Paige Cee

I was looking at an article about a book earlier and I came across a comment where someone said they hoped one character (who had his heart broken in the series the subject of the article was a spin-off of) didn't fall for another character. Someone commented on *that* comment and asked why the person didn't want the heartbroken character to have a happy ending by falling for that second character.

That made me really angry because it unintentionally implied that in a story where someone accomplished their dream and had what most would call a happy ending, it wouldn't really be a happy ending if they didn't fall in love or if they had their heart broken once or twice. I strongly disagree.

Do you think a character has to fall in love to have a happy ending? Discuss! Tell me!

There's an equal amount of love and hate for any stories involving vampires around here. This worries me because I'm writing a vampire story and I'm afraid that it won't work for either audience. It's very dark; there's no romance at all, the vampire is evil and Dracula-esque, and he does a lot of mental and psychological torture on the main character. He even watches her sleep at night, which works as a psychological torture tactic because she knows he's there and stays up because she's scared to go to sleep. Not exactly the norm right now, huh?

I hear a lot of different things, so what qualities would make *you* want to read a book about vampires? Would you be willing to read the above-mentioned story with just those details in mind?

Mona turned to look at Alistair, unsure whether or not he’d been paying attention to the spectacle below. It appeared that he hadn’t and had been watching her the whole time. Without taking his hand off her waist, he brought Mona in from the balcony like a gentleman and they sat down on the couch together. “I’ve heard some refer to that as ‘existentialism.’ I find that an attractive trait in someone,” he said. “Some might see that as a weakness, to refuse all help that comes their way, but I would call it an excess of strength. By choosing to handle one’s problems alone, it shows not just the mental strength to support oneself, but also the physical strength to fight their enemies in combat and the cleverness to outwit them in a game of the mind.”

Throughout the night, Mona thought she had seen darkness in the sky outside and the colors people wore inside the club. That was nothing but shallow darkness. As Alistair’s friendly smile morphed into something sinister, she saw true darkness, the kind that the human eye could never conceive. Her instinct to flee awakened. She tried to get up from the couch and run, but his grip on her was too tight, too strong for her to escape from. What had she gotten herself into?

“I also find that trait attractive,” he continued, “because if a person that was determined not to involve others in their troubles somehow escaped me, they wouldn’t tell anyone what happened or look for protection. They would try to fight me on their own and they would fail.” She felt his lips touch her throat and her heart seemed like it was beating a thousand times per minute, that organ being the only thing that still moved. His teeth—no, his fangs—clamped down on her neck and broke through to let him partake in the real prize: her blood.

She knew that what he was doing to her was horrible, but it didn’t feel horrible. It felt beautiful and amazing and… Her mind wanted this vampire to let her go so she could run far away from him, but her body wanted to stay and let him keep drinking from her until she was all dried up. What did it matter what would happen to her? As long as death was this euphoric for her senses, she would happily meet the pearly white gates of Heaven…

The illusion shattered.

Death. There was the bare truth right in front of her: That he was killing her little by little with each drink of blood he took from her. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to living yet. She believed there was still so much she had to do—graduate high school, find love, have a family, find something that she was so passionate about that she would keep that passion until the day she died from old age—that she kept a grip on the life that was trying to slip away from her. Alistair wouldn’t be killing her that night.

While he continued to draw blood out of the wound in her beck, Mona pushed hard against his chest. He hadn’t been expecting any resistance, so he fell backwards, his fangs forced out of her neck. His eyes stayed in contact with hers, those soulless black eyes that masqueraded as dark brown. “Calm down, Mona,” he told her. She ran for the door and tried to open it, but her hands were shaking so badly that she couldn’t get a good grip on it. “Just sit back on the couch and we can finish what we’ve started.”

His voice was so soothing and rational that she nearly did as she was told. The fangs shining in the light and her blood smudged across his lips were all that kept the illusion from taking hold of her senses all over again. She broke eye contact with him, finally got the door open, and made a mad dash for the stairs, tearing apart her hairstyle in the meantime to hide the bite marks.

