Fairy Tale Book Tag: True Love, Princesses, and Midnight Magic

Fairy Tale Book Tag: True Love, Princesses, and Midnight Magic.

I absolutely ADORE fairy tales. Here’s my list in response to the questions. You should go check them out! This is the first tag I’ve filled out.

 

1. Is there a book you lie about because you feel ashamed for liking it?

Hmm, this one’s hard for me. Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, hush series. I love it SO MUCH, but it feels awkward because, well, I’m 21 now and 21 year olds can’t read YA fiction, right? Right?!

2.  Which book do you love that has a hideous cover?

John Irving’s The World According to Garp. Mostly because there’s a toad on the front, and I can’t stand toads. I originally thought it was a Wind in the Willows-esque novel whose main character was a toad. Boy was I wrong.

3. What was the last book you bought based on cover alone?

Ok this one’s easy. Kevin J Anderson’s The Edge of the World, which I’ve already written a post about. Easily one of my favourite books, and much better than the last time I bought something for its cover. Thanks for that, overly-gruesome murder mystery.

4. Who is your favourite book couple? 

Another hard one. It’s been a while since I’ve read anything with a couple as its focus (so I can’t be too talkative here), but I’m gonna go with Julian Carax and his lover from Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind. Their relationship is so supportive and flexible, and although it crumbles a little near the end its still one of the most sincere and heartfelt ones I’ve seen yet.

 

 

 

5. If you like to branch out into new genres, what was the latest book you’ve tried?

Easy. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which I’m reading right now. Classic literature of this era (18th-19th centuries), especially romance-related ones, have never really been my cup of tea. I find that they’re often stuffy and moralistic, and lack a cohesive plot. Nevertheless, I’m driving on with it and hoping it gets a little more bearable.

6. What was the last book that made you stay up all night? 

I tend to keep very late hours (perpetual night-owl), so staying up all night isn’t a huge deal for me. I would have to say the last one that really engaged me that much was either RS. Ingermanson’s Transgression, or Neal Stephenson’s REAMDE. Beyond that? Pirates of Time of course, my beloved WIP. If it’s gripping enough to keep me awake it has to be good, as far as I’m concerned. Or just hugely annoying to write, because of research.

 

7. What’s the worst book you’ve read recently?

Well. This is difficult. Recently, the worst I’ve read is E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey. I know I’ve already written a post about it, and talked about the psychological elements in it, but really? There’s no excuse for poor writing. There just isn’t. It makes it worse when it isn’t marketed and/or discussed properly in the media. It’s primarily a book about a very emotionally unstable man and a naive woman who tries to be some kind of hero, and it’s also about blatant abuse. BDSM is a whole different kettle of fish to 50 Shades, and for those of you who think otherwise I’m so, so sorry. But it’s just not right. A close second on that list is James Flint’s Habitus. Total lack of continuity, and the concept is nuts. Characters are 2D, seriously just go read my blog post on it, or if you like just read the book.

(Not even going to put pictures).

 

So those are my answers. How about you? Are there any books that came to mind when you saw this list? And do you have any favourite book tags? Tell me in the comments, I love hearing from you!

 

As always, never stop reading and stay tuned for more!

AdmiralCarter

Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Women as Writers: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Orson Scott Card’s Xenocide and other fun things! (September, 2013)

Hello again all and welcome to another blog post!

 

So, being back in the halls of University for another semester of my psychology degree I thought I’d write this post up before things got hectic again. For the past two months and a half I’ve been following the trail of the worthy explorers in Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, through every twist and turn of the volcanic and granite channels, across every underground shore and through every violent storm.

 

The main two things to consider about this novel are the year it was written in – 1864- and the culture of the century, that being the 19th. During this century there was a noticeable paucity of photographic evidence, and people didn’t have much money to travel. So it was the duty of authors to paint the readers a picture and put them ‘in’ the story, so to speak. This is what Jules Verne does best – the way he has constructed his environment pulls you into the work. You can lose yourself in there. As to the culture, it’s quite evident throughout Journey to the Centre of the Earth that people generally didn’t know what to expect from other people across the globe given that travel was at a premium.

 

The work itself is an interesting mix of scientific fact and a good dose of solid fiction. The characters are relateable, genuine, and moreover after journeying through the whole book with them you feel like they’re family. The way Verne outlines the scenery leaves nothing to the reader’s imagination, and the words pop from the page.

 

It does, however, differ greatly to the various movie instalments that have been created over the years. I think it’s good that it differs; it gives readers a chance to see the work how Verne intended it to be seen, without the CGI and animatronics.

 

In other news, I recently finished reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Suffice to say, it wasn’t what I expected. It’s a dark story with a heavy moral to it. Like a Grimm fairytale, it tells the story of a scientist who wanted to improve humanity. In doing so, he creates a monster that rampages through the town, murdering and pillaging to its content. With the mind of a human and the strength of a beast, it seeks love but cannot find it. Frankenstein loses his loved ones to the monster, and in the end loses his own life because he couldn’t love his own creation. Overall, Frankenstein is a work of genius. It warns readers that hatred will only lead to disaster, and that respecting each other is the best thing we can do regardless of how different we might be to one another. It goes to show that you should never judge a book by its cover, and always keep an open mind.

 

Finally, for my transport reading I’ve dipped my nose into the pages of Orson Scott Card’s Xenocide, the third book in the Ender’s Game series. It’s been a while since I’ve read a proper sci-fi novel, and it’s nice to return to familiar ground. It feels like coming home after a long trip away. Before reading Xenocide I’d heard some very flattering things about Card’s work, and it certainly lives up to the rumours. His writing style is clipped, but it carries emotion well and gives the characters the serious feel that they need. Updates will be forthcoming, I’m only halfway through right now but it’s getting better.

