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Feb. 13th, 2008 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furyofvissarionGrave Surprise - Charlaine Harris. In the sequel to Grave Sight, Harper & her stepbrother Tolliver have come to Memphis; a university professor has hired her to demonstrate her talent for finding bodies--although truly, he wants to expose her as the fraud he believes she is. However, not only does she correctly identify causes of death for bodies in a graveyard, Harper finds the body of a girl that she'd been hired, & failed, to find earlier. Later on, a third body is found in the same grave. I'm not sure I'm enjoying these books--& this one seemed to wrap up a bit implausibly--but I'll keep on reading them for now, anyway, b/c they scratch an itching I'm having for something easy & at least somewhat interesting.
Real Murders - Charlaine Harris. Okay, I'm on a Harris kick--when I looked for Grave Sight at the library, they happened to have a few others I hadn't read of hers. Nothing thus far has measured up to the Sookie Stackhouse books, which I adore. But this one, the first Aurora Teagarden book, was fun, & a little creepy. Aurora, or Roe, as she's called, is part of a book club called Real Murders. The members, who all live in the small town of Lawrenceton outside Atlanta, study famous murder cases & present them to each other at monthly meetings. It becomes a bit too real when people in Lawrenceton start dying, & club members are suspect. Roe, by her own admission, doesn't really have a life (she's a sort of stereotypical bland young librarian), & when she finds the first body, she is horrified, but also a little bit thrilled: finally something is happening to her! She gets over that pretty fast, though, as the deaths start stacking up. This was an entertaining enough read, & I'll probably eventually read the other Teagarden books. I also liked how it made me, as the reader, question why I like to read murder mysteries, just as the members of Real Murders have to justify themselves to other people, especially in the face of actual deaths.
Fourth Comings - Megan McCafferty. Oh, please, Megan McCafferty, just stop. Stop now. I really enjoyed her first two Jessica Darling books (Sloppy Firsts & Second Helpings); the third one (Charmed Thirds) was pretty disappointing, & this one was just awful. I'm tired of hearing about Jessica's on-again, off-again relationship w/flaky boyfriend Marcus, for one, & in this one he proposes to Jessica & gives her a week to decide. Cue 7 days of drawn-out angst. In New York City, where Jessica is sharing not only a bedroom but a bunk bed in Brooklyn w/best friend Hope. I felt like McCafferty was trying to make this book all about OMG the wacky times Jessica is having in NYC! And I'll be the first to admit New York is prone to both stereotypes & mockery. But the city portrayed in this book isn't zany enough to be an outright parody, & a lot of what she does either just falls flat (it doesn't take much to get me to snicker @ Williamsburg hipsters, but McCafferty's digs @ them got nary a snerk from me) or is so removed from my own experience of the city that I got fed up. Obviously there are a lot of lives in NYC that are different from my own; that's not what I mean. Maybe just that so much of McCafferty's New York felt like a place I've never even caught a glimpse of. It reads very off--like a book about New York by someone who'd only read blogs about it. Oh, & I didn't appreciate her mining the idea of genderqueerness for laughs (& I never appreciate the use of "retarded" as an insult). Will there be a fifth Jessica Darling book? A better question is, do I care?
An Ice Cold Grave - Charlaine Harris. Oh. This is why I started reading the Harper Connelly books. Creepy as hell. Harper & stepbrother Tolliver, in the small town of Doraville, North Carolina, are investigating the disappearances of six local boys over the past few years. They discover a killing ground. Horrifying, & moving, & fascinating all at once. I'm not that interested in the sexual tension between Harper & Tolliver; it doesn't really interest me, & I don't think it's because of disgust (hey, they're not blood relations). I just don't find Tolliver that interesting. I like Manfred, the grandson of wacky psychic Xylda Bernardo, much more. Anyway--very good. Very creepy.
On the Prowl - Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, & Sunny. This anthology had pretty much everything that irks me about paranormal romance trends in one package. First, the whole "love @ first sight" thing. I don't mind lust @ first sight--I understand that!--but the whole "I knew she was different/he would never hurt me/etc. even though I just met him" thing drives me nuts. It's even worse when it's played as part of the paranormal aspect--my inner wolf told me, or I just sensed it, or whatever. I also hate when paranormal biology is used to justify dodgy gender roles. Bah.
