Forgettable Books
Top 5 Wednesday is a group challenge created by Lainey and run by Sam that includes a new book-related topic every week. Check out the goodreads group for topics and to interact with the community.
This week's Top Five Wednesday, we're talking about books we've read, whether we liked or disliked them at the time, that just haven't stayed with us.
5. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
This week's Top Five Wednesday, we're talking about books we've read, whether we liked or disliked them at the time, that just haven't stayed with us.
5. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
This novel lives in kind of a strange middle ground where, despite the fact that the story itself was very forgettable to me, the series is popular enough and the cover is iconic enough that I don't actually forget having read it so much as I forget the details.
As I mentioned in my review (and everyone else mentioned in all of their reviews), this book is sort of just a hodgepodge of tropes and scenes from other popular young adult dystopian stories (like The Hunger Games, The Selection and Divergent) and so when thinking of Red Queen, I have a hard time remembering what happened in this book vs what was pulled from other sources. I could give you a basic plot summary, and I could probably tell you who's bad and who's good, but beyond that, I don't know and I don't really care.
As I mentioned in my review (and everyone else mentioned in all of their reviews), this book is sort of just a hodgepodge of tropes and scenes from other popular young adult dystopian stories (like The Hunger Games, The Selection and Divergent) and so when thinking of Red Queen, I have a hard time remembering what happened in this book vs what was pulled from other sources. I could give you a basic plot summary, and I could probably tell you who's bad and who's good, but beyond that, I don't know and I don't really care.
I think I'm one of the few people I've seen who has read this book and actually really liked it, but I still couldn't really tell you what happened. I feel like as much as I enjoyed the atmosphere and I know that the writing style managed to perfectly emulate what it's like to be a kid in a small town during the summertime, I was forgetting what was happening even as I was reading it. Despite giving it a solid four stars, I often forget that I ever even read this book to begin with.
3. The Warhol Gang by Peter Darbyshire
I own this book. I have passed over unhauling this book several times because I know I have a vague notion of having really liked it when I read it. I'm pretty sure there is a scene involving mechanical (holographic maybe?) sharks because I'm pretty sure I had a nightmare after reading about them. But other than that, I literally could not tell you a single thing about this story. I'm pretty sure it's Canadian, which is cool, and I'm fairly certain it's set in a dystopian future full of tech, but these are honestly things that I pulled from skimming the back cover. But I know I have read this book.
I own this book. I have passed over unhauling this book several times because I know I have a vague notion of having really liked it when I read it. I'm pretty sure there is a scene involving mechanical (holographic maybe?) sharks because I'm pretty sure I had a nightmare after reading about them. But other than that, I literally could not tell you a single thing about this story. I'm pretty sure it's Canadian, which is cool, and I'm fairly certain it's set in a dystopian future full of tech, but these are honestly things that I pulled from skimming the back cover. But I know I have read this book.
After reading the Howl's Moving Castle trilogy, which is probably my favourite series of all time, I went on a Diana Wynne Jones kick, and this book was included in that. I'm fairly certain that I've read it, because I remember burning through several of her books, but I just... cannot... remember... anything... about it. This is another book that I've passed over unhauling for years and years, and so I really want to re-read it just to remember what it's about, and to remember how wonderful and whimsical Wynne Jones' writing is.
1. Unnatural Creatures, edited by Neil Gaiman
Like many others, Neil Gaiman has never really done me wrong, particularly in his middle-grade ventures. So when I saw that he had put together a short story collection of middle-grade creature features, I had to buy it and read it immediately. I did, and I liked it, but I don't remember a single story inside it, save for the one about bees. And that's just because I really, really love bees. And now that I'm thinking about it, I'm doubting whether or not that story was featured in this particular collection.
xx May B.
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