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Series Review: The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King (spoiler warning)
Introduction:
I post series reviews after completing reading an entire series of books. It gives me a chance to reflect on and analyze the series as a whole. These series reviews are designed to also be useful for people who: A) have read the series too and would like to read other thoughts on it or discuss it with others OR B) have not read the series yet but would like a full idea of what the series is like, including possible spoilers, prior to reading it themselves or buying it for another. Please be aware that series reviews necessarily contain some spoilers.
Summary:
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” This famous opening line begins the distinctly American fantasy epic tale of Roland the gunslinger’s quest for the Dark Tower. In this fantasy, there are multiple parallel universes, referred to as whens and wheres. The one Roland inhabits that is home to the Dark Tower and beams that keep all the worlds together and operating functionally just so happens to distinctly resemble the old American wild west. Gunslingers in this world are like the knights of the round table in old England, and Roland is the last of his kind. He’s on a quest both to reach the Dark Tower and save it and the beams, as 
they seem to be breaking. Through the course of his quest, Roland draws three new gunslingers and a billy-bumbler to become his ka-tet–his family bound by ka (fate) not blood. These new gunslingers all come from America, but from different whens and versions of America. Eddie is a heroin addict. Susannah is an African-American woman from the 1960s who is missing both of her legs from the knees down and has Dissociative Identity Disorder (more commonly known as multiple personality disorder). Jake is a boy from a wealthy family in NYC that hardly pays attention to him. Oy is a billy-bumbler; a creature from Roland’s world that looks a bit like a dog with a long snout and a curly tail but is able to talk. After training and bonding together, they continue on their quest for the Dark Tower. A quest that leads them through old ruined cities in Roland’s world, gangster territory 
and rural Maine in America, a countryside farming community where almost all births are twins, and much much more. The ultimate questions of ka, how the worlds are bound together, and just what role this gunslinger has to play in all of it loom at the center of this epic tale.
Review:
The interesting thing about the Dark Tower series is that each book has its own unique vibe, feel, and style to it, yet they together work to make up a complete whole that has its own unique feel to it too. Because of this, certain entries 
in the series may appeal less to some people than others. For instance, I did not enjoy Wizard and Glass, because it was essentially a slow-paced wild west romance story, yet I know some readers enjoy that entry immensely. Similarly, I love Song of Susannah for both its horror and the way King structured it using song stanzas to correlate with the sections of the book, yet I know some people who found it too dense for one entry in the series. The thing is though, to me, the Dark Tower is more about the experience of reading the series as a whole than the individual books. I’m perfectly willing to work through a book or a few chapters that aren’t quite the genre I prefer, because I know that will change up later on and whatever is being discussed is important to the story as 
a whole. It frankly is interesting to read a series that explores so many different genres within itself. It makes the whole concept of parallel worlds more believable as each area they go through feels different.
The characterization at first seems simplistic. There’s Roland the gunslinger. He’s got a one-track mind in pursuit of the tower. He’ll do anything to reach it, even if it’s questionable. Is he justified in his vehemence? It’s hard to tell at first. Similarly, the man in black who he is originally pursuing is extraordinarily one-dimensional. He is just an evil magician, and that is all. Similarly, when Eddie, Susannah, and Jake are first drawn into Roland’s world, they are also one-dimensional. Eddie is just the junky. Susannah is the crazy woman with multiple 
personalities. Jake is a lonely, frightened little boy. Yet as the series progresses, King gradually develops the characters to be rich and multi-dimensional. Their characters are so intensely vivid, including even Oy, that I actually found myself crying as bad things happened to various members of the ka-tet. Eddie overcomes his addiction, as well as the emotional wounds inflicted on him by his older brother to grow up and become a true man. Susannah does not lose her multiple personalities, but she learns to work with them. They are a part of her, and she grows to accept that. She stops being bitter about her accident and her lot in life and comes to be self-sufficient and caring of those around her. Jake quickly grows to become a confident young man who cares for his ka-tet, but especially Oy and Roland. Finally, Roland gradually learns to open himself up to relationships. Although 
the tower still calls to him, he finds himself questioning if maybe the ka-tet is better than the tower.
The horror elements in the series definitely live up to what one would expect from King. There are disgusting moments, such as a man sick from the weed drug in Roland’s world that makes users go insane. There are also truly terrifying moments such as when a baby boy turns into a spider and eats his own mother via her breast. Then there are mentally disturbing themes such as the children who get stolen by the wolves and are returned with their brains completely ruined. It is later discovered that their brain power was fed to telepaths in service of the Crimson King who is seeking to destroy all the worlds. Whatever flavor of horror suits you best, you will find it in the series.
