Yzabel / June 16, 2012

Review: Silver Knight

Silver KnightSilver Knight by Caron Rider

My rating: [rating=3]

[I got the ebook version to review through a We ♥ YA Books ARR.]

Silver Knight is a book I enjoyed reading, but that left me confused at times.

First, I must say that I liked the overall plot. It seemed intriguing at first—’a girl realizing that the priest in a certain YouTube video is actually a man she met in a former life—and it kept on being so. What could have been easily solved, and apparently is, also raises more questions and issues. Is the problem addressed in the video solved at the end of the book? Not so much, and it clearly points at a sequel and at a more complex story. I’m sure I’m not the only one who found some elements pretty fishy.

The characters I found appealing. Diana, among others, struck me as a strong enough persona, thanks to her decisions and actions in the present timeline, as well as to what was shown of her in her past lives, that nicely echo elements from the main plotline. Besides, I’ve always had a sweet spot for different readings of historical events (same with historical characters), and the stories the author conveyed here were interesting: the retelling of Helen’s fate, Alexander’s real identity (I didn’t need much to guess it, but it was still nice to read about), what happened in Pompeii… Although some might say those were contrived, I nevertheless thought them told originally enough.

However, those past lives and events were also what left me confused: I’d say there were just a little too many of them, all the more so that they were interspersed with other characters’ points of view. While those were interesting, they contributed to making the main plot difficult to follow at times, as well as having it appear a little weak (in that if you remove the parts about the past lives, there isn’t that much left, come to think of it). I understand that the ‘past lives aspect’ is an important part of the novel’s pitch, and that it’s important to have it in; it just seems to me that it was too much to chew on all at once, and that some of it might have been better kept off until the second installment.

That said, it was a good story, and I will probably read the sequel.

Yzabel / June 15, 2012

Review: The Feminine Mystique

As I mentioned in another post, I don’t have that much time to write these days. However, since I still want to add some content to this blog, I’m going to do it all the same, by posting a few of the book reviews I’ve written in the past weeks. Let’s start with:

The Feminine MystiqueThe Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

My rating: [rating=3]

This book was quite interesting, in that it allowed me to get a closer look at feminism in a period and in a country I’m currently studying about for an exam. It helped me delve deeper into something I thought I knew, yet didn’t know that much. Now I understand much better how and why it must have had quite an impact at the time of its first publication. I have experienced myself some of the feelings the author describes—not as a mother and housewife (which I am not), but because there was a time when I was searching for something more than get-married-and-settle-in-the-suburb, too, and felt like there was much more to my life than what I had at the time. In that regard, it pretty much hit home as far as I’m concerned, regarding the memories I have of that bygone period of my life.

Somehow, I even wonder if we’re so far from the issue. Even very recently, I was told “why don’t you find yourself a man?”, as if this would be the solution to everything. Would it, really?

I didn’t like it “more than that”, though, for the reason that it was a somehow tedious read in our era. The author seems to drag a little too much on some aspects, repeating them several times—I get it that she wanted to drive her point home, and I don’t doubt that it was needed at the time, but it made it hard for me to focus at some point, feeling that this or that section wouldn’t bring me more.

Yzabel / June 13, 2012

Toying with themes

Because I was so fed up with revising all day long…

… I spent a couple of hours tonight toying with themes, to try and find something new for this blog. After all, the former theme dated back to 2005 or so; it was high time for a change, wasn’t it?

I still don’t know if I’ll go with the present one in the end, or if I’ll work on something else. I’m definitely going to add a few more things to the banner. But this will happen later. I still have much work to do in terms of school work tomorrow.

Yzabel / June 11, 2012

Book reviews: ARRs and ARCs

Part of the reasons why I’m very busy this year is that I’ve been trying to read more—I’ve always been an avid reader, but having many projects and many centers of interest make it so that I only have a little time to devote to each of those. And reading is what tends to be put on the back burner, since it’s one of my least ‘productive’ activities. (By ‘productives’, I mean ‘an activity that leaves me with a finished product, such as a piece of drawing, a chapter, a short story, etc.’ Of course reading will always be more productive to me intellectually than, say, watching TV.)

Putting aside required readings, such as those that’d be useful for my job or for my studies—I’m an eternal student, really—I’ve also been taking part from time to time in what’s usually called ARRs (Author Requested Readings) and ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies). Both are in a way similar, being offered by authors and publishers. The difference, as far as I’ve understood, is that ARCs are the step right before official publishing—a sort of last proof-reading—so of course, they’re not always perfect in terms of typos. ARRs are requested by their authors, for instance, indie authors going through self-publishing (which doesn’t mean that such novels are bad just because they’re indie, of course).

