Jane Eyre is cursed.

If I ever doubted the fact that my relationship with English classics was not good - it is officially confirmed now.

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When I finished writing my last blog post, I shut down my computer and my body shut me down. I woke up with a head full of pain and the worst cold. There was no room in my body left for anything besides gross snot -especially not for the ups and downs of Miss Eyre’s life.

I tried to find out if it was really impossible to read with a cold, or whether or not this is my phobia taking over, but Google proved useless on this point. All it told me was that cold reading is a special kind of methods used to ace (or mess up) auditions - good to know if I ever want to become an actor I guess.

Going further down my delusion path, I looked up whether a book can make me sick - maybe this whole project was cursed from the beginning. But alas, a “can a book make you sick?”-search only leaves you with suggestions on how to unclutter your bookshelves. 

So I guess there really is no correlation between Jane Eyre and my sudden, very brutal, cold. 

Thankfully, there is a correlation between the demise of my cold and the increase of the pages read in my Jane Eyre book. Today was the day that I really started this challenge and I’m about 100 pages in. 

I don’t want to say too much about my thoughts on the book, because that’s definitely review material. However, I am pleasantly surprised and hopeful that I’ll finish before Nano camp begins - I’m not sure I can handle 50,000 words and an English classic.

Oh and as you can see on the side - I got an Instagram account! @Thebeautyofliterature is my username and it can also be found at the bottom of every page - just like my twitter feed!

Reading classic novels and brain activity

Research has shown that people who read a classic novel in a “focused, literary” way use more brain activity than when the same people read a classic in a casual, relaxing way.

The book used to prove this was Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and the “people” in the experiment were PhD students.

Are the results shocking? Not really - I’m pretty sure that if you are focused on something, you always use more brain activity. But the interesting fact of the study is that, when focusing on a text, a person uses several different brain functions - more than are usually used when you focus on a task.

Do I understand the details of this? No, I’m no neuroscientist. 

However, it does make me wonder what goes on in my brain while I read a classic. I don’t have a PhD in literature, but I have followed several literature classes at college, so I have a basic knowledge of the components of literature. But, as I said before, I struggle with fully delving into classic novels - I feel like I never enter the “casual, relaxing” reading and am constantly forced to focus and analyse.

I assume that using more brain activity means that you get tired from reading classics easily. So I’m putting it to the test. In the last week, I finished We Were Liars and How To Be A Heroine. I finished We Were Liars in about 1 day (amazing book, I can’t wait to write the review on this one!) and How To Be A Heroine in 4 days (it took me a bit to get into the book). However, there was never any limit on how much of the book I could read every day.

So anyone up for testing the reading classics/getting tired combination? I’m started Jane Eyre today, a classic that I always wanted to read, but was never motivated to read. It sounds like it should be a book I love, so I’m excited. How long will it take me to finish the book?

And on a completely unrelated topic, for those asking about the newsletter, this week there will be no newsletter. I love my things to be perfect and this newsletter just isn’t perfect yet. However, this just means that you have more time to pick up your classic and do this experiment with me: Does it take you longer to read classics?

Tease - Amanda Maciel

I promised a review of Tease by Amanda Maciel yesterday, but since the title is Tease, I figured I would honour it and tease everyone with posting it late.

Anyway, that’s the excuse I told myself when I realised this morning that I forgot to write the review yesterday - whoops.

The title of the book needs to be interpreted in two ways: “Tease” is someone who teases guys and makes them sexually frustrated (hopefully fall in love with them if you’re a teen) and “Tease” stands for the act of the light bullying or harassing of someone.

The second definition of tease is what Sara Wharton thinks she is doing. She’s teasing the school’s tease Emma Putnam. Sara and Brielle, bff's and queen B of the school, hate Emma for stealing Sara’s boyfriend, and just generally because she is so pretty.

However, teasing is an understatement for the way the girls treat Emma - they are violent and mean and Emma commits suicide. Her parents blame the girls and their friends and sue all of them for the death of Emma. 

This is the point where the book starts; Sara explains what happened and how totally unfair it is. Throughout the book, all the details of the bullying (because it’s definitely not teasing) and the details of the court case are revealed in an interesting plot order that jumps from present to past.

The major story elements in the book are based on true events, which makes this book a difficult read. It’s shocking that these events can happen in real life and you’ll ask yourself “but how??” at the end of the book.

Because that’s the strength of this book - it’s not overly moralistic or preachy in its message. It shows the dangers of bullying, but it also tries to show the causes of bullying. I feel like there are not enough books like that on the market and I hope this is the first of many.

Sara is insecure and just lost. She doesn’t know who she is or who she wants to be, so she just clings to people she thinks are perfect. This includes Brielle, who is the meanest teenager I ever read about, and her boyfriend who doesn’t really care about her too much. He proves this when he makes out with Emma at the Valentine Dance after-party. 

Let the slutshaming begin. 

I knew teenagers were cruel and mean and “oh god, don’t you dare be prettier than them or to be sexually confident”. But the intense slutshaming Sara puts Emma through makes it very hard to like her as a narrator. She starts off likeable enough, but as more details of the bullying are revealed, I started distancing from her. Especially since there is no real point in the story where I felt that Sara was actually truly sorry for what she did. I feel like there could be a sequel and Sara would slutshame the next girl who takes her boyfriend.

