Book Review - God: The Most Unpleasant Character in all Fiction

God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction by Dan Barker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Lord Jealous.

"For you shall worship no other god, because the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god..."
- Exodus 34:14

From the get-go Dan's dry humor about the god from the bible drew me in. Throughout the book he points out the inconsistencies and downright weird crap in the bible's numerous passages (not to mention numerous versions), and he uses versus from the Old and New Testament to support the claim of Lord Jealous being:

"The god of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
- Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

This is not a book for those who believe in this god or even the bible as anything more than fictional historical accounts by ancient civilizations, if you couldn't tell.

Dan goes through each trait Dawkin's subscribed to Lord Jealous, and adds a few of his own at the end. Right from the beginning he warns the reader some pages will be a little much to read in one sitting, and he recommends scanning through at first and coming back later. In my ignorance I was determined to read through every single verse he gave me to understand his arguments.

Yeah. Um... After three pages of pure verses on how fire-happy the god of the bible was I took his recommendation and skimmed. I will be going through later and re-reading - and I look forward to it!

Dan's understanding of the bible is a huge help throughout this book - he used to be a preacher - and there are many points he can make that someone with a lesser innate knowledge of the books and how the verses work would be able to.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for arguments the religious will make about "taking it out of context" and for a better understanding of why the bible is not a great moral compass - and while this won't happen I'd also recommend it to anyone who does believe in the bible's god. To better understand the religion a solid take on what is good and bad about it is needed.

Any religious sort who does has my admiration, regardless if they agree with Dan or not.

I wish I would have read this sooner. <3 br="">
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Book Review - Anna Dressed In Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cas is obsessed with hunting ghosts. It's like a family tradition, for one, but there's also the fact his father had been killed by one. When Cas hears about Anna Dressed in Blood, he knows she's the big haul. The one he has to kill.

But she lets him live. Spares his life when she could have torn him into two pieces. Now Cas is on unfamiliar ground, and things are about to get a lot more complicated.

From the beginning this book held my attention. The voice of the main character is distinct, snarky, and a lot a fun to go through the story with. Pieces and hints of later plot events are speckled throughout, and rules of the characters, the world, and the ghosts are set and reaffirmed as the story progresses.

In short: I had a lot of fun reading it.

I wish there had been more to a specific set of characters' interactions and chemistry, and I would have liked the ending twist to have been foreshadowed more. More importantly, however, the events made sense. A few times I wanted to smack characters upside the head, but this had less to do with the soundness and progression of events and more about the fact that they're teenagers.

Although I did have to suspend my belief regarding interactions around the knife later in the book, but the author didn't require too many of those (you know, beside it being about ghosts and such) so I was more than willing to look over it.

Anna herself is both a sympathetic character, and one to be feared. What she does, and how she does it, aren't exactly nice and respectful. While I wish more time had been spent on what exactly was her drive the author succeeded in creating a complex character I was more than willing to root for.

I enjoyed Cas and his mom's relationship and how she dealt with her son going off and frolicking with deadly ghosts as he hunts and destroys them. While perhaps not completely realistic, it was one of those things set from the beginning and reaffirmed enough to be believable.

The ending is emotionally satisfying and leaves plenty open for another book while not necessarily being a cliff hanger.

I will be continuing the series, and will also look for other books by Kendare Blake.

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Book Review - The Young Elites

The Young Elites by Marie Lu
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I struggled through this book for various reasons.

However, there were also plenty of things I enjoyed.

I loved the main character, Adelina, and her not-quite-so-good-and-pure intentions and actions. Marie Lu Did an excellent job keeping Adelina sympathetic while staying true to a morally grey - leaning toward black - character. For experiencing how an author would write such a character, especially one so young, was worth it.

I also enjoyed the ending. Events came to a satisfying conclusion, and there was a twist or two I didn't see coming, but made sense.

But I had to force myself to complete this book.

Without spoiling anything, there were events (particularly in the middle) which were not grounded in enough logic for me to find feasible. I kept asking 'why would they do that?' and 'how could they do that?' and never found an answer.

There were content issues I had - for instance a major flashback at the beginning of the book - and style choices that threw me out of what immersion I could get into, like the use of 'somehow', 'somewhere' and other vague terms; and while all-around I enjoyed the ending there were still a couple things that bothered me.

There were aspects I loved about this book, but if I had been reading for enjoyment rather than a character study I would not have completed it. Frankly were it not for the ending I would have rated this one star, but it wrapped things up nicely (until the epilogue, which having one is a pet peeve of mine).

Unless it is for further studying Adelina's character and how the author portrays her, I will not be continuing the series.

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Book Review - Hannibal Lecter and Philosophy

Hannibal Lecter and Philosophy by Joseph Westfall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A collection of essays regarding one of horror's most realistic, and human, monsters: Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

This book considers all media of the "Lecter-verse" in compiling philosophies about the various aspects of the character first created by Thomas Harris. It's definitely for the layman, and takes a beginners approach to each philosophical discussion - which I appreciated.

I enjoyed how some essays took one stance on Dr. Lecter's attributes - why he did certain things, his relationships, etc - while others took a different, sometimes opposing, view of the same. And, as with any compilation of various authors, I enjoyed some more than others.

I would have preferred, however, if the majority of the essays did not take the stance of Hannibal Lecter being anything but a fictional character. Far too many of them argued how someone of his specific antisocial personality disorder could exist, and how his traits were entirely believable.

I would have liked a few more about our attraction to such a character, and his character study based on that.

However, I learned quite a few things - specifically about philosophy - and am happy to have taken the time to read it!

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Book Review - Maplecroft

Maplecroft by Cherie Priest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All-around I enjoyed this book well enough that, after finishing some currently-owned books, I will pick up the second in the series.

It's the first I read and finished on my Kindle, so that was fun, too!

I enjoyed the darker tones, the psychological aspects, and the Victorian flair. It could have been because I was getting used to the Kindle, but I wish it had been more blatant about the letter/journal entry style. I did get confused at the beginning until I figured that out.

My main complaints were too many vague allusions to the events surrounding Lizzie's parents. I became frustrated rather than intrigued about not knowing much about them. Also the ending's solution was a little...stretched, in my opinion. I don't feel there was time for the reader to get used to the idea presented before it was used in such a way.

Otherwise I really enjoyed the different POVs, their distinct personalities, and how they often clarified or contradicted each others opinions. The ending was emotionally satisfying while still leaving plenty of open-ended questions and possibilities.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in darker literature that doesn't quite fall fully into the cheap-scares and bloody gore of typical horror novels, especially those who enjoyed the classic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

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