Hey, sorry it took so long for me to finish this series, but school has been tough. But in any case, I'm back, and here's my review on Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest).
The story follows Lisbeth Salander, an odd woman with an interesting life. We start the series off by learning of another fascinating character, Mikael Blomkvist. He has just been charged with slander, but despite that, he is being hired by a major business mogul as a private detective (even though he is a journalist) to investigate the family's biggest mystery. Blomkvist hires Salander as a research partner, and together they solve a mystery that's been haunting a family for more than 40 years.
In The Girl Who Played With Fire, Salander is away from Sweeden and is trying to get away from it all. Blomkvist, however is helping someone on one of the most shocking storties ever seen. Upon Salander's return, the journalist working on the jaw-dropping article is murdered, and the police all suspect Salander. The book follows her and Blomkvist's search for the truth and revenge.
In the last book of the trilogy, Salander is finally captured, but with a bullet in her head. Safe at the hospital, she awaits the trial that will determine the rest of her life. Blomkvist, along with many others are attempting to free our heroine, but will they succeed?
This series was good, I'll admit. I went in with high expectations, but sadly, I left with a lowered opinion of the series. To put it frankly, this series was downright BORING. Sure, there were some exciting parts (mostly near the end), but you had to get through four excruciating hours to get there. The story was awesome and well written, the plot was excellent and perfectly planned out, but I'm sad to say that the Boredom Banshee barely let me concentrate on all the good stuff. I would recommend this book only to people who can handle more boredom than my science class.
Taryn
P.S. I'm really sorry it took so long to get this review down, and if weren't for semester finals, it would have taken another 3 weeks. I'm going to re-read I Am Not A Serial Killer, then read it's sequel, Mr.Monster! It should be done soon, since I have to go on a road trip tomorrow. I'm super excited!
P.P.S. I wrote this review on my iPod, I just thought I'd let you know.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
BACK IN THE US OF A (not a review, although there are comments)
Yoo hoo,
I'm back in the United States. Now, I mentioned in the last post that I would check out Gullivers Travels when I arrived on this land, however, the library was out of copies. So I went to Borders. There I found some promising titles, including my next book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. That is what I shall be reviewing next. I might return to Gullivers Travels at a latter time, but that is unknown at the moment. But for now, I'm glad to be back in my own country, where all the signs are in English and there is nature abound.
Taryn.
P.S. I shall be starting school on Wednesday, therefore, my reading time shall be a minuscule amount shorter, so I begeth of thee, forgiveth me if I am unable to read a book very fast-eth.
I'm back in the United States. Now, I mentioned in the last post that I would check out Gullivers Travels when I arrived on this land, however, the library was out of copies. So I went to Borders. There I found some promising titles, including my next book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. That is what I shall be reviewing next. I might return to Gullivers Travels at a latter time, but that is unknown at the moment. But for now, I'm glad to be back in my own country, where all the signs are in English and there is nature abound.
Taryn.
P.S. I shall be starting school on Wednesday, therefore, my reading time shall be a minuscule amount shorter, so I begeth of thee, forgiveth me if I am unable to read a book very fast-eth.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The Maggie Quinn Girl V. Evil Series by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Okay, I know this is the third time I've reviewed this book, so I'm going to write a whole new review for you!!! (maybe only one !, it all depends on how many people actually read my blog. It's only going to be a period if no one does.)
Maggie Quinn is a normal high school student, well except for her psychic powers. See, Maggie inherited the Sight from her grandmother, that means she has a freakishly good intuition and sometimes dreams of the supernatural going-ons near her. She has ignored her Sight for much of her life, but when a demon shows up and starts attacking the popular crowd, she can't ignore it any longer. With the help of her two friends, Justin and Lisa, she goes on a mission to save her town and her senior prom.
When Maggie goes to her local college, she hopes everything will be normal, even after she is forced to accept her Sight after battling the Forces of Evil. However, when she decides to go undercover during the Greek Rows Rush for a newspaper article she discovers that one of the sororities made a deal with the devil. In order to save the new and old Greeks from the demon in their society, she must become one of them completely.
Maggie and her best friend/sorceress Lisa are on a road trip to South Padre Island for spring break when they run over a cow in the night and get stuck in a little town called Dulcina. They hope that their Jeep will get fixed soon and then they'll be on their way, but when they find out about mysterious livestock killings and an urban legend by the name of El Chupacabra they decide to help the town. Are they smart enough to beat an unbeatable monster?
Holy cow, these books are good. And not just good, really really awesomesauce good. I like the humor and sarcasm mixed with the action and mystery and great, well developed, three-dimensional characters. This is really the only book I've read that can combine all of those successfully. For the most part, you just get one or two of those traits. It's well written, and everything comes together perfectly. This book is great and you should definitely read it.
Taryn
P.S. This is unfortunately the last book I have on hand. I will be moving in five days and then I will have access to a library. I plan to check out Gulliver's Travels immediately. Wish me luck on my relocation to the U.S. of A.
P.P.S. Also, in case moving works like theater, tell me to break a leg. You know, for safety.
Maggie Quinn is a normal high school student, well except for her psychic powers. See, Maggie inherited the Sight from her grandmother, that means she has a freakishly good intuition and sometimes dreams of the supernatural going-ons near her. She has ignored her Sight for much of her life, but when a demon shows up and starts attacking the popular crowd, she can't ignore it any longer. With the help of her two friends, Justin and Lisa, she goes on a mission to save her town and her senior prom.
When Maggie goes to her local college, she hopes everything will be normal, even after she is forced to accept her Sight after battling the Forces of Evil. However, when she decides to go undercover during the Greek Rows Rush for a newspaper article she discovers that one of the sororities made a deal with the devil. In order to save the new and old Greeks from the demon in their society, she must become one of them completely.
Maggie and her best friend/sorceress Lisa are on a road trip to South Padre Island for spring break when they run over a cow in the night and get stuck in a little town called Dulcina. They hope that their Jeep will get fixed soon and then they'll be on their way, but when they find out about mysterious livestock killings and an urban legend by the name of El Chupacabra they decide to help the town. Are they smart enough to beat an unbeatable monster?
Holy cow, these books are good. And not just good, really really awesomesauce good. I like the humor and sarcasm mixed with the action and mystery and great, well developed, three-dimensional characters. This is really the only book I've read that can combine all of those successfully. For the most part, you just get one or two of those traits. It's well written, and everything comes together perfectly. This book is great and you should definitely read it.
Taryn
P.S. This is unfortunately the last book I have on hand. I will be moving in five days and then I will have access to a library. I plan to check out Gulliver's Travels immediately. Wish me luck on my relocation to the U.S. of A.
P.P.S. Also, in case moving works like theater, tell me to break a leg. You know, for safety.
Friday, July 30, 2010
I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells (sorry it's a re-read, I ran out of books)
Yeah, so this is a re-read, I ran out of books. Until I get to the states, I'll be re-reading. Not to fear, I only have 18 days until I fly, so I shouldn't have to re-read many books. But anyways, here's a new review for I Am Not A Serial Killer.
John Wayne Cleaver, aged 15, male, clinical sociopath. John is scared of becoming a serial killer, therefore, he makes rules. Rules to keep him out of trouble, rules to keep the community safe, rules to keep him normal. But one day, a real live serial killer moves into town and John is the only one who can stop him. But in order to do that, John must break his rules. Break them, and kill a killer.
There is only one way to describe this book. Awesome, awesome, awesome....awesome, awesome on an awesome cracker with awesome sauce. I said this in my first review of this book, this book is so creepy it's awesome and so awesome it's creepy. I know I'm using the word 'awesome' a little excessively, but this book deserves it. It's not everyday you find a book that deserves nine awesomes. The writing is wonderful, the character is wonderful, everything is wonderful. This book makes for a great character study, there's so much in it that you would never think. I kind of want to take this book to a sociopathic serial killer and ask if that's what it's like. You just really like this book. And do you know what really tells me this is a good book, I still felt the same suspense at the same scene even though I knew what was going to happen. I leave you with these words, you have not lived a full and complete life unless you have read this book.