2010 is just short of being over now and we've all done our fair share of reading this year. What were your best and worst books? Feel free to explain and include as many or as few as you feel fit each category.

Best:

Carrie by Stephen King

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

Worst:

Angel Star by Jennifer Murgia (Not just the worst book I read this year, but the worst book I've ever read. It hit all my pet peeves and nearly offended me.)

Delcroix Academy: The Candidates by Inara Scott

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

1) ...be your best friend?

2) ...be your spouse/lover? (Its gender depends on yours and your sexual orientation.)

3) ...be your arch-nemesis (that you may or may not be secretly glad exists because you like having an arch-nemesis)?

4) ...be the Big Bad who killed your family, blamed someone else for it, caused a war, and basically caused everything bad that happened?

No explanations required, but feel free to explain why.

My answers:

1) The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. I connect so well with it that it reminds me of all my best friends.

2) Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves. That book is crazy like me!

3) Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I don't like the book, but I'm glad it is there so that I can point at it and say, "This is how not to write a vampire novel."

4) Angel Star by Jennifer Murgia. Of all the books I have read, this book is most definitely my Big Bad. It is so evil that if I tossed it in a fire, it would make a deal with the devil to become conscious and pyrokinetic so that it could kill me with fire.

I'm sure you have those little qualities that make you dislike a book and choose to either stop reading it or not even try to read it. What are yours? Mine are:

-insta-love; a romance with no plausible base

-Completely unlikeable love interests, like jerks with no redeeming qualities

-nonsensical/stupid plot

-main characters named some variation of Zoe

-romance with an angel or fallen angel

You're free to call me out on my last two points. I don't mind. I have tried and I have hated every single angel/fallen angel romance book or book with a main character named Zoe that I have ever read. If I made a list of the worst books I've ever read and worst heroines I've ever encountered, they all would make those lists. They were so awful that I refuse to try and find good examples of them anymore.

When I negatively reviewed an awful book once, there were a lot of people who commented and agreed with my review and then there were people who did not. One person argued that the book was just fiction and because of that, I shouldn't have been as harsh on the book's content as I was. I thought that was an awful excuse. Another said that I shouldn't have wasted my time being so negative about the book. I apologize if I want to waste my time being negative and warning people that the book I reviewed might not be for them. The world doesn't run on just positive people. We (sadly) need the naysayers too.

What kind of logical, stupid, ridiculous, strange, or just plain memorable arguments have you seen people use to defend a book they liked but that someone else did not?

I'm on break from NaNoWriMo and decided it would be fun to ask about quirky characters because I'm writing one.

Her name is Natale Drakes and she is a... different one, alright. She literally sings, dances, and hums her way around her high school campus. She's perfectly aware that people think she's a freak because of what she does but doesn't care because music is a huge part of who she is. If she feels like singing while going to Trig or dancing from History to Zoology, she's darn well going to do it. Her love of doing this has gotten her into trouble multiple times, but she doesn't care. The only time she wouldn't consider being musical all over the place would be when it's completely inappropriate, like a funeral.

You know what? I'm not sure whether she's quirky or just plain crazy. So who's your quirky character?

Quite frankly, I can't stand this woman anymore. I just posted a long letter in my blog to her that I never plan to send to her because no matter how little I respect her, that would be going too far.

I liked her books from the 90s and thought they were great, but her newest books (the Vampire Diaries: The Return trilogy) ruins everything her Vampire Diaries books were once about. She signed on to do another three Vampire Diaries books and meanwhile, all of her Night World fans are left waiting for Strange Fate, which has been ten years in the making with no reason ever given on why it's taking so long. I swear, I've looked everywhere and found nothing.

I'm *thisclose* to getting rid of her books because no matter how much I like an author's books, I'm not going to help them make a profit if I can't respect them and they obviously don't care about their fans. If you've read books by LJ Smith or know of her, what do you think of her?

*Obligatory spoiler warning for the book "Hush, Hush" by Becca Fitzpatrick.

