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Jenny Reads: UR JUST JEALOUS edition

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Lately, I have learned a horrible truth about myself.

I, Jenny Trout… am a hater.

After my post about Jamie McGuire and Dear Author, so many ardent McGuire defenders contacted me to inform me of my hater status. I’m apparently a common breed of hater, odium zelosus vulgaris, or, “the common jealous hater.” I guess it’s a kind of bird.

It isn’t. Sorry, I was just trying to impress you. I’m not a bird.

The truth is, I’ve never even read McGuire’s work. Maybe I’m missing out on something I would really like. Maybe it’s time for a read-along.

To those of you who have been begging me to recap Beautiful Disaster for the past year, I’m sorry, but today is not the day you get great news. See, I already know enough about Beautiful Disaster to know that I’m not going to be able to overcome my bias toward it. You’ve all told me about the horrific perpetuation of abuse and rape culture in that book, and since I’m already not impressed with the author’s behavior, it would be even harder to remain objective from page one. Also, I’ve already done my time on Abusive Crapfest Island, thank you very much.

So, what to do? Well, you’re in luck, because before yesterday, I’d heard literally nothing about McGuire’s latest release, Apolonia, aside from the title. I got really excited and bought it because I assumed it would be the POV switch retelling of Purple Rain that we all need and deserve. It’s not. It’s a Sci-Fi New Adult book with nary a mention of Morris Day in it. But this gives us an opportunity, dear reader, to experience this book together. It will be a magical journey, and who knows? At the end, maybe I’ll be a new fan.

If you’re planning to read with me, get yourself a copy of Apolonia. We’ll make this like a book club. Or, we’ll all get pecked to death by my gnashing beak and giant claws.

I may or may not have lied about being a bird.

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36 Comments

  1. I am giddy! I love your recaps so, so much!

    October 7, 2014
    |Reply
  2. noisyninja
    noisyninja

    Ms. McGuire should honestly thank you for all the book sales she’s about to get….

    October 7, 2014
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  3. Oth
    Oth

    Did you scrap the idea of recapping your Bloodties Series? I was looking forward to that!

    October 7, 2014
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    • shadowmaster13
      shadowmaster13

      Me too!

      But I think this will be plenty good.

      October 8, 2014
      |Reply
  4. Ilex
    Ilex

    I got really excited and bought it because I assumed it would be the POV switch retelling of Purple Rain that we all need and deserve.

    Now I really want to read THAT book!

    October 7, 2014
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    • Heather
      Heather

      As would I! Also, I’d be up for reading anything written from the POV of Morris Day – even if I imagine a lot of it will be, “Jerome? Where in the hell is my mirror?!” and”How can this much fabulous exist within one person?” and maybe something about oak trees.

      Oh, and I WILL buy this Apolonia book just to feel like I am participating as much as possible. I find it much easier on myself to really hate something that I am dissatisfied with if I have spent cold hard cash on it. Then again, perhaps it will be good? I’m equally down for that.

      October 7, 2014
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      • majoline
        majoline

        I am looking suspiciously at the summary but hey, if nothing else, having the .epub will make me feel better about enjoying the read-along.

        October 8, 2014
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  5. Leaping Ocelots
    Leaping Ocelots

    Wait, you’re NOT a bird? I don’t even know what to feel anymore…aside from excitement over new recaps. That I do know how to feel.

    October 7, 2014
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    • Ange
      Ange

      That this comment came from an ocelot tickles my funny bone…

      October 8, 2014
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  6. Lieke
    Lieke

    I’m so excited. Your recaps are Always well-reasoned and, at the same time. I will not be reading along. I did that with FSoG and, no, never again.

    October 7, 2014
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    • Lieke
      Lieke

      I don’t know why Always Always insists on being typed with a capital letter, but it does.

      October 7, 2014
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      • Lieke
        Lieke

        How many mistakes can you make in a single post? Your recaps are also funny. That’s the word missing at the end of the second sentence in my first post. I’ll stop replying to myself now.

        October 7, 2014
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  7. Rosa H
    Rosa H

    Ah, so excited for this! More recaps! And a read along sounds like a fun idea! Buuuut I think I’ll wait on buying the book, you know, in case it’s just more abusive crap…

    October 7, 2014
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  8. Flo
    Flo

    No Morris Day? Well crap, I was all ready for some “Jungle Love”.

