Actual rating: 1.5 starsWhen I was assigned to read this book, I was told that it was a book about werewolves written in verse. Immediately, I knew that this concept could either be really cool or be really pretentious and annoying. Unfortunately, it was the latter for me.Usually when I dislike a book, I can still kind of understand why it appeals to people. This is one of the few books that, no matter how many positive reviews of it I read, I just … don't really get it, to be honest. It's not the most terrible thing I've ever read, but for me it had few redeeming qualities.First of all, I didn't like the writing in verse. (For some reason, I always think I'm going to enjoy novels written in verse, and I almost never do.) There were some instances in which it worked … The book explores themes about thinking like a human vs. thinking like an animal, and I think the writing in poetry sometimes conveyed a more "animalistic" point of view. But for the most part it was just unnecessary and gimmicky. It could have been written in prose and it would have been the same book, in my opinion. And the writing style itself, regardless of whether or not it was written in poetry … I just didn't care for it. I found it to be pretentious. Secondly, I felt no attachment whatsoever to any of the characters. There were too many characters and points of view to keep track of, and on top of that I found the characters to be so bland that I couldn't distinguish them from each other in the first place. Basically they were all assholes and I just didn't sympathize with any of them. Thirdly, the plot dragged a lot in my opinion. There just wasn't very much substance to it. It was kind of like … there are two wolf packs and they hate each other, and they all try to kill each other. And there's some sex here and there. It was one of those books where I thought I was almost done with it and then realized I was only like halfway through and it was like … Oh geez, I can't take it for that much longer. It felt to me like the author was trying to get some kind of movie deal out of the book, hence it was too focused on violence and sex and not really anything else. Lastly, this book really offended me. I would have still disliked the book, but the fact that it was both racist and sexist on a number of occasions really did not help.To begin with, the female characters are so insubstantial that it's just … disgusting. They have this thing going on in the wolf packs where it will be all men and one woman that all the men have sex with. And yes, they actually refer to this woman as "the bitch." On top of that, of the several female characters who were taken in by the wolf packs, at least two of them (if I recall correctly) had been sexually and/or physically abused in the past … and becoming part of the pack was portrayed as a way of "rescuing" them. Basically, the female characters were only there for sexual purposes. The author kept stressing the importance of the wolf packs having a female to "hold them together" or some shit like that … but really, the female characters had no personality and all they ever did was use their sexuality to get what they wanted––and with the addition of the author always referring to them as "girls" and "bitches" it was just horribly sexist in my opinion.Oh yeah, I'd also like to mention that the most major female character didn't even have a name. There were like a billion characters in the story, most of them male, and the one lead female character didn't even deserve a fucking name, apparently.Okay, I rest my case.But there's more! On top of being sexist, this book was also racist! Woohoo!Just a few examples: a "turbaned Indian" running a gas station, two men described as being "a man and a Samoan" (um, so the Samoan man isn't a man apparently?), and some horribly bad Spanish that even Google Translate would be ashamed of (ex: "puta de hijo" means "bitch of a son." I believe you meant "hijo de puta" which means "son of a bitch." Seriously, plugging this into a simple translator would have taken like two seconds. Just … do your research.)That's about all I have to say. I did not care for the book. The end.
Flying Kick-a-pow!
Hi people! I'm Brigid, a college student and lover of all things book-related--writing them, reading them, reviewing them, biting them ... Yeah. I mostly read YA but I'm open to pretty much everything.
Actual rating: 1.5 starsWhen I was assigned to read this book, I was told that it was a book about werewolves written in verse. Immediately, I knew that this concept could either be really cool or be really pretentious and annoying. Unfortunately, it was the latter for me.Usually when I dislike a book, I can still kind of understand why it appeals to people. This is one of the few books that, no matter how many positive reviews of it I read, I just … don't really get it, to be honest. It's not the most terrible thing I've ever read, but for me it had few redeeming qualities.First of all, I didn't like the writing in verse. (For some reason, I always think I'm going to enjoy novels written in verse, and I almost never do.) There were some instances in which it worked … The book explores themes about thinking like a human vs. thinking like an animal, and I think the writing in poetry sometimes conveyed a more "animalistic" point of view. But for the most part it was just unnecessary and gimmicky. It could have been written in prose and it would have been the same book, in my opinion. And the writing style itself, regardless of whether or not it was written in poetry … I just didn't care for it. I found it to be pretentious. Secondly, I felt no attachment whatsoever to any of the characters. There were too many characters and points of view to keep track of, and on top of that I found the characters to be so bland that I couldn't distinguish them from each other in the first place. Basically they were all assholes and I just didn't sympathize with any of them. Thirdly, the plot dragged a lot in my opinion. There just wasn't very much substance to it. It was kind of like … there are two wolf packs and they hate each other, and they all try to kill each other. And there's some sex here and there. It was one of those books where I thought I was almost done with it and then realized I was only like halfway through and it was like … Oh geez, I can't take it for that much longer. It felt to me like the author was trying to get some kind of movie deal out of the book, hence it was too focused on violence and sex and not really anything else. Lastly, this book really offended me. I would have still disliked the book, but the fact that it was both racist and sexist on a number of occasions really did not help.To begin with, the female characters are so insubstantial that it's just … disgusting. They have this thing going on in the wolf packs where it will be all men and one woman that all the men have sex with. And yes, they actually refer to this woman as "the bitch." On top of that, of the several female characters who were taken in by the wolf packs, at least two of them (if I recall correctly) had been sexually and/or physically abused in the past … and becoming part of the pack was portrayed as a way of "rescuing" them. Basically, the female characters were only there for sexual purposes. The author kept stressing the importance of the wolf packs having a female to "hold them together" or some shit like that … but really, the female characters had no personality and all they ever did was use their sexuality to get what they wanted––and with the addition of the author always referring to them as "girls" and "bitches" it was just horribly sexist in my opinion.Oh yeah, I'd also like to mention that the most major female character didn't even have a name. There were like a billion characters in the story, most of them male, and the one lead female character didn't even deserve a fucking name, apparently.Okay, I rest my case.But there's more! On top of being sexist, this book was also racist! Woohoo!Just a few examples: a "turbaned Indian" running a gas station, two men described as being "a man and a Samoan" (um, so the Samoan man isn't a man apparently?), and some horribly bad Spanish that even Google Translate would be ashamed of (ex: "puta de hijo" means "bitch of a son." I believe you meant "hijo de puta" which means "son of a bitch." Seriously, plugging this into a simple translator would have taken like two seconds. Just … do your research.)That's about all I have to say. I did not care for the book. The end.
Currently reading
Iliad
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
A Clash of Kings
Les Misérables
The Once and Future King
Fire and Ash
