heavenlyxbodies (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heavenlyxbodies) wrote2011-07-03 02:46 am
heavenlyxbodies) wrote2011-07-03 02:46 am
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Island- I has read it ***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
Well, I just finished Island and… not what I was expecting exactly. I think I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Can’t wait to see how they translated it to film, though, ‘cause I could see it being so much more than it is if done right (and gods, I HAVE to see Colin in this, like life’s blood have to!*).
First off, and this is not a reflection of the work itself necessarily, but you know that newish writing style where ppl ignore basic use of the comma. Yeah, well, this was written/published in that style, which made it a bitch and a half to read. I swear, every other sentence I had to go back and work through what part of the sentence went with what part until it made sense *rolls eyes* and that TOTALLY detracted from the emotion and feel of the book. I mean, I’d be really getting into this nice steady pull towards an end that would completely draw you in and then ‘d have to stop and rerererererererere-read a sentence or a paragraph because it simply made no sense whatsoever. I would love to read it again after a proofer had tackled it.
Anyway, on to the book itself, it didn’t exactly suck you in, but it gave you the feeling of curiosity, you were curious, so you turned the page. Roger’s laid out Nikki’s character so well, one minute you were feeling her pain, sometime acutely, the next she was this evil, spiteful creature. She really delved into how she thought and why, which was disturbing to say the least- I say that in a good way.
And Calum, Calum was not at all what I was expecting at least not at first, but then she showed you the underside, as it were, and almost seemed to develop his character backwards, ya know, you see this person and he’s not all mysteries, but he’s just what he is. I really wish she’d spent more time with building his character though, she moved too fast in that respect for me, esp after how she’d developed Nikki. And yes, I know Nikki is the focus of the book, but Calum is so pivotal he needed more, not even a lot more, just something was missing from his character development. It was like he was W then X then Z and somewhere along that line you totally missed the Y, you had hints that the Y was there, but never enough to understand it.
On a side note, you just wanna hold Calum and protect him, you wanna show him the world and keep it from him at the same time; in conveying that Roger’s was wonderful. She just never conveyed that as mattering to Nikki until the end.
It was just really annoying ‘cause throughout Roger’s captured Nikki’s internal torment in graphic detail, but it was like that was everything and the important bits from a story perspective were missing. Like the bleakness of the island, esp to Nikki, who hadn’t lived there and didn’t want to be there, and the converse colourfulness it held for Calum with his mythologies and stories, or the entire sea/island metaphor Roger’s hints and whispers at, but every time she has the chance to push that extra bit, to show the meaningfulness and power of this world she describes, to reveal or hint at the emotion of it she pulls back just short of the precipice.
And again Nikki’s transformation, shall we call it, was a bit too sudden, you saw the glimmer of it as it approached, I mean, you understood it on some base, subconscious level, but that was it. You were all for it and it was comforting, but it was lacking the emotion and the build-up. The tension just wasn’t there.
So, there ya have it. It was a good read, it wasn’t great and it’s not something I’d rush out to recommend. But if you’re more inclined to that kind of drama, or you’re just that curious, I’m not gonna warn you against it or tell you it’s not worth your time. ‘m just not gonna encourage you to read it. I guess you could say it was mediocre.
---
This is nothing I know, it is only my impression, but… if they manage to bring forth even a fraction of the things- the surroundings, the intensity of Calum and Nikki, the correlations and fractures of their worlds- that Roger’s merely hints at or seems to assume we will get then the movie's gonna be good. And if the performances (and directing and screenwriting) are half as good as we know Colin can be (and I mean that for everyone, ‘m just using Colin as a measuring stick here, and damn, but that sounded kinky, lol) then it’s gonna be damn good, impressive even. Like I said, I have no idea if any of this will come to pass, but it if does…
---------
*A note about Colin as Calum- Gods, you would read a description of how he held himself or his smile or something else and the image of Colin was there, you could see it, even when you tried not to, and just knowing how intense Colin can be you can imagine him putting all the emotion and depth that Calum in the book lacks into his Calum and, yeah, even if the rest of it sucks he’s gonna be incredible. It was mightily disturbing.
