I’m in a bad book mood again, and (again) I can’t decide if it’s me or the books. On Saturday, I finished A Taste of Marrow, a novella, the sequel to the hippo cowboy novella I read and loved a few months ago. Still happy with those books. So then I started Mariana, a recommendation from Chastity. It’s sort of a cross between Anya Seton and Rosamunde Pilcher, and I enjoyed it enough (I wasn’t sure I liked it, but then I kept asking John to delay dinner so I could read more of it, so I suppose I did like it. The very end cheated, though.) I finished Mariana Sunday night, so it was time to pick my next book. And that’s when the problem started.
Book 1: John Dies At The End. This is a book I should like. Normal (okay, “normal”) guys fighting monsters, saving people, lots of action, lots of humor…no. It felt like it was trying too hard, the humor felt slapsticky, and I didn’t want to put forth the effort to stay interested. They made it into a movie, and I can see how it would be a fun movie, so maybe I’ll watch it first (keep your shock to yourself) and then decide if I want to go back and read it. Maybe it’s me.
Book 2: The Palace Job. I don’t feel so bad about putting this one down. It’s a heist novel, and I like those, but no. The writing sucks. Definitely not me.
Book 3: A Handful of Stars. After giving up on two books in the space of one hour, I figured I’d pick something safe. This is the sequel to Second Star, a book I liked, so this should be a no-brainer, right? And yet…no. I haven’t put it down yet, but it’s not working for me. Maybe it’s because it’s been so long since I read the first one (I read it nearly two years ago), but I feel like I’m being asked too much as a reader. It’s either that, or there really are gaps here. So we’re in space, which of course is fine, since the first book was about the population of a space station declaring their independence, and this book starts with a mission to an asteroid belt to start a mining operation, and oh wait – our main character went on this expedition eight months pregnant? With twins? And just as she’s about to give birth (early), her mother shows up out of nowhere, no warning, with main character’s 10-year-old child that her mother created from a donor egg and didn’t tell her about, and she just goes with it? No fights? No discussions? And the 10-year-old is cool with meeting his mother like that? And her husband is totally cool with it all because he’s perfect, naturally. And she goes running around a lawless mining asteroid with her infant twins strapped to her a month after the birth. Of course. And I have to assume she (main character) isn’t upset about any of this because the story is told from her point of view and I’m in her head and she’s not thinking about it aside from some initial confusion…well, this is ridiculous.
Yeah, I think I just talked myself out of this one, too. And maybe it’s NOT me. I am going to fix this by reading short stories by Robin McKinley. If I don’t like those, it’s definitely me, but I’m not worried. Really. I’m not. It’ll be fine.