Most Recent Read: How to Say Goodbye in Robot

There were aspects of How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Staniford I really liked, and some things that drove me crazy.  I read it really quickly and it was nice to devour a book again.  I liked that the characters were well rounded and dynamic.  While the book only had a small spattering of them, there were some really descriptive phrases I enjoyed reading.  I love this first one because I love the crisp air the winter brings and I completely understand what Staniford was talking about. "One of the beds had a pile of coats on it, still cold and fresh-smelling from the night air."  It reminds me of skiing with my family, and the real mountain air that you can feel in your lungs.  It clears your head and makes it so much more fun to speed down the mountain and feel it whip past your face.

I liked this next quote mainly because it was vivid.  "The Ferris wheel whisked us away from the noise and smells of the boardwalk for a few seconds, high over the sand and water.  The moon bleached a strip of the sea.  We dipped down, down through the squeals and shots and bangs and pops and up, up again into the fresh air, the lights of the toy city below.  I wished I could live at the top of the Ferris wheel, just high enough to walk on the clouds if it's cloudy, but close enough to the ground to keep an eye on everybody." And then later, "The pinkish-green air promised rain that never came.  Moisture hung in the atmosphere, weighing down on us.  We were living inside a cloud."

It was random, but funny, one of the characters was Anne, and another was Ann, but Ann was called Awae (pronounced ay-way) for Anne without an E.  I also like the unexpected ending.  Looking back, I really should have seen it coming.  Now for what I didn't like.  I didn't like the swearing, underage drinking and macabre photography references.  Or the Night Light show with Herb Horvath.  Every time I had to read the phrase, "nighty-night" I cringed inside.  I don't know why, but it is now one of my pet peeves.  It doesn't even make any sense.  There are so many alternatives that do make sense, ie: goodnight, sleep well, sweet dreams, so long for now, farewell.  Like I said, I don't know why it bugs me so much, but it does.

So overall, it was a pretty good book that made me think, but not too much.