So far, I’ve only done that through a couple of groups on Goodreads, but this experience was interesting, and I may do it again elsewhere if the opportunity strikes. I’ll also post here the few reviews I wrote about such books. Some were pleasant reads; others were less interesting. I tried to remain as objective as possible when writing my critiques.

Yzabel / June 9, 2012

Revival?

It’s been a while, really.

Due to various circumstances, including several writing & drawing projects as well as my studies and a couple of competiting exams, I’ve sorely neglected this blog, and I regret it; I’ve always kept fond memories of it, and I wouldn’t like it to remain dead.

I should’ve worked on it, and upgraded it, much sooner. I got delayed (and discouraged) for a long time because of heavy problems with the database, and didn’t dare to tackle those, in fear of losing my posts and comments here. So I slowly worked on the blog now and then, saving it page by page, and finally took the plunge tonight. Fortunately, I didn’t seem to lose anything in the process, not as far as the English version is concerned. Unfortunately, my webhost doesn’t support the latest WordPress version (yet), and I have no idea where the French version of the Y Logs has gone. It probably got lost somewhere in King Oblivion’s dark domains a long time ago, because I couldn’t find it even before upgrading. I guess it’s going to remain there. I certainly don’t feel up to translating all the existing posts again (some of which are pretty much outdated and not worth it anyway). For the time being, the Y Logs will be in English only.

Right now, I don’t have much time either to properly post every day again—there’s another exam coming up in less than 10 days—but I’ve got a few plans for the blog, that I hope to work on during the summer. I’d like to use it to post book reviews, among other things. We’ll see.In any case, I’ll do my best to be active here again.

Yzabel / January 9, 2010

Review: Are You Watching?

Are You Watching?Are You Watching? by Vincent Ralph
My rating: ★★★★☆

Blurb:

Ten years ago, Jess’s mother was murdered by the Magpie Man.

She was the first of his victims, but not the last.

Now Jess is the star of a YouTube reality series and she’s using it to catch the killer once and for all.

The whole world is watching her every move.

And so is the Magpie Man.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Ten years ago, Jess’s mother was the first victim of a serial killer that proceed to claim many more—one woman every nine months since then. Tired of said killer still being at large, Jess decides to apply to a YouTube reality show that will give her one day of air time every week, which she plans to use to appeal to potential witnesses, and basically keep the case hot so that her family can finally see justice being served.

All in all, this story turned out enjoyable and fairly well-constructed overall, with a nice balance of red herrings and suspense, even though the premise is slightly over the top. (The first thing anyone should think when it comes to Jessica’s means is “if that killer’s still around it will attract their attention and she’ll be their next victim for sure”, so it’s kind of baffling that the adults around her were relatively easily on board with it—especially in that time and age, when the flip side of social media is not a mystery.) It also has something very simple, but that I enjoy in this kind of novel: short chapters (sometimes 1-2 pages long, not more), which means that, since I mainly read while commuting and during breaks, I could easily stop and pick it up again pretty much at any time, even when I only had five minutes to read. And I did want to keep reading, and knowing what would happen next.

Of course, the heroine being 17, her decisions were often reckless and bordering on stupid, which is definitely not unheard of in YA stories… On the other hand, it does make up for twists and not-so-happy consequences for the characters, so that’s that. All TSTL tendencies set apart, though, I really liked the other aspects of the story. Jess’s relationship with her close firneds. How her family has been spending the past ten years mired in grief, with her father trying to function as best as he could but never becoming who he used to be again. Her meeting the families of the other victims of the “Magpie Man”. It wasn’t only about catching a killer, but also about (re)discovering how to live after such gruesome events, after a loved one is snatched away from you—and after realising that yes, one’s actions always has consequences.

Conclusion: 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / November 18, 2007

Some Music To Write To…

It occurred to me that this year, I’ve added a new playlist to this blog to celebrate NaNoWriMo, but have also completely forgotten to actually, uhm, mention it. Considering the fact that I hadn’t changed the old playlist in more than one year, I suppose it was high time that I did so. Since I incidentally added a couple more songs between November 1st and now, here are the titles of what you can listen on it.

