Its time for Mini-Reviews, where I get out a few thoughts on a bundle of books I have read. This week was a little hard for me cause yeah I don't like to write negative reviews.....but oh well it has to be done sometimes. So here's the bad and the DNF's.
February 9th 2010 by Atheneum
Borrowed
So I guess before I launch into Tina-rant time, I must tell you up front I only read this because last summer I was on a YA committee that read award winning novels...and now that that's out of the way......When I finished Nothing my very first thought was as follows:
This turd called literature actually won an award?
My question is why? Was it the astounding writing...with sentences like: Scared. More Scared. Most Scared. Or the really great one, Dark. So dark. Really dark.
I get it, you're scared and its dark, what I don't get is how this story won an award....my only guess is that Im not "cool" enough or sophisticated enough to understand the minds of the Printz Honor panel, because the first thing that comes to my mind was that the author was either suffering from head trauma or under the influence when she sat down to explain to middle grade children the meaning of existentialism.
The Plot: One day Pierre climbs a tree, deciding that there is nothing and no meaning to life. The existence of our race, the human spirit...all meaningless.....and he shouts this out to his classmates on a daily basis from this tree.(Question: where were the parents and teachers and adults in this story? Did any of the people actually over the age of twelve notice that a child was living in a tree outside of a public school for months? How did this child eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, get water....did his parents not notice when he didn't come home?) This is what we would call suspending reality, making the reader take on disbelief of epic proportions to believe that a small child could live this way. Pierre commences day after day yelling the meaningless of life to his fellow peers and winds up frustrating them all to the point of psychotic breakdowns, yet while all these children are derailing, all of the teachers and parents are off living la vida loca.
Months go by and while all the invisible adults are off drinking and working 24/7 the group of fifth graders kill a dog, become grave robbers, rape a student and lose all sense of themselves. During all the dirty deeds they create a nice pile of the proof at the feet of Pierre leaving him evidence so he can see reason and the meaning of life. {Again, how could the adults who show up later in this book possibly not know a 13 year old child was living in a tree} After the parents do find out, the media go's nuts and in a pile of crap called art by society, the children sell it for millions of dollars.......and then they get sick of Pierre drag him off his tree, beat him to death, burn his body in a barn and live happily ever after.
So what did I think? A complete utter waste of my time, a group of sick 5th grade freaks that need to go to jail, parents who need to be investigated by CPS and before Pierre fell to his untimely death I would of said:
Pierre! You are 13! Get over yourself and grow some pubic hair.
I get it, you're scared and its dark, what I don't get is how this story won an award....my only guess is that Im not "cool" enough or sophisticated enough to understand the minds of the Printz Honor panel, because the first thing that comes to my mind was that the author was either suffering from head trauma or under the influence when she sat down to explain to middle grade children the meaning of existentialism.
The Plot: One day Pierre climbs a tree, deciding that there is nothing and no meaning to life. The existence of our race, the human spirit...all meaningless.....and he shouts this out to his classmates on a daily basis from this tree.(Question: where were the parents and teachers and adults in this story? Did any of the people actually over the age of twelve notice that a child was living in a tree outside of a public school for months? How did this child eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, get water....did his parents not notice when he didn't come home?) This is what we would call suspending reality, making the reader take on disbelief of epic proportions to believe that a small child could live this way. Pierre commences day after day yelling the meaningless of life to his fellow peers and winds up frustrating them all to the point of psychotic breakdowns, yet while all these children are derailing, all of the teachers and parents are off living la vida loca.
Months go by and while all the invisible adults are off drinking and working 24/7 the group of fifth graders kill a dog, become grave robbers, rape a student and lose all sense of themselves. During all the dirty deeds they create a nice pile of the proof at the feet of Pierre leaving him evidence so he can see reason and the meaning of life. {Again, how could the adults who show up later in this book possibly not know a 13 year old child was living in a tree} After the parents do find out, the media go's nuts and in a pile of crap called art by society, the children sell it for millions of dollars.......and then they get sick of Pierre drag him off his tree, beat him to death, burn his body in a barn and live happily ever after.
