Books Read - April 2010

[crowinator]

Here's the list of books I read in April with basic ratings that I'm just ganking from Goodreads. I'll probably add short book reviews later, since I don't think I'll be able to post long book reviews of every single one in a timely manner. Then again, maybe I'll go on a LJ-book-review binge, who knows?

ETA: I finished one more book on April 30, so

Comments

[midnightsmagic]

Only 3 stars for Heist Society? I loved that one.

[crowinator]

Oops, I meant it to be 3.5 stars, so I changed it. I found it an enjoyable read, with a great crime caper plot, but I thought that Carter overused the whole "I'm a thief and this is how thieves look at things" idea. It felt like every page, Kat reminded us that she was raised as a thief, and all her family were thieves, and that thieves thought differently than everybody else. Also, there was too much winky-winky, "if the museum staff/ordinary bystander/etc. were to look over here, they would have seen this, but they saw only what they were supposed to see" construction. I liked it in many cases, but again, overused. It got annoying and drew me out of the story eventually. To me it felt like Carter was trying too hard to create this con artist mystique

[midnightsmagic]

I'm a sucker for rogues both within fantasy and without, so this just appealed to me on that "Fun thievery hijinks!" level. I agree that Nick was too obvious though. He was obvious and she felt the need to foreshadow just to add to it.

I have indeed read her Gallagher Spy series, and I enjoy it a lot, though the main character of that series occasionally falls prey to one of my YA pet peeves--what I call Idiot Teenage Girl Syndrome (wherein a character is so preoccupied with boys and/or popularity that she makes choices so blatantly stupid that I want to strangle her). But the series is far from one of the worst offenders, and the spy stuff is so fun that it more than makes up for it.

[midnightsmagic]

P.S. I love that you seem to be as stingy with your stars as I am. For me, good books get three stars, great books get four, and only earth-shatteringly wonderful and original ones get fives. I've read 35 books this year, so so far no fives other than a favorite I reread. 2009's 80 books netted four, and that was a really good reading year for me.

[checkers65477]

Man, you read a lot of books!

Ally Carter's other books are really popular at my middle school. Is this series good for that age, too? And what about the manga on your list? For younger or older?

I owe a long book review post to LJ, too. At least a dozen books. Gah.

[crowinator]

Hah. It goes month-to-month; sometimes I go a whole week or two without reading! Gasp!

I can't think of anything inappropriate for middle schoolers that happens in the book. Kat is 15 and there's a little romance, but I can't remember now if there was even a kiss! The series may grow older because of the age of the main characters (depending on how Carter handles their romance), but I think this one would be fine in a middle school.

The manga is all definitely older. Not middle school safe at all.