Three Books I Read Recently About Which I Have Things to Say

[rsadelle]

norwich36 was kind enough to loan me Patricia Briggs' Bone Crossed, so I didn't have to wait for it to come out in paperback to read it. The end of the previous book, Iron Kissed didn't work for me. I didn't need the sex scene, but somehow I didn't get the emotional closure I wanted. Bone Crossed picks up in the middle of the last scene of Iron Kissed and retells it with a little more exposition so it'll be clear for people who either haven't read the previous book or don't remember what happened. But when it continues, Mercy and Adam don't have sex; Adam stops her because she was so recently raped. In some ways I think I should like this plot: she's acknowledging that this has consequences and having Adam and Mercy deal with them. In other ways, I don't actually like it: it seems like she's taking back the ending of Iron Kissed. I kept wondering if this was her plan all along or if someone took her to task for the ending and so she rewrote that scene for the new book. I think part of what makes me think it was a reaction to criticism and not an actual thought-out plot is that Mercy balks at being with Adam because she was raped by someone who controlled her mind (with the goblet; Adam has the alpha thing going) and yet she doesn't get overly freaked out by Blackwood controlling her mind and gives herself over to Stefan with very few compunctions.

The thing I really liked about Bone Crossed was that I finally got the emotional conclusion I wanted but didn't get from the previous book. When Mercy has her revelation in the SUV and asks Adam if he loves her, I finally got what I wanted. I also liked that it tied up all the storylines from the previous books, which makes me surprised to hear that she's planning on writing another Mercy book.

After I finished Bone Crossed, I decided to continue on with werewolf books and read Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand. You may remember that I've talked about this series before (spoilers for earlier books at both those links). I think this is the last Kitty book for me. First of all, I think it suffered in comparison to Bone Crossed, which is my fault for reading them one after the other. There are also overly detailed descriptions of the Vegas settings that had me skimming large paragraphs. But the biggest problem with it is that I just can't get past how betrayed I feel as a reader that Cormac's in jail and Kitty's marrying Ben. That's not how this plot is supposed to go, and genre novels defying my expectations irritates me. I'm not reading it for a twist; I'm reading it for a good story.

Then, completely unrelated to either of the two previous books, I read Perry Moore's Hero. Maybe someday I'll manage to get my thoughts together about how knowing about a book/TV show/movie changes what I expect out of it, but for now let me boil it down to: I think Hero is overrated. (Which I say without having read any particular reviews, just the impression I've gotten that a lot of people liked it.) There is one absolutely perfect moment in the book: when Goran is about to out himself (either as gay or as Dark Hero) to Thom. That scene was so amazing it made my heart turn over. I actually really liked the Thom/Goran plotline: as a non-idiot reader, I knew Goran was Dark Hero and I knew Thom wasn't going to figure out that or the fact that Goran was into him for a long time. I also liked Thom's rules about looking at porn.

On the gay protagonist side of the story, there were two things I didn't like at all. First of all, Thom not having any friends. That didn't ring true to me, and it felt more like Perry Moore imposing his teen years on Thom than him actually reflecting current experience. (The note on the about the author bit on the back flap that says Thom's father is based on Moore's father only confirmed this impression.) Maybe I'm out of touch and that is what it's like for gay teens even now. I would have liked it better if it were clearer that Thom had isolated himself, which I thought was maybe what we were supposed to think. Secondly, embarrassing teenage fantasies are embarrassing, and I don't need to revisit them whether they're gay or straight. Thom's fantasies about Ultraman completely reminded me of similarly cringe-worthy fantasies in a specific book I can't put a name to. In it, the teenage girl (like all of her teenage girl classmates) has romantic feelings for the hot young (English? History?) teacher. She somehow contrives to stay after school in his classroom and ends up listening to him have an argument on the phone with his wife about something like picking up diapers for the baby, and is subsequently disillusioned. I have no idea what book that was, but the embarrassment cringe has stuck with me.

On the superhero side of the story, I can also think of two things that bothered me. First of all, how did Moore not get sued by DC? He completely stole Superman's origin story for Justice. Secondly, Ruth's death had meaning for me (and not just because she has my name), but I didn't care that much about Larry's death or about Thom's dad's. Those should be emotional punches to the gut, and they weren't.

Comments

[j-crew-guy.livejournal.com]

I was kinda underwhelmed by Hero. Mostly because of what you mentioned in your thoughts about the book. I think it will be interesting to see what changes are made to it when it eventually becomes a TV series.

[rsadelle]

I don't know about it being a series of any kind - TV or book (I read something that called it the first in a series of books). It's kind of just, you know, done. Unless it's teenage gay superheroes in love fighting crime, I guess, which could be awesome, but I would be wary of them turning it into boring and melodramatic teenage gay soap opera. Also, what about Goran's brother? I mean, is it now going to be Thom and Goran being all domestic raising the kid? Because that kind of moves out of YA territory.

[j-crew-guy.livejournal.com]

According to Wikipedia, it will indeed be a series of books (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_(novel)) and a TV series (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117995749.html?categoryid=14&cs=1).

I'm guessing the book series will focus on teenage gay superheroes fighting crime, since that was one of the things Perry Moore wanted to do with Hero (raise the profile of LGBTQ superheroes). And I have no idea what is going to happen with the TV series, since the last anyone heard about it was November 2008.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Perry Moore being motivated to write Hero after (openly gay) hero Northstar was killed by Wolverine in an AU. Why did it take the death of a gay hero to get him motivated? Why couldn't he just want to raise the profile of LGBTQ heroes without needing the death of a character? (Northstar's isn't really canonical. I swear the Age of Apocalypse AU is one of the most confusing things ever.)

[rsadelle]

Hmm. They just took out the biggest baddie. Isn't anything after that going to be a letdown? If they're superheroes who are also gay, not big gay superheroes, I can get behind the premise, especially if he turns out to be one of those writers who really learns to write as he goes along.

Maybe that was the one thing that prompted him to really think about it? I don't know. I have to admit that the thing I find the strangest about Perry Moore is how his bio always says he's best known for producing the first Narnia movie. Are producers really that well known?

[j-crew-guy.livejournal.com]

If they're superheroes who are also gay, not big gay superheroes, I can get behind the premise, especially if he turns out to be one of those writers who really learns to write as he goes along.

That would definitely be worth reading.

I have to admit that the thing I find the strangest about Perry Moore is how his bio always says he's best known for producing the first Narnia movie. Are producers really that well known?

Aside from Jerry Bruckheimer, I'm hard-pressed to think of any other genuinely well-known producers. I guess including a mention of producing the first Narnia movie is helpful in Hollywood, but means little or next to nothing to anyone else.

[rsadelle]

Yeah, Bruckheimer was the only one I could name too. Oh, and McG, but I would have to IMDb him to see if he's done movies before T4 or only TV (IMDb says: one movie [Stay Alive] and he's directing T4, not producing), plus he's easy to remember because he has a strange name. Oh, but he does fail my test of producer only (see also: Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg) - he directed before he was a producer.

[j-crew-guy.livejournal.com]

Perry Moore will be speaking at Lek's school this weekend and we're planning on seeing him. The write-up for his appearance mentions he's a producer in Hollywood, but omits The Chronicles of Narnia as his best-known credit. Heh.

It also mentions that he's working on a sequel to Hero and that the Showtime series based on Hero "is being developed for release later this year".

[rsadelle]

Ohhhh. If it's on Showtime, it probably has a better chance of being done right than if it were on, say, ABC. (Or even NBC. Are you watching Kings? I'm having an issue with their self-hating gay boy.)

You'll have to tell us about hearing him speak!