That’s the name of the reading challenge my book community is doing this year. It’s to clear off our shelves, or get some reading done–whichever. In my case, I move books from the crates of the unread to the shelves when I’m done, and I’m trying to get the numbers in the crates down significantly. This NEVER works because I love book sales and book swaps. However, I set my goal as 30. It was supposed to be 30 from the crate, but it ended up being about 10 from the crate and 20 purchases over the course of the year. However, I still have over a month to work down what’s in the crate, and I’ll set a crate-specific goal next year, probably also of 30.
I’ve read over 300 books this year. The past two years have seen me barely hit my imaginary goal of 400 titles. Part of that is grad school, of course, and before that, writing thesis papers. I’m rereading less (but for recapping books and some school titles) but I’m also remembering less because I’m less inclined to rereading. I’m not sure how I feel about that. When I pick up a book now that I read as a kid, I remember it in huge chunks. Not so much with the library books I’m taking out now. I tend to forget them bit by bit.
But really, that’s okay, I suppose. I don’t think that at 32 I’m suddenly losing my memory. I’m still enjoying reading, most of the time (The Vampire Diaries excluded). I’m not, unlike other years, pushing myself to read more more more to the point where my head feels ridiculously full.
Still, I’d like to hit 400. It’s less than a hundred books to go. Heh. I only have to read 16-17 works a week to hit that goal and, depending on what I’m reading, that could be easy. If only the library had zillions more manga…I would really like to read more than just the first three Hot Gimmicks. And graphic novels! I’d like to be caught up with the DCU. Less so with Marvel, of course.
But then again, I have over 100, maybe over 200, books in the crates, so I could just do that. Harlequins take about 2 hours to read, tops, unless you’re close reading, and I have piles of them from a friend who didn’t quite understand the whole concept of recapping ones I’d read as a kid–he just sent me ones from the time period when I was reading them. I’d like to read them–or try to get through some of them–and donate some of them to nursing homes and the like. I wonder how many of the books downstairs are JUST Harlequins, and how close that would bring me to my goal. I don’t think there are 84 (well, technically I’d need 82 because I still have at least three books out from the library). There might be…40? That’s a dent right there, isn’t it?
But this is just thinking about doing, and that’s no fun. I’m going to get some breakfast, read one of those library books, and then get as much schoolwork done as possible. It already feels like a restful week. Add in the holidays with THREE family dinners to attend and this week may just be heaven.
HEAVEN.
There’s really not a lot of funny in a teenage girl dying.
Alana: Chapter 10 starts with Poppy setting her death scene, much to Phil’s horror.
Liss: It’s lovely, but very teenage girl. Candles, ambient music
Alana: I didn’t think any of the bands she mentions were real when I was a kid but RIGHT NOW I am listening to what she’s listening to.
Liss: She puts on her best nightgown and it is FLANNEL with STRAWBERRIES on it and my heart is broken.
Alana: Oh yeah, I don’t know why I never remembered that.
Alana: God, Raphael, this music is depressing.
Liss: Oh god, there are stuffed animals involved.
Alana: Er, so back to Death Cab, I suppose.
Alana: Eeyore even
Liss: Phil is not handling this well at all, which is completely understandable. Poppy, however, is calm and asks him to be so as well.
Alana: His mouth is trembling! God, poor Phil.
Alana: One day when we have more time, we need to cast this book. I don’t even know who would be Phil. I love him TOO much.
Liss: I don’t know if anyone precious enough exists.
Alana: Although since watching that Twilight/New Moon double feature, I feel the need to cast Jackson Rathbone in everything. I was going to say “including my pants,” but uh…I feel dirty just thinking it.
Liss: Embrace it, it’s the Jackson Effect. It’s the eyes.
Alana: It is! Oh, and his smile. He’s only…uh…seven years younger than me. Oh God, oh God, I’m a cougar.
Alana: Ugh, “cougar.” Fuck you, America.
Liss: Hahaha
Alana: Did you read that article about the word “cougar”? I can’t even remember who posted it on Facebook. But it was really good!
Liss: I didn’t.
Alana: Of course it’s gone from my browser. Argh. Oh well, I’ll try to find it anyway. But back to the book, James explains what’s going to happen: There’s going to be a last exchange of blood–the final blood battle. Then she’s sleep, “die,” change, and awaken by post-hypnotic suggestion.
