Unfinished III

I love books.  I love books to the point of being obsessive, in fact, and I have a funny habit of wanting to complete each and every book I open.  Sometimes, that's not practical, I know; sometimes, I don't have time or I don't have the inclination to read (shocking) or I simply lose interest - and, sometimes, a book is just plain bad.

Here are a few of those books that I just couldn't seem to finish.

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Barron's Educational Series

I picked up Twisted Fairy Tales by Maura McHugh on a whim one day.  I mistakenly thought it would give me a glimpse at my favorite fairy tales as they were originally told - they're twisted enough as it is, and they need no tweaking in order to perturb or frighten readers - but I discovered that McHugh hadn't simply gathered up my favorite fairy tales, she'd rewritten and revised them to reflect altogether different stories.

While I was intrigued by the retelling of "Snow White," in which delicate little Snow White became a fierce and merciless warrior, I just couldn't seem to stay with the story for very long.  I simply had no interest in seeing my favorite tales remade.

I mean, I grew up on Disney movies, so I've seen every fathomable reincarnation of fairy tales possible; however, I've also perused the original stories, seeing them as they were intended to be read.  And I expected to have a glimpse of some of the most sinister, most frightening, most gruesome fairy tales imaginable, as the Hans Christen Anderson and the Brothers Grimm intended.

I was a bit disappointed, and I quickly lost interest.

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Pantheon

Emma:  A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith is, of course, a remake of the classic Emma by Jane Austen.  Although it borrows heavily from the original work, Emma:  A Modern Retelling is an entirely unique piece of work that gives a delightfully modern twist to Austen's most beloved characters.

McCall Smith has an interesting way of reincarnating Jane Austen's characters, her prose, her wit, her intelligence, without compromising his own sense of style and his own sense of humor.  And I think he does a fine job of bringing Emma into the twenty-first century.

However, I didn't find Emma endearing in the slightest.  As a character, she had a narrow field of vision and she had a selfishness that just didn't agree with me.  Granted, I enjoyed McCall Smith's writing and I liked the overall tone of the novel - and I'm quite sure that Smith stays close to Austen's original characters - but I just couldn't seem to enjoy Emma.

I disliked her on a personal level, especially when she continued to exert her influence on Harriet.  I just didn't like her and, with her being the main character of the novel, I struggled to stay with it, until, finally, I just gave up and put it aside.

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Harry N. Abrams Publishers

I was enchanted by the cover of The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier.  I absolutely loved the way it looked, the blues and greens and blacks that combined to form a chilling and intriguing cover.  It invited me in, enchanted me unexpectedly, and I could not wait to read the book.

And then I read the book.

I liked The Night Gardener.  I was intrigued by the premise, I admired the characters and character descriptions, and I even enjoyed the level of detail which Auxier provided.  He fashioned a tale that was both spooky and suspenseful without growing macabre or gruesome.  It seemed to have such promise - and I really had high hopes - but I just couldn't dig into the story.

I don't know what happened.  I put it down, and then I finally put it aside without bothering to get farther than the fourth or fifth chapter.

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Pyr

Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann appealed to my interest in science-fiction and history, creating a fascinating world that opens in the midst of the Prohibition - when Britain still claims an empire, Queen Victoria has only recently been buried, and biplanes and coal-powered cars are a favored form of transportation - and fashions an intriguing antihero in The Ghost.

Unfortunately, The Ghost simply felt like a cruder reincarnation of Batman, living a double life (which reminisced of Fitzgerald's Gatsby) and fighting his own personal demons as he fights crime, and I wasn't impressed by the writing.  It read like a noir film feels:  dramatic, drab, and gray - and I just didn't care for it.

Not to mention I wasn't too fond of the unmitigated gore.  It just didn't suit me.

Maybe, I'll try it again in the future and, maybe then, I'll appreciate it; however, for the time being, I'll stick with other books.