I have probably an even more random bunch of books than last times random reviews.
But I’ll start with This Night So Dark which probably makes the most sense for me and was sadly most disappointing. It’s a prequel to These Broken Stars (which I loved) only about ninety pages long and features Tarver telling the story of a military operation that went wrong to Lilac. So you know Tarver’s not exactly going to die. On it’s own the story is kind of pointless but I assume it’s going to link to the forthcoming book This Shattered World. (Can’t wait :)) I’d recommend it if you’re into the series and for the reason I bought it- it’s free on Amazon!
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder is a highly regarded book about screenwriting and I’ve actually heard of one of the movies Blake Snyder has written (Blank Check) so there’s that benefit.
I should call books like this Things I Do Instead of Writing. He does have some interesting tips on structure and he’s pretty funny (at first). Did it help me write? Not really. But I actually think this would be a great book for people who like to review movies. Keep in mind- he’s not talking about masterpieces here and he’s painfully honest about that. He’s trying to help you write screenplays that will sell even if they never get made.
I did kind of roll my eyes when he started talking about how his script for Really Mean Girls didn’t work because Tina Fey got there first. Okay…
Would I recommend it? Who am I to go against the grain? Plus there’s an adorable cat on the cover!
What if I had known there was a website that was the original basis of the book?
I probably wouldn’t have bought it. Mostly because a lot of it was math and science and unfortunately it went over my head. I still enjoyed the whole of the book though. There’s some fun things like when will the dead overtake the living on Facebook (it will happen) and how many possible tweets are there. I got some good story ideas like what happens when you drop a bomb down the center of the Earth and how to die by magnet.
Also good to know that I’m not the only person in the world whose afraid their teeth will one day shatter. So even though I didn’t understand some of this book I enjoyed it more than the others and would recommend it. You just may want to check out the website first and see if there’s any hypothetical questions you want answered. The reader questions were the best part of the book and the most worrisome.