I haven’t done a blog tag before, but what better one to start with than the confessions tag? The questions come from bookidote’s confessions post.
1. Which book, most recently, did you not finish?
Like a lot of the other book bloggers that do this tag, I really hate starting a book and then not finishing it. If the ending is absolutely stunning, well, it won’t excuse the slow start, but a good ending can at least turn a bad book decent. So I’m going to do a book that I almost DNF’d, didn’t, and then wished I had:
The Light Between Worlds could have been so good. It wasn’t just copying The Chronicles of Narnia; it was actually trying to contemplate the mental toll it would have on a person for forty years of their magical life to be physically erased, leaving only memories and a yearning for that magical realm again. But the ending was infuriating. I knew where it was going, hoped it wouldn’t go there, and was disappointed. My (spoilery) review is here: Book Review: The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth.
2. Which book is your guilty pleasure?
I guess we’ll go with the Infernal Devices series by Kassandra Clare. I have tried on several occasions to finish her Mortal Instruments series, to no avail, and haven’t even bothered with the others books, but for some reason, Infernal Devices just hits it off for me. I still can’t believe Clare actually wrote a love triangle that I didn’t roll my eyes over.
Unlike Mortal Instruments, I’ve actually read Infernal Devices at least two, three times. And since I’ve gotten the impression that many people aren’t into this series, I think it qualifies as a guilty pleasure.
3. Which book do you love to hate?
So me and Sarah J. Maas have a complicated history when it comes to her books. Of the two that I have read, the other of which you’ll be seeing later in this list, ACoTaR was marginally better-written and more than a little less aggravating. Mostly, what I really disliked about the series didn’t have to do with the overall plot or writing style, but with the way characters were written. It was more humorously bad than it was bad bad. Controversial opinion, but there it is.
4. Which book would you throw into the sea?
Honestly, I wish I could unwrite Twilight. Unfortunately, that’s not possible, so the sea would be just as good. I never fell into the Twilight craze, but I remember it well. And I remember talking myself into reading the series just to say that I could, so when I bashed the series, it was an informed bashing. And I still regret reading it. The whole thing is just cringe.
5. Which book have you read the most?
If you’re new here, know that Kristin Cashore is my favorite author. I’ve read every book in her Graceling Realm series at least a half-dozen times. Fire more than the rest. The writing is stunning, the characters are so well-written, and while it isn’t exactly a fast-paced plot, it’s all about growing into one’s power and refusing to let one’s parents define oneself. Plus the romance really couldn’t get any better.
6. Which book would you hate to receive as a present?
Any books related to the writing craft, I guess. It implies that I don’t know what I’m doing, but I do 🙂 Writing is one of those things that you just have to learn on your own through practice, and no amount of instructional books are going to change that.
7. Which book could you not live without?
I tried to tell you. Cashore just knows how to write books, hence why I did a whole blog post on the announcement that we’re getting more Graceling Realm books! Bitterblue is just a masterpiece of a YA novel, of a young queen trying to do right by her kingdom while she is surrounded by puzzles and lies and the legacy that her father left behind. It’s dark, but it’s light where it matters, and the only reason I haven’t read it as many times as I’ve done for Fire is because I haven’t had the chance–it was published several years after.
8. Which book made you the angriest?
I don’t know why I didn’t DNF this series. The writing was awful, I only liked a few of the characters, and the main character just kept finding more and more magic to pull from. If ACoTaR is fun to poke fun at, the whole Throne of Glass series just sends me into a rage. It may be that, being twice as long as ACoTaR, I wasted way more time in the series, only to have that awful, convenient, happily-ever-after ending that I am just not here for. A good happy ending is fine, if the characters have earned it, but these guys did not, because the only reason we end happy is because someone had god-level magic. No thanks.
9. Which book cover do you hate the most?
This is so tough. Singular book cover? I’m not sure I could do that. I am actually torn between two series. Raven Boys, especially the first book, has a bit of an odd design that I’m just not feeling. I wouldn’t have picked it up on the merits of the cover; I only read it because I know Stiefvater can write a really good story, thanks to Scorpio Races.
But at the same time, Wheel of Time has notoriously bad covers. Character depictions are laughable, like with how short Moiraine’s horse is compared to Lan’s as shown in Eye of the World. And for many of them, while you can kind of guess what scene the cover image is referring to, there’s always something a little off about it, like a character you can’t identify or a Trolloc hidden in a scene where it shouldn’t be. They definitely don’t look like modern covers.
So there it is! My book blogging confessions. If you thought this was fun, have no fear. I plan on doing more book tag posts in the near future to complement the more serious bookish posts. Stay tuned 🙂
Katie Bachelder 