Book Moments That Anger Up The Blood

[Spartan Girl]

I thought I'd start a thread where we can vent our spleen about all the times we read something that made us angry. Like movies there are too many moments (and characters) for me to count, but I'll start things off with two:

Hate List by Jennifer Brown: Basically every moment involving Valerie's dad. He was such a hateful selfish bottomless pit of a bastard.

This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper: Despite the author's best efforts, I could not find any compassion for Jud's cheating wife. I get why their marriage fell apart after the miscarriage but that still doesn't justify fucking his boss FOR A WHOLE YEAR. And her behavior after the fact was just as bad, acting frustrated that Judd was "playing the victim" -- especially when she was doing the exact same thing, lamenting that she was now the "town whore" and being upset that Judd hated her so much.

[HazelEyes4325]

The one that comes to me first is All the Ugly and Wonderful Things.  I mean, the whole book gets my blood boiling, but what really riled me up with my book club discussion on it with over half the group talking about how romantic it was and a few of us countering with, "It's not romantic, it's child molestation!"  To which, the response was, "Yeah, but this is different."  No.  No, it is not.

Also Small Great Things.  There are no words for how much I despised this book.  I felt like I was being preached at--badly--from page one.  Plus, there were so many stupid plot "devices" and just nonsensical details that I couldn't take any of it seriously. 

Spoiler

At one point, the lawyer realizes that she can win this whole case when she realizes that a piece of paper has something written on the other side of it!  Seriously.  At that point, I nearly threw my kindle against the wall.

This was another book club book and my one friend and I were afraid that our hatred would offend some other members, so we went out for margaritas beforehand (I'm not sure if that would lessen anyone's offense, but we cared less about what people would think after our pre-funking session).  Fortunately, everyone else in attendance that night felt pretty much the same way about it.

[GaT]

My moment is from Up From The Grave by Jeaniene Frost, the 7th & final book in the Cat and Bones series. I'm going to put this in spoilers just in case anyone is reading the series. There are two separate things that angered me.

Spoiler

The first thing is that through something stupid & convoluted, they gave Cat a daughter. Heaven forbid a woman exists without a child, noooo, she must also be a mom to matter. There was no hint she even wanted a kid before, but I guess now she's a real woman.

The second thing REALLY angered me. Without getting overly long, there was a villain who had appeared in a number of previous books. Something happens & he basically dies & comes back brain damaged with no memory of what he had done & a childlike view of the world. Now if Bones (who is a super strong vampire) had kicked his ass any time previously, I would have been fine with it, he deserved it. But what does Frost do? She waits until the villain is like a brain damaged child & then has the super strong vampire beat him for an hour even though at that point, he had the mind of a child & no idea of why he's being hurt. I found the scene so upsetting, I stopped reading all her books.

Edited September 16, 2018 by GaT

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, HazelEyes4325 said:

Also Small Great Things.  There are no words for how much I despised this book.  I felt like I was being preached at--badly--from page one.  Plus, there were so many stupid plot "devices" and just nonsensical details that I couldn't take any of it seriously. 

  Reveal hidden contents

At one point, the lawyer realizes that she can win this whole case when she realizes that a piece of paper has something written on the other side of it!  Seriously.  At that point, I nearly threw my kindle against the wall.

This was another book club book and my one friend and I were afraid that our hatred would offend some other members, so we went out for margaritas beforehand (I'm not sure if that would lessen anyone's offense, but we cared less about what people would think after our pre-funking session).  Fortunately, everyone else in attendance that night felt pretty much the same way about it.

Fuck Jodi Piccoult. The ending to My Sister's Keeper was even worse

killing off Anna in a car crash just so Kate could get the kidney and make a miraculous recovery?

I call bullshit.

Another moment moment that made me angry was in The Art of Racing in the Rain where Eve's horrible disapproving parents basically frame Denny for rape just so they can get custody of his daughter. I know false allegations are rare in real life, but anyone that would willingly do that is despicable on so many levels.

