2014 Reading: Fifty Shades Trilogy

These count as books 53-55! Alright, my friends are going to drag me to see the movie in February so I knew that I had to read the books before then and I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

For the first book, I filled almost an entire composition notebook with the mistakes and my thoughts on the story chapter by chapter. All that did was make me have to stop and think of everything that was happening more than I EVER wanted to and that made me very, very angry.

I don't know what I'm going to do with the composition notebook full of notes, but it's there and maybe I'll type it all out one day and publish it or something.

As it is, I never want to think about those books again and would very much like to just move on the the next thing.

2014 Reading: Prince Lestat

This is my 52nd book of the year. 52 was my goal and I am happy to say that I am going to surpass that, at least by a little bit.

It has been YEARS since I read an Anne Rice book. I moved on to bigger and better things (plus there was that whole thing where she turned crazy religious all of a sudden and I didn't want anything to do with that nonsense). But then, over ten years after I had given up on The Vampire Chronicles (as well as Anne Rice and her rediscovery of God and whatever), here comes Prince Lestat, out of nowhere, mucking up my plans.

I can honestly not remember all the things that took place in the dozen or so books that came before this one. There are names I don't recognize, hints at stories that don't remember happening, etc. it was like having to relearn everything all over again and then immediately learning that all of that was wrong anyway!

There's a name and a consciousness to the entity that created vampires in the first place, Akasha and Enkil had a son, there's a voice coming out of nowhere, ancients that we've never even heard of that know everyone and everything, Lestat has a human son and also has been the "uncle" to a human girl for 20-some years, there's ghosts and shit now... I was so confused.

But once I put my confusion aside and just read for the pleasure of it, I really started to enjoy myself and I really liked the book. It actually had a happy ending for once. Lestat will forever be the charismatic Brat Prince and now everyone is together and happy, blah blah blah.

Even sour Louis is happy by the end, and THAT is saying something.

I heard there was going to be at least another book after this (perhaps more) so I'm actually looking forward to reading that when it pops up.

What I'm NOT looking forward to, however, is what I have next on the agenda.

Pray for me, boys and girls. I'm going to try and tackle 50 Shades of Grey without killing myself.

2014 Reading: Stolen

I. Love. This. Book.

I know that I have this weird thing where I like books about serial killers and kidnappers and horrible things done to people who don't deserve them... but... Don't judge me.

There is always this underlying sexiness that comes with kidnapping (I know not really, because in reality is the scariest fucking thing that can happen to someone and traumatic and everything), kind of like when we think of death as being romantic, or vampires being sexy and mysterious. Kidnapping and the idea of Stockholm syndrome works in much the same way. A kind of, well not "brainwashing" per se, but a complete psychological redirection of thinking where someone can begin to care for and even love the person that has taken them from what they know and completely taken over their lives.

And if for one moment you think: "OMG, she's cray-cray. Who could ever think that kidnapping is romantic?!" then all you need to do is look into your childhood VHS collection, pull out 'Beauty and the Beast'... and shove it up your ass. Because reasons.

I normally don't like books written in the first person (I have no idea why), I really enjoyed this book because it was kind of half accusatory statement and half love letter. It was beautifully written.

Honestly, this book could have gone either way (you'll get that more if you read it) and I think I would have been fine with both outcomes. THAT'S how beautiful it was.

2014 Reading: Son

Weeeee!!!! Finally found out what happened to the baby Jonas saved in the first book!!! But before I get into that further, yay Jonas and Kira getting together and having babies and shit.

Okay, so I'm really kind of glad that, in explaining what happened to the baby that Jonas escaped with in The Giver, they first explain where the baby came from. I loved going back into that world of the "perfect" society and seeing it from another perspective.

I personally feel that it was a bit of a cop out to make the figure of the Trademaster to be a pure evil entity (even going to so far as to allude that it was, in fact, Lucifer) rather than a being with abilities like Jonas, Kira, Matty, etc... It sort of put an unnecessary religious aspect to the storyline, as well as Faustian.

All in all, I'm really glad that I read these books, but I think The Giver will always be my favorite. The open ending (for me, at the time anyway) appeals to me in a way that closure can sometimes dull.

Still. Yay! On to the next.