Sunlight-Colored Roses

I am reading Lauren Kate’s Passion right now. I am having a really hard time with it. It’s “creative” in the same way Harry Potter books are, where the made-up world seems like just that: made-up. It doesn’t correspond to any internal mythology or imaginary that I can relate to, doesn’t touch anything within me. And it’s starting to get really absurd at this point. William Shakespeare showed up, and the protagonist actually addressed him as “Will.” And actually, even worse stuff than that. Hate to use the term, but so cringe-y. It feels like the book is thoroughly a rough draft, like she didn’t have time to think the work through. It was probably rushed to press to make the series to make money and all of that. Perhaps the author can do better, but it does feel like the work had no space to slow down and take its time with anything. I also really dislike the God, Heaven, and Hell stuff. I take great exception to the Satan stuff. It’s a major turn-off for me that angels are “good” and demons are “bad.” I hate these aspects of Christianity so much, and they are all throughout this work. I also genuinely hate the character Daniel. I don’t get why his being good-looking makes him worthy of Luce’s love. He also self-tortures and feels a lot of guilt, which is another part of Christianity I despise. I do not understand how someone who is supposed to be an angel can be so dumb and waste so much energy doing useless stuff. I also hate the constant descriptions of the angels’ wings and them “letting their wings out.” Like, I don’t care. Hah. Guess I’m too old for this. It’s good, though, because it’s making me want to break out some better literature to read at home. I have really been wanting to go back into the Chinese and Japanese literature from centuries ago. Need to get to that.