Hexed

This next book, Hexed, by Kevin Hearne, is due back at the library in a few days, so I figured I would go ahead and talk about it.

This is actually the second book in the Iron Druid Chronicles (the first is Hounded, the third is Hammered).  I have read the first (although it took a while in the bookstore to figure out which one it was supposed to be), so what the hey, I'll talk about that one too:

...even in pictures it's kinda obvious which one belongs to the public library.

Overall, both books were pretty good.  The quote on the cover(s) reads, "A page-turning and often laugh-out-loud funny caper through a mix of the modern and the mythic" (Ari Marmel, author of The Warlord's Legacy).  I wouldn't quite agree that it was page-turning--I found myself putting them down to do something else, and not in an omg-forgot-to-feed-the-dog! kinda way--but they were certainly engaging enough that it was only a day or two between picking them up again, not weeks.  And I hardly ever genuinely laugh out loud at something I read, but they certainly have their moments.  

I like the fact that the main character, Atticus, is a druid who predates Christianity, and I like the fact that he's on friendly terms with the incarnation of Mary that we meet in Hexed, who in turn seems to genuinely like him, and in fact assists him in his endeavors.  There's also an implication that he's gotten together with Jesus to chat and share a beer, on more than one occasion.  A lot of times (it seems to me, anyway), Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular seem to really get the short end of the stick, even in urban fantasy novels where Catholic rituals/beliefs are what works best against vampires or demons or what-have-you.  

What I did not particularly like was how blase he was about the deaths of a few humans in the first book, Hounded.  He essentially tried once to convince the Morrigan that she shouldn't kill a couple of frat boys, and when she said, "tough luck," he basically shrugged and thought, "oh, well."  

UGHNNNNNN.

I understand that Hearne's setting up the Morrigan as a badass who even the big bad Druid doesn't want to mess with, even a little, but COME ON.  Druids are supposed to be clever little buggers, right?  And the Morrigan is supposed to be at least somewhat fond of him, what with her always telling him of any death omens she sees pertaining to him.  Couldn't he have said something like, "Their deaths could cause trouble for me here"?  She knows next to nothing about the modern world, and apparently they were last seen alive in his shop so IMHO it is entirely possible that she could've brought trouble down on his head with her actions.

But no.  Atticus just says, "They won't provide much sport," and that was IT.  Next order of business, please!

Honestly, that one little scene--barely more than a paragraph--stuck with me throughout the rest of the book, and I wasn't even planning on picking up its sequel, mostly because of that scene.  Luckily, nothing in the second book rubbed me the wrong way in the same way, and I may even pick up the third one now.

And there you are.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

So the first book that I recently read was Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, by Lish McBride.  I only partly picked it up because I was interested in it; I mostly picked it up because one of our librarians--who works a lot with the teen volunteers--sent us lists of the 2011 Best YA Fiction and 2011 Graphic Novels for Teens and asked us to read one novel from either list.  Necromancer was pretty much the only novel that both sounded interesting and was currently in our collection (I also read Girl, Stolen, by April Henry a few days ago).

It's the author's debut novel, and you can kinda tell that from the writing.  However (and I'm not sure you can read it in the picture) it was nominated for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, and you can also tell why.  Once I got into it, it was a really gripping, enjoyable read.  The reason why I wasn't immediately engrossed--it took about 80~100 pages in--was because I have a pet peeve: I get so annoyed when an author switches back and forth between first and third POV*, and as far as I can tell, primarily amateur authors are the ones who do it.  And yes, the chapters alternate first and third person.

But there really isn't anything to complain about other than that.  I felt like McBride was trying to emulate Jim Butcher's style: the main character was a bit predictably snarky, things got worse and worse for our protagonist as the book progressed, and the sentence structure in general was similar, I thought, to Butcher.  And I'll be honest, I skimmed the scenes where he was learning necromancy; it was mostly stuff about closing protective circles with willpower, using blood to make certain spells stronger, etc.--the same stuff you'll read about in any urban fantasy novel, and I've read a fair number of them by now, so that was all old hat to me.

*I also can't stand second POV or present tense, which means books like Aura, by Carlos Fuentes, are really on my shit list.

What Draws Me Into Stories

Normally I don't do horror: movie, book, TV, whatever, I'm not interested; I am a scaredy-cat, through and through.  It's why I resisted so much, about four years ago now, when my friend tried to convince me to start watching this horror show called Supernatural.  And I don't care what anyone says, it scared the bejeezus outta me at first (and still does, occasionally), especially the third and fifth episodes of the first season, "Dead in the Water" and "Bloody Mary."  Ugh!

But then I caught an episode of the third season, "Bad Day at Black Rock," and I was hooked.  Not only did that episode exemplify how flat-out hilarious the show can get, it also gave me a glimpse into the pure gold that is Sam and Dean, the two brothers and main characters on the show.  And after reading many reviews of the show as the years have gone on--most happy, but several disgruntled--and looking at other shows, movies, and books that I love, I have finally come to realize why I love the ones that I do: it's all about the characters.  It seems that I can, will, and do put up with all manners of silly writing, gaping plot holes, and a disappointing turn of storyline as long as there is at least one character whom I still love and am invested in.

In fact, I suspect that once I am hooked by a character I become a fangirl for life.  For just over a decade now I have been reading R.A. Salvatore's Legend of Drizzt series, and I remain as excited about each new book as I was in the sixth grade, despite massive character, setting, and even time period changes, because I still love Drizzt Do'Urden, Artemis Entreri, Jarlaxle, and others.  I know that Supernatural has lost several viewers over the past few seasons, and I know viewers who are apprehensive about the upcoming seventh season, but I am still anticipatory, as long as Sam, Dean, and Bobby aren't irrevocably destroyed.  I am a recent fan of Leverage, because I love the entire main cast; I enjoy Alphas for just three of the characters, though: Gary, Hicks, and Rachel.  And I promise that I will continue to watch the show as long as those three remain, even as I get annoyed with the others.

And the more I think about it, the more I think that this is the reason why I so love romances, and yet so many people mock/denigrate/look down on them.  Romances, especially novels (and even more especially category romances, like Harlequin!) have a tendency to not exactly "strip away," but rather extremely pare down the plot--which we have been trained to accept as nearly the sole marker of "good" writing--to focus almost exclusively on the characters; and further, to focus almost exclusively on the interactions of two characters, which I find absolutely fascinating.  Since it is because of the characters that I truly enjoy anything, it really only then makes sense that I'm an avid romance reader, doesn't it?