I think I've rediscovered my love for reading!
I used to be quite the voracious reader. I've always had a passion for it, but after 7th grade, I just wasn't able to keep up with my 6 books a week routine anymore. I haven't been able to get back into reader for years because of distractions and homework and my ADHD, but recently, I pulled an allnighter and read two books cover to cover, which reignited my love for reading.
This week, I'm reviewing the last two books I've read: Birthmarked by Caragh M. Obrien, and Graceling by Kristen Cashore
To ut it simply, Birthmarked is average. It has the typical class divide represented by a physical wall, with the unique twist of citizens from outside of the wall had to sometimes give up their babies to the citizens within. This is because the citizens within are increasingly infertile. I enjoyed reading it, but it's not very memorable. The only reason I didn't stop halfway through was because of Captain Grey, who is an obvious pander to the teenage heart. And I fell for it, so mission successful, I guess.
I couldn't really connect with the main character. There just wasn't enough to connect to. She was a 1.5 dimensional character. However, I did like how she interacted with the plot that was being built around her.
Moving on, Graceling is stunning despite its boring worldbuilding. Just take a look at this map.
Boring, absolutely boring. Wester is the country in the west. Nander is the country in the north. Estill is the country in the east. Sunder is the country in the south. Middluns is the country in the middle. There's no fun to be had while diving into this map and this world. If you've read a few fantasy books, you can fill in the blanks of this standard edition world. Your basic sexism, specific races being assigned to specific countries, and boring background conflicts between classes.
The characters are also kind of bland. Stereotypical female warrior trope as the main character, surrounded by a cast of equally stereotypical cookie-cutter secondary characters. The only extraordinary character is the male lead and love interest, who breaks fantasy prince tropes by being vulnerable. Wow. Incredible.
I can't complain about the dialogue though. It's spectacular. I put down this book having learned that dialogue doesn't always need elaborate dialogue tags to feel the emotional weight of a scene, characters can speak for themselves. That being said, the prose was kind of stilted. At times, it felt like the narrative in a modern realistic fiction. The author seemed to realize this and casually throws in "for" instead of because and "perhaps" instead of maybe to sound older, I guess? It doesn't really work.
I picked up books again to learn about writing through reading, and I can definitely say I've learned some things this week.