The themes of love and building your own family and being at the hands of fate are what truly carry the series, though. These themes are what make the reader care about the horrors that are happening to Roland and his ka-tet. They’re what makes it possible to suspend disbelief about multiple worlds being held together by a tower, a rose, and beams. The ideas of self-sacrifice, serving your purpose, and caring for others who ka has brought into your life are powerful and subtly expressed. To me the whole concept of making your own family is the most endearing part of the series, and I loved seeing it portrayed in such a subtle, tender manner.
Of course what really brought the series to a whole new level for me is the ending. It blew me away. It was completely unexpected. Roland reaches the tower after having lost his ka-tet. He goes in and climbs with each floor displaying items and smells to represent each year of his life. He reaches the top door and pulls it open only to realize, horrified at the last moment, that he is being pulled through back to the desert where the series began. The voice of the tower speaks to him about his journey. That he’s done it before. That he’s learning a little each time. It points out that Roland realized his mistake in not taking a few moments to pick up the horn of Eld, so this time, it is strapped to Roland’s side, where it wasn’t originally. For a moment Roland remembers what has just occurred, but soon he just feels it was all a mirage. A heat-induced daydream of finally reaching the dark tower. He continues on, ending the series with the same sentence it began with.
Personally, I feel that this puts the series in a whole new light. Who exactly is this Roland that he is so important that he has to redo this quest until, presumably, he gets it right? Why did King choose to tell us about one of the times he didn’t get it right? What did he get wrong? What lessons is Roland supposed to be learning? Will Roland ever escape the cycle or is it some sort of hell punishment he’s doomed to repeat forever? Of course, it all reads a bit like the belief in reincarnation and learning something each life cycle. In any case, it made me personally want to immediately start rereading the series, searching for clues about the repetition of the journey. It brings the series to a whole new philosophical level that truly elevated it in my mind from a fun fantasy to an epic.
Overall, there are parts of the series I didn’t enjoy, and due to the vast variety of genres represented in the series, most people will probably dislike or struggle with at least bits of it. However, when the series is put together and all the pieces click together in your mind, it becomes an unforgettable, completely American epic. A wild west fantasy is unique, and the themes and philosophical questions explored underneath the entertaining prose make for something even deeper than that. I am incredibly glad I took the time to read this series, and I would recommend it to anyone. It is well worth the time invested.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: borrowed, Harvard Book Store
Books in Series:
The Gunslinger, review, buy it
The Drawing of the Three, review, buy it
The Waste Lands, review, buy it
Wizard and Glass, review, buy it
Wolves of the Calla, review, buy it
Song of Susannah, review, buy it
The Dark Tower, review , buy it
Book Review: The Dark Tower by Stephen King, (Series, #7)
Summary:
Roland and his ka-tet face their greatest challenges yet. First they must successfully save the rose in NYC. Then they must find each other, and Susannah and Jake need to escape the low men who would harm them. Also on their list before continuing to pursue the Dark Tower is to stop the breakers who mean to destroy the beam, thereby leading the worlds to ruin. Can they save the beam? Will Roland reach his beloved Dark Tower with his ka-tet whole or shattered? Will he reach it at all? The Dark Tower looms with a far greater presence than ever before, calling to both Roland and reader commala-come-come.
Review:
Now I understand why people who’ve read the entire Dark Tower series rant with showers of praise about it. This final entry in the series totally blew my mind. The settings were perfectly drawn and easy to visualize. The multiple plot lines were all complex and yet simultaneously easy to follow. I cried multiple times reading this book, including in public, and those who know me know that I generally don’t cry at stories. All of the characters of the ka-tet are treated with full-formed character development. They are richly drawn, but it is also easy to see how they have grown and changed throughout the series. The multiple, inter-locking worlds of Roland and his ka-tet suddenly snap into place in the reader’s mind, and suddenly everything is nearly as clear as it probably is for King.
This book is quite long, but it didn’t feel like it. I wanted to read it nearly constantly, yet I had to put it down periodically due to the emotional wringer King was bringing me through. It’s been so long since I read a series that wasn’t either a trilogy or a serial romance that I’d forgotten how emotional it can get to have a long, fully realized tale told with characters you’ve grown to know and care for. These people read as real people, and the world feels real. It makes me want to go look for my own unfound door to journey to a parallel reality. Even though at first I kind of laughed at the idea of a rose and a tower and beams somehow controlling and seeing over multiple worlds, at some point I bought into it. I suspended my disbelief, and that’s exactly what a spinner of tales is supposed to be able to help his readers do.
