Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

I was incredibly excited about this book. I ran out and purchased it the day it came out, because I saw it advertised on a blog that I follow, read the first pages on Amazon and was hooked. There were a few reasons, however, why I didn’t end up liking this novel.

1) Prose

Mafi has the potential to be a very wonderful writer. Some of her prose had me completely head-over-heels with how wonderful and lyrical it was. Other lines, however, completely missed the mark – to the point that I would have to stop, think, and read the line over again. And that made for a difficult read.

By the time I decided to review this novel, I was almost finished – my examples aren’t the best/worst in the book, but they should give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Lines I loved:

• I’ve searched the whole world for all the right words but my mouth is full of nothing.
• He flexes his jaw. Pries his lips open. Lies to me over and over again. “I’m okay.”

Lines I hated:

• Heat rushes up my neck and I fall off a ladder holding a paintbrush dipped in red. (I litereally had to stop and wonder when they started painting. I still can’t figure out what the paintbrush would symbolize.)
• The sun is revolving around the moon when he responds. (What does this mean? Was it getting dark? Did she feel like a lot of time had passed? Why would the sun be revolving around the moon?)

Lines I’m unsure about:

• His lips are spelling secrets and my ears are spilling ink, staining my skin with his stories. (I think I like how this begins, but I have no idea what she means by “ears… spilling ink.” Besides sounding poetic, it makes no sense. Maybe I watch too many horror films, but I envisioned this quite literally.)

2) Unoriginality

I felt like the first chapters of this book were the strongest and the best. There was a lot left to the imagination as to what was going on in the world and in the story, and I found the set-up intriguing. But the further I went along, the more I was disappointed – mostly by the whole X-Men theme.

I was explaining the book to my fiance one night in bed, describing the main character and what was happening to her. He raised an eyebrow and said, “So, she’s like Rogue?”

Yes, the main character was exactly like Rogue. Denied by family and friends, she is doomed to live her life alone – that is, until she meets friend and saviour Adam and falls head-over-heels for him in a completely unrealistic love.

By the end of the book we discover that there are all sorts of people with different mutant powers, collected in an institution to help and teach them. Sound familiar?

3) The Bella Syndrome

I’m not sure if this syndrome started with Bella, or if its just easier to pick out. Basically, the main character of this book is all unworthy and weak until she meets the pretty boy and they fall in love and are all over each other for really no reason other than to have a love story in the middle of a YA book. I wished that Juliette was a bit more dimensional, and that the love between herself and Adam had more tension and less of, well, everything. Not once did I relate to either character, nor did I feel like it even made sense for them to be at the point in their relationship that they suddenly were at.

I suppose I’m being a bit brutal with my review, but I think it’s mostly because I felt so betrayed. The beginning is honestly really good. There are other things I really enjoyed – the antagonist, for example – Warner is far more interesting than any of the other characters, with his lust for blood, need for love and obvious daddy issues. I haven’t yet decided if I liked the whole cross-out thing the book had going on, but I appreciated its originality. The numbers, however, I found rather irritating by the end (you’ll have to read in order to know what I’m talking about.) And despite my complaints, the book is still worth the read. As I said, the author does have a good amount of talent, and I really enjoyed many of her lines.

I give this book a generous 3/5 stars!

Bad habits and new ideas

I have a really awful habit. It’s because I’m addicted to the smell of crisp pages, to the look of bright, well-designed covers. It’s because I’m motivated by the mystery of what story is being told within, and because I am completely unmotivated within the confines of my own home.

I am addicted to buying books – and never reading them.

My father used to think that purchasing books was a waste of money. He never understood the value in spending money on something that you could borrow for free from your friends or from the library. His views are completely valid – besides supporting the author, what’s the point in having a whole bunch of books that you will only, in most cases, read once (or in my case, never read?)

Okay, I shouldn’t say that I’ll never read them. One of the most important parts of being a[/n aspiring] novelist is reading. You read what’s good, you read what’s bad. You read what works and you read what doesn’t. You learn from established professionals, and you try not to be too offended when you’re sure you could write better than this or that debut author. (Here’s a hint – all writers are egotistical to an extent. I’d argue that this can be said about any creative professional – photogs, designers, ect.)

Here’s a sampling of many of the books I own but have never read:

Lots of words by the average and the amazing that have yet to meet my eyes. (Sorry, John Green! I guess there are three of yours there!)

Another one of my book woes is the space. I am constantly purchasing new novels, but have virtually nowhere to put them. Currently, they are overloading my dresser and our shelving unit. There are also a whole bunch boxed up in our storage room somewhere. (Read: small bedroom jam-packed with two computer stations and a million boxes. It’s a disaster.)