.
First off, and this is not a reflection of the work itself necessarily, but you know that newish writing style where ppl ignore basic use of the comma. Yeah, well, this was written/published in that style, which made it a bitch and a half to read. I swear, every other sentence I had to go back and work through what part of the sentence went with what part until it made sense *rolls eyes* and that TOTALLY detracted from the emotion and feel of the book. I mean, I’d be really getting into this nice steady pull towards an end that would completely draw you in and then ‘d have to stop and rerererererererere-read a sentence or a paragraph because it simply made no sense whatsoever. I would love to read it again after a proofer had tackled it.
Anyway, on to the book itself, it didn’t exactly suck you in, but it gave you the feeling of curiosity, you were curious, so you turned the page. Roger’s laid out Nikki’s character so well, one minute you were feeling her pain, sometime acutely, the next she was this evil, spiteful creature. She really delved into how she thought and why, which was disturbing to say the least- I say that in a good way.
And Calum, Calum was not at all what I was expecting at least not at first, but then she showed you the underside, as it were, and almost seemed to develop his character backwards, ya know, you see this person and he’s not all mysteries, but he’s just what he is. I really wish she’d spent more time with building his character though, she moved too fast in that respect for me, esp after how she’d developed Nikki. And yes, I know Nikki is the focus of the book, but Calum is so pivotal he needed more, not even a lot more, just something was missing from his character development. It was like he was W then X then Z and somewhere along that line you totally missed the Y, you had hints that the Y was there, but never enough to understand it.
On a side note, you just wanna hold Calum and protect him, you wanna show him the world and keep it from him at the same time; in conveying that Roger’s was wonderful. She just never conveyed that as mattering to Nikki until the end.
It was just really annoying ‘cause throughout Roger’s captured Nikki’s internal torment in graphic detail, but it was like that was everything and the important bits from a story perspective were missing. Like the bleakness of the island, esp to Nikki, who hadn’t lived there and didn’t want to be there, and the converse colourfulness it held for Calum with his mythologies and stories, or the entire sea/island metaphor Roger’s hints and whispers at, but every time she has the chance to push that extra bit, to show the meaningfulness and power of this world she describes, to reveal or hint at the emotion of it she pulls back just short of the precipice.
And again Nikki’s transformation, shall we call it, was a bit too sudden, you saw the glimmer of it as it approached, I mean, you understood it on some base, subconscious level, but that was it. You were all for it and it was comforting, but it was lacking the emotion and the build-up. The tension just wasn’t there.
So, there ya have it. It was a good read, it wasn’t great and it’s not something I’d rush out to recommend. But if you’re more inclined to that kind of drama, or you’re just that curious, I’m not gonna warn you against it or tell you it’s not worth your time. ‘m just not gonna encourage you to read it. I guess you could say it was mediocre.
---
This is nothing I know, it is only my impression, but… if they manage to bring forth even a fraction of the things- the surroundings, the intensity of Calum and Nikki, the correlations and fractures of their worlds- that Roger’s merely hints at or seems to assume we will get then the movie's gonna be good. And if the performances (and directing and screenwriting) are half as good as we know Colin can be (and I mean that for everyone, ‘m just using Colin as a measuring stick here, and damn, but that sounded kinky, lol) then it’s gonna be damn good, impressive even. Like I said, I have no idea if any of this will come to pass, but it if does…
---------
*A note about Colin as Calum- Gods, you would read a description of how he held himself or his smile or something else and the image of Colin was there, you could see it, even when you tried not to, and just knowing how intense Colin can be you can imagine him putting all the emotion and depth that Calum in the book lacks into his Calum and, yeah, even if the rest of it sucks he’s gonna be incredible. It was mightily disturbing.
.