Some Unsatisfactory Books

Adults/Allison Espach: I think I felt like I had to read this book just because I’d wanted to months ago but could never find it. I expected a well-written novel of manners, relatively enjoyable but a bit on the cold side. That’s more or less what I got, though the writing wasn’t quite as good as I expected, and it was more of a coming of age story. Though the storytelling is a bit weird; time jumps before tracking back were gratuitous, and the characters felt pretty flat and unreal, obviously constructions in a novel rather than feeling like people. I was a bit bored sometimes but at those moments I would quickly skim through pages before the pace picked back up. There’s not really a “point” to the book, and there weren’t any passages that really popped out at me, nor any particularly original sentiments/ideas/plot strands. I wouldn’t say I regret reading this, so there’s that, but I don’t know who I would recommend this to either. 2/5

Q/Evan Mandery So stupid. I have a strong feeling that I may have been intrigued primarily by its unoriginal concept’s similarity to an episode of the best show, Buffy (“Hell’s Bells”). Neurotic, annoying, and there are minor details left unexplained. I kept with it hoping the story would go somewhere, but it does not. Tangents annoy. The second half is ridiculous and does not hold up to the cool premise. The main character is boring and his novel/story ideas sound really dull to match him. Yes, the protagonist is a writer, so meta out the wazoo. But referencing your writing as bad and pointing out flaws that are not corrected does not make it any less bad. The prologue is the best part of the book, quickly painting a believable love story featuring characters that a reader would want to get to know better. It’s almost as if he wrote a short story then decided he would improve slash butcher it by turning it into a time travel novel. I usually read the first then last chapter of a book before deciding if I should read it. I do not know why I did not do this, but this book reaffirmed for me the wisdom of doing so as I would not have wasted time in such a way. However, he’s not altogether a bad writer. His other book First Contact shows definite potential; it mixes genres much more fluidly and has much more sympathetic characters. Both reference both Hitchhiker’s Guide and Woody Allen, and as I read the former I can see that the tangents used are supposed to be in the same vein but they just do not work. They are uninteresting and don’t move the plot or say much about the characters. 0.75/5

Liesl & Po Lauren Oliver’s first two books are on the great side. This book is not. I mean, maybe my standards are too high for a children’s book, but children’s books can be magical and awesome just the way adult books can. But when the characters are types rather than being fleshed out with personalities, the ending is nonsensical and contrived to wrap things up quickly, and it feels like you’re waiting during the whole book for something to finally happen, that’s not so good. Similar to The Night Circus, the book does capture a fairy-tale feeling well. The way Oliver conceives the afterlife is interesting, if a bit on the cutesy side. The illustrations are nice. The feeling of sadness is captured relatively well. I was just more bored than I should have been given how quickly the book ends. 2/5