Pieces of Stars

So, word of mouth has failed me. This book was a recommend from a random girl at the library who told me it was her FAVORITE book in the whole entire world. *sigh* After reading it, I feel out of touch with the whole genre. Maybe I'm too old to read YA fiction. Maybe the time has come for me to give it up.Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater did not start out well. First of all, it was really slow. Nothing was really drawing me into the story. Usually, by the 4th chapter or so, there is an obvious storyline that is pulling you along, keeping you reading. I put this book down a bunch of times, thinking, "This is not that great." But I stuck it out, because it was someone's favorite book.Then I got to page 63. This chapter is told from the male protagonist's viewpoint. "I was a leaking womb bulging with the promise of conscious thoughts..." Um... WHAT? Did you seriously just compare your supposedly hot main character to a woman's menstruating womb??? I've read some weird metaphors before. I once read a book where Toni Morrison compared a woman's tongue to a wagging dog penis. But it wasn't like she was a main character. It wasn't like we were supposed to think she was this sexy, stunning wolf boy. I can't believe this book got through TWO editors without either of them saying, "Hey, you might not want to compare your main character to a bleeding uterus." Shame on Abby Ranger and David Levithan. SHAME.This was just a perfect example for me of the author doing what she does consistently in this book which is go waaaay over the top with the descriptive language. Now, let me clarify. I LOVE prose. I LOVE descriptive language. Have you ever read a Barbara Kingsolver book? Chock full of the stuff. But she knows where to stop. Comparing your main character to a bloody uterus is someone who doesn't get the fine line between prose and "purple prose".Second thing about this book that bothered me: It had several conflicts that never really did anything much whatsoever. Usually when you read a book, you get a conflict right away. This book has several elements that could have been the conflict for the story. -We have Shelby, werewolf obsessed with the main guy and dangerously crazy. But other than one big scene involving her, she isn't really mentioned and nothing really happens with her storyline-We have Jack, newly turned and savage. There could have been a great story element involving his rehabilitation and introduction to the new world he lives in. But no, again, he is barely mentioned except for a few key scenes, then fades away from the story.-Then there is the "cure" for lycanthropy, which to me is the least well explained element in the story. I find it hard to believe that the characters had to resort to the ends they did in the book. There are plenty of ways to accomplish the same thing without the craziness they did.The third and fourth things about the book that bothered me were related, so I'm combining them. Have you ever watched a TV show with a teen protagonist and even if the parents start out being ultra cool and involved, over time the show fades them out into these sort of "half parents" who don't seem to give a crap what their kids are up to, don't seem to ever be around because they're BUSY, and generally don't parent at all? These are those parents. And despite the fact that many of these shows exist and are watched by millions, I find it hard to believe that even THOSE parents would be as clueless as THESE parents. Their daughter is attacked by wolves, and they don't care. She is off with their cars at all hours of the day and night and they don't care. She skips school to hang out with her boyfriend and they don't care. Her boyfriend starts LIVING IN THEIR HOUSE and somehow they have no idea??? This is just an obvious way for the author to let her characters get up to whatever business they want without having to worry about the parents getting in the way. And it doesn't work AT ALL for the plot. And the way Grace and Sam HANG all over each other, like RichandAmy from Zits may be highly amusing in a comic strip satire way, but only serves to drag this storyline down to adolescent in the most alarming fashion. Love is great, really, but this is ridiculous and only a hormone filled teenage girl could take any of this seriously.