My Book Boyfriend is hosted by the lovely Missie at The Unread Reader. Daniel Grey, from Ann Brashares' My Name Is Memory, is kind of intense, but you can't really blame the guy when he has more than a thousand years worth of memories rattling around in his head. The strongest of those memories are those that involve the girl he loves. The boy is devoted all right, seeking her out time and again and doing all he can to be with her. It's hard not to fall for all that love.
Swoon-Worthy Quotes
"I have fallen in love, and she is the one who endures. I killed her once and died for her many times and I still have nothing to show for it. I always search for her; I always remember her. I carry the hope that someday she will remember me."
"She is my doing and my undoing."
"Every life I start with her, my original sin. I know myself through her."
"I did the searching and remembering, she the disappearing and forgetting. I hated to be the one to leave her... All I could think to do was love her. That's all a person can do."
"I have fallen in love, and she is the one who endures. I killed her once and died for her many times and I still have nothing to show for it. I always search for her; I always remember her. I carry the hope that someday she will remember me."
OK, how is that for powerful?! Seeing that quote on the cover, together with the fact that it was written by Ann Brashares, author of the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series which I love, was enough to make me want to read My Name is Memory without even knowing what it was about. Then when I did learn what it was about - a boy whose soul remembers every life he's lived, and the one girl he's loved through them all - I got even more excited.
Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. It was a super-fast, easy read - I got through it in one sitting - and enjoyable enough, but both character and plot development were on the thin side. Daniel and Lucy, our star-crossed lovers, are defined by their love for each other, to the point where there's not much else to them. Daniel has thousands of years worth of memories, but the only important ones to him - and so the only ones we're really told about - are those that involve Lucy (or Sophia, as he knows her best). Still, due to their history - and especially the way they first met (it's a doozy) - his feelings for her are quite complex, meaning that his character, as defined by those feelings, is not wholly one-dimensional. But Lucy? From the first sentence she's all about her love for Daniel; we meet her character obsessing over him, and she stays obsessing over him for the next 300-odd pages. She wasn't totally annoying, but I like my characters with a bit more meat on their bones, if you know what I'm sayin'.
Similarly, the plot is quite sparse for the majority of the book. I enjoyed the flashbacks to Daniel's past lives, but they slowed the present-day action down considerably. When things finally got going in the last third of the book, it was a lot more fun. But before that I found the way Daniel and Lucy spent so long mooning over each other from afar rather than, oh, I don't know, trying a simple "hey, how's it going?" quite frustrating. I would have also liked to see more development of the villain and his motivations - although maybe that will be explored in the inevitable sequel. Which I'll inevitably read. Coz while there were a few things missing in this book that, had they been there, would have taken it from fun to OMGADDICTIVE, I'm still keen to read on - even if I don't need it, like, now.
Rating: 3/5
Eye Candy
In my head, Daniel looked like Paul Wesley, coz he's got the whole tall/handsome/brooding thing down, while Lucy looked like Lily Collins. Coz I just love her.
Fine Print Genre: Apparently this is classified as Adult Fiction, though it definitely felt more Young Adult to me. There's a sex scene in it, but it's not explicit, and nothing you wouldn't find in any other YA romance, in my opinion. Published: 2010 Publisher: Penguin Get It:Book Depository
Related
I'm not really one to watch book trailers, but this one is kinda dreamy, and captures the mood of the book pretty well.
Whew. Is that a long title or what? I didn't even include the author in my post heading - mainly because I'm not quite sure who wrote it. The cover says "based on the novels by L. J. Smith and the TV series by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec", and there's no other mention of who the author is. I'm not sure if this means L. J. Smith wrote it, but I'm assuming she didn't, because it's a total departure from her original Vampire Diaries books.
Stefan's Diaries is, as the name suggests, told from the perspective of Stefan Salvatore. It's a prequel to the TV show (which is based on L. J. Smith's books), telling more of the story that viewers have seen only glimpses of in flashback scenes. We see Stefan and his brother, Damon, meet the vampire Katherine; each fall in love with her; become vampires themselves; and end up hating each other (no spoiler alert is necessary because knowing that is kinda the whole motive for reading the book).
I picked this book up after experiencing major VD withdrawals (ahem, no pun intended) due to the show being on hiatus, and it definitely gave me the fix I needed (although I would have preferred a bit more Damon, but I'm biased). I loved the flashback episodes on TV, so it was a delight for me to be able to discover the whole back story in detail. The writing was adequate with only a few groan-worthy moments (actually less than I was expecting!), and even though I knew exactly where the story was going, I was excited to find out how everything would fall into place.
Being totally obsessed with the TV show, it's hard for me to say whether this would appeal to those who haven't seen it, because, to me, that was the whole appeal. It'd definitely be confusing if you've only read L. J. Smith's original Vampire Diaries books, because in those, the back story of the brothers is completely different (they're alive in the 1600s, not the 1800s, and are from Italy, not Mystic Falls, and, er, Damon is kinda evil from the start). If you are a fan of the TV show, however, I would say it's definitely worth a read. I totally want to rewatch the show from the beginning now, with all this knowledge of the characters' history and headspaces. Like I need an excuse.
Rating:3/5.
Talking Points
Although the writer attempted to go all olde worlde with the language, it was really jarring for the characters to refer to everyone - including people they'd just met and their elders - by their first names. I might be wrong (but I don't think I am), but that's a MODERN thing.
While we're on the subject, I also thought Katherine's character was a tad modern. I get that she's supposed to be a free-spirited, strong-willed vampire chick, but all the flirting/touching/swimming/running/skin-baring she does in public would have been just a bit more scandalous than it's shown to be.
I'd like to know more about Katherine's interactions with Damon. We get the full picture of how she got Stefan to fall in love with her, and how he turned against her, but we still don't understand exactly what she said or, ahem, did with Damon. She told Stefan that she treated him like a brother, but given Damon's feelings for her, I somehow don't think that's true. Damon's Diaries, anyone? *Wishful thinking*
(Minor spoiler alert) It was interesting that the writer introduced the crow at the end, and its apparent connection to Damon. The crow appeared in L. J. Smith's original books, as well as in the pilot episode of the show, but has since disappeared from the series without a mention. I wonder if they'll explain more about the connection in the other two volumes of Stefan's Diaries.
Which brings me to the fact that, yes, this is part one of a trilogy. When I first started reading it I thought that, while this book really appealed to me, I didn't really see the point of turning it into a trilogy, because the back story/love triangle is pretty much totally explained in this one. However, after finishing it - and reading the preview of the next book - I'm kind of curious to read the rest. It might be interesting to see exactly how Stefan found his way back to his humanity, Damon lost his, and they totally lost each other. And, of course, how they discovered the rumours about Katherine's whereabouts and what drove their return to Mystic Falls (assuming all that is covered in the books, of course).
Eye Candy
What the characters looked like was a bit of a no-brainer for this one, seeing as, y'know, it's based on the TV show that I'm just slightly addicted to. I even had the flashback episodes as a visual references for the old timey clothes. Not gonna lie, though - I pictured Stefan and Damon's modern hair. Their old timey hair just sucks.
Damon knows the trick to covering bad hair days...
...he never leaves home without a hat.
Otherwise people laugh at him. Oh Damon, don't look so concerned - you only have to wait 250 years for the GHD.
In the meantime, be grateful that your hair still looks better than Stefan's.
Hoorah for GHDs and hair gel!
Wait a minute, I don't remember a reference to Damon shirtless. *rereading*
Did someone say Damon shirtless?
Why, yes, I believe I did.
I think we need that from another angle. You know, for accuracy purposes. Or something.