A few months ago, I read "Hush, Hush" by Becca Fitzpatrick and hated it. That book is incredibly fortunate I chose to simply sell it instead of wreck it and throw it in the trash (keep in mind that I am not one to abuse books) because it infuriated me so badly.

Why didn't I like it? Let me count the ways. The main guy Patch was creepy, slimy, and about three steps short of being a rapist; the entire novel was the worst kind of predictable; it contained one of the worst best friends I've ever seen in literature; and the main character Nora was inexplicably attracted to Patch even though he scared her and had no redeeming qualities. I want to go into more detail but that would turn this into a TL;DR question.

It doesn't bother me that people liked this book and I'm not asking this with the intent of being mean or hurting someone. We all have our different taste in books, yet I can almost always understand why someone else might like a book when I read it and think it's horrible. Not with this book. Can I please have some fans explain to me why they liked "Hush, Hush"? Then I can stop thinking about it, block the novel out of my mind forever, and be done with it.

I just finished one of the worst books I've ever read (Angel Star by Jennifer Murgia) and I need a good book to read so that I can flush all of the rage out of my system and heal my poor brain. Any ideas?

Don't suggest The Hunger Games (already read it), Stephen King (already have some of his best and love them), or anything where romance takes up a lot of the story. I'm in no mood for it because that god-awful book had a god-awful love story. And if you suggest anything with angels or fallen angels, I am going to strangle you through the computer screen. I hate angel/fallen angel books with a passion.

My friend and I are going to dare each other to read terrible supernatural, fantasy, and paranormal YA books for no reason and we're trying to put together a list of really bad ones that we haven't read yet. We used Amazon to pick out some we're pretty sure are going to suck, but there's no harm in asking the readers around here, is there? I'm sure you have plenty of experience. So suggest away!

(Caps Lock alert) DON'T SUGGEST TWILIGHT OF HOUSE OF NIGHT. WE'VE ALREADY READ THEM AND HATED THEM. (Sorry about that. Wanted to make sure you saw it.)

I'm about to start writing a vampire parody for my two best friends as a Christmas gift (they love vamps, but love making fun of them more, and I need time to write/revise/print it) and I want to make sure I have most of the major cliches down. Right now I have (and my list is hiding right now, so this isn't all of them):

1) The "average" girl (who usually turns out to be super speshul/a Mary Sue)

2) The emo male lead OR cocky male lead OR bipolar male lead OR! the really creepy male lead whom you think is a rapist-in-training (I'm going to try and work in all four somehow, probably in the form of a harem like in the House of Night series)

3) The useless best friend OR best friend who sucks at being a best friend

4) The OMFG HOT antagonist that everyone wants to pair with the main character or themselves

5) The "cool" guy everyone wants to pair with the main character or themselves (there's a difference sometimes!)

6) The guy in the love triangle who never gets the girl, but is usually better than the guy who gets her

7) The "average" girl having super speshul hidden powers that are the key to saving the world

8) The adults who don't do anything to help because it's a YA novel, sillies! (way too many of these)

9) The stereotypes that take the place of actual personalities

10) The bad guys who stand around, chortle, and wait to be defeated instead of act like actual bad guys

If you can think of something that I missed or that would make a great contribution, please suggest it!

By that, I mean things you want/need the book to have or else you won't read it (the absolute "do's", and things that will make you immediately decide not to read a book for whatever reason (the absolute "don'ts").

There aren't many things that I require in a potential novel. Just give me a premise with some promise and a style that doesn't annoy me and I'm good.

My absolute "don'ts" are bad storylines that blatantly copy another popular novel, fallen angels or angels (I've tried them and every fallen angel/angel book I've read has sucked like a vacuum), a lack of respect for the author (I consider the author when buying a book too because I'm not going to support an author I don't respect), and insipid romances that take over the whole book when they're not supposed to. Oh, and abusive relationships, either blatantly obvious or masquerading as a good relationship when it's really a toxic one.

