Television and Book Reviews
Oct. 12th, 2019 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Well, I finished "American Queen" -- that erotic contemporary retelling of the Arthurian Legend. I do not recommend. The plot and heroine did not work for me, neither did some of the sex scenes, which were either dull or...impossible?
And I've read a lot of mind-boggling sex scenes in fan-fiction -- but this one, well, my right eyebrow keep crawling up my forehead as I read it, and I was thinking...okay, this is a new one, and it has got to be painful for all concerned. Why would you want to do it? I honestly do not see people doing this...reminded me of another book I tried to read once that did the same thing. So no, it's by no means the first time I've seen someone go there.
In case anyone is curious as to what I'm talking about? So..
They do a threesome. But not like you'd think. One guy puts his penis in the heroine's vagina, while the other one pushes his fingers inside her opening to widen it, then when he thinks she's ready pushes his penis inside her vagina as well. Then both men fuck her vagina at the same time.
I don't know -- I think that would be insanely painful for everyone. I think the writer got bored and had to come up with something new?
If you've tried this, please don't tell me, I don't want to know.
Outside of that? There are a few decent quotes in there. And one I rather liked, but it also felt a tad defensive on the part of the writer.
“I think what actually happened is less important than the story we want it to be. Is this a morality tale, cautioning against impudent vows? A different morality tale, showing the righteousness of upholding a vow even when it’s hard? Is this a narrative showing where a pagan tradition was shoehorned into the well-ordered history of the Levite authors? The first step to understanding anything—whether it’s the Bible or Fifty Shades of Grey—is acknowledging that we come to it with agendas of our own. We want it to mean something, we are biased whether we know it or not, and usually what we walk away with is what we want to walk away with.
This is the best quote in the book -- it happens early on, around the mid-way point, before things start to go south.
I tried the second book, and it's worse, which is saying something. I gave up after twenty pages of it. I did finish this one, but did not like it and gave it two stars on Good Reads.
The plot of the first book hinges on Greer (the heroine) relationship with her nasty jealous cousin Abilene. My difficulty with this is Abilene is painted as too much of a villain. To such an extent that it is hard to understand why Greer would put up with her, let alone be her best friend. Abilene is mean. She undermines and insults Greer constantly. Add to this -- Greer has no female friends outside of the nasty cousin. She has no family outside of her grandfather and the nasty cousin. Abilene out of jealousy, teams up with the Carpiathans and has Greer kidnapped at the end of the first book. She does it by text messaging Greer to come down and talk to her -- stating it's an emergency and she needs her -- in the lobby of the building where Greer is spending her wedding night with the President and Vice President. And I'm thinking, why would anyone go down to talk to any family member the morning after their wedding night? Particularly after having the rigorous sex they had, waking up between two sleeping men, and in just a robe? Also why would a security detail let them? And why wasn't there a security detail outside the room and in the room? Not to mention an insanely jealous cousin who has been cruel to you throughout your life?
Add to this -- they are having the wedding in Kansas City, the President's hometown. So Greer is kidnapped from some hotel outside Kansas City, carried in the trunk of the car to the ocean. There is NO ocean in Kansas City. The ocean is four to five states away, in New Orleans and Missippi -- that's the closest ocean, and it's not really an ocean -- it's the Gulf of Mexico. The Atlantic is even further, as is the Pacific. Kansas is in the middle of the country. The US is a huge continent. It would take several days to get there. In the back of a trunk. They get there within a few hours. Alrighty then. The writer clearly has no knowledge of US geography. And suspension of disbelief has been blown to smithereens.
I gave up. All of the characters are jealous and shallow. And slightly narcissistic. Also it doesn't follow the Arthurian legend that well. Folks? I've read better fanfic erotica...actually this reminded me of a Angel/Buffy/Spike AU fanfic I tried to read once and got annoyed by.
Erotica is admittedly hard to pull off. You have to build up to it well, and it helps if it is believable. The characters, plot, etc should be simple and believable in order for it to work. I'm thinking of getting DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover. I have read Anais Nin. Henry Miller tends to annoy me, but he's better. Anne Rice isn't bad. She's at least realistic and does both men and women as subs. She's also smart enough to make the plot simple.
2. Batwoman
This surprised me. It's the latest in the CW's superhero lineup. Batwoman features the first lesbian superhero. And she's a lesbian not bisexual. (I'd have gone with bisexual, just because it's easier to cast a romantic lead against. You can do both men and women. But, I find it cool and interesting that they went with a lesbian.)
