RANTS AND RAMBLES

• • DISCLAIMER: When I review books, weaknesses and inconsistencies tend to dominate my discussion; therefore, I will emphasize that any particular rant (and, yes, they can be long-winded) does not have special bearing on my unified opinion of the book. For this, please refer to my overall star rating. Additionally, this review is my personal opinion, intended to help like-minded readers navigate the plethora of available options. Use it as a tool but do not assign undue importance to it (i.e. feel free to disagree with me).

  • The writing mechanics in this book were spot-on. I can’t recall a single typo, missing word, or even poor punctuation. No doubt someone out there will harp on the placement of commas or the correct use of the word “that”, citing their eighth-grade English teacher as a source of authority, but the truth is, the writing here was amazing. The few instances of deviation from the “correct” way of doing things would normally have taken me out of the story at a detriment to the book as a whole, but in this case, the authors used these aberrations to entrench the reader further inside the story.

  • While the characters are absolutely fantastic, I do roll my eyes a bit at the use of occasional clichés, such as high school being a vicious place where teachers allow jocks to rule over nerds and underclassmen. Though this cliché no doubt exists for a reason and may very well have a place in private settings (kids can be absolute monsters to each other, after all), the idea that teachers would know about this behavior and allow it to go on is ridiculous. And if it is not ridiculous, it is the most depressing commentary on our society I have ever read. Nevertheless, these clichés were minor to the story and easy to forgive in the grand scheme of things.