Fiction Treasures

Same rules, possible spoilers ahead

I didn’t like the second story here as much as the first. Tess is a mystery writer, driving home from an appearance. She runs into car trouble and then real trouble when the good Samaritan that stops to help her turns out to be the opposite. Tess starts to go slightly insane in the aftermath of her attack.

I enjoyed the point of view of a successful author, even though she didn’t seem to appreciate it all that much. The whole thing seemed to move really quickly but also dragged in spots. I got kind of frustrated with how she handled everything, and how impulsively she did it. She took some leaps of logic that turned out to be mostly right, but were pretty risky. Who would have guessed that the person organizing her appearance and her attacker were connected?

Overall, it was okay, but it didn’t seem planned as well as 1922.

This is my first Stephen King book unless you count his autobiography. I’m not a fan of horror so I’d never picked him up before. I kinda thought he was overrated but I stand corrected. Since this book has four stories in it, I’m going to review each one separately.

Spoiler Alert, if anyone cares about that.

1922 was the first story. A man’s wife wants to sell their land and move to the city. He doesn’t want to. After I finished the story, I had to pause and take it all in, and it amazed me that that’s what the entire plot boiled down to. Because of that, Wilfred killed his wife. Because of that, his son Henry went wild. The rats were attracted to the body and started infiltrating the house. They reminded Wilfred of his guilt, along with his son’s disappearance. His infected bite along with grief over Henry caused him to go mad, causing him to lose the farm that he killed for in the first place.

It’s like a domino effect, circling around back to the first one. His characters were also very believable. After one novella, I’m impressed. Stephen King is a master of his craft.

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury

A character who you can relate to the most.

The first one that comes to mind is Una Meredith from the later Anne books. She’s quiet and shy, mostly ignored, and experiences unrequited love because of it.

Edit: Okay I forgot the original answer I thought of for this question. Lena from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She’s the quiet one, but also probably the smartest, most mature and has the most common sense. The general consensus is that she’s beautiful but not in the way that most beautiful people are popular and attract attention. She’s also played by Alexis Bledel in the movie, who everyone says is my twin. So I relate to her the most.

Your favorite book of all time.

Didn’t we already have this question? Favorite book by favorite writer…favorite book you own…favorite quote from favorite book…yup. Those are all the same for me. If your favorite writer is your favorite, why shouldn’t they write your favorite book of all time?

So hands down, it’s still The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. I’ve already spelled out why I love it in half of the other posts.

So there we go, 30 days of books. Now I need a new challenge I guess. Or I should review more books or something.

A book everyone hated but you liked.

Not to get repetitive, but 50 Shades of Grey was a very polarizing book. Fans loved it, people who read a lot weren’t really a big fan. I enjoyed her characterizations and the fact that a first time writer created a cohesive plot like that. Maybe it wasn’t intellectual or the next great novel, but for meeting the criteria of what it is (smutty romance novel), it’s not bad.

Favorite title.

These questions just keep getting harder towards the end. Picking one at random from my Goodreads, I like the title Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet by Joanne Proulx. It perfectly illustrates the plot without being too vague or giving it away. Read it, it’s good.

The most surprising plot twist or ending.

Ohhh this is difficult. I’m going to go with the most recent one that comes to mind, Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire. It was terribly long and slow, but the end of the book was full of so many twists and turns and surprises.

A book that changed your opinion about something.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer was unlike any book I’d ever read at the time. I don’t really like books narrated by kids, or ‘mixed media’ kind of things, how there are pictures and stuff all through it, or with depressing themes, but it really surprised me.

Probably didn’t take the question as literally as it was meant, but this is all I could think of.

A book that you wish more people would’ve read.

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. I discovered it by accident and fell in love. When I worked in a bookstore, it was my staff recommends pick.

A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t.

This list is way too long, I can’t pinpoint one book. There are a ton of classics I haven’t read.

Favorite book you own.

Considering I own my favorite book of all time, The Blue Castle, I guess that’s the correct answer here.

Favorite book from your childhood.

And I thought the romance question was hard. I read so many books growing up that I can’t remember them all. I’m going to say the Thoroughbred series by Joanna Campbell. It was the first series I read from book 1 to the end and I was completely obsessed.