Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Any one who knows me, which is actually a very limited number of people, knows that Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite authors. She writes about realistic teen issues in a way that does not sugar coat anything and gives a hard core, true insight into many of them. So, when her latest book came out, I was very eager to read it.

This book centers around three teens, all connected (this to be explained later) by various incidents in their lives. First we have Mikayla. She is seventeen and madly in love with Dylan. Their love is that passionate, first teen love. They are all about each other and all over each other. In a very predictable way, Mikayla ends up becoming pregnant. She must decide what to do with the baby and then deal with the effects this decision will have on her relationships.

Next up is Shane. Shane is a homosexual teenage male. He has to deal with his sexual orientation on top of having a four year old sister who is diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, meaning her body is  slowly deteriorating. We follow Shane's story as he deals with the illness of his sister and finally finding love.

Finally, we have Harley. Harley is a fourteen year old girl who is dealing with her dad getting remarried. She is also dealing with coming of age and getting attention from boys. Naturally, she is attracting the wrong type of boy and ends up passing out and being raped by her "boyfriend" Lucas.

Now, if my descriptions of these characters and their problems seem a little bland and detached, it is because that is exactly how I feel. Normally, I find Hopkins' works so riveting and get so emotionally invested in her characters that I have, on more than one occasion, cried at the end of her novels. But this one, I just didn't care. If I hadn't had this book on loan from the library, I probably would have set it down and walked away from it for a while. I just didn't feel that character development, that need to connect to the character, to empathize, to care. To me it was like people watching at the mall. You are observing, slightly interested, but in the end you really don't care about them.

I did find out, upon reading the ending note, that this is a companion novel to her first adult (and no, not in a fifty shades kind of way) novel Triangles. Though I have had this book over a year (shush Katherine Elizabeth!), I have not read it. I am wondering if I had read Triangles first whether or not I would have been able to connect to the characters in Tilt better. I say this because one of the annoying things about this book is that it hints at the parental issues affecting the character's decisions, but doesn't clarify what those issues are. So, I was annoyed at that the whole time. But, it is through the adults in the novel that the characters are connected. I am intrigued to decipher these connections, so I will be reading Triangles soon.

So all in all, I did not love this book. I didn't even really like it. I did not take much way from it, and do not feel as though I was affected by it at all. It just was.

Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy by E.L. James

So, after a year of hearing about these books, I decided I had to know what everyone was talking about. I read all three books this summer, and well....

I am going to get straight to the point. I don't really get what the big deal is. I am not entirely sure why these books have topped so many others in sales (including my beloved Harry Potter series which makes me want to buy mass copies just to set the world straight again). The plot was predictable, especially if you knew that it was a fanfic of Twilight, since it was essentially the same plot. Truth be told, I didn't hate it, but I found it to be far from the literary genius I was told it was.

Meet Ana Steele. Quite, shy, naturally beautiful girl book nerd. She gets roped into helping her best friend out with a favor when she is sick. She goes to interview Mr. Christian Grey for the university's student newspaper. Turns out he is hot, really hot. She is infatuated by/with him from the start, but clearly believes he is out of her league.

Meet Christian Grey. Ridiculously successful CEO, who upon meeting her, is instantly obsessed with Ana. He is your classic "beat the expected odds" adopted child. His birth mother was crack whore and he was rescued by a doctor after they found him locked in the apartment with her dead body when he was four. So, that is kind of a spoiler, but not really. It becomes very obvious he is messed up psychologically when you find out about his red room of pain.... (Note, before anyone who is into S&M gets all soap-boxy on me, I am not saying that lifestyle choice means you are psychologically messed up. Christian admits to it, and in fact, that is the reason for the title of the book.)

Okay, also not a spoiler since every person who picks up these books is, at least at this point in their publication, well aware that there is some interesting sex going on in this book. Actually, I am not sure that interesting is the proper adjective here. Perhaps it is because I have been desensitized by the television, pay cable, and the Internet, but the sex in this book, while far beyond my personal comfort level, wasn't all that bizarre to me. The contract, yeah, that was weird. I also think that since I knew there was kinkiness in the book before I read it, I found it less shocking. In fact, I picked up the book expecting much stranger things, the way people were talking about it. Is it weird sex? Yeah. It is a power struggle dynamic in strange relationship thing I don't really get? Yeah. But in all honesty, it could have been much worse. I think stranger things happen in college than in this book, but what do I know...I went to a state school.