This makes it difficult to stay invested in the book, because you just want to punch Sara in the face for being so naive and dumb, but it also makes the book very realistic. Not everyone in life has a big changing moment - definitely not within a few days/ months/ years, like most novels portray. Some people just don’t get certain things and never will, no matter what happens. Sara is one of them, no matter how hard we root for her to change.

The author says she wanted to show the story from several angles; not just the one of the victim that the media always shows. Unfortunately, due to Sara’s immature behaviour, there is really no sympathy for her. I felt bad for her family, who had to suffer immensely due to the big court case. I felt bad for Emma and her family, and even for Sara’s boyfriend, who seemed to have actually really liked Emma (even though he does make some very questionably decision, none of them are illegal). 

However, the topic is important enough that this book should be read by teenagers and older readers - we can all lose the plot, we can all forget the line between innocent teasing and bullying, we can all slutshame s, but this book reminds the reader how many danger lies in all those things.

Love Triangles in Literature - a dream come true?

Rebel Belle features Harper who has a perfect boyfriend to start the book off with, but who falls in love with the complete-opposite-omg-I-thought-he-was-awful newspaper editor. Tease is about Sarah, who was dating Dylan, the perfect highschool football player. They semi-break up (this is a complicated one and will be explained in a review tomorrow) and she falls for a guy she always thought was a loser. In Vanity Fair, a true British classic, Rebecca has a love triangle with.. everyone? Everyone loves her and she loves everyone’s money. And then The Hunger Games - I just assume everyone knows Katniss’ problems with the two boys in her life or Twilight (ugh did I just mention this book on my website?) - everyone is Team Jacob or Team Edward.

Love triangles in literature are all the rage and due to most popular books becoming a movie nowadays, this trend is spreading from literature to the general media.

Is there anything wrong with this? Nah. However, as a critical reader - with a background in gender studies - I question what these love triangles do for our perception of the female lead characters in these books.

Instead of talking about Katniss and Bella, who both have had way too many feministic (justified or not) rants aimed at them already, I want to talk about Harper - a less known female characters who is well on her way to becoming the new Katniss and Bella.

Rebel Belle

Harper starts off as an innocent, rather shallow, teenager who only worries about whether she will be prom queen. When she’s thrown a loophole, she just worries about losing her boyfriend, Ryan. Then boy number 2 - David - is thrown in the mix as a boy she has to defend to death (supernatural powers and ancient rituals come into play here). So Harper’s story is one of protecting her boyfriend from the truth and the other guy from death. 

This is a simplified version, because Harper definitely also worries about her best friend and her grades - she’s top of the class at this point. However, simplified as it may be, it does indicate one truth very clearly: all of Harper’s development is only led through the boys. 

Is this Harper’s fault? Definitely not - she’s destined for a lifetime of protecting a boy. But what about the author? What would have happened if Harper had to defend a girl from her high school, spending all her time with this girl and thus not causing her boyfriend any reason to be jealous.

What the current plot causes though, is that the reader defines and judges Harper in relation to her relationship to boys and that’s something I don’t like. I like to get the know my characters in multiple ways - not just in a relationship way. Somehow, her solution to the love triangle becomes the thing we will judge her character on (due to the love triangle’s involvement in her new supernatural powers) and that just left a sore taste in my mouth after reading.

Is a love triangle in a book a dream come true for me? No. I would have loved to seen Harper defend her best friend or any other girl - more focus on the action and less on the very predictable outcome of the love triangle. But then again, I would be annoyed too if any male character was purely described in a love triangle way.

What about all you other readers? Am I being too critical here and should I just enjoy the love triangle?

Rebel Belle - Rachel Hawkins

When there is a book about a boy that kicks ass and has super powers, we just call them comic books or science fiction with a nice vague title stuck on it.

When a girl has superpowers and suddenly has to protect a boy (what?), we call it Rebel Belle.

I bought the book fully expecting a nice chick-lit book a la gossip girl. But I was really wrong - again I could have read the back of the book or the goodreads summary but hey, I’ll never ever learn.

As someone who despises most supernatural stories, this book started off as a challenge for me. Harper Price is the main character - a Southern beauty queen-ish girl who is suddenly given the responsibility to protect David Stark. She’s his Paladin, an ancient protector who has supernatural powers.

Obviously, Harper can’t stand David - though for unexplainable reasons, they ALWAYS interact with each other. Harper is worried that this new “job” will ruin her relationship with her flat-charactered boyfriend Ryan and her friendship with her best friend. Instead of trusting people, and showing them that she has superpowers, she decides to hide everything from everyone (because that’s always a good idea?).

Rachel Hawkins, the author, knows how to write, which makes this book a pleasant read. It’s difficult enough to keep a reader interested while at the same time keeping a good, and quick, flow in the story. This is a skill - one that Rachel has managed to master. Action scenes are followed by conversations and there is enough diversity in this book to please any YA reader.