(Yes, you’re looking at some bona-fide old Hardy Boys books there. I collect them. It’s odd.)

We do actually own a bookcase. Unfortunately, it houses a couple hundred or more DVDs. That we never watch. And don’t expand on anymore. Because as geeks, we’re far too swept up in the digital age to be bothered by hard copies anymore*!

(A little bit of daily cuteness – Ada popped by to see what I was doing with the camera and all that flashing.)

Anyway, so this is my plan: I am going to make a list of all of the DVDs I want to get rid of and sell them for $2-$3 each to my family and friends in order to make space for my books. Then, I’ll take that money and put it directly into our wedding fund! Every little bit counts, because we’re paying for everything ourselves. And I demand an Italian honeymoon. He knows about it, I swear.

What do you think? Do you think my plan will pay off, or will cataloging my movies be a waste of my time?

*I realize that this statement is ironic after writing a post about purchasing non-stop hard-copy books. I bought an eReader. I used it to read one book. And I still can’t stop purchasing paperbacks. I told you it was an addiction, alright? Besides… there is nothing – NOTHING – in the world like a book in you hand. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

It totally takes time!

I just read a great blog post by literary agent Janet Reid on how good writing takes time and really wanted to share it.

She speaks about how some of the best writers took years and years to write their famous works. Some of her examples, like T.S. Elliot, surprised me. Others did not – it should take a large chunk of time to write an extremely long and arduous piece. Did you know that Tolkien took twelve years to write the Lord of the Rings trilogy? I used to think that was a long time, but when you factor in that he created an entire world and developed several full languages… it’s not so hard to believe.

In my neck of the woods, YA fiction, I believe that it takes John Green about two years or more to write a book.

The fact that good writing takes a long time is a interesting point-of-view, as other esteemed novelists, such as Stephen King, insist that to be a good author you must write something like 2,000 words a day.

I’m okay floating in the good-writing-takes-time boat – at the beginning of April, it will be two years I have been working on my novel! Eep! I’m looking forward to finally having something to show for all of my hard work and the hundreds and hundreds of hours. Something to show the people who said, “Well, you don’t have to write.” Maybe I don’t get paid for this job, but it is a job. And yes, I do have to do it!

Being a traditionally published author has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. What’s yours?

Let the battle begin!

It’s finally arrived! It is Hunger Games day!

Today I am leaving work early to see the film with a few co-workers, and in my opinion there is no better way to kick off the weekend!

Recently one of my friends read the first book in the trilogy for the first time and admitted that she was underwhelmed by it. This is always a major risk when a piece of fiction – be it a movie, book or otherwise – is hyped by pop culture. But, to be honest, all of her reasons were completely valid and it reminded me of my initial thought when I first read The Hunger Games – how on earth did it become so popular?

First of all, it’s well-written. The pace is incredible, and although many would argue (especially Battle Royale fans,) it is a story that is finally original to the mainstream eye.

But Hunger Games is dark. It’s creepy. It’s dystopian and apocalyptic. Its protagonist is not someone you necessarily like – she is selfish and frustrating at best. Its ending is hardly more than dismal. All of these things are the types of elements that attract me, but that are rarely present in popular culture.

There is no ditzy, innocent, too-good female main. There is no overtly omg-I’m-so-in-love-with-you love story. In fact, this doesn’t come close to romance at all (another thing that I love!) The characters feel real, their relationships feel real. It’s a very different dynamic. (Please, folks all over, stop referring it to the “new Twilight.”)

I have to wonder how much Hollywood will gloss over the events in The Hunger Games. Depending on how I feel, I might end up sharing my thoughts about this with you soon!

What do you think the world loves so much about Hunger Games?

Playlists and words

A little while ago  my youngest sister (not the one you met in my previous post) texted me to inquire about my favourite song. I was taken aback for a couple of reasons – firstly, because she never really said why and isn’t known to be much of a communicator, and secondly, because I do not have just one favourite song.

The question made me realize that I could probably list a top ten, and that most of my favourite songs also appear in my writing playlist.

One of the key components that inspires me while writing is music. Music can define a mood, lend a word and become an integral part of the process, especially when the coffee shop’s tunes are just way too loud/obnoxious/quiet/clashing with the book store’s music.

