curses; missed again

Since I started this blog originally for myself (and, as far as I know, I'm the only person who accesses it regularly for any reason), I never really paid attention to the numbers.  I didn't notice that I successfully posted 5 years to the day after my original post.  I likewise missed my 10-year-ish post.  I noticed a few weeks ago that I was coming up on my 500th post... and I missed it.  (Granted, I was a little busy at the time, and limited to my phone-- not the best format for this site.)  I was going to have a little celebration for myself, but this, the 502nd post, just doesn't seem as exciting.

I finished A kiss at midnight a few hours after posting about it.  Nothing substantial to add to my earlier comments.

I read Wrinkles by Paco Roca again (again-again), in preparation for an upcoming book trivia program.  It makes me sad.

Cruel numbers by Christopher Beats.  This was an early NetGalley find that kept bubbling up on my to-read list but I never quite managed to crack the cover... for 5 years.  I'm very happy to be able to check it off my list!

It's actually not a great book.  The world is pretty well-drawn and the author seems to have thought quite a bit about even minor details.  There could have been a little more explanation of the social/governmental structure, but otherwise pretty fair world-building.  The plot was pretty messed up in two fairly major ways, and this obviously brought down the whole reading experience.

First, the character's romantic backstory was shoe-horned in.  It wasn't well-drawn, it was handled crassly, and it added nothing to the mystery plot or the alternate world; it may be setting up character development in future series installments, but even that could have been handled in better ways.  Second, the pacing was way off.  I read a downloadable copy of this, so didn't have the physical/visual cue of where my bookmark was to help me anticipate how much story was left.  When I got to the end, it felt like a shock.  Nothing was fixed, personally or professionally, just passed along.

The goblins of Bellwater by Molly Ringle.  I cannot force myself to finish this.  The characters are not particularly unique: they aren't exactly dislikeable, but they don't stand out from random 20-year-olds on the street.  The paranormal element isn't strongly tied in: there is not history presented in the town, no references to established outside folklore.  The writing is choppy: the narration is a little melodramatic, and the boy-girl scenes are, I think, trying to be frank but come off as crude.

I heard quite a bit of chatter about this because it's set in a local-ish made-up place; the descriptions and incorporation of the scenery is the smoothest and most accurate part of the writing, but cannot stand by itself as a reason to read a whole book.

A borrowed man by Gene Wolfe.  Oo, I was so, so very mad that this is a bad book.  The reviews were good, I had skimmed it and then used it in programs, and I suggested it to several people who came back and said they liked it.  But it has problems!  It's not readable!  In both the main character's narration and in the dialogue, they jump from idea to idea, jerkily.  I know people who talk like that; we don't talk much.  Not acceptable.