Taryn.
John Wayne Cleaver, aged 15, male, clinical sociopath. John is scared of becoming a serial killer, therefore, he makes rules. Rules to keep him out of trouble, rules to keep the community safe, rules to keep him normal. But one day, a real live serial killer moves into town and John is the only one who can stop him. But in order to do that, John must break his rules. Break them, and kill a killer.
There is only one way to describe this book. Awesome, awesome, awesome....awesome, awesome on an awesome cracker with awesome sauce. I said this in my first review of this book, this book is so creepy it's awesome and so awesome it's creepy. I know I'm using the word 'awesome' a little excessively, but this book deserves it. It's not everyday you find a book that deserves nine awesomes. The writing is wonderful, the character is wonderful, everything is wonderful. This book makes for a great character study, there's so much in it that you would never think. I kind of want to take this book to a sociopathic serial killer and ask if that's what it's like. You just really like this book. And do you know what really tells me this is a good book, I still felt the same suspense at the same scene even though I knew what was going to happen. I leave you with these words, you have not lived a full and complete life unless you have read this book.
Taryn.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Marie, Dancing by Carolyn Meyer (and a commentary on my vacation to Paris)
Marie Van Goethem lives in poverty. Her mother hasn't really been sober since her father died, her younger sister aches with hunger, and her older sister's only worry is to find a suitable mister. But there's one shining light in Marie's life, dancing. In world full of despair, dancing is her hope. But will it all be taken away?
This is a great book. Hopeful, and heartbreaking, and awesome. The way Meyer writes is great, so pretty. I also love the way she sticks in some French here and there. Everything seemed so real (that was probably also helped along by the fact that I was in PARIS), the characters, the setting, the situations. I love this book, and you will too.
COMMENTARY ON MY TRIP-
Paris was great. Everything was so pretty. The best part, being surrounded by French for two days, it was awesome. I saw the Palais Garnier (only from the outside, but still...), where many scenes from the book take place. I got to walk the streets of Paris, where the upper parts of buildings still look like they did in the late 1800's. The food was great, the people were great. Go there.
This is a great book. Hopeful, and heartbreaking, and awesome. The way Meyer writes is great, so pretty. I also love the way she sticks in some French here and there. Everything seemed so real (that was probably also helped along by the fact that I was in PARIS), the characters, the setting, the situations. I love this book, and you will too.
COMMENTARY ON MY TRIP-
Paris was great. Everything was so pretty. The best part, being surrounded by French for two days, it was awesome. I saw the Palais Garnier (only from the outside, but still...), where many scenes from the book take place. I got to walk the streets of Paris, where the upper parts of buildings still look like they did in the late 1800's. The food was great, the people were great. Go there.
Monday, July 12, 2010
So You Want To Be a Wizard by Diane Duane and Leaving for Paris!
Nita Callahan gets beat up on an almost daily basis, but not today. When bullies are chasing her, she takes refuge in the kids' section of the library. There she finds a peculiar book. So You Want To Be a Wizard contains an oath that Nita takes, making her a wizard. She finds out that immediately after a wizard takes an oath, they have to go through their Ordeal. Will she make it with the help of her friend and fellow wizard Kit?
This book = Awesome. It's a simple formula, easy as 2+2=4. I love it, it's well written and compelling. Pretty much everything about it is wonderful. However, there is one problem, the catalyst. Almost every book has a catalyst, the thing that sets off the main chain of events. In this book, the catalyst is Nita's space pen (a pen that astronauts use and can write on anything). I admit that the pen is kind of cool, but it doesn't seem worth the lengths the characters go through to get it back. Also, the paragraphs are long. But other than those two things, awesomeness in abundance. It's also funny.
Taryn.
P.S. It's part of a series (with like, ten books). So when I get back to the States (August 19th will be my first full day) I'll have to finish it.
SIDE NOTE
I'm leaving for Paris tonight, and in honor of the occasion, I'll be reading Marie, Dancing by Carolyn Meyer. It takes place in Paris, so it's perfect! I'll be in Europe for a week, therefore, although the book is fairly short, I probably won't finish it until I get back to Qatar.
This book = Awesome. It's a simple formula, easy as 2+2=4. I love it, it's well written and compelling. Pretty much everything about it is wonderful. However, there is one problem, the catalyst. Almost every book has a catalyst, the thing that sets off the main chain of events. In this book, the catalyst is Nita's space pen (a pen that astronauts use and can write on anything). I admit that the pen is kind of cool, but it doesn't seem worth the lengths the characters go through to get it back. Also, the paragraphs are long. But other than those two things, awesomeness in abundance. It's also funny.
Taryn.
P.S. It's part of a series (with like, ten books). So when I get back to the States (August 19th will be my first full day) I'll have to finish it.
SIDE NOTE
I'm leaving for Paris tonight, and in honor of the occasion, I'll be reading Marie, Dancing by Carolyn Meyer. It takes place in Paris, so it's perfect! I'll be in Europe for a week, therefore, although the book is fairly short, I probably won't finish it until I get back to Qatar.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
When Dianna was thirteen, she was caught in the back of a Buick with her brother's seventeen-year-old friend. By her father. She was instantly labeled the school slut, and her father has never looked at her the same way since. Now Dianna is sixteen, still trying to redeem herself. But it's hard. The jocks of the school consider her public property, to be used at will because she doesn't care. Her father wouldn't be surprised if she slept with her boss. This summer, she's trying to make things different.
*silence*
*silence*
*silence*
I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!! I really did. It was hard to read, but it was great. I really felt sorry for Dianna. There are so many things that normal, unlabeled 'til high school teens get to do, that she never got to even seriously think about. And it really hurts to read about how she thinks. Honestly, I felt my heart tearing inside. It was hard to read, but the truths this book sent out needed to be heard. I didn't really cry when I read it, but the pages were blurred more than a few times.
Taryn
P.S. I've noticed how I never really comment about how well the book was written, but according to my philosophy, that's not the most important thing. How does that work, you ask. Well, anybody can write, all it takes to write well is honing, and, if you're published, you've probably already honed your craft well. Of course there are exceptions,aka Twilight some books that never should have been published, and forced upon our eyes (Twilight these books tend to be over publicized, turned into sucky movies, with sucky actors and always make whatever medium they are thrust upon disintegrate more than they already are in our modern days). What I consider the most important thing about writing is if your book made somebody feel something. If the things you were writing jump of the page and became more than words and ink and paper. If it made somebody think, and sit quietly for a couple minutes after they turned the last page. If it talked about something real, something new or not-so-new. A book that talked about a subject that needed to be talked about. It's books like that, that make a difference.
*silence*
*silence*
*silence*
I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!! I really did. It was hard to read, but it was great. I really felt sorry for Dianna. There are so many things that normal, unlabeled 'til high school teens get to do, that she never got to even seriously think about. And it really hurts to read about how she thinks. Honestly, I felt my heart tearing inside. It was hard to read, but the truths this book sent out needed to be heard. I didn't really cry when I read it, but the pages were blurred more than a few times.
Taryn
P.S. I've noticed how I never really comment about how well the book was written, but according to my philosophy, that's not the most important thing. How does that work, you ask. Well, anybody can write, all it takes to write well is honing, and, if you're published, you've probably already honed your craft well. Of course there are exceptions,
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
Kelley Winslow is an actress, performing the part of Titania in the upcoming presentation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Sonny Flannery is a changeling, a mortal taken by Faeries to live in Otherworld, the land of the Fae. Central Park is a portal from Kelley's world to Sonny's. When they meet, the after effects cause Kelley's world to turn on it's side and her eyes to open to who she really is. She realizes her destiny all because of a Kelpie and a changeling on the first night of the Nine.