[Wiendish Fitch]

I admit to liking Little Fires Everywhere less and less in retrospect, definitely because of

Spoiler

 Bebe stealing back her infant daughter from the McCulloughs and fleeing to China. For the record, Bebe left her daughter at a firehouse with a note basically saying "I give up, find my kid a home"! As much as I disliked snobbish Elena, she was absolutely right saying that Bebe relinquished her rights to her daughter! And say what you want about the McCulloughs, but they legally adopted that baby fair and square, and there is no doubt in my mind that they would have made good parents. My heart broke for Mrs. McCullough, because you know after all she's been through, her emotional stability is shot to hell. Let me be clear: I don't think that Bebe being poor makes her a bad mom, absolutely not. What makes me question her parenting skills is how do we know she won't ditch her daughter again if the chips are down? 

Not to mention Mia and her baby-stealing ways. Honey, I don't care how squicky the surrogate parent arrangement was,or how busted up you were at your brother's death, a deal's a deal. Don't go judging the McCulloughs without looking in the mirror first.

Edited September 15, 2018 by Wiendish Fitch

[HazelEyes4325]

29 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Fuck Jodi Piccoult.

 

For the record, I will like any post that contains this phrase.

[Wiendish Fitch]

1 minute ago, HazelEyes4325 said:

For the record, I will like any post that contains this phrase.

As will I.

And Spartan Girl, as right you are about the awful, awful ending to My Sister's Keeper, I'll do you one better: ladies and gentlemen, I give you... *drumroll* Handle with Care!

Spoiler

 

Premise: it's basically the same goddamned plot as My Sister's Keeper, only somehow worse (oh, Jodi Picoult, your surpassing wretchedness never ceases to amaze!). Our Littlest Tragic Patient this time is Willow, who was born highly brittle bones, causing her to live a sheltered life and for the family to be in financial dire straits due to medical costs (social commentary achieved!!). As per usual in PicoultWorld, they have a healthy older daughter, Amelia, who is neglected in favor of Willow. Amelia reacts to this by becoming the most ludicrously damaged teenaged girl in recent fiction (she's bulimic and a cutter!). Charlotte, at her wit's end (assuming she had wits to begin with), files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her OB/GYN pal, Piper. That means Charlotte has to convince the world that she would have aborted Willow if she'd known about her condition beforehand. 

Long, horrible story short, everyone's lives are turned upside down and/or ruined, Piper is no longer Charlotte's friend, and Willow's family gets a big, fat paycheck out of this grotesque sham of a lawsuit that they inexplicably don't put in the bank... and then Willow falls through thin ice and drowns. 

Now, as profoundly tragic as this is, the family still has the check, surely they'll do something with it to make this whole nightmare somehow worthwhile, right? Donate it to a school, perhaps? Create a charity in Willow's name? Or, better still, create a college fund for poor, neglected Amelia?

Ha, ha, silly readers, this is PicoultWorld, where people are morally reprehensible as well as stupid! No, they bury the check with Willow.

They. Bury. The. Check. 

So this whole, nauseating, infuriating mess that Charlotte made, her poor friend's reputation she ruined, the misery she put her family through was made all for nothing by that one act.

I still want to scream to the heavens every time I think about that ending.

 

 

You know what? Why should everyone else have all the fun?

FUCK YOU, JODI PICOULT!!!!!!!

[cherrypj]

2 hours ago, HazelEyes4325 said:

The one that comes to me first is All the Ugly and Wonderful Things.  I mean, the whole book gets my blood boiling, but what really riled me up with my book club discussion on it with over half the group talking about how romantic it was and a few of us countering with, "It's not romantic, it's child molestation!"  To which, the response was, "Yeah, but this is different."  No.  No, it is not.

Despicable book. The author is even worse. Here's a direct quote:

Quote

Greenwood asks those who feel uncomfortable about Wavy and Kellen's romance to examine the root of their unease: "Did it make you uncomfortable, or were you made uncomfortable by the fact that you weren't really all that uncomfortable?" she asks.

FUCK YOU, Greenwood.

[Wiendish Fitch]

1 hour ago, cherrypj said:

Despicable book. The author is even worse. Here's a direct quote:

FUCK YOU, Greenwood.

