301: The Lying Game

 I had a life anyone would kill for. 

Then someone did.

The worst part of being dead is that there’s nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It’s enough to kill a girl all over again. But I’m about to get something no one else does–an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma’s desperate to know what happened to me. And the only way to figure it out is to be me–to slip into my old life and piece it all together. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she’s the girl he fell in love with? Pretend to be a happy, care-free daughter when she hugs my parents goodnight? And can she keep up the charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move?

From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Let the lying game begin.

The Good

• Romance Aspect

Looking back it is not the best but the small bit that was there was interesting.

• Genuine Friendship/family moments

I really enjoyed seeing Sutton have a genuine connection with the people around her.

The Bad

• Lack of diversity

There are 99 dark-haired characters described but only three persons of color (two of them are workers)

• P.O.V is confusing most of the time

The switching point of views between Sutton and Emma were not properly made distinguishable. It would switch point of views in the same paragraph so I wouldn’t know who is thinking what.

• Faulty logic
  This is especially true in the final chapters and how Sutton can not see something if Emma is blindfolded even though she is a ghost.
• It can be predictable and obvious at times
• Lack of suspense

This needed to be either:

A. 1-3 books

B. A Standalone

I could see the threads being stretched and the narrative being purposefully cryptic to make the mystery last 6 books.

• Reading interest dwindled after I read it.

I left this disappointed and feeling nothing.

The Meh

• The Group Think aspect of the story were people follow someone even though they are mean and don’t seem to really like the main character is  questionable. Also, the people who participated with the main characters wrong doing never gets checked neither here or Pretty Little Liars. If something was done with this it would have made this story a bit more interesting.
• It’s similar to Pretty Little Liars

Why I Read The Lying Game…

 I went into this book immediately thinking that this is not going to be amazing but may be entertaining. After I sampled it I  thought it is okay that I like this but don’t love it.

1. Nostalgia

From watching half-watching The Lying Game show on Netflix  and reading Pretty Little Liars series book 1-4. I have memories of being annoyed with most of the story until it got to the end. The endings were so twisty and suspenseful that I kept going on until I got to the 4th book.

2. It is a popular enough book to have a bunch of people review it not only on goodreads but also youtube.

3. I wanted to annotate something.

I won’t annotate my comics or picture books. I don’t have a desire to read any of the books I own. So this was the book I ended up picking up.

4. It would’ve expanded my reading.

A. Easy to find

B. Cheap

The books I’m reading now don’t have most of these things. They are hard to find period. There was a point in time when I was reading this book that I was so excited about the possibility of being into y.a. because it would mean so many things. I feel so limited in my reading scope at times.  I don’t know how to expand my reading when I have so many genres and categories that displease me.

5. I was sick (according to my brother this is one of the reasons I got into this book)

Having read this I felt that disappointment that I know is more than likely present in other y.a. If I continue I will be coming back into that dissatisfaction that caused me to get into reading slumps every five minutes a couple of years ago.  Now I want a really suspenseful book so bad in my reading life.

[synopsis and cover image is from goodreads]

Samples & Previews: Covertly Romance

I have left most of the romance books I’ve read disappointed which bothers me. In result I think going in a bit of a new direction is needed. My new direction is going to be covert romances, romance is  going to be secondary to the plot. I thought about the cost and benefits of this new direction too.

Benefits

A. Better Written Stories

B. Deeper Issues

I do enjoy the romance genre and most of the books I read but I consistently found myself disappointed in the end.

Costs

A. Less Romance

B. Possibly Sacrificing the HEA

C. Finding These Romances

I already have problems looking for books that fit what I want anyway so this is nothing new. Also, since romance is seen by many people a certain way it is going to be hard for people to say this has a romance.

Samples & Previews

From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a dazzling new novel: a story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home.

As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu—beautiful, self-assured—departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze—the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor—had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion—for their homeland and for each other—they will face the toughest decisions of their lives.

Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today’s globalized world: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s most powerful and astonishing novel yet.

[Chapters 1-7]

I started this and remembered why I stopped reading literary fiction.

