jodiwilldare's reviews
1523 reviews

While reading American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang, I had to consistently remind myself that it was graphic novel for young adults. Without that reminder I found myself growing a little weary of the premise — dealing with racism in America, trying to find your identity, etc.

But when I kept in mind that this book is not meant for the jaded, cynical eyes of an adult reader I found myself delighted with the way Yang told this story.

Yang presents his point through three stories. First we have the tale of the Monkey King who goes to a dinner party of the gods and is rejected because he’s a monkey. The gods are not nice and make the Monkey King embarrassed of who his. He spend the rest of his story trying to overcome that.

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It’s a tricky thing, reviewing a book that’s a recommendation from a friend (or in this case an I Will Dare reader). Well, I guess it’s only tricky when you didn’t enjoy the book. If you liked it you’re in the clear. I’m not in the clear here.

I picked up So Long, See You Tomorrow because one of my readers wrote so lovingly of William Maxwell. Since I’d never even heard of him I thought I’d start small (this is a slim, 135-page novella) and go from there. Unfortunately, I took my Rock & Roll Bookclub along for the ride and I’m not sure if they’ll ever forgive me.

“It’s a hundred and thirty-five pages, but it reads like five hundred,” Adam, one of our members said when we met to discuss the book. It’s the most apt description of this book that I have found. Never have I had to trudge so hard to get through 135 pages.

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This book was so poorly written that I had to stop reading it, because the juvenile stories made my eyes bleed.