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tophat8855's review against another edition
4.0
Theric says this is the Mormon book of the year, and I'm going to test that. Is Theric right? Well, how often is he wrong? :)
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Ok. Read it. Thoughts.
Romance thoughts:
Come on! If a book comes to you recommended with the phrases "romance novel" and "explicit sex," you shouldn't have to wait to read over half the book to get to that explicit sex. I've read non-romance with more explicit sex than this (which is not to say that they weren't good sex scenes or that the book needed more). And while the sex was explicit, because of the emotionally vulnerable nature of sex, it was a great plot and character development device. And hey, sex is fun. McKay wanted to read this book with me, but because I knew we wouldn't have time for that, I promised him we'd at least read the sex parts together and he seemed happy with that arrangement. :) And Moriah, since I know you'll read this review, I promise I read some of the thinky parts to him as well. I'm the sort of person who reads thought food aloud to whomever is in the room with me when I'm reading a book.
Character thoughts: On the review on The Exponent blog (http://www.the-exponent.com/2011/05/28/book-review-magdalene-by-moriah-jovan), it says the characters are Randian. Having never read anything from Ms. Ayn, I can't vouch for this, but I will agree with the superhumanness. And I'll agree and disagree with Amelia about the characters' flaws: yes they have flaws, but the flaws seem insignificant for the plot or too far back in the past for their characters to seem flawed as the book happens. For example, our bishop character is a multimillion dollar rags to riches story, who works full time as a CEO, part-time as a bishop, and still finds time to go salsa dancing until 2am on Friday nights and devotes his Sunday nights (because bishops have so much time on Sunday) to taking a shift at the steel mill so someone else can get a free Sunday once and a while. Oh and his wife died of MS and he spent 15 years nursing her as she died. Yeah. Ridiculously perfect. And oh yeah, he has flaws: that one time he "gave in" to masturbation (is that a flaw?), and he was still in love with is first girlfriend when he married his wife, and yeah, he's been bottling his temper for a long time which comes out violently- but with impeccable violence: glass is smashed, books are torn and burned! Yeah. Perfect. See? But I have this running joke with McKay when I read or watch fiction: I smile and say, "This is so unrealistic," knowing full well that what I'm viewing/reading is fiction and of course it's unrealistic.
Mormon thoughts: I loved the ward and it made me love my own ward more, because all the cool characters (ie Prissy) are people in my ward. The fictional ward in the book was very believable. I was a little shocked at all the politics around the calling ladder: wanting to be bishop and such. Afterall, we're supposed to say, "No one should want to be a bishop- what a burden!" But we can't lie that there isn't a power system behind it. I've actually heard of people making comments like, "If you haven't had a calling that makes you a high priest by the time you're 45, then something's wrong." And callings were talked about in religion classes at BYU as carrots on a string: exact words from my D&C instructor: "You might be a bishop some day, and you might be on the stake high counsel! And you might be a patriarch!" The last one was directed at me, at which time the instructor stopped and said, "Or not." Yeah. AWKWARD. BTW I have my eyes on stake matriarch, thank you very much. ;) Anyway, so yeah, the politics seemed over the top, but I won't say they don't exist and couldn't be just as over the top in reality. We're human. In other Mormon thoughts: I loved the handling of various Mormon issues and the conversations around them. Eternal families can be a really touchy subject. As can garments. And homosexuality. And sex and masturbation. And church courts. (For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the membership record, but the Lord looketh on the heart.)
Pace thoughts: It was ok, but at the end when it really got going, it was much better (and it's not because of the sex, but becuase of the political inquiry. Keep your heads out of the gutter!) Good book. It hit on lots of big issues and did it with a romance in the background (or bedroom, if you'd like.)
____________
Ok. Read it. Thoughts.
Romance thoughts:
Come on! If a book comes to you recommended with the phrases "romance novel" and "explicit sex," you shouldn't have to wait to read over half the book to get to that explicit sex. I've read non-romance with more explicit sex than this (which is not to say that they weren't good sex scenes or that the book needed more). And while the sex was explicit, because of the emotionally vulnerable nature of sex, it was a great plot and character development device. And hey, sex is fun. McKay wanted to read this book with me, but because I knew we wouldn't have time for that, I promised him we'd at least read the sex parts together and he seemed happy with that arrangement. :) And Moriah, since I know you'll read this review, I promise I read some of the thinky parts to him as well. I'm the sort of person who reads thought food aloud to whomever is in the room with me when I'm reading a book.
Character thoughts: On the review on The Exponent blog (http://www.the-exponent.com/2011/05/28/book-review-magdalene-by-moriah-jovan), it says the characters are Randian. Having never read anything from Ms. Ayn, I can't vouch for this, but I will agree with the superhumanness. And I'll agree and disagree with Amelia about the characters' flaws: yes they have flaws, but the flaws seem insignificant for the plot or too far back in the past for their characters to seem flawed as the book happens. For example, our bishop character is a multimillion dollar rags to riches story, who works full time as a CEO, part-time as a bishop, and still finds time to go salsa dancing until 2am on Friday nights and devotes his Sunday nights (because bishops have so much time on Sunday) to taking a shift at the steel mill so someone else can get a free Sunday once and a while. Oh and his wife died of MS and he spent 15 years nursing her as she died. Yeah. Ridiculously perfect. And oh yeah, he has flaws: that one time he "gave in" to masturbation (is that a flaw?), and he was still in love with is first girlfriend when he married his wife, and yeah, he's been bottling his temper for a long time which comes out violently- but with impeccable violence: glass is smashed, books are torn and burned! Yeah. Perfect. See? But I have this running joke with McKay when I read or watch fiction: I smile and say, "This is so unrealistic," knowing full well that what I'm viewing/reading is fiction and of course it's unrealistic.
Mormon thoughts: I loved the ward and it made me love my own ward more, because all the cool characters (ie Prissy) are people in my ward. The fictional ward in the book was very believable. I was a little shocked at all the politics around the calling ladder: wanting to be bishop and such. Afterall, we're supposed to say, "No one should want to be a bishop- what a burden!" But we can't lie that there isn't a power system behind it. I've actually heard of people making comments like, "If you haven't had a calling that makes you a high priest by the time you're 45, then something's wrong." And callings were talked about in religion classes at BYU as carrots on a string: exact words from my D&C instructor: "You might be a bishop some day, and you might be on the stake high counsel! And you might be a patriarch!" The last one was directed at me, at which time the instructor stopped and said, "Or not." Yeah. AWKWARD. BTW I have my eyes on stake matriarch, thank you very much. ;) Anyway, so yeah, the politics seemed over the top, but I won't say they don't exist and couldn't be just as over the top in reality. We're human. In other Mormon thoughts: I loved the handling of various Mormon issues and the conversations around them. Eternal families can be a really touchy subject. As can garments. And homosexuality. And sex and masturbation. And church courts. (For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the membership record, but the Lord looketh on the heart.)
Pace thoughts: It was ok, but at the end when it really got going, it was much better (and it's not because of the sex, but becuase of the political inquiry. Keep your heads out of the gutter!) Good book. It hit on lots of big issues and did it with a romance in the background (or bedroom, if you'd like.)
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