Magic in the Shadows

Magic in the Shadows is book 3 in the Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk.  This time around, Allie is dealing with spirit of her dead father taking up residence in her head.  Nola, her best friend in the whole wide world, is also staying at Allie's place while she deals with the custody battle surrounding Cody.  And Zayvion?  He's helping Allie cope with the stresses and training involved with the Alliance, because if the Alliance decides that Allie is too unstable, they will Close off her magic, and memories, of anything to do with the Alliance, including Zayvion.

And Allie is definitely unpredictable.  Using tricks that she learned from her father, the Alliance is scared of her.  However, despite the fact that she opened a gate in a highly warded area, they need Allie and decide to keep her around (memories intact).  This has some of Allie's new found friends pleased (Shamus, Zayvion's best friend, and Maeve, Allie's teacher and Shame's mother) while pissing off others (namely Chase, Zayvion's ex-girlfriend and possible soul complement to Greyson, the fellow who killed Allie's dad and was also the necromorph running around town killing things and setting the Hungers free).  Did I mention that Allie animated a gargoyle that now lives with her and likes to talk to her sink?

Yeah, Allie's life does sound like a rather ludicrous soap opera, hey?  And it sort of reads as one, since Allie acts like a girl who has something to prove.  The Alliance is afraid of her because she holds the power of light and dark, on a scale that may be greater than Zayvion's (who is a Guardian of the Gates), but Allie is almost too stubborn to take the training properly, making her dangerous since she has a hard time controlling her magic.  Now that they are recognized Soul Complements (magic users who, on top of being able to use their magic in such a way to enhance the other's powers, are also able to touch each other's minds in the process - a technique that is rare and has the tendency to drive the couple involved insane) they are even more dangerous.  And Allie can't even take that seriously.

The storyline is interesting.  Some of the people are interesting.  But the rest of the time they're angsty and read like teenagers.  I keep thinking that they're around my age, but they're not (I think they're in their early 20s?) and that makes a world of difference.  And the main thing that annoys me, is that when Allie is thinking sex, she can't keep her head in the game.

I'm hoping that now that Allie is taking self-defense training and magic training that it'll make her a more capable character who won't rely on her tough girl attitude to bluff her way through situations.  I just hope she doesn't turn in to a character with superhero abilities.

I've already started book 4, Magic in the Storm, so I hope that I'm not getting in to things that haven't started since the end of book 3.

The Running Man

Now that I finished The Satanic Verses, I have TONS of time to read other books!  Plus, I'm currently on vacation, so I hope to get heaps of extra reading done.  If I'm going to spend money for the books, I might as well read them, right?!

The Running Man is a novel by Stephen King, written during his Richard Bachman phase.  Made into a movie in the late 1980's, it is loosely based on the novel.  By loosely, I mean that it involves running from people trying to kill Ben Richards.  And that's it.

In this dystopian novel, set into the not-so distant future (2025!), the social gap has been split even further.  The rich are still living the high life, but the less fortunate are so poor that in order to make money they vie to be contestants in game shows that may cause injury or even death.  Ben Richards, the novel's hero, is a 28 year old man who is desperate to keep his wife from making money "on her back" to pay for the medicine that their 18 month old daughter needs to treat her influenza.  In a last ditch effort to provide for his family, Ben goes through the extensive physical and mental testing required by the game show corporation and ends up on the highly acclaimed, and highly paying, Running Man show.

In this game, the contestant runs for his life: for every hour he survives, he earns $100 and for every hunter he kills, he gets $100.  On the flip side, the public is encouraged to help the hunters find the contestant: for a reported sighting, the person gets $100 and for a sighting ending in a kill, the person gets $500 and if the contestant makes it 30 days, he'll receive $1,000,000.  However, the longest record for survival is only 8 days.

Ben's plan of attack is to stay low; using his first 12 hour head start, he attains a fake ID to fly to New York.  Convinced that his mandatory twice daily tapes to the studio are being traced, he buses to Boston and stays in a run-down hostel.  Bored and watching cars, he realizes that the men outside the window are hitmen; to solve this problem, Ben sneaks in to the basement and blows up the hostel on top of him.  On the other end of the sewer, he meets a kid by the name of Stacey and his older brother, Bradley. 