I've never even heard of this book or this author, but I'll second that. Greenwood sounds like a miserable troll.

[Spartan Girl]

While we're hating on specific authors, I think Emily Giffin deserves a big fuck-you as well for Something Borrowed. Maybe that book could have been salvageable if she hadn't justified Rachel and Dex's affair by having Darcy cheating. It was such a cheap and lazy cop-out. 

[HazelEyes4325]

2 hours ago, cherrypj said:

Despicable book. The author is even worse. Here's a direct quote:

FUCK YOU, Greenwood.

You know what, I'm okay being uncomfortable with child molestation.  In fact, I think it is actually OKAY to think that child molestation is a bad thing.  I'm also okay with not respecting those who think that child molestation is something with which we should sympathize.

 

Also, when authors (or creators of some sort) tell me how I should feel and then, if I don't feel that way, they deem me to be wrong, I put them on my hate list.  So, Greenwood...have fun there with Picoult.  Ugh.

[Wiendish Fitch]

9 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

While we're hating on specific authors, I think Emily Giffin deserves a big fuck-you as well for Something Borrowed. Maybe that book could have been salvageable if she hadn't justified Rachel and Dex's affair by having Darcy cheating. It was such a cheap and lazy cop-out. 

If Emily Giffin had made Rachel delightfully evil like Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair, or dizzyingly screwed up like  Gillian Flynn's protagonists, Something Borrowed might have been salvaged. 

But, no, Giffin genuinely thought she could make Rachel, Dex and their situation truly sympathetic and even romantic, and she failed miserably, IMO. Some authors can make you feel sorry for morally questionable characters, but it's a gamble that won't always pay off, and you don't get to whine about about it like the aforementioned Bryn Greenwood. Readers are gonna feel what they're gonna feel. For crying out loud, classic literature fans are still bitching that Ivanhoe should have picked Rebecca over Rowena (I prefer Rebecca still, but my opinion towards Rowena has softened in recent years), so there it is.

[Spartan Girl]

The way Ron treated Harry in Goblet of Fire. Look, I can understand Ron resenting being poor and overshadowed by his brothers (and Harry), but he'd been friends with Harry for four years! He knew by now that Harry didn't like being famous for basically outliving his parents and hated being stared at by everyone, yet even after all that, he thinks Harry would actually cheat his way into a tournament that would get him killed for a bit of glory?!

I stopped liking Ron quite a bit after that.

[Mabinogia]

I've always sympathized a lot with Ron because I get how it feels to be the one who isn't as good at anything and often feels like the world is throwing it in your face.  It's frustrating. But yes, being Harry's best friend he should have known Harry well enough by then to know he wouldn't have done that. Maybe, for a second, but as soon as Harry said he didn't, Ron should have believed him. I think it was just an unnecessary conflict.

[DearEvette]

18 hours ago, HazelEyes4325 said:

For the record, I will like any post that contains this phrase.

This is fantastic.  For the record I have never read a Jodi Picoult book, but that is only because I can never make it past the blurbs.  Every time one comes out I pick it up and read the blurb thinking "maybe this one"  but something always turns me away.

[Dr.OO7]

Danielle Steel's double standard regarding her plethora of May-December romances is infuriating enough--if you're a hero/heroine, it's okay, if you're a villain, it's bad--but she takes it levels of white-hot rage in the novel "Family Album", when a 49-year old man "falls in love" with his daughter's 15-year old best friend and they marry as soon as she turns 18, but not before consummating the relationship while she's still underage. Or in other words, he repeatedly molests/statutorily rapes her. The whole thing is portrayed as a grand romance--the book ends with them still happily married and the parents of five children.

Are you fucking kidding me?

In the Sweet Valley High book Nowhere To Run, everything Emily's stepmother and father say or do to her. I don't think I've ever wanted to kill a book character more.

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, Camille said:

but she takes it levels of white-hot rage in the novel "Family Album", when a 49-year old man "falls in love" with his daughter's 15-year old best friend and they marry as soon as she turns 18,

What about his poor daughter?!?!?! At 18 her friend becomes her mother in law? Does Ms. Steele even address how fucked up that is for that poor girl?

