Characters making stupid decisions

I recently finished a book that was very well written and could have rated 4 or 5 stars if not for the fact that the story hinged on the stupid decisions made by the main character. The character made one major bad decision early on in the book, and I kept waiting for her to fix it, but whenever an opportunity came up, she decided not to and just made things worse. In the end, her decisions damaged her life and the lives of those who love her. What was the point? Why did the author write a character like that? My opinion is that her decisions are what drove the plot, and without those decisions, there wouldn't be much of a plot.

As an author, I've read that a good story is one where you put your characters in extraordinary situations and see how they respond. A good example of this is The Hunger Games. Katniss Everdeen started out as just another citizen of Panem, but she winds up being heroic because of the Hunger Games. Her decisions in the face of her circumstances make sense, from the beginning (*spoiler alert*) when she sacrifices herself for Prim to enter the Games until the end when she threatens to defy the Capitol. The way that the author created a believable but admirable character is one reason why I love The Hunger Games so much.

On the other hand, some writers try to tell a story by putting their characters in situations and having them behave in inexplicable ways. Consider horror movies where a victim who knows about the potential dangers of his/her surroundings decides to wander off alone in the dark anyway so that the killer/monster can butcher him/her. If they were smart and stayed away from the haunted house, dark alley, or creepy campsite in the first place, then we wouldn't have a story, but at least the characters' actions would make sense. Instead, we don't sympathize with their fate.

Maybe some readers enjoy it when characters make stupid decisions, but I don't. I want to read about characters who are praiseworthy. I want to root for them, like I did for Katniss, not hope that they get killed by the bad guy in the end.

Zombies update

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my love of zombie books. Since then, I've read two other zombie stories, one that's a short story and the other a full length novel. The short story, Deadlocked by A.R. Wise, was great. I'd give it 5 stars out of 5. The zombie novel, on the other hand, was a disappointment. I won't mention the name of the book, but I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it (I picked it up when it was free on Amazon). Despite its high ratings, I found the story to be aimless and not very well written. On top of that, there were numerous formatting errors in the book. Paragraphs would be indented incorrectly some of the time, and a whole portion of the book was in bold type. That really threw me off.

The morale of the story is... not all zombie books are awesome. I expected that, but I didn't think I would find an instance of a bad zombie book so quickly. I've got another one on my to-be-read list and I'll still look for more. One book isn't going to spoil my appetite for the living dead.

What stars mean in my reviews

In March, I began reviewing books. My intention was never to become a full time book reviewer, but I wanted to share some of the books I read. So far, I've only reviewed books that I thought warranted 4 or 5 stars. This is because there seems to be a stigma against 3 star reviews (or God forbid, 2 and 1 star reviews). From what I've been reading in forums and on blogs, some authors freak out when someone gives their book a 3 star review. It's as if 3 stars means the book is horrible. Not so! To me, three stars means it's OK, not bad.

This is the way I rate books:

• 5 stars: The book was great! I'd recommend it anyone. I'd read the book again. Everyone, go buy this book now!
• 4 stars: The book was really good. I'd recommend it to my friends who enjoy books in the genre. If I had time, I wouldn't mind reading the book again. At the right price, you should buy this book.
• 3 stars: The book was OK. If you really like the author or are looking for something to read, I'd probably recommend it. It was worth my while to read the book, but I probably won't read it again.
• 2 stars: The book wasn't good. I wouldn't recommend it, and I feel like the time I spent reading this book could have been better spent.
• 1 star: The book was awful. Don't read it. I shouldn't have.

The fact that I only post 4 on 5 star reviews on this blog means that every book I review is one that I would recommend to someone!

Book review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

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Description:

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Review:
Imagine an orphan who grew up living a hard life. Then one day, the child discovers that he/she has magical powers and is whisked off to a place where others with magical powers live. There, he/she learns to harness those powers and that he/she is the object of an old prophecy. Sounds like Harry Potter, doesn't it? But it also describes the plot of Shadow and Bone.

