Maybe! It can be a bit emotionally draining at times - and at the Malebolge part I find it a bit slow. But read the first two cantos of Purgatorio and the tone totally changes. For one thing it's a beautiful island, and for another thing Dante and Virgil spend the night dinning with kings and drinking the night away.
I love the Divergent movie so much that I bought the books, expecting them to be better. But I'm finding the first book to be very poorly written, although I can't tell if it's because I know what to expect or if it's because it's just actually written poorly. Of course, the first person present tense isn't helping... I truly hate present tense in novels.
I made a decision to start picking up more books off the Supermarket best seller list, because I generally don't read them, and I picked this one up. I am not a fan of first person anyway, and the present tense is exacerbating the issue. I'll probably force myself to finish it.
I've taken up reading the Kindle preview whether I get the book from the library or buy it. I read the preview of Divergent and thought the plot was just too trite so I didn't get the book.
@Chinspinner I'm definitely going to force my way through it, because I want to know what happens in the next couple books. But it's so difficult to read. She puts descriptions in awkward places. And strings events together in an even stranger way. Her writing is just so simple. It's almost boring, lacking emotion. It reads like the first draft of the WIP that I hate. lol If that's the quality of work getting on the Best Seller's list, then I'm in good shape. @GingerCoffee I thought the idea was pretty interesting.. I put off watching the movie for a really long time, because I saw "YOUNG ADULT NOVEL" written all over it. I expected something more like Twilight, but I actually really really enjoyed the movie once I finally watched it. It wasn't too lovey-dovey. The actress wasn't horrible, either. But it was the emotion that really pulled me in. The movie had a perfect soundtrack, and it really added to the emotional scenes. Who knows? If anything, at least I found a new movie that I love.
Between the concept that we had this genetic destiny but were born into families with unrelated-destinied siblings, and the shallowness of the character concept with some people being more complete personalities, I had issues with the plot. I'll watch it when it gets out on TV if I haven't rented the video by then.
Likewise. Now I am obviously not the young adult market, but: - I was intrigued by all the Twiglet fuss so put the film on (when it was on TV, I didn't make an effort). I managed about 20 minutes. There was some horrible scene involving a randomly crashing car and some shriek-of-piss moody fuckwit and some dull as shit girl and I couldn't manage any more. Excuse my language, but it was just horrific. I would rather watch Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, which is basically the same film. I then also watched The Hunger Games and that at least was competent film making. Still a bit of a waste of my time. I would rather watch Battle Royale, which is basically the same film. On the plane I watched The Maze Runner and I actually rated this more than the other two, I thought it was a reasonable film, although the ending is shocking (as in shockingly bad). I actually preferred the ending of Cube, which left everything unresolved, and is basically the same film. But like I say, I am hardly the target market.
What honestly concerns me is that more and more adults are reading YA books only. Now I'm not saying all YA books are bad, but I like being an adult, and I like reading books that assume I'm old enough to vote.
Are they abandoning grown-up lit in favour of YA, or would they be reading nothing as an alternative? Honestly, anyone picking up a book versus plonking down in front of the TV for an evening is a victory, regardless of the content. There's still no shortage of the stories you prefer; in fact, you probably couldn't read them all in your lifetime. Win, win?
I'd add that there is probably very little difference in terms of quality or accessibility or literary value between the adult and the YA best seller lists.
The problem is that no one wants to be an adult anymore. We've traded in our souls for the narcissistic illusion of eternal youth.
It has nothing to do with me personally, and more to do with why people seem to be attracted to them. YA fiction, everyone is young and handsome, and beats the world. And that's great as escapism, but people get old - where are their heroes?
I hated it when I finished Dante's Inferno, because I thought I needed to understand it better, so I'm re-reading it. I'm particularly impressed with how horrible it starts, and even more impressed by how he uses language to make it even more horrible as the book goes on; like "how can it get worse than this!".
Really, you don't understand Virgil being there until the end of Purgatorio. And aside from the ironic punishments and the presence of Beatrice - and the whole thing is on the surface an alegory for a state of sin, that's all you really need.
Another book: a beautiful girl handed me The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I missed that, however I don't know if that beautiful girl influenced my appreciation =P
The YA genre is incredibly popular now. It's strange for me, at 26 years old, to see my stepmother obsessing over books that even I feel too old to read. I must admit... I didn't read until I started in college. And the only reason I really started reading was because I had just moved out on my own and couldn't afford cable. I had video games, but I played through them quickly. So books became my alternative. The first books I read were YA: Wings, Percy Jackson & The Olympians, House of Night series. I loved them! I became obsessed with the magic and the romance. I could really get into the emotion of the book and feel what the character was feeling. But I did grow up and start to grow tired of the same ol', same ol'. So I looked into more adult books, like Koontz and King. And I again must admit, at the risk of sounding immature, that I haven't explored the adult genre much. That section of the bookstore is so large, and it's quite intimidating for me to just browse and hope to find something worth my time. I've since gotten a list of good books, which I'll hunt down shortly. It's getting harder for me to read YA now, though. I've gone back and reread some of my old books. And it almost physically hurts me to try to get through them. How could I have ever read them before? They're so teen, it's annoying. And one of them was my favorite! It's what made me want to be a writer! And now I can't stand it.. lol I like the Hunger Games, because I don't feel that the author wrote Katniss as a super love-sick teenager. Actually, the first time I read it, I didn't get the impression that she was interested in either of the boys at all. I thought she only ended up with him out of obligation almost. And of course I still love Percy Jackson. Because, yes, he is a teenager.. But he's a funny teenager. And I like Greek and Roman mythology. And I'll read the next series when it comes out in October. Because I love Norse mythology too.
Everything we learn will mean nothing. Does right now? What a waste. Or is it? Depends on how you perceive the concept of "now", I guess.
Trilogies are ok, in my opinion. I can even get along with the occasional longer series as long as the author seemed to have it mapped out. Take, for example, Harry Potter. I don't know if JK Rowling had the whole thing figured out from the get-go, but she did have a story arc that involved Harry & Co. aging, maturing, and facing greater challenges. She could just as easily turned it into a magical version of "The Simpsons" and turned out a new book, with a logo banner across the top, until it was time to retire and farm it out to younger authors. HP isn't really to my taste, but I do respect her as an author for taking the high road.
If I am honest, the likes of King and anything else in the adult best-seller list is very similar in terms of quality or literary worth to the YA best seller list. In fact I used to read King as a quite young child and stopped reading him in my mid teens. I wasn't ahead of the curve in terms of ability, it is just that his books are written as page turners. They are quite simplistic to assist their flow. This they have in common with YA novels.
I was genuinely sad when I'd finished Chrysis by Fergus, partially because I found the end to be quite moving, partially because I found it difficult to accept that I'd got to the end! Despite my desire for the story to go on, it's not the type of book which I could read twice.