There is nothing romantic about a grown ass adult, male or female, "falling in love" with a not yet fully formed teenager. I mean no disrespect to teenagers but it is scientific fact that at 15 you are not fully developed, nor should you be. It's just kind of pathetic. He could actually be her grandfather! Technically, he could be her great grandfather if all the men in his family went after teenage girls. Just EEEEEW

[Dr.OO7]

And a few books later, we have a 40-year old being said to "look like an idiot" with his 25-year old girlfriend. This is the smallest age difference she has ever had in one of her May-December romances, certainly smaller than many of her "heroic" pairings, but because this guy is a villain, he "looks like an idiot". But the 62-year old guy who marries his friend's 18-year old daughter? (In the novel A Perfect Stranger). Nope, nothing wrong with that 

[Snow Apple]

Ew. I'm glad I've never read a Danielle Steele novel. And I read romance novels!

[Black Knight]

Robin McKinley's Beauty. It's a pretty traditional retelling of Beauty and the Beast, except that the sisters aren't evil. However, at the end, after the Beast transforms into the handsome prince, Beauty worries she is not physically beautiful enough for him. And instead of him reminding her of the entire point of the fairy tale, what does he do? Stands her in front of a mirror and tells her how physically beautiful she is! I was so angry I nearly threw the book at the wall.

Years later, McKinley wrote a second retelling, Rose Daughter, which I was hesitant to try, but wouldn't you know, this is my favorite retelling of the fairy tale ever. Not only is there not the horrible ending I described above, she gave it the ending I always wanted this fairy tale to have.

Spoiler

Beauty chooses not to have the Beast transform, and tells him, "I love my Beast, and I would miss him if some handsome stranger was in his place."

[Spartan Girl]

@Black Knight As much as I love Beauty, I agree that part of the ending defeats the point of the story.  Also, I recommend you check out Beast by Lisa Jensen, for another retelling that fits your ending preferences ;)

I had to read The Lovely Bones in college, and the only thing that made me angrier than Susie's actual murder was her mother, Abigail, who not only abandons the family, but also sleeps with the lead detective of Susie's case, therefore allowing the murderer to skip town and avoid arrest!  And even worse, after Abigail returns nearly a decade later, she's never really called out on her shitty behavior -- almost everyone accepts her back with open arms, and she even gets a grandchild named after her?!  Screw. That!

[proserpina65]

On ‎09‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 8:36 PM, cherrypj said:

Despicable book. The author is even worse. Here's a direct quote:

FUCK YOU, Greenwood.

Count me among those who haven't read it but hate it based on the premise.  It's creepy and disgusting, not romantic.

[Spartan Girl]

The end to Defending Jacob. I'm putting in spoiler tags because it's about to be an Apple TV miniseries:

Basically it's about a lawyer who defends his young son when he's charged of murdering a classmate. He's convinced Jacob's innocent, but Jacob has a history of violent/sociopathic behavior, and further complicating matters is the fact that his grandfather (the dad's dad) is a notorious serial killer. Long story short, the grandfather has an associate frame a well-known pedophile for the crime and fake his suicide to clear Jacob's name. The dad is aware of this, but doesn't go to the court about it. Jacob is free and the family goes on a vacation to Jamaica to celebrate....and surprise surprise ANOTHER girl that was hanging out with Jacob winds up dead!

Idiot Enabling Dad refuses to see the truth, but by now the mom knows. She intentionally gets Jacob killed in a car accident, and the prosecutor tries to get her indicted through a cross examination with the husband (which is basically the narrative of the novel). Does the dad finally come clean about Jacob and his own part in covering up his crimes to bring closure to the victims' grieving families? NOPE. HE LIES ABOUT EVERYTHING, AGAIN. And yet we are somehow supposed to feel sorry for him because he's just lost his psycho son?!

The fact that they've cast our beloved Chris Evans to play this dipshit just makes me angrier.