This book is pretty good, not great, but good. I've always been a fan of fairies, although I've never really read any books about them, so this was a change. I liked it and finished the book pretty quickly, but it wasn't one of the best books I've ever read. One of the biggest flaws for me was the way the relationship forms. Here's my take on it (from Kelley's point-of-view)-
God, that dude's annoying, but kinda cute.
God, that dude is still kinda annoying, but I think I like him.
*five seconds later*
(to Sonny) I love thee. (Direct quote)
Another odd thing I found was that changelings are fairy children left in the place of a mortal child, not a mortal child taken to live with fairies. At least, that's what I always thought, maybe I'm wrong. If so, please leave a comment. Anyway, for all it's mistakes, this book was actually okay. I think I'll buy and review it's sequel when I get back to the States.
Taryn
P.S. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!
Live long and prosper.
This book is pretty good, not great, but good. I've always been a fan of fairies, although I've never really read any books about them, so this was a change. I liked it and finished the book pretty quickly, but it wasn't one of the best books I've ever read. One of the biggest flaws for me was the way the relationship forms. Here's my take on it (from Kelley's point-of-view)-
God, that dude's annoying, but kinda cute.
God, that dude is still kinda annoying, but I think I like him.
*five seconds later*
(to Sonny) I love thee. (Direct quote)
Another odd thing I found was that changelings are fairy children left in the place of a mortal child, not a mortal child taken to live with fairies. At least, that's what I always thought, maybe I'm wrong. If so, please leave a comment. Anyway, for all it's mistakes, this book was actually okay. I think I'll buy and review it's sequel when I get back to the States.
Taryn
P.S. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!
Live long and prosper.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Firespell by Chloe Neill
Firespell by Chloe Neill tells the story of Lily Parker. Lily's parents are going on a research trip to Germany, and Lily is left in St. Sophia's, an all girls' boarding school. She thinks the worst she has to deal with are the mega rich brat-packers of St. Sophia's, but when she follows her friend Scout into the labyrinth under the school, she realizes snobby blonds are the least of her problems.
This book was good, not great nor awesome, just good. I liked the book and found it quite interesting, but it wasn't literary excellence. (Even though most of the books I review aren't literary awesomeness, this one seems to be even more afflicted with non-literary excellence syndrome.) The characters were nice, but seemed little more than sarcastic blobs thrust upon the pages of this book. However, even for all its faults, this book was a fun read, and I think others should read it too.
Taryn.
P.S. There are so many sequels coming out to books I've reviewed (Beautiful Darkness to Beautiful Creatures, Linger to Shiver, Mr. Monster, to I Am Not A Serial Killer, and now Hexbound to this book, Firespell). I'm thinking of saving them all up and a having a month where I review all of the books, the Beautiful books, the " "er books, the Killer books, and the "Single-Word-Even-Though-They-Shouldn't-Be" books. What do you guys think?
P.P.S. Seriously, are there any readers of my blog? Please, if there are, post a comment and say something like "Hi, my name is so-and-so, I read your blog." I want you guys to do this because on some days (like today) I don't feel like there's any use in my blog. I like saying "blog". It's fun.
This book was good, not great nor awesome, just good. I liked the book and found it quite interesting, but it wasn't literary excellence. (Even though most of the books I review aren't literary awesomeness, this one seems to be even more afflicted with non-literary excellence syndrome.) The characters were nice, but seemed little more than sarcastic blobs thrust upon the pages of this book. However, even for all its faults, this book was a fun read, and I think others should read it too.
Taryn.
P.S. There are so many sequels coming out to books I've reviewed (Beautiful Darkness to Beautiful Creatures, Linger to Shiver, Mr. Monster, to I Am Not A Serial Killer, and now Hexbound to this book, Firespell). I'm thinking of saving them all up and a having a month where I review all of the books, the Beautiful books, the " "er books, the Killer books, and the "Single-Word-Even-Though-They-Shouldn't-Be" books. What do you guys think?
P.P.S. Seriously, are there any readers of my blog? Please, if there are, post a comment and say something like "Hi, my name is so-and-so, I read your blog." I want you guys to do this because on some days (like today) I don't feel like there's any use in my blog. I like saying "blog". It's fun.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
How Not To Be Popular by Jennifer Zeigler
Sugar Magnolia Dempsey, A.K.A. Maggie, is the daughter of some of the biggest hippies you can find. Not only are they kind of embarrassing, but they move her around all the time. When Maggie was younger she found her life adventurous, now that she's older, she finds is cumbersome, to the extreme. When she moved from Portland to Austin, she left behind her group of friends and her boyfriend. She knows better this time, she will NOT make friends, she will not get attached, so when she moves again, it won't hurt, and she goes to extremes to achieve this. However, things go worse than she could have ever imagined.
This book was completely and totally, without a doubt in this world, awesome. I downed this book in two sittings. It was laugh out loud funny, I read the first 2/3rds at one in the morning, and I'm pretty sure I woke someone up (I'm sure some of it can be chocked up to my shriek like laughter, but my laugh has to be induced, does it not?). It was all very real and believable (I have yet to enter high school, and have been out of a normal school for three years, so I wouldn't know how true the social hierarchy is, but if it's really an exaggerated version of the kind of torture I received in third grade, then my God, she got it completely right.). Everything worked out as I would imagine it would if the events in the book were to unfold in real life. I love this book and it really helped take me out of my pre-move depression.
Taryn
This book was completely and totally, without a doubt in this world, awesome. I downed this book in two sittings. It was laugh out loud funny, I read the first 2/3rds at one in the morning, and I'm pretty sure I woke someone up (I'm sure some of it can be chocked up to my shriek like laughter, but my laugh has to be induced, does it not?). It was all very real and believable (I have yet to enter high school, and have been out of a normal school for three years, so I wouldn't know how true the social hierarchy is, but if it's really an exaggerated version of the kind of torture I received in third grade, then my God, she got it completely right.). Everything worked out as I would imagine it would if the events in the book were to unfold in real life. I love this book and it really helped take me out of my pre-move depression.
Taryn
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arther Golden
Memoirs of a Geisha is the fictional story of Chiyo Sakamoto/Sayuri Nitta and is set in the 1920 to after World War II. Chiyo's mother is dying and as a last resort, her father sells Chiyo and her sister Satsu to different places in Gion, Chiyo to an okiya, where geisha in training live, and Satsu to whore-house. Chiyo makes a new friend in the other geisha in training in the okiya, Pumpkin, as she is so fondly nicknamed, but also makes a new enemy in Hatsumomo, the resident geisha of the okiya. Hatsumomo makes life terrible for Chiyo in hopes of keeping her down with so much debt and making her make so many mistakes that she will have to remain a maid for the rest of her life. However, one day Chiyo breaks down on the bridge and a nice man who goes by Chairman, as he is the chairman of Iwamura Electric, and the Chairman helps Chiyo by giving her reassurance and a coin to by a snow cone. That day Chiyo makes a promise to herself that she will one day become a geisha in hopes of getting closer to the Chairman (she even prays to the gods). During the aftermath of the death of one of Chiyo's okiya's owners, Granny, one of the most prominent geisha of the day, Mameha, comes and sees Chiyo, then asks the other owner of the okiya to put Chiyo back in the geisha school, and offers to become her "big sister", as the mentors of the soon to be geisha are called. Mameha devises a devious plan to get rid of Hatsumomo and help Chiyo become a geisha. Chiyo succeeds in becoming a geisha, and her name is changed to Sayuri Sakamoto. The devious plan succeeds and Sayuri gets adopted by Mother, and her name is changed once more to Sayuri Nita. Hatsumomo looses it and is banished by Mother from Gion. Sayuri rises to become a very prominent geisha and wins the heart of the Chairman.
