Finally! I’ve finished “Alice in Zombieland.” For some reason, I feel like that book took me way too long to read. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but with YA I feel like anything more than two days for a book is far too long.
So my final verdict? Let’s put it this way: This book is geared toward teens. Teen girls, to be exact. So there are some pretty graphic depictions of kissing, which may not sound all that bad but then you actually read them and you’re like, “Yeah, they’re basically having sex with their clothes on.” I especially got a kick out of the lecture on premarital sex given to the main character by her very cool, very in-the-know friend. There, the bestie extolls the virtues of waiting for the right person and getting birth control pills. It’s all very fifth-period health class.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed the book. It was a fun, quick read, as books like this should be.
Prepare for an emotional wallop from Veronica Roth in “Allegiant.”
Because I was in a teen fiction mood, I next read a book I’ve been itching to get to, especially because I preordered it (paying the full price of $6.99) and should have read it months ago: “Allegiant” by Veronica Roth.
I bought this book because I loved “Divergent” and “Insurgent.” When I first began reading “Allegiant,” I was sure I would enjoy it just as much. But as the plot moved forward, it did so at the expense of character development, leaving poor Tris and Tobias behind and basically merging their two voices into one.
I talked to a few people about this book as I read it, and the one thing I kept hearing was, “Wait until you get to the end!” I promise no spoilers here, except to say it is quite an ending. (If you’ve already read the books, you know what I’m talking about; if spoilers don’t actually spoil things for you, click here.) I’m not the kind of person who is surprised by much — and I admit to not being especially surprised by what Roth chose to do to wrap up the series. I think I’m more surprised by readers’ “HOW COULD YOU?!” response. It’s like we’ve bred a nation of little Annie Wilkeses from “Misery” by Stephen King, all clamoring for a happy ending and swearing revenge against anyone who comes between them and their beloved literary characters. (I kept expecting to read, in some review or another, “She didn’t get out of the COCK-A-DOODIE WEAPONS LAB!”)
Moving on: Somewhat unintentionally, I’ve continued my streak of “A” titles, choosing to read next “All Things Considered” by G. K. Chesterton. This was a free Kindle book (the best kind!) and I decided to pick it up because I heard some good things about Chesterton and when I asked a friend who seemed to know what he was talking about, he said this was a good place to start.
So far, I agree with him. I’m about 15 percent into the book, and it seems the essays rely heavily on topics that were far more relevant when Chesterton published this book: 1908. Still, the humor isn’t lost on me. There’s been an excellent essay on writing telling people how to be successful that made me smile and at one point even laugh out loud.
In an effort to switch things up further, wait until you see which book I’m reading next. It’s another free one — and one that I’ve looked forward to diving into for a long time. But first, to finish “All Things Considered.”
The Great Kindle Dare 