Reading Tai-Bo

This week I decided that I had been reading plenty of fluff and should expand my mind with some genre-changing-award-winning-literary-YA. And so I began reading The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. I read a few chapters and then The Hunky Hubby let me have a bit of time to read and I couldn’t help but crack the cover of Devil’s Food Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke. It was the best one yet (book #15 in the series) and actually added a lip biting plot development into her romantic entanglements. This time Hannah discovered the body of a visiting minister with a big slice of cake scattered on the floor around his sad remains. Very entertaining and yes, still fluffy.

Then I gave myself a swift mental shake and returned to The Chocolate War. It was well written, threw you right into this boys world, made you actually feel like the universe was composed of greys and blacks and shadows. Actually it was quite a bit like Catcher in the Rye, but with a bit less swearing and a bit more of the inappropriate guyish thoughts. I was just starting to pull for this kid, who dared to defy the evil monks who were his teachers and the secret society among the students by refusing to sell the school chocolates. Then the book ended. Ahhhhhhhh!!! The protagonist is tricked into a violent and humiliating public boxing match, where the crowd picks which punches are thrown, he inadvertently sells the chocolates through the match, and is beaten to a bloody pulp. He lies in his friends arms on the way to the hospital with broken ribs and internal injuries and tells him… Not to disturb the universe, sell the chocolates, do whatever they want you to do or they will kill you. Then the last scene shows the victorious secret society boys reveling in their victory.

And I suddenly remembered why I don’t read good-quality-award winning-literary fiction. Ugh!

It’s Frappuccino Thursday