Liss: Phil realizes that while Poppy is “resting” and changing, she’s going to look dead. James is over Phil’s emotions, especially when Phil asks for clarification about what’s going to happen to Poppy once she appears to be dead.
Alana: This book is very practical; I love that about it. Nothing about this process is watered-down.
Liss: It’s refreshing, almost.
Liss: James reminds Phil that everyone else has to think that Poppy died from the cancer and they have to play it out as such. Poppy, who doesn’t want to dwell on it, tells her brother to deal with it and move on, since if they don’t do this now, she’ll be dead for real in a few weeks.
Alana: “There was no one better than Phil at bracing himself.”
Alana: Dirty!
Liss: Oh man, it is.
Alana: James sends Phil out of the room, and Poppy worries about post-turning claustrophobia.
Liss: Oh my god, so would I.
Liss: I can’t even watch people spelunk on TV.
Liss: James, because he is great, assures Poppy that he won’t let her wake up in the coffin.
Liss: Unlike Buffy’s friends, he is thinking ahead.
Alana: Ha!
Liss: Seriously, they needed to make a spreadsheet or something to make sure they did everything.
Alana: Also: HA: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092103503.html?wprss=rss_print/style
Alana: I found the cougar article!
Liss: Nice!
Alana: Only had to scroll back pages and pages of a friend’s links. Good thing I remembered the friend–or guessed well. Also, it came up as “washingtonpost.com” and that was the only page I scrolled through instead of just doing a Find for “cougar.” Go me.
Alana: In other cougar news, we get shirtless James here.
Liss: Oh riiight
Liss: He feeds off of Poppy and then, when it’s her turn, he gives her a show.
Alana: Far more subtle than certain other people taking off their shirts in a certain vampire/werewolf movie that recently hit the theaters.
Alana: Actually I was just thinking about Jacob and the motorcycle incident, but then I realized, Edward in Italy too.
Liss: Look, death by sparkle is a completely legitimate reason to take off your shirt.
Alana: But who looks at someone who’s just hit their head and thought, “They need my entire t-shirt!”
Alana: Ugh, the gasps in the theater every time Jacob was shirtless/on the screen/breathed.
Liss: It’s up there with “staunching clumsy girls’ wounds” and “too many Tequila Sunrises”.
Alana: He’s a nice-looking boy, but I think his face is way more interesting than his six-pack.
Liss: I won’t let myself look because I don’t want to be that old lady.
Alana: I know they couldn’t go from scrawny kid to buff dude, but picking such a babyface…such a good idea.
Alana: Yeah, same here. I was such a MOM at that show.
Liss: I’ve found the thing I find more disturbing than Twimoms, btw.
Alana: I wasn’t a Twi-Mom just one of those moms. Speaking of… http://graphjam.com/2009/11/20/funny-graphs-appeal-twilight/
Liss: I know you weren’t a Twimom!
Alana: No, I mean…I’m represented! On the graph! I’m between “mother of regular girl” and “mother of fangirl.”
Liss: Ah, okay.
Liss: But I find women of a certain age who watch Ghost Hunters and then PHOTOSHOP themselves into picture of the team to be more disturbing to me.
Alana: The only thing I know about Ghost Hunters is that The Exbf met them when he went to the Stanley Hotel last year and said they were very nice, but I can imagine women doing that with, say, the Mythbusters guys. I’m figuring what I see in my head is a pretty accurate comparison picture.
Liss: Yeah. I mean…obsession with fictional characters can yes, go too far, but messing with people who are out there as THEMSELVES is kinda cray cray to me.
Alana: God, if you’re going to Photoshop yourself into a picture, it should OBVIOUSLY be with Batman.
Alana: …uh, “go too far” you say?
Alana: *cough*
Alana: *batcough*
Liss: I have a Photoshopped picture of me as the Baroness from GI Joe.
Liss: I wish Batman was in it too, just because.
Alana: OMG, you should Photoshop EVERYONE into that picture.
Alana: Liss without Flash
Alana: Liss with Flash
Alana: Liss with Batman
Liss: hahahaha
Liss: I love that one
Alana: It’s one of my all-time favorites.
Alana: HEY BACK TO BOOK, WOMAN
Liss: OKAY
Alana: Poppy takes James’s blood from his shirtless self, and then slowly drifts off. He kisses her on the forehead AND IT’S HER FIRST KISS.
Alana: James.
Alana: JAMES.
Alana: Come on.
Alana: You could do better.
