Saturday 12 September 2015

Carrying Albert Home

25952515

Book Title: Carrying Albert Home
Author: Homer Hickam
Date Started: September 4th 2015
Date Completed: September 12th 2015
Genres: Historical, Memoir, Adventure, Romance
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Stars
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

◆ Thank you HarperCollins for providing me with this proof copy to review ◆

Carrying Albert Home started with an intriguing premise: a married couple, with a few problems to say the least, travelling across America during a time of economic failure - with an alligator. It sounded interesting and I was willing to try something new. Unfortunately, this book was okay but ultimately repeated the same sort of quirky stories a dozen or so times and then drew to a close.

The writing was quite suited to the book: pretty straightforward and at times quite quirky with its syntax. In the early parts of the book I really liked this, because it kind of replicated how simple the things Homer wanted were; but as we went on it didn't change at all, and things like action became very hard to follow in such basic terms. I half expected Hickam to become more thoughtful and complex with his prose as we learnt more about the characters but eventually the undemanding style became tedious.

I keep calling this book quirky - and I hope that comes across positively, because I genuinely think some people will enjoy its unusual outlook. But I have to admit, it does feel slightly optimistic to me. It's a very strange atmosphere for around the era of the Great Depression (to be honest I'm not entirely sure of the time period because quite a lot went over my head when I was trying to engage myself); putting the references to Disney and Steinbeck aside, we get quite a humorous and fun portrayal of America's dark days. Having studied various forms of history around the Wall Street Crash and it's consequences this was just bizarre and it made it very hard to concentrate on the actual action - the further detail that Carrying Albert Home is supposed to be somewhat of a memoir exaggerated just how wrong it felt for Homer and Elsie to be having such an adventure during such a crisis.
The structure of the story was very off for me too: having an episodic plot for a road trip is all well and good but when each part follows the same pattern it becomes so dull. Every time, the couple would stop off somewhere, a stranger would say something about the alligator, Elsie would wildly go and get herself into trouble so that Homer could go and get her out of it and they would have a moment where we're supposed to think 'oh maybe now they'll reconcile their marriage' - but of course they wouldn't. This was even more infuriating because of the potential there was: they had an alligator with them, surely it would've caused a few problems for them crossing borders or finding somewhere to stay; there were genuine pieces of action but so widely spread and with so little consequence it was like they never happened; they met up with multiple famous authors (something I really, really didn't like) and yet made nothing of it!
And because of this lack of meaningful or even really relevant happenings throughout the book, the ending feels unbelievable. It's pushed so hard that Elsie and Homer aren't happy together but apparently that can change in a second on the last page to resolve the story. Fair enough if this is based on a true story - and I do think based is the right word - but I don't think the progression of their marriage was portrayed in a way that really made sense of their journey or even helped me emphasise with two people I didn't like particularly at the beginning.

None of the characters felt particularly realistic to me - again for the quirkiness of the story this would have been alright had the book not claimed to be a biographical recount of Homer's (or let's be honest, it's really Elsie's) adventures. And on top of that, when I look back it's actually quite depressing how unkind the people were: Homer spends his time pining for a girl who obviously doesn't have an interest in him and keeps pushing and pushing when it isn't fair, but Elsie ignores every attempt and makes it very clear she still wants a man she hasn't seen in years. 
Homer I really wasn't a fan of: I understand he loves Elsie and wants her to be happy, but at the end of the day she does not want nor need his help and my reaction at numerous points in this book was that he needed to leave her alone.
Elsie would have been quite an interesting character is she hadn't been written so emotionlessly. She won't let herself be pushed around by men in a time when women were at a disadvantage, but at the same time when you look back everything she does it ultimately caused by the actions of the men around her. But she's so... placid? Robotic? Her dialogue especially just feels like paper rather than anything three dimensional and real.

Pacing in road trip stories has always been an issue for me; I just don't like plot lines that don't flow throughout the whole thing. It makes them really hard to get into and sometimes feels lazy and stalls consistency in character development. When that's then combined with a historical era and characters I can't relate to it just drags things out even further.

If you like road trips and 1930/40s America (like I said I wasn't paying too much attention to the time period) you might enjoy this quirky little twist on a story, but for me it just became dull. Nothing overtly wrong with it, but just not enough to really amount to anything. I personally wouldn't market this as a memoir because quite frankly it's very hard to take anything seriously if we're supposed to believe it's all true - the back of my copy even admits everything's true "except the bits that are made up."

Image Sourcehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25952515-carrying-albert-home

Saturday 5 September 2015

Queen of Shadows

23848145

Book Title: Queen of Shadows
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass #4
Date Started: September 1st 2015
Date Completed: September 4th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Action, Romance, Adventure
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars
Final Rating: Five stars
Review:

Queen of Shadows was a phenomenal addition to the Throne of Glass series: the characters were more courageous, the action was more epic and the plot went in a direction I never would have expected. So why do I feel like it wasn't quite right? It was probably my favourite book in the series so far, but it had more issues than the others as well.