I'm reading this one book right now called "My Blood Approves" and after reading just the first chapter, I'm not sure why the main character Alice and her "best friend" Jane are friends. Jane is being such a b*tch to Alice when a guy she thinks is hot seems to like Alice more than her. It's not like Alice has any control over that, so why lash out at her? Maybe I just need to read further, but I'm not looking forward to it.

Who are the worst "best friends" you've ever seen in a novel or novel series?

Other nominees from me include Haven (The Immortals series by Alyson Noel, because Haven is so childish and never listens to her "best friend" Ever) and Vee (Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, because Vee pushes Nora towards a guy that Nora has expressed to her that she is uncomfortable around and constantly embarrasses Nora).

My family and friends call me strange because there are certain authors I refuse to read the books of because I don't respect them. Maybe they've said something disrespectful about another author or their books; maybe they have a dirty little incident in their past; maybe they don't seem to care about their fans. If I find that I can't respect them for whatever reason, I won't buy their books and support them, no matter how good their novels might be/sound.

Is anyone else like this or am I just one freaky kid?

(I can't believe I'm asking this old question...)

I'm pretty sure this character isn't a Sue, due to my own careful analysis and more tests I've taken for her than I can count on my fingers and toes, but it's always good to have human opinions on something like this.

Her name is Jade and she has brown hair and blue eyes. She grew up in a bad home where she suffered abuse of many different kinds and as soon as she was able, she moved out into her own apartment that she paid for with her own money, earned from an after-school job.

Her troubled upbringing has two major effects on her: it leads to her introduction to witchcraft, which sets many of the major story events into motion, and it made her very antagonistic- she tends to provoke and fight with people if she doesn't like them. This gets her into trouble later on when she makes the wrong person angry and he hurts someone close to her.

Despite her behavior, she's protective of the people she DOES consider family, has a nice side, and also has a strong sense of morality. After meeting a certain character that shows her what she could have become if she let the mean side of herself take over, she tries to control her antagonistic behavior. For the most part, she succeeds, but she has times where she'll fall back into her old patterns.

Here's a chance to exercise your skills of persuasion. Take a book that you enjoyed and think more people should read and try to convince me that I should read it. Come up with some good points and try your hardest to make me want to read that book. Talk about how hot someone in the book is, how emotionally-charged the story is (made you cry and such), and anything else you can come up with that would make me think that book is worth reading. Whoever gives the best argument and makes me want to read their book the most is the winner in this mini-contest. They get the ten points and I will go read that book.

Ready? Go!

I love names and I love books, and these two passions fit together perfectly. I've noticed lately that the books I read sometimes shape and/or change my opinions on certain names. For instance, I used to hate the name Astrid, but after reading a book called in which the kick-butt main character had that name, I started to like it. Same thing with the names Elena and Claire.

On the flip side, I once loved the name Zoey and its various spellings. Then I read the House of Night series by PC and Kristin Cast, Heavenly by Jennifer Laurens, and Forget You by Jennifer Echols. All three of these had a main character named Zoey/Zoe and all three of these books sucked to an impossible degree. I have come to hate that name because of how bad the books were. As stupid as it is, I become prejudiced against certain names; if I'm looking at a book description now and see that the main girl is named Zoey, I'm scared to buy it because all the books I've read with main girls named Zoey sucked.

Am I the only one this has happened too or are there other people who share my strange behavior? Feel free to provide examples of what names you've come to love/hate because of books you've read.

And I mean one book that you loved for one part of it and hated for another part of it, in case the phrasing of the question wasn't very clear.

Heavenly by Jennifer Laurens split my opinion like that when I'm usually one way or the other on a book. I loved how it tackled real-life issues like autism, drug abuse, partying; what I hated was the love story between the main character and a guardian angel, which was superficial on a level I've never seen before in a novel. I want to see what happens to the main girl's family and how the keep dealing with their issues, but the I hated the central romance so much that I can't bring myself to read the sequel.

Have you read any novels that left you feeling like this?