What made me truly fall in love with the story and make me want to instantly start re-reading the series over again from the beginning is the ending. I wouldn’t give it away and ruin the experience of discovering it yourself for anybody, so just let me say, it totally blew my mind. I did not see it coming. It made my perspective on the whole tale change, which explains why I want to re-read it so much. (Maybe next year). I can also say that the ending makes reading the rest of the long series entirely worth it. Definitely don’t give up on the series part-way through. Continue all the way to the end.
If you’ve been reading the Dark Tower series and are uncertain about continuing, absolutely do. I don’t hesitate to say that the last entry in the series is tied for the best and will totally blow your mind. I highly recommend the whole series, but I especially encourage anyone who has started it to finish it. It’s well worth your time.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: Harvard Book Store
Previous Books in Series:
The Gunslinger, review
The Drawing of the Three, review
The Waste Lands, review
Wizard and Glass, review
Wolves of the Calla, review
Song of Susannah, review
Book Review: Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris (Series, #9)
Summary:
Now that the pieces seem to have been picked up from the bombing at Rhodes, Sookie is hoping to just get back to her normal life and adjust to living with her two roommates, the witches Amelia and Octavia. Of course, that can’t last for long. After seeing how well things are going for the vampires being out, the shifters decide to come out as well. Soon there’s what appears to be a hate crime against a shifter Sookie knows, and the FBI comes knocking wondering how Sookie was able to find survivors at Rhodes. On top of everything, a fae war is brewing, and Sookie can no longer hide from the fact that she’s part fae.
Review:
This is without a doubt my favorite Sookie Stackhouse book so far. It’s dark and (I know this sounds odd to say about a paranormal story) realistic. Harris doesn’t let Sookie hide from her problems. She has to truly face reality and deal with it in a way she’s never had to previously in her life. She can’t hide from her telepathy, her exes, her friendships, her coworkers, or her enemies. In a way this book is all about Sookie having to grow up and deal with it.
Readers who started out loving the beginning of the series might not like the dark direction Harris has turned. I for one love dark, disturbing tales, but those who don’t should be aware that there are a few scenes they may find upsetting. I thought these scenes were quite creative, particularly for a series that is being told in the first person.
Of course, this book still faces the writing issues seen in the earlier books in the series. Mainly, some of the writing is painfully simplistic or uses the obvious analogies. Then again, Sookie isn’t exactly super-intelligent, so it fits her voice. Additionally, the sex scenes continue to be a bit cringe inducing. I know other reviewers have pointed out multiple times how the sex scenes are a bit ridiculous. That continues to be true, but they aren’t exactly the focus of the series, so I’m ok with that myself.
Overall, Harris has taken an idea that could have worn out quickly and moved it gradually to a much darker tale that is quite thrilling. The series continues to be complex, and readers who’ve enjoyed the series thus far won’t be disappointed as long as they can handle some disturbing scenes.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: PaperBackSwap
Previous Books in Series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead To The World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Book Review: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Summary:
Humanity survived the second Bugger invasion by pure luck. Now they’re determined to be prepared for a third invasion and actively train children in Battle School, seeking the child who could be the commander to save humanity. They think Ender, with his ability to perceive and understand null gravity spaces, just might be that commander, but Ender isn’t so sure.
Review:
Card has created a rich, complex, entirely believable future where individual sacrifice is vital to the survival of the human species. This goal makes the adults’ treatment of the children in Battle School justifiable and allows Card to create a story where children are simultaneously treated as adults and misled by them. Adults will recognize the feeling of being pawns to those in control of society. Children and young adults will appreciate that the children characters are treated as adults in smaller bodies. It’s a fun narrative set-up.
The world-building is excellent. The complex scenes of the Battle School, Battle Room, and videogames the children play are all so clearly drawn that the reader truly feels as if she is there. Readers who also enjoy videogames will particularly enjoy the multiple videogame sequences in which the narrative action switches focus to the videogame. This isn’t just for fun, either. It’s an important feature that comes to play later in the book. In fact, it’s really nice to see videogaming being featured in a future as something important to society and not just recreational. It’s a logical choice to make in scifi too, as the military is moving increasingly toward using weapons that are manned by soldiers behind the lines with videogame-like controls.
