This Saturday, Carol and I are reading Downcast by Cait Reynolds.
So far: Carol is an over-protective hippie mom with a distaste for cute boys and also magic. Therefore, she resonates with the protagonist's mom. This is a problem, as I immediately recognize the need of the protagonist Stephanie, to live her own life with the new cute boy at school who is dark and mysterious and sexy and can disintegrate lockers with his hands. Carol and I have gotten into respectful arguments about this. Carol thinks Haley sounds too much like Hades and Stephanie sounds too much like Persephone. I keep telling her that's the point.
Sneak peek: The first thirty to forty percent of the novel is all about setting up for the events that occur in the second act, so there are many loose ends dangled within these pages to keep Carol and I busy trying to grasp what's happening. One of the biggest mysteries thus far is trying to figure out how Haley seems to be familiar with Stephanie, enough to be touching her forearm without asking and later commenting that her name didn't quite suit her, as if he knew what did.
"You're beautiful," he breathed. "More than I . . . "
Well, that snapped me out of my haze. I scrunched up my face in a grimace of disapproval and silently swiveled in my seat to face front, determined to ignore him. New guy or not, he clearly had already learned that I was an acceptable target for mockery.
"Wait," he murmured, reaching out and touching my forearm. "Please, I meant no offense."
I frowned harder because the way he spoke was so weirdly formal. Risking a glance at him, I was sucked right back into the heated black of his gaze. Were black holes hot? I'd have to ask Helen . . . A tiny part of my brain wracked itself to remember if this wa the first time a boy had ever touched me.
- Marlon
Are you and your stuffed animal reading anything interesting?
Let us know in your own Stuffed Animal Saturday!
Hahahaha, Carol needs to listen to you Marlon!
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