Book Banter 7: Plot vs. Character

Okay everyone! Time for another Book Banter! And we picked a hard one this time: Plot vs. Character! Which team are you on?

Because as we all know, the two elements of a story work hand in hand to make it a good book, but we also all know that we tend to enjoy one over the other. Or can give one a break but never the other one. Am I making sense?

Of course, Jenny and I are on opposite teams... AGAIN... when it comes to these two parts of a story. Here's what we have to say about it:

Suey says:

I remember at one point if someone were to ask me if I was a plot person or a character person, I’d fret and wring my hands and hum and ha and stress about the answer. That was years ago and since then I’ve learned that I lean much more toward the character side of things over the plot side of things. (Not say one is more important than the other… because as we all know, a story needs both.)

Anyway… my three reasons:

1. I’ve noticed that when others complain “but nothing is happening!” I’m like… “really? But stuff IS happening… the characters are talking, right?”  So I guess my first reason is so what if nothing is happening as long as the characters are relating… meaning… they are bantering, talking, discussing, interacting, figuring stuff out, thinking, worrying, pondering. All those things ARE something. Which means… something IS happening! Was that a clear reason? Let me restate: Characters interacting is something happening!
2. Characters make me happy. Sometimes plot goes over my head. Sometimes I miss the details and the ins and outs and the complicated nature of what’s going down… but I GET the characters! They fascinate me. They seem like real people. They are awesome, cool, vulnerable, crazy, swoony, and so many other things. They are the heart of the story and the part of the story that make me interested, much more so than the plot ever does.
3. The questions that often arise in plot… where did that dead body come from and who killed it? Or who’s going to win the war and how? Or why is he going on this journey and will he get there?  etc etc.... they make me lose interest. If those questions start being discussed in too much detail I get bored and start skimming to see if I can find where it “gets back to the story” which for me is when the people show up again! To restate: plot questions are boring!

Of course, I enjoy a fast paced, moving, crazy good plot! Of course I do! BUT… the people are where it’s at!

Jenny says:

Three Reasons That Plot Rules!

1. Even if the characters suck, if the plot is good you keep reading! I just read a book where this very thing happened. The characters were, meh, but the plot was so gripping I. Could. Not. Put. It. Down! I was riveted. Now, sure, ideally one wants good characters they can root for. Even just one but admit it, if the plot is speeding along at a breakneck speed, you're enjoying it.

2. Character driven books are so boring! I've read far too many books where NOTHING happens! It's all character development, character angst...blah blah blah! Character driven books are like watching reality TV. It's all talk and drama and I, for one, get so bored!

3. Plot is everything!  Conflict, even if it's about characters, is plot! And we all know we need conflict in a book. Plot is what keeps us reading. If we love our MC but she has nothing standing in her way, no conflict, nothing happening, it's boring. Who want's to read about that? Not me!

(Disclaimer: I love characters and they are important to me, but if I had to choose, I'd choose plot.)

************************

So there you have it! Two viewpoints on the ongoing discussion of the question, which do you enjoy most: plot or character??!! (Don't forget to give Jenny's blog a visit today too and see the discussion over there!)

So, which side of the fence do you land on? Which team do you root for? Which book do you find less boring, the character driven one or the plot driven one? Let us know! Give us your reasons! Banter back with us!

Book Review: The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson

Book: The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating:★★★★☆
For: fun
From: Christmas!

Short Synopsis: This is the second book after A Kiss of Deception, which I read and loved at this time last year. Since the reveal at the end of that book is pretty huge there will be massive spoilers from here on out for THAT book in order to tell you about THIS book.

So. Lia has been captured by Kaden and taken to his kingdom of Venda. She is now the prisoner of their king, though after awhile, this guy let's her have a pretty free rein. Turns out, the people of this kingdom are quite taken with her. This is an interesting twist and she plans to use it. Also, Rafe has been captured (because he was following her remember?) and they get a few moments, here there,  to plan their escape. It's going to go down in a big big way! Or is it?

Oh my gosh, the plot is so much more complicated than that! And you know, I actually didn't spoil a whole lot because you still don't really know who Rafe and Kaden are, now do you! And I'm not telling.

