Okay, so I have a lot of books to talk about @internrachel @julia1!

So, first I read an advance reader’s copy of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, 205 pages. It was a YA novel at its most mediocre, and kind of painful to finish. The plot was overused, the prose stilted, and the entire book was just sort of irritating. I did, however, have fun coming up with a long list of adjectives to describe how much it sucked (I have to review it), so that moderately improved the experience.

Then I read High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (253 pages) which was absolutely amazing. I wish I had gotten to it about a month ago when I had just been dumped, because it probably would have been even more striking then, but it was an amazing novel and I couldn’t put it down. The writing was just so alive–the characters practically leapt (slouching) out of the novel, and it was one of those books where every few pages you encounter a sentence or two that feels like it was written just about you.

Also, I just realized my copy is actually from Britain (I picked it up in a used bookstore), which, though I’m not typically an anglophile, makes it twice as awesome.

And finally, I just finished Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik (411 pages), which was pretty much classic Palahnuik. I think the gross/horrifying factor was definitely upped in this one, but on the whole I really liked it. I’m a little disappointed just because other Palahnuik books have that sense, even in the writing, of spiraling out of control, which this one, I think because of it’s fixed format (narration, poem, short story/vignette) lacked, but ultimately it was still pretty amazing. Not for the weak of stomached, however.