I recently became aware of a mystery that lies deep in the human mind— a mystery I’m only aware of because of the bizarre behavior it produces. You see, I was in a casual conversation with a couple of my female classmates, and they mentioned that they’d watched a vapid and cliched chick flick recently. Because they’d hoped for a good movie and were disappointed? No! To my horror, I realized they’d turned on this movie fully aware of its awfulness. At first, I thought this must be a bizarre form of self-flagellation associated with occult rituals, and wondered if I should inform the faculty. Fortunately, my classmates clarified that it was perfectly normal, saying “sometimes you just want to turn off your brain for a couple of hours, you know?” I prefer books to film, but I feel the same way. Sometimes I don’t need a masterpiece. I don’t always look for complex themes or characters a dozen layers deep or exquisite prose. Sometimes a good story is good enough. There are few transcendental masterpieces in this world; there are many good stories. Enough that you should never have to read a truly bad story, even if you’re just looking to relax. Relaxation is good. Relaxation while reading a good story? Even better. When a random author emailed me out of the blue and asked me to review her novel, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I had some time to fill in between homework assignments, and E.B Roshan is a fellow Christian as well as a fellow author, so I agreed. She sent me a mobi file of her story, For Better and Worse, and I dove into it. And... It was a good story. Not life-altering, but good. At 50k words, it’s in the gray area between novella and novel— short enough for me to read in an evening. Which I did, enjoying the relatable characters and well-paced plot. Boris and Anna are a married couple running a catering service in the midst of a war-torn city with their first child on the way. They struggle to love each other despite the conflict building between them— Anna wanting to flee to a safer city, Boris wanting to stay. Things only get worse when Boris rashly stands up to injustice and draws the attention of the local mob boss. The worldbuilding is weird— we get a couple brief mentions of World War 3 ending, so it’s set in an alternate universe, but not one with any distinctive features. Dor is a generic war-ravaged city. But unless you’re looking for an intricate, well-thought out alternate history, this won’t be a big problem. The setting doesn’t explore many interesting questions because it never raises them in the first place. It’s a romance— the relationship between Boris and Anna serves as the story’s emotional core. But it has the distinction of featuring an already married couple, which I enjoyed. Oh, it’s also the fourth book in a series. I read it without having read the other three, and it stands alone just fine. Conclusion: Next time you feel the urge to watch a chick flick, read For Better and Worse instead. The title says it all. Better: this book. Worse: super dumb movies that somehow people still pay money to see. Why would you want a worse thing when you could have a better?
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Progress on Doombear, Rough draft:10%
Progress on The Lore of Yore, third draft:
100%
"In truth, by leaving, I was seeking only one thing. A journey."
-Oathbringer, pg 981 Types of blog posts:
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