6. 'The Road' - Cormac McCarthy

This is another one of those books that I felt like I should have enjoyed because it seems to be so astronomically popular. I just couldn't really bring myself to, though. The problem that I ran into with this book is that while it is incredibly descriptive, the plot just doesn't catch my attention. It just seems so drawn out when, truthfully, very little really happened. They wanted to get to the coast. So, they started walking down a very well depicted ashy road. They ran out of food. They found food. They ran out of food. They found a bunker full of food. They ran out of food. They found a boat with food. They started to run out of food... and the dad died. So, what happened to the boy? Oh, well, it turns out that they were being followed... by a friendly band of wanderers (for a change) and so he's going to go off with them and be just ducky... or so it's presumed. The ending was just as anticlimactic as the rest of the novel. It just seemed too bland for a book that was plagued with that problem throughout its entirety.

I think that part of my problem with this might be that I can't truly understand the bond of unconditional love that is found between a parent and their child. Having no children of my own, it's hard to imagine feeling so strongly about someone that you would give your life for them readily. That's a huge part of this novel which didn't really come as a surprise since I expected it when I read the description of the book.

So, yeah. His writing is beautiful, in a way. I can't stand the fact that he uses punctuation very sparingly, but I guess it fits the tone of the book somehow. It's just too difficult for me, as someone that adores proper grammar and spelling, to read without having to pause and take stock of what I just attempted to absorb on a pretty regular basis. It took too much effort for a book that really has nothing in terms of length about it. At least... it definitely doesn't compared to the other book I'm working on right now... Under the Dome... which is huge.

All in all, I guess I'm kind of glad that I read the book only so that I can check it off my list of post-apocalyptic fiction that I needed to read. Typically, that's my favorite genre. I can't help that I didn't like this one, though. I've just read things that are far better written and actually told a story rather than just threw a whole bunch of adjectives together to form some sentences. And I use the term 'sentences' loosely, since some consisted of two works... that didn't even form a complete idea... yet the period was there. Oh well.

Rating: 1/5

5. 'Shutter Island' - Dennis Lehane

It took me a little while to finish this book. It's entirely my own fault for it, though, because I didn't give it enough of a chance. The first fifty or so pages were kind of slow, but the pace definitely picked up as time passed. While I set it down to start Under The Dome, I sincerely wish that I wouldn't have. Once it picked up, the book was too fabulous to put down. The rest of this little review is going to feature specific plot details. Don't read it if you want to enjoy the book itself. I would recommend that... believe me... because it's a fabulous novel. If you want it to be ruined, then by all means please continue. I've got nothing bad to say about it... not really... so take that into consideration.

This book is about a US Marshal that is sent to investigate a situation involving an escaped mental patient on Shutter Island. At least, that's what one is made to believe. Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, are the marshals that arrive just before a massive hurricane the shuts the island down completely. The novel follows the next four days of their lives on the rock as they try to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of Rachel Solando, a patient that murdered her three children after her husband was killed during the war.. Slowly, Teddy begins to reveal pieces of his past to his new colleague, including the fact that the man who set the fire which killed his wife, Dolores, in their former apartment complex, Andrew Laeddis, is also housed at the facility. Teddy, it seems, is on a quest to avenge his wife's murder and while investigating Rachel, he also attempts to find Laeddis.

Several plots and sketchy plans later, Chuck goes missing and Teddy finds the missing Rachel. Apparently, she's actually a doctor on the island that decided she's not exactly down for the weird experiments that they're supposedly conducting. She goes off about ghost people with no memories or lives of their own which is all very convincing to our Agent Teddy. He's about to escape when he decides that he just can't leave his partner to suffer that fate... so he goes off in search of him at the lighthouse that has been the one place he's wanted to investigate but couldn't. He gets there with little difficulty and it turns out that there's a very good reason why. Teddy is actually Andrew Laeddis, and the house fire that forced them to leave their apartment was started by his very mentally unstable wife. The three children that Rachel killed? It was his wife that killed their three children. He's actually a patient at the hospital and they're trying a radical roleplaying therapy to try to get him to face up to the fact that he killed his wife in retribution just after he discovered the bodies of the children floating in the lake behind their house. He failed his family and it was that which he couldn't handle. It caused his psychotic break... and that partner that went missing? It's actually his doctor. The therapy worked... for all of maybe five pages. The book ends with him sitting on the step outside with Chuck, wondering if they've caught on to what they're doing. Chuck just waves the other doctor and group of orderlies over...

I usually don't do plot summaries. I actually tend to hate them, but there was no way to talk about my reaction to the book without completely ruining the ending. So much of the story is the ending. Honestly, I wanted to go back immediately and read it all again to pick out the little clues. Truthfully, they were kind of obvious in spots, but I never picked up on them because it's not exactly what I would have expected. I guess I wasn't entirely shocked because the dreams that Teddy had throughout his time on the island kind of hinted toward this. I really wasn't sure that I wanted to believe that Lehane had went there... because I genuinely liked Teddy. I wanted him to not be crazy because he seemed like such a likable guy in his own way. The same went with Chuck, of course, and to find out that the two characters that you adored throughout the book weren't even real is kind of disheartening. I think that's what the author was going for, though... he wanted you to be dumbfounded that he would completely throw everything we knew out the window in the last act. I think he wanted you to like them so that he could torture you when you discover that they're not really there.

