June 2, 2012

Negative reviews, or I am often a terrible person.

I've written this post in my head a thousand times. It doesn't make it sound any better. So I'm just going to come right out and say the things that are on my mind:

I write negative reviews. A lot of them, actually. And I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.

I'm proud of my negative reviews. I think that the widespread, responsible, intelligent criticism of literature--even the literature that so many people consider fluff, like YA--is one of the most fantastic things to come out of the book blogging boom. But sometimes...

...I feel like a terrible person.
 
The downside to the book blogging world--especially the YA book blogging world--is that it has brought authors, readers, agents, editors, publicists, cover designers, and the zillion other people involved in the book biz and thrown them all together on the playground. There are authors whose books I hate, but whose blogs I love. There are authors whose books I've loved, but hated their online presence so much I've felt guilty for enjoying their stories. The publicity machine that churns out hotly buzzed title after hotly buzzed title makes it difficult to go against the grain.

Negative reviews get a lot of attention, and maybe not the good kind. 

It kills me that the most vitriolic, bitter, and frankly nasty review I have ever written--my take-down of The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegen, which also doubled as a critique of all the tropes that annoy me in the paranormal romance genre--is also one of the most popular non-Hunger Games related posts I have ever written on this blog. People love to read nasty. People also love to be nasty sometimes, myself included. Sometimes it's hard to know when I've crossed the line from honest into just plain mean, especially when those posts tend to stick around, forever and ever.

It's hard not to compare myself to other people.

There are literally hundreds of book bloggers out there who interview more authors than me, who run more giveaways than me, get more review copies than me, who have far, far, far more followers than me, and most importantly, write more positive reviews than me. On bad days that makes me bitter. On good days, though, I remember that we all have different blogging styles and audiences, and that that is a most excellent thing. The internet would be pretty boring without all of its unique and wonderful and occasionally egregiously awful voices. (And of course, there are the ones that write just as many negative reviews as me and still have more followers/etc., so I try not to read into these things too much.)

I worry that this will affect my writing career.

Writing stories is my passion. It was my passion long before book blogging. And if someone told me I had to give up the book blog tomorrow or lose my chance at a writing career, there's no contest as to which I would pick. Unfortunately, I worry all the time that I'm making that choice already, slowly, but surely. I'm worried that with my negative reviews, I push away the very authors, editors, agents, and publishing folk that I'm seeking to connect with. Isn't book blogging supposed to be fun? When did all this angst get attached?

The good thing? I know I'm not alone.
 
How do I know? Because this post was inspired by the sentiments Pam of Bookalicious, "On reviewing and losing your mojo." Especially after the utter bedlam that ensued after The Story Siren's plagiarism scandal, I think there's a lot of book blogger burnout going around. In fact, in my very unscientific opinion, I think there's a lot of internet burnout going on. People say and do things on the internet that they'd never say and do in real life. Sometimes that's awesome. Sometimes people do stupid sh*t. And we're only just now realizing that, short of a dystopia worthy of a YA novel, this stuff is never going to go away. Your mistakes, your bad days, your bitter disappointments all can haunt you like never before. There are no rules in the wild, wild west of the internet. We're figuring them out as we go along. And the etiquette of negative reviews is a part of that.

So I'm not letting it get me down.

Especially since authors like Beth Revis and Justine Larbalestier have blogged about negative reviews and why they're 100% okay. I'm excited to be a part of this brave new world of books, and all the growing pains that come along with it. Even as the mud is slung and the trenches are dug on the latest major kerfuffle, the YA community remains one of the most supportive, wonderful, truly amazing groups of people I've ever encountered on the internet.

The Moral of the Story: Keep rocking down with your big bad reviewing selves, negative reviews or no negative reviews. Keep it real. Our voices matter. And we're all in it together.

Care to chime in with your own negative review stories, horrifying, wonderful, or otherwise? As always, the comments section is your oyster.

May 30, 2012

Review: Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman

Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Contemporary, 208 pages, Wendy Lamb Books
  • Series: stand-alone
  • Pub date: May 8th 2012
  • Disclosure: Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Thanks!
 Judged by its cover: Girl in a bikini looking away from the camera? Normally this cover would set off all my nervous tics, but actually, with this book it works. It's a little too sunny, a little too sexy, and you can practically smell the ocean--which sums up this story pretty well.

Goodreads blurb:
It’s the summer before senior year and the alluring Angel is ready to have fun. She’s not like her best friend, Inggy, who has a steady boyfriend, good grades, and college plans. Angel isn’t sure what she wants to do yet, but she has confidence and experience beyond her years. Still, her summer doesn’t start out as planned. Her good friend Joey doesn’t want to fool around anymore, he wants to be her boyfriend, while Angel doesn’t want to be tied down. As Joey pulls away, and Inggy tours colleges, Angel finds herself spending more time with Inggy’s boyfriend, Cork. With its cast of vivid and memorable characters, this tale from the Jersey shore is sure to make some waves.
The Long...

