Bad Monkeys: The 100-Page Check-In

I actually reached page 100 a while back and am well on my way towards 200. I didn't have time to write about it when I got there, but I certainly didn't want to hold up my reading until I found time to post. Bad Monkeys is way too good. Way too addictive.

I love to read, but I have to carve out small chunks of time each day to do it. If I try to read too much in a single day, I can't fit it into my schedule and end up not reading at all. So, I limit myself to about ten pages of prose a day. That usually gets me through a novel in about a month, which is way slow, but it's what I can do.

Most of the time, ten pages is more than enough anyway. I often have to force myself just to read those ten and I'm ready to put the book away when I get them done. That's not how reading is supposed to be. What it's supposed to be like is what I'm experiencing with Bad Monkeys where I get to the tenth page and then sneak another page or two just because I can't freaking stop. It's torture pacing myself on this book.

The story opens in a police interrogation room. A woman's been arrested for murder and - based on what she told the arresting detectives - a psychiatrist is trying to figure out if she's just nuts or actually a member of a secret, evil-fighting organization called Bad Monkeys. The entire story - so far, anyway - takes place in the interrogation room with Jane Charlotte telling her story.

You might think that sounds dull, but thanks to Ruff's voice and pacing, it's not. At all. Ever. Charlotte's narration is descriptive enough that it takes you out of the room and into the events she's describing. Ruff keeps the psychiatrist's questions from distracting us by simply inserting them in italics between Charlotte-paragraphs. The result is a fast, fun, engrossing read.

I was a little disappointed once when I thought that I'd figured out a plot development before I was supposed to. But a couple of pages later Ruff let me know that - no - I figured it out exactly when he wanted me to. I was still disappointed, but now it was in me for getting cocky.

Rating so far: Five out of five dead serial killers.

Airborn: The 200-Page Check-In (or, Why I Should Learn to Stick to the 100-Page Rule)

So I broke my 100-page rule on Airborn and kept reading even though I didn't think it was all that captivating. After all, there were pirates and an island shipwreck coming, so I hoped it would get better. Besides, I didn't have anything else to read.

Well, I've bought Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys since then and made it through the pirates and the wreck. There are still 300 unread pages to Airborn, but I'm done with it. The pirates were exciting, but the shipwreck was not. In fact, calling it a shipwreck is an exaggeration.

It's more of a forced landing on an uncharted island where no one's really all that concerned about being there for very long. It's pretty much taken for granted that they'll be underway again as soon as they make repairs, so everything feels very controlled and safe. There's no danger or excitement to any of it. In fact, the whole episode feels like nothing more than an excuse for Matt and Kate to explore the island and discover a skeleton that matches the description of Grandpa's mysterious creature.

I like Oppel's description of the island with its lush greeness and abundant bird life, but Kate's reaction to the skeleton is hard to swallow. Rather than going back to the airship for help and securing a dozen witnesses to the find, Kate swears Matt to secrecy, saying that she's afraid the captain will "send some of the crew to come and collect the bones, and then it'll be taken from me."

Kate's major concern now isn't that her grandfather is vindicated, but that she get the credit for the find. That rubs me the wrong way for a couple of reasons. First is because the ship's captain has been consistently portrayed as a fair man. Kate may not get that, but Matt certainly does. He adores the captain, but he immediately caves to Kate's suspicions and doesn't defend the captain in any more than a cursory way.

The bigger reason that Kate's reaction irks me is that up until now her entire character has been built around her love for her grandfather and her desire to see that he has a positive legacy. Even that's been barely enough reason to like her since we've never seen her and her grandfather together. All that we know about their relationship is what she's told Matt, so we have no emotional investment in seeing her succeed in her quest.

And now, even if we've decided to accept her quest anyway and just try to go with it, her motivation changes so suddenly - it's all about her recognition and glory now - that I couldn't care less who learns about the skeleton or what happens to it. And since I'm now at the 200-page mark, it's as good a time as any to put the book down and move on to a secret organization that assassinates evil-doers.

Bad Monkeys and Cownt Fans

No real post tonight. Just want to say that Airborn ought to be looking over its shoulder. I just bought Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys tonight and the first chapter is fantastic. Not sure I'm going to have the patience now to sit through much more of Airborn.

In other news, the Cownt now has a Facebook fan page thanks to Jess. If you're on the Facebook, I hope you'll add him.