The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Dear Becca,

Since our last YA selection was a little light on the romance, I have chosen the most romantic YA book I could get my hands on: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. Get ready for some serious gushing because I can’t remember the last time I loved a YA romance this much. This book was a very quick read. It took me roughly three days to complete so I’m expecting you to finish it in one sitting!

To begin with, I love how this entire book covers only one day in Hadley’s life. Have you noticed that the use of time seems to be a recurring theme in my selections? It’s not on purpose, I swear! The fact that everything happens within one day helps to keep the book moving and is, I’m sure, largely why it is such a fast read. There are, however, a number of flashbacks which is the only way that you could get enough of the history between Hadley and her father to put the current day into perspective. Smith includes a fairly good balance between present day and flashbacks, but I have to admit that I was way more interested in what was going on between she and Oliver on that plane than I was about anything else.

Oliver and Hadley are perfect characters – so cute without being too over the top. Well, there is one moment where Oliver steals a couple bottles of whiskey from the beverage cart that felt a little forced or awkward. The dialogue is realistic and young and I definitely believed the chemistry between them.

Although I chose this book because of the romance, it also explores Hadley’s relationship with her father. She’s on the plane headed to his second wedding and nervous about seeing him for the first time in over a year. Having experienced something similar, I found Hadley’s thoughts to be very realistic and I appreciate the fact that this novel explores a deeper theme.  While Hadley is much older than I was when my dad remarried, the feelings she has are universal for children all over the world trying to deal with divorce and the start of a new family.

The beginning of a relationship is so exciting and I love the fact that this book only covers the beginning, when everything is so new and your heart is all a flutter whenever he looks at you. I just eat that stuff right up. I’m curious to see whether the film rights will be bought – doesn’t look they’ve been snatched up yet.  I can either see this book being adapted into either a really artsy indie movie or one of those cheesy Disney TV – movie.

I can’t wait to hear what you think of the book. I have to say, I’m a little bit disappointed to go back to reading adult fiction!

Til we read again,

Megan

PS – For some reason when I was writing this post I kept calling the book The Improbability of Love at First Sight. Hmm…wonder what that says about me?

The Fourth Hand

Hi Megan,


   So as I'm sure I've mentioned before, one of the few adult fiction writers I truly love to read is John Irving. Mostly, it's because he's absolutely hilarious. A Prayer for Owen Meany had me struggling to contain my laughter during IB/AP testing in high school. But then there's also his whole thing with sexual outsiders (for instance, in The Hotel New Hampshire, the narrator spends his life repressing his feelings of love and sexual attraction for his sister). And considering I wrote my senior thesis on sexuality in vampire fiction, it shouldn't be surprising that I find his discussion of these topics interesting. 


   Anyways, last Tuesday Irving released his thirteenth novel, In One Person, whose bisexual narrator navigates through life as a "sexual suspect," and touches on the 1980's AIDS crisis. In honor of this release, I thought to read one of his earlier novels.  At first, I was going to read Until I Find You, since it appears to have similar themes, but since that novel is around 800 pages with fine print, I opted for the shorter (but less fitting) The Fourth Hand instead. 

Image taken from here

   The Fourth Hand is about a reporter, Patrick Wallingford, whose hand gets eaten by a lion while filming a story, and how his loss of a hand (or two) contributes to his growth from a Barney Stinson-esque playboy into a man.  In losing his hand, Patrick gains maturity and purpose; in losing his hand, he finds love and a family.

   That being said, this is not my favorite work by Irving. In part, it just wasn't laugh-out-loud funny. And it's not because it's centered around tragedy. Irving can make anything funny, in my opinion.  He just chose not to, and the novel suffers for it. Granted, I don't often read books because I seek to be entertained in that manner. Most authors could get by never making me crack a smile. John Irving, however, is an author I've continued reading precisely because of his ability to make me laugh uproariously. And I did not do that once in my journey with The Fourth Hand.

   However, it's not all bad.  There is a definite journey in this book, and Patrick's status as an "other" of society is explored to a certain extent.  Had it not been for his life changing accident, Patrick would have never met the woman who gave him a child and a purpose.  He is only able to grow as a person because he has been forced out of the frame of "normal" into the titular status as "the lion guy"--a celebrity freak.  And prior to the life-altering moment, Patrick is a sort of "sexual suspect," since he's notorious for sleeping with any and every woman he encounters--he is by no means a good Christian monogamist (fair warning: lots of sex scenes, the quantity of which was also unexpected).  However, his journey is about abandoning this status and conforming to conventional sexual norms.  This is very different from Irving's usual M.O.  Those outsiders grow and become larger than life when they embrace the fact that they are not "normal."  Having Patrick Wallingford become a "better person" because he conforms is, consequently, out of character and a bit disappointing.

