Title: The Mayor of Casterbridge Author: Thomas Hardy # of Pages: 231 (PDF) Genre: Classics, Fiction, Literature Rating: ★★★☆☆ Synopsis:In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled ‘A Story of a Man of Character’, Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town. Review: This classic took me longer than usual to read, most likely because I didn't have the pressure of school deadlines to keep me reading. As far as Victorian classics go, The Mayor of Casterbridge is pretty standard - a mundane setting with the characters being interconnected and overdramatic plot-twists.
I became interested in reading this book because of an excerpt I read in an AP test; it decently easy to read and the conflict between father (Henchard) and daughter (Elizabeth-Jane) was strange; I wanted to know more about why this father rejected her daughter so cruelly. While the story was interesting, the ridiculousness of some of the characters' actions made the story less compelling than the excerpt seemed to portray. For its time period, it is a good read, and if it were to be written again with a more modern style, it would probably rival many well-written young adult novels.
For a classic, it is not as enlightening as others I have read; the themes of love, loyalty, and duty are all ones I've seen before. However, it is (or at least should be) a quick read and like all classics gives the reader a peek into the lifestyle of that time period. I would recommend reading this book if you're to-be-read shelf is a bit empty and you feel you have time to do some close reading.
Title: The White Darkness Author: Geraldine McCaughrean # of Pages: 373 Genre: YA, Adventure, Fiction Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Synopsis: Sym is not your average teenage girl. She is obsessed with the Antarctic and the brave, romantic figure of Captain Oates from Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole. In fact, Oates is the secret confidant to whom she spills all her hopes and fears.
But Sym's uncle Victor is even more obsessed—and when he takes her on a dream trip into the bleak Antarctic wilderness, it turns into a nightmarish struggle for survival that will challenge everything she knows and loves. Review: When I found this book in the pile of books the LIBRARY was giving away for free, I knew I should have been suspicious. Obviously wasn't a big hit and for obvious reasons.
McCaughrean should go back to writing children's books because she can't seem to create a protagonist that would suite any reading level. Sym claims to be fourteen but has the mentality of an eight year old. When there are obvious red flags alerting her of something being off, she is easily distracted by her Uncle dangling the "going to Antartica" carrot in front of her face.
Almost every single character is a blubbering fool. Sure, I'd expect that of the characters McCaughrean hopes for the reader to dislike, but SYM is one of the greatest fools of them all. She falls for every trick in the book, and the reader is suppose to admire her when she gets out of the mess she helped get herself into? I don't think so.
The author would like the reader to think she's a nerdy, hipster teenage girl who just can't fit in with the regular high school crowd. Everyone loves an underdog, right? Except she's not misunderstood; it would be hard for ANYONE to fit into the stereotypical high school environment McCaughrean creates for her characters. The people Sym considers to be friends are shallow and extremely sex-driven, which makes me wonder why she's friends with them in the first place or why they are friends with her since her character seems to clash so much with theirs. If Sym's school is just as crappy as her Uncle describes, there is usually some sort of community outside of school that Sym could take solace in. Sym isn't even that different from the norm is respect to her intellect; sure she knows a lot more about the Antarctic than most, but she fails to be an independent thinker and can't read between the lines until the truth is practically spelled out in front of her.
Sometimes a book can win me over with a stellar ending, but McCaughrean only made my perception of her book even worse. Mike accidentally hitting on a fourteen year old girl (our protagonist) makes the whole situation uncomfortable for both the characters and the reader. Mike's claim that everyone wanted to ask her out makes it even worse; the whole crew seems to be full of pedophiles who are attracted by her "accomplishment" of surviving rather than her as a person. Sure, they can claim that she appears to be mature enough to be an adult, but this girl just brushed shoulders with death. She wouldn't be wearing any makeup to hide her age nor would she be well enough to look OLDER; if anything, her starved state would probably make her look frailer and younger. To top it off, I couldn't see any significant growth in mental maturity after her journey; she may have recognized how gullible she could be, but I bet she would fall for it again if it happened to her in the future.
Sym doesn't make matters any better by flirting with Mike and suggesting that they get together in a couple of years. I find it hard to believe that a girl who barley made it out of the South Pole alive would be in any condition to be expressing some sort of newfound sexual confidence. As this is the closer for the book, I'm not sure if the reader is suppose to feel proud of this girl for becoming just like her friends; flirty and shallow rather than humbled and wiser.
I could go on and on about this book's flaws (such as how the story claims to take place in the "present day" when references to the state of technology back in 2005 obviously date the book to NOT the present day. This could have easily been fixed by saying the book took place in 2005/2006; obviously the author did not predict the longevity of her book's shelf life), but I don't want to waste anymore of my time on this book. Under no circumstances would I recommend this book to anyone.