Alana: You were totally screwing …uh…Michaela?…and…Bimbo #2.
Liss: Jacklyn
Alana: Yeah
Alana: Poppy doesn’t deserve a little sexins too?
Liss: No, their love is too pure or somesuch.
Alana: PFFFFFT
Alana: Poppy would be awesome to have sex with, cuz she’s such a little goofball. She’d be adorably innocent and get into it and have no limits because she has no—this is getting weird. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. I think I have an affinity for characters who are innocently goofy.
Liss: BRB laughing
Liss: Oh you
Alana: They’re my favorites. There are a few of them in Crusie’s earlier books.
Alana: Anyway, to abruptly shift, Phil comes back into the room and sits down on the bed next to Poppy.
Alana: And Poppy tells him what a great brother he is. *weepy*
Liss: Phil tells Poppy that he’ll be there later for her to talk to, but Poppy thinks that there’s still a chance that she won’t be.
Liss: Ordinarily she would never have taken that chance, but she would have felt like she gave up otherwise.
Alana: Phil overhears her thoughts and responds to them as if she’d spoken them aloud–or maybe she DID speak them aloud. It’s unclear.
Liss: I do not think that she did.
Liss: Ooooo
Liss: It’s another nice, subtle mention that something is going on with the Philster.
Alana: Then we’ve got a page of death.
Liss: And it’s sad and languorous and Phil and James are holding her hands…
Alana: And her last thought is that she forgot to tell James she loved him too
Alana: Even though he knows it, it’s important to her she try to say it, but she can’t get her breath.
Liss: Phil starts to lose it as she drifts off, especially when he sees how much Poppy looks like a porcelain doll.
Alana: And she doesn’t die, like, super-peacefully. It says she “looked astonished.”
Alana: Another touch I really appreciate.
Alana: Poor Phil, he can’t take it.
Alana: He tries so hard, but he can’t wrap his brain around anything for very long.
Liss: He howls. That kills me.
Alana: It’s like “Oh yeah, vampires exist…but vampires don’t exist, so everything is terrible! But wait, vampires exist…”
Alana: In his defense, she’s pretty dead-seeming.
Alana: I wonder how that works.
Liss: He yells at James that he killed Poppy, and when James snarls that she might be able to hear him, Phil goes out and trashes the living room.
Alana: PHIL LOSES IT
Alana: GOOD FOR PHIL
Liss: I guess she’s almost in a coma?
Alana: Straight-laced Phil lets go
Alana: No, it sounds pretty death-like. Maybe she IS dead and then…the blood reanimates her.
Alana: I mean, you can’t fool anyone with “coma-like,” right?
Alana: And that’s what they have to do. Except that Phil is trying to murder James.
Liss: You can if you essentially shut down and there’s a vampire hypnotizing the medial personnel.
Alana: I’ve never seen a dead body, or even one in a coma, so I have no clue. Or even an unconscious person, I guess?
Alana: James talks Phil back to being rational.
Alana: What I find interesting here is that Phil’s resentful of James being in charge, but with a guy like Phil, who likes to please everyone by doing the Right Thing, you’d think he’d be used to being ordered around.
Liss: I think Phil’s the straitlaced leader type, which is why it’s hard.
Alana: But think of all the authority figures he probably bows to on a regular basis, especially when you compare him to Poppy, who couldn’t even really accept her stepfather’s authority.
Alana: I think I just have certain ideas about authority, which I’ve been blogging about lately.
Alana: Even when you’re in charge, you’re still submissive to The System.
Alana: It’s pretty much the ultimate servitude.
Alana: Er, but anyway, James is like “Well, we’re going to have to tell them you flipped out, cuz it’s a mess, but we should get rid of the candles, because they’re suspicious.”
Liss: Phil slowly comes back around to the plan, and they agree that the story is that Poppy felt tired and asked the boys to go watch TV, and when Phil went in to check on her later, she was gone.
Alana: The part that gets me, even though it’s HELLA CHEESY, is “A Christmas angel in June.”
Liss: Phil asks James if he’s sure that Poppy will wake up. James hopes so, and tells Phil that if she dies, Phil won’t have to come after James with a stake, as he’ll do it himself.
Liss: This makes Phil angry, since if Poppy stood for anything, it was life, and James throwing his life away would be an insult to her memory.
Alana: Aww
Alana: “It was a milestone, the first time they’d ever been on precisely the same wavelength.”
Alana: That lasts about two seconds, when Phil calls him a “cold-blooded snake.”