The lead is ridiculously good. Charismatic and smart. She has chemistry with everyone in the cast. The set-up is a bit different than expected -- she's the cousin of Bruce Wayne, and the daughter of Kane, the head of Crow Security, which took over after Batman disappeared for parts unknown. Kate Kane, aka Batwoman, is busy training up North for a second shot at joining the Crows, when her step sister calls her to inform her that her ex-lover Sophie has been taken. Sophie is co-commander of the Crows and her Dad's head gal. At this point Kate isn't Batwoman.
The episode is an origin tale of sorts.
It's rather good. And the villainess, Alice, is interesting, and twisty. A really good mirror to Batwoman. One of the better new series to date.
3. Nancy Drew
New series by the creators of Gossip Girl and the OC. Although it reminded me more of Riverdale, Sabrina, and Rosewell to be honest. (Of that group, Rosewell was the best.) Has a similar set-up. Nancy is down on her luck -- a year out of high school and waiting tables at her ex-buddy George's diner (George is female and in this rendering Asian American). Bess is a fellow waitress and also Asian American. Ned Nickerson, Nancy's beau, is an African-American auto mechanic and ex-con. Her father, played by Party of Five's Scott Wolf is a lawyer and widower that Nancy is barely speaking to at the moment (this seems to be a trend for the new series, it's the fourth series I've seen with this issue).
The group is completed with ACE, a stoner, and bus boy.
The gang witnesses a murder -- but they don't know who did it. And are all suspects. (Okay my suspension of disbelief went out the window on that one. Just because they happened to be there doesn't make them suspects. Also why on earth would Nancy kill someone she hadn't met previously to that night? Television writers really shouldn't do murder mysteries if they know nothing about police procedure and the law. OR at least take a class in it first.) This is also a trend with these types of series. There's always a murder, and all the main leads are suspects, with the exception of the main character of course. (We know they didn't do it. Hello. They are the leads.) Also, the parents are always a tad on the shady side and did something horrible in the past that is now being visited on their kids. There's a hint of the supernatural, and it's very noir -- with a somewhat snarky narrator. (In short the writers are borrowing heavily from Veronica Mars and Buffy but lack either of those writers ironic sense of humor.) It takes place in a creepy small town with more skeleton's than it knows what to do with. Corrupt police or mayor, and the kids like to break into people's houses at night. Plus there's usually a creepy legend that turns out to be true. (Apparently they want to add a dollop of Supernatural to the mix.)
I wish they hadn't gone this route and tried to be a bit more realistic. But why play with a successful trope?
It was okay. I've decided to try a few more episodes. I don't know if I'll stick with it. The characters aren't really grabbing me.
And I've read a lot of mind-boggling sex scenes in fan-fiction -- but this one, well, my right eyebrow keep crawling up my forehead as I read it, and I was thinking...okay, this is a new one, and it has got to be painful for all concerned. Why would you want to do it? I honestly do not see people doing this...reminded me of another book I tried to read once that did the same thing. So no, it's by no means the first time I've seen someone go there.
In case anyone is curious as to what I'm talking about? So..
They do a threesome. But not like you'd think. One guy puts his penis in the heroine's vagina, while the other one pushes his fingers inside her opening to widen it, then when he thinks she's ready pushes his penis inside her vagina as well. Then both men fuck her vagina at the same time.
I don't know -- I think that would be insanely painful for everyone. I think the writer got bored and had to come up with something new?
If you've tried this, please don't tell me, I don't want to know.
Outside of that? There are a few decent quotes in there. And one I rather liked, but it also felt a tad defensive on the part of the writer.
“I think what actually happened is less important than the story we want it to be. Is this a morality tale, cautioning against impudent vows? A different morality tale, showing the righteousness of upholding a vow even when it’s hard? Is this a narrative showing where a pagan tradition was shoehorned into the well-ordered history of the Levite authors? The first step to understanding anything—whether it’s the Bible or Fifty Shades of Grey—is acknowledging that we come to it with agendas of our own. We want it to mean something, we are biased whether we know it or not, and usually what we walk away with is what we want to walk away with.
This is the best quote in the book -- it happens early on, around the mid-way point, before things start to go south.
I tried the second book, and it's worse, which is saying something. I gave up after twenty pages of it. I did finish this one, but did not like it and gave it two stars on Good Reads.
The plot of the first book hinges on Greer (the heroine) relationship with her nasty jealous cousin Abilene. My difficulty with this is Abilene is painted as too much of a villain. To such an extent that it is hard to understand why Greer would put up with her, let alone be her best friend. Abilene is mean. She undermines and insults Greer constantly. Add to this -- Greer has no female friends outside of the nasty cousin. She has no family outside of her grandfather and the nasty cousin. Abilene out of jealousy, teams up with the Carpiathans and has Greer kidnapped at the end of the first book. She does it by text messaging Greer to come down and talk to her -- stating it's an emergency and she needs her -- in the lobby of the building where Greer is spending her wedding night with the President and Vice President. And I'm thinking, why would anyone go down to talk to any family member the morning after their wedding night? Particularly after having the rigorous sex they had, waking up between two sleeping men, and in just a robe? Also why would a security detail let them? And why wasn't there a security detail outside the room and in the room? Not to mention an insanely jealous cousin who has been cruel to you throughout your life?