   Now, don't get me wrong, I by no mean support such womanizing behavior. I like committed Patrick much better than playboy Patrick.  But it must be said that Irving went out of character for this novel, and it's impact on my experience is negative. Maybe he was experiencing a mid-life crisis? Because this certainly reads like a man whose reached that point where he looks back on half his life and wonders, "What was I thinking? Where am I going?" Perhaps that's why I didn't appreciate it as much--I am not a man, and I am decades away from that mid-life moment. 

  I really hope I haven't scared you off the book! It really is a good book...but that's all it is. It's not phenomenal or ground-breaking like his other works. So don't judge the author by this book! Go grab The Hotel New Hampshire or, better yet, In One Person (reviews sound excellent for that one), and reserve your judgement until then. 

  I can't wait to get your YA choice! Speaking of which, I better start scouting out my YA book... :)

Keep Calm and Read On,

Becca

"Being a half-blood is dangerous."

Dear Becca,

 

I would like to think that I would have read this book even if you hadn’t selected it for our book swap, but I’m honestly not sure whether I would have. One of my co-workers also recommended it to me but it’s just not the type of YA that I’m generally drawn to. It’s extremely well written and I love the incorporation of Greek mythology – yet, I’m not going to lie, it didn’t leave me eager to read the next in the series. I truly believe that this is just because I’m so much older than the target audience and also much more reliant on a romantic subplot – which, as you mentioned before, is lacking from this book. All in all, it was an entertaining and fast read, but not high on my list of favorites.

Going back to romantic subplots, I feel like there’s a hinting that Percy’s friendship with Annabelle could develop into something more romantic as he gets older. Did you get that sense at all? Maybe I’m reading too much into things! In general, I found Annabelle an incredibly hard character to like. She had such mixed feelings toward Percy and while it’s not unbelievable that she could go from resenting/disliking Percy to genuinely caring about him, the trouble was that I didn’t truly believe that she ever disliked him or had these conflicting emotions. I’m glad that this isn’t an English assignment because I didn’t pull quotes that support my opinion. However, the more I think about Annabelle, the more I realize that it wasn’t just her character I had this problem with…I feel like all of the secondary characters were a little under-developed. There are still four more books in the series, though, and I’m sure that all of the characters will grow during the course of those books.

Also on the topic of characters, I was extremely disappointed in the storyline about Percy’s mother. I had a “you’re kidding, right?” moment when it was revealed that his mother married Smelly Gabe in order to hide Percy’s half-blood scent. Seriously?! Couldn’t she have done something other than marry an abusive man who treats both herself and her child so poorly? My idea would have been to make her a florist – have their whole house smell like flowers instead of garbage. His mother came across as very passive in the first book and not a particularly good role model. I would definitely be curious to see what happens to her character in the rest of the books.

Again, I’m glad this isn’t an English assignment because my post is exceeding its word limit…But I want to add one last thing about the movie adaptation of the book. Given the work that we did on our theses, I think it’s safe to say that we both have a strong interest in this issue. One of the first things I noticed about this book was the fact that it was published by Disney Hyperion. I immediately wondered about the book deal and whether Rick Riordan had perhaps approached Disney with the idea for the book before it was even written, using the fact that it could be another great young adult series of movies to sell the book. This is, I admit, extremely cynical of me and it turns out Rick Riordan was already a well-established author before writing this series and (I believe) had already completed The Lightning Thief when he sold the movie rights. But interestingly enough, he DID sell the movie rights before the book was published. Riordan explains: “I made the decision to sell the rights so early because it brought lots of public attention to the books and helped the series catch on.” Very understandable from a marketing standpoint. Riordan didn’t turn out to be too vested in the movie version and admits that he never even watched the movie himself. 

Okay, well, I’ve far exceeded our suggested word count and now that I’ve reached the end, I’m feeling rather badly about my review. Please do not mistake me – it’s a brilliant book. If I have a son (or daughter) some day, I would definitely buy him (or her) this series.

I’m looking forward to your next choice!

Megan