Liss: Oh god, inappropriate pop culture reaction.
Alana: Nooooo
Liss: I’m sorry, I was a child in the 80s, I loved Paula Abdul.
Alana: Heheheh, and now what do you think about her?
Liss: I think she’s made some poor chemical decisions.
Alana: Yeahhhhh
Alana: Anyway, back to Phil, who wants to test out crying instead of breaking stuff. “Crying and crying like a kid who was lost and hurt.”
Alana: By the time James contacts them and they get there, Phil’s mindset is that she’s really, truly dead.
Liss: James comes into Poppy’s room, where Phil is crying, and tells him that his parents are there.
Alana: END OF CHAPTER.
Next up: James mojo and, I believe, Poppy gets reawakened.
Missed a day, didn’t I? Liss and I recapped in the morning so I was going to edit and post that for the day’s entry, but I had an old friend not 10 miles away during a 5-hour layover so the bf and I went into the city to say hi, since it’s been like six years.
Then the day proceeded normally and I wasn’t on the computer again, except to search the best way to remove hot chocolate from a rug.
I suck.
Recap later.
So last night I was the Best Mom Ever and took my 12-year-old to a double feature of Twilight and New Moon. Twilight started at nine, and New Moon started at midnight. We got in at almost 3am, but that kid got up and went to school. I wish I could say the same thing. I have been sort of okay all day but now I am drooping. I almost forgot to make a post today. That would’ve been embarrassing.
And I would’ve blamed Smeyer.
I actually liked Twilight much more the second time around–which is to say, I didn’t actively dislike it. I think Stewart & Pattinson are actually incredibly talented people who made something tolerable out of something that could’ve sounded godawful outside the printed page (and sometimes sounds horrible on it). I am not a Twi-mom; I’m not even a Twi-fan. (My daughter calls herself a Twi-kid.) But the movies didn’t bug me any more than the books did; actually, Bella was far less annoying in New Moon than she was in the book. The book is filler between 1 and 3, but the movie was still watchable. That says something.
But I don’t really have a ton to say, due to the exhaustion and all. Except that the kid who plays Jasper is quite the cutie when you ditch the terrible hair.
So I had to write that paper on an influential book in my life, and then I had to write a review of a banned book, and then I realized: well, here you go: here’s where my perception of my young self came from.
-Marcy in The Cat Ate My Gymsuit
-Meg in A Wrinkle in Time
Sure, I didn’t have braces like Meg or a gymsuit like Marcy, but there it is. Both girls are incredibly smart, and at an awkward age. Both butt heads with authority figures at school and outside it. Both know that to get along better, they’d have to be like everyone else, and yet still can’t make that leap to do so.
Both have fathers who don’t live up to their expectations.
Anyway, it’s just interesting to take your “favorite” characters and look at how much you were like them, or they were like you. But what came first: the chicken or the egg? Did you see yourself in them, or in part become them? I’m terrible with reading things and then being in that mindset–it’s one of the reasons I’ve been reading less “serious” books for the past couple years. I get really moody when I read capital-L Literature, where life is Real and Depressing and so on.
I watch TV and I start speaking like the characters. I hear accents in my head the rest of the day.
Really, I shouldn’t read or watch anything at all, now that I think about it. 
(Also, I am kind of annoyed that A Wrinkle in Time is in the Young Adult section of the bf’s library. WTH? A House Like a Lotus, yes, Wrinkle no.)
I think I’m going to have to give up. I’ve got about two weeks left in my third term at Drexel, and I’ve got a TON of paper-writing and project-doing to get through in that time. I got to about 10K and stalled. The bf asked, quite rightly, if I got stalled on the idea, and in a way I did. Using Write or Die was a great idea to start out, but without a framework, I felt like I was “screwing up” all over the place. I kept thinking “Oh, you know what I should’ve done there?” but I know you’re not supposed to go backwards. I don’t feel like a failure, though. I know I could keep going and make a strong effort, maybe hit 25 or 30K–who knows, maybe even succeed–but I’d be doing so at the expense of school, and I’m not prepared to do that. I would hate myself. I’d be telling myself that the time I was using for NaNo would be better spent doing schoolwork. And that’s true: I’m not 15 anymore. I don’t have all the time in the world. I have more responsibilities, and it’s not always about balance. Sometimes it’s about choices. I choose to focus on school. I choose to believe that to continue with NaNo right now that it would be a method of procrastination, and I really want to get my schoolwork done BEFORE the end of the term, maybe even a full week beforehand. I need the break from school.