So, while I didn't hate it, I definitely had some major issues with it. Like the frequency of sex. Now, it is my personal belief that unless you are a porn star acting in a underdeveloped plot, relationship issues cannot simply be sexed away. While a good tumble in the sheets may make you forget why you are mad at someone temporarily, the issue still arises. Well, Christian Grey needs to fix all problems by screwing Ana's brains out (or whipping them, flogging them, corking them in?). So, all these women who are like "I wish I had a relationship like them....I wish my significant other loved me like Christian loves Ana....", if this is your true desire, simply remove your backbone and be willing to cave into his every carnal desire. I mean, you don't really need one in a relationship like that anyway. You're on your back most of the time and when you are not, he can prop you up with the chains and handcuffs.

It is my belief that the reasons these books have reached the popularity level they have are as follows:

1. People were told not to read them because they were immoral.
2. Christian Grey is rich, handsome, and is willing to change EVERYTHING about himself to make Ana happy. I am pretty sure that is what every woman wants.
3. There are many unhappily married women out there.

So, all in all, like I said, I didn't hate them. I actually found the email exchanges between the characters really cute and witty at times. Those, actually, seemed like the most realistic aspects of the relationship to me. But, I have once again learned my lesson. If there are screaming fan girls telling me how good a book is based solely on the lead male character, I should beware. Damn you Twilight fans, you got me again!

As for the covers, they are kind of neat. Simplistic, highlighting the event that is most focused on in that particular book; and by event, I clearly mean sexual encounter. Are these books worth a read? Hard to say. I personally would buy Harry Potter and read it all over again. After all this time? Always.

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

So, for the first time in months I was able to sit and read a book in one day. It was the perfect way to spend this rainy Sunday, and I must say, this book was a good choice. It was dark and glum, just as the day was.

I originally had set my radar on this book after finishing its prequel, Wicked Lovely, a year ago. I had tried to inter-library loan it, but something happened and it never arrived. With all the craziness that is my life, I forgot about it. Then, one of my students that I talk about books with regularly was reading it and I once again put it on my list.

This book is part of a companion series by Melissa Marr, and though I loved her first book immensely, and I love her writing style, I did not LOVE this book. I liked it, but it lacked something for me....

The premise of this book centers around Leslie. Leslie's life has recently sunken to all new lows. Her mom up and abandoned her family, her dad has become a drunk, and her brother is into hardcore drugs. Her brother is into hardcore drugs so deeply that he is willing to do unspeakable things to settle his debt with his dealers, including selling his sister's body.

So, with all this awfulness in her life, Leslie is looking for an escape, and outlet to focus her fear and sadness. She decides to get a tattoo. Unfortunately for her, her tattoo artist is a halfbreed faery of the Dark Court. The tattoo she chooses isn't ordinary tribal art, it is part of an ink exchange spell. It binds her with the king of the Dark Court. He uses this connection with her to feed the faeries of his court who get their nourishment off the negative emotions (fear, rage, jealous, pain) of others, humans and faeries alike. She basically turns in to a conduit, absorbing all the emotions around her and funneling to him, who in turns absorbs them and then distributes them among his followers. With her being damaged as she has been, it only adds to the intoxicating effects, literally taking weeks from her. She exists in a doped like stupor, essentially becoming an addict just like her family members.

What I liked about this book it the interesting aspect of the inclusion of several different types of faery lore into one. The author takes years of lore and all aspects, the good and bad, and creates this world where they coexist through the novels. Her descriptions of the different types of fey are unique and vivid. I also appreciate the time she took into researching tattoos. The details included added to the realism of the reasoning, method, and escape Leslie sought through this means.

What I didn't like is that I felt the climax was lame. She chooses to fight, but not in the strong female protagonist way the author had portrayed Leslie's counterpart in her first novel. It seemed as though Leslie's decision to overcome was more of a whim than a struggle.

I also felt there was a lack of resolution. The ending, including the epilogue, left too many unanswered questions about the background of some of the other characters that were introduced. Perhaps I will be enlightened by the next book in the set, but I can say I am not nearly as anxious to read that one.

I must say, though, I found the cover to be intriguing. The tattoo the author had designed for this novel is also a fantastic piece of artwork, really representing the character in which is linked. Overall this book wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as I thought the premise could be....