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Thursday, July 29, 2010

My Strange Angels hate, lemme show it to you

[Note: Normally I save my book hates on Never Gonna Be Finished Books for my dreamwidth blog, but I figured since I haven't posted here in forever and I had a bookish related post all readily typed up, I'd just repost it here too. Also this Anti-Rec at least has some general concluding thoughts I had that I think go just beyond this novel, so it isn't just hating. =D]

So, there's this YA novel plaguing the shelves right now called Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow. I've read about three chapters of it.

I hate it.

I really, really, really hate it.

There are three basic reasons why I could not read beyond the 3rd chapter of this horrendous book.

1) THE WRITING


omg so atrocious. St. Crow really likes to use similes and metaphors. The problem? She kind of sucks at them. THEY DON'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!! Like, I could barely concentrate on the story because she'd throw in a line like

"my head hurts like a bowling ball being squeezed by a giant's fingers" (paraphrased, but it's in the first paragraph of the 3rd chapter if you don't believe me)

And I couldn't even pay attention to what's actually happening in the story because all I can think is WTF DO YOU MEAN YOUR HEAD HURTS LIKE A GIANT'S FINGERS LIKE WTF I CAN'T EVEN SAY THIS STRAIGHT WITHOUT IT SOUNDING STUPID OMG WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST SAID YOUR HEAD HURTS PERIOD?!?!?!?!?!?!

DON'T USE A SIMILE IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE IT PROPERLY, DAMNIT.

Some people should just never ever write a metaphor or simile ever. St. Crow is one of those people.

2) IT'S SO RACIST


Lili St. Crow thinks it's perfectly okay to describe a Half-Asian character as a "half-breed" Multiple times within one chapter.

I... don't know what to say to this. EXCEPT THAT IT IS A RACIST, RACIST, RACIST PIECE OF FAIL!!!!

3) PRETTY GIRLS CAN BE COOL TOO, OKAY?!


Gawd, the narration just can't seem to get through a single chapter without some cheerleader hating. Why is it that pretty = stupid = useless?! ugh, I mean, cheerleader hating is widespread all over YA, but this book just sent me over the edge.

Quote~ "Better to be strong than pretty and useless. I’ll take a plain girl with her head screwed on right over a cheerleader any day."

Everything I am quoting happens before chapter 3 is over, btw.

+

So I chucked this book soundly against a wall like it deserves and proceeded to loudly anti-rec this book whenever I get the chance or remember when talking to friends.

You know what's sad though? Is that while people might try to argue with me that I should still keep going with the "half-breed" line or the cheerleader crap, but 100% of the time when I mention the atrocious writing then they would concede that my dropping of the book was a good idea. Like, hating on a book because the writing sucks is okay, but hating on a book because it was racist or has some misogynistic shit in it is not?

I mean, I'm not surprised or anything by these kinds of reaction, but it still makes me HEADDESK all the same.

4 comments:

Catherine (On The Nightstand) said...

When I first saw the "half-breed" comment I stopped and went, "Wait, what?! Oh no, she can't have" because I just couldn't believe it. So I went back and read it again. "Oh my god she did! She totally did!"

And she didn't even come to realise that she was wrong thinking those things. So I was all, "He's supposed to be part of the love triangle, and you're referring to him as that? I don't need to read the next ones to find out who she's going to pick them."

I still haven't read the next two, and have no plans to either. Had I known about this before I would never have paid good money (even at half price -_-) for it.

Najela said...

I was just thinking that "Wow, that would be cool to have a half-Asian character as a love interest." but then you shattered me by saying that the author refers to him as a half breed in the narration. That is so not cool.

Thankfully this book was never on my radar. It didn't really sound interesting when I researched it, but now reading this, there's no reason why I should ever read this book.

Thank you for steering me clear of that one.

Emma said...

*reads*

Well I'm not reading that one! You make excellent points. Half-breed? Really? I could understand the comment if it's first person and the narrator's been brought up in a hateful home but REALLY?

Sapphire Pyro said...

The title attracted me. Good thing I didn't bother to check me out. This will definitely annoy me. Ugh =_=

By the way, wingstodust, I changed the address of my old blog and renamed it: http://imagination-complex.blogspot.com/

Yeah, I'm alive xD Haha!