I just finished reading Alyson Noel's young adult novel Radiance.
It's about the afterlife, which is of particular interest to me because the novel I just wrote is about the same thing.
In the book, Riley Bloom has to find her way in the afterlife, and this includes getting a guide and an assignment.
Her assignment is to convince spirits, who have been haunting one house for hundreds of years, to move on and come to where people like Riley dwell.
No one has been able to get these frightening spirits to move on, but here comes Riley to save the day. She has what it takes.
I'm getting sort of tired of young adult novels that feature a protagonist with spectacular skills. It's not enough that something supernatural happened to them, but they also end up being the best and the brightest in the supernatural realm. Or the most important. Or the fate of humanity rests on their shoulders.
Now I might be jumping to conclusions here. Radiance is part of a series, and maybe further books don't present her as being way above average.
Another thing that bothered me about the book is Riley's attitude toward her guide Bodhi. He dresses like a dork, and Riley criticizes him for that. Then at the end, he transforms into a guy who wears cool clothes, and that pleases her a lot.
I really object to these lines in the book: My guide turned out to be not nearly as big of a dork as I'd first pegged him to be, which also meant he might not be quite so horrible to work with in the future. Not to mention I just might've learned a very important lesson about judging people based solely on their appearance.
What has she learned exactly about judging people's appearance? That you never know if a great-looking person is hiding within an ugly one? What she seems to be saying is that if he stayed in his dorky clothes, it would be horrible to work with him. Does that sound like someone who's learned a lesson about appearance?
It's about the afterlife, which is of particular interest to me because the novel I just wrote is about the same thing.
In the book, Riley Bloom has to find her way in the afterlife, and this includes getting a guide and an assignment.
Her assignment is to convince spirits, who have been haunting one house for hundreds of years, to move on and come to where people like Riley dwell.
No one has been able to get these frightening spirits to move on, but here comes Riley to save the day. She has what it takes.
I'm getting sort of tired of young adult novels that feature a protagonist with spectacular skills. It's not enough that something supernatural happened to them, but they also end up being the best and the brightest in the supernatural realm. Or the most important. Or the fate of humanity rests on their shoulders.
Now I might be jumping to conclusions here. Radiance is part of a series, and maybe further books don't present her as being way above average.
Another thing that bothered me about the book is Riley's attitude toward her guide Bodhi. He dresses like a dork, and Riley criticizes him for that. Then at the end, he transforms into a guy who wears cool clothes, and that pleases her a lot.
I really object to these lines in the book: My guide turned out to be not nearly as big of a dork as I'd first pegged him to be, which also meant he might not be quite so horrible to work with in the future. Not to mention I just might've learned a very important lesson about judging people based solely on their appearance.
What has she learned exactly about judging people's appearance? That you never know if a great-looking person is hiding within an ugly one? What she seems to be saying is that if he stayed in his dorky clothes, it would be horrible to work with him. Does that sound like someone who's learned a lesson about appearance?
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