Jaded Jennifer

Time for a bathtub book review. Been awhile since I’ve done one of those. Last week I spent $160 on books at Borders so I’ve been doing a lot of reading. Yesterday I started reading Wake by Lisa McMann. It’s a YA book about a girl named Janie who is a dream catcher.

I spent all day yesterday in bed, and in the bathtub (yes, I took 2 baths yesterday since I was feeling like crap), and I finished Wake. Then I read the second book, Fade. Finished that one last night and started reading the third, Gone. I woke up this morning and continued reading it and just finished.

I have quite a few thoughts about this trilogy. It’s hard for me to separate the “editor” side of my brain when I’m reading sometimes. The disjointed, incomplete sentences in this series really drove me insane a lot of the time. Let me give a couple of examples:

She stops writing and stares at the last two words.

Throws the pen at the wall. Slams her fists on the desk. Shoves the chair back so hard it flips over. Stands in the middle of the room and screams at the ceiling.

That’s one example of the incomplete sentences. Here’s another:

Lies back down on the couch, full of cake.

Thinks about what happens next.

Knows that soon she’ll say good-bye to Cabe forever.

And that?

Despite the benefits,

Will be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

Ok, so I understand people having their own voice and writing style. I totally get it. But there were times when it drove me absolutely nuts and I wondered why somebody would write a series of books like this. In a way, it makes the author look like she doesn’t really know how to write.

But really, that’s the editor in me who cringes at the use of words like “skillz” in a novel. (Yes, that word was actually in this book.) But when I separate that side of me, and just look at it from a writer/reader perspective, I really did love these books. The concept itself was wonderful; so fresh and different. The characters were certainly likable, even if there were times when I wondered why Janie freaked out about something Cabel said. I found myself wishing for more, wanting to read another book (or four) and to find out what happens with the rest of her life.

It’s a series of books that were well worth the money I spent on them, and that will probably be read many times over the next few years, by me and my daughter, who has been waiting for me to finish them so she could read them. Yes, I’m 34 years old and I just finished (and loved) and YA trilogy. I suggest you go out and get your own copies and give them a read. If you put aside the editorial issues and get into the books, they’re definitely worth it.

Last summer, while I was checking out agents and deciding who to send my queries to, I came across a new author named Eileen Cook. I read an excerpt from her book, Unpredictable, and loved it. I knew I needed to buy it.

But then, as usual, I got obsessed with something new (probably drawing, or cow tipping or something) and forgot all about it. In early February, I suddenly remembered there were a few books I’d been wanting to buy. I remembered the excerpt really well, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember the name of the book, or the author.

In my own stupidity, I just figured I’d drive on down to Hastings and find the book. I knew I’d recognize the cover if I saw it, since I rarely forget the covers of books. But when I got to Hastings, I realized how naive I was. With so many books to look through (would it be in romance or novels?), there was no way I’d find it if I didn’t know the name or the author.

I came home and spent the next hour or two (it could have been longer really since I tend to lose track of time while I’m on the internet) searching for the excerpt from this book. Perhaps if I hadn’t replaced my laptop not once, but twice, since finding this book my search would have been easier. I tend to randomly bookmark sites when I think they might come in handy in the future. But seeing as I was on a new computer, with no bookmarks to speak of, I resorted to yahoo searching.

I typed in keywords that I remembered from the excerpt. I spent so long going through pages and pages of sites, until FINALLY I found it! It was Unpredictable by Eileen Cook. I was so excited. I called Hastings to make sure they had it, and was very disappointed to find out they didn’t. So off to Barnes and Noble I went. After searching there for awhile, I braved the line at customer service (Ok, I didn’t really. I sent Wren to brave it for me while I looked at other books. Isn’t that what boyfriends are for?) and found out they didn’t have it in stock either. Of course they offered to order it for me but I was so upset I told them no and walked away, shoulders down. It was very depressing for me to find that this fairly new book, by a new unknown author was already off of their shelves while they had 8 copies of books like How To Make Anyone Fall in Love With You. As an aspiring author myself, it was quite a blow. I mean, I read that excerpt. It was soooo funny and showed such promise. It was clear to me that Eileen Cook is a better writer than I am. What chance does that give me to become a well-known author?

Despite this, I was determined to read this book. Since I don’t have any credit cards, I had to get money over to my friend Dawn and have her order it for me from Amazon. It finally came in the mail this week and me, being the speed reader that I am, read it in one day.

So was it worth it all? Well, of course it was. As I said, Eileen Cook has this flair for comedy in her writing that had me giggling. At first, I was constantly making Wren pause his movie so I could read him sentences like “February is the worst month in Vancouver, nothing but nonstop rain, the kind of rain that makes you start thinking about taking up ark-building as a hobby just in case.” Or at one point, I made him pause his movie while I read him this whole paragraph:

“Do you have a reservation?” the hostess asks. I can’t think of what to say because I’m too busy focusing on how impossibly thin she is. If I held my book behind her back there’s a good chance I could read the text right through her. My wrists are larger than her thighs. No adult person can be this small. She must be violating some kind of child-labor laws or else she’s some kind of fashion pygmy. I’m surprised she could get a job at a restaurant; she’s a walking ad for famine relief. It looks to me like she hasn’t even been in the same room as food for a considerable period of time. I suppress the urge to offer to sponsor her.

How can you not love a book that makes you laugh? It got to the point where Wren would hear me giggle and he’d say “What are you giggling about now?” and wait in anticipation.

Ok, I’m not here to completely rave about the book. I do have to admit that Unpredictable was a bit…..well…..predictable. Sometimes I think romance books are getting that way, though. Despite the fact that I knew early on how it would end, I still enjoyed the journey to get there. I know Eileen Cook is writing YA novels now but I hope she ventures back into the adult arena soon. I’d love to see what she comes up with next.