 

I’m also still ploughing my way through Steig Larsson’s last book in the Millennium trilogy. The pace has slowed down significantly, and I’m finding it harder to follow. But I’ll persevere, if not for finding out the ending then for the awesome that is Larsson.

 

In the meantime, I hope you’re all looking forward to the release of The Book Thief and Ender’s Game in the cinemas soon, and the upcoming release of Fifty Shades of Grey next year and the second Hobbit film. Fun times ahead!

 

To all my faithful readers;

 

Never stop reading!

 

Admiral Carter.

Women as Writers: Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James: The Review (AKA It’s Not All About the S Word!) (SPOILER ALERT!) (WARNING: CONTENT UNSUITABLE FOR ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 16) (June, 2013)

Okay. So I know my posting has been a little erratic lately, mostly due to university and my bad habit of skipping between books as I read them. But I’m here, I’m back, and boy do I have a review to give you.

 

As you’ve probably guessed from the title, I recently read the 50 Shades of Grey Trilogy by EL James. It was two months ago I read them but I needed some time to digest it all, and the only reason I read these was because my mum told me about the psychology element to them. As a third year psychology student myself, I figured it could be interesting and went ahead with it. So here are my views.

 

 

I’ll start with the first one, Fifty Shades of Grey. EL James’ writing style is simplistic, yes, but I feel this does good justice to the book. It lets you as the reader see the motives behind what the characters are doing (if you look hard enough), and also allows you to adjust to how the characters behave. The first novel serves as a general introduction to the characters and the worlds they inhabit: Ana Steele, the twenty-something college student, living with Kate Kavanagh (her roommate) and living a typical college lifestyle. Ana herself comes from a broken home, where her mother remarried multiple times. Then you have Christian Grey, the enigmatic businessman asked to do a speech at Ana and Kate’s graduation ceremony. At first we don’t know much about Christian, but as the book progresses we get to learn a little bit more about him. Fast cars, helicopters, planes, a multinational business empire, and a crazy personal life to boot. But all of this? This isn’t the real Christian. This is his coping mechanism. Sure it’s fun, but there’s something darker lurking beneath the surface, something that Ana drags out of him over the course of the next few books (but we’ll get to that later).

 

This ‘darker side’ of Christian lies very much in his childhood. If anyone knows a little about Freud and his psychological theories (if you don’t I suggest you google them, interesting stuff), you’ll know that he believed that present behaviour and thought patterns were often linked to childhood trauma and other significant events. Often these would come through in dreams, lurking in the unconscious until they were triggered by an external event. This is what happens to Christian throughout the course of the trilogy, and by the second book it’s obvious that Ana is starting to really get under his skin, so to speak.

 

Further on the second novel in the series, Fifty Shades Darker, much of Christian’s history is revealed through Ana’s probing and also through the appearance of a number of people from Christian’s past that are determined to wreak havoc on him, his relationship with Ana, his family, and on his corporation. Instead of the mysterious, desirable businessman that he was in the first novel, Christian turns into a scared, damaged, and traumatised adopted child who was unable to form connections with anyone on the basis of love, commitment and trust. As readers, we are able to see the side of Christian that no-one else sees, the part of him that he fears. His lifestyle is his way of keeping control over an erratic and unpredictable personal world; in fact it’s the only way he knows after having grown up in a household that forced him to fend for himself and live with frequent physical and mental abuse and neglect. The role that Ana plays in Christian’s life now becomes very clear, and for her it’s a constant uphill battle to obtain Christian’s trust and to keep her own integrity intact.

 

The third novel in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Freed, seems to be a bit of a let-down in comparison to the first two novels on a thematic basis. Though the same simplistic style is there, along with the dynamic between Christian and Ana, it seems as if the entire novel was a forced addition to the first two. The main climax points from Darker are recycled, and their execution was completely out of left field in terms of relevance to the plotline. Darker established Christian and Ana’s relationship on a solid foundation, and Freed sends this into freefall. You don’t know what’s going to happen next, it’s high in emotional tension, and most of the time you question why it had to happen in a particular way and why Ana and Christian couldn’t have just had their happy ending without the extra helping of odd. There’s also very little psychological exploration in Freed, yet another point setting it apart from Shades of Grey and Darker and very much taking away from what I felt was the core premise of the trilogy: the fact that trauma will always remain but it will become easier to deal with in time if its treated.

 

Overall, the Fifty Shades trilogy is definitely worth a read, but it isn’t to be taken lightly or at face value. I can honestly say from having studied psychology that those who tell you ‘it’s all about sex’ or ‘it’s pornography’ probably aren’t reading beyond the words on the page and have read it only for the value of the public hype. It’s very easy to dismiss books on these kinds of moral premises, but that’s part of the reason why you should read it. Not only does it make a very good point with relation to childhood trauma, mental and physical abuse, coping mechanisms, regression, and psychodynamic streams of psychology in general, but it also asks you to challenge your own moral beliefs and genuinely think about the ways in which the human mind operates in response to chronic threats.

 

In closing, I would recommend the Fifty Shades trilogy to anyone (of any gender) who has an interest, and even those of you who might be a little skeptical. They say you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, and in this case maybe it’s worth giving it a shot. I don’t know about you, readers, but I quite confidently have my copies displayed on my bookshelf with the likes of James Joyce’s Ulysses and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. And if anyone asks me why or tries to judge me for it? I tell them to read it and then get back to me.

 

So good luck, and I hope that you all give yourselves a challenge this time around and read something out of your comfort zone.

 

Never stop reading!

AdmiralCarter.