Knives, zoos, Cinderella and dancing

[alobear]

As with several of the young adult books I've read recently, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness suffers from an unlikeable first person narrator, which made me less and less interested in the story as it went along.  I have to admit that I was put off more by his bad grammar and spelling than anything else, though - this kind of approach to narration always irritates me, and did so here more than usual because it didn't make any sense.  Yes, the narrator was practically illiterate - however, this means the narration style couldn't be representing what he would actually have written down because he wouldn't have been able to write at all.  So, it must have been representing how he was thinking or speaking the story - and who spells things wrong in their head when they talk?

Anyway, the story itself was quite intriguing, especially to begin with - and it contained the most realistic representation of broadcast telepathy I've ever come across.  If we really could hear each others' thoughts, they would indeed just be "noise", snatches of words and images and feelings in amongst a cacophony of randomness.


Zoo City by Lauren Beukes had a similarly less than heroic narrator, though she didn't put me off as much as Todd in The Knife...  I also found the concept very interesting, not least because it was quite similar to a short story I wrote a few years ago (no truly original ideas, and all that...).  The solving of the central mystery got quite messy and unpleasant, though, and it was all rather depressing overall.


My latest audio book was Phoenix and Ashes, the fourth Elemental Masters book by Mercedes Lackey - Cinderella this time.  This was also a bit grim, being set in the first world war and dealing with contemporary attitudes to shellshock, as well as the usual bits about women's suffrage.  The magic and romance were firmly in place, though, and I liked the fact that the prince needed rescuing as much as the heroine by the end of it, making their relationship a true partnership.


I went to see Magic Mike at the cinema on Monday afternoon, which turned out to be pretty good, though not exactly what I wanted it to be on the day I was told I'm being made redundant.  There was rather too much gritty realism and navel gazing about the direction of one's life than I really preferred, though this would normally have increased its appeal by adding much needed depth between the scenes of male stripping.  Speaking of which, hats (and everything else) off to Matthew McConaughey (42) for not only holding his own against Alex Pettyfer (22), Channing Tatum (32 and an experienced dancer) and Matt Bomer (34 and one of the most attractive men on TV at the moment in my opinion) but actually beating them all hands down in terms of both body and moves. 


And last night, I finally got around to watching Step Up, not realising that it also featured Channing Tatum (am I missing something here? everyone in both films seemed to be under the impression that he's really attractive, but I actually find him quite ugly), which was fun.  Dave asked me later what it was about and I described it as "basically Save the Last Dance but without Julia Stiles", to which he responded, "No Julia Stiles?  Then what's the point?"  I kind of have to agree...

Comments

[lareinemisere.livejournal.com]

I definitely have 'Magic Mike' on my list. A was surprised, despite knowing perfectly well about my thing for dance films...

[prunesquallormd.livejournal.com]

Is Matt Bomer the guy in White Collar? I've never seen it but his face seems to be the one they most use to advertise it. He is rather attractive.

I'm really sorry about the news about your job. All the best with finding something else soon <3

The Knife of Never Letting Go was recced to me recently. I shall have to give it a go and see whose opinion I'm most in tune with :)