the chronology of the book.  It was mostly set in chronological order, however, there would be several chapters passing and then the author would reveal that only a week had passed.  I would feel like months had gone by with Alex in the hospital, but then Malarkey would reveal that the accident had only occurred a week ago, and as a reader I was thrown off balance again.  If a more experienced writer had written this, I would have assumed that his word choice and writing style was trying to make the reader feel like time was dragging on, just as the family felt like time was dragging along being in the hospital awaiting changes in Alex's condition.  But, since Malarkey has not already published several books, I begin to wonder if it was simply a coincidence. 

There are details I wish had been omitted, because it made the story feel less realistic to me.  Also, the testimonies in the book were all of those who supported and believed in the Malarkey family and the power of God.  I wished, in some sense, that Malarkey had shown a bit more portrayal of doubters, because I'm sure they faced their fair share.  I was happy to see that Malarkey at least showed his own doubts and his own strains to demonstrate that he is not a perfect person, but I would have liked for him to interview others who did not believe if only to add a bit more dimension to the book. However, I do not want to judge based on content, because as I said, religion is such a controversial subject.  Personally, I do not know if I would recommend anyone read it.  I think that those who are very religious may be able to overlook the stylistic problems and enjoy it.  I even think that those who are troubled and need some guidance may find hope in the book.  But I do not think that those who enjoy to read, or those who study literature would necessarily enjoy the book.  Content aside, Mr. Malarkey is obviously a beginner, and to me, this was a hard read.

A Brave New Book

Yes, as someone with an English degree, I am not very proud of the fact that I have not read a lot of classic literature.  In fact, when I read the top 100 classics everyone should read, I do not think I even get to 20 that I actually have read.  But, this past year, I have vowed to change that and started today with A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  When first recommended to me, I thought the book sounded a lot like one of my favorite books, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.  After doing some research, I came to find that some authors actually believe that Zamyatin's book was what inspired Huxley.  But onto my thoughts.

The reader inside of me that reads for pleasure, wanted to stop the book in the first few pages.  When I come across a word that I don't know, I have to stop and look it up.  Needless to say, if you have read the book before, you'll understand what I mean when I say that it took me a fair amount of time to even get through the first chapter because of how much time I spent in the dictionary.  But after I got through the first hump of all the medical jargon, and into the dialogue and plot, it started getting easier.

Then I hit the next obstacle, which was a series of stream of consciousness writing.  Now, though I have not read a lot of classic novels, I have read some Faulkner and some Joyce, so stream of consciousness is not new to me.  This however, was the easiest it has been.  I thoroughly enjoyed that though Huxley jumped from place to place sometimes even in the middle of his sentence, the changes were distinguishable because of the break in the paragraph (Perhaps this was available only in my edition of the book, but I appreciated it) and he kept it simple by jumping in between three different scenes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the description Huxley used in the novel.  While he used some complex and sometimes hard to understand comparisons, it tied well into the book because it was about a society that was as simple and it was complex, and conventional comparisons would not have applied.

The plot was somewhat predictable, but reading a novel that was written in the 1930's, in 2012, may have something to do with that.  Because it was a classic, it has undoubtedly inspired many writers to revisit the idea of a dystopia. Also, with the way the world is today, one can't really blame writers for imagining brain-washed individuals blindly following the government and not really knowing the truth or what free will is.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, for pleasure, and for what it has to offer on a literary level.  I am looking forward to writing a paper, or a few, on certain aspects such as Freud's presence in the novel, the government's influence in the civilized society and how it compares to government structures today, or how the behaviors we find taboo now are considered normal in the novel's civilized society, and what we consider normal was considered taboo and what Huxley was trying to say.

All in all, I admire Huxley for writing with such an innovative perspective of the time, for using a lot of texture with quoting multiple other literary greats in his own book, and for creating another great book that I got lost in.

Hunger Games--- Are You Full Yet?

Let me start off this first entry (besides the actual introductory entry) by saying SPOILER ALERT.  If you have not read the Hunger Games series, and do not want to know what happens at the end, then do not continue to read this blog.

As I have stated before, the purpose of this blog is to delve into the purpose of words and their effect on the reader, as well as critique books.  This is all opinion based.  I'm sure some people will disagree, but that's why it is called an opinion, because not everyone has to agree with me.

Now, onto The Hunger Games.  I have to say, I was like most readers and got sucked into this series quite quickly.  However, when I reached the end, I was unsatisfied.