These fantastic scenes are all set against a well-thought-out human society reaction to multiple alien invasions. In spite of the threat of a third invasion, there is still violent nationalism brewing under the surface. Politicians must worry about their image. Dissenting voices can be heard on the internet. The teachers of the Battle School must worry about the retributions for their actions, even as they make the choices that will hopefully save humanity. The people in this future are still people. They act in the sometimes stupid and sometimes brilliant ways people act. They don’t miraculously become super-human in the face of an alien threat. I really enjoyed this narrative choice, as I get really sick of the super-human trope often found in scifi.
The ending….I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to make up my mind on how I feel about the ending. I definitely didn’t guess it ahead of time, which is a nice change, but I can’t decide how I feel about it. The fact is, I liked part of it, and I didn’t like another part of it. I think I may have found the ultimate message a bit too idealistic, and Ender too gullible.
*spoiler warning*
Here’s the thing. The Bugger queen claims that the Buggers didn’t know that humans were sentient creatures, and Ender believes her, but I call bullshit. Humans and Buggers built cities that were similar enough so that humans could live in Bugger buildings. In spite of being drastically different from an evolutionary stand-point, it’s still obvious that humans were sentient enough to build cities and spaceships. That should have been a warning sign. So ultimately, I view the queen larva and message to Ender as a last-ditch effort to come back from the brink of extinction and beat humanity, and Ender fell for it. Of course I don’t want to argue for the extinction of an entire species. I’m a vegetarian. I’m pretty much against the killing of species of any kind, but the fact remains that the Buggers attacked humans twice. What were they supposed to do? Sit back and let themselves get wiped out? I’m not one of these nutters who says don’t kill the polar bear attacking you, and in this case, the polar bear had already attacked twice. I like the message of a possible peaceful coexistence, but I don’t think it was very realistic in that world, and I was left feeling that Ender didn’t really learn anything from his experience.
*end spoilers*
Overall, however, Card has achieved near perfection in telling a unique, scifi story. The world is entrancing and draws the reader in, and the reader is left with multiple philosophical questions to ponder long after finishing reading the book. It is a book I definitely plan on re-reading, and I highly recommend it to scifi and videogaming fans.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Book Review: Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels
Summary:
Dana doesn’t want to sell the family ranch in Montana, but her siblings are insistent and without her mother’s new will, she doesn’t have a leg to stand on. The sale gets held up when a body is discovered in an old well on the ranch. A new marshal is brought in from out of town to investigate, and it’s none other than Hud, Dana’s ex-fiancee. Can they find the killer? Can Dana save the ranch from her greedy siblings? Will renewed love overcome old hurts?
Review:
This is a Harlequin romance novel, and they are not meant to be super-serious or make you ponder life. It’s light reading akin to viewing the hot summer blockbuster movie. So does it do its job?
The murder storyline is just complex enough to be compelling but not so complex that too much thinking is required, so plot-wise, Daniels does a good job. The characters are fairly well-rounded, and Daniels eloquently presents a true-to-life modern Montana and not the romanticized vision of the old west often seen in books. (My brother used to live in Montana, so I’m speaking from experience here). Hud and Dana are sigh-inducing as a couple, but are also still believable. Their love story could happen in real life, so that makes for an enjoyable read.
However, Harlequin romances are definitely supposed to be romance. I was expecting at least one good sex scene. What you get is a scene that, I kid you not, consists almost entirely of he kissed her breasts, there was passion, they went to sleep. I’ve seen better sex scenes in historical fiction that wasn’t even marketed as romance. Is this a Harlequin thing? Are they supposed to be that clean? I definitely remember them being a lot more hot and heavy when I was 15, but well, that was 9 years ago. In any case, this sex scene left much to be desired. Much.
The book also suffers from a lack of good editing. This definitely isn’t Daniels’ fault. Daniels makes mistakes most writers will make periodically in a book this long, but the editor failed to catch them. I’d say there are around five easily noticeable errors in the book. I find it easy enough to roll my eyes and continue on. If that sort of thing bothers you, though, you should be aware.
Overall, Daniels provides an intriguing modern day crime mystery set in rural Montana with a touch of romance and sex that happens off the page. If you like light, fairly clean genre fiction with a dash of intrigue, you will enjoy this book.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Book Review: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
Summary:
A satire on free enterprise, money, and capitalism in America told by examining the fictional Rosewaters–an uber-wealthy American family whose ancestor acquired his wealth by essentially profiteering during the Civil War. The current Rosewater fights in WWII and returns with two crazy ideas. First, that everyone deserves to be equally happy. Second, that people who inherited wealth did nothing to deserve it. He responds to this conundrum of conscience by returning to his ancestor’s hometown and using the Rosewater Foundation to help the “useless poor.” In the meantime, a lawyer by the name of Mushari decides to attempt to prove that Mr. Rosewater is insane, and the foundation money should be handed off to his cousin, currently a suicidal, middle-class insurance man.