Turns out, Bradley is an educated gang member who enlightens Ben on the issues of the poor air quality.  In his videos, Ben attempts to address this problem, but the games corporation does its own form of censorship: voice overs to increase hostility towards Ben.  Bradley helps Ben by smuggling him through road blocks and sending him to meet his contact: Elton.  Unfortunately, Elton's mother tips off the hunters, resulting in a car chase. 

Separating, Ben ends up in a small town and he hijacks a car driven by an upper class woman named Amelia.  Bluffing his way through a few road blocks, he demands a jet and for the head hunter, McCone, to join him onboard.  While on board, Ben is offered the job of head hunter by the head of the games corporation, Killian.  When Ben refuses, he learns that his wife and daughter were murdered at the start of the show.  In a fit of madness (or perhaps clarity) Ben kills everyone on board and crashes the jet in to the building of the games corporation.

I really liked the concept of this book: running for your life and money.  I honestly believe that reality tv will end up this way in a few years (hopefully decades).  I mean, look at UFC!  Sure, that isn't to the death, but it could end up that way eventually.  For example, Roman gladiators and hangings of the past were for the entertainment of the public.  However, I didn't really care for the personality of Ben Richards - who was too cynical and too quick to flip off everyone. 

Having read books by Stephen King in the past, I figured that there was a 50/50 chance of Ben surviving this show.  However, I didn't like the ending: sure, the building was destroyed, but who did that benefit?  Definitely not Ben or his family; and he sure didn't help out the poor by breaking the news of the poor air pollution and nose filters.  Essentially, he destroyed the building out of spite.

So, honestly?  If you like dystopia, you might like this book.  If you've watched the movie, you may get a kick out of the book to see the differences.  Otherwise, I don't know if you'd like it.  The language is racist and coarse, the hero really isn't a hero and some scenes are unnecessarily graphic (which is typical of Stephen King).

the perks of being a wallflower

the perks of being a wallflower is a story by Stephen Chbosky about an antisocial teenager who writes a series of anonymous letters to a recipient that is never named.  His advanced english teacher tells him to truly live life, instead of just watching it happen and so "Charlie" ends up befriending a guy in his shop class. 

As Charlie's friendship grows with Patrick, Charlie begins to party and use drugs, making friends and gaining a girlfriend in the process.  However, Charlie's home life, while stable with good parents, begins to deteriorate after he sees his sister get hit by her boyfriend.  A comment to his teacher, which in turn makes its way back to his parents causes his sister to alienate Charlie after their parents forbid her from seeing her boyfriend again.  There are continuous references to an Aunt Helen who was always in an abusive relationship, before she passed away due to a car accident on Charlie's birthday years ago.

As the reader delves further into the story, more carnal subjects appear: homosexuality and teenage sex (which, for one character, leads to an aborted pregnancy).  Charlie's life becomes more complicated as one of his friends puts the moves on him, and Charlie, for the sake of friendship, doesn't stop it.  Not even a girlfriend will prevent him from pining for his elusive Sam.

Charlie is brutally and whimsically honest with his friends, which they pass off as "Charlie-esque" and cute.  He is emotional and never truly tries to be someone he is not.  He is protective of his friends and will (literally) fight anyone who threatens them. 

He is damaged.

It is not until nearly the end of the story that you realize that he has been molested by someone close to him when he was a child.  It was buried in his subconscious until Sam attempts to be intimate with him. 

He is also a survivor.

His final accounts are of his rehabilitation and counselling.  He believes that he no longer needs the support of his unknown reader to live life.  And that he'll be just fine.  His final letter ends with: "So, if this does end up being my last letter, please believe that things are good with me, and even when they're not, they will be soon enough" (page 213).

I found this story to be bitterly sweet.  Charlie is a likeable character who is intensely in love with Sam, but was told to "not think that way" at the start, so he's truly fighting it every step of the way.  He's a good kid with a good family, but they have problems just like everyone else. 

