Ahh, so I'm not the only one who constantly felt pressured to cry while reading this novel! I was starting to wonder if it was just me, with so many other people talking about what a tear-jerker it was. But I don't cry on demand, especially not when I can feel the author pulling strings in the background.
THANK YOU. Glad I'm not the only one!! I thought it was awful. I realise just how bad it was having just read Jennifer Nivens "All the Bright Places" which truly was realistically emotionally heart wrenching and I cried buckets at the end. Even before the end to be fair because I just knew it was going to be bad. She writes realistic characters.
Can I like this review over and over, please? What is it with overly evocative, manipulative writing? Is it a common theme prevalent in YA? I don't tend to read YA because all the ones I have read (not that there are many) have been so disappointing.
While I haven't read the book, I did give in and watch the movie last week. Your review of the book is pretty much exactly how I felt about the movie. I wasn't invested in either lead as a character and there were so many frustrations with their personalities. It definitely felt forced, like they wanted you in tears.
All in all, A Walk to Remember was a much better story about a similar topic.
All things considered, why is it also so important for books to make people cry? Why should this be a good indicator that the book is awesome (or, conversely, that if you didn't cry, then you didn't "get it")?
Good writers should be able to elicit feelings in their readers, sure... But why is it always about the crying? Why not about "that book made me angry", for instance?
I don't really get what so special about crying either. I've loved some books that made me angry.
I like books to inflict some kind of emotion, whether it be joy, disappointment (in humankind), anger, etc, I don't mind if it's crying (but personally, I usually only cry when the dog dies or something similar). I just don't like it when I feel forced to feel something, when the book is telling me WHAT to feel. I'm perfectly capable of deciding that for myself.
Hm, in fact, I'm perhaps more likely to cry when the dog dies than when a character dies. At least you can seldom go wrong with a dog, whereas you can botch a character. XD
Thats a good point Yzabel. To be honest I like a book that makes me feel ANY strong emotion - Yes crying, if I cry at the end of a book its definitely gotten into my soul, but anger is good too! plus detesting characters is something that tells me a book is good - I just read one called The Liars Chair where I HATED everyone in it with a fiery vengeance. And that was a darn good book at which I shed not a single tear :)
It's really just "this book was so good because it made me cry" that I have a hard time to understand. As if it was the only criterion that mattered. It's just... weird.
(Of course, it can be a valid criterion. It's just not the only valid one IMHO.)
Agreed, it is an excellent point. A book should evoke any sort of response from me, whether it is sadness, disdain, even being puzzled or questioning things. I don't need to love all the characters, and hating some characters can be really good fun. But the insisting on making me cry thing, I don't get that either.
Also, in my case, any author can already be well damn happy that I've actually read a novel where cancer plays a part. I'm already going against my own fears here, so don't try to coerce me into crying on top of it, please.
(Yeah, I know, why did you read it, blah blah... Because I wanted to understand the hype? Because I was told "don't worry, it's really good, you won't have the time to feel scared"? Whatever. ^^)
TOTALLY AGREE!! Altho some of the content was supposed to be overly thought provoking, it was just plain silly. Like the cigarette. NOT CLEVER!! Not cool!! LAME!!
All in all, A Walk to Remember was a much better story about a similar topic.
Good writers should be able to elicit feelings in their readers, sure... But why is it always about the crying? Why not about "that book made me angry", for instance?
I like books to inflict some kind of emotion, whether it be joy, disappointment (in humankind), anger, etc, I don't mind if it's crying (but personally, I usually only cry when the dog dies or something similar). I just don't like it when I feel forced to feel something, when the book is telling me WHAT to feel. I'm perfectly capable of deciding that for myself.
It's really just "this book was so good because it made me cry" that I have a hard time to understand. As if it was the only criterion that mattered. It's just... weird.
(Of course, it can be a valid criterion. It's just not the only valid one IMHO.)
(Yeah, I know, why did you read it, blah blah... Because I wanted to understand the hype? Because I was told "don't worry, it's really good, you won't have the time to feel scared"? Whatever. ^^)