Lindsay Ribar
Autore di The Art of Wishing
Sull'Autore
Lindsay Ribar is a graduate of New York University. She is a literary agent and an author. Her books include The Art of Wishing, The Fourth Wish, and Rocks Fall Everyone Dies. (Bowker Author Biography)
Serie
Opere di Lindsay Ribar
Untitled (The Art of Wishing #3) 1 copia
Penguin Teen Spring 2013 Preview 1 copia
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Statistiche
- Opere
- 6
- Utenti
- 304
- Popolarità
- #77,406
- Voto
- 3.5
- Recensioni
- 36
- ISBN
- 19
- Lingue
- 1
At the thirty-three percent mark, everything screeched to a halt. The author referred to the theater part of musical theater as "filler."
I'm positive the music kids reading the book laughed their asses off and cheered. I am positive some of them felt validated.
BEHOLD THE WRATH OF A SEMI-PROFESSIONAL MUSICAL THEATER KID WHO GREW UP. NOW I ACT AS A HOBBY THE EQUIVALENT OF A SECOND JOB.
(original tirade redacted because I wasn't coherent for too long. A much calmer version is below)
I am a theater kid. More specifically, I was a semi-professional musical theater child performer. By the end of my career, I was sick of musicals. The author and the music kids are undoubtedly sobbing. I didn't see the point of songs in plays for a long, long time afterward, only coming to appreciate them differently as an adult because I don't know why. Can't remember when, either. I didn't see music as "filler." I did not speak down to musicians. Mine was "breaking into songs every five seconds is annoying and I don't know why they do it." THAT WAS -IT.- And this was coming from someone who had a wonderful singing voice and -cared- about singing well for the production, not myself. I was a little annoyed, and just mostly worn out! I was -not- so cruel or rude as this author AT ALL. The rivalry the author was trying desperately to wedge in between the two groups isn't really there BECAUSE MUSICIANS PLAY IN THE PIT, AND OFTENTIMES, THEY ARE KIDS TOO. If the author wanted instant, believable rivalry, she should have had the protagonist make a crack about stuck-up child performers!! THAT was genuine. WE WERE TWO GROUPS THAT HATED EACH OTHER. Ooh, you did theater in high school? I HAD A PAGE OF THEATER CREDITS BY THE TIME YOU GOT YOUR FIRST ROLE THAT DIDN'T HAVE A NUMBER AFTER IT. -You- got to make tons of friends and be normal. -I- was taught how to compete with other kids and being friends with them outside of theater was incredibly weird. I learned how to sit totally still in a chair for two solid hours, then half an hour more for hair and makeup. I learned how to stand on a chair for two hours so my costumes could be better hand-sewn. Machines would have ruined them. I have witnessed and participated in, as dresser and dress-ee, full costume changes in under three minutes involving four people helping one person, while the person was running their lines, or in one case of my own, learning them because the understudy was sick. The understudy's costume fit strangely, thanks for asking. Yes, I chose to do this and keep doing it semi-professionally as an adult. I feel the art of live theater is -incredibly- under-appreciated. I have no regrets overall, but I learned weird lessons. The movie "Judy" brought up a -ton- of stuff for me.
The author could have done something like the live theater versus high school theater rivalry. Instead, she made one of the meanest, dirtiest, mean-spirited comments I have ever read in my life about a field that has never been respected. It used to be linked with prostitution and now people just hand-wave it, or refuse to acknowledge that in Seattle, theater companies aren't common: you work with individual directors. They -start- theater companies, sure, but that's also rare since it involves so much money. Seattle theater, ninety-five percent of the time, is volunteer. If there's money, it's maybe fifty dollars at the end of two months of hard work. I briefly considered that the author might just be incredibly bitter that she herself wasn't cast in any of her school plays or something, but a more realistic remark would be "I didn't get into the play, so I worked on the yearbook staff instead," or something. I'm not upset that she's bitter as an emotion. Look at me and how I wear my heart on my sleeve about this stuff. I'm upset about her choice of words in regards to her bitterness.
It affected me beyond the time it took for me to calm down. The 'blink and you miss it' remark a third of the way into the book--I tried to shove my feelings aside, but ooh, I was not gonna be able to enjoy the book as much anymore. Her parents go on honeymoons a lot. At first, I thought it was an annual thing to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Then, her parents' divorce and reconciliation are mentioned, and how the honeymoons are marriage maintenance acts that go on for weeks at a time. What. WTF. I--what? And they're shown to be irresponsible, childish, and controlling, especially in light of the fact that their daughter is legally an adult. It was gross whenever they were mentioned or thought about. They treat her like she's twelve, often. So, she's eighteen. Oliver is sixteen. The story wouldn't have lost anything if those ages were flipped. The power dynamic between those two got creepier as the book continued, and I was stunned at how sexualized it was. The sexualization steadily increased, too! (glances unhappily)
This book is the first in a series, which nowadays is nothing but an annoying act by a publisher for cash. The ending is concise for the story, and fine. It doesn't need to be a whole series.… (altro)