From the Archives: Abduction Revelation and Awoken
This week, I am once again pulling from my archives. I am almost finished the writing course I've been taking, which will free up a lot of my writing time and let me dedicate some time to this blog.
The two reviews I'm sharing today are paired together because they are rather unusual. The first, Abduction Revelation, came to me from Twitter long ago. My profile listed "book nerd" as a descriptor, and this author suggested that I read his book. Maybe memoir, maybe fiction, it's the story of his life and how he was abducted by aliens. It was a fun read, but kinda weird. The second is Awoken by Serra Elinson, a person who does not exist. This was produced by Lindsay Ellis as a parody of Twilight-style romances and I played a teeny, tiny part in its creation. She asked her followers to vote on tropes, and that included me.
This is probably the strangest book I have ever
read. Not just for its subject matter, but also how it came to my
attention. My twitter profile includes the descriptor "book nerd" and I
received a tweet suggesting this book as a "blend of reality and
fiction". Since I love aliens and because I had never had a book pitched
to me via twitter, I headed on over to the kobo site and downloaded it.
The book I got was actually pretty good. Honestly, I would have given
it four stars, but the edition I got was riddled with typos and spelling
errors, so I had to knock it down to three.
Hay purposely asks
the reader to determine for themselves what parts to believe and what
parts are made up. The idea is that he wrote his memoirs (which I have
not read) and then unlocked some buried memories that revealed he had
been abducted by aliens earlier in life and then rewrote his memoirs
with the new information. It is pretty hard to determine the reality
from the fiction in some parts.
The big question - Did I believe
the book? Well, not all of it. Hay spends a good portion of the book
bragging about his sexual prowess with the ladies and I must raise an
eyebrow at that. I'm also skeptical when it comes to alien abduction
stories, but I guess it is possible.
Style: Hay's style of
writing is very familiar and he likes to throw in song lyrics and crack
jokes with the audience. The humour did not always match my own, nor did
I understand all of the song inclusions, but I think it added a unique
flavour to the text. The story is very eclectic and bounces from
lectures about "young people today" to bragging about himself to science
fiction and conspiracy theory to romance. He even threw in an appendix
explaining all of his idiomatic phrases and their origins if that
interests you.
Overall, I recommend checking it out - you will not find anything like this book anywhere else, I assure you.
This book is going to be tricky to review. Let
me just say upfront - I know. I know what this book is all about. Awoken
is a parody of paranormal YA romance using the premise that Cthulhu has
come to earth to destroy it, but he falls in love with a teenage girl
and can't bring himself to do it. Yeah, Cthulhu in love with a young
teenage girl. Her name is the utterly perfect "Andromeda" - mythological
damsel in distress saved from being devoured by a sea monster by a
mysterious boy. The character may hate her name, but it defines her life
so well. Here in this post I'm just going to review the book. I'll
discuss my thoughts on the project itself on my blog later this month.
There
is a trope in fiction - YA especially - that great powerful immortal
beings fall madly in love with ordinary people because of... reasons? I
always hate that trope. Like any of us boring mortals are going to hold
their interest for long and if we do, well the aging thing will lead to
either breaking up or getting locked in a room where we can quietly age
until we become crickets.
This story follows the trope to the core.
Unspeakably beautiful jerkoff boy with no redeeming qualities that the
character hates at first but grows to love? Yup. Annoyingly whiny
pathetic protagonist who is far too obsessed with said boy to the point
of brushing off purely evil acts as nothing? Uh huh. Two people madly in
love without actually knowing anything about each other beyond physical
appearance? You betcha! This book has it all!
Why only 2 stars?
I
do read a decent amount of YA, but I don't read any paranormal romance
so my familiarity with the tropes is only passing. I also haven't read
much Lovecraft and I feel like Cthulhu as a meme is a bit overdone (like
zombies and bacon). To another reader, the book would probably be a lot
funnier. Mostly, I found it a slog to get through. My inability to slap
the protagonist was painful. I only finished it out of determination
and an interest in the project. However, the last few chapters once the
badguys get their butts in gear? Actually gripping, well-written, and a
little bit scary.
Or they would be scary if I cared AT ALL about the
main character. Some of it was pretty funny - Andromeda's disgust for
something as basic as water made me laugh out loud at some parts
(terrible liquid!). Sadly, just as it gets good, the stupid love story
shows up to drag it down like the boring albatross that it is.
If
you are into paranormal romance at all, then read this book and ignore
the parody idea. Nothing wrong with enjoying a book. If you find Cthulhu
funny and interesting, then you'll probably like this one more than I
did.
Thanks for reading!
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