I love this book. Period. No questions asked. It's awesome and the writing is wonderful. The use of similes and metaphors is masterful. Sometimes, the use of similes and metaphors can be overpowering and it becomes superfluous, but in this case, it adds to the magic of the book. There is one major con of this book- the slow pace of the novel. The book is read as if it really were a memoir, and as with most biographies, that type of writing causes the novel to slow down in pace. This book won't make you tear through the pages, but you will love it, treasure it, and hold it close to your heart.
I love this book. Period. No questions asked. It's awesome and the writing is wonderful. The use of similes and metaphors is masterful. Sometimes, the use of similes and metaphors can be overpowering and it becomes superfluous, but in this case, it adds to the magic of the book. There is one major con of this book- the slow pace of the novel. The book is read as if it really were a memoir, and as with most biographies, that type of writing causes the novel to slow down in pace. This book won't make you tear through the pages, but you will love it, treasure it, and hold it close to your heart.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Slight warning and some big news (not a review)
Hello readers of my blog (if there are any),
I thought I should just let you guys know in advance some changes that are happening right now. I'm currently in the process of relocating to Colorado Springs, and I had to send 98% of my books today (95 books total, although I hoped it would be 100 or more). That may not seem like such a big deal, but it will take eight weeks to get to the States (they have to go by sea freight), I have only seven books I haven't reviewed yet with me, and I'm leaving on a jet plane (song reference) in about a month, and knowing me, seven books shouldn't last a month (considering there all pretty short, also assuming they would be captivating and I can remain on my stay-up-'til-four-AM routine). Therefore, I'm sorry if I should have to re-read and re-review some previous books. However, a month from now, when I am happily living in the barren, yet beautiful, snowy wasteland that is Colorado, I will be within 45 minutes from a bookstore, so, books galore any time I want. (Laughs delightedly, jumps up and down, and does a lame happy dance!)
Again, sorry if should, God forbid (but not really), have to re-read a book or two for this blog, please exercise mercy and spareth my life, for I am but a humble blogger, who wishes nothing more than to please readers with my words, practically nonexistent wit, and out-of-date Shakespearean speaking.
Farewell, wherever you fare, and may your eyries receive you at your journey's end, and
May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks
(book reference)
P.S. Sorry for my excessive use of parentheses.
I thought I should just let you guys know in advance some changes that are happening right now. I'm currently in the process of relocating to Colorado Springs, and I had to send 98% of my books today (95 books total, although I hoped it would be 100 or more). That may not seem like such a big deal, but it will take eight weeks to get to the States (they have to go by sea freight), I have only seven books I haven't reviewed yet with me, and I'm leaving on a jet plane (song reference) in about a month, and knowing me, seven books shouldn't last a month (considering there all pretty short, also assuming they would be captivating and I can remain on my stay-up-'til-four-AM routine). Therefore, I'm sorry if I should have to re-read and re-review some previous books. However, a month from now, when I am happily living in the barren, yet beautiful, snowy wasteland that is Colorado, I will be within 45 minutes from a bookstore, so, books galore any time I want. (Laughs delightedly, jumps up and down, and does a lame happy dance!)
Again, sorry if should, God forbid (but not really), have to re-read a book or two for this blog, please exercise mercy and spareth my life, for I am but a humble blogger, who wishes nothing more than to please readers with my words, practically nonexistent wit, and out-of-date Shakespearean speaking.
Farewell, wherever you fare, and may your eyries receive you at your journey's end, and
May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks
(book reference)
P.S. Sorry for my excessive use of parentheses.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Reread of the month- Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Ok, I decided I would write a brand new review instead of reposting the old one. I decided to do this because I wrote the first review for the series during my "Mid-Blog Crisis", therefore, it was kind of sucky. So here's a new one, hopefully better than the last. (I would like to stress that this will be much shorter and less detailed than the old review, by that I mean I going to give you a background story, ect., ect., trials and tribulations, *mystery*, so if you want more details, even if the writing is sucky, read the old one, but I would like it if you read this one too.)
Harry Potter is a wizard, though he doesn't know it, at least, not until his elevinth birthday. Harry's parents died at the hands of the most feared wizard of the time (possibly of all time), although his aunt and uncle (who Harry has been living with ever since the night his parents were murdered) always said it was a car crash. But when Harry turns elevin, the web of lies Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon have built falls down with a loud crash disporportionite to its size and weight. Throughout the entire series we follow Harry's journey that he takes with all the people who love him. Througout the series he goes through heartache and trials as we follow along peering into the world J.K. Rowling has created.
There's not much to say about this book other than AWESOME. Rowling's writing is great. It can be funny sad, sweet, and heartbreakingly wonderful all at the same time. You really get sucked into her world (and love it too). This is a wonderful tale for the ages.
Taryn.
P.S. I found a new vice (not that I had one before, but...), Harry Potter fan fiction. You should really go over to Mugglenets fan fiction site (here- http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/). Many of the stories are awesome, though some aren't. WARNING- don't go to the Hermione/Snape section of the the romance fics category (unless you're one to go for that), because you will have the image of Snape kissing Hermione burned into your mind for an entire day (and that day will be full of gagging and wincing and serious meditation trying to get that image out of your head), and then, whenever you think about that moment, you gag, for up to a week. So, don't go there (again, unless you're one for that). Also, I will give no reasons as to why I was in the romance fics category.
Harry Potter is a wizard, though he doesn't know it, at least, not until his elevinth birthday. Harry's parents died at the hands of the most feared wizard of the time (possibly of all time), although his aunt and uncle (who Harry has been living with ever since the night his parents were murdered) always said it was a car crash. But when Harry turns elevin, the web of lies Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon have built falls down with a loud crash disporportionite to its size and weight. Throughout the entire series we follow Harry's journey that he takes with all the people who love him. Througout the series he goes through heartache and trials as we follow along peering into the world J.K. Rowling has created.
There's not much to say about this book other than AWESOME. Rowling's writing is great. It can be funny sad, sweet, and heartbreakingly wonderful all at the same time. You really get sucked into her world (and love it too). This is a wonderful tale for the ages.
Taryn.
P.S. I found a new vice (not that I had one before, but...), Harry Potter fan fiction. You should really go over to Mugglenets fan fiction site (here- http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/). Many of the stories are awesome, though some aren't. WARNING- don't go to the Hermione/Snape section of the the romance fics category (unless you're one to go for that), because you will have the image of Snape kissing Hermione burned into your mind for an entire day (and that day will be full of gagging and wincing and serious meditation trying to get that image out of your head), and then, whenever you think about that moment, you gag, for up to a week. So, don't go there (again, unless you're one for that). Also, I will give no reasons as to why I was in the romance fics category.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Reread of the month
This month's reread of the month is Harry Potter. When I'm done with all of the books, I will repost the review I did this month.
Taryn
Taryn
Friday, May 28, 2010
Runemarks By Joanne Harris
Maddy Smith, the village witch, is left to deal with the goblins-in-the-cellar-problem five hundred years after the end of the world. Maddy Smith was born with a ‘ruinmark’, as the villagers call it, but when Maddy is seven and meets the mysterious traveler One-Eye, he tells her it’s a runemark. One-Eye teaches Maddy everything about runes, their meanings, how to cast them, and their fingerings. And, when she is fourteen, One-Eye tells her that they need to open Red Horse Hill to get to an item called the Whisperer inside. Maddy enters and sets off an amazing chain of events circling around the ancient Norse myths.