Do I want to make myself a promise to get back to the story during my break? Yes, but I also know I don’t want to create a crazy goal I’ll just feel bad about not achieving. As much as I grew up writing fiction and loved it so, I kind of only LIKE it now. I enjoy keeping up the book blog more, and recapping. Is that because it’s easier? Yeah; don’t think I don’t know it’s a bit easier. On the other hand, I think what I write is good, enjoyable for me and for others. It’s not IMPORTANT, but it’s fun and it’s achievable–I haven’t had any issues with NaBlo this year; I almost always know what I want to write, and when I don’t know what to write, I find something, and everything’s good. I FEEL good.
It’s weird, because I don’t think of myself as a writer anymore, but not only because I equate “writer” with “writing fiction,” but also because I don’t think of writing recaps as writing, or at least not enough to be a “writer.” I didn’t consider myself a writer when I was doing music journalism, either. It’s interesting.
I sort of want to take a couple classes in non-fiction styles of writing, but I think I have enough school on my plate as well. Maybe after June, when no doubt I won’t be able to find a job in a library…heh…
If there’s one thing that really bugs me about books, it’s heroines who are what’s referred to in the romance genre as TSTL–Too Stupid To Live. You know who they are even if you don’t read romance, because you probably watch TV or see movies or even see advertisements for romantic comedies where girls trip all over themselves for some guys and for some reason don’t break their necks.
But what I can’t figure out is if it’s MORE annoying when they’re TSTL from the start, or if there’s a bait-and-switch with the stupidity later in the book.
The book I’m reading right now has 80 lovely pages of Claire, a competent, funny woman. Around page 80, she suddenly becomes *DUN DUN DUNNNNN* Too Stupid To Live.
I think maybe it’s the latter, because at least with the former you know what you’re getting into. But here, you’re just happily going through the book, wondering why you don’t remember liking it very much, and then it hits you: Ugh.
UGH.
I think I generally prefer recapping books I like to books I hate. Not that this falls into either category yet, so let’s amend that: I’m sick of being angry at everything all the time. I get sick of putting things down, not because the snarking isn’t fun (it always is) but because I’m disappointed by my younger self’s interests, or the book’s popularity, or that someone’s going to see what I saw then instead of what I see now. And in a way, I guess that’s okay because someone might see new things and come to realizations because I’ve changed their viewpoint. That’s neat. People change my viewpoint all the time, for good or bad (mostly bad). It’s not JUST power of suggestion, although that’s part of it. It’s being open-minded enough to be willing to see something else. I can generally get behind that.
But the fact that people write these things, that no one says “Did you ever think maybe we shouldn’t publish a book that makes women look like idiots?” That hurts, and it makes me angry. And I’m sick of being angry. And that’s why I’ll keep recapping Night World for a while instead of going right back to The Vampire Diaries. It’s better to share joy than stupidity.
I hope this girl comes to her goddamn senses fast.
Not the sequel, just more thoughts on the book.
I finished it up last night. I’m a little surprised–after Sarah’s comment yesterday, I expected it to be more PTSD-y. I have no idea what I mean by that. I guess–and, duh, spoilers–that I expected the “bad guy” to be more of a mess and less of a planner. There’s a lot of planning going into what he was doing. It was less subtle than I expected, I suppose. Or more subtle? I guess because my exposure to PTSD is through the media, it would never occur to me that
In the end, the psychic stuff DID seem super-unnecessary and the gender gap in the time periods between when the book was written and now just drove me insane. This one didn’t hold up. I’m thinking of rereading Daughters of Eve to see what the what is. It’s much more about its time period, so I think it will stand up better, but it also has an unnecessary psychic.
I am also rather appalled that Kevin Williamson made a slasher movie out of this book after the murder of Lois Duncan’s daughter, and that the murder has never been solved.
Now I’m rereading a Harlequin and it’s GREAT, but it’s set in Jamaica and 1) Jamaica is so homophobic it makes me sick and 2) I WANT TO BE WARM.
So the bf picked this up for his students at a library book sale and I couldn’t help but read it. I made it to chapter 8 before I put it down–nothing against the book, really, but since I remember a lot of the details of the end, it’s not really drawing me in the way it used to. Also, it’s getting way, way dated. The girls are so wishy-washy (especially Helen) and the guys are so…guy-like. This works out fine for a book like Daughters of Eve, which needs to be set when it is to be effective, but not so much here.
