Friday, October 3, 2008

Bad book! Bad!

I don't want to say what I'm currently reading because I want to complain about it without being a jerk. Wow! This book . . . it's YA, and the author's so clearly stuck in the 90's I feel sympathy embarrassment. It's full of references to movies that were popular ten years ago (and haven't stood the test of time) and it has that ironic, Gen-X loser, I-want-to-be-like-John-Cusack-when-that-was-still-something-people-wanted-to-be vibe, but it's not a period piece.

Beyond that, it's full of cliches, and logic problems and ambivalence. Every time I get a clear idea of where a character stands on something, the author backs off of it -- down to the tiniest things like whether the main character likes his bedspread (I made up that example, but it's not an exaggeration). I don't trust the author at all, and no way do I want to hang out with the main character.

I read a lot of well-written books for my program, so many that it can get daunting. It's not a terrible thing every once in a while to read a book that boosts my ego.

Especially the day before I have to submit my novel for the first time to my new advisor.

Oh, right. Why am I blogging again?

1 comment:

Varian Johnson said...

Come on, tell us what you're reading. You know you want to.