I completely and totally love this book. Harris’ writing is incredible, the pages are filled with suspense and wit, and the story is extremely well thought out. I love each and every one of the characters, even the ones I’m not really supposed to like. Some of the characters you see from the Norse myths are Odin (of course), Loki, Thor, Freyja, and Skadi. I would also like to point out that even though Harris gets much of the important information right, this book is based on the Norse myths and there have been changes made. (I think it’s important to note here, that I love the Norse myths, and I normally don’t tolerate fact changing, Harris’ story is so darn good, I just don’t care.) I didn’t give very much information here because to list every important event would have made this a very long post, it’s five hundred and thirty something pages!
Taryn
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about runes and runecasting, I created this document. All of the information is either paraphrased or copied from this site- http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/- it is very informative and even has some Norse myths on it. Harris also used different names for the runes than the ones on this site, just a heads up. Also, because the rune meanings got messed up in the document, here is the link to the rune meanings section of the site, which has graphics of the runes- http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/meanings.html
P.P.S. Here is a link from Harris’ website on the actual rune fingerings used in the book- http://joanne-harris.co.uk/v3site/books/runemarks/fingerings.html
P.P.P.S. (there are a lot of post-scripts in this post) Here are two books I recommend to read about the original Norse myths. The first is a large one, kind of like a children’s book, but the writing is not for little kids, but it’s a good Norse Mythology 101 book. The second is much more detailed and adult-like (it also looks like a regular non-kids’ book).
D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths- http://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Norse-Myths-Ingri-DAulaire/dp/159017125X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275076619&sr=1-1
The Norse Myths- http://www.amazon.com/Norse-Myths-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0394748468/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275076672&sr=1-1
I completely and totally love this book. Harris’ writing is incredible, the pages are filled with suspense and wit, and the story is extremely well thought out. I love each and every one of the characters, even the ones I’m not really supposed to like. Some of the characters you see from the Norse myths are Odin (of course), Loki, Thor, Freyja, and Skadi. I would also like to point out that even though Harris gets much of the important information right, this book is based on the Norse myths and there have been changes made. (I think it’s important to note here, that I love the Norse myths, and I normally don’t tolerate fact changing, Harris’ story is so darn good, I just don’t care.) I didn’t give very much information here because to list every important event would have made this a very long post, it’s five hundred and thirty something pages!
Taryn
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about runes and runecasting, I created this document. All of the information is either paraphrased or copied from this site- http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/- it is very informative and even has some Norse myths on it. Harris also used different names for the runes than the ones on this site, just a heads up. Also, because the rune meanings got messed up in the document, here is the link to the rune meanings section of the site, which has graphics of the runes- http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/meanings.html
P.P.S. Here is a link from Harris’ website on the actual rune fingerings used in the book- http://joanne-harris.co.uk/v3site/books/runemarks/fingerings.html
P.P.P.S. (there are a lot of post-scripts in this post) Here are two books I recommend to read about the original Norse myths. The first is a large one, kind of like a children’s book, but the writing is not for little kids, but it’s a good Norse Mythology 101 book. The second is much more detailed and adult-like (it also looks like a regular non-kids’ book).
D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths- http://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Norse-Myths-Ingri-DAulaire/dp/159017125X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275076619&sr=1-1
The Norse Myths- http://www.amazon.com/Norse-Myths-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0394748468/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275076672&sr=1-1
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Thirteen Reasons Why By Jay Asher
Hannah Baker committed suicide; Clay received a box of cassette tapes on his front porch after the death. Hannah Baker was Clay’s crush, so it is immensely shocking to hear her voice coming out of the speaker when he plays the tapes. Hannah tells the listeners that she made these tapes to tell each of them that they are one of the thirteen reasons for her death, so Clay had a hand in her suicide. Hannah explains everything from her freshman year to now, and Clay gets crushed with each word. He goes to all the places Hannah tells him to go, trying to find out why she did this to herself. In the end he finds out that it was only a matter of recognizing the signs and helping her.
I found this book to be very heartbreaking. When Clay’s thoughts interrupt Hannah’s narrative, every word is filled with misery, and I felt it. Asher’s writing is incredible. The story line was well thought out and detailed. But alas, the cryptic ending hath taken its hold on this book and its final pages are filled with questions and moments of “huh?” I really did like this book, although it’s not one of my favorites. I would recommend though (but not to anyone really emotional).
Taryn
P.S. I will be reviewing Runemarks by Joanne Harris next. I have read it before, however, but have developed a craving for it, so I will be reviewing it.
P.P.S. Have you noticed I made this review considerably shorter in comparison to my recent reviews. I had a mid-blog crisis where I thought, “no one’s reading this, so why should I care,” but then I thought, if I don’t care no one will ever read it, so, mid-blog crisis solved.
I found this book to be very heartbreaking. When Clay’s thoughts interrupt Hannah’s narrative, every word is filled with misery, and I felt it. Asher’s writing is incredible. The story line was well thought out and detailed. But alas, the cryptic ending hath taken its hold on this book and its final pages are filled with questions and moments of “huh?” I really did like this book, although it’s not one of my favorites. I would recommend though (but not to anyone really emotional).
Taryn
P.S. I will be reviewing Runemarks by Joanne Harris next. I have read it before, however, but have developed a craving for it, so I will be reviewing it.
P.P.S. Have you noticed I made this review considerably shorter in comparison to my recent reviews. I had a mid-blog crisis where I thought, “no one’s reading this, so why should I care,” but then I thought, if I don’t care no one will ever read it, so, mid-blog crisis solved.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells
I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells is the story of John Wayne Cleaver. John is a sociopath and is terrified he’s going to end up being a serial killer. He has always been fascinated by the dead bodies that enter his mom’s mortuary, fire, and serial killers. A year ago he wrote a chilling report for school about Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious American serial killer, cannibal, and necrophiliac, which gave him a therapist. The therapist diagnosed him with APD or ASPD, Antisocial Personality Disorder, which means that he is a psychopath, and therefore incapable of feeling emotion. I would like to make it clear however that even though is incapable of empathy, he understands right and wrong, and even goes so far as to have written rules for himself that help him not kill anybody. When a serial killer moves into town, first killing a local auto mechanic, gutting him, and leaving the guts in a pile for people to find, John gets very excited to study the serial killer’s methods, motives, and to do a psych profile. He realizes that doing any of these things will bring him dangerously close to breaking his rules, but when he finds someone who he thinks is the killer, he can’t help it and he follows him. The drifter, who he suspects is the killer, gets one of John’s neighbors to take him ice fishing, and when the drifter tries to kill John’s neighbor, the neighbor turns on the drifter and kills him. The neighbor turns out to be a demon. John tails his neighbor, and he continues to kill, until one night John makes an anonymous tip to the police and they dispatch two policemen to try and arrest the killer. When this goes horribly wrong, John decides that the only way to stop the demon is to kill him, and to kill a serial killer, you need to think like a serial killer, so who better to kill a serial killer, than a serial killer, or in this case a not!serial killer. John knows that he’s going to have to break all his rules to do this, but he does it anyway. He gets very close to murdering and/or stalking some people besides demon-neighbor, but eventually succeeds in killing the demon.
When I was describing this book to my mom, I used the words, which I decided I’d use here, this book is so creepy it’s awesome, and so awesome it’s creepy. I totally and completely love it. It gives a very interesting look into the mind of a sociopath (although I’m not sure if it really is an accurate description, as I’m not a sociopath, although I do have an intense love of fire, but I’m not a pyromaniac, one of the traits of the Macdonald triad, three traits 95 percent of serial killers have). It was full of dark humor, that wouldn’t really be all that funny in real life, but sound pretty funny (at least to me) on paper, case in point, this passage-
She’s great, I thought. She has a birthday coming up, and I found the complete guest list for her slumber party crumpled up in her family’s garbage can. She likes horses, manga, and eighties music, and she’s always just late enough for the bust that she has to run to catch up. I know her class schedule, her GPA, her social-security number, and the password to her Gmail account.