There's always been a lot of discussion about sex, violence, and profanity and their place in YA--most especially profanity of late (author Beth Ann Bauman was even interviewed for the School Library Journal article). I tend to lean on the grittier side of YA, anyway, so all this talk of darkness and dirty sex and f-bombs makes me shrug a little and move on with my day. Teens lead gritty lives. Deal with it.

Very occasionally, however, I run across a book that crosses some lines--for me, personally. Maybe for someone else, Jersey Angel wouldn't raise any eyebrows at all. That someone is bound to be a little more adventurous than me. (And I should point out that being more adventurous than a bookworm farm girl nerd isn't all that difficult, anyways.)

It's not that I didn't like Jersey Angel--the opposite, really--so much as it felt beyond me, like I was a freshman hanging out at the senior table. Ironic, because these characters are supposed to be exactly my age--and yet they are so very worldly. It's not just that this book has some of the most explicit sex I've ever read in a YA. It's the attitudes behind the sex, the swearing, everything--a sort of bleak desperate mindlessness--that got me. It's funny that a book about teenagers on the Jersey Shore should remind me so much of Mad Men, but it does. The characters self-destruct so thoroughly and effectively that you can't look away.

Still, Bauman has a knack for writing characters and dialogue that feel so real they might as well be on a Jersey Shore documentary (or reality TV show, I guess, though our protagonist Angel is a great deal more sympathetic than Snooki). Her story is smart, real, and oddly heartbreaking, even as it ends on a hopeful note. For someone who spends an awful lot of time complaining about YA books that don't ring true, it's a funny feeling to find one that rings so true I can't hardly stand to read it.

In a way, it feels like a book written more for college kids looking back on their high school years than for actual 17-year-olds. The recklessness, cruelty, and confusion of high school portrayed here just hits a little too close to home for me.

...and the Short:

Smart, real, and gritty, you can't look away as Bauman's characters slowly self-destruct--like it or not.

The Final Word: Liked it.

Review: The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Steampunk, 354 pages, Amulet Books
  • Series: Setup for a sequel, but I don't think there's been one announced yet.
  • Pub date: May 1st 2012
  • Disclosure: Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Thanks!
 Judged by its cover: Pretty terrible. Sure, you get the steampunk feel of the book, but the wings are creepy and the girl looking over her shoulder is just too melodramatic for me.

Goodreads blurb:
This dark and thrilling adventure, with an unforgettable heroine, will captivate fans of steampunk, fantasy, and romance. On her 18th birthday, Lena Mattacascar decides to search for her father, who disappeared into the northern wilderness of Scree when Lena was young. Scree is inhabited by Peculiars, people whose unusual characteristics make them unacceptable to modern society. Lena wonders if her father is the source of her own extraordinary characteristics and if she, too, is Peculiar. On the train she meets a young librarian, Jimson Quiggley, who is traveling to a town on the edge of Scree to work in the home and library of the inventor Mr. Beasley. The train is stopped by men being chased by the handsome young marshal Thomas Saltre. When Saltre learns who Lena’s father is, he convinces her to spy on Mr. Beasley and the strange folk who disappear into his home, Zephyr House. A daring escape in an aerocopter leads Lena into the wilds of Scree to confront her deepest fears.
The Long...

Ever since steampunk became the next dystopia (and don't even get me started on steampunk dystopia), I've avoided as many gimmicky, cash-in releases as I can. I'm not quite sure why The Peculiars caught my eye--it sounds like a cash-in release if there ever was one--but I'm glad I picked it up. It's a pleasant, rollicking sort of book--not particularly memorable, but a good way to spend an afternoon all the same.

The problem, however, is with Lena Mattacascar; our protagonist. In addition to having an unintelligible last name and an insufferable identity crisis, I just couldn't buy that she was eighteen at all--especially in a pseudo-Victorian novel, where eighteen should be more like twenty-five in today's years. I wanted to sympathize with her quest to find her father and to figure out who she really is, but a few too many stupid  decisions and a questionable sort-of romance (despite an utterly adorable love interest) made it difficult to really get into Lena's story. The Peculiars reads a lot more like older middle grade to younger YA instead of the older YA it clearly aims to be, and I think the story might have gone a lot more smoothly if Lena had been fourteen or fifteen or even sixteen instead.

Still, it's great fun, even if it unfolds slowly. Zephyr House is in the greatest tradition of Victorian mansions with deep, dark secrets, and the idea of Peculiars is intriguing (and an interesting metaphor for race and all manner of diversity in 19th century America). The setting is cute, too, though it took me far too long to figure out that it was set in America instead of England--and even now, I'm still not quite sure where the Scree is supposed to be located. Once the motley gang make their daring escape in an aerocopter, the action really picks up, and by the end I was left curious about a sequel and where it might lead.

All in all, this book is a great example of why writing book after writing book says to start right in the middle of the action instead of worrying about a long lead-up and backstory. I still enjoyed it, but I'd have a hard time recommending it to readers with short attention spans. Steampunk fans eager for more will find a lot to love, but it's not going to convert the skeptics.

...and the Short:

An intriguing adventure that's a lot of fun, if marred by a slow pace and an angsty protagonist. Not a great pick for readers looking for action, but it's sure to appeal to steampunk fans.

The Final Word: Liked it. 

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