[Spartan Girl]

I was rereading Only Child by Rhiannon Navin, and other than the actual school shooting (which is enough of an anger-inducing moment for the whole book), the moments that made me see red were when Zach's mom lashed out at Zach when he tried to tell her that she ought to have some compassion for the shooter's family.  Losing her other son, Andy, was horrific and I can understand her need for "justice", but that was no excuse to take out her anger and frustration on her six-year-old son who had also survived the shooting and was traumatized.

Not to mention her public evisceration of the shooter's family for being "terrible parents" was a bit hypocritical, considering she spent more time harassing them through the media than she did with Zach.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Spartan Girl

[Spartan Girl]

Out of all the moments in A Series of Unfortunate Event that made me mad, the straw that broke the camel's back was Mr. Poe's sanctimonious little "I'm very disappointed in you" speech to the Baudelaires in The Penultimate Peril.

Excuse me?!

Who was the one that one that kept sticking the kids in crappy homes? Who was the one that never believed them about Count Olaf, even when they were proven right only  A MILLION TIMES? Who did absolutely NOTHING throughout all the tImes THEY BEGGED HIM FOR HELP? And you have the nerve to look down your nose at them for all the choices they were forced to make when they were alone without anyone to turn to turn to without ever giving them the benefit of the doubt?! You don't think you at least owed them that?!

You, sir, are completely and utterly worthless.

Edited December 16, 2018 by Spartan Girl

[smittykins]

On 9/17/2018 at 9:53 AM, Mabinogia said:

What about his poor daughter?!?!?! At 18 her friend becomes her mother in law? Does Ms. Steele even address how fucked up that is for that poor girl?

I no longer have my hard copy, but ISTR that the daughter was shocked at first, but eventually accepted it.  Which, no.(And the friend’s parents qualify as Worst Book Parents by allowing her to date him, after threatening to have him arrested for statutory rape.)

[Spartan Girl]

I just read John Grisham's The Confession and the fact that Donte Drumm was executed for a rape/murder he didn't commit and wasn't exonerated until it was too late was infuriating enough. But the fact that the murdered girl's mother, who spent the whole novel using the media to Play the Victim, never tried to apologize or show any sympathy for the Drumms once she found out that she'd been hating the wrong person really stuck in my craw.  

[Spartan Girl]

Hermione basically saying that Sirius deserved what he got for how he treated Kreacher. She may have had a point about house elves in general, but that was her at her self-righteous worst. I'd like to see if she'd be so forgiving of Kreacher if it he betrayed her parents.

[Spartan Girl]

This edition of "Fuck you, Jodi Piccoult!" is brought to you by Nineteen Minutes.

Basically is how Jodi Piccoult tries to tackle the sensitive subjects of school shootings.  And she does this the only way she knows how: botching it completely.  She pretty much makes the shooter out as the victim -- yeah, he was bullied pretty badly but still doesn't excuse what he did -- and tries to turn him into a sympathetic hero by having him take the fall for his former friend shooting her abusive boyfriend.  At the same, she makes out the angry, grieving families out to be unsympathetic monsters.  

Say it loud and say it proud: FUCK YOU, JODI PICCOULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wiendish Fitch]

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

This edition of "Fuck you, Jodi Piccoult!" is brought to you by Nineteen Minutes.

Basically is how Jodi Piccoult tries to tackle the sensitive subjects of school shootings.  And she does this the only way she knows how: botching it completely.  She pretty much makes the shooter out as the victim -- yeah, he was bullied pretty badly but still doesn't excuse what he did -- and tries to turn him into a sympathetic hero by having him take the fall for his former friend shooting her abusive boyfriend.  At the same, she makes out the angry, grieving families out to be unsympathetic monsters.  

Say it loud and say it proud: FUCK YOU, JODI PICCOULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, that Jodi Picoult, she just doesn't know how anything works! 

*freeze frame, cue wacky sitcom music*

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

The entire second half of Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee's Garden of Rama.

The Rama ships arrive at Earth and a bunch of humans pile aboard for the journey to the alien world. Cut to 10 years (or whatever it was) later, and some mob boss has opened a casino and become fabulously rich whilst reducing most of the populace to poverty (how would a casino even work in cashless society? Don't ask.). The idiots now running the human settlement decide to break into one of the non-human areas of ship; upon discovering the other settlement does contain alien life, they decide to kill it all because "What if they attack us first?" Our heroes object and are immediately sentenced to death. The book ends right before their execution.

