Catching Fire (Hardcover)
by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press, September 2009
391 Pages

Spoilers ahead, just FYI

I wasn’t quite sure where the story would go after Hunger Games. As we last left our hero, Katniss and Peeta had just won the Hunger Games. Now that 6 months has past, it is time for the traditional victory tour of the 12 Districts. Their first stop is District 11, home district of Rue who died in the most recent Hunger Games. In the previous book, the reader is only told little bits and pieces of the other districts but Katniss never travels to them. I was interested to see how all the different districts would react to being forced to throw a celebration for two kids who had hunted other kids from the district. However, District 11 is the only one that gets time devoted to it. All the others are quickly glossed over and forgotten. Oh, and then Peeta pops the question in an attempt to stop the uprisings that have started as a result of Katniss eating some berries at the end of the first book. As Katniss prepares for the wedding which she is dreading, she is recruited once again to compete in the Hunger Games along with Peeta.

Really?

We’re using the same plot device from the first book? The main appeal of the first book was the suspense of reading about the competition. But by going back in to the Hunger Games, it felt as if Suzanne Collins was acknowledging what made the first book good and just rehashing the same material. I was disappointed. After I finished the book and had some time to think about it, I concluded that Catching Fire serves the purpose of setting up the third act. The story needs to go from point A to point C but along the way it must pass through an awkward point B. There needed to be a transition from Katniss winning the Hunger Games in book one to leading a rebellion in the third book. Much like The Matrix movies, the first entry in the series was good, but as it became a success there came a need to produce sequels which tried to add more complexity to what the first established. As a result we get more of the same in terms of action but the plot seems to take a backseat.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked The Matrix Reloaded just as much as I liked Catching Fire. Both were entertaining, and I don’t regret investing my time with them. In the end, though, I would have been content with just ending the Hunger Games series after the first book. I love/hate books that have nebulous endings. On one hand I want to know what happens to the characters. On the other, leaving a bunch of unanswered questions fosters discussion about the book for years to come. I remember reading The Giver andFahrenheit 451 in high school and being appalled by the openness of their finales but those books had a more lasting impression on me than the other books I was forced to read.

Second Opinions:
Wands and Worlds
Devourer of Books
The Book Smugglers
The Speculative Scotsman

Up from the Blue (ARC)
by Susan Henderson
Harper Paperback
336 pages

Up from the Blue is not a book I would typically read. I am a fan of quirky books with characters exaggerated to the point of being satirical. But I have been a fan of Susan Henderson’s LitPark web site for some time now and I have been hearing bits and pieces about her debut novel for a while. A couple months ago Harper Perennial sent me an e-mail asking if I was interested in any upcoming books to review. When I saw Up from the Blue on that list I was compelled to ask for a review copy of it.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Up from the Blue is the story of Tillie Harris’s childhood. She lives with her military father, who likes everything in an orderly fashion, and Mara, Tillie’s mother who suffers from depression. Mara’s depression gets so bad that she never leaves the house, doesn’t bathe or prepare food, and does nothing but sit around all day reading (can I be depressed too?). Tillie’s father reaches his breaking point and when the family packs up and moves to Washington, D.C., Tillie discovers that her mother is no longer living with them and her father refuses to speak about her. He doesn’t even to tell Tillie where her mother went. Tillie must find a way to cope with her new school, a lack of friends, and a father who rarely talks to her. She is alone in a new town.

Eventually in the novel Tillie finds out what happened to her mother. I don’t want to go in to details because the mystery surrounding her disappearance was one of the more compelling aspects of the first half of the book. In the later half, the reader watches as the family tries to come together and be a functional family once more. Since all of the characters in Susan’s novel have different things that drive them, it’s clear that not everybody will get their way, so the question I had while I was reading was how is this broken family going to end up at the end of the book.

While reading I was torn between which parent I felt was the “villain” of the story. Tillie’s Dad, who Tillie dislikes even into her adulthood, is dispassionate and treats her like a child. While Mara, who tries to be a good mother, fails Tillie by being unable to overcome her problem. Due to Tillie being treated as a child and never really being told what is going on between her parents, the reader never knows the whole story of what has happened until the end of the book.

In the end I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book. The story about a complicated mother-daughter relationship isn’t something I would go for normally, but Susan Henderson has created a touchy story with just enough mystery to keep me engaged. Add to that a handful of characters who all stand out in my mind as being memorable and that story you are left with is one that you will be thinking about after you’ve finished the book. I’ve already recommend the book to one of my friends, but I think you should check it out as well.

Second Opinions:
My 5 Monkeys
Simply Wait
camera-obscura

This weekend is Portland’s annual Pirate Festival! I went this morning. Here are some pictures…

I find that I am currently being drawn to books with short chapters. Books like Tales from the City or Jennifer Government where each chapter is no more than three pages long. It’s easier to pick up and put down the book. While I was reading Catching Fire I would naturally want to finish a chapter before I put the book down for a break. If I had something pressing to attend to, I wouldn’t consider reading any of it because I knew I wouldn’t be able to commit to an entire chapter.

In my personal writing I also write in short chapters with each chapter ranging from 800-1,500 words depending on what’s happening. In my mind I think this is where a lot of books will be headed due to the ADD nature of society where sitting down for an hour to do nothing but read is hard to do. We all get distracted by the Facebooks and Twitters. My phone is always within reach and while reading I admit that I will check it from time to time. Call me a product of the social media, but I think most people are the same way, constantly checking to see if somebody wrote on their wall.

Anyway, anybody have any thoughts on short chapters versus long chapters? I’d be curious to hear them.