There's a poem that I want to share with you, from the story (pages70-73) that I find mesmerizing and tragic.  You'll see why:

"Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines / he wrote a poem /
And he called it "Chops" / because that was the name of his dog
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A / and a gold star
And his mother hung it on the kitchen door / and read it to his aunts
That was the year Father Tracy / took all the kids to the zoo
And let them sing on the bus
And his little sister was born / with tiny fingernails and no hair
And his mother and father kissed a lot
And the little girl around the corner sent him a / Valentine with a row of X's / and he had to ask his father what the X's meant
And his father always tucked him in bed at night
And was always there to do it

"Once on a white paper with blue lines / he wrote a poem
And he called it "Autumn" / because that was the name of the season
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A / and asked him to write more clearly
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door / because of its new paint
And the kids told him / that Father Tracy smoked cigars
And left butts on the pews
That was the year his sister got glasses / with thick lenses and black frames
And the girl around the corner laughed / when he asked her to go see Santa Claus
And the kids told him why / his mother and father kissed a lot
And his father never tucked him in bed at night
And his father got mad / when he cried for him to do it

"Once on a paper torn from his notebook / he wrote a poem
And he called it "Innocence: A Question" / because that was the question about his girl
And that's what it was all about
And his professor gave him an A / and a strange steady look
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door / because he never showed her
That was the year that Father Tracy died
And he forgot how the end / of the Apostle's Creed went
And he caught his sister / making out on the back porch
And his mother and his father never kissed / or even talked
And the girl around the corner / wore too much makeup
That made him cough when he kissed her / but he kissed her anyway / because that was the thing to do
And at three A.M. he tucked himself into bed / his father snoring loudly

"That's why on the back of a brown paper bag / he tried another poem
And he called it "Absolutely Nothing"
Because that's what it was really all about
And he gave himself an A / and a slash on each damned wrist
And he hung it on the bathroom door / because this time he didn't think / he could reach the kitchen"

This story reveals itself in bits and pieces.  When Charlie mentions a poem that he read, the reader doesn't imagine it could be anything so sad.  However, later, Charlie writes down the words and one of his friends comments on how it was a suicide note.

I really can't say too much more about it, except what I've already said: bitter sweet.  I loved this story; I read it in one night and honestly didn't feel like I could write a blog about it without thinking about it first.  Unfortunately, my internet went down and I subsequently forgot most of what I would've said.  The story is beautiful and joyful mixed with sad and tragic.  Which is pretty much the definition of adolescence.

The Satanic Verses

I finished it!

Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death after the publication of his book, The Satanic Verses.  His novel follows the lives of two actors, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, starting with their fall from a hijacked airplane over England.  Not only do they survive their fall, they transform into a living incarnation of an angel (Gibreel) and devil (Saladin), to the point where they take on the physical characteristics of each: a halo for Gibreel and a goat-like body for Saladin.

After losing their divine/fallen characteristics, they attempt to regain their normal lives; however, they are obsessively drawn toward each other - both for purposes of revenge.  For Saladin, he wishes to destroy Gibreel's life the way his was ruined.  When Saladin returned to his home in his goat form (after being brutally beaten and humiliated by the police), he discovers his wife in bed with his friend.  He left his home and stayed at a bed & breakfast above the Shaandaar Cafe.  His presence causes a disturbance in the dreams of the people living nearby, forcing him out of the B&B and into a club called Hot Wax, where he has a hissy fit in the basement and regains his human form.  At this point he's determined to destroy Gibreel.

Gibreel, the Golden Boy who fills Saladin's days with misery, has problems of his own.  He finds himself haunted by an ex-mistress, who flung herself (and her children) off of her apartment complex after Gibreel ended it to fly to England to find Alleluia Cone.  And after wandering throughout London in a daze, he miraculously ends up on Alleluia's doorstep, much to his relief.  After a huge fight, Gibreel storms out in a jealous rage and is convinced that he is the archangel Gibreel (granted, talking to the Man Upstairs helped sway his opinion) sent to convert the world.  He tries for a while, but ends up back with Alleluia and his agent, Sisodia.  He has visions (one involving a girl by the name of Ayesha who tells the people of her village to go on a pilgrimage to the ocean; another involves the prophet Mahound) which Sisodia figures can be used as screenplays to boost Gibreel's return to the movie world.

