Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Book review - Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights (Novel)

The plot: A bunch of extremely reclusive people living on the moors, whatever those are, decide to adopt a random child of unknown origin, then proceed to abuse the hell out of it for the next decade. Unsurprisingly, this does not end well.

Also, there's romance of a sort, to the extent that the pathological dependence between two probably-sociopaths can be called "romance."

What I liked about this book:
- Very vivid, interesting characters and character development.

- It's always nice to see a book that can have a man and woman fall in love without making that the entire point of the story.

- Third and most important - this is the anti-Twilight.

I almost hate to hate on Twilight, because it's just too easy (also, because in my own bizarre way, I enjoyed the movies... ). But it can't be helped, Twilight is now the quintessential "oh dear lord that's a terrible message" popular romance (ending The Little Mermaid's lengthy stay at the top of the list). And Wuthering Heights is the antidote.

In Twilight:
I'm ignoring you = I secretly love you
"I'm dangerous" = "I'm interesting"
"I don't love you" = I really do love you.
"You're not safe with me" = I love you so much I literally couldn't live without you, but I'm willing to sacrifice my happiness to protect you.

In Wuthering Heights:
I'm ignoring you = I dislike you.
"I'm dangerous" = "I'm dangerous"
"I don't love you" = "I don't love you"
"You're not safe with me" = How stupid are you? Look, if you insist on continuing with this, it's going to end with someone getting a knife to the head.

What I didn't like about this book:
People kept dying of "oh hey time to die now" syndrome.

Is it too much to ask that if a character in their 20s has to kick the bucket, it be due to something other than delicate nerves? That's worse than dying from falling down the stairs.

***
Speaking of popular romance novels and Wuthering Heights, finally reading the latter made me appreciate additional creepiness in the former. Specifically, in novels by Cassandra Claire, who seems to enjoy comparing her male leads to Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff. That would be the same Healthcliff who is horribly abusive to his wife, deliberately warps children's minds, dedicates his life to revenge, kidnaps and abuses his dead love's daughter, plots a murder-suicide...

And, for the record, the book doesn't even describe him as particularly attractive.  There is really not one reason to compare your romantic male lead to "Heathcliff on the moors" unless it's in the context of him stabbing a puppy or something.

My score (for Wuthering Heights, not Cassandra Claire's books):
4.5 out of 5 stars. 

No comments:

Post a Comment