Modern Ranch Living (Hardcover)
by Mark Jude Poirier
Miramax Books, September 2004
304 Pages

My blood stained (the joy of buying books used), signed first edition of Modern Ranch Living has been sitting on my bookshelf for about two years now. It was one of those books that came recommended to me but wasn’t one I would consider reading if I came across it in the bookshop. Modern Ranch Living centers around two characters living in the blistering hot city of Tuscon in Arizona. Merv is a 30-something who dropped out of college and still lives at home with his mom. He manages to local water park and occasionally goes on dates with girls. Then there is Kendra, a health nut in ever sense of the word, who spends her time working out, being anti-social, and anger management sessions with a theorist. Early on in the books Kendra’s acquaintance, Petey, vanishes without a trace. It slowly begins to dawn on Kendra that her former friend-with-benefits might not have run away but something worse had happened to him.

I suspected that this book would revolve around Petey’s disappearance. Maybe Kendra would quit being such a jerk and actually give a damn about her friend missing. With her upper body strength she could have easily threatened anyone who got in her way. But, alas, Kendra’s story is more about her making friends and dealing with issues in school.

Merv’s story is less tied in to Petey’s disappearance. All Merv does is deal with his crazy mother and deal with insecurities about being 30 and working at a water park. Eventually he does come in to his own and moves out and gets a better job. But that is all that happens to him in this story.

It may sound like I didn’t like this book. That’s incorrect. While the scope of the book is nowhere near what I expected it to be, I did enjoy reading it. What is lacked in interesting plot developments it made up for in the characters that inhabited this surely fictional town of Tuscon. Every character has a tragic flaw which is obvious to the reader, but you get the impression that the other characters can not see what is wrong. Kendra’s brother, for instance, is a recluse who for some reason has stolen jock straps from the guys at his school. Merv’s mother tends to wake up early in the morning and wonder the neighborhood with kitchen appliances.

While there may not be an obvious compelling plot to this book, the characters involved here are what make this book enjoyable and interesting to read.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game is based off of the popular Scott Pilgrim graphic novels (see previous post #1 and #2 if you don’t know what I am talking about). The story is your typical boy meets girl, boy lesbians girl, boy must defeat girl’s seven evil exes. In the book it is up to Scott to defeat the exes since he is the one dating Ramona. However, in the game you can play as Scott, Ramona, Kim, and Stephen. It’s possible to play the single player game as a character other than Scott but doing so completely destroys the story. Why would Stephen, the lead singer in Scott’s band, go and single handedly defeat Ramona’s exes. There’s nothing in it for him, nothing for him to gain. Same thing with Kim, drummer and Scott’s ex.

In order to make the game playable I made up stories that take the place of “defeat Ramona’s exes” in case I find myself playing as someone other than Scott. Let’s face it, without a story holding the game together it’s impossible to keep interested in this beat’em up game.

Ramona Flowers vs. the World: The Game
One would think that after an appropriate amount of time Ramona’s exes would have gotten over her. Instead they constantly send her friend requests on Facebook, are sending her Tweets, and have from time-to-time shown up at her work. She’s fed up with it. It’s time for Ramona to teach her exes what the meaning of “we’re through” is even if she has to beat it in to them. After beating all seven of the exes, Ramona enjoys to solitude. It might be a little lonely, not being the center of attention, so maybe she’ll get a cat. And one cat turns in to three or four and before you know, Ramona because that “cat lady” who lives above your apartment. Ramona will wonder why she can’t get another boyfriend, but you’ll know why. It’s the all of her cats and the smell that comes with them.

Kim Pine vs. the World: The Game
Kim comes from a broken home. He father left before her first birthday, and her mother refuses to talk about it. Her mom has dated other men, searching for a replacement father figure. But every time she got comfortable with them they left. After Kim’s mother passed away in a car crash one snowy night after being dumped again, Kim was forced to live on the streets and support herself. She learned to fight to protect herself from the scary hobos of Montreal. Life turned around and eventually was taken in to foster care (or the canadian equivalent) and started life over again. At last she had a family, but her anger towards men remained. Her violent outburst can not be contained and all of her friends are worried about her rage issues but are too afraid to say anything. Only after Kim’s seventh violent outbreak do her friends sit her down and tell her how worried they all are about her. There are tears and a lot of hugs. Too ashamed to face her friends after that, Kim retreats to the Chic-Choc Mountains where she manages the local tavern and is able to beat up the occasional drunk without anybody noticing.

Stephen Stills vs. the World: The Game
In what may be the least expected plot twist (and the least cared about) in the Scott Pilgrim books was that Stephen Stills is gay. He finally came out to Scott 10 pages before the end of Volume 5. Nobody saw that coming. The reason for that was because it took 5 volumes for Stephen to accept who he is. At first he was like “Oh dude no, I can’t be gay. I’ll date a girl or something to prove.” But that, naturally, doesn’t work out. His confusion turns to self-hatred and he becomes incredibly homophobic. To prove his manliness, he sets out to beat up the seven toughest people around, who just happen to be Ramona’s exes. As he defeats each ex, he learns a little about himself. Upon defeating Ramona’s final ex, he earns the power of acceptance and is finally able to admit to himself and his friends that he likes dudes. Stephen and his boyfriend go on to open a bed and breakfast in Saint-Georges.

Next time, I’ll explore the story’s of the two hidden characters in the game.

I had set a goal for myself to reach the 20,000 word mark on this thing I am tentatively calling “my first novel”. I know, every English major has a “first novel” their working on, so why should I be any different? I came up 5,000ish words short and reached 15,635. I good deal of those words, however, is the word “that” which seems to be one of my favorite words to use. I have a problem. I admit it.

My goal for September is to hit the 35,000 mark before October. Possible? Sure, if I can type 1,000 words a day.