Review:
How to review Vonnegut? Upheld as the epitome of 20th century American writing. He is certainly prolific, and some of his books absolutely deserve the high praise (Slaughterhouse-Five
I think part of the problem stems from the fact that the first third of the book is focused on Eliot Rosewater, the next on his cousin, and the last on Eliot again. Just as I was getting into Eliot’s story, it switched to his cousin. Then when I was getting into his cousin’s story, it switched back to Eliot. To top it all off, the ending left me with little to no resolution on either one. Maybe Vonnegut’s point is that capitalism either makes you crazy or depressed with no way out? I’m not sure.
That’s not to say that this wasn’t a fun read, though. Vonnegut crafts the mid-western town Eliot lives in and the Rhodes Island seacoast town his cousin lives in with delicious detail. What is interesting about both are of course the people in the towns surrounding the main characters, and not the main characters themselves. In particular the Rhodes Island town is full of surprisingly well-rounded secondary characters from the cousin’s wife who’s experimenting in a lesbian relationship, to the local fisherman and his sons, to the local restaurant owner who is intensely fabulous (yes, the gay kind of fabulous. There’s quite a bit of LGBTQIA+ in this book). I was so interested in this town. This was a town that actually demonstrated the problems innate in some people having too much money while others don’t have enough. This was so much more interesting than Rosewater’s sojourn in Indiana. But then! Just when I was really getting into it and thinking this book might approach Slaughterhouse-Five
Much more interesting than the heavy-handed money message was the much more subtle one on the impact of war. Mr. Rosewater’s sanity issues go back to WWII. I won’t tell you what happened, because the reveal is quite powerful. Suffice to say, Vonnegut clearly understood the impact WWII had on an entire generation and clearly thought about the impact of war on humanity in general. In this way, this book is quite like Slaughterhouse-Five
Overall, if you’re a Vonnegut enthusiast, enjoy reading for setting and character studies, and don’t mind a message that’s a bit heavy-handed, you will enjoy this book. Folks just looking for a feel of what makes Vonnegut held in such high esteem should stick to Slaughterhouse-Five
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3.5 out of 5
Length: 190 pages – average but on the shorter side
Source: PaperBackSwap
Buy It (Amazon or Bookshop.org)
Reading Challenge: R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril
I love horror. Love love love it. I know a lot of readers don’t. They say it scares them too much or keeps them awake at night. The thing is, I used to be one of those readers! I used to avoid horror because when I was younger horror would absolutely petrify me for weeks on end. I’d think every squeak my old house would make was the boogey-man coming to get me. But then I decided, “Enough of this shit! I’m letting my fears get in the way of an entire genre.” So I dabbled my toes, then I jumped in, and now it’s one of my favorite genres. Horror lets me get lost in a world where it’s ok to be scared and supernatural things occur and I basically get to watch car crashes repeatedly. It’s awesome. The whole genre. I can’t believe how much I’d be missing if I’d continued to avoid it! For instance: Zombies. Tree porn. Everything Stephen King ever wrote. You get my point.
Anyway, so when I saw via Chris at Book-a-rama that Carl of Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting a mystery/suspense/thriller/dark fantasy/gothic/horror/supernatural reading challenge for the spooky fall months of September and October entitled R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril, I knew I wanted to sign up. Not that I won’t be reading horror for these two months anyway, but I thought if I signed up, it’d alert you guys to the challenge. Maybe one of my lovely readers is tentative about one of those genres? Well this is the perfect opportunity to stretch your boundaries! Plus you’ll be in the company of a lovely bunch of people for a couple months to do it.
Of course, that’s my other reason for participating. I want to virtually meet other book lovers who are reading horror!
Originally, in light of the fact that I try to keep my reading unstructured and fun, I was going to sign up for one of the lower levels of the challenge….then I saw how much of my TBR pile fits! Lol, so I’m signing up for the Peril the First level: read four books that fit into any of the genres I mentioned above.
My potential reads for the challenge (direct from my TBR pile) include:
- An Edgar Allan Poe collection whose name is escaping me at the moment
- The Lady in the Lake
by Raymond Chandler
- Thinner
by Stephen King
- The Dark Tower
by Stephen King
- The Vampire Lestat
by Anne Rice
- Hunt Beyond the Frozen Fire
by Gabriel Hunt
- His Father’s Son
by Bentley Little
- Fragment: A Novel
by Warren Fahy
- The Day of the Triffids
by John Wyndham
- The Devil You Know
by Mike Carey
I hope you’ll sign up and do the challenge with me! Especially if you’re afraid of horror. You can sign up for one of the lower levels and just dip your toe in. :-)
Any votes for which four out of my list I should read?