In books, there are typically main characters, and those characters have a weakness of sorts and at the end they overcome the weakness.  My issue with the Hunger Games trilogy is that this is not really the case.  When we meet Katniss, she is strong, willing to break the rules, and will do whatever it takes for her family.  Once the games begin, she becomes conflicted with the idea that she is going to have to kill people in order to survive and get back to her family.  The novel avoids this conflict pretty easily, having the other tributes kill each other off, and having Katniss and Peeta accidentally kill off Foxface with poisoned berries.  In the next book, they are thrown into the Hunger Games again, and Katniss still avoids killing off everyone.  In the third book when they are waging war against District 1, it becomes more evident that Katniss has trouble killing other people even for her own safety.  To me, this was one of the flaws that Katniss had.  Even when faced with her own life at risk, she didn't have the strength to kill someone.  This is overcome at the end, yes, but there was a bigger conflict in the story, a bigger flaw for Katniss to overcome, that she never defeated.

Even if one hasn't read the Hunger Games, if you've paid any attention to the press, the previews, the posters, or teenage girls, you already know that a main issue in the book was Team Gale vs. Team Peeta.  As soon as Peeta confesses his love for Katniss before the games begin, the readers are supposed to choose sides.  Some readers are set from the beginning.  They are on one team or the other and do not waver with their decision, despite the many game-changing occurances throughout the trilogy.  Other readers waver.  They start as Team Gale, the cave scene begins and they switch to Team Peeta, and every time Gale appears, they're on his side, but any time Peeta appears they are Team Peeta.  Needless to say, the author gives each boy appealing attributes so that they are worthy of admiration from the readers as well as Katniss.  It is assumed that at the end, Katniss will evaluate what each of the boys has to offer her and choose one.

Apparently not.


Let me take a moment to say that yes, I was Team Gale.  Also, I was the slightest bit bitter that she chose Peeta in the end.  Both boys had demonstrated that they were willing to die for Katniss, they put their lives at risk constantly for her.  I understand why Peeta was the end result.  Sometimes people go through things together, and nobody else can understand and that creates a bond that no one can break.  I get it, I really do.  My issue is more that, in the story, Katniss does not make a choice.  It's the main conflict.  There is supposed to be events that help the conflict be resolved.  Yes, in the end she is with one boy and not the other, but it isn't her choice.  Gale leaves to go work for another District, and Peeta stays behind.  What kind of example is that setting for the impressionable teenage girls who read this type of book?  "It does not matter if your best friend is in love with you and has always been there for you.  If he leaves, and another boy loves you and is as damaged as you are, then you can date him instead."

Suzanne Collins failed me at that moment.  I still enjoyed the series.  I will still read it again.  But everytime I reach the end of the series I will be as dumbfounded as I was the first time.  In my opinion, if she had changed the ending the slightest bit, it would have been a significant improvement and I would not be ranting about it right now.  She could've simply had Katniss tell Gale that she was choosing Peeta because they had been through the Games together, and Gale couldn't understand.  Then, Gale could've decided as a result to take the job at the other District.  He leaves, Katniss and Peeta live happily broken ever after.  Much better ending.

My point is, a book is all about character development, and plot development.  We expect our favorite characters to have flaws.  That's how we relate to them.  We expect our characters to overcome those flaws, so that we have hope to overcome our own.  When the character's flaw is that they cannot make a decision, and then that decision is taken away from them, that disconnects the entire story.  I, as a reader, felt robbed.  Because of that, what may have become one of my favorite series of all time, has instead left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I'm still hungry, Miss Collins.

Why Are We Here

For all of those reading this blog for the first time, I figure it is best for me to explain myself and my purpose.  Language is the bond that holds us all together.  Whether it be nonverbal or verbal, two people cannot forge a relationship with each other without some form of language.  Because of a connection that someone can make because of language, it is common for someone to form a relationship with a good book.  When we read a well-written book, we become attached to the characters, form relationships with them, the protagonists become like our friends and the antagonists become our own enemies.  We begin to take elements from the story and tie them to our own life, the characters lessons become our own, the setting becomes so familiar to us that if we walked into a similar location we would instantly be transported back to the story.  A scary story will make us pull the covers even tighter around ourselves, and romance will make us swoon, and an adventure will make us want to climb a mountain, go sailing, or participate in a car chase.

This blog will explore books that I have read, my opinions, as well as others on the books.  Of course, I will also address the role of the media with books since so many books are being translated to the big screen these days.  I will take suggestions of books I should read, as well as throwing in a couple of odd balls.  Be prepared for spoilers.  I hope you enjoy.