I'm not saying that Shadow and Bone is a Harry Potter ripoff, but there were certainly elements that reminded me of Harry Potter. However, Leigh Bardugo's novel is entertaining in its own right. The story is interesting and fast-moving for the most part, and Alina was a character that I grew to like. You can say that Shadow and Bone is for fans of Harry Potter after they become older.

On the positive side, I found the book to be entertaining. It was definitely worth my time and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the genre. However, I found the story to be somewhat shallow and predictable. Nothing came as a surprise to me and I found myself waiting to get to the part where such-and-such happens because I knew it would.

A solid four stars for the entertainment value but not great enough to warrant five.

Zombies

I've read four zombie books so far this year, and they are all among my favorite reads of 2012. I'm no longer in denial about liking zombies.

I'm not sure why I like zombies so much. Is it just because the books I happened to read were really well written? They all have high ratings on Amazon (averaging 4.3 to 4.6 stars out of 5), so that's a possibility. Or maybe zombies are the kinds of monsters I like. I don't care for vampires or werewolves, but I blame that on the popularity of Twilight, which turned vampires and werewolves into objects of romance rather than monsters to be feared. Not so with zombies. And the zombie stories I've read don't have much romance in them. Maybe that's the key.

If there's one thing that I'd like to see in the zombie books, it's to have a consistent set of rules. For example, I wish there were ground rules for:

• The cause for the rise of the living dead - Did zombies come about because of a virus? Something from outer space?
• How do ordinary people turn into zombies - Do you have to be bitten? Do you have to die first to re-animate as a zombie?
• What can zombies do - Can they think? Can they run?

Not having consistent rules won't ruin the books for me, but they make things a bit confusing when I start reading a new book. ("What do you mean the zombies are running? Zombies are supposed to be slow!")

Now that I know I like zombies, I'm going to look for more books in the genre to read. I hope they are as enjoyable as the ones I've read so far.

Edits and more edits

I finished my third round of edits on the 4th of July. (Yes, that's how authors who have full time jobs spend their holidays.) It felt like I revised about ten percent of the book. Most of it was minor, especially compared to the big changes I made the first and second times I went through the manuscript. I just started editing it for the fourth time. I'm pretty sure that after this round, I'll send it to some proofreaders to review because I'll need another pair of eyes to see the mistakes that my eyes are becoming blind to.

As I've mentioned before, I don't like the editing process. I'd much rather be writing something new than to comb through something I've already written for the umpteenth time. But I know that editing is necessary if I have pride in my work. I don't want to publish a sloppy story because I wasn't willing to work on making it better. That wouldn't be fair to my readers.So I'll keep going, probably for another two or three months, until I feel that the story is about as good as I can make it.

Book review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

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Description:
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Review:
This book was recommended to me by GoodReads, and I'm glad it did. I loved it. It's one of the top three books I've read this year. If I could use only one word to describe how Blood Red Road was written, it would be fluid. The prose just flows, as does the action. At no point in reading the book do I remember being bored. Moira Young wrote the book from Saba's point of view, and while her dialect and lack of proper punctuation threw me at first, once I got used to reading it, the rest of the book went quickly.

Without giving away too much of the plot, I enjoyed how each scene in the story led to the next. The characters were also engaging for the most part. I felt sympathy for Saba, her sister, and Jack. Even the Free Hawks. In some ways, Blood Red Road reminded me of the Chaos Walking trilogy, but better. It's what I hoped the Chaos Walking books could have been.

As with many books in this genre, there is an element of romance in Blood Red Road. However, unlike some other books, the relationship between Saba and Jack seemed to happen naturally. As a reader, I knew there would be sparks, but it felt like their bond made sense to the plot. It wasn't forced, and it didn't make you think the author put it there because there had to be romance.

The only unfavorable thing I can say about this book is the dialect it was written in. For me, it took a while to get used to. At the beginning of the book, I kept pausing to understand what was written, but once I got the hang of it, I think the dialect actually made the story flow better.

I highly recommend Blood Red Road. There's a sequel coming out in October, and I can't wait to read it.