Book Review: 600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster
Summary:
Edward likes facts and order, and his life revolves around them. Every morning when he gets up he records the weather in his town of Billings, Montana, as well as the time of his awakening. Every night at 10pm he watches a taped episode of Dragnet. He buys the same groceries every week on Tuesday and does his best to avoid left-hand turns when driving. Edward does not work. He has a hard time interacting with people. He can’t seem to understand them, and they have a hard time understanding him. But 600 hours of his life are about to happen and change everything, daring him to open back up to the world and give it a chance. Daring him to step outside of his comfort zone to make his life more than he ever dreamed it could be.
Review:
This is an extraordinary look into the mind of someone with Asperger’s syndrome. Asperger’s syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder that causes great difficulties in social interaction, odd language use, and repetitive behavior commonly compared to obsessive-compulsive disorder. In lieu of presenting us with an odd neighbor who we later discover has the illness, Lancaster brings us into the mind of the person with Asperger’s syndrome and shows us how the world looks to him. Edward finds the world to be a rather confusing, disorderly place. He can see when his behavior upsets people, but he doesn’t understand why. His attempts to make sense of the world via rituals are heart-wrenching to read. Yet the narrative also does an excellent job of demonstrating the good intentions of someone with Asperger’s who doesn’t realize his behavior is frightening or abnormal.
Edward’s life may be full of rituals, but it also is full of people–his parents, his therapist, his neighbors, his old high school workshop teacher. The commonality between them all is that they see the good in Edward and are willing to work with him and be patient in order to keep him in their lives. They see him for the good man struggling with an illness that he is. Of course, Edward is not left with a free ride. The people around him expect him to do what he can to function better from taking his Fluoxetine every day to faithfully attending his appointments with Dr. Buckley and pushing his own boundaries. It is a message of the hope that is possible when everyone involved works to overcome a mental illness.
There were two draw-backs to the book, however. One was that the repeated summaries of Dragnet episodes every chapter were quite dull. I think after a couple, the reader would still have gotten the point of ritual by saying “then I watched Dragnet” without actually summarizing the episodes. It was a lot of narrative space taken up to make a point that was already made with the much shorter recording of the weather and waking times every morning. This is minor and easily skimmed over though. My other issue is actually that I think the book ended too soon. I think the point at which it ended was chosen for some sense of supposed literary quality rather than telling the whole story. I would like to have seen at least a bit more of Edward’s transformation. It felt a bit short-lived.
Overall this book helped me understand people with Asperger’s syndrome better than I ever had before. I highly recommend it to fans of contemporary fiction, fans of memoirs as it reads like one, and people seeking to understand Asperger’s syndrome better.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: free copy from the author via the LibraryThing Member Giveaway program
Series Review: The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins (spoiler warning)
Introduction:
Since I’m starting to finish up a bunch of series I’ve been reading for quite some time, I decided it’d be nice to reflect on the series as a whole after finishing. I tend to do this in my head anyway, and it’ll be nice to get it out in writing. Needless to say, there will be spoilers for every entry in the series. This is about analysis and reflection and conversation with others who have read the series. If you’re the type who likes spoilers before reading a series, you’re of course welcome as well.
Summary:
The Hunger Games trilogy is a post-apocalyptic dystopia set in the small nation of Panem, which we assume is what is left of livable land in what used to be the USA. Panem is divided into 12 districts. It is a dictatorship that faced a rebellion previously by the 13th district. Every year each district, except the Capitol, must send one girl and one boy, chosen by lottery, to participate in the Hunger Games–a reality show in which they must fight to the death until only one survivor is left. Katniss lives in District 12 and volunteers to go in place of her younger sister, Prim. She forms an alliance with the boy from her district, Peeta. When they are left the only ones standing, they grab poisonous berries, planning to thwart the Capitol by leaving no survivors. They, of course, are stopped and are paraded around as engaged lovers for a year. The President is angry at them, but they believe themselves to be relatively safe from his wrath as national heroes. The next year, however, it is announced that this year’s Hunger Game will consist of the victors from the previous games. It is believed that this act of violence will help squash the rebellion that is brewing. Some of the victors plot with the rebels, however, and Katniss and some other victors escape with their aid and join in on the revolution, with Katniss the symbol of the rebellion.