Smoke and Mirrors - Tanya Huff. I liked this so much better than Smoke & Shadows, its predecessor. Tony & his coworkers on the set of Darkest Night are shooting a haunted house episode in what turns out to be a real haunted house. People start seeing things, everyone's locked inside, the malevolent spirit starts preying on people's minds so people turn on each other, yadda yadda. Spoooooky fun. Also, I really really liked seeing Tony standing on his own, being able to lead & kick ass w/o Henry or Vicki around. And, as is generally true w/Huff, I like that there are prominent queer characters. I want to see what happens w/Tony & Lee now!
Real Murders - Charlaine Harris. Okay, I'm on a Harris kick--when I looked for Grave Sight at the library, they happened to have a few others I hadn't read of hers. Nothing thus far has measured up to the Sookie Stackhouse books, which I adore. But this one, the first Aurora Teagarden book, was fun, & a little creepy. Aurora, or Roe, as she's called, is part of a book club called Real Murders. The members, who all live in the small town of Lawrenceton outside Atlanta, study famous murder cases & present them to each other at monthly meetings. It becomes a bit too real when people in Lawrenceton start dying, & club members are suspect. Roe, by her own admission, doesn't really have a life (she's a sort of stereotypical bland young librarian), & when she finds the first body, she is horrified, but also a little bit thrilled: finally something is happening to her! She gets over that pretty fast, though, as the deaths start stacking up. This was an entertaining enough read, & I'll probably eventually read the other Teagarden books. I also liked how it made me, as the reader, question why I like to read murder mysteries, just as the members of Real Murders have to justify themselves to other people, especially in the face of actual deaths.
Fourth Comings - Megan McCafferty. Oh, please, Megan McCafferty, just stop. Stop now. I really enjoyed her first two Jessica Darling books (Sloppy Firsts & Second Helpings); the third one (Charmed Thirds) was pretty disappointing, & this one was just awful. I'm tired of hearing about Jessica's on-again, off-again relationship w/flaky boyfriend Marcus, for one, & in this one he proposes to Jessica & gives her a week to decide. Cue 7 days of drawn-out angst. In New York City, where Jessica is sharing not only a bedroom but a bunk bed in Brooklyn w/best friend Hope. I felt like McCafferty was trying to make this book all about OMG the wacky times Jessica is having in NYC! And I'll be the first to admit New York is prone to both stereotypes & mockery. But the city portrayed in this book isn't zany enough to be an outright parody, & a lot of what she does either just falls flat (it doesn't take much to get me to snicker @ Williamsburg hipsters, but McCafferty's digs @ them got nary a snerk from me) or is so removed from my own experience of the city that I got fed up. Obviously there are a lot of lives in NYC that are different from my own; that's not what I mean. Maybe just that so much of McCafferty's New York felt like a place I've never even caught a glimpse of. It reads very off--like a book about New York by someone who'd only read blogs about it. Oh, & I didn't appreciate her mining the idea of genderqueerness for laughs (& I never appreciate the use of "retarded" as an insult). Will there be a fifth Jessica Darling book? A better question is, do I care?
An Ice Cold Grave - Charlaine Harris. Oh. This is why I started reading the Harper Connelly books. Creepy as hell. Harper & stepbrother Tolliver, in the small town of Doraville, North Carolina, are investigating the disappearances of six local boys over the past few years. They discover a killing ground. Horrifying, & moving, & fascinating all at once. I'm not that interested in the sexual tension between Harper & Tolliver; it doesn't really interest me, & I don't think it's because of disgust (hey, they're not blood relations). I just don't find Tolliver that interesting. I like Manfred, the grandson of wacky psychic Xylda Bernardo, much more. Anyway--very good. Very creepy.
On the Prowl - Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, & Sunny. This anthology had pretty much everything that irks me about paranormal romance trends in one package. First, the whole "love @ first sight" thing. I don't mind lust @ first sight--I understand that!--but the whole "I knew she was different/he would never hurt me/etc. even though I just met him" thing drives me nuts. It's even worse when it's played as part of the paranormal aspect--my inner wolf told me, or I just sensed it, or whatever. I also hate when paranormal biology is used to justify dodgy gender roles. Bah.
Smoke and Mirrors - Tanya Huff. I liked this so much better than Smoke & Shadows, its predecessor. Tony & his coworkers on the set of Darkest Night are shooting a haunted house episode in what turns out to be a real haunted house. People start seeing things, everyone's locked inside, the malevolent spirit starts preying on people's minds so people turn on each other, yadda yadda. Spoooooky fun. Also, I really really liked seeing Tony standing on his own, being able to lead & kick ass w/o Henry or Vicki around. And, as is generally true w/Huff, I like that there are prominent queer characters. I want to see what happens w/Tony & Lee now!