    I downloaded the sample, going to read a bit to see if I can deal with this. Or if I just want to rely on your wit and snark. Both work equally well, the latter just saves me some hair pulling. I do have to say that this is like Christmas!

    October 7, 2014
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  9. Laura
    Laura

    It’s like a recap and a mystery all at once: what is the book about? is it craptacular? and is Jenny actually a bird? I’m so excited, I could chirp. (But no, really, I’m totally excited.)

    October 7, 2014
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  10. Cherry
    Cherry

    Yay! More recaps! Probably will not read along, but maybe. Will definitely read the recaps though. 🙂

    October 7, 2014
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  11. Candy Apple
    Candy Apple

    LIKE.

    October 7, 2014
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  12. Jen
    Jen

    I hated Beautiful Disaster with a capital H.

    October 7, 2014
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  13. TayciBear
    TayciBear

    Yay! I miss your recaps. I may or may not read along. I have so much stuff I’m reading right now.

    October 7, 2014
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  14. Amber
    Amber

    I’m in. I’ll read along. I didn’t read along for Fifty Shades because I had already read them before I found you and nothing on this green earth could convince me to read them again… but this sounds like fun.

    October 7, 2014
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  15. I hope I never bash another author’s words, especially if I haven’t read their book first and formed my own opinion. I don’t have to be told what to think about a book from other people. I can decide that by giving it a chance. All authors deserve respect for their hard work for even finishing a novel. It’s a difficult thing to do. Jamie McGuire is a human being. She has feelings. She works hard. She wrote Beautiful Disaster while she was struggling to pay the bills and keep her babies fed. She overcame so much. I admire her just like I admire anyone who reaches for their dream. Maybe one day we can all grow up and take the high road. Respecting others isn’t hard to do. It’s a simple rule we should all follow. This world would be a better place.

    October 7, 2014
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    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      Why do you assume I’m going to bash it? You haven’t even read the post yet.

      October 7, 2014
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    • “This world would be a better place.”

      Now I am ded of projectile vomiting.

      October 7, 2014
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    • Tez Miller
      Tez Miller

      Celebrating the lawsuit Ellora’s Cave filed for against Dear Author is DISRESPECTING all of EC’s victims…some of whom are AUTHORS, and all of them are HUMAN BEINGS.

      Portraying abuse as romantic in Beautiful Disaster was DISRESPECTING all victims of abuse…all of whom are HUMAN BEINGS.

      So yeah – you may want to explain to your friend that being a human being is NOT a get-out-of-criticism-free card. And that if she wants to be respected, she should respect others first.

      Because if you think think your friend was taking the “high road” just because she didn’t name names…then so many people subTweeting/vaguebooking are also taking “the high road”. Which means we’re all in the same camp here. After all, everyone is a HUMAN BEING. And a lot of us (not me, but others) are also AUTHORS.

      October 7, 2014
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    • Lavender
      Lavender

      Seriously? Since when is critiquing an author’s work the same as bashing them? Jenny hasn’t even written a recap yet and already people are shrieking ‘won’t someone please think of the authors?’

      If an author is really going to get their poor ickle feelings hurt just from somebody on the internet saying something lighthearted and sarcastic about their work, then they need to grow the hell up.

      October 12, 2014
      |Reply
  16. Nanani
    Nanani

    Speaking as a Bird,
    CHIRP CHIRP? caw. *head tilt*
    Piu piu piu piu.

    This will be great two wings up

    October 8, 2014
    |Reply
  17. A bird? And here I thought you were a self-aware AI designed to entertain us. You know, like Skynet, but with jokes instead of death and terror.

    I’m in. My TBR list is roughly a bagrillion miles long (or high, depending on how you want to look at it), but I like to belong. 😀

    October 8, 2014
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  18. Petra Newman
    Petra Newman

