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So I still have a headache from crying so much after reading the last 200 pages or so of Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone last night but it was worth it! I loved it. Such a vivid depiction of surviving off the grid and women's (lack of) rights in the 1970s. Also of living with a brain injury and PTSD with paranoia and domestic violence. So many books will just portray the latter as black and white, but Hannah does her best to illustrate why the woman keeps staying with her abuser, despite what logic seemingly dictates, the advice people keep giving her, and how guilty and ashamed she feels. Oddly, the most unrealistic thing was how it kept hop-skipping over winters when it was a book set mostly in Alaska, where it's winter 8 months of the year. And yet the plotty stuff always happened in summer! As a Canadian I'm just like LOL
Also finished Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews, which I liked a lot better than its followup (Magic Steals) I read last month, even though both are in Dali's POV. This one was less cringey with the dwelling on self esteem issues- like I understand why Dali would feel inadequate but it's annoying being in her POV when she's wringing her hands about it mentally for the umpteenth time. I quite liked Jim and Dali in the KD novels, too.
Alanna the First Adventure: Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce was an easy, breezy read that I think I would have enjoyed more when I was younger. Everything just seemed too neat and convenient and suspend your disbelief already compared to the grittier fantasy I'm used to reading now. I'm guessing she ends up married to the prince by series end?
I also decided to try other urban fantasy authors because I've been enjoying Ilona Andrews' books so much, so I read Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. I quite liked Mercy Thompson, the protagonist, although the authorial voice seemed rather intrusive at times. Like people only use euphemisms instead of swearing and yet the violence is urban fantasy standard graphic and there's an odd insistence on the importance of church. I was willing to just go along with it until I started into the second book (Blood Bound) and there was a whole section devoted to how Awful and Devastating it was that her roommate had knocked up a girl while they were both in med school and she had just gone and gotten an abortion and "killed his baby" without asking him.
Um WTF. NO. I just returned the book to the library. Especially right on the heels of this commercial being banned from the Oscars for being "too graphic" when what they mean is "too realistic" about depicting how hard it is for women postpartum. Having babies isn't easy on women. It alters their bodies, sometimes permanently, even if they give up the baby for adoption. So no, they shouldn't just do their time as incubators if they've sinned and had sex because what about the man's rights?
FFS I haven't rage-quit a book since Matthew Stover's Revenge of the Sith.
Also finished Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews, which I liked a lot better than its followup (Magic Steals) I read last month, even though both are in Dali's POV. This one was less cringey with the dwelling on self esteem issues- like I understand why Dali would feel inadequate but it's annoying being in her POV when she's wringing her hands about it mentally for the umpteenth time. I quite liked Jim and Dali in the KD novels, too.
Alanna the First Adventure: Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce was an easy, breezy read that I think I would have enjoyed more when I was younger. Everything just seemed too neat and convenient and suspend your disbelief already compared to the grittier fantasy I'm used to reading now. I'm guessing she ends up married to the prince by series end?
I also decided to try other urban fantasy authors because I've been enjoying Ilona Andrews' books so much, so I read Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. I quite liked Mercy Thompson, the protagonist, although the authorial voice seemed rather intrusive at times. Like people only use euphemisms instead of swearing and yet the violence is urban fantasy standard graphic and there's an odd insistence on the importance of church. I was willing to just go along with it until I started into the second book (Blood Bound) and there was a whole section devoted to how Awful and Devastating it was that her roommate had knocked up a girl while they were both in med school and she had just gone and gotten an abortion and "killed his baby" without asking him.
Um WTF. NO. I just returned the book to the library. Especially right on the heels of this commercial being banned from the Oscars for being "too graphic" when what they mean is "too realistic" about depicting how hard it is for women postpartum. Having babies isn't easy on women. It alters their bodies, sometimes permanently, even if they give up the baby for adoption. So no, they shouldn't just do their time as incubators if they've sinned and had sex because what about the man's rights?
FFS I haven't rage-quit a book since Matthew Stover's Revenge of the Sith.
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