So what did I think? A complete utter waste of my time, a group of sick 5th grade freaks that need to go to jail, parents who need to be investigated by CPS and before Pierre fell to his untimely death I would of said:
Pierre! You are 13! Get over yourself and grow some pubic hair.
0/5- YA-Contemporary
Turd. Big Turd. Mega Turd.
July 26, 2011 by Simon and Schuster
Borrowed/Library
Ahhh, No.
Gratuitous violence for the sake of gratuitous violence....no thanks.
Mythology masked in the likeness of sleeze, sluts and skanks....whatever.
Sorry, but Ill take my brains and read books where young underage teenage girls are not a walking vag for a guys fantasy thank you very much!!! Complete nonsense.
Gross. Really Gross. Super Gross.
DNF/5- YA-Mythology
June 28, 2011 by Doubleday
Review Copy
Various Positions...um was this an Erotica, because I thought it was a teen book....my bad. By positions, as in not how far I can stretch my ballerina body but how many funky disgusting sex acts I can engage in at the age of 14?
For real you are 14!!! Please go chase butterfly's before babies start falling out of your vagina and all us tax payers have to pay for it.
Are these authors who write this stuff for real? Or is it horny old men punking us? How does this nonsense get published and marketed to underage children, particularly impressionable young girls? Is Martha Schabas really that creepy old pervert who owns MTV and is responsible for shows like 16 and Pregnant, Skins and How to get Herpes when Im 12?
I would never have read this if Id known what it was actually about, unfortunately before reviews started coming out I had already accepted a review copy.....and hitting the book more than half way through I was done with its perverse plotline.
Thank goodness I had a trash can near by because that's where this piece of garbage went.
Unacceptable for YA literature but in a pinch could be used to line bird cages.
Sick. More Sick. So Sick
DNF/5- YA Contemporary
"For real you are 14!!! Please go chase butterfly's before babies start falling out of your vagina and all us tax payers have to pay for it."
ReplyDeleteOh, this made me snort with laughter! I have 3 daughters, 2 teenagers. I like to think of myself as a progressive mom, but it's ridiculous to market this stuff to them.
Oh Im for sure a progressive mom, you need to be now days with what kids are exposed to at such an early age, but I still wouldn't hand my kids porn or books that would hurt them. Not one ounce of good came out of any of those books mentioned above.
DeleteOK when I read your title I thought it said "I smoked crack and became a whore"! I thought well that should get some interesting traffic to her site LOL
ReplyDeleteCan I just say that it drives me nuts when teenagers (specifically the younger ones but in some cases the older ones too) are written like they are adults. Seriously, both book 1 and 3 would fall into this category in different ways. I would totally be smacking the book down and ranting to everyone. Book 3 would have just creeped me out. Seriously is there a need for that on the market? I get that teenagers might be doing it but it doesn't even appear to be going for the "tackling tough issues". It seems more like glorifying it and yes MTV already does that!
You rant on girl!
"I smoked crack and whore" (that is what I read not what I wrote LOL)
DeleteLOL- Im getting questions about the title so I think Im going to change it....LOL.
DeleteBut your so right, the stuff going on in book three was old teacher sleeping with his 14 year student, as a parent it made me flip my lid as a reader it made me want to puke a little.
agree with you on the last book. It was a train wreck of a book and I couldn't pull myself away. I wanted to see if it was going to be redeemed in anyway. Nope. Great and Honest Review again.
ReplyDeleteRant away again
Blach! Im glad I threw mine away, I was done with the 14 year old teacher sex thing...that was ridiculous.
DeleteSome of these types of books just make me roll my eyes when they are considered "great literature". Just because it's weird and avant garde or something but really it makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I am stupid and I just don't get it either. That's fine. I'll pass.
That's what's so great about reading though. Everyone takes away something different.
You are so right Karen.....the only thing I took from any of these books is that they were inappropriate for the kids being marketed to. There is so much bad stuff in the world and messed up garbage for them to deal with, why do we need authors like these influencing the market? Im sick of it, if a movie is rated R and kids cant go see it why are publishers allowed to put the same type of content it in a book and let them buy it?
Delete