The book: Macbeth
The author: William Shakespeare
The rating: 3 stars
As I've lamented about other classic yarns, I have little unique to say about Macbeth. I suppose the strongest of my opinions is that I do not have any strong opinions one way or another.
While I'm not necessarily a Shakespeare fanatic, I do consider myself a fan of the bard, both written and performed. I count plays such as Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Comedy of Errors amongst some of my favourites in theatre, but I wasn't really drawn in by Macbeth. Perhaps this is due to its twists being so ingrained in popular culture so as to render them unimaginative; I've heard the 'none of woman born' riddle and its answer before, not knowing its original context, and this lack of intrigue may have been the source of my apathy.
I was also ambivalent regarding the characterization. In Hamlet, for example, I found almost the entire cast compelling - Hamlet, of course, as well as Ophelia, Gertrude, Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and so on and so forth. In Macbeth, the only character who engaged me in such a way was Banquo, and by prophetic necessity he was obviously not long for this world. As a tragic hero, I much prefer Hamlet to Macbeth. Hamlet's slower descent made his peripeteia far more poignant, in my opinion. Macbeth was a sympathetic protagonist for mere pages before he made his turn, far too little time for me as a reader to build up any sympathy for him and his cold-blooded wife.
While I've said rather little, I don't think I have much else to say. I'd buy a ticket to see it performed, as I would with essentially any Shakespeare play, but that aside, I don't prophesize I will be re-experiencing Macbeth again anytime soon.
Saturday 19 April 2014
Wednesday 9 April 2014
16. Sugar Rush
The book: Rush (The Game #1)
The author: Eve Silver
The rating: 4 stars
Despite Rush's health-nut protagonist, if I were asked to sum up the novel when I was half-way through, my answer would have been 'empty calories.'
For a long while, Rush felt like nothing but fluff. It was little more than genre stereotype after genre stereotype; just in terms of the fifteen novels I've reviewed so far on this blog, if you mashed Whispers in Autumn with Relativity you'd probably get something close to Rush. You've got Miki, an angsty teen protagonist (she's still mourning the loss of her mother), a stereotypical love triangle between Miki, Luka, and Jackson (the cute, friendly, open childhood friend versus the aloof, sexy, mysterious stranger), a 'normal teen life' complete with drama that would make any real teenager cringe (and, like Relativity, a completely embarrassing texting sequence), underdeveloped throwaway secondary characters, not to mention that our protagonist is SuperSpecial™. Even the whole 'incredibly original' aliens plot seems to be Ender's Game with a slight coat of paint.
Then it all began to change. I'm not the kind of girl who falls for the aloof, sexy, mysterious boy. Never. Not Ky in Matched, or Edward in Twilight, or Gabriel in Dark Visions. I'm the kind of girl who rolls her eyes when the heroine falls in love with the bad boy yet again, just another cliched conclusion to a cliched love triangle.
I fell for Jackson Tate.
Because, gradually, so many of the cliches that Rush presents are subverted. The love triangle fades away like a breath of fresh reality. When Jackson's aloof, sexy, mysterious facade begins to chip, it's not a cardboard cutout the reader finds beneath, but an intriguing, unique character. For the first time in quite a long while, I've read a love story that I can buy into. So many times while reading YA novels I bemoan the artificial taste of the romance, that the characters lack chemistry, that the couple fell too quickly for their love to feel real. But not Rush. The pacing, the chemistry, everything was perfect, a wonderful complement to the novel's primary plot.
By the novel's end, Rush had broken almost completely from its chrysalis of cliches, coming tentatively into its own. Miki's growth as a character is clear, and her shifting personality and view of her world allows for some intriguing contrast. As for the end... well, I'm glad June is only a couple months away, because I don't think I could wait longer to get my hands on the sequel, Push (although if Silver pulls an Ender's Game-style twist on me, I'll just have to take back all those compliments about shedding cliche).
The author: Eve Silver
The rating: 4 stars
Despite Rush's health-nut protagonist, if I were asked to sum up the novel when I was half-way through, my answer would have been 'empty calories.'
For a long while, Rush felt like nothing but fluff. It was little more than genre stereotype after genre stereotype; just in terms of the fifteen novels I've reviewed so far on this blog, if you mashed Whispers in Autumn with Relativity you'd probably get something close to Rush. You've got Miki, an angsty teen protagonist (she's still mourning the loss of her mother), a stereotypical love triangle between Miki, Luka, and Jackson (the cute, friendly, open childhood friend versus the aloof, sexy, mysterious stranger), a 'normal teen life' complete with drama that would make any real teenager cringe (and, like Relativity, a completely embarrassing texting sequence), underdeveloped throwaway secondary characters, not to mention that our protagonist is SuperSpecial™. Even the whole 'incredibly original' aliens plot seems to be Ender's Game with a slight coat of paint.
Then it all began to change. I'm not the kind of girl who falls for the aloof, sexy, mysterious boy. Never. Not Ky in Matched, or Edward in Twilight, or Gabriel in Dark Visions. I'm the kind of girl who rolls her eyes when the heroine falls in love with the bad boy yet again, just another cliched conclusion to a cliched love triangle.
I fell for Jackson Tate.
Because, gradually, so many of the cliches that Rush presents are subverted. The love triangle fades away like a breath of fresh reality. When Jackson's aloof, sexy, mysterious facade begins to chip, it's not a cardboard cutout the reader finds beneath, but an intriguing, unique character. For the first time in quite a long while, I've read a love story that I can buy into. So many times while reading YA novels I bemoan the artificial taste of the romance, that the characters lack chemistry, that the couple fell too quickly for their love to feel real. But not Rush. The pacing, the chemistry, everything was perfect, a wonderful complement to the novel's primary plot.
By the novel's end, Rush had broken almost completely from its chrysalis of cliches, coming tentatively into its own. Miki's growth as a character is clear, and her shifting personality and view of her world allows for some intriguing contrast. As for the end... well, I'm glad June is only a couple months away, because I don't think I could wait longer to get my hands on the sequel, Push (although if Silver pulls an Ender's Game-style twist on me, I'll just have to take back all those compliments about shedding cliche).
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