My Response: Loved it. You know....these books remind me of The Winner's Curse books... if you know and love those! And the ending of this one.. well both of them... AH!!! I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW! I love these characters and these boys and the conflicts and the craziness. I love the world and the writing and the story. This middle book moved a little slower and didn't have quite the mystery of the first book, thus the little lower rating. But still. Sheesh.

Bottom Line: A great series for historical fantasy lovers and lovers of intense reading!

Other Reviews:

Her character development is sky high in this book, and the manipulations and deceptions that she has to resort to just to stay alive and the protect the ones she loves are many in this book. From Bewitched Bookworms

High Expectations for Book 2: Met! From Edgy Inspirational Romance

One of the greatest bad guys EVER. Oh, he's creepy and much to intelligent and powerful and dynamic and devious... and self-serving. From Colorimetry

In the end, The Heart of Betrayal delivers another gut-wrenching story with an ending that is sure to make readers groan in frustration and wait impatiently for book three. From Ex Libris

Top Ten Tuesday: Resolutions

Many pooh pooh the whole New Year goal making tradition, but I can't seem to let it go. I have an overwhelming urge at the change of the year (or the season, or the school year) to make an effort to start again, to recommit, to make lists. Here are some thoughts I've had for various areas of my life... for now:

Reading:

• My Goodreads number for this year has been set at 80! 
• I want to read more adult books, more non fiction books and more classic books.
• And yet, I still want to keep up with the favorite YA authors and series and local authors and their new books!
• I want to host a couple of read alongs again. (We are thinking of a Little Women one... soon. Very soon!)
• I will probably not accept many ARCs this year or request much from NetGalley. 

Blogging:

• In order to make way for some other goals, I think blogging will take more of a back seat role this year. We'll see how it goes... and maybe you'll not notice much. Maybe it will make me too crazy, but basically, I plan to not blog as often...as in, not every day. Maybe more like three times a week or so. Unless I have way too much to say!
• I want to shake up my review system a bit, but I'm not sure how. I'm going to bag the discussion question and just write a quick blurb and a quick reaction. We'll see how it goes and maybe the change will also end up being very subtle.
• I want to keep Book Bantering with Jenny!
• Visit more blogs and reconnect with long lost blogging buddies!
• Get caught up on print out some blog posts and adding them to the binder.

Writing:

• This needs to become more of a priority, like... ahead of blogging.
• I want to make changes to the first book according to feedback from beta readers.
• I want to finish and revise the recent Nano book and start getting feedback for it.
• Which means the other book will still have to wait it's turn for some attention.
• I want to start researching agents and the like. Freaky! Which means maybe NEXT year I'll be ready to query and pitch. Maybe.
• I plan to attend two conferences. Maybe more.
• I hope to keep the online writing group going. And if that doesn't work.. find a real, in life serious writing group. Sigh.
• Keep going to UVW when I can. Renew membership in March.

Personal:

• Zumba, every day! (Or, at least four or five times a week.) Other strength exercises that work for me and that I have the ability to do. (Whatever that is!)
• Eat healthy. (Just as soon as all the chocolate in this house is gone! LOL!)
• Finish the hexagon wall hanging quilt!
• Clean up some hoarder stashes found in various corners of this house! Get rid of junk!
• Figure out what it means to be a grandma and do it. (Babysit? Re-enter the picture book world? I don't know!)
• Make some vacation movies... print up the pictures.

Well, I'm sure there's more, but I'll stop there. And yeah that's more than ten, but that was just a guideline, right? 

What do you have planned for the new year? Link up over at The Broke and the Bookish today!

Book Review: Eleanor and the Iron King by Julie Daines

Book: Eleanor and the Iron King by Julie Daines
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
For: Fun (Local/Utah authors)
From: Bought at a writing conference awhile back

Short Synopsis: Eleanor is being forced by her ruthless dad to go to the rival kingdom and marry its king in order to seal the agreement and solidify new alliances. She is not happy. She'd rather stay home and marry one of her dad's guards. But, she goes, and finds out the king is not so bad after all, and in fact when lots of strange things begin to happen, she finds herself on his side more than her own kingdom's.

My Response: Another fun romp of a fairy type tale from this author. Some fun twists and turns here and there, some fun bantering and flirty fluff. Lots and lots of Welsh influences and a creepy mythical tone. I love stuff like this!