The big thing I kept thinking while reading Queen of Shadows in relation to the whole series was that the story was getting better and better, but the writing started feeling... careless? Some issues were dealt with in frankly overly-convenient or coincidental ways that just didn't feel as thought-out as I'm used to from Maas. I understand how important it was to keep on the path she had planned, but some of the realism was sacrificed in my opinion to do so.
On the other hand, I didn't think the world building could grow any more from the first three books but the way Maas manages to introduces even more landscapes and make them just as stunning and vivid as everything we already know is just astounding. I love exploring Erliea, and even being shown new places within Rifthold itself which have been under our noses the whole time. In fact the development of everything if you look back on the series it amazing and for that I can overlook little inconsistencies, however much they irritated me.

While I was reading I felt like this book was very much about the relationships between everyone and the way their recent developments had changed their intentions and actions towards each other, but looking back it's about a lot than that. There really were genuine problems between people, and admittedly some of it felt very easily resolved and was just the characters being stupid but it just demonstrated how hard it's going to be for Aelin to actually start being queen (and maybe bring into question whether she would be a good queen or not - in fact quite a few of the characters seem to have changed for the worse).
However, there were ultimately two big problems: firstly, you can't keep saying 'actually this happened earlier but I didn't tell you' to get out of tight corners. Deus ex machina only works if you use it sparingly, and was close to frivolous and felt a bit like cheating - the tension supposedly created wasn't even there in the end because I knew there was going to be a catch. [SPOILER WARNING] And second, I felt robbed that the two biggest antagonists are just gone now. I appreciate the shock of it being quick, but for all they've done to Celaena and her friends it was just anticlimactic that they were dealt with so... easily? It was really unsatisfying for me and probably the biggest disappointment of the series so far [END OF SPOILERS].
I really enjoyed the climax of Queen of Shadows. I was so happy when everyone got a piece of the action, despite the fact that it really felt the whole series was drawn to a close. But you never quite know how Sarah's going to carry on the story at the end of each book, but she always manages to do it. And because of that I'm very excited for what's to come.

Queen of Shadows introduced even more new characters than before. Maas is one of those few authors that are able to manage huge numbers and keep them relevant and interesting to the reader - most of the time. I sometimes felt an inclusion of a particular character wasn't needed or perhaps took away from the pace of the plot, and there were some I didn't really care about when I was reading.
Aelin (who will always be Celaena to me, not matter how awesome Aelin also is) had a very interesting arc in this book. Though I do find Celaena more fascinating as a character because of how volatile and unpredictable and conflicted she is, Aelin still takes on the world and won't let anyone push her around. It actually presents more problems than it has in the past because of how everyone expects her to act as a queen - she's still kick ass and wonderful and confident in her own skin.
I really like Rowan and Aedion, and their relationships with Aelin are so entertaining to read. I think especially in Queen of Shadows they became the people Aelin really needed around; everyone else practically abandons her but they trust her and her abilities and will stick up for her anyway. I have to say it did feel like the others characters were a bit neglected when it came to who was featured because of this.
As much as I like the new characters, I miss the original three. I miss Nehemia too, but I miss Celaena, Dorian and Chaol together. They've all changed, and while it's kind of sad I really appreciate how much they've developed. But even so I want to see them together again.
There were some absolutely fantastic female characters this time, and their positions in the story just enhanced the brilliance of the book. I'd been missing female friendships since Crown of Midnight, but then we got Lysandra. I missed having female characters that weren't necessarily powerful but still brave and developed, and then I got Elide. I missed having female character that leant on each other for support but didn't have to be romantic or could be, and we got Manon and Asterin. And then I didn't realise how much I missed female characters standing up for the abilities of other people, and may I present to you the awesome Nesryn.

This book was definitely in two parts, as all the other books have, but it felt like these two didn't really click together as well. I get how they wouldn't really have worked as singular books and I respect Maas for not drawing each story out for the hell of it, but it felt quite strange to have such an climax (or anti-climax depending on how you felt about it) follow on to another climax. Having said that, when I was looking back over the story almost every chapter still had me engaged and excited - it may not have been conventional but I guess it did work in the end.

I had lots of little issues with Queen of Shadows, but in the grand scheme of things it was still fantastic and I can't bring myself to rate it any lower even after some time to reflect back on the book. This is the first time I feel that reading the prequel novellas to the series would enhance the experience, but even without having got through those you can still enjoy the next awesome instalment in the Throne of Glass series.

Image Source https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23848145-queen-of-shadows