Book Blog #181: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Title: A Game of Thrones
Author: George R.R. Martin
# of Pages: 837 (paperback)
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Fiction
Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis: In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes of the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.
Review: With everyone talking about the Game of Thrones HBO series, I had to find out for myself what was so great about this series.

I had picked up this book several times before at the bookstore but was unimpressed with the prologue. While I was skimming through the pages, I realized there would a lot of character development for a lot of characters...and third person POV switching (if you didn't know, I strongly dislike POV, although it is more tolerable in third person than in first). Additionally, I had read (or attempted to read) other books with a similar writing style to Martin that I struggled to finish. However, when I picked up this book for the third time at the bookstore earlier this month, I was determined to struggle through it, even if it took me a month.

Which it did.

Usually, I can finish a book of this length within a week or two. If it takes any longer, I probably don't like the book. However, A Game of Thrones is a different case. The POV switching was disruptive to the flow of the book; right when I would become immersed in one character's story, it would switch over to a different character experiencing a situation that barely overlaps with the previous's. But if there weren't these changes in POV, I do not believe Martin would have been able to depict this world as well as he has or successfully depict how much impact the characters has when carrying out their role in the plot.

The beginning was a struggle; as I predicted, there were many characters who's stories all intertwined with each others' in someway or another. But once I got past the first hundred or so pages, this book was enthralling. I felt as if I was there; I could feel the joy, pain, sorrow, anger of the characters and the despair they felt in this world of lies and deceit.

No, this is not the book for everyone; it contains strong language, graphic depictions of violence, incest, rape, etc. But if you are not uncomfortable with these components of the book, I would highly recommend you read A Game of Thrones.

Book Blog #180: The Duff by Kody Keplinger

Title: The Duff
Author: Kody Keplinger
# of Pages: 280 (paperback)
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Rating:★★☆☆☆
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper may not be the prettiest girl in her high school, but she has a loyal group of friends, a biting wit, and a spot-on BS detector. She's also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush, who calls Bianca the Duff--the designated ugly fat friend--of her crew. But things aren't so great at home and Bianca, desperate for a distraction, ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him. Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn't such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she's falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.
Review: "I tried to convince myself that this was completely cheesy and ridiculous." -The Duff (Page 119).

Oh, don't worry; it doesn't take much to convince yourself of that in regards to this book.

When I saw this book in the bookstore, I purchased it because I had seen the trailer for the movie on TV. On the off chance that I decided I wanted to see the movie, I wanted to be prepared to read it before I watched it. However, I never went to see the movie, and I had to take a break from reading to concentrate on more pressing matters in my life. These brings us to today, in which I began to read recreationally again and picked up this book to start myself off.

I shouldn't have expected much from a book with the title "The Designated Ugly Fat Friend". But if there's a movie, it must have a quality story, right? Wrong. I should have known that if Fifty Shades of Grey got a movie, anything can.

This book is very superficial, for the lack of a better word. The plot is entirely romance-based, if you can even call it that (the relationship the two leads have is mostly physical...and incredibly unhealthy). The setting was your stereotypical high school filled with the jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, and any other stereotype you can think of. And of course everyone fit the image of their label; for example, Toby is suppose to be the "perfect" smart student , but he is described as "kind of scrawny with hardly any muscle" (225), fulfilling the traditional role of the "nerd".

Characters also lacked a unique voice, such as how various characters describe Bianca as "cynical" (such as Casey and Wesley) despite not associating with each other and how both Bianca's dad and Toby suggest the use of a "strongly worded letter" (the likelihood of two such people using the exact same word choice is very low).

The writing style in general is very sloppy. Keplinger does not provide enough description to make many of the moments in the book feel realistic enough/allow me to be absorbed into the book. One example is when Bianca's mother is speaking to her in the car; her mother goes from whispering to shouting in the snap of a finger, not to mention the usage of the verb "shouted" (124), which is weak in the context of the situation. This word does not articulate the way her mother is talking to her to the level I would have wanted.

Keplinger includes dialogue with acronyms in the lines "'WTF Bianca'" (156) and "'OMG, are you pregnant'" (188). If the character is saying the acronym as written (W-T-F and O-M-G), it's a poor choice of words (letters?). Although I have heard some say "oh em gee", almost no one says the acronym WTF in regular conversation. And if these acronyms were meant to represent the speaker saying "oh my god," it should have been written out because the way it is now seems amateur-ish.

Despite all of this, I was addicted to reading this book the same way people become addicted to cliché soap opera plots. I found many parts of the plot hilarious (whether this is intentional is unimportant to me) and therefore entertaining enough for me to consider rating it three stars (which I decided against doing because Cassandra Clare's TMI series is worlds better than this book).

In the end, I'd advise against reading this book. There are so many books out there that are more deserving of your time.