At this point their paths cross again at a party: Gibreel, heavily medicated, describes his perfect life to Saladin but reveals his jealous streak when Gibreel beats Saladin's friend (who is sleeping with Saladin's wife) over the head with an oar!  In a bid to ruin his perfect relationship, Saladin plants the seeds of doubt in Gibreel's mind, causing Gibreel to destroy Alleluia's apartment, and their relationship.  Gibreel ends the night treking through town, again influenced by the notion of being an avenging angel and leaving a path of fire and destruction behind him.  Finding his enemy, Saladin, at the Shaandaar Cafe, he realizes the truth and yet somehow manages to forgive Saladin, to the point of carrying him out of the burning building.

Finding forgiveness from a man he was determined to ruin, Saladin decides that it is time to go see his father, who is now on his deathbed.  Caring for his father has given him a new view on life, so when Gibreel comes to him the night of his father's funeral and points a gun at him, Saladin is scared.  Gibreel then turns the gun on himself and ends his nightmares.  Saladin, who has re-adopted his real name Saladduhin Chamchawalla and has reconnected with a fling-turned-love feels pity towards the man who seemed so perfect, but was haunted to the point of killing his lover and taking his own life.

Wow - was this book ever difficult to wade through.  Salman has a poetic way of writing that is very beautiful to read, but has caused this book to be at least 4 times longer than it would've been if he spoke more plainly.  The story has a tendency to jump around from one man's view point to another and then it will jump back in time to explain the story up until that point.  It also goes into detail about the visions that Gibreel has and which I'm not entirely sure if they were dreams or something more.  I don't understand certain aspects of the story, like whether it was a coincidence that certain names from Saladin's life were repeated in Gibreel's dreams; if Saladin's wife and lover were set up to take the blame for a terrorist group or if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

I imagine this is a book where several reads are necessary to understand the whole story - as long as you have a dictionary, a science dictionary and several religious texts nearby so you can put the stories in to context.

I enjoyed this book very much: I love the way he writes and I like the way he challenges you to think while reading.  As you go through the book there are several "ah-hah!" moments where you feel like you're finally starting to understand the storyline.  And then he promptly switches directions, leaving you scrambling to catch up again.  I was a little surprised when Gibreel and Saladin have their confrontation in the burning building only to have them forgive eachother.  There was so much buildup at that point and I was really excited to see how it would end.  By the time the end did come, it was anticlimatic and out of the blue.  And the revelation of Alleluia's death was a shock.  I had read the Wiki-version of the story, so I knew that it ended in tragedy but it definitely didn't happen the way I expected!

In short, don't read it if you expect an easy read, but I thought it was worth the trouble.

In The Works: The Satanic Verses

The next book to be read for the Banned Book Club is called The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.  I'm about half way through and am, so far, enjoying the book.

The story can be confusing at times, especially at the beginning.  It also jumps around a little in the timeline, so by the time you've figured out what's going on, it's switched again.  However, despite that, I am enjoying it. 

It starts out with the main characters falling out of the plane and it leaves them there to go on to their respective childhoods and formative years.  It also explains about how they ended up on the plane in the first place, and about the terrorists who end up denotating a bomb onboard.  It then jumps to a desert town where water is evil and considered the destroyer; in this town there is a Messanger by the name of Mahound who has been consulting with an angel, Gibreel.  The story then takes us back to where the two main characters have landed, unharmed, upon a beach in England and meet an elderly woman.  Gibreel stays with her and Saladin is arrested.  At this point, Gibreel has a halo and Saladin has grown horns and hooves.  Both eventually make their way back to their respective homes in London proper.

Like I said, a little confusing.  However, because the story jumps around so much, I find myself compelled to keep reading on, to know how they got to that point.  How did Gibreel end up being an angel in the middle of nowhere when he's currently living in London?  And whatever happened to Saladin?  See, now I'll have to keep reading to find out!