Young Writers discussion

Ok, so the past two days I read and (I literally just finished it. I've been reading for hours, unable to move) and now my brain has exploded. Ahh!!!!! Has someone here read the trilogy to help me get over it? I feel like a pile of mush. And my brain hurts.

I still need to read those, Naomi! I've heard such good things about them. Lol that was like me reading The Raven King the other day ... I spent like all day Tuesday reading it, and I felt like my brain might explode. :P

Oh, I guess I should say I actually finished reading yesterday and I liked it a lot. It was strange though because Kurt Vonnegut's writing style is exactly the type of writing style I've been working towards and I had never read him until now. It makes me a bit sad to see how many people don't like it. I understand why because the writing style isn't for everyone, but it truly is a good and interesting book. I'm a big fan of absurdist humor though -- this and The Trial and Catch-22, for instance.

I read Slaughterhouse-Five when I was like 15 and didn't like it at the time, but I've recently felt like I should re-read it. From what I remember, I thought it was interesting conceptually but I just didn't understand what was happening in it half the time. So ... I don't know, I should probably read it again. :P

Anyway I am a little over 100 pages into:



.... Yes, I will probably be Rick Riordan trash forever, and I don't care. But anyway, so far I'm really enjoying it. Apollo is hilarious, and I'm happy to see some of the old PJO characters again!

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "I read Slaughterhouse-Five when I was like 15 and didn't like it at the time, but I've recently felt like I should re-read it. From what I remember, I thought it was interesting conceptually but I ..."

I pre-ordered a copy for my brother's birthday present and I can't wait until I have time to read it. I love Apollo. (And Percy and pretty much everything by Rick Riordan tbh)

Right now the main thing I'm reading is . I recently finished and and also (Even my World Lit class had a play assigned, ahaha.) SO MANY PLAYS.

I just finished and I haven't laughed this much from a book for a while. I love Libba Bray and this was no exception.

@Megan - Same, same. Apollo is great. :D I'm like halfway through it right now and it's really good (and it has more of a plot than I expected??).

@Naomi - Omg yes, I loved Beauty Queens. Few books have made me laugh so much. I really loved those "commercials" between chapters, haha. And yeah I just love anything Libba Bray writes, honestly. Her books are always so crazy (in a good way).

Just finished and I really enjoyed it. I had seen the movie beforehand, but I still thought it was really good. Now I dont know what to read next. Hmmm

I've only read five chapters so far but I already love this book so much.

Currently reading , which I'm liking, and , a book of German short stories which is pretty dry so far but that I want to persevere with.

I read (the play the film The Riot Club was adapted from) the other day all in one sitting in a library and it was so good. So good, and one of the best things I've read thus far this year. I get the impression a lot of the reason people don't like the play and the film (which I haven't seen, but which I'm really going to have to watch) is because they don't like the characters, but I assure you that we are not meant to like these characters and that there are real boys out there in real life just like them. Unfortunately, I seem to study alongside a lot of them. And you know these are the sorts of things that they say, and the way Laura Wade approached the whole thing was so scathing and hilarious ('[they] think you're a high roller if you go to Café Rouge without a voucher' and 'How do you make an Eton Mess?' - 'tell him he only got into Bristol?' oh my god...I was cackling...).
I also found it cool because I'm really interested in Englishness because I think it's something we're always like...angsting about and imo it's difficult to craft a sense of identity when that identity is forged in terms of 'what we aren't' instead of 'what we are' (if that makes sense). Also Englishness is so often steeped in class and tied to The Establishment™ - and eg these characters, who grow up to become our mayors and prime ministers and whatever else, talk once about their connection to the past and how like...noble it is that their kind have watched over the country for so long, as if it's their divine right to continue to hold it, and as if the 'rest' of us don't have a right to or a 'true' relationship with our past. It's fascinating to think about. There are writers who write about England and Englishness in a 'nice' way (light of my life John Betjeman, Dodie Smith, Julia Strachey) but there is so much...ugliness to it and I think it's interesting and useful to examine those kinds of things. Also, the play will be such a useful document in twenty, thirty years' time of the Tory hell we suffer under current political climate.

Before that, it was , which I adored. It has such a fairy-tale quality.

Before that, two graphic novels: (my second Rutu Modan book, and even better than Jamilti, I love her!), and , which I really liked because it felt like such an immersive experience - I really enjoy reading graphic novels but they're often so short they seem to end as soon as you've got into them (looking @ u Blue is the Warmest Colour), but Munnu must be about 400 pages which I read over several days, and I much preferred that experience, which felt much like that of being drawn into a 'real' novel.

Recently finished:



HOLY SMOKES it was one of the most intense things I've ever read. Amazing book, amazing end to the series. I don't know why it took me so long to finally get to it, but I'm glad I did.

And now I'm reading:



It's kind of like a ... hipster Narnia. I like it. And the illustrations are amazing.

Hi everyone! I've noticed this thread is getting really long, which subsequently has made it a bit glitchy (it takes approximately a hundred years to post a new comment). So I've decided to close it and start a new thread. Head on over to the new thread to keep discussing books!

- Brigid