The reading for this coming class split me down the middle. My least favorite of the semester and my favorite of the semester for the same class. I did not get to go anywhere for spring break, so I devoted pretty much all of my free time to reading for this class.
The Shadow Year was just stupid to me. The kids were just irritating characters for one thing. I could not enjoy reading about those particular children and their escapades trying to solve this case. I wanted to reach into their books and slap their parents for not paying more attention to their children and what they're doing. And in the end, it wasn't all that scary/supernatural/fantastic/uncanny or any other word we've used to describe the stories this semester. Sure the boys made friends with a teenage ghost, but he wasn't a ghost that interested me at all. The story reminded me of the book/movie The Lovely Bones in a way (the sister of the girl who was killed figured out the neighbor was the one that did it and broke into his house to try and find evidence, etc.) The Lovely Bones was WAY more entertaining. But really. Kids need to not stick their noses in that kind of stuff. Parents: please find better things to entertain your children with so they don't go out hunting for mass murderers in the neighborhood.
Heart-Shaped Box on the other hand freaked me out so bad I thought I was seeing the ghost in the house I was cat sitting in. I made a post about it earlier this semester just because it got me so wound up. It's a very different ghost story, and it got into my head. I loved the little connections the author made like with Jude's mother always getting candy in heart shaped boxes from his dad then he gets the suit of this ghost in a heart shaped box years later. And the fact that EVERY character was from the south: Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, even Tennessee. Plus, the story connected in every way. It gave enough background for you to understand his relationship with Florida, how it ended, then how he met Georgia. It explained his strained relationship with his father and the family that Florida had lived in and why she ran away from it. After that, the book had closure. Not only did the ending of the major action fall into place perfectly, but also it followed up with a sort of epilogue. Now sometimes epilogues do nothing for the story, but this one did. It wrapped it all up and even though the whole book had you freaked out and on the edge of your seat, it ended with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Now I don't know about you, but I haven't gone through as many emotions from a book I had to read for school than I did with this one. I loved it and I think I'm going to have to write my paper on it, thought I have no idea what the topic would be...
In other news...I'm 625 pages in Under the Dome. I may finish it yet :-)
3 comments:
Damn, I was gonna make a post about comparing the Lovely Bones with Shadow Year before I read your post.
I agree that I didn't much like the Shadow Year. I didn't out right hate it, but can't say I enjoyed it.
Hey remind your good friend bailey to post on the blog. She has the best of intentions, tragically, they must triumph over her absentmindedness.
I also didn't like this book, however I can't agree with the ranking of it as my least favorite. That slot is firmly occupied by the The Little Stranger. I do agree with your assessment of Heart Shaped Box. That book was extraordinarily creepy and a pleasure to read.
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