Welcome to Feature & Follow Friday!!
This weekly hop is hosted by
Rachel @ Parajunkee's View, and
Alison @ Alison Can Read!!
You can find the rules at the links above.
Join in the fun and make new blogging friends!
Every week, 1 or 2 new blogs
are featured!
This week's featured blogs
are
Kayl's Crazy Obsession
and
Confuzzled Books!!
are featured!
This week's featured blogs
are
Kayl's Crazy Obsession
and
Confuzzled Books!!
Here is this week's question:
If you could re-write a book, which one would it be, and what changes
would you make?
Contributed by
Go Book Yourself
If you could re-write a book, which one would it be, and what changes
would you make?
Contributed by
Go Book Yourself
A little over five years ago, I read Lauren Kate's Fallen, and loved it. I then continued with the rest of the series, as each book was released. I did have mixed feelings about the second book, Torment, but I went on to Passion, which I also loved! Then came Rapture.....
This last book started off for me very well; I had previously featured it in one of my "Waiting On Wednesday" posts, so I was really excited to read it! Well, the beginning was wonderful, the writing really flowed, the relationship between Luce and Daniel was fantastic.....and then, the book, in my honest opinion, just crashed and burned.
I would have re-written the last third of this novel.
(WARNING: THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!)
Things I would change:
1.) From the very beginning, Luce (the female protagonist is named "Lucinda", but everyone calls her "Luce") was presented as a human girl. In this last book, the reader finds out that she really isn't. This made the romance between her and Daniel, an angel, less fascinating for me. I LOVE paranormal romances in which the girl is human, and the guy is some paranormal being. So I would keep Luce human all the way through to the end, or change her into an angel somewhere along the way.
2.) Luce is constantly re-incarnating. But the kind of creature she is, according to this last book, is not supposed to be able to reincarnate (they don't need to), so this is entirely illogical! Again, this would make sense if Luce were human (reincarnation is not accepted by everyone, though), but she's not. So again, Luce should be a human girl.
3.) There's a blood sacrifice in the book, and this is supposed to help Luce and her friends find the exact location of a very important event. Say WHAT?! WHY is a blood sacrifice necessary here? The answer is, it's not. And it's totally DISGUSTING. The person who performs this sacrifice in the book doesn't want to do it, either; but is told that they must do it, or things will not go along as they should. NO, NO, NO!!!! You don't have the good guys doing this type of thing! This is BLACK MAGIC. So I would eliminate this entirely. Luce & Co. can definitely find the important location without the loss of an innocent life. MAJOR TURN-OFF.
4.) When I started reading Fallen, I noticed that Daniel and Cam were referred to as 'fallen angels'. Wait a minute.....a fallen angel is a DEMON. These names are synonymous. So I would not give them this label, as it's very confusing. Demons are incapable of any good; they are totally evil. Yet, Daniel and Cam are not that bad. In fact, Cam is really more of a bad boy than Daniel. Again, totally illogical. I would love to re-write Daniel and Cam as ANGELS. Period. Angels who are tempted, perhaps, but angels from Heaven. Of course, I would have to alter their personalities entirely.
5.) I was also turned off by the many liberties Kate took with Christian themes in this novel. If you're going to base your fantasy on characters like those in the Bible, then you've got to stick to that. Kate changes God into a Goddess! And the Devil, Lucifer, turns out to be not that bad, either, after all. He was just a jilted lover, poor thing.....Obviously, I would write these characters as they are presented in the Bible. Instead, Kate arbitrarily changed them, and then made them act in ways inconsistent with their natures, as presented in the Bible. This is totally disrespectful to the source. It is also disrespectful to those who hold Christian beliefs.
If you're going to write books with new stories about the Norse gods, to give an example with a different mythology and religion, you don't have them acting like Christian saints. You stick with how they're really supposed to act, according to Norse mythology. And you DON'T turn Thor, the mighty god of thunder, into a goddess! Then it's no longer Norse mythology. It's something of your own invention.
6.) The ending was a complete letdown. I would have Luce and Daniel, after being re-united, with the mystery of the (totally stupid) curse solved, embark upon some divine mission, with the blessings of the Almighty. Heck, maybe then the series could have been continued!
7.) The curse Luce was under was TOTALLY STUPID. Again, it was illogical. The idea of her being cursed is not stupid; I like that the main characters were working together to liberate Luce from the curse. The problem is the REASON for this curse. So, if I were re-writing this book, I would have invented a different reason altogether.
So those are the things I would change in this novel. However, it's obvious that all the books would need changes, too, since this last book ties up everything that went before. Still, I do think that. of the four books, Rapture is the one that bothered me the most!
This last book started off for me very well; I had previously featured it in one of my "Waiting On Wednesday" posts, so I was really excited to read it! Well, the beginning was wonderful, the writing really flowed, the relationship between Luce and Daniel was fantastic.....and then, the book, in my honest opinion, just crashed and burned.
I would have re-written the last third of this novel.
(WARNING: THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!)
Things I would change:
1.) From the very beginning, Luce (the female protagonist is named "Lucinda", but everyone calls her "Luce") was presented as a human girl. In this last book, the reader finds out that she really isn't. This made the romance between her and Daniel, an angel, less fascinating for me. I LOVE paranormal romances in which the girl is human, and the guy is some paranormal being. So I would keep Luce human all the way through to the end, or change her into an angel somewhere along the way.