Review:
I first stumbled upon this series last summer. I’m not sure how exactly, but given that I love dystopias, and it is one, it’s not too surprising. I loved that for once in YA lit there was a main female character who was interested in something besides the mysterious new boy at school or make-up. She is focused on survival and caring for her family. I also enjoyed how she is presented as powerful, strong, and deadly. It’s a nice change of pace from what generally is out there for teens to read. I thought the teens fighting to death as punishment concept was unique, and was ranting about it one day to someone else who said, “That sounds a lot like Battle Royale.” And that’s when my entire view of the series started to change.
I watched the Battle Royale movie, which is based on the manga series of the same name, and I was flabbergasted to discover the exact same basic concept of a corrupt government forcing teens to battle each other to the death once a year. There was less backstory on the characters, and Battle Royale has the teens actually behaving as sexual beings and is more violent, but the basic driving plot is the same. Battle Royale, the manga and the movie, was released in 2000. The first book of the Hunger Games was released in 2008. I immediately investigated to see if Collins admits an influence or even discusses a similarity between her trilogy and the Japanese series. She does not. She claims her influences were purely from watching reality tv and war coverage, as well as from Greek myths. She never discusses the similarity between her own books and Battle Royale. This is disrespectful at best. Most writers are influenced by other writers, and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as it is acknowledged. Yet Collins refuses to even acknowledge the similarities between her own books and Battle Royale. She doesn’t have to admit to swiping the idea and Americanizing it (although, I personally believe that is what happened). She doesn’t even have to say she was influenced by it (this is what I believe she should do). She should at least talk about how the two are similar and recommend the Battle Royale series to fans of her own series. It’s the only respectful thing to do. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s ignore for the moment the questionable origins of the story and focus on the content.
Katniss spends the entire series struggling against forces that are bigger than herself. She sides with the rebels only to find herself questioning them as well, and in the end, she causes the death of both President Snow (inadvertently) and President Coin (directly by shooting her). Katniss claims she wants things to be different, yet all she sees is power hungry people all around her. She winds up doubting in humanity as a species, wondering at a species that repeatedly sacrifices its children for their own amusement and gain. I agree that humanity is pretty fucked, although for different reasons than Katniss’, so I enjoyed seeing this viewpoint in print. I was therefore a bit saddened to see in the epilogue that Katniss winds up settling down with Peeta and having babies in District 12 (and apparently doing nothing for the rest of her life?). This sounds to me like she didn’t know what to do with her depression or her accurate viewpoint of the world, so she just decided to hunker down and live it out as quietly as possible. You would think that someone who had seen what she had seen would find comfort and solace in working to improve things for others who suffer instead of living in luxury in the victor’s village. Of course, Collins doesn’t have to provide a positive ending, but the thing is, I believe that she thinks she did. Katniss goes through all of this and winds up with the “American Dream”–the white picket fence, husband, and babies. It feels like a serious cop-out to the critics of her much more realistic first two books to me.
I was similarly disappointed to see a love triangle introduced in the second book. Why must every YA author include a love triangle? What is up with that? I was enjoying Katniss falling for Peeta and realizing Gale might just be her childhood best friend/crush, but then she whips around changing her mind constantly between the two of them. Peeta and Katniss have the bond of the arena, an experience Gale cannot possibly share or understand. Katniss continually behaves in a disloyal manner to Peeta in a way that seriously makes me doubt the quality of her character. She acknowledges this in the third book when Peeta, upon returning from being tortured, tells her all the ways in which she has been cruel to him and to others, and they are true. Gale knows it too, as he tells Peeta in the third book that Katniss will choose whoever helps her survive better. In the end that’s pretty much what she does. Gale failed her by designing the bombs that killed her sister. Peeta is the only one who understands her pain, so Peeta is the one she “falls in love with,” yet everything about Katniss is so self-centered that I was left wondering why she should wind up with anybody at all. That said, I did enjoy that Katniss recognized that herself and Gale were too similar to be together. They both had too many violent tendencies to make a healthy couple, so she went with her opposite–the calm, peaceful Peeta. They balance each other, and that aspect of the romance made me smile.
Katniss’ original selfless love of her sister Prim gradually disappears over the course of the trilogy. When the bombers are coming to District 13, she forgets about her sister entirely, and it is Gale who ensures she gets to the lower levels safely. By the end of the series, Katniss has lost all the beauty of her personality found in the first book. She went from a selfless love to a self-centered, revenge-driven person who will sacrifice almost anyone in her quest to kill Snow. Even though she periodically has glimmers of recognition that everyone has been wronged by the Capitol, and indeed, some people more than herself. Finnick who was forced to give his body away to anyone he was told to in the Capitol. Johanna and Annie who were tortured. Peeta who was brainwashed. She has glimmers of sympathy, but overall she has essentially turned into an automaton, a Terminator, if you will. Yet Collins still writes her with a sympathetic tone. Why?
