Tuesday, June 28, 2011

What I've learned part deux. Or Salem's Plot

You know what I've been up to these past few days? Yeah, me neither. Where the heck did this whole month go? Can you tell I'm trembling in my shorts right now? This time tomorrow, I'm taking the exam that's been causing me to freak out all over the place and I'm... super scared. If you don't hear about me after this post, you should know I probably died of a terror induced heart attack (or drowned in kittens).

Right, now that's out of the way...
I've finished editing Hunters - version 2.0 should be hitting CC as soon as I take out my scholarship money and pay for a premium membership.

Until then, I've finished 2 more books. That is right - Salem's Lot by Stephen King and Fallen by Lauren Kate or what the hell her name is (mopey girl crying in the forest cover). So here's a few things I've learned.

1. Omniscient... eh, not so much.

I know I used to write omni, so this is a bit nasty of me, but I don't think it works for horror stories - but I'm glad I read the book, since I remembered what it was like to read decent literature in Romanian.
What I did realize, is that opposed to close third (which seems to be the trend right now), it's harder to care about the characters in omni. I did like some people in Salem's Lot (one of them dies - NOOO, Jimmy, come back to us!), and the other two survive (I'm glad I liked Ben and Mark before I knew they would be the ones to survive).
Fallen is close third so it doesn't come in here.

2. A lot of characters are... normal?

Okay, if anyone ever gives me hell about a lot of characters again, I will personally flip them off. I mean, WTH? Salem's Lot had a million characters and you found out a lot of nasty, gory details about mostly all of them. And no one complained, and everyone thinks Stephen King is a genius. They bothered me at first, until I started not giving a damn. Anyway, I enjoyed how everything was wrapped up at the end.

Fallen doesn't have a ton of characters - it falls into normal character section. So not commenting on this yet.

3. I don't get scared reading books.

Salem's Lot did give me some nifty dreams though (as did Fallen, since the atmosphere was really well described). But, no, I don't get scared - not even rapid pulse or anything. I enjoy them, but that's about it for me. And it kinda pisses me off - Me want to get scared!

That's about it - I've learned less this time, I know, but I've been busy freaking out to pay proper attention to the technicalities of these books.

Mini Review for Salem's Lot

Ben goes back to Salem's Lot (where he grew up) to write a book. The town is full of freaky people and there's a weirdo house there which scares the crap out of all the people (don't know why no one set fire to it at some point). It takes about 300 pages into the book to reach the vampires. IMO, the first 120 pages are useless. But the read is entertaining. The writing flows, most of the sections are short and it's not boring. Not overly interesting, but not boring. When the vampires pop out, I'm not really scared because they seem to have a lot of weaknesses (crosses, holly water, not being able to open doors and other such). The action scenes are pretty good, I liked some of the characters and I enjoyed the ending.

Overall verdict - pretty nifty. 4/5 stars.


Mini Review for Fallen

Lucinda Price goes to a correctional facility because she's crazy/considered guilty for a mysterious death. There, she meets some peeps and Daniel (I'm starting to really like this name, but due to my Daniel) who flips her off on the first day. To cut a long story short, Daniel's a fallen angel and Luce is his long lost love who reincarnates every 17 years because she always dies a tragic death.
I mainly enjoyed this book - the description was good and not too much, since everyone was pretty freaky and crazy, the dialogue felt real (is that a trick?), and the characters were pretty good. I actually liked Luce - she seemed to have a personality up to some point. Also, the author is not afraid to kill, and that's always good.

What bugged me about this book:

For the death of her, this woman can't write action. It was so confusing, half of the time, I had no idea what was going on. The fact that I read this book in Romanian could be a part of it, but I've never read a more confusing fist fight.
The plot was a little like... eh? Get into the character's head is fine, but I don't want to have absolutely no idea what's going on. Most of what I got out of this book, plot-wise, I pretty much imagined myself. Daniel doesn't really explain what's going on, the pieces don't come together, and before a bigger explanation is given, the book is over... lul, what?
It did take a little long to get to the point - but I didn't mind - I kinda got a bit impatient one chapter before they made out - so I'm a trooper.
Daniel isn't done too well - he doesn't make me go swoon - she seems to have no reason to love him except that she's done it before - not a big fan of that - I wanted him to do stuff in the real world that would have her falling in love - and he didn't really seem to have a personality - except being weird and protective and confused/confusing. Could've been better.

Overall verdict - though I harped on it, I enjoyed it and finished it in like 3 days. So, 3.5/5 (because of the things I harped on, because I enjoyed it as much, if not more than Salem's Lot)

Well, this is it - have fun with my craziness. I'm reading the Hunger Games right now - wanna see what those are like.

Wish me luck! Tomorrow is the big day. Freaking out again... *runs off to solve more previous subjects*

4 comments:

  1. I'm sending you positive thoughts! You can do it! I've not read Salem's Lot or Fallen, so I can't agree or disagree with you. I'll talk Hunger Games with you any day, though! :)

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  2. GOOD LUCK STEPH !!!!!

    You'll be great. Just watch out for the bubbly and bubbly-induced headaches afterwards :)

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  3. Hi!
    Thanks guys! You rule!
    Just so you know, I got a 92 on my final test which is pretty awesome. I'm drunk with excitement right now - Woo hoo!

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  4. Thank goodness! I was starting to fear a kitten attack had taken you out.

    --j--

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