your neon light daydream will shatter and break
I have been meaning to write about this for a long time and was already thinking about giving up because I don't have the facts fresh in my mind anymore. But I think I still can do a fairly good job in writing about
I have read many books by Meg Cabot. A few were really good, most were fairly interesting, a couple were boring. These few really good ones are the ones she wrote as Jenny Carrol.
Both series written under that alias - 1-800-Where-R-You and The Mediator - are much better than her other works. And in that I include The Princess Diaries.
Maybe I'm biased and I like these series because they are more related to fantasy than her regular books, but I still think the characters in those series are more believable and that the plots are much better developed and not so cliched.
There's this book she wrote as Meg Cabot, for her adult audience, called She Went All The Way, that is simply awful. I'm pretty lenient, I read most everything, but this book is impossible to read. Awful characters, worse narrative. Everything is cliched in that book! I actually didn't finish reading it.
I wrote this just as a comparative. Jessica and Susannah - the protagonists in 1-800-Where-R-You and The Mediator, respectively - are relatively normal girls. Jessica is more of a tomboy; Susannah likes pretty clothes and shoes. Both have "love interests" but their relationships aren't sickly sweet. You can actually believe this girls exist, you can imagine them as the narrative goes. The same can't be said about the protagonist in She Went All The Way, for example.
I guess the one book that differs from the others in these series is Missing You, the last one in 1-800-Where-R-You. Understandably, it was written much later on, when Cabot was already famous.
1-800-Where-R-You was originally meant to be a 8 book series. The publisher bought the first four and, after dismal selling, decided not to buy the remaining 4. So, after a long time, she gets a chance to finish that story. Which she did, but she gave that particular book a totally different tone. It isn't bad, but it resembles more The Princess Diaries narrative style than the one from the original series. It's darker, more depressing, with a much more cynical Jessica. Again, some of her actions reminded me of Mia, and that's not good.
Something similar happened to The Mediator, but the last two books published, which were the ones published later on, following a reprint of the original 4, don't seem different from the rest.
Anyway, I'm still to read Cabot's Austen-like books, but from the ones I did read, these two series, plus Avalon High are highly recommendable. They're quick to read and entertaining books.
I have read many books by Meg Cabot. A few were really good, most were fairly interesting, a couple were boring. These few really good ones are the ones she wrote as Jenny Carrol.
Both series written under that alias - 1-800-Where-R-You and The Mediator - are much better than her other works. And in that I include The Princess Diaries.
Maybe I'm biased and I like these series because they are more related to fantasy than her regular books, but I still think the characters in those series are more believable and that the plots are much better developed and not so cliched.
There's this book she wrote as Meg Cabot, for her adult audience, called She Went All The Way, that is simply awful. I'm pretty lenient, I read most everything, but this book is impossible to read. Awful characters, worse narrative. Everything is cliched in that book! I actually didn't finish reading it.
I wrote this just as a comparative. Jessica and Susannah - the protagonists in 1-800-Where-R-You and The Mediator, respectively - are relatively normal girls. Jessica is more of a tomboy; Susannah likes pretty clothes and shoes. Both have "love interests" but their relationships aren't sickly sweet. You can actually believe this girls exist, you can imagine them as the narrative goes. The same can't be said about the protagonist in She Went All The Way, for example.
I guess the one book that differs from the others in these series is Missing You, the last one in 1-800-Where-R-You. Understandably, it was written much later on, when Cabot was already famous.
1-800-Where-R-You was originally meant to be a 8 book series. The publisher bought the first four and, after dismal selling, decided not to buy the remaining 4. So, after a long time, she gets a chance to finish that story. Which she did, but she gave that particular book a totally different tone. It isn't bad, but it resembles more The Princess Diaries narrative style than the one from the original series. It's darker, more depressing, with a much more cynical Jessica. Again, some of her actions reminded me of Mia, and that's not good.
Something similar happened to The Mediator, but the last two books published, which were the ones published later on, following a reprint of the original 4, don't seem different from the rest.
Anyway, I'm still to read Cabot's Austen-like books, but from the ones I did read, these two series, plus Avalon High are highly recommendable. They're quick to read and entertaining books.