Started Reading: January 12, 2008
Finished Reading: Januay 12, 2008

The world in which The Black Jewels Trilogy takes place is dark, filled with sadists, masochists, sex, violence, and ambition. Thrown in this epic are a lot of characters - demons, slaves, witches, the undead, and other different races. It has a good plot but –

The characters are terribly generic and it’s easy to get bored with their reactions from time to time. Saetan is always surprised at the things that Jaenelle does when really, he should just get used to it. He’s always stopping himself from wringing her neck, it’s ridiculous.

And it’s irritating that Jaenelle is such an omnipotent Witch. She goes to places that none of the supposedly powerful lords have ever visited. I mean, I wouldn’t mind if she did have every kind of ability out there but please, shouldn’t her guardians and mentors at least have some experiences with the unknown? The older characters needn’t have the experience on everything but at least they should know just a part of what Jaenelle has seen, experiences evenly distributed among them so that they’d have enough knowledge and background to make their reputations believable. Their inexperience and, yes, ignorance makes them seem toddlers as compared to Jaenelle who’s always surprising everyone.

And the only thing that the males know are sex and violence. As if we haven’t got enough of that in Daemon.

(more…)

Finished Reading: November 19, 2007

This has just made my favorites list.

I really like Audrina because she is not perfect in every way. She can be weak. Sometimes she lacks that backbone and some spirit. But there are times where she’s also surprisingly strong as she tries to face issues in her life. Maybe she had been almost perfect, but the growth she undergoes adds layers of character in her and her development is one of the very good things about this story.

Even the other characters are interesting, too. I like the twist within the story, the horror of Audrina’s past, and even the Whitefern family with the issues among Audrina’s father, her mother, and her aunt. Her father, even with his good looks and easy personality, can also be very cruel. Her aunt, even with her hardness, is able to show a soft side. Vera is not just a villain — she’s a villain with a motive. Arden, too, is not the perfect lover. He’s got his flaws like any man, although I just wish he tried to understand Audrina’s adverseness to sex for the first part of their life together. I mean, he knew what happened to her. I don’t know why she got most of the blame in that aspect of their relationship when she could not help it at first.

Although the plot is too screwed up for reality, the characters are not far from the everyday man and woman who walks down the street.

Neiderman really won’t ever compare to Andrews. Unfortunately or fortunately for him or anyone else.

Started Reading: November 12, 2007
Finished Reading: November 12, 2007

Found and borrowed Celeste from the library this afternoon. It was written by the ghostwriter who uses V.C. Andrews‘ name but there’s still quite a big difference as to their writing styles. I can’t really point it out…maybe if I’d read more, but Andrews’ touched me the way the ghostwriter couldn’t. Sometimes I think Andrews brings me deeper into the consciousness of the characters and that makes me understand them more than those by the ghostwriter. I didn’t like Celeste enough or didn’t feel for her enough. She just didn’t stick to me like Chris and Cathy did. There’s just that feeling of difference both in story and characters. Not in the plot literally but in the way they’ve been developed. I can’t help but compare because it is, after all, written under V.C. Andrews’ name.

I’m not sure if I want to continue with the other Gemini books in the series. What I’d really love to do is to have the third book in the Dollanganger series. I tried to search for it in ADMU’s library, but they only have the recent ones written by the ghostwriter and Petals on the Wind. D:

I just read Petals on the Wind, the second book after Flowers in the Attic. One day I’ll find copies of both that I needn’t buy online. D:

In a way, Cathy reminded me of Magdalen from Wilkie Collins‘ No Name. Both of them planned to have revenge - and acted upon it - while they both had siblings who didn’t. Chris for Cathy and Norah for Magdalen. Cathy and Magdalen were both hurt and had endured a lot of suffering that needn’t have come their way if the didn’t set out to take vengeance with so much hatred. However, in the end, they both had their happy ending.

I could sympathize with Cathy mostly because if I were her and experienced those three and more years in the attic, I would have wanted revenge as much as she did. I would probably be too cowardly to actually carry it out but I would have wanted to make my mother suffer too. And when you’re a child, you grow with the hurt and the hate that even when you’re an adult and you know its wrong, those ugly memories just creeps in and banishes good conscience.

Started Reading: November 10, 2007
Finished Reading: November 10, 2007

I finally read V.C. Andrews‘ Flowers in the Attic. I couldn’t help but cry at the sufferings of the Foxworth/Dollanganger children. I could feel just how hurt and betrayed they felt after their mother fed them hopes but never really properly loved them. I asked the question, “Was there anyone in real life who’d do that to their own children or grandchildren?” And came up with the answer: Yes. There are dads who rape their daughters, brothers and cousins who do the same, and parents who kill their children so there must be mothers who’d feed their children arsenic.