Bottom Line: Very fun for lovers of fairy tales and flirty fantasy fun!

Other Reviews:

Eleanor must learn how to sort out the truth and the lies that have surrounded her for her entire life. I loved watching the characters learn and grow together. From I Am a Reader

There was lots of mystery in the book as we have no idea who’s right and wrong and who exactly the villain is. From Book Binge

The pacing of this book is fantastic! We get little bits of information at a time which kept me endlessly reading one more chapter until I was done From Mel's Shelves

They start as purely enemies, but when they actually meet, “stranger danger” becomes a scary reality for Eleanor. They go from enemies-strangers to frenemies to something more and I love the growth of that undeniable bond between them. From The Mistress Case

Currently: Feeling Pumped, Mostly

Listening: At this very moment I'm blasting some Blueman Group percussion-y songs, which I love love love. Like this:



Well, at least they cleaned up the mess they made, eh? :)

Watching: My sister Megs has decided that I must join her in her fascination with Korean drama... so I've downloaded the app Drama Fever to my tablet and have fully immersed myself into one called Lie to Me. It's very fun, silly, convoluted and sappy. But fun. I said that already, right. So far so good. I will keep watching.  Also, I finished The 100 season two and will probably maybe perhaps watch it live on TV when it starts up again soon. I missed Sherlock on Friday night so I'm hoping they re air it this week as they say they will. Also... Downton Abbey!

Scene I just watched from Lie to Me

P.S. I also watched Star Wars (the new movie) twice since last we Currently-ed. I would love to see it one more time at the Imax before it goes away. I wonder when that will happen, if it hasn't already.

Reading: If you've been keeping track, I've been posting  a gazillion year end posts this past week. I hope you've enjoyed them all. And for some reason I can't settle on what I want to read at the moment, so I've started a pile all at once. I think I'll settle on Their Fractured Light. Deal?

Blogging: I'm hoping to change things up this year.. maybe do my reviews differently, maybe not post as often, maybe. I don't know. I feel like something needs to change a bit. But I'm not sure what. We'll see. MEANWHILE... BLOGGIESTA! January 16 and 17! A mini one! JOIN US!

Writing: I'm ready. So ready. I took all of December off and now... BACK AT IT! This is going to happen guys. I will post specific goals on my other site here soon.

Health Watch: Eating is crap still, but I did fit in Zumba three times this week. Working back up to every day. This is also GOING to happen! I'm also hoping to learn better how to make vegetarian stuff. Not to say we're turning vegetarian, but let's say we maybe will be 3/4 that way. That can be a thing, right?

Crafting: So I made a baby quilt and gave it to my new grandbaby-to-be for Christmas. I did a crappy job as I'm so out of practice, but maybe it's start to doing some more stuff like this:

Miscellaneous:

• A lot of changes will be happening at our house these next few months and it makes me anxious. Here's hoping I make it through. If you notice something off...that's why!
• Looking forward to writing conferences that are coming up!
• Looking forward to some plays/musicals that are coming up!
• Did I tell you I got Josh Groban tickets for the summer? YEP!!
• My back and my neck and my foot have hurt all these weeks of holiday. Do you think I'm dying? Or maybe.. I'm just getting old?
• I have not been at work for two weeks. It seems like another world. 
• I have a new primary class to teach at church today. Twelve 8 year olds, nine of them boys. Help me now! 
• I want to buy CDs from Amazon but they are all expensive imports. It frustrates me. I think I might cave anyway.
• We watched Some Kind of Wonderful over the holiday. I love that movie:

I've shared it before, and I'll share it again. Best scene ever.

And so... what have you been up to these days?

Guest Post: Thoughts on Star Wars The Force Awakens (An Alternate Viewpoint)

Today I give you a guest post by my son who, as you can see, did not inherit the love of Star Wars from his mom. I'm sharing this because I enjoy seeing another side of things, and because I want to show that feelings I take for granted are not necessarily shared by all.  Perhaps some of you will also enjoy seeing another viewpoint.


Thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Awakens

It’s safe to say that I didn’t have high hopes for the new Star Wars movie. All I saw in it was a corporate scheme to make a quick half a billion at the expense of a cultural jewel. I was slightly irked when I heard that they we’re going to add another trilogy to a trilogy that was already three movies too long. However, I’ve been surprised by some of the new movies coming out lately, and I thought it would be at least entertaining and worth my while to keep up with the hype.

The major concern that I see among the brave few who are willing to criticize this movie is that it is simply a re-make of the original Star Wars movie. The protagonist starts out as a nobody living on Tatooine, cultivating dreams of seeing the stars while barely able to make ends meet until she meets a curious little droid. Sound familiar? She is then pulled away from her home planet when her village is attacked by the evil “First Order” who is searching for said droid. It’s by sheer chance that she ends up fleeing Tatooine in the beloved Millennium Falcon, and meeting up with Han Solo shortly afterwards, who enters the film, almost literally, right out of nowhere. The rest of the film follows the timeline of the first movie just as well, with Rey, our modern and more politically correct Luke, finding her powers slowly until in the end, she destroys the Death Star with her politically correct sidekick. Except for this time the Death Star is even bigger than the last two, The size of an entire planet. I can only imagine that we have but two more films to wait until we can see Rey fight off a Death Star the size of an entire solar system. Some people seem to like the fact that it’s the same story we heard three decades ago, but for me it makes for a very boring and predictable movie.

As I mentioned above, Han Solo’s emergence into the film is wholly unexplained, and far too much of a stretch for me to justify any other reason for him to have been included other than the nostalgic kick his character provides. Of course, everyone knows that there is hardly any other reason for Solo to appear, but I feel like they could’ve tried harder to make it less obvious. The character that bugged me more was Kylo Ren, who completely ruined the precedent dark mystere and confidence of the sith lord set by Vader. He came off as a whiny teenager with daddy issues who took his angst a bit too far.

The humor in this film was pathetic and distracting. Most of the jokes originated from Finn, who played the part of the cute, clueless black sidekick and they made me feel like I was watching a juvenile Disney channel TV show.

One thing that I can’t stand about these types of films is how incredibly unrealistic they are. The first scene that bugged me was when, Rey, a young and inexperienced pilot, is able to outrun and outmaneuver a trained New Order Tie fighter while flying an ancient broken down ship that she has never flown before. That’s too much to handle. Many similarly grotesque instances of good fortune take place throughout the film, but the worst was at the end when Finn, a lowly ex stormtrooper, is not only able to wield Luke’s light saber, but successfully uses it to fight off Kylo Ren, a sith lord in training.

All in all, this was one of the worst films I’ve seen in a very long time. The characters were shallow and not worth caring about, and there might as well have been no story line at all. By the end I felt like all I had done was give myself a headache by listening to an entire library of explosion and laser sound effects. I would barely feel justified giving it half a star.

And so, what do you think? Harsh, or justified? Let us know in comments!

December 2015 Reading Recap

A fun picture taken Christmas Eve

December, as we all know, is a crazy month, but I pushed through a few books anyway!


Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: Something happened aboard the space ships carrying refugees from an invasion... the documents complied for this book tell the story.

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt: A girl struggles to fit in despite her struggle with dyslexia. 

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon: Maddy has an illness that keeps her stuck inside, but when she sees a cool dude moving in next door, she wants to escape for the first time in her life.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas: Celeana is freed from the slave pits only to be forced to compete in game where the winner becomes the kings assassin. 

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord: Paige has made a goal to start over this new school year and put the death of her boyfriend behind, only, things don't turn out like she plans.

The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens: a retelling of the four gospels of the New Testament by Charles Dickens for his children.

Eleanor and the Iron King by Julie Daines: Eleanor is sent to marry the king of the rival kingdom but when she gets there, she gets confused as to who's the good guys and who's the bad.

The Heart of Betrayal by Mary Pearson: Lia finds herself a prisoner in the kingdom of the Assassin and ends up playing a life and death game with their leader.

Favorites of the Month: The Start of Me and You, Everything Everything and Illuminae! 

Plans for January:

• Read The Year of Magical Thinking for book club
• Read Their Fractured Light
• Read Winter
• Finish Twitterpated
• Finish Red Queen
• I have no idea what else I hope to get to!

How did your December go?