rachelmanija (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija) wrote2012-08-25 01:31 pm
rachelmanija) wrote2012-08-25 01:31 pm
Thirsty, by M. T. Anderson
[Catch-up review from Goodreads; I read this ages ago, and skimmed recently while culling books. Not a keeper.]
Bleak contemporary horror-satire about a poor shlub of a teenage boy who is slowly turning into a vampire.
There's some good writing and an excellent use of an unusual tone which I can only describe as Raymond Carver meets Joss Whedon. The world is intriguing. But the emotions are just realistic enough to make it excruciatingly depressing. In fact, it concludes with my least favorite depressing trope ever:
Not only does the protagonist fail in everything he attempts, he's mocked for his stupidity in believing the one person who offered him hope, who of course turns out to be a villain who delivers a "you suck monologue." He's then left to die a miserable, pointless death, with the suggestion that he will first succumb to vampiric madness and slaughter his entire family. The end!
M. T. Anderson is up there with Katherine Paterson for slit-your-wrists YA authors. Feed was even more depressing; it featured a variation on that same depressing trope ("You are a horrible person" rather than "you are a stupid failure") and also the human race was clearly doomed and deserved to be doomed.
Thirsty
Bleak contemporary horror-satire about a poor shlub of a teenage boy who is slowly turning into a vampire.
There's some good writing and an excellent use of an unusual tone which I can only describe as Raymond Carver meets Joss Whedon. The world is intriguing. But the emotions are just realistic enough to make it excruciatingly depressing. In fact, it concludes with my least favorite depressing trope ever:
Not only does the protagonist fail in everything he attempts, he's mocked for his stupidity in believing the one person who offered him hope, who of course turns out to be a villain who delivers a "you suck monologue." He's then left to die a miserable, pointless death, with the suggestion that he will first succumb to vampiric madness and slaughter his entire family. The end!
M. T. Anderson is up there with Katherine Paterson for slit-your-wrists YA authors. Feed was even more depressing; it featured a variation on that same depressing trope ("You are a horrible person" rather than "you are a stupid failure") and also the human race was clearly doomed and deserved to be doomed.
Thirsty