Saturday, November 12, 2011

When She Woke

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The heavy hand of marketing told me that it was a mix between the The Scarlet Letter and The Handmaid's Tale. What I read was more of a coming of age story set among the backdrop of a dystopian America. However intriguing that sounds, it's really not. When She Woke uses a series of stereotypes that is almost as maddening as the borrowed references. These stereotypes are up to and including the Sassy Black Friend,  forewarned is forearmed. The good news is that Jordan's writing style is zippy and quick so skipping past the frustration is quite easy. The plot, however, seems like a mishmash of  all the bad things that can happen to women if all references are taken from Lifetime movies. Also, it contains enough fundamentalist Christian bashing that it should make a nice annoyance among friends who attend that big fancy mega-church.

Now the question becomes, would I recommend this book to anyone? Yes, When She Woke is entertaining, but in a beach book kind of way. It's plot doesn't linger, the bad guys wear black hats (hand on my heart, they really do in this book), and the ending satisfies. It's not in the same league as Hawthorn or Atwood, I'm not going to kid you there, but it is in the same league as a Nicholas Sparks novel. I can see this book quickly getting optioned for a movie, so look for it on the marquee some time in 2014. It would make a great chick action film. Give it a shot, but know that it's got as much intellectual  heft as The Notebook.

Moving on, I've picked up a YA series called The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, The Mysterious Howling. I've been told that it is a lot like the Series of Unfortunate Events. I wax poetic about that series constantly. Part of the problem with it is that it came out right around the same time Harry Potter was hitting it out of the park. It flew under the radar, and a lot people missed it. At any rate, Incorrigible Children is a chapter book, so I should be done with it quickly. After that, I'm moving onto the The Mysterious Benedict Society. I'm going to do a combined post of the two.




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