I never did see the movie because it seemed so different from the book, but I find it funny–Sarah Michelle Geller plays Helen, right, who’s called Heller. This “funny” might also be because I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Looks like it’s on instant play on Netflix, so I’m thinking maybe I’ll finally watch it after all, and then hate myself for it.
But yeah, this book is…kinda dull, kinda annoying, and dated. Also, why is Julie’s mother psychic? What purpose does that serve? I don’t even understand. Can anyone explain it to me?
Alana: Okay, let’s start
Alana: It has been SEVEN MONTHS SINCE OUR LAST CONFES–RECAP.
Liss: OOOPS
Alana: In my defense, I’m doing REALLY well in grad school for someone who hates about half of it.
Alana: And I had surgery!
Liss: Exactly
Alana: But I am totally regretting not taking the time out to recap this book, because it is WONDERFUL.
Alana: I want to recap it every day.
Liss: Poppy! James!
Alana: It would’ve been such a nice break from the evils of The Vampire Diaries, which kept weighing on me like…I can’t even think of anything. I was Atlas, I tell you. ATLAS.
Alana: Poppy & James TLA
Alana: I love Poppy, I love James, I love Phil, I totally cried last night catching up on my reading, and I read way past where we were supposed to because I didn’t want to stop.
Liss: Awwww
Liss: It’s just so different from Vampire Diaries
Alana: You mean in that it’s good?
Liss: There’s that, and the tone of the story is so…I don’t know, hopeful?
Alana: There’s less ~*drama*~. It’s more real, too, despite the content. The human relationships make so much more sense.
Alana: If there isn’t a ghostwriter, I’m hoping that she’ll get back to this level of writing.
Liss: We can only pray.
Liss: Because Nightfall or whatever was the worst book of ‘09.
Alana: Are there Razzie-esque book awards? We could, like, nominate it.
Liss: There’s that worst sex scenes thing, but I don’t know if they have them for bad books overall.
Alana: We’re going to have to do some research. But for now: Poppy’s feeling the effects of the change. They pretty much make her feel brain-dead and weak, so far.
Liss: She’s eating a lot red things, Popsicles, juice, but they’re not what she really wants.
Alana: James and Phil come to her room and she’s still pissed at James. She has a “primitive, animal” reaction. I cannot help but think of The Forbidden Game and when Smith kept referring that way to the token black character, Dee.
Alana: So at least we don’t have racism here.
Alana: (AND MORE PROOF OF A GHOSTWRITER.)
Liss: Hey now, I love Forbidden Game.
Alana: (BECAUSE FORBIDDEN GAME IS CRAP.)
Alana: Crap Crap Crap Crap Labyrinth rip-off.
Liss: It was my first LJ series
Alana: I’d like to say “Aww, you always love your first,” but mine is TVD. Forget THAT.
Liss: Awwww
Alana: Anyway, James apologizes to Poppy, who is having issues understanding, so he tells her to use her new (OR ARE THEY???) telepathic powers.
Liss: Phil reacts weirdly to the mention of telepathy.
Liss: Hmmmmmmmmmm
Alana: Phil backs him up and James basically rolls his eyes at Phil being the one to cause all this damage they are fixing now
Alana: I want to be there just to grin at James.
Alana: “Alana grins at James.”
Alana: Obviously, my medications are getting to me.
Liss: No fanfic in the recap!
Alana: Or just that I’m recapping a book I enjoy for once.
Alana: NO FANFIC EVER.
Alana: Poppy does her telepathy mojo, which is not like sharing blood, but she’s still getting the truth from him. He “cares.” Well, then he’s like “There are two cardinal rules in the Night World. One is not to tell humans that it exists. The other is not to fall in love with a human. I’ve broken both of them.”
Alana: YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Alana: Phil exits discreetly. Good for Phil.
Liss: Phil has some class, which is rare in teen fiction.
Liss: And unlike the books I generally recap, he has no interest in seeing his sister’s personal moments.
Alana: AHAHAHAHAHA.
Alana: That’s what you get for choosing V.C. Andrews.
Liss: It’s true.
Liss: James realizes that he’s been going on and on while Poppy is sick, and he gives her his blood.
Alana: I love the “Don’t you tell me what to worry about!”/”Don’t you tell me not to tell you–” exchange.