    I wanted to put my PhD cap on for a moment and address the issue of critiquing books and being nice. There are craptons of literay theory out there that discuss the separation of the ‘book’ from the ‘author’; perhaps the most famous being Roland Barthes “Death of the Author”(1967). Barthes argues against any incorporation of the author’s biographical details and context when it comes to reading. The text should, essentially, stand or fall on it’s own merit. There’s a lot to be said for this approach, especially with regards to the argument that you shouldn’t say anything negative about the book because the author is a lovely person/struggled while writing it etc. Books are books, readers are individuals with their own baggage and viewpoint and you can’t please everyone all of the time. Once you put your work out there, put a price on it and expect people to buy it, you open the book up to any and every reading, both positive and negative. Sure it can be hard to write a book, but the fact is that it’s also a choice to publish with all the good and bad that comes with that. Is it tough as an author to read criticism? Sometimes. Especially when that criticism seems off the mark or unfair, but (and it’s a big capital BUT) that’s personal to you as an author. The reader, who has paid for the text and spent time they can never get back reading it, is equally entitled to their response; wether it be positive or negative. Should the fact that the author maybe a ‘good’ person have any bearing on a reader’s response to their work? Absolutely not. Admiring someone for their personal struggle and liking (or disliking) something they’ve published are two distinct and separate things and the reverse is equally true. We don’t make excuses for the awfulness/crapfest that is ‘Mien Kampf’ because Hitler was in prison when he wrote it and we don’t auto-love Harry Potter because JK Rowling was a bread line poor single mother at the time of his creation.
    So I for one will look forward to Jenny’s take on this book, good and/or bad, (because FYI she hasn’t actually written anything about it yet so maybe, you know, wait until she does before calling her out) and take it for what it is – one person’s viewpoint on a book.

    October 8, 2014
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    • THANK YOU. I don’t have a Ph.D, but I did spend many years in college (as a single, teenage mother, for the record, so maybe I have more clout in this argument? lol) getting a degree in English lit. If not for criticism, that degree wouldn’t exist!

      I agree it’s tough to finish writing a novel (thus, why I have about 90 million words of unfinished work). However, that doesn’t automatically make it good or worthy of praise. Not every piece of art is good. Just because a publisher thinks it can make money off of something, and so bounds it and puts it in book stores, doesn’t make it good. And, as Petra said, once it’s in the public domain, people are going to have and express opinions. If you don’t want to deal with that, don’t publish.

      This trend of “all criticism is bullying” and calling art subjective so we’re not allowed to look at it with a critical eye or express dislike (or even like, but with critique) is ridiculous.

      Speaking of Harry Potter, I LOVE THAT SERIES. Rowling created amazing characters, a vivid, wonderful world and I ate up every word of the books and every second of the movies and I have no regrets. I will read those books over and over and over for the rest of my life. However, Rowling’s grasp of grammar is a little tenuous and I will say that out loud and in public. It’s something I think she, as a professional author, should work on.

      So we do critique things we love and we critique things we hate and that’s called intelligent discussion.

      October 8, 2014
      |Reply
  19. Awwww yeah! i love your recaps, Jenny. I never took up the mantle of doing After as I had planned b/c depression kind of curtailed my productivity, but I seem to be back in the saddle so it’s a possibility again.

    I haven’t read Beautiful Disaster, but I have read some reviews of it. I think this one might be my favorite: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/553611104?book_show_action=false&page=1

    Really disgusted at all these rape culture-y books developing such followings. Just goes to show how many women have internalized some really toxic shit

    October 8, 2014
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  20. Tez Miller
    Tez Miller

    Maybe this is a sign that Prince should be the next featured musician? I vote for “Gett Off” – usually I’m against deliberately misspelled words, but this song’s so good that I’ll forgive the extra T 😉

    October 8, 2014
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    • I worship Prince. 🙂

      October 8, 2014
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  21. I read the summary of Apolonia on Goodreads. In theory, dark New Adult Sci-fi Romance seems like an interesting thing. I don’t think I ever read New Adult Sci-fi. I guess I’m going to read along with you. This should be fun.

    October 8, 2014
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  22. Alexandra London
    Alexandra London

    I was hesitant on joining in, but then I read in the summary that there is a Dr. Z in the book, which only reminds me of the Blood Waters of Dr. Z, which is a fantastically bad movie that was riffed on Mystery Science Theatre 3000…

    …so I’m in.

    October 8, 2014
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  23. Lindsay
    Lindsay

    I was only reading this blog because I was told that you were, in fact, a bird. I now have mixed feelings about continuing. Just to be clear, mixed because at the end of the post you hint that maybe you are a bird?

    I just don’t want you to think that I have been kicking around on here for two years because I am interested in the content or anything.

    October 9, 2014
    |Reply

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