I have no issue with blood, violence, graphicness, or battle scenes used in the context of a story. That’s not what bothers me about the trajectory of the Hunger Games. What bothers me is that Katniss realizes the hopeless situation the human species is in, something I entirely agree with. She then proceeds to let it turn her into the worst humanity has to offer. She then realizes this and instead of working to change things, she just gives up. She gives up and bows her head and succumbs to a submissive life. The Katniss of the first book would do anything to defy the expectations and mores of society, but in the end, she sees that society has not really changed with the change of rule. Indeed, the most active thing she does is also one of the worst. She votes in favor of having another Hunger Game featuring the children of the Capitol. Maybe this is realistic and most people would either join the evil or give up, but I’d hoped for more in a series so beloved by so many teenage girls. Yes, the world sucks. Yes, it’s a constant struggle. Yes, it hurts and you may never succeed, but never stop trying. That was the message of the first two books, and yet it was entirely tromped on by the final entry in the series. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by that, given the ethics of the author.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Source: library, borrowed, and Amazon
Buy It (Amazon or Bookshop.org)
Books in Series:
The Hunger Games, review
Catching Fire
Mockingjay, review
ETA Note: I wrote this post before the series was a hit or popular and long before a movie was on the horizon. Before most of America had read the books. I didn’t read them or write about them to get blog hits or because they are popular. I read them because they happened to be in my public library. I long ago stopped responding to comments on this post, because I don’t want to spend my time discussing a trilogy that I didn’t even like that much. Note that I made this decision long ago, as I haven’t responded to anything since May of 2011. When leaving a comment, please be sure to see my comment policy.
Book Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (series, #3) (spoiler-free)
Summary:
Katniss has been rescued by the rebels and is living in District 13 along with refugees from District 12, Haymitch, Johanna, and Finnick. Peeta and Annie are still in the clutches of the Capitol, and every day Katniss is plagued with thoughts of what torture they must be suffering at the hands of President Snow. The rebellion is sweeping across Panem, and the leader of the rebels, President Coin, wants Katniss to be the symbol of the revolution–the Mockingjay. It is as if the arena has consumed all of Panem, and there is no escape for Katniss.
Review:
This is a better wrap-up to a story than in other trilogies I have seen, but compared to the first two books, it is definitely found a bit wanting. Without the structure of the Hunger Games or the Quarter Quell, Collins struggles a bit at maintaining a consistent storyline and action. She additionally seems to have suffered a bit of a guilt complex over the delicious gore in the first two books, and here spends many pages dwelling on the emotional impact of the violence to the extent that Katniss winds up sounding a lot like Harry Potter in book 5 of that series, and we all know how annoying everyone found him. Granted, Katniss has more reason to be upset than Harry ever did, but one can only take so many emotional breakdowns before it starts to seem as if Katniss is weak, rather than the strong heroine we grew to love in the first two books.
There is a war on, so of course action scenes do exist. They are a bit hit or miss, however. Interestingly, the ones that work the best are the ones that read like battles and are the least similar to the games in the first two books. I believe this is because the battle scenes allow us to see Katniss developing from a victim of traps set by the Capitol to a soldier. The ones that read more like traps feel like a step back from a character development point of view. However, fans will find enough fast-paced action scenes to keep them happy.
The writing continues to be painfully sophomoric, only with the starting and stopping of the action, it is far more noticeable. I know this is being told from Katniss’ point of view, but it could really stand to have at least a few less cliche metaphors and sentence fragments. Challenge the minds of your YA readers at least a little, please, Collins.
Those interested in the series for the love triangle, or who enjoy the love triangle a lot will not be disappointed, no matter whether they are Team Peeta or Team Gale. Although personally I still don’t understand just what is so irresistible about Katniss, beyond that, the emotions are handled in a realistic manner. What impacts the final choice is more than just the emotions of Katniss, and I actually enjoy the final message Collins leaves her teen readers with about relationships in general. Whichever fella you’re in favor of, the moment the final choice is realized is still a tear-jerking one.
Overall, Mockingjay is a satisfying end to the series, but does not live up to the power of the first two books. Fans will by no means regret having started the series, however.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
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This work by Amanda Nevius is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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