Alana: So cute!
Liss: They’re adorable.
Alana: Poppy realizes this is exactly what her body needs, and then they start having a telepathic conversation, as you do when you’re exchanging blood.
Alana: James tells her that vampires don’t exchange blood.
Liss: Poppy is upset that they won’t be able to share this way once she’s changed, but she’s sure that she’ll think of something.
Liss: I’d like to think she means sex, but this is an LJ Smith book.
Alana: Phil comes back in and James is there to be our King of Exposition. What I like here is how it clearly explains why vampires don’t exchange blood. You see, this pseudo-science states that vampire blood is great and all, but it can’t carry oxygen through the system, so that’s why they need human blood.
Alana: Er, that and some magic stuff too. But never you mind that! SCIENCE!
Liss: Science and magic work perfectly today in my mind. Let’s go with it!
Liss: Phil, of course, is all “So vampire blood is POISON!”.
Alana: Phil is all grossed out, but Poppy finds it all very natural, like symbiosis. James is then like “Enough science for us–we need to make some PLANS.” A man after my own heart. I love plans.
Liss: The next exchange is very important–Poppy might relapse again if they wait too long, but the next one will be the one that brings her over and they have to arrange for it.
Alana: Maybe it’s just because I’ve been away from the book for so long, but there’s such a sense here that we’ve gotten far, far from Poppy’s human death, that it’s been completely eclipsed by her “vampire” death. I almost forgot for a second about her cancer, and I think we were SUPPOSED to have. We’re focused on this “cure” but it certainly comes at a price, one the ghostwr–er, the author doesn’t want us to forget.
Alana: Poppy’s speech about her death is really, really effective.
Alana: And Phil’s response is a little cheesy, but effective as well. Kind of heartbreaking, if you love the characters (AND I DO).
Liss: I do too. And, Poppy is, for once (hee), being the practical one. Even if she dies and wakes up a vampire, she can’t do that with their mother and Cliff around. They have to talk about this, they have to deal with it.
Alana: They make a plan: Get the adults out of the house. There’s some good foreshadowing here where James points out that being resistant to his mind control might be genetic, so getting Poppy’s mom out of the house is imperative.
Liss: Poppy and James will finish the change, and then he and Phil will watch TV and wait. It’s important for James to be around for the entire event, particularly when the people from the funeral home arrive.
Alana: Poor Phil. He’s struggling with this reality.
Alana: What’s upsetting is that James and Phil have to become buddies in front of Cliff and their mom, and WE DON’T GET TO SEE IT. It’s totally off-screen!
Alana: er, page
Liss: I was just writing that!
Alana: Hee!
Alana: Cuz it’s important to us! The Phil/James interactions are hilarious!
Liss: I bet it was awkward, and there was one of those man hugs that start as a handshake.
Alana: Hee, manhugs! Poor Poppy too: “Tomorrow is that day I die.”
Alana: I love Poppy saying good-bye to her life.
Alana: It’s so sad
Alana: I think this is where I started getting all choked up, although I didn’t start crying till the next chapter.
Liss: It reminds me of Our Town.
Alana: Well, it’s supposed to, I guess, since she references it. I think I read Our Town, but I also read so much about it in other books beforehand that it was almost surreal. I should read it again. It would probably feel like the firs time, at this point, because I don’t have all the references in my head. There’s a YA book where they do it, and then there’s a book–maybe a Pike?–where it gets referenced a lot? I don’t even think it’s Remember Me?
Alana: I could be getting my Pikes confused
Alana: Because I feel like I’m confusing Remember Me with Last Act plus something else.
Liss: I’m not sure, though I know what you’re talking about.
Liss: I got it because I did Emily
Liss: *Emily’s monologue*
Liss: lol
Alana: Our readers are going to have to let us know. YA book, they put on Our Town. Help us out, guys. [Also, '80s TV shows that did it?]
Alana: Uh-huh.
Alana: MOVING ON
Liss: Hey, I was a great Emily. I’m just a bad typist.
Alana: Poppy basically lists the little things. You know which one I love the best?
Alana: The desk.
Alana: Because it talks about how she was putting sealing wax on her letters. That is SO Poppy.
Liss: It really, really is.
Liss: I wonder if she had a stamp?
Alana: Also, if I were Phil, I’d make sure that James “inherited” Poppy’s stereo and CDs. I guess it wouldn’t be TOO difficult to get a lot of her stuff to her later?
