Nerds Heart YA

Judging one thing against another is always interesting, particularly when you don’t have a particular set of criteria.  It is inevitable that the personal enters into it.  I read both books (the shape of water and cracked up to be) a while ago, and blogged my original thoughts.  And then I began the process of deciding which one I thought should move on.  Truth be told I like Cracked Up to Be better, I liked the plot, it had a great hook, the character, Parker Fadley, was both at once likeable and unlikable – which is exactly how she should have been.  However I had a deep appreciation for the structure of the language of The Shape of Water. It was metaphorical, and lush with the description.  It was what I call a quiet book, a character study about grief and loss, and moving on.  I wondered if perhaps my affinity for Cracked had to do with the fact that I read it first, or a preference for the genre, and if I shouldn’t put that aside and deal with the structure and quality of the writing, but essentially when I broke it down – Cracked was in some cases tighter, maybe a little less obvious, and the strands followed through – whereas Shape lost some things – or maybe more accurately wrapped them up and headed into a new experience.  But isn’t that what grief is – so maybe in structure it does hold up.  See what I mean – this was a close call, and I have been back and forth a dozen times.  In the end I am going with what I liked more so Cracked Up to Be, congratulations – you are moving on!