Well’s writing style is wonderful. I kept thinking all throughout the book how certain scenes would look awesome, and great, and scary, and awesome, and did I mention awesome, in a movie. Anyway, you can tell I’m in love with this book. Thank you for reading.
Taryn.
P.S. I will be reviewing the New York Times bestseller, “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher next.
P.P.S. I heard somewhere that this book (I Am Not a Serial Killer) would be turned into a trio, (squee!), if this information is true; I will review those books as close as possible to the release date.
When I was describing this book to my mom, I used the words, which I decided I’d use here, this book is so creepy it’s awesome, and so awesome it’s creepy. I totally and completely love it. It gives a very interesting look into the mind of a sociopath (although I’m not sure if it really is an accurate description, as I’m not a sociopath, although I do have an intense love of fire, but I’m not a pyromaniac, one of the traits of the Macdonald triad, three traits 95 percent of serial killers have). It was full of dark humor, that wouldn’t really be all that funny in real life, but sound pretty funny (at least to me) on paper, case in point, this passage-
“How’s Brooke?” Mom asked, muting the TV. I kept my eyes focused on the screen.
She’s great, I thought. She has a birthday coming up, and I found the complete guest list for her slumber party crumpled up in her family’s garbage can. She likes horses, manga, and eighties music, and she’s always just late enough for the bust that she has to run to catch up. I know her class schedule, her GPA, her social-security number, and the password to her Gmail account.
“I don’t know,” I said. “She’s fine I guess. I don’t see her all that often.”
Well’s writing style is wonderful. I kept thinking all throughout the book how certain scenes would look awesome, and great, and scary, and awesome, and did I mention awesome, in a movie. Anyway, you can tell I’m in love with this book. Thank you for reading.
Taryn.
P.S. I will be reviewing the New York Times bestseller, “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher next.
P.P.S. I heard somewhere that this book (I Am Not a Serial Killer) would be turned into a trio, (squee!), if this information is true; I will review those books as close as possible to the release date.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Before I Fall By Lauren Oliver
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is the story of Samantha Kingston, the picture of popularity. Sam has everything, until February 12, the day she dies. After a party, Lindsey, Sam’s best friend, runs the car off the road after something jumps in front of it. The next day, after Sam wakes up, it’s February 12 again. At first she thinks that her death was just a dream, then she realizes it isn’t. The first day, she lives the day almost the same way. She dies again. The next day, February 12, she tries to avoid death, avoid the party, but instead of dying, Juliet Sykes, the freak of the school, shoots herself. When she falls asleep, she wakes again on February 12. On the fourth February 12, she decides she doesn’t care. She dresses like a prostitute, fights with Lindsey, makes out with her math teacher, smokes pot in the bathroom with the school’s resident slut, steals her parents credit card, spends a thousand or so dollars on a dress for the party, goes to the party, avoids death. At the party, she almost sleeps with her boyfriend, but instead ends up crying in a room. The boy throwing the party, Kent, finds her, and they talk, not very much, but he gives her a guest bedroom to sleep in, kisses her on the cheek, and that’s the day that things start to change a little bit. On the fourth day, Sam stays home and does some things with her little sister, Izzy, and hangs out with her family. Sam knows that if she doesn’t die, that Juliet will commit suicide, so she goes over to her house and tries to stop her. When Juliet isn’t there, Sam goes to the Kent’s party, decked out in sweats. Someone tells her that Juliet locked herself in the bathroom, when she gets there the door is locked and she starts getting crazy ideas about razors, and pills, and cutting, and blood, and death, so she barks at one of the people in the line to use the bathroom and tells them to get Kent. He comes and opens the door, Juliet isn’t there, but they find the window open. Sam follows her footprints into the woods and finds her curled up on the ground next to the road. When Sam finds her she gets up, Sam tries to convince her not to jump, but she jumps in from of Lindsey’s car, and this time, Elody, Sam’s other friend, dies. Kent takes her back to his house and she freaks out from the combined shock and grief. Kent gives her some clothes and lets her sleep on his bed. Before she falls asleep, however, Kent shares a story she almost forgot, about how when his grandfather died, he started crying in the cafeteria and Phil Howell called him a faggot and threw his food tray on the ground. Sam picked up the mashed potatoes, shoved them in Phil’s face, stuffed the turkey burger down his shirt and threw a nice insult at him. Kent said to Sam, “You’re my hero,” and swore to himself that he would be her hero too, no matter how long it took. Kent gives her a fleeting kiss. Sam wakes up in a great mood the sixth February, 12. That day she really starts to see the beauty in her life (and is a little head-over-heels smitten with Kent). She does some weird-in-a-good-way things that day. She breaks up with her boyfriend, tries to find Kent to tell him how she feels, but she has to stop Juliet from killing herself again. Juliet reveals some interesting things about Lindsey. She steals Lindsey’s keys thinking that Juliet wanted to jump in front of her car, specifically, although it was just coincidence that it happened to be Lindsey’s car that killed Juliet. Juliet kills herself again. When Sam drops Lindsey of at her house, Kent drives her back. And then, when they reach Sam’s house, kissing, and love, and I’ve never been much of a romantic, but right then and there I’m smiling, and giggling and awing, happiness. The last day, the seventh day, February, 12 to the seventh power, Sam says goodbye. She gives her sister her necklace. She tells her math teacher off for hitting on high school girls. She breaks up with her boyfriend. She’s nice to people. Kent picks her up and they kiss yet again in the driveway, and although Kent thinks it’s the first time, it’s really the fifth time they’ve kissed (I know the math seems wrong, but some of the info that I’ve left out contains an additional two kisses). She saves Juliet, and dies in the attempt.
Now I know I left out a bunch of info, but the necessary stuff is long, so the not-so-necessary stuff would make things even longer. Now the review.
Oliver’s writing is pretty good, and I’m sure it will get better with time. The conversations seem natural, yet cheesy at the same time. The characters are well developed and as likable as they can be. I found when reading it however, that I wasn’t rooting for Sam, I was rooting for the Sam-Kent relationship. And I thought when I figured this out, well, that’s not supposed to happen. At least, I should be rooting for Sam too, but I wasn’t. However, it seems like I should say that I rooted for that relationship more than anything else I have ever rooted for. I really wanted that relationship to happen. I would also like to point out that on Sam’s last day, everything is so quick. I mean, I know that she’s done these things multiple times, but to other peoples knowledge, this is the first, so, isn’t kind of cruel that she just goes, “Hi, I love you, goodbye, I’m going to die now.” Other than that, I was really satisfied with the ending for once. The books pretty great and I definitely recommend.
Taryn.
P.S. I will be review “I Am Not a Serial Killer” by Dan Wells next. I can’t wait for a break from gushy YA novels and get to some blood and guts, horror movie in written form. At least, I hope so.
Now I know I left out a bunch of info, but the necessary stuff is long, so the not-so-necessary stuff would make things even longer. Now the review.
Oliver’s writing is pretty good, and I’m sure it will get better with time. The conversations seem natural, yet cheesy at the same time. The characters are well developed and as likable as they can be. I found when reading it however, that I wasn’t rooting for Sam, I was rooting for the Sam-Kent relationship. And I thought when I figured this out, well, that’s not supposed to happen. At least, I should be rooting for Sam too, but I wasn’t. However, it seems like I should say that I rooted for that relationship more than anything else I have ever rooted for. I really wanted that relationship to happen. I would also like to point out that on Sam’s last day, everything is so quick. I mean, I know that she’s done these things multiple times, but to other peoples knowledge, this is the first, so, isn’t kind of cruel that she just goes, “Hi, I love you, goodbye, I’m going to die now.” Other than that, I was really satisfied with the ending for once. The books pretty great and I definitely recommend.
