Breaking News

Will Monty go back to Evelyn? Will CNN ever call Trump on all his staged antics? Find out on the latest November Surprises Blog post. Click here to read "Breaking News."

Thought on Audio Books and YOU WILL KNOW ME

I've always felt that the best way to learn to write fiction is to read fiction. And while I will always be an avid reader, in the last couple of years I have grown more and more fond of listening to audio books as well. Maybe it's because I am forced to focus on every word, rather than skimming as I unintentionally do sometimes while reading. Maybe it's because I am always uninterrupted while listening to an audio book, even if it's just for a few minutes at a time. Having a book read to me is so informative and it really gets me thinking about plot structure, characterization, and prose. Usually I will listen on my drive to and from work, but  in the last few weeks I have also listened to an audio book while going for my morning runs.

At the end of the summer I began You Will Know Me, by Meg Abbot. Every morning as I jogged through the blocks of my neighborhood, I listened to this pseudo-thriller about an Olympic-hopeful gymnast and her mother. It was usually pretty warm outside as I ran, it was always humid, and more often than not my knees hurt because I've been in the habit of running for nearly twenty years, and well, that takes a toll. But the story was good enough to keep me going. Abbot's use of description is jaw-droppingly good and had me thinking, "Wow, I don't use description well AT ALL." The more I read, the more I write, and the more I study writing, the more I am convinced that effectively conveying the big picture is done by focusing on the details, and Meg Abbot is nearly poetic in how she uses detail to create a picture and establish emotion. I was truly inspired.

The book got great reviews from places like the New York Times and other major publications, and slightly higher than mediocre reviews from readers on Amazon. Some say the story moves to slow.  It's about Devon, a fourteen year old girl who wants to become an elite gymnast. Right as her last chance to do so comes up, a young man connected to the gym where she trains is murdered, and that has major implications for everyone involved. The plot centers around Devon's mother, Katie, and we are privy to her thoughts and actions throughout. While I wouldn't call the book slow, I did get frustrated at times that Katie was slow, not putting two and two together when anyone else would. I also saw the end coming, but that's okay. It was more about the getting there, and the getting there was done pretty well.

One tiny little rant though - I've noticed lately in several books that when a protagonist is a woman with a teenage daughter, the woman still can't be older than her mid-thirties. What's that about? In You Will Know Me, Katie and her husband Eric supposedly got married and had Devon by the time Katie was nineteen? Okay, but the rest of their back-story doesn't make sense: how they managed to buy a house, establish a career without ever going to school, remember past relationships, etc. It was just unnecessary. Why is it so horrible to have a female protagonist over forty?

And one other thing: SPOILER ALERT!  Don't read this part if you don't want the ending ruined.
Once we finally found out that Devon was in a relationship with hot-guy Ryan, we still never really know what he saw in her. He was twenty-three and in a relationship with a very attractive woman his own age. Devon was fifteen and hadn't even hit puberty, due to her gymnastics career.  Meg Abbot really needed to give more information on how that worked, because I JUST DIDN'T BUY IT.

But Civil is Boring

There's another post on November Surprises Blog! For more about Monty's dinner with Evelyn, click here.

Fact Checking and Foreboding

There's a new post on November Surprises blog! Has someone unwelcome entered into Lucy's life? To find out, read "Fact Checking and Foreboding" by clicking Here.