I figured that it was time to share my usual playlist with the world! Though it often switches up, the following is pretty much always there. Some will make you laugh, some may make you cringe but hopefully there are a few songs you’ll find inspiring as well. Complete with footnotes:

“Reclaimation” – Lamb of God*‡
“Set Apart This Dream” – Flyleaf†
“Broken Pieces” – Apocalyptica*†
“Sleepwalking” – Kittie*‡
“Wanted Dead or Alive” – Bon Jovi*
“Incomplete” – Backstreet Boys*
“Siberia” – Backstreet Boys*
“In the Dark” – Flyleaf
“Treasure” – Flyleaf
“Circle” – Flyleaf
“Arise” – Flyleaf
“Night Comes Clean” – Soilwork‡
“Everything You Ever” – Dr. Horrible Soundtrack
“Genetic Emancipation” – Repo! Soundtrack
“One” – Apocalyptica*
“One Winged Angel” FFVII Advent Children Soundtrack
“The Melencholy Spirit” – Agalloch†‡
“Serenity Painted Death” – Opeth†‡
“Funeral Portrait” – Opeth‡
“My Heart is Broken” – Evanescence†
“Broken” Seether feat. Amy Lee*
“Lost in Paradise” – Evanescence
“Lost” – Within Temptation†
“Spellbound” – Stream of Passion†
“Your Star” – Evanescence

*Favourite song
† Artist is good for writing in general
‡ Not mother-approved

(I wish this close to the Backstreet Boys. You know you wish you were me.)

Glitter and spring

It’s been a trying couple of weeks for myself and a few of my friends, but that was as long as I could bear to be away from writing and blogging and the gym and wedding stuff!

Last Sunday, I went to a low-key bridal fashion show with my sister and a couple of our friends. It was great – my sister came in from out of town. There was cake-testing, champagne-drinking and some inspirational table settings for us to view.

Though there weren’t a lot of dresses that I loved, it’s safe to say that I know almost exactly what I want in a dress (though I’m slightly worried about finding it within my budget!) I promised my mother that I wouldn’t step foot into a dress store (or into a dress) until she  was with me, so I made my sister try on a couple instead!

(I love the above post! I’m on the right.)

I feel like I have almost everything pegged down in my mind. But that’s a long ways away, and if you know anything about me, you know I have the tendancy to change my mind. A lot.

If you’re interested at all in what I like and am thinking about for a wedding, you can view me on Pinterest! Feel free to give feedback if you have an account (or ping me if you need one!)

P.S. Happy Spring!

What is your vision of the ideal wedding?

The “real” job

I was semi-surprised the other day when a close friend of mine admitted that she didn’t know what I did for a living. I can’t say I blame her – I usually don’t talk about work. Especially when, for a time, my job strayed away from what it was I was proud to do in a way which was beyond my control. And now that I love what I do (for the most part,) talking about it just feels like bragging!

I’ve realized that a lot of people still don’t understand what it is that I do, even when I try to explain it to them. You know what? This warrants a post!

I am a copywriter.

Yup, it’s as exciting as it sounds. I write copy. Now, I guess a lot of people don’t know what copy is. Guess what? You’re reading it. Copy is written material. As my bio says, “I make words pretty as my job.” I string together sentences for a living. It’s actually kind of great.

A few cool things to know about my job:

• I write print (magazine) advertisements, emails, and website copy and ads.
• My words are translated in 13 different languages and seen in over 180 countries around the world.
• I write for three different main (and very broad) audiences: B2C (business to consumer), B2B (business to business) and affiliate, which is sort of a mixture of both.
• I work in the online gambling industry
• I get to write for a living, and it’s what I’ve dreamed about my whole life!
• I also do a lot of stuff not listed in my job description, some of which I love (managerial involvement) and some of which I dislike (uploading and sending emails.)

That’s about the gist of it! I get to work with a lot of great people who have become my friends, so that’s also pretty cool.

And then, at the end of the day, I go home and write some more, because it is also a life-long goal to be a traditionally-published novelist! But you all knew that already.

Do you spend your days doing what you love? What are your life-long goals?

Work and more work

So, I did exactly as I promised over the weekend – I wrote, and wrote, and worked out, and cleaned. I don’t think I ended up cooking, except I found a bit of zucchini and made my ‘zucchini pizza’ again. If I did cook something else, I don’t remember! The weather was wonky and my head is severely affected by the pressure. (Excuses, I know.)

It’s been a very busy week for me. Every night I’ve been doing something – yoga, fitness classes, attending a play, socializing – but every day I have still found the time to do a few hours of work! It’s a challenge, but it’s worth it.

This is my typical workspace outside of the house – coffee, multiple pens, notebooks, my phone and everything but work on the screen. I frequent this particular Starbucks often – it used to be open the latest and being inside a book store, has a great view of, well, books. (Unfortunately, I discovered that the hours changed and they’re closed an hour earlier. Sad!)

