ym613: The difference between The Hunger Games and The Giver (which I love) is that nobody’s claiming that the scenario in The Giver is a natural result of our current society or making a pseudointellectual societal parallel cuz they think it makes them sound cool and smart.
OOM: Snape was not so much predictable as unpredictable- his plot didn’t develop at all until the last thirty seconds of the book when it did a complete 180 and I was like, “WHAT?!?!” It’s like she was trying too hard. Aberforth should’ve been explored much more deeply than he was, though.
And like you said (wow- we seem to agree on everything! Are we related?!?! 🙂 ), HP wouldn’t have sold without the romance; witness those internet forums full of Harry-Hermione “‘shippers.” *eyeroll* It sells books.
Logician: I haven’t read Crichton for a while- I started not liking it as much after a while, I don’t know why. But Sphere did, as you say, stick with me for a while. And they’re extraordinarily readable. “Rowlingesque.”