Add to this -- they are having the wedding in Kansas City, the President's hometown. So Greer is kidnapped from some hotel outside Kansas City, carried in the trunk of the car to the ocean. There is NO ocean in Kansas City. The ocean is four to five states away, in New Orleans and Missippi -- that's the closest ocean, and it's not really an ocean -- it's the Gulf of Mexico. The Atlantic is even further, as is the Pacific. Kansas is in the middle of the country. The US is a huge continent. It would take several days to get there. In the back of a trunk. They get there within a few hours. Alrighty then. The writer clearly has no knowledge of US geography. And suspension of disbelief has been blown to smithereens.
I gave up. All of the characters are jealous and shallow. And slightly narcissistic. Also it doesn't follow the Arthurian legend that well. Folks? I've read better fanfic erotica...actually this reminded me of a Angel/Buffy/Spike AU fanfic I tried to read once and got annoyed by.
Erotica is admittedly hard to pull off. You have to build up to it well, and it helps if it is believable. The characters, plot, etc should be simple and believable in order for it to work. I'm thinking of getting DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover. I have read Anais Nin. Henry Miller tends to annoy me, but he's better. Anne Rice isn't bad. She's at least realistic and does both men and women as subs. She's also smart enough to make the plot simple.
2. Batwoman
This surprised me. It's the latest in the CW's superhero lineup. Batwoman features the first lesbian superhero. And she's a lesbian not bisexual. (I'd have gone with bisexual, just because it's easier to cast a romantic lead against. You can do both men and women. But, I find it cool and interesting that they went with a lesbian.)
The lead is ridiculously good. Charismatic and smart. She has chemistry with everyone in the cast. The set-up is a bit different than expected -- she's the cousin of Bruce Wayne, and the daughter of Kane, the head of Crow Security, which took over after Batman disappeared for parts unknown. Kate Kane, aka Batwoman, is busy training up North for a second shot at joining the Crows, when her step sister calls her to inform her that her ex-lover Sophie has been taken. Sophie is co-commander of the Crows and her Dad's head gal. At this point Kate isn't Batwoman.
The episode is an origin tale of sorts.
It's rather good. And the villainess, Alice, is interesting, and twisty. A really good mirror to Batwoman. One of the better new series to date.
3. Nancy Drew
New series by the creators of Gossip Girl and the OC. Although it reminded me more of Riverdale, Sabrina, and Rosewell to be honest. (Of that group, Rosewell was the best.) Has a similar set-up. Nancy is down on her luck -- a year out of high school and waiting tables at her ex-buddy George's diner (George is female and in this rendering Asian American). Bess is a fellow waitress and also Asian American. Ned Nickerson, Nancy's beau, is an African-American auto mechanic and ex-con. Her father, played by Party of Five's Scott Wolf is a lawyer and widower that Nancy is barely speaking to at the moment (this seems to be a trend for the new series, it's the fourth series I've seen with this issue).
The group is completed with ACE, a stoner, and bus boy.
The gang witnesses a murder -- but they don't know who did it. And are all suspects. (Okay my suspension of disbelief went out the window on that one. Just because they happened to be there doesn't make them suspects. Also why on earth would Nancy kill someone she hadn't met previously to that night? Television writers really shouldn't do murder mysteries if they know nothing about police procedure and the law. OR at least take a class in it first.) This is also a trend with these types of series. There's always a murder, and all the main leads are suspects, with the exception of the main character of course. (We know they didn't do it. Hello. They are the leads.) Also, the parents are always a tad on the shady side and did something horrible in the past that is now being visited on their kids. There's a hint of the supernatural, and it's very noir -- with a somewhat snarky narrator. (In short the writers are borrowing heavily from Veronica Mars and Buffy but lack either of those writers ironic sense of humor.) It takes place in a creepy small town with more skeleton's than it knows what to do with. Corrupt police or mayor, and the kids like to break into people's houses at night. Plus there's usually a creepy legend that turns out to be true. (Apparently they want to add a dollop of Supernatural to the mix.)
I wish they hadn't gone this route and tried to be a bit more realistic. But why play with a successful trope?
It was okay. I've decided to try a few more episodes. I don't know if I'll stick with it. The characters aren't really grabbing me.