It was the first and only time I've wanted to throw a book across the room. Rendezvous with Rama is my all-time favorite science fiction novel, but the sequels (including Garden) are mostly garbage.

[Spartan Girl]

On June 7, 2019 at 2:09 PM, Wiendish Fitch said:

Oh, that Jodi Picoult, she just doesn't know how anything works! 

*freeze frame, cue wacky sitcom music*

I shudder to think how A Spark of Light handles it's subject matter -- it's about a guy that holds an abortion clinic hostage.

*insert Deadpool 2 gif of Domino turning around and mouthing "nope" and leaving the scene*

[Spartan Girl]

Say what you want about Nick in Gone Girl but I did share his anger and indignation that after Amy "reappeared" the cops and media, instead of apologizing for persecuting him for a month, just acting like it never happened and they were all friends now. The cops smugly celebrating and being eager to sweep the whole thing under the rug just to cover their incompetent asses really pissed me off, regardless of the holes in Amy's story. They practically helped her get away with it.

Boney was the only one who sincerely apologized to Nick and admitted he was right. And she did try to bring Amy, but she couldn't prove it, not to mention she was outranked and outnumbered by the idiots that wanted to cover their asses.

[BlackberryJam]

Wrong thread.

Edited July 3, 2019 by BlackberryJam

[Spartan Girl]

Feel free to point it out if I get this wrong, but was anyone else bothered by the fact that in the original novel version of The Yearling Jody's parents don't bother to look for him when he runs away? I mean, in the movie versions Jody's mom does go out and search desperately for him (and feels guilty for her shooting Flagg and forcing Jody to put him out of his misery), but there's none of that in the book. They just assume he's dead. They are happy when he comes back, but it doesn't sound like they looked that much for him.

I mean, yeah, it was the 1800s and things were limited back then, but still geez!

Again, if I have this wrong, feel free to correct me, since it's been a while since I read it.

[proserpina65]

I'm going to put this in spoiler mode but here's one about Elly Griffith's Ruth Galloway mystery series:

Spoiler

Every single time Nelson sleeps with Ruth (after the first time).  He's married, doesn't want to leave his wife, but keeps Ruth hanging on anyway.  It would've served him right if Michelle had left him.  And the way people keep saying "he's still a good man" despite knowing about the relationship pisses me off.  No, he's not.  He's a liar, a cheater, and someone who, despite his repeated protestations, doesn't really value Ruth other than her usefulness in solving his murder cases.  And doesn't actually value the other women in his life all that much either.

After the last book, I hated this crap so much, that I'm thrilled the next one won't be published in the US for a whole year, because it'll take at least that long before I could even try to read it.  And I still may not.

I'd enjoyed the books up to about book 7, tolerated books 8 & 9, but books 10 & 11 totally angried up my blood.

[Spartan Girl]

An American Tragedy gave me plenty to get pissed off about, especially because I feel like the narrative was skewed to get the readers to feel sorry for Clyde even though he's a selfish greedy asshole murderer who barely feels an iota of remorse for what he does. 

The worst part was how Clyde's mother rationalizes things, convinced that even if he had sinned, Roberta sinned too. Because her having sex outside of marriage and getting guilted out of getting an abortion is just as bad as him killing the pregnant girl he wooed and screwed just so that he can marry the prettier rich girl.

Excuse me a sec...

 

[Spartan Girl]

Katherine Arden's Winternight trilogy: I waited PATIENTLY for the douchey pervert obsessive priest Konstantine to get what he deserved after everything he did to Vasya, and instead he gets a redemptive death that he doesn't earn because 1) he never admits any accountability for his actions nor apologizes to Vasya for anything and 2) he only does it because he's upset that the demons "tricked" him FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME. 

Fuck villain apologists, seriously.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Spartan Girl

[Dr.OO7]

On 7/25/2019 at 9:08 PM, Spartan Girl said:

An American Tragedy gave me plenty to get pissed off about, especially because I feel like the narrative was skewed to get the readers to feel sorry for Clyde even though he's a selfish greedy asshole murderer who barely feels an iota of remorse for what he does. 

