Thursday, March 27, 2014

Any Creative Title Would Be Too Mean: My Post About The Pink Institution

I have a complicated relationship with The Pink Institution. The best way I can describe it is that I became begrudgingly invested in the story. I didn't really like the content at all, but I needed to know what happened next. If I don't watch myself, this post is going to turn into a hatefest and I don't want that. The book was definitely thought provoking, but the way the way it was written was off-putting to me.
       On page 58 was where I became interested in the plot. Saterstrom used the same vocabulary describing Azalea's actions to Aza as she did with Willie's mother's actions to Azalea herself. The use of cyclical action intrigued me. I also ended up having to make a family tree because I kept forgetting who people were.
      The book that this most reminded me of was the Crank series. I tried reading it, but it was also using poetic style to write a novel and that just isn't something I enjoy.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Show Me The Millions

Literary websites come in a variety of flavors. Some you can post your own work and some are just about the world of literature in general. One of my favorite sites is The Millions. It is the perfect mishmosh of essays, reviews, and other aspects pertaining to literature. With the popularity of sites such as Buzzfeed, it would be understandable for a site such as The Millions to fall to the wayside. It is over ten years old, after all. However, it has successfully kept up with the times and includes more hip aspects, such as lists like this one where the writer discusses five crime novels that have female detectives. The Millions has proved that it is flexible enough to continue to be relevant in an age where there is little to no attention span on the internet. If it continues on its path, I believe it will make it past its 20th birthday and then some.