Taryn.
P.S. I will be review “I Am Not a Serial Killer” by Dan Wells next. I can’t wait for a break from gushy YA novels and get to some blood and guts, horror movie in written form. At least, I hope so.
Friday, May 14, 2010
The Harry Potter Series By J.K. Rowling
Alas, the end I meet again. Alas, the pain in my heart comes into being once more.
Anyway, I should probably say before the review that even though my header states that I'm unbiased, I never thought that I would consciously decide to review the books that taught me to revere all books. So, in this case, I am slightly biased, but I did try my hardest while reading to be critical of the books. Now for a note on how this review will be done, I will give a summary of the story throughout the series, then I will go over some major plot points in each of the books, followed by my review. So, without further ado, the review of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter (and the *insert the remainder of the title here*)
Harry Potter (series) is the story of Harry Potter (character), an orphaned wizard sent to live with his Muggle (non-magic) aunt, uncle and cousin. When he is eleven, he gets a letter from Hogwarts, a school for witches and wizards. Hagird, gamekeeper at Hogwarts explains that his parents died at the hands of the evil wizard Lord Voldemort (referred to by the wizarding world as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, You-Know-Who, or the Dark Lord by his supporters), not by the car crash his aunt and uncle have been telling him. Harry goes to Hogwarts and meets two friends Ron and Hermione, faces multiple troubles, both trivial and not, tests, enemies, and various other things. The series progress through to Harry's second year (Chamber of Secrets), when a house elf (a race of enslaved creatures who are forced to do their master's bidding until presented with proper clothing) by the name of Dobby comes to warn Harry of a danger at Hogwarts. Dobby tries to thwart Harry’s attempts to get to Hogwarts and fails multiple times. Harry finds out about the danger, a monster in the mythical Chamber of Secrets. Hermione finds out what the monster is, and Ron and Harry enter the Chamber to kill the monster, and rescue a girl who has been taken into the Chamber (I won't say who the girl is, but you probably already know from either the book or the movie). In Harry, Ron, and Hermione's third year (Prisoner of Azkaban), mass murder Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban and is hell-bent on murdering Harry. There have been Dementors (faceless creatures that cause you to relive your worst memories, or if you've been really bad, will kiss you and suck your soul out through your mouth) wandering around to try and catch Black. Harry's Defense Against the Dark Arts teach, Remus Lupin, long time friend of Harry's dad, teaches him how to produce a Patronus (the only defense against Dementors) because the Dementors affect him more than anybody because he's had so many horrible experiences in his life. In the end he meets up with Sirius Black, and he finds out some things, including the fact that Ron's rat, Scabbers, is really Peter Pettigrew, friend of Harry's dad, Sirius, and Lupin. Pettigrew ultimately betrayed Harry's parents by telling Voldemort of their whereabouts. And unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade, you already know what happens next, if not from the book, the movie. In the next book (Goblet of Fire), the Triwizard tournament is taking place at Hogwarts, and Harry would be perfectly content with watching three other students from Hogwarts, Beaxbattons, Drumstrang fight for their lives, but no, it is essential that everything happens to him, therefore, someone placed his name in the Goblet of Fire (which chose the champions) under the name of a fourth school, so he has to play. So of course he survives the tasks, all the while trying to find out who put his name in the Goblet (and dealing with a crush). In the final task, he finds the cup and ties with the other Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory, but when they grab the Triwizard cup, it transports them to an old graveyard, for the cup was a Portkey (a magical object that transports people touching it at a prearranged date and time to a prearranged location). There they find Peter Pettigrew holding what remains of Voldemort. Voldemort orders the death of Cedric, and Harry is forced to watch as Pettigrew concocts a potion that brings back his master. Voldemort summons his followers and he and Harry duel. Harry escapes bringing Cedric's body. Dumbledore says at the end of term feast that Voldemort is back; we then cut off and enter into the fifth book. In this book (Order of the Phoenix) the Daily Prophet (the wizarding newspaper) and the Ministry of Magic have been saying that Harry and Dumbledore have been lying about Voldemort, and when two Dementors attack Harry and his cousin Duddly and Harry has to use magic to get them out with their souls intact, the Ministry calls a hearing to make the final decision on his expulsion from Hogwarts. He gets off, but back at Hogwarts, they find that Fudge, the Minister of Magic, made Dumbledore hire a Ministry official as their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and she refuses to teach them any defense. Eventually this pushes Harry, Ron, and Hermione to the point where they form an illicit D.A.T.D.A. club, by the name of Dumbledore's Army. Throughout the novel, Harry has been getting flashes of what Voldemort's seeing, so when he gets a vision of Voldemort torturing Sirius in the place Harry has been dreaming of for months, he goes to rescue him. It was a trap and a fight ensues, eventually ending with Voldemort's failed attempt to posses Harry. In the sixth year at Hogwarts (Half-Blood Prince), Harry takes many private lessons with Dumbledore in which Dumbledore shows Harry memories which feature moments in Voldemort's past. They find out that Voldemort made six Horcruxes (objects in which a person hides a piece of their soul), and that they have to destroy them to kill Voldemort. Meanwhile, Harry has been excelling at potions because of a book with helpful tips and tricks written in the margins. While Harry, Ron, and Hermione are dealing with romance, Draco Malfoy has been doing some mysterious things. When Harry and Dumbledore return from finding a Horcrux, they find out that Malfoy has been ordered by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore. Malfoy fails, but someone else succeeds. In the final book (Deathly Hallows), Harry, Ron, and Hermione go on a hunt for Horcruxes (hunt for Horcruxes sounds cool [the words, not the actual event]) while on the run from Death Eaters. They are forced to camp out in the woods, are placed under constant fear and worry, and take many detours and deal with resulting disaster before finally coming back to Hogwarts to finish it all. There they destroy the second to last Horcrux, Neville destroys the final, and a very epic battle takes place. I will stop here as to not give away anything I haven't already given away.
Now I know that was probably not very detailed in the way of explaining, but I trust that those who haven't already read the book will have seen the movies or at the very least understand many essential terms used here (mostly in the way of characters and their roles) .
I'd like to start by saying that Rowling's writing is beautiful, and I would expect no less from someone who has been penning stories from the age of six. The story line is excellent, and when you look, there are things leading up to things in the final book from the start, which is impressive. There are however loopholes, but if I were to say, I would risk spoiling an important part. I love the last book, it was awesome in my opinion. The writing dwarfs that of earlier books, the story line is again great, the dialogue is natural and unforced, everything just fell into place. My least favorites were the Chamber of Secrets and the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't like Chamber of Secrets because the plot never seemed to appeal to me that much. I didn't like Order of the Phoenix because of the whole teen angst thing. When someone writes about teen angst you're supposed to feel sympathetic to the character and relate, no matter your age, with this book, it just seemed very annoying, I kept saying, "Just shut up already, we get it, you're angry, now please be quit!" I assume Rowling forgot what it's like to be a teenager, or otherwise had trouble putting it in words. I love the story, and I always have, but I don't think it's normal to sob over the pages of a book, especially when you've already read it three times before. I leave you with a very Shakespearean take on my feelings upon leaving this series.
O, woe! my troubles hath taken over mine heart! Mine insides curl with pain, and mine eyes stingeth with tears of cruel departure! How fast it hath ended! How fast it hath leaveth me! Lo and behold my suffering! I faceth the unknown now, and may I be granted the pleasure of conquering it. Sad is my face as I turn my back on that which I love.
