Book Reports: "Cress" and "The Moon and More"

Finished writing Chapter 15 last night--a short one, involving the scene where Rory pierces her own ears with a sewing needle. I had to do a bunch of Internet research for this one, which involved watching people pierce their own ears on Youtube. Haha my recent search history would appall my mother.

Checked out seven books from the library on Sunday. I figured I should write reports for two of them while they're still fresh in my head.

1. Cress by Marissa Meyer

I reviewed the first book in The Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, almost two years ago, but I just realized I never wrote a review for the second book in the series Scarlet. It's also rather hazy in my head, so I can't recall in any great detail what happened between Cinder and Cress.

In any case though, I will judge Cress on its own merit, and I have to say I was impressed with how Marissa Meyer handled this book. There are many, many characters in different places to keep track of in this book, and it tied together rather well. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by how she wove the Rapunzel elements into this futuristic setting. Cress has been stuck on a satellite orbiting Earth for seven years. Her "prince" is a wanted criminal and spaceship pilot who is such a Han Solo, and I never would have thought to adapt the "blindness" element from the original fairy tale, where the witch tosses the prince out of the tower and he loses his vision.

Also, there's something I want to talk about that is spoilerish. So... SPOILER ALERT.

Okay... so with Cress, Marissa Meyer TOTALLY cranked up the heat. Scarlet and Wolf have a tender moment in an early chapter before she gets abducted by the Lunars, so you don't get to see as much with those two. With Cress and Thorne... I knew the kiss was coming, since Marissa Meyer set it up so early, but it was still a fist-pump-worthy moment when Thorne kept his promise to Cress. Those two were adorable, especially the awkward conversation after they survived the battle and the normally smarmy and charming Thorne seems really nervous about having not lived up to Cress' expectations haha. As for Cinder and Prince Kai... maybe I need to reread Cinder again, because I wasn't quite feeling it with those two, though I still totally fist-pumped in that scene. You know which one I'm talking about.

END SPOILER.

Anyways, overall this series doesn't match my adoration of say Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but I am looking forward to reading the fourth book, Winter. Hopefully it'll be a great finish to the series.

2. The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Like pretty much all the other girls in high school, I was a big fan of Sarah Dessen in high school. Even now, when I go home I'll usually reread one of my top three Dessen favorites: The Truth About Forever, Just Listen, and This Lullaby. I stopped reading her books after a while though, because the others just didn't meet up to the Key Three and felt like a letdown. Well, since I had time this week and was feeling in the mood for something more warm and light-hearted, I decided to give The Moon and More a shot.

The story takes place in a beach town that I imagine is probably around the Outer Banks of North Carolina. (Dessen is from Chapel Hill, and since I spent the last five years in Durham, North Carolina... well, you imagine things.) It's a world I am not accustomed to at all--that is, a small town with small-town mentalities--but it was rather refreshing to read about this. The main character, Emaline, is about to head off to college in the fall. She works at her family's real estate business that accomdates a lot of summer tourists, and the story has the usual elements of a Dessen tale--family issues, funny and endearing friendships, love interests, an oft-repeated phrase thematically tied to the novel's title.

Where this book didn't follow the well-beaten trail, however, was where the love interest comes in. At the beginning, Emaline is with Luke, her easygoing boyfriend of four years (since ninth grade). They have some issues, and he ends up cheating on her, which usually is a dealbreaker GTFO thing for me when it comes to fictional characters, but in the end I couldn't hate him. It's obvious throughout the book that he and Emaline's lives have been closely intertwined and that they'll always on some level care for one another. He's always there for her even after they break up, and really, I chalk their story up to a case of bad timing. When you're about to head off to college, I think anyone would get restless and start to wonder what else is out in the big wide world. If they'd met later in life and remained just as compatible, then maybe it would have worked out.

Dessen introduces a second male lead, Theo--a film student at NYU. There were a number of things that Theo said that I could relate to--like his emphasis on education and city culture. I wasn't exactly like Theo, who reeked of Northeast money and privilege, but seeing as I went to Duke, I definitely felt like Columbia University is a different level than the fictional East U that Emaline ends up enrolling at. (I also couldn't believe why Emaline didn't bother applying FAFSA, but whatever.) So on one hand, I'm kind of from Theo's world. But on the other hand, good god... I can't count how many times I wanted to give him a smack on the head. He's so incredibly pretentious with a very skewed perception of his own abilities, and no humility whatsoever. I thought he was pathetic in all sorts of ways and couldn't believe why Emaline started dating him.

Anyways, yeah I just totally spoiled everything, but I'm glad Emaline didn't end up with anyone. This kind of ending felt very true to life. The only problem? The book wasn't a very exciting read for me as a result. I didn't feel particularly invested in Emaline, who I couldn't completely relate to because of her small-town mentality. I liked Luke better than Theo but knew the timing was off. Normally I'm really big on Dessen's side characters (e.g. Kristy and Monica from The Truth About Forever, Mallory from Just Listen, Dexter's band in This Lullaby), but I wasn't super into Morris and Daisy (didn't feel fleshed out enough to me). There was a bigger emphasis on Emaline's relationship with her biological father and half-brother, and while the resolution to that was also true to life (some people won't change no matter how hard you wish otherwise), it also made me feel like the storyline was stagnant.

So I guess my issue with this book was... it was too true to life? I already knew I dig fairy-tales, but I may have to ponder a bit more about why I was relatively bored by this book.