So, I thought it was time to tease you with an excerpt. This is a piece in the early-middle of the book that I looked over last night. It’s still needs work, but here it is:

It was a good walk to the north before they came upon the west entrance to the city. By the time they had arrived, the rain was thinning, sprinkling their forms with the purples and blues of the sky.
There was something distinctly cold that was grasping at the air as Jay and the others filtered in through the stoic city gates. The shadows of the buildings seemed darker; the grooves of the elaborate engravings on the walls distinctly deeper.

A light fog had settled among the cobblestone streets; it was slight – just enough to scatter the sun- and moon-less light further into the air, enough to cast a layer of doubt dividing what one saw and what they thought they were seeing.

Jay noticed, through the blurried atmosphere, large and distinct shapes lining the streets. They were unnatural – obelisks in the middle of nowhere, giant claws reach for the sky. She didn’t recognize what the figures were from her previous walk through the city.

A sharp, sudden howl from her side startled Jay so much that she jumped. It was a mournful wail, and she was so confused as to what was going on that she thought they were under attack. But they were not, and it was Daberath. He was crying into the night, into the settling fog that obscured from sight what her mind now knew.

One of the figures was at her side suddenly – they had approached it without realizing it. The stir of the air from her moving figure brushed away the last of the mist from the form, and Jay saw him.

It was a man. This man was a statue, but what she knew in her heart and from the sorrow in Daberath’s voice and in the darkness in the air was that he was no ordinary statue.

What do you think? Are you enticed to finding out what’s going on? Or was the passage too obscure?

Perhaps after that treat you’ll forgive me for this admission: I don’t think I’m going to have the entire draft finished by the end of the month. Not for lack of trying, I assure you – it has just turned out to be more work than I anticipated. Which was naive of me, of course. Really, things would go so much better if my notebook had a CTRL-F function!!

Writing is hard. Editing is harder.

Feel free to ask me anything about the project or my process… it’s so close to being ready for peer review! I think I will post a summary of the novel soon.

And, just to prove that I do sometimes go home, I thought I’d include this picture of Scully and a headless Christopher:

Isn’t she a big ball of fluff? And this is skinny Scully, I dare admit!

I hope you are having a wonderful day. Please leave me feedback in the comments!

Family Day = Me Day

There are many things I love about a long weekend (obviously!) but the most important one has got to be the fact that I actually take a deep breath… and some ‘me’ time. On weeknights, and most  normal weekends, there just isn’t time to spend on myself. Sure, I take a few hours at the end of the night to unwind – watching television or playing a video game – but these are just mental distractions from the every-day life. On a long weekend, I actually get to be.

I’ve made it no secret that I’m trying to get my novel wrapped up by the end of the month. But the last thing I want to do after a full day of work is go home and work some more. Especially when things are feeling stressful. So this weekend I’m making it a priority – to get away from the distractions and the noisy fiance and spend hours at the coffee shop, polishing and writing.

One of the other expressions of myself that I rarely see during the week is Cook Amanda. After work and the commute and the errands, there’s never time to sit down and cook a good, inventive meal from scratch.

Yesterday, I experimented with zucchini – replicating a picture that I found on Pinterest (I couldn’t find the recipe,) I sliced up zucchini strips, topped them with tomato slices and seasoned with Herbamare, peppercorn, basil and garlic. With mozzarella on top, it was like the most amazing pizza without the carbs! And I didn’t even miss the crust.

We ate it with yak sausage. Yup, you heard that right. (Side note: I need to start using real cameras again.)

I will most likely cook up something again tonight – any suggestions out there for something with mostly veggies and protein? Unfortunately, I think my zucchini is used up.

Happy Family Day, all!

THE story

So, as I not-so-subtlely hinted last week, I got engaged!

My fiance (FIANCE!!) popped the question Monday, January 30 after we’d been together for over six years. He did it in a way that was only suited for the two of us geeks – he ran out and bought me a new motherboard and CPU for my outdated PC, and hid the ring inside the box. Not only do I have a super-fast computer, but a shiny, shiny rock!

I had planned on posting this story yesterday (Valentine’s Day) but decided it was too cheesy. Also, does it feel like EVERYONE got engaged this V-Day? I’m kind of glad my engagement happened the month prior – so that my thunder was my own!

In my opinion, a wedding is the single opportunity to be as creative and elaborate as one wants (or can afford) to be, guilt-free. I can’t wait! I may have been a tom-boy as a child, still play best with the boys and would take sci-fi over chick flicks anyday, but even I have my girly side. Like most individuals lacking Y chromosomes, I have been planning my wedding since I was young!

You can expect a bit of wedding planning fiasco on this blog in the coming months. Hopefully, you can expect a bit more posting in general, as well!

Are you married or engaged? What is your engagement story? I love hearing them!