book reviews for winged people (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
booksofafeather) wrote2011-03-20 05:28 pm
booksofafeather) wrote2011-03-20 05:28 pm
Entry tags:
From the reviewer: Trust
What is most important to me when I review a book for this list is trust.
What I mean to say is, when you pick a book from the shelves, you can't trust it. You can't trust that the beautiful descriptions of flying won't end up as a book that has people's wings being pulled off, and a horrible message talking about how it was for the best. You can't just let yourself float along in the story trusting that the hope and lightness that it shows will continue. You can't trust that it won't have some painful description that hurts you and leaves you feeling shivers for ages.
Of course, some people don't want to have that trust. They enjoy seeing where a book will take them even if it hurts. So, for these people, I try to keep anything that might spoil the ending inside the cut tags. (So, when you link to a book, please do what I do, link to the title tag for that book! It looks like this: http://booksofafeather.dreamwidth.org/tag/title:+gwinna Not like this: http://booksofafeather.dreamwidth.org/8140.html They look like they go to the same place, but the first one will make it so you can choose whether to open the full review, or only see the short one, which spoils the book less.)
For me, I care about that trust... although in this project I can't have it. Mostly, I have to read the books not knowing what will happen and usually my stomach is clenched in the feeling that I might be betrayed. But when I've done that, I can pass the review onto everyone so that they don't have to have that same feeling if they don't want to. So it feels good, in the end.
I don't think many winged people have places they can trust. Too many people wouldn't take it seriously if they said, "I want to trust this book not to let me down". But if you have ever been in the situation of desperately hoping that a book would not tell you the same things other people have told you over and over again, and leave you feeling shaken, then maybe you understand what it means. So I want to make just a small place here that people can trust.
What I mean to say is, when you pick a book from the shelves, you can't trust it. You can't trust that the beautiful descriptions of flying won't end up as a book that has people's wings being pulled off, and a horrible message talking about how it was for the best. You can't just let yourself float along in the story trusting that the hope and lightness that it shows will continue. You can't trust that it won't have some painful description that hurts you and leaves you feeling shivers for ages.
Of course, some people don't want to have that trust. They enjoy seeing where a book will take them even if it hurts. So, for these people, I try to keep anything that might spoil the ending inside the cut tags. (So, when you link to a book, please do what I do, link to the title tag for that book! It looks like this: http://booksofafeather.dreamwidth.org/tag/title:+gwinna Not like this: http://booksofafeather.dreamwidth.org/8140.html They look like they go to the same place, but the first one will make it so you can choose whether to open the full review, or only see the short one, which spoils the book less.)
For me, I care about that trust... although in this project I can't have it. Mostly, I have to read the books not knowing what will happen and usually my stomach is clenched in the feeling that I might be betrayed. But when I've done that, I can pass the review onto everyone so that they don't have to have that same feeling if they don't want to. So it feels good, in the end.
I don't think many winged people have places they can trust. Too many people wouldn't take it seriously if they said, "I want to trust this book not to let me down". But if you have ever been in the situation of desperately hoping that a book would not tell you the same things other people have told you over and over again, and leave you feeling shaken, then maybe you understand what it means. So I want to make just a small place here that people can trust.