I’m going to be blunt I think this book is overrated. I know I haven’t got to the possible meat of the story but at 100+ pages I’m like what is so special about this book. At the beginning the story was talking about racial issues in America which is what excited me. I liked that it mentioned things (such as natural hair) something I have not encountered anywhere else (then again I don’t read a lot of literary fiction).

Problems

-Mini-stories

After the interesting beginning set up the story goes back in time to have all these mini-stories that I question will come together. It is understandable why this book is so long because it has all these stories that don’t really have a point in moving this story forward. I read another book, Please Look After Mom, that is literary fiction too that had this short stories of events in the characters interactions with her mom that I think handled things better (I need to finish this book now that I’m thinking about it). All the stories from that book as far as I read are leading to talk about how they treated her mom. I feel there is more of a reflection/talking about issues than Americanah does. It just feels like it is a bunch of stories that have no rhyme or reason.

-From what I have read so far all the characters seemed like stereotypes and one-dimensional.

On the romance front: eh.

All these things came together for me not to want to finish this story.  DNF

A vividly imagined fantasy of court intrigue and dark magics in a steampunk-inflected world, by a brilliant young talent.

The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an “accident,” he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.

Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.

Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend… and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne – or his life.

This exciting fantasy novel, set against the pageantry and color of a fascinating, unique world, is a memorable debut for a great new talent.

[Chapters 1- a bit of 5]

Thus far the romance hasn’t appeared yet so I can’t judge it on that but the story so far is good. As soon as the story started I liked the main character because he is cute. There is court intrigue and an interesting world to get into. Definitely looking forward to getting this from the library.

DNF?

Conclusion= Romance Reconciliation, Disappointment, Receding

Coming out of this I feel that I’m trying too hard to make a reconciliation with romance work. More and more I’m trying to get as far away from the romance as I can. I wonder how much can I bend it until it breaks or there is the barest amount of romance in the books.  Trying to read Amricanah and a bunch of other books has me questioning why I’m trying to reach back for these genres such as romance, that I left behind. I went through this period of being disappointedly shedding all these genres/categories for a reason. I feel like I am looking back and holding on to many genres based on their potential. It is getting back to a place of me putting books that actually work off to spend time on books that could possibly maybe work. I need to be careful that I’m not working hard to make something that is never going to work, work.

The reason I keep looking back is that in many ways I want more. I want the critical thinking and discussion about things that is present in literary fiction and non-fiction. Then I want the action, adventure, and imagination that is supposed to be present in sci-fi and fantasy. Comics and picture books fill most of the void that the fantasy/sci-fi novel genres doesn’t manage to fill. I don’t know if comics can feel the missing pieces of what I’m not getting from literary and non-fiction though. I guess all these is just me letting myself know I need to expand more in the comics I read.

Previews & Samples: C.O.M.J 1

Going through my preview&samples queue makes me realize why I don’t post a lot of these reviews. One major reason is that it is giving publicity to books/authors who are very popular. Another reason is that a lot of the preview books are me backsliding into genres that  seem to not  be here for me aren’t here for me. I’m doing these to clean out my journals of books I sampled in the past. c.o.m.j = cleaning out my journal

(I like the cover with the girls on it. It has a dark skin and light skin latina on it. The second cover is nice too but it feel like one of those lets hide the race of the main character things.  )

When Pasquala Rumalda Quintana de Archuleta (Paski)’s father returns to Taos from a business trip wearing a velour Juicy men’s track suit, she knows her life is taking a turn for the worse. Paski and her father move to Southern California, where his comic strip has been optioned for a movie.

At her new high school, money is everything and the haters rule – especially beautiful, cruel Jessica Nguyen. While Paski tries to concentrate on mountain biking and not thinking too much about ultra-hot Chris Cabrera, she is troubled by visions. Her psychic grandmother warned that ignoring her gift would lead to trouble. Can Paski ever find a home in the land of the glamorous haters?

