Story on the Brain

 *** SPOILER ALERT*** The most interesting thing about this series of three books (Lucky, Gorgeous, Brilliant) was watching the same stories unfold from three different points of view. Three very different points of view, in fact--major events from one story don't even appear in the others. Also each one covers a slightly different block of time, which makes everything even more complicated and compelling. That said, the girls are going through life events that I probably don't have as much sympathy for as I should. And I don't think that's my fault. They're portrayed as poor little rich girls who are losing some of their privilege because of a family financial crisis. They are incredibly spoiled and unaware of it. And they behave badly, acting out in trite, self-endangering ways that just made me want to slap them. Really, you go get drunk at a stupid party to get back at your parents? I don't really know that the author realizes how unsympathetic extreme...

** spoiler alert ** I've heard good things about this book, so decided to try it, even though I can't stand the YA books that use supernatural exoticism (vampires, fairies) as a stand-in for actual compelling drama. I stopped reading this. It's a YA romance set in a supernatural world, but the romance is one of those "he stares at her across the room but she doesn't know he exists" type things that does nothing for me. It's not a story. And the heroine is in love with a wolf she doesn't know is anything but a wolf, which is just problematic all kinds of ways. Sure, we know how it's going to work out, but how is that a recommendation? YA SF needs to pull itself together and stop letting exoticism replace compelling drama. You can have both! You should always write a story that would be amazing even if the characters were plain old boring humans. If it's relying on fairies or vampires or werewolves to be interesting...

I'm reading Maggie Stiefvater's book Shiver, about a girl who's in love with a werewolf. I think she might be one herself, not sure. I just started it. It's one of those YA books where nothing really happens. I find that un-compelling even though it's a perfectly fine book. This seems to be more common with SF-ish ones. Why do you think that is? Sometimes people fall in love with worldbuilding and utterly forget that they have to TELL A DANG STORY. Something gripping that makes me want to turn the pages, sheesh. There are enough clues that I'm certain what's going to happen. Even if I'm wrong, it's not a state of being that makes me carry the book around the house and read ahead breathlessly. And I'm home sick today. See.  Who is it, Niven? I think Niven. The one who wrote dozens of stacks of novels that are all worldbuilding and no story. Worse is when someone is working out ideas about something and using characters to discuss it. Oh just k...