{"id":523,"date":"2013-01-08T10:20:19","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T18:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/?p=523"},"modified":"2013-01-08T10:20:19","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T18:20:19","slug":"12-things-to-do-before-you-crash-and-burn-review-on-goodreads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/08\/12-things-to-do-before-you-crash-and-burn-review-on-goodreads\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Things to Do Before You Crash and Burn– review on Goodreads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"12<\/a>12 Things to Do Before You Crash and Burn<\/a> by James Proimos<\/a><\/p>\n

My rating: 3 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, the things we read when we\u2019re supposed to be reading something we don\u2019t want to read. I\u2019m in the middle of a few books right now, one of which is sort of awful, and I find myself starting other books to take a break from it. I\u2019m not one of those people who thinks a book started must be finished– but the awful book is for research purposes, shall we say, so I do need to finish it. (Fine, I\u2019ll just say it– I\u2019m writing a novel, turns out someone had the same idea first, so now I need to read it so I don\u2019t accidentally plagiarize. Woe is me.)<\/p>\n

In the meantime there\u2019s these other books, and now one more. I was at the library the other day, trying to get some writing momentum going, and when I was done, wandered through the stacks, browsing. Spied 12 Things to Do<\/em>, and thought, there\u2019s a nice thin tome. I too, write thin tomes. I found the title intriguing, and a quick scan showed short chapters. So on a whim I checked it out.<\/p>\n

Didn’t realize it was in the \u201cYoung Adult\u201d section, and not sure if that designation matters or is even accurate. Sure, the main character is a kid of about 15, but there\u2019s some language and situations that a \u201cyoung adult\u201d would maybe find a bit advanced. Or I\u2019m a prude. Or I\u2019m naive and I have no idea what middle-teens get up to these days.<\/p>\n

I took the book home, and I made a cup of coffee. Sat down with the book and the cup, and finished both at the same time. Yes, it was a big cup, but this was a short read. So short, that if you\u2019re merely curious and have an hour to kill, go to your local library and give the book a try.<\/p>\n

Hercules Martino’s adventures are roughly mapped to a retelling of the Labors of Hercules. Very roughly. Like, almost not at all, except in number. But for what it\u2019s worth, if this is supposed to be a Young Adult novel, if it gets a young adult interested in reading about a few Greek myths, then the Hercules references are fine.<\/p>\n

James Proimos’s style reminded me of a young Bret Easton Ellis, but without all the money and angst and depression. A little lighter in tone, sort of like C.D. Payne, but with less absolute absurdity. You get the dead parent and the pseudo-existentialism, but you also get some self-awareness without threat of drug overdose.<\/p>\n

All in all fine little book.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Things to Do Before You Crash and Burn by James Proimos My rating: 3 of 5 stars Oh, the things we read when we\u2019re supposed to be reading something we don\u2019t want to read. I\u2019m in the middle of a few books right now, one of which is sort of awful, and I find … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “12 Things to Do Before You Crash and Burn– review on Goodreads”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p24y52-8r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":525,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}