The worst part was how Clyde's mother rationalizes things, convinced that even if he had sinned, Roberta sinned too. Because her having sex outside of marriage and getting guilted out of getting an abortion is just as bad as him killing the pregnant girl he wooed and screwed just so that he can marry the prettier rich girl.

Excuse me a sec...

 

What really pisses me off about that is that in Real Life, "Clyde" was indeed a selfish bastard. I don't know why the book and movie based on the case gives him a Historical Hero Upgrade.

(The Grace Brown murder)

[Wiendish Fitch]

1 hour ago, Camille said:

What really pisses me off about that is that in Real Life, "Clyde" was indeed a selfish bastard. I don't know why the book and movie based on the case gives him a Historical Hero Upgrade.

(The Grace Brown murder)

The same goes for the 1951 adaptation, A Place in the Sun. Absolutely repulsive victim blaming/villain apologia all around. 

I really hated every moment in The Hypnotist's Love Story that demanded we sympathize with stalker Saskia (ooh, a tongue twister!). Yeah... no. Stalking your ex doesn't automatically become acceptable just because you're a woman. It sucks that Saskia's boyfriend broke up with her around the time her mom died, but that doesn't even come close to an excuse. Liane Moriarty feebly tries to make this point at the end, but by then it's too little, too late.

[cherrypj]

13 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Katherine Arden's Winternight trilogy: I waited PATIENTLY for the douchey pervert obsessive priest Konstantine to get what he deserved after everything he did to Vasya, and instead he gets a redemptive death that he doesn't earn because 1) he never admits any accountability for his actions nor apologizes to Vasya for anything and 2) he only does it because he's upset that the demons "tricked" him FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME. 

Fuck villain apologists, seriously.

Well, shit. I just got book three. I'll have to ignore that asshole.

[Spartan Girl]

7 hours ago, cherrypj said:

Well, shit. I just got book three. I'll have to ignore that asshole.

Oh don't let me ruin it for you. It was still a pretty good finale, but if like me you were hoping for a satisfying end of Vasya killing him, be prepared for disappointment.

[Spartan Girl]

I just finished A Burning by Megha Majumdar and the ending left me furious. The story is about an Indian Muslim girl who is accused of being a terrorist by the Indian government because of a post she made on Facebook.

 

She's innocent, but winds up executed because every single person that could have helped her -- her alibi witness, her former teacher turned politician, and even her own fucking lawyer -- screws her over for their own personal and political gain. It's horrible.

Edited June 6, 2020 by Spartan Girl

[Spartan Girl]

I'm reading Samurai Widow written by John Belushi's wife Judy and I know we normally don't use nonfiction/memoir books in this thread but it really made me angry how an hour or so after she found out he died there was already a media frenzy badgering her and the rest of the family for a statement. Literally, she'd just gotten the worst news imaginable and was grieving and trying to get ahold of friends and family before they found out from the news, and some jerks from NBC decided, "Okay he's been dead a few hours, time to call the widow and see what she has to say." SERIOUSLY?! I'm a journalism major and I'd like to think I'd have more tact than that!

Sidenote: the only reason she didn't get the news from the TV is because Dan Aykroyd, good friend that he was, rushed to her apartment the second he got the call so he could break it to her gently. Jim Belushi wasn't so lucky: he heard it on the radio.

[Starleigh]

On 7/10/2019 at 1:24 PM, proserpina65 said:

I'm going to put this in spoiler mode but here's one about Elly Griffith's Ruth Galloway mystery series:

  Reveal spoiler

Every single time Nelson sleeps with Ruth (after the first time).  He's married, doesn't want to leave his wife, but keeps Ruth hanging on anyway.  It would've served him right if Michelle had left him.  And the way people keep saying "he's still a good man" despite knowing about the relationship pisses me off.  No, he's not.  He's a liar, a cheater, and someone who, despite his repeated protestations, doesn't really value Ruth other than her usefulness in solving his murder cases.  And doesn't actually value the other women in his life all that much either.

