In which Demi does a book post, finally.

For a (former, *sob*) English student, I've failed pretty miserably at actually posting much about books. Probably because for the last three years I've been skimming through a whole host of books that I didn't particularly enjoy.

I'm picky when it comes to books. Really picky. Something that I didn't really anticipate being a problem (stupidly) when I first applied to do English at University. In fact, I kinda block out a whole period of literature. As far as I'm concerned, there is very little worth reading from, say, Shakespeare and Donne until you hit the beginning of the twentieth century.

Sacrilige, I know. I steam-roll straight past Dickens, past Austen, past the Shelleys and Byron, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Wilde, and I intentionally stamp on Hardy as I pass by (Tess of the D'Urburvilles is the single most ridiculous character I've ever had the misfortune of reading about). Jane Eyre got thrown across the room by me after a handful of chapters. Alice in Wonderland was tolerated, but not enjoyed.

Please direct all hate mail to Miss Demi Blogger, I Don't Care Road.

Forgive me for essentially ignoring 300 years of literature, but that's the beauty of personal taste. One man's literary canon is another girl's crap.

I can't relate to it. That's my main gripe. Somehow I can deal with pre-Shakespearean literature, all the way back to Old English, because the world was so foreign compared to our modern world that I can kind of accept the content as something far removed and easily analysed. But the Romantics and Victorians, who believed their world to be the pinncle of human existence, so modern and forward thinking - with their sexism and racism and stupid, stupid rules and morals - drive me up the wall. A woman raising her skirts abover her ankles? Wait, and she was in the presence of a man without supervision?! YAWN.

In fact, my favourite genre of literature transcends even our modern world. I love dystopian and futuristic fiction. I love seeing where our world - however unrealistic it seems at this moment - may go. And since finishing my degree, I've managed to indulge myself in the books I enjoy and wanted to read for months.

I chose some YA dystopic books to take away on holiday with me, something to kick back and relax with that wouldn't tire me out like some of the more literary books on my to-read list. I started off with Delirium by Lauren Oliver.

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They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And I’ve always believed them.
Until now.
Now everything has changed. Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.

 I really enjoyed Delirium. I loved the concept of love being a disease, an infection that Lena's society has decided is the main cause of depression, anxiety, madness - and so wiped it out. The result is numbness, a cure that is more of a curse. As a massive romantic, this concept was really sold to me, and while Lena certainly wasn't my favourite heroine ever, there was real character growth as it progressed. I can't wait to read the sequel.

Next up was Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

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No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.

But Juliette has plans of her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever. 

I had a real love-hate relationship with Shatter Me. I adored the style of it; Mafi writes with the kind of disjointed, hard-hitting style that I've always tried to capture in my own writing. Short, sharp sentences, unusual metaphors, and a real sense of humanity underlies this book. BUT. The insta-love had me rolling my eyes, along with her over-used 'power of three' rule of repetition, and the fact that Adam doesn't seem to be able to start a sentence without saying 'Juliette...' wistfully. It also fell flat at the end, after a good heightening of tension, in order to set up for the next book in the series.

Abandoned half-way was Matched, by Ally Condie. I was so disappointed with this one, I've had it on my to-read list for aaaages, but it was so slow and childishly written that I simply didn't care to find out what happened. So I won't bother saying any more about it!

Then there was Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.

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When magic has gone from the world, and a vicious king rules from his throne of glass, an assassin comes to the castle. She does not come to kill, but to win her freedom. If she can defeat twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition to find the greatest assassin in the land, she will become the King’s Champion and be released from prison. 

Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her.

And a princess from a foreign land will become the one thing Celaena never thought she’d have again: a friend.

But something evil dwells in the castle–and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying, horribly, one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival–and a desperate quest to root out the source of evil before it destroys her world.

Ahhh, where to begin. This book has such a backstory to it that I could probably write a whole blog post on it. I touched upon the story back in January, in this post. Basically, I'd been waiting five years to read this story again. Five years of reliving scenes in my head, trying to remember snippets of dialogue, of aching to feel the joy and wonder I felt when reading its original form.

And, perhaps inevitably, I was somewhat disappointed.

I had prepared myself for some of the changes. The book was bought and published as a YA novel, while the original story was more of an adult story, with Celaena older and more accomplished - and perhaps more believeable. Changing the heroine from a young woman of early twenties to a girl in her late teens added, I feel, an unwelcome restraint to Maas' tale. That, and I was confused and disappointed to find about half of the events of the original Book 1 just plain missing. This frustration was resolved when I went back to Maas' blog and remembered that she had turned the trilogy into a quartet, with the rest of Book 1 forming a brand new Book 2 to be out next year. If they're not in there, then I really will be upset.

Don't let my preconceptions put you off though. Celaena is still a fantastic character, as are the two boys, although they've all got so far to go. The world is rich and detailed, but not overly so. Worth a read if you like girly yet kick-ass heroines and old-school fantasy.

This post is getting ridiculously long... hope you enjoyed! Coming soon: current musical loves, Malta mayhem, graduate woes and an insight into the story of the mysterious and rather scary lump, which has made my life difficult since Easter.

Summer's over, and change is in the air. xo.