Without going into the spoilers I've read about Breaking Dawn (I couldn't stomach any of the books after Twilight) I think what irks me the most from a writing standpoint is that Meyer not only self-admittedly and unabashedly stomped all over vampire mythos with no real knowledge of doing it, but then, then, in order to give the nice, tidy, happy ever after ending With No Consequences, breaks all the damned rules she'd established in the first place!

::is furious writer type::

(This is the same sort of thing that drove me insane with Time Traveler's Wife-- that and the horrible authorial intrusion.)

AND...

It has the worst final line of a book, EVAR.

Apparently, it's been getting returned to bookstores in record numbers.

I read the first of the Nursery Crimes series. I definitely got the similarities to Pratchet (I think I actually described it as "like the Watch, with fairy tails"), but I liked it (at least enough to read the next one when I max out on Discworld-books-in-a-row)

I found them to be Even.More.British than Discworld (like to the point that I wanted an annotation webpage to keep open while I read it)

Plei, I haven't read The Wave so I dunno. Host is definitely written for young adults, though, and by that I mean upper middle and lower high school ages. I enjoyed it, as slow as it is. Though it had a sort of Tunnels (for those of you who read junior fic and YA, I LOVED LOVED LOVED Tunnels as weird and fucked up as it was) feel to it.

That's an interesting take, Kat, since a very big deal was made of the fact that The Host was Meyer's first foray into adult fiction.

I was curious how she would handle the love story elements of it, since she's been so adamant about the chastity angle in the Twilight books, but I didn't know anyone who'd actually read it.

This is the same sort of thing that drove me insane with Time Traveler's Wife-- that and the horrible authorial intrusion.

Barb, can you explain this wrt Time Traveler's Wife ? I know you didn't like it the way I did, but I'm not sure what you mean here.

I still haven't even opened New Moon. It's hard to pick up a book when all you want is to find out how bad it is.

In the world of me, I've just read and adored Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell.

OOh! I just finished his Ghostwritten and, except for how it was confusing and didn't really hang together at the end, thought it was fantastic.

This is the same sort of thing that drove me insane with Time Traveler's Wife-- that and the horrible authorial intrusion.

I wanted to love the Time Traveler's Wife but couldn't because the main characters were so freakin' irritating!

Barb, can you explain this wrt Time Traveler's Wife ? I know you didn't like it the way I did, but I'm not sure what you mean here.

Amy is me!

I still haven't even opened New Moon. It's hard to pick up a book when all you want is to find out how bad it is.

Yep. Also me. I haven't been able to bring myself to buy any otherssince reading Twilight, although I do feel a sort of car crash curiosity. Much like with LK Hamilton, actually. Only I think I disapprove of Twilight considerably more than I disapprove of Anita Blake. I HATE that Bella Swan could be anything like a role model for young readers. Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate. Ack. Really, there is no lack of interesting, capable girl heroes out there in YA fantasyland. It just slays me that it's this insipid little cypher who's the new It Girl - little Miss 'Agency? I don't need no stinkin' agency! I've got sparkly vampires! Also, my sex drive is wicked and bad, and if I get raped it will all be my own fault for driving my lovely perfect sparkly boyfriend beyond the point of endurance by my wanton ways - if I WILL go kissing him back, then I've only myself to blame if he rips my throat out and drinks my blood'.

Seriously. She's like the antiBuffy. It sort of breaks my heart - I want to make all the Twilight fangirls go and read something by the Brontes for their brooding hero fix, and then have them mainline at least the first 3 sesasons of Buffy.

Skulduggery Pleasant, on the other hand, is delightful. I am loving 12-year-old Stephanie, with her guts and joie de vivre (...which I can't spell). And Skulduggery himself is cracking. So far Tanith has had only one chapter, but I was entirely enamoured of her. I do hope that she isn't evil/doesn't get killed off in an untimely fashion.

Oh, man. I have no intention of reading the sparkly sparkly thing, but Cleolinda is totally making my day.

So, we have a 14-year-old intern here who said she's into the Twilight thing. Of course I was like, "Isn't that about vampires? And they're sparkly or something?" She looked at me like I was not only ancient, but also on crack. Do the vampires not actual sparkle?

Do the vampires not actual sparkle?

In the sunlight rather than burning up, they sparkle.