As a little game (and because I was asked in a comment on my ‘writing excerpts blog’, which has locked entries due to various reasons, and is mostly used during the NaNoing month anyway), I also added alternative titles. These are not to be all viewed as specific scenes in the novel, nor ar they in any particular order, but they’re the kind of titles I would give if I were to compose my own soundtrack–I cannot write without music, and I’m a sucker for soundtracks, really. If you wish, feel free to toy with these and imagine what kind of scenes they could correspond to. It’s a game I like playing as well.Read More

Yzabel / November 4, 2007

NaNoWriMo: The First Days

I doubt that this year, I’ll ever write as fast as I did in 2005, but so far, I must admit that things are going quite well. I’m not late on my word count, I even have a 1k-2k words buffer, and I’m happy about my writing: sure, it’s not the best I’m able of, but I am writing and having fun and interest about it, something I’m always afraid of losing at some point due to too many constraints falling over my head. Maybe the saying is in part right. Maybe if you want something done, you really need to give it to a busy person–provided that this person isn’t feeling too worried and depressed in her mind, that is, because I’ve also realized, in retrospective, that 2006 was bad for a certain amount of personal reasons that had nothing to do with my desire to write.

In any case, I am (re)discovering characters I thought I knew too well, my chapters make sense, my plot is slowly unveiling in front of my bewildered eyes. Even if I were to stop working on this novel right now, it would still remain a victory in my eyes. Indeed, I have absolutely no regrets about attempting NaNoWriMo again. This year, and with my mindset and the fact that I’m now well-organized in terms of schedule, it can only be a positive experience.

Yes, writing is a wonderful experience. And I really need to remind myself that no matter the lack of time, no matter the hardships of life, it is an experience that I cannot let go of. Whether I want it or not, it will always be with me, in one form or in another.

Yzabel / October 18, 2007

I have no title for such a late update

If I have to apologize each time I don’t write in one of my blogs for three months, this is going to become tiresome, because I don’t see things change in the upcoming couple of years. So no apologies. Just know that I always come back to the Y Logs sooner or later, m’kay? 🙂

Somehow, it seemed like a good idea to do a short update now, because we’re slowly nearing November and, this year again, I have finally given in and signed up for NaNoWriMo.

I’m not going to ‘win’–I don’t think so, since I have so much school assignments and personal work to complete. I’m not going to work on a completely new idea. In fact, I’m going to start from scratch again with my one-shot project. I have no intention of letting it rot after NaNo, or of taking that as a pathetic excuse to not edit it thoroughly afterward. However, the fact is that currently, I’m not writing a lot in terms of creative works (assignment and crapping out technical manuals don’t count in that regard). I haven’t been writing much at all since I’ve moved to my new location, in fact, save for a short story aimed at a call for submission (and a second one that I didn’t send: silly me misplaced the date for the deadline). Therefore, I’m placing new hopes, so to say, in the whole NaNo hype to pump me up for a time at least, and allow me to resume a more regular rhythm of writing.

I must add that my imagination pool has not dried, nor am I growing disillusioned or uninterested in writing as a whole. It’s just that when I finally have time to write, I’m usually quite tired, or feeling guilty because I’m not using that time to do more school work or go exercise or whatnot–and then I don’t write. It sucks, and I know I have to choose my priorities, but seriously I can’t make everything a priority at this point in my life. There just aren’t enough hours in a day for that! Unfortunately, what gave was writing. In three months, though, it may be something else. Who knows.

Anyway, I’m not going to post daily NaNoWriMo updates here–I wouldn’t have the time. But I wanted to bring back some life here all the same (expect a new playlist soon, too). And I hope that with NaNo incoming, I will have a couple of things about ‘writing’ in general to say. That would be a nice change, wouldn’t it…

Yzabel / July 26, 2007

Writing Site Update

For some time, I’ve been wanting to ditch the Joomla! installation on my writing website. The RSS feed wouldn’t work, the URL-rewrite mod was a horror, and I don’t know if it’s me who’re lacking in skills, or if it’s really the CMS that can be a serious pain at times, but all in all, I got tired of it. Moreover, there’s no way I want to find myself fixing stuff in emergency during the school year. So, I finally gathered my spirits, and took a couple of days to redo everything from scratch, save for the texts themselves. The CMS I replaced with WordPress, and the forum with Simple Machine Forums. I can only hope that these changes will be for the best in terms of security and efficiency.

Why am I mentioning this now? Simply because URLs have changed, so in case you had bookmarked a specific category or something, be aware that the link may not work any more.

I’ll of course welcome any remark about how I could improve it in the future (I’ll probably change the template, but I still need to work more on developing those skills).