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Who would have guessed that unedited, first draft, self-published books would be the good ol' days? But look where we are now. 81 of the Best Sellers in Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Romance eBooks top 100 chart on Amazon Unlimited are AI-generated books. More than 80%! Though I have to say, some of those AI titles do sound interesting...
Department of Vinh Du Stands in Front of His Parents’ Tombstone
The God Tu mutters
Apricot bar code architecture
It's "too bad"? that Amazon already pulled down a book titled wait you love me, which featured a seagull on the cover. I bet that would have been something to see...
Anyway, on to reviews.
Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed.
"Sad." She let out a bitter laugh. "Life is full of sadness. It's part of being a woman. Our lives are lived for others. Our happiness is never factored in."
The older I get, the less I can put up with how women are treated in too many parts of the world (inluding America).
The main character of Written in the Stars, Naila, is American-born, but her parents were born in Pakistan and moved to America as adults. However, no matter that they now live in America, they keep to strict Pakistani ways: Naila cannot date, cannot do any afterschool activities, cannot be alone with a boy ever.
Naila has a secret boyfriend, and when her best friend helps her sneak out to see him at the prom (their first date), her parents find out. They explode, acting as though Naila had been behind multiple school shootings and stomped on a litter of puppies while doing it.
They take her to Pakistan for a "vacation to get to know her homeland".
Which was a lie. While there, they find a husband for her, and when she tries to run away from the forced marriage, they drug her for days so she can't protest the wedding.
It was physically sickening how much gossip and their neighbors' and community's opinion mattered. Some of these parents were willing to kill their daughters to protect the image of their families.
To call this a joyless book would be an understatement. Rarely have I been so angry when I finished a book. The writing was great, the story was realistic, I have no faults with the book... but the fact that this crap is still happening to this day pisses me off.
I finished it two days ago and I'm still angry. This would be a great book if someone weren't aware of these issues, but for me... I knew about them already, I hated these issues already, I didn't need to spend a couple days living through them in this story.
People should read this book. But I should not have.
DNF #96: The Three Hares (The Jade Dragonball) by Scott Lauder and David Scott Ross. I almost pushed myself to finish this one, I read more than 65% of it, but I had been bored for a long while, so I decided to drop it.
The most interesting part of it was the setting for the real world part of the plot: A school for foreign students (kids of ambassadors) in China.
The fantasy part of the plot was a modern day student pulled into ancient China. That should have really, really worked for me: Learning about real world things I don't know much about while reading is such a great bonus to the story! But the plot was so slow moving, it didn't hold my interest.
DNF #97: Twenty Palaces by Harry Connolly. The prequel to a series I never read. Urban fantasy, which I never read. Maybe this was one of those books Amazon gave away for free? Seemed written well enough, but it just wasn't for me.
DNF #98: A Fractured Song: The Broken Melody by Vincent Yam. I only got 1% into this one because it was too poorly edited. My brain kept switching from reading mode into editing mode. No idea what it was about.
DNF #99: Has Anyone Seen Jessica Jenkins? by Liz Kessler. There was nothing at all wrong with this book, I was just the wrong audience for it. A very young girl slowly develops the power to become invisible. Seems like a fun idea, but the book is aimed at very young readers (8-12) and the writing didn't hold my interest at all. Too much "daily life of a ten year old girl" and not enough superpowers. Young readers would probably enjoy it though.
Department of Vinh Du Stands in Front of His Parents’ Tombstone
The God Tu mutters
Apricot bar code architecture
It's "too bad"? that Amazon already pulled down a book titled wait you love me, which featured a seagull on the cover. I bet that would have been something to see...
Anyway, on to reviews.
Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed.
"Sad." She let out a bitter laugh. "Life is full of sadness. It's part of being a woman. Our lives are lived for others. Our happiness is never factored in."
The older I get, the less I can put up with how women are treated in too many parts of the world (inluding America).
The main character of Written in the Stars, Naila, is American-born, but her parents were born in Pakistan and moved to America as adults. However, no matter that they now live in America, they keep to strict Pakistani ways: Naila cannot date, cannot do any afterschool activities, cannot be alone with a boy ever.
Naila has a secret boyfriend, and when her best friend helps her sneak out to see him at the prom (their first date), her parents find out. They explode, acting as though Naila had been behind multiple school shootings and stomped on a litter of puppies while doing it.
They take her to Pakistan for a "vacation to get to know her homeland".
Which was a lie. While there, they find a husband for her, and when she tries to run away from the forced marriage, they drug her for days so she can't protest the wedding.
It was physically sickening how much gossip and their neighbors' and community's opinion mattered. Some of these parents were willing to kill their daughters to protect the image of their families.
To call this a joyless book would be an understatement. Rarely have I been so angry when I finished a book. The writing was great, the story was realistic, I have no faults with the book... but the fact that this crap is still happening to this day pisses me off.
I finished it two days ago and I'm still angry. This would be a great book if someone weren't aware of these issues, but for me... I knew about them already, I hated these issues already, I didn't need to spend a couple days living through them in this story.
People should read this book. But I should not have.
DNF #96: The Three Hares (The Jade Dragonball) by Scott Lauder and David Scott Ross. I almost pushed myself to finish this one, I read more than 65% of it, but I had been bored for a long while, so I decided to drop it.
The most interesting part of it was the setting for the real world part of the plot: A school for foreign students (kids of ambassadors) in China.
The fantasy part of the plot was a modern day student pulled into ancient China. That should have really, really worked for me: Learning about real world things I don't know much about while reading is such a great bonus to the story! But the plot was so slow moving, it didn't hold my interest.
DNF #97: Twenty Palaces by Harry Connolly. The prequel to a series I never read. Urban fantasy, which I never read. Maybe this was one of those books Amazon gave away for free? Seemed written well enough, but it just wasn't for me.
DNF #98: A Fractured Song: The Broken Melody by Vincent Yam. I only got 1% into this one because it was too poorly edited. My brain kept switching from reading mode into editing mode. No idea what it was about.
DNF #99: Has Anyone Seen Jessica Jenkins? by Liz Kessler. There was nothing at all wrong with this book, I was just the wrong audience for it. A very young girl slowly develops the power to become invisible. Seems like a fun idea, but the book is aimed at very young readers (8-12) and the writing didn't hold my interest at all. Too much "daily life of a ten year old girl" and not enough superpowers. Young readers would probably enjoy it though.