After the last book, I hated this crap so much, that I'm thrilled the next one won't be published in the US for a whole year, because it'll take at least that long before I could even try to read it.  And I still may not.

I'd enjoyed the books up to about book 7, tolerated books 8 & 9, but books 10 & 11 totally angried up my blood.

This is exactly why I stopped reading the books after the first few. I never even made it to #7. It also bugged me, that as an author, she couldn't, or wouldn't, figure out a way to move things along. It was like, she came with an intriguing angle/dilemma for her readers to think about and just kept using it. How many books can you keep dragging it out over? (Same reason why I gave up on the Stephanie Plum books years ago--I didn't care who she ended up with, Morelli or Ranger. I just wanted her to choose! )

[anna0852]

Janie Johnson getting shipped back to the Springs in Face on the Milk Carton series. 

The Springs expect her to start going by another name, call them Mom & Dad right off the bat, not speak to her boyfriend or friends or adoptive parents (and for all intents and purposes thats what the Johnsons were) while the older 2 siblings are just dripping with hostility. 

Great plan. Truly awesome. 

[Spartan Girl]

I cannot get behind the ending to the novel version of The Color Purple where Albert and Celie become friends. Seriously. After everything he’s done to her.

Look, if you want to forgive someone who wronged you, that’s your business. But Albert:

1) Tried to rape Nettie, a child

2) Threw Nettie out of the house

3) Spent years raping and abusing, Celie, who also was a child when he married her (gag)

4) Cruelly kept all Nettie’s letters from Celie

5) And despite him turning a new leaf towards the end, in the book he is NOT the one that helps bring Nettie and Celie’s kids back to the states.

So I just cannot buy them being friends after all that.

This is one of those instances where the movie did it better than the book: Celie makes it clear she doesn’t want him anywhere near her, and Albert has his “come to Jesus” moment and discreetly makes amends by helping Nettie and the kids, with nobody but Shug knowing it. It was more realistic and satisfying.

 

[Blergh]

Forgive me for saying this but I REALLY wish Celie  at some point (preferably when it happened but even when she FINALLY rebelled after all those decades of abuse  would have still  worked) expressed outrage to Albert for having tried to rape her sister ( as @ Spartan Girl mentioned a child at the time) and for having committed adultery in spite of having been married to her - having made an oath to foresake all others in  the church  (which she DID strongly believe in) . But neither of these things ever happened in the book.

[anna0852]

On 9/17/2018 at 8:45 AM, Dr.OO7 said:

Danielle Steel's double standard regarding her plethora of May-December romances is infuriating enough--if you're a hero/heroine, it's okay, if you're a villain, it's bad--but she takes it levels of white-hot rage in the novel "Family Album", when a 49-year old man "falls in love" with his daughter's 15-year old best friend and they marry as soon as she turns 18, but not before consummating the relationship while she's still underage. Or in other words, he repeatedly molests/statutorily rapes her. The whole thing is portrayed as a grand romance--the book ends with them still happily married and the parents of five children.

It says a lot about Ann's (the 15-year-old) upbringing that she was happy in that marriage. If I recall correctly she was the unwanted oops baby that no (aside from one older brother) ever paid attention to or showed any love towards. She runs away to a San Francisco commune, gets pregnant, her family drags her home and forces her to give up the baby for adoption. The labor is described as horrific, the baby is too big for her frame and she isn't given any painkillers until she signs the papers. She never even gets to lay eyes on her baby.

Fuck those parents. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

4 minutes ago, anna0852 said:

It says a lot about Ann's (the 15-year-old) upbringing that she was happy in that marriage. If I recall correctly she was the unwanted oops baby that no (aside from one older brother) ever paid attention to or showed any love towards. She runs away to a San Francisco commune, gets pregnant, her family drags her home and forces her to give up the baby for adoption. The labor is described as horrific, the baby is too big for her frame and she isn't given any painkillers until she signs the papers. She never even gets to lay eyes on her baby.

Fuck those parents. 

I am so, so, so glad I never read any of Danielle Steele's stuff, and am absolutely fine that I never will.