2.) Luce is constantly re-incarnating. But the kind of creature she is, according to this last book, is not supposed to be able to reincarnate (they don't need to), so this is entirely illogical! Again, this would make sense if Luce were human (reincarnation is not accepted by everyone, though), but she's not. So again, Luce should be a human girl.
3.) There's a blood sacrifice in the book, and this is supposed to help Luce and her friends find the exact location of a very important event. Say WHAT?! WHY is a blood sacrifice necessary here? The answer is, it's not. And it's totally DISGUSTING. The person who performs this sacrifice in the book doesn't want to do it, either; but is told that they must do it, or things will not go along as they should. NO, NO, NO!!!! You don't have the good guys doing this type of thing! This is BLACK MAGIC. So I would eliminate this entirely. Luce & Co. can definitely find the important location without the loss of an innocent life. MAJOR TURN-OFF.
4.) When I started reading Fallen, I noticed that Daniel and Cam were referred to as 'fallen angels'. Wait a minute.....a fallen angel is a DEMON. These names are synonymous. So I would not give them this label, as it's very confusing. Demons are incapable of any good; they are totally evil. Yet, Daniel and Cam are not that bad. In fact, Cam is really more of a bad boy than Daniel. Again, totally illogical. I would love to re-write Daniel and Cam as ANGELS. Period. Angels who are tempted, perhaps, but angels from Heaven. Of course, I would have to alter their personalities entirely.
5.) I was also turned off by the many liberties Kate took with Christian themes in this novel. If you're going to base your fantasy on characters like those in the Bible, then you've got to stick to that. Kate changes God into a Goddess! And the Devil, Lucifer, turns out to be not that bad, either, after all. He was just a jilted lover, poor thing.....Obviously, I would write these characters as they are presented in the Bible. Instead, Kate arbitrarily changed them, and then made them act in ways inconsistent with their natures, as presented in the Bible. This is totally disrespectful to the source. It is also disrespectful to those who hold Christian beliefs.
If you're going to write books with new stories about the Norse gods, to give an example with a different mythology and religion, you don't have them acting like Christian saints. You stick with how they're really supposed to act, according to Norse mythology. And you DON'T turn Thor, the mighty god of thunder, into a goddess! Then it's no longer Norse mythology. It's something of your own invention.
6.) The ending was a complete letdown. I would have Luce and Daniel, after being re-united, with the mystery of the (totally stupid) curse solved, embark upon some divine mission, with the blessings of the Almighty. Heck, maybe then the series could have been continued!
7.) The curse Luce was under was TOTALLY STUPID. Again, it was illogical. The idea of her being cursed is not stupid; I like that the main characters were working together to liberate Luce from the curse. The problem is the REASON for this curse. So, if I were re-writing this book, I would have invented a different reason altogether.
So those are the things I would change in this novel. However, it's obvious that all the books would need changes, too, since this last book ties up everything that went before. Still, I do think that. of the four books, Rapture is the one that bothered me the most!
Next Week's Question
What are your favorite books that
have been made into movies?
Contributed by
Girl of 1000 Wonders
These are my follow preferences.
The links are in my sidebar.
What are your favorite books that
have been made into movies?
Contributed by
These are my follow preferences.
The links are in my sidebar.
Be sure to visit the rest of the
participating blogs!!
participating blogs!!
This is such an interesting theme Maria.
ReplyDeleteBased on all the changes that you would have made the last third of Rapture it sounds like a LOT happened in that portion of the book.
As you describe them the changes in Biblical characters and Norse mythology that the author made sound really silly.
This idea has gotten me thinking. I think that many my own rewrites would involve adding text to novels to fill in more information about plot and characters.
Hey, Brian!
DeleteDefinitely a lot happened in the last third of this book. There were other things that bothered me in earlier parts, too, but it was that last third that really upset me.
The changes to known Biblical characters are indeed silly, and totally arbitrary. I gave the example of Norse mythology, if I were to write a book using those characters, to show how silly it would be to turn Thor into a goddess. That would not be respectful to Norse mythology. Besides, there are modern-day followers of the Norse religion who would be very offended, I'm sure, if a writer wrote their main god as a woman. Not that I have anything against a female deity, but I have a problem with twisting something already established into something else.
What you say about adding text to novels, in order to include more information about the plot and characters, is sometimes true, as well. There are authors who leave a reader in the dark about things that would make the novel easier to follow, for instance. I can't think of any examples of this right off the top of my head, though.
Thanks for another great, thought-provoking comment!! : )
Agreed!! Fallen was a great debut, but the series ending disappointed. Following you back :)
DeleteHi, there!
DeleteGlad you agree! The first novel was indeed a great debut, but the final book particularly was very disappointing. So that means that then all the other books became disappointing, as well, for me, anyway.
Thanks so much for the following and commenting back!! :
Wow, you really gave this some thought! I chose the last book in the Twilight series. I think series endings are really tough to do. But changing some of the fundamentals, as in the series you referenced, would leave me feeling played! Please check out my blog. I am a new follower via GFC. Thanks
ReplyDeleteHi, Ardy!
DeleteI sure did! Well, you see, I had already reviewed the book, so I knew exactly what I didn't like. I did have some quibbles with the previous books, too, but I feel the last book ruined the entire series for me.
You know, our comments must have crossed, because I commented on your blog before I saw your comment on mine. Lol.
I went back and followed you with GFC, though! Thanks for commenting, and following my blog!! : )