Harper is not an unpleasant main character, but she didn’t really do much for me. She makes a journey from average high school pretty girl to kickass protector of the most important person on earth. I would expect some major personality changes to accompany this transformation, but there really weren’t. She has some doubts about accepting her role, but she knows that David will die if she doesn’t help him, so it’s not a real surprise that she casts those doubts aside pretty soon.

David Stark is the cliché quiet guy who turns out to be pretty damn charming. Does he really change? No. But we do get to see more and more from him as the book progresses.

The real disappointment in this story comes from Ryan and his role in the story. He’s described as the perfect boyfriend - handsome, sporty, popular… Everything a teenage girl dreams of. BUT when he’s in scenes in the book, he just falls completely flat for me. He was boring, uninteresting and really, does he have nothing to say about anything at all? Ryan was also doomed from the being to end up in a love triangle with his complete opposite David.

Is that love triangle necessary? Not really, but teenage girls these days apparently love to read about a girl who has two guys drooling away after her (I don’t know why there are so many of these books anyway). Is the flat boyfriend and love story a reason to not read this book? No. There is enough action to please an anti-romance reader and the Paladin thing is original enough to keep a reader interested. 

Overall, Rebel Belle is a good YA read and one of the more original ones I’ve read so far. It would have been totally perfect if some characters were less flat and just more… like teenagers.

Is it called Nanwrimo or amonthinhell?

After what I did today, I had to question my own sanity. Which is a nice Catch-22, because I'm sure that if you are insane, you don't know it. So does that mean that if I question my sanity, I'm automatically sane?

Insanity, according to law.com means: n. mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.

Which means that I am probably insane. 

I signed up for Nanowrimo camp. 50,000 words - 1 month - 1 me. I've done it before, so it's not exactly a fantasy. But I'm pretty sure I suppressed all the memories of my emotional breakdowns during those months (ask the people I lived with at the time, it wasn't pretty at all). Thankfully, right after I signed up, I remember those long November nights filled with the pain of finding the word I'm looking for. 50,000 times in a row. 

A 2012 calendar, made by someone who actually survived nano and was able to create something afterwards. Call me impressed.

So it was a fantasy - something "fun" "to blog about". Yeah, right. As if I'll want to write blogs after writing 1666 words a day (yes, I still remember how many words are needed to finish the challenge. I doubt I'll ever forget that). And it's summer now - the sun is out so I'll want to be out. Not behind a computer, right?

Added to that, I'm pretty sure that I can't conduct my own affairs, because if I could, I would have taken a step back and realised that so many words in one month is crazy. Oh and due to my leg surgery, I'll also have to learn how to walk again that month - no biggie.

And do I really even have to explain the uncontrollable impulsive behaviour? I don't think so.

Like I said 50,000 words - 1 month - 1 me.

What did I get myself in to?

This Song Will Save Your Life - Leila Sales

Generally, I write reviews in about 15 minutes. The words flow out of my head straight onto my computer screen.
Today, I’ve been staring at my computer for about 30 minutes and I have nothing. (Well now I have these two sentences.)

How do I write a review that does justice to a book that I loved so much? How do I convince EVERYONE to read this book, without resorting to violent means? I don’t know - but the best I can do is to start writing and hope that everyone who reads this (and likes YA books) will pick this one up. 

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales starts off as any other dramatic YA book does. 

It’s Elise’s story and Elise is a teenager who struggles with being “normal”. She is an overachiever, she is too intelligent for her classmates and she doesn’t dress in the latest fashion. Because she can’t be normal, she doesn’t have any friends and she becomes desperate. At the start of the book, she cuts herself and then calls a popular girl and tells her - the famous “attention attempt at suicide”. This girl panics and calls 911 - obviously Elise’s parents, who are divorced, go into panic mode.
They make sure that Elise is never alone again so that she has no opportunity to cut herself. But Elise needs alone time and finds it by sneaking out at night and walking around while listening to music.
Pretty bland, right? Until Elise finds Start - an underground club in a warehouse, filled with cool kids and banging music. Here Elise finds something she never knew she was looking for.
To find out what that is, you really need to read the book!

So the summary might not sound all too different from many other YA books, and I guess the plot line of the story isn’t, but the characterisation definitely is.

Elise is more than just a typical unpopular teenager - instead of being ruled by a million insecurities, she’s actually pretty confident in her own abilities and skills. She knows what she can and cannot do - she just doesn’t understand why no one likes her. This made me like Elise so much more than the many whiny female leads in YA books - she’s a girl with balls and not afraid to show them. Not a Bella waiting on Edward. 
Furthermore, all of Elise's Start friends, Charm, Pippa, Mel and especially Vicky, have real personalities. They are not just some characters on the sideline of Elise’s story: they read as real people with real issues and real problems. I can imagine a book about each of them, because I know enough about them, even though they are just “side-characters”.

Added to that, the story flows really well and the pace is good. It’s quick - something happens every chapter and you will not get bored reading this story.

To top it all of, there is a list with the most awesome songs at the end of the story. The perfect soundtrack if you want to enjoy the book a bit more after reading it. (I just checked 8tracks and no one made that playlist yet?! Someone who understands 8tracks, please get on that!)