Alana: Oh, she totally had SOME stamp.
Liss: Aw, it was probably a poppy.
Alana: Wouldn’t you?
Liss: I do, actually.
Liss: It’s an M.
Alana: I meant a poppy, but yeah.
Alana: I was thinking “M for Melissa–no wait, that’s not your name.” I am so bad at this.
Liss: Oh! haha
Liss: Well, the hardest part is saying goodbye to people.
Liss: Namely, Poppy’s mother.
Alana: She can’t REALLY do it, because it would seem suspicious.
Alana: Except that not, because she IS dying.
Alana: So she’s gotta be subtle about it; saying good-bye without saying good-bye.
Liss: She calls her friends, thanks them for flowers and cards, tries to catch up a little.
Alana: She can’t find her dad, which is so sad.
Alana: She also thinks about how she wasted her time at school. I think about that a lot now too, now that I’m older. Of course, I’m kind of wasting my time in grad school, in a way, because I’m starting with doing the bare minimum and trying to shove the rest in IF IT FITS INTO MY LIFE, but I don’t have the sort of open lives that teenagers have. All that free time, God. Remember?
Liss: Oh, I do.
Liss: And I did nothing with it, seriously.
Alana: But there is a funny line jammed in there, which I appreciate, where she thinks Phil may have gotten it right–by playing the game, really, but because of playing the game, he got more out of life–and she shivers as she thinks about how much she must’ve changed to believe that Phil’s the right one for once. Hee.
Liss: Aww, Poppy.
Alana: And then she refers to her death as “the play” when James arrives.
Liss: Oh, Cliff scene…
Alana: Oh oh wait, here’s where I started to lose it, when Poppy “finally forgave [Cliff] for not being her dad.” WAHHHHHHH
Liss: She realizes that he is a good guy, he takes care of her mom, and he’ll be the one that her mother needs…after. WAAAHHH
Alana: They smile at her as they head out to dinner. Okay, I’m crying again.
Alana: Ugh, all that “Mom, I’m fine, go out, you need a night out, I’m not going to die TONIGHT” stuff…heart-freakin-breaking.
Alana: It’s better that it’s related in a paragraph than in dialog.
Alana: MS SMITH, ARE YOU READING THIS? YOU WERE A GENIUS ONCE. LET’S GET BACK TO THAT, OKAY? AND IF YOU HAD A GHOSTWRITER, COULD YOU TELL ME WHO THAT PERSON IS SO I CAN SEND THEM A FAN LETTER?
Liss: The guilt that caregivers feel is really well done, too. Poppy’s mom doesn’t feel like she *deserves* to go out, since, after all, her daughter is sick.
Alana: Ugh, I don’t even wanna do the next chapter now. I’m so wrecked.
Alana: I love this book so much.
Liss: These are the sentences that I seldom get to type, but I like vampire stories that address the fact that (most) vampires were once people with lives and homes and families.
Liss: Things that can’t just be swept under the rug now that someone is a fabulous vampire.
Alana: Yeah, it’s not all orphans. Sometimes it’s families.
Liss: Even when someone dies and it’s expected (like Poppy’s death is), things have to happen. Doctors and coroners and funerals happen.
Alana: Like, if Bill Compton had been made into a vampire in another time, maybe his family wouldn’t have had to live without him–although I guess with Jessica, they sort of showed that it didn’t work. But that’s rather unfair, and also I’m way behind.
Liss: Now I want James to declare that “He. Is. Vampahr.”
Alana: Did you see that comment in Andy’s journal about Halloween costumes, where someone said they wanted their husband to paint himself sparkly to be Edward Cullen, but he said no, so she asked instead if he’d just glare at her a lot so they could be Sookie and Bill?
Alana: God, I cracked up.
Liss: Oh Beel.
Liss: He’s both better and worse in the books.
Alana: I don’t even know how that’s possible.
Alana: But I will find out!
Liss:
Liss: They’re good fun, if not great lit.
Liss: Ohhh…you are gonna have issues with Book Sookie, I can’t wait.
Alana: Okay okay, let’s wrap this up. I have papers to write, unfortunately. Um, so, yeah, Poppy’s going to die and Alana’s a big weepy mess. That’s all folks! Tune in next time when Poppy kicks the bucket, Alana cries EVEN MORE, and Smith actually mentions real world music bands, which I appreciate.
Liss: Even if they are all bands from Pure Moods
Alana: Hee, true enuff.
