#75 of 2012: When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Goodwin
MAY I JUST START WITH HOW LOVELY I FIND THIS COVER TO BE? And to be honest, that was mainly why I picked it up from the shelf and brought it with me home. Of course, I am equally thankful that it has an okay story in it, so I suppose I am in a win-win situation. That and I really didn’t expect this to WOW me exactly, because I have issues about too well-awarded novels. So when it turned out that Sarah Winman actually had something more than decent to share, then by all means, if she said God was once a rabbit, then YES, God could have been a rabbit, period, no arguments whatsoever. So now you might be thinking why I’m raving about how “more than decent” this novel is and YET I gave it only a two-star rating, then here goes:
Boo!s
-I just don’t like it when something is disguised in another form than what it is supposed to be. Instead of a novel that has a plot, this read too much like of a memoir with climaxes and dilemmas randomly popping in every other chapter.
-Ellie, the main protagonist, wasn’t someone you’d want to be friends with. She was a bit creepy - even as a four-year-old (WHAT FOUR-YEAR-OLD TALKS AND THINKS LIKE THAT, SARAH WINMAN?? Clearly, your characters have had issues even before Page 1 began), let alone when she grew up.
-Though I liked how Winman portrayed a non-perfect family in a conservative time like the 1960s, like how Ellie’s mom seemed to be bisexual and her (Ellie’s) brother was gay, I wasn’t on board with the way she made them keep falling apart with each other when the obvious thing she could have done was to put them back together. It was as if she wanted her characters to keep on hurting and stay confused. Yeah, I get that that IS life, but hey, pain is not all there is in life.
#74 of 2012: Rape Girl by Alina Klein
I was blown away by the bluntness of this title and thought to give it a chance because why the heck not!… after all, Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, an acclaimed YA novel that tackles rape as well, is one of my all-time favorite reads. I wasn’t wrong about that - I mean, that part where this book obvs uses rape as the main issue. Where I was wrong was about thinking it could climb up to the pedestal where I put Speak. HOLD ON, THOUGH! It is not because it was badly-written. I just didn’t think Alina Klein picked the best way to tell the story of a girl’s rape aftermath. (Plus, did Klein just outline this story from Speak and jumbled the parts to make it ~fresher and more ~hers??? *appalled face*)But here are golden moments:
Yay!s
-Rape is a sensitive issue and not all writers rave about writing about it, such as its aftermaths, so I commend Klein for choosing and writing about it.
-Sometimes I honestly can’t tell whether a certain novel is being thoroughly fictitious or not, because at the rate this world is going, every little thing in fiction might just as well be rooted from reality. That was my thought while reading Rape Girl. Does all this happen in real life? All this pain, shame and regret?? And then I answer myself, YES, and I guess that’s when I decided that this book reaches out ~realistically and those who have undergone the same situation could very well relate.
-I like how Valerie’s mom is involved in her life, especially in the rape matter. Parental units are usually the last to know in cases like this.
Boo!s
-I couldn’t connect with Valerie, even before she got raped or after she did. She appealed to me as someone who tries so hard to be cool at first, and then she became shriveled up and no-personality by the latter part.
-As I said, I don’t think using the flashback-per-chapter technique was the best way to go in telling a story like this. (Or maybe I’m just biased with how Speak was written. Can’t argue with myself because that thing was genius.)
#73 of 2012: Bossypants by Tina Fey
Tina Fey is serious about her comedy. I don’t think there was a page in this book that I didn’t laugh in! True, I don’t want her often on TV but I feel like she writes exactly how she thinks and talks and imo, that’s one of the best ones to read. (And that is not being sarcastic. My reading pace with this book has nothing to do with her writing. I, or rather, my time, was the problem.) And even though this was a memoir, Fey was able to expand her personal experiences into matters that are relatable to the people of the rest of the world, which was fantastic because I felt like it was MY book. (Not that I can ever be as funny.)
Yay!
-Did I mention this book was funny? Oh, I just thought it deserved one more mention.
-As Beyonce’s song goes - WHO RUN THE WORLD?? GIRLS!! - this book contains the kind of feminism women would actually enjoy reading about and relating to.
Boo!
-It was a memoir, but I didn’t think Fey shed so much of her personal life. Not that I wanted to know about her bowel movements and how her daughter breastfeeds, but you know I thought there could have been more stuff she could have talked about (or made more fun of) like working in SNL and 30 Rock, etc.