I still love you

Dear Read Between the Lines Blog,
You may have recently heard that I started another blog. Don't worry, I still love you, and I promise, I won't ignore you. My problem is that I have things to say other than discussing books, and, unfortunately, I cannot use you to say them. Please forgive me.

I will still continue to read and use you to discuss these works of art. However, for my daily musings and stories, I must use your sister, "Ramblings of a Rabid Writer" found at therabidwriter.blogspot.com.

For all you followers, I'd love to have you follow me there as well!

Disappointed.

I have high expectations for books, and most of them really live up to at least half of my expectations.  If they reach more than half, they're on my list of freakin awesome books.  However, every once in a while, my expectations are dashed, stomped on and thrown in the trash right along side the rabid possum. (No, really, but that's a whole other story!) What's worse is that I don't want to write about books like these.  I would much rather rave about a fantastic story and tell you all to rush to your nearest indie to buy it. (That's independent bookstore for all of my non-book loving followers and few family members who will have no clue what I mean.)

Unfortunately, this stinkin book won't leave me alone. I finally finished Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. If you notice on my 'What I'm reading" list, I think I started it back in November.  I just finished it. I know most people just give up when they can't get through a book.  Not me. I'm the 'power through to the end no matter how long it takes' type.  I can't help it.  I have to give the author at least that much respect for having a published novel.  But this one was painful most of the way through.

The premise is fantastic. A group of teens create an underground internet to subvert the government after being treated like terrorists. It's hailed as a cyber geek rebellion.  I love this kind of story...most of the time.  Here's the main problem I had with this story:  There was too much description of how this underground internet thing worked.  Pages upon pages of explanations about privacy keys and unlocking someone else's stuff if you had this but not that and only on the third Tuesday of the month if it was raining.  I COULDN'T FOLLOW.

I get that there has to be some amount of explanation for a futuristic novel like this one, but it was way too much. So much it took away from the story. Then all the weird groups these kids organized were just strange and I couldn't fully understand the purpose of them. One was a group dressed like vampires who gathered in the middle of a train station and yelled, "bite, bite, bite,bite,bite" at each other in order to kill one another.  Apparently, it was supposed to be some distraction that went awry, but I didn't catch that.  It just seemed incredibly bizarre.

I can't even describe any more. Let's just say, after months of taking little bite, bite, bite, bite, bites out of this story, I barely survived.

So how about you?  Are you the type to finish a book no matter how difficult, or do you put it down when you lose interest?  What are the books you just couldn't stomach?

Hush Hush--Becca Fitzpatrick

According to Scripture, we all live in a fallen world.  This seems like an obvious statement.One look around shows us the evil humans inflict on one another. But what if there's more to this fallen world than meets the eye? What if, in addition to us, there were other fallen creatures?

The Bible talks about the fallen angels, led my Lucifer, who, though once an arch angel, became the Devil when his jealousy of God got in the way. Our ideas about the fallen angels come more from John Milton's 'Paradise Lost.' While a work of fiction, it's considered to be accurately based in the scriptures and, in my opinion, is a probable description of what may have happened in the beginning. (Thank you Dr. Hurley for making me read it!)

In Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush Hush, fallen angel, Patch, attempts to become human. He didn't follow after Lucifer. Rather, he "fell" for love. It gives new meaning to the phrase "falling in love!" Ah yes, love, the strange, crazy things it makes us do!

And then there's Nora Grey.  She's not interested in a relationship when she has grades to focus on. But there's something about Patch that sucks her in. The problem is she can't decide if she can trust him. Something about him isn't quite right. But let's admit the obvious, there's something about a dangerous side that intrigues even the strongest of us.

After reading some reviews on this book, I've discovered some people find the fact that Nora is attracted to Patch's dangerous side ridiculous. They think having her follow after him after he's thrown her a snide remark or treated her like trash is ludicrous and degrading to any strong young woman. What young girl in her right mind would do such a thing?  Um... Have you been in a local high school lately?  Do you know any teen girls?  Yeah, enough said.

How many movies have you seen where the monster is hiding in the closet and the heroine still reaches for the door nob? How many times have you personally known something might not have been on the up and up, but you still stepped through the door or answered the call or chosen something dangerous?  It's part of our fallen nature to be curious about what we can't control, to test the boundaries of safety, and to be attracted to danger. I wish it weren't the case.

But on the up side, just as in all of us, we have to fight our fallen nature, so does Patch. He has to decide if the  mission he began is the one he wants to finish. Sure it would include personal gain, but sometimes there are times when we need to set aside our own personal gain and come to the aid of others.

Does Patch do this? You'll have to read the book to find out.