[chapters 1-2]

Adjectives to describe the main character: judgmental, mean, opinionated, fat shaming. colorblind? (as in I don’t see race)

I overall do not like the main characters attitude. I know she is a teen which can mean  she is not going to be as conscious about certain things. I do feel the author may be consciously making Paski deal with certain things such as how she views being Latina. Nonetheless, I don’t like the main character. Other than the main character this overall feels like it will be an average story.

1. moving to new town
2. being social outcast
3. hot guy!

Eh.

On a positive note the story is racially inclusive and main character has possible psychic abilities

I just simply don’t like the main character and the story so yeah.  DNF

I found this for cheap so I decided to read it. It is written in alternating point of views by different authors.

Chapter 1  made me think that this was going to be okay/decent. I liked it. It felt that the guy main characters invisibility would be treated with some levity. I could see how his being invisible seemed to be well thought out.

Chapter 2  This is where the problems came in. Early on into the girl main characters chapter she annoyed me. Her voice as a character is really irritating. First off she does that annoyingly silly simile/metaphor thing “the fans were around him like they were sacrificing him”ya books like to do. Also, of course the lead guy has watercolor or all the colors of the rainbow-colored eyes. Then what probably really got me was her whole he (lead guy) looks like a New Yorker thing. Of course looking New Yorker is white. Then a couple of paragraphs later she is like “this is possibly racist for me to think this”. I’m like yep it is racist. I mean of course the main chick is “frumpy”, white, and I’m not cute girl who still fits the mold of constituent of what is considered attractive.

Nope, DNF

Fantasy

The glittering tradition of sword-and-sorcery sweeps into the sands of ancient Arabia with the heart-stopping speed of a whirling dervish in this thrilling debut novel from new talent Howard Andrew Jones

In 8th century Baghdad, a stranger pleads with the vizier to safeguard the bejeweled tablet he carries, but he is murdered before he can explain. Charged with solving the puzzle, the scholar Dabir soon realizes that the tablet may unlock secrets hidden within the lost city of Ubar, the Atlantis of the sands. When the tablet is stolen from his care, Dabir and Captain Asim are sent after it, and into a life and death chase through the ancient Middle East.

Stopping the thieves a cunning Greek spy and a fire wizard of the Magic requires a desperate journey into the desert, but first Dabir and Asim must find the lost ruins of Ubar and contend with a mythic, sorcerous being that has traded wisdom for the souls of men since the dawn of time. But against all these hazards there is one more that may be too great even for Dabir to overcome…

The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, home to djenn and ghuls, holy warriors and heretics, are at the boiling point of a power struggle between the iron-fisted Khalif and the mysterious master thief known as the Falcon Prince. In the midst of this brewing rebellion a series of brutal supernatural murders strikes at the heart of the Kingdoms. It is up to a handful of heroes to learn the truth behind these killings.

Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, “the last real ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat,” just wants a quiet cup of tea. Three score and more years old, he has grown weary of hunting monsters and saving lives, and is more than ready to retire from his dangerous and demanding vocation. But when an old flame’s family is murdered, Adoulla is drawn back to the hunter’s path.

Raseed bas Raseed, Adoulla’s young assistant, is a hidebound holy warrior whose prowess is matched only by his piety. But even as Raseed’s sword is tested by ghuls and manjackals, his soul is tested when he and Adoulla cross paths with the tribeswoman Zamia.

Zamia Badawi, Protector of the Band, has been gifted with the near-mythical power of the lion-shape, but shunned by her people for daring to take up a man’s title. She lives only to avenge her father’s death. Until she learns that Adoulla and his allies also hunt her father’s killer. Until she meets Raseed.

When they learn that the murders and the Falcon Prince’s brewing revolution are connected, the companions must race against time—and struggle against their own misgivings—to save the life of a vicious despot. In so doing they discover a plot for the Throne of the Crescent Moon that threatens to turn Dhamsawaat, and the world itself, into a blood-soaked ruin.

I cannot remember if I talked about my impressions of these books so far so excuse me if I already talked about these. I read both of these books around the same time to do a fantasy versus thing.

Overall, I was not engaged with these two books. In Throne of Crescent Moon I did not exactly know what was going on and if I liked it. Desert Souls characterization was off.  DNF