This book is one of my new favorites. Now, I guarantee that I'll read it again, but probably only once to pick up on all the little hints that the author gives us throughout the novel. After that, I doubt that I'll touch it again. It's a fabulous piece of psychological literature, but the problem is that the magic is gone. Knowing the ending makes the idea of the journey a far more disappointing one... because really, what's the point in traveling if you know precisely where you're going to end up all the time? There's no adventure in it and without adventure there's no point. Perhaps I'll write more on the subject later, but for the time being this is all.

Rating: 5/5

4. 'The Princess Bride' - William Goldman

Frankly, I rarely expect to like a movie better than I like the book. In the case of The Princess Bride, however, I have to make an exception. The book was great. There's absolutely no denying the fact that Goldman's 'abridged' novel was kind of a genius marketing technique. I'm wondering how many people were convinced there really was a longer edition and sought it out. I'm straying from the point, though, since the point is to talk about the book itself. I liked it. I really really did. I more or less expected to since the movie is one of my absolute favorites in the world.

It follows the story of the love between Buttercup and the hired help at her family's farm, Westley. It takes an incredibly long amount of time for the former to realize how she adores the latter, but once she finally does she is heartbroken when he informs her that he is leaving. His intent is to build a life for them so that he can return to her and give her all that she deserves. Unfortunately, she is mistakenly informed that he is killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts and thus begins her journey to the throne as she is drawn in by the nefarious Prince Humperdink. A kidnapping ensues and she discovers that Westley is not, in fact, dead... though he is under the impression that her love was far from true. She abandons him with the expectation that he'll be fine though that's too far from the truth to even be imaginable.

I have no intention of doing a full plot summary because frankly it's just easier to point everyone to the movie. It'll take you under two hours and really is worth it in the long run. I'm just glad that this book was an easy read because I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if it hadn't been. The truth is that I just didn't like Buttercup in the novel. She's childish and a little bit immature, which I understand is actually quite typical for teenage girls... but as she grows up it really should change... and yet it doesn't. Her apparent love for Westley seems like nothing more than a schoolgirl crush in the beginning and is only a little bit more convincing in the end. I don't know that I've ever liked a movie more than a book in the past, but here is at least one example of how excellent acting abilities can bring to life characters that just don't work well on the page. That's exactly what I think of Buttercup, anyway.

Rating: 3.5/5

3. 'The Catcher in the Rye' - J.D. Salinger

I'm going to be absolutely honest. I know that everybody and their brother lists this book as being the one that changed their life, but I feel like I maybe read this a little too late. I wanted to like it because from what I understood (or at least from what everyone I know has said) it was a brilliant piece of literature. That might have been the case if I had read it as a teenager when the problems that Holden Caulfield faced seemed a little more relevant... but I didn't. I read it as an adult and the only thing that I could think as I did so was that I wanted to knock him upside the head with something heavy. Preferably a frying pan since anyone who knows me and my literary obsessions will recall my love for Lord of the Rings' Sam Gamgee... but that's beside the point. The point is, Caulfield did nothing but annoy me for page after page of repetitive, endless whining.

So, semi-long story short, this book is about a seventeen year-old boy that has managed to flunk out of several different schools and is currently getting kicked out of another. He whines to his roommate, gets into fights, and then leaves in the middle of the night for New York City. He goes to a hotel, hires a prostitute that he can't end up sleeping with, gets beaten up, and then whines some more. Oh, then he drinks a bunch, goes on a date that ends horribly, whines some more, and then potentially gets assaulted by his former teacher. All the while, he's plotting his escape... because we all know that running away is the best answer when you get pissed off. Did I mention that he drones on endlessly about how much he hates everyone? Because there's some of that, too. Maybe a few other things happen, but I think this more or less covers the basics.

Truthfully, this book made me never want to hear the word 'phony' again. Everything seemed to be phony, but the truth (in my opinion anyway) is that Caulfield was the most phony individual of the bunch. I'm sorry, but there's no way for any teenager to be that fucking cynical. They haven't had the life experience to make them hate existence as much as any adult I know. I guess I just don't have the patience for that degree of melodrama. My life has been fucked up and you don't find me bitching about it to anyone that'll listen. Ok... maybe that's not entirely true, but I can't possibly be as obnoxious as Caulfield tends to be. At least I know when to stop. So, he spends the entirety of the novel complaining about how phony everyone else is without ever pausing to take stock of just what kind of impression he's making on the world. His disaffected attitude toward society as a whole is not fooling anyone. They all know he's just a scared, miserable little child. It's just too bad he didn't realize it sooner.

I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to take from this book. Maybe the point was missed on me because I'm not a seventeen year-old boy... or a seventeen year-old in general. Maybe I didn't get it because experience has taught me that depression happens but it doesn't necessarily mean you have to drink yourself into a stupor and moan to anyone who'll listen to manage it... and that it's not possible to hate everyone that you meet because almost all of them have at least one redeeming quality that makes their existence worth your acknowledgment.
Rating: 1/5

2. 'To Kill A Mockingbird' - Harper Lee

I can understand why so many people feel the need to read this book. Atticus Finch might very well be one of the greatest characters ever brought to life. The truth is that I rarely find anything worth five stars in my eyes, but that's how I felt while I was reading Mockingbird. The story surrounds the lives of one Southern family...

Rating: 5/5