Anyway, I should probably say before the review that even though my header states that I'm unbiased, I never thought that I would consciously decide to review the books that taught me to revere all books. So, in this case, I am slightly biased, but I did try my hardest while reading to be critical of the books. Now for a note on how this review will be done, I will give a summary of the story throughout the series, then I will go over some major plot points in each of the books, followed by my review. So, without further ado, the review of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter (and the *insert the remainder of the title here*)
Harry Potter (series) is the story of Harry Potter (character), an orphaned wizard sent to live with his Muggle (non-magic) aunt, uncle and cousin. When he is eleven, he gets a letter from Hogwarts, a school for witches and wizards. Hagird, gamekeeper at Hogwarts explains that his parents died at the hands of the evil wizard Lord Voldemort (referred to by the wizarding world as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, You-Know-Who, or the Dark Lord by his supporters), not by the car crash his aunt and uncle have been telling him. Harry goes to Hogwarts and meets two friends Ron and Hermione, faces multiple troubles, both trivial and not, tests, enemies, and various other things. The series progress through to Harry's second year (Chamber of Secrets), when a house elf (a race of enslaved creatures who are forced to do their master's bidding until presented with proper clothing) by the name of Dobby comes to warn Harry of a danger at Hogwarts. Dobby tries to thwart Harry’s attempts to get to Hogwarts and fails multiple times. Harry finds out about the danger, a monster in the mythical Chamber of Secrets. Hermione finds out what the monster is, and Ron and Harry enter the Chamber to kill the monster, and rescue a girl who has been taken into the Chamber (I won't say who the girl is, but you probably already know from either the book or the movie). In Harry, Ron, and Hermione's third year (Prisoner of Azkaban), mass murder Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban and is hell-bent on murdering Harry. There have been Dementors (faceless creatures that cause you to relive your worst memories, or if you've been really bad, will kiss you and suck your soul out through your mouth) wandering around to try and catch Black. Harry's Defense Against the Dark Arts teach, Remus Lupin, long time friend of Harry's dad, teaches him how to produce a Patronus (the only defense against Dementors) because the Dementors affect him more than anybody because he's had so many horrible experiences in his life. In the end he meets up with Sirius Black, and he finds out some things, including the fact that Ron's rat, Scabbers, is really Peter Pettigrew, friend of Harry's dad, Sirius, and Lupin. Pettigrew ultimately betrayed Harry's parents by telling Voldemort of their whereabouts. And unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade, you already know what happens next, if not from the book, the movie. In the next book (Goblet of Fire), the Triwizard tournament is taking place at Hogwarts, and Harry would be perfectly content with watching three other students from Hogwarts, Beaxbattons, Drumstrang fight for their lives, but no, it is essential that everything happens to him, therefore, someone placed his name in the Goblet of Fire (which chose the champions) under the name of a fourth school, so he has to play. So of course he survives the tasks, all the while trying to find out who put his name in the Goblet (and dealing with a crush). In the final task, he finds the cup and ties with the other Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory, but when they grab the Triwizard cup, it transports them to an old graveyard, for the cup was a Portkey (a magical object that transports people touching it at a prearranged date and time to a prearranged location). There they find Peter Pettigrew holding what remains of Voldemort. Voldemort orders the death of Cedric, and Harry is forced to watch as Pettigrew concocts a potion that brings back his master. Voldemort summons his followers and he and Harry duel. Harry escapes bringing Cedric's body. Dumbledore says at the end of term feast that Voldemort is back; we then cut off and enter into the fifth book. In this book (Order of the Phoenix) the Daily Prophet (the wizarding newspaper) and the Ministry of Magic have been saying that Harry and Dumbledore have been lying about Voldemort, and when two Dementors attack Harry and his cousin Duddly and Harry has to use magic to get them out with their souls intact, the Ministry calls a hearing to make the final decision on his expulsion from Hogwarts. He gets off, but back at Hogwarts, they find that Fudge, the Minister of Magic, made Dumbledore hire a Ministry official as their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and she refuses to teach them any defense. Eventually this pushes Harry, Ron, and Hermione to the point where they form an illicit D.A.T.D.A. club, by the name of Dumbledore's Army. Throughout the novel, Harry has been getting flashes of what Voldemort's seeing, so when he gets a vision of Voldemort torturing Sirius in the place Harry has been dreaming of for months, he goes to rescue him. It was a trap and a fight ensues, eventually ending with Voldemort's failed attempt to posses Harry. In the sixth year at Hogwarts (Half-Blood Prince), Harry takes many private lessons with Dumbledore in which Dumbledore shows Harry memories which feature moments in Voldemort's past. They find out that Voldemort made six Horcruxes (objects in which a person hides a piece of their soul), and that they have to destroy them to kill Voldemort. Meanwhile, Harry has been excelling at potions because of a book with helpful tips and tricks written in the margins. While Harry, Ron, and Hermione are dealing with romance, Draco Malfoy has been doing some mysterious things. When Harry and Dumbledore return from finding a Horcrux, they find out that Malfoy has been ordered by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore. Malfoy fails, but someone else succeeds. In the final book (Deathly Hallows), Harry, Ron, and Hermione go on a hunt for Horcruxes (hunt for Horcruxes sounds cool [the words, not the actual event]) while on the run from Death Eaters. They are forced to camp out in the woods, are placed under constant fear and worry, and take many detours and deal with resulting disaster before finally coming back to Hogwarts to finish it all. There they destroy the second to last Horcrux, Neville destroys the final, and a very epic battle takes place. I will stop here as to not give away anything I haven't already given away.
Now I know that was probably not very detailed in the way of explaining, but I trust that those who haven't already read the book will have seen the movies or at the very least understand many essential terms used here (mostly in the way of characters and their roles) .
I'd like to start by saying that Rowling's writing is beautiful, and I would expect no less from someone who has been penning stories from the age of six. The story line is excellent, and when you look, there are things leading up to things in the final book from the start, which is impressive. There are however loopholes, but if I were to say, I would risk spoiling an important part. I love the last book, it was awesome in my opinion. The writing dwarfs that of earlier books, the story line is again great, the dialogue is natural and unforced, everything just fell into place. My least favorites were the Chamber of Secrets and the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't like Chamber of Secrets because the plot never seemed to appeal to me that much. I didn't like Order of the Phoenix because of the whole teen angst thing. When someone writes about teen angst you're supposed to feel sympathetic to the character and relate, no matter your age, with this book, it just seemed very annoying, I kept saying, "Just shut up already, we get it, you're angry, now please be quit!" I assume Rowling forgot what it's like to be a teenager, or otherwise had trouble putting it in words. I love the story, and I always have, but I don't think it's normal to sob over the pages of a book, especially when you've already read it three times before. I leave you with a very Shakespearean take on my feelings upon leaving this series.
O, woe! my troubles hath taken over mine heart! Mine insides curl with pain, and mine eyes stingeth with tears of cruel departure! How fast it hath ended! How fast it hath leaveth me! Lo and behold my suffering! I faceth the unknown now, and may I be granted the pleasure of conquering it. Sad is my face as I turn my back on that which I love.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Beautiful Creatures By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Let me start off by saying, if you did not know this was written by two women, you would never know. This was a pretty darn good book altogether, but honestly, the only thing that kept me reading through the 200 page mark was the fact that I can't leave a mystery unsolved and I had to write this book review, that and sự lãng mạn (that's one of my reasons for sticking with the book in a language I'm not telling you). But in the end, I'm glad I stuck with it for whatever reason in whatever language.
The book is about Ethan and Lena (as Leena, I didn't figure that out until around a hundred pages in, so here it is from the start). Ethan is a normal human being, a Mortal, and Lena is a Caster, like a witch but less evil-sounding. Caster's, at their sixteenth birthday, go Dark or Light, A.K.A. they choose when they're sixteen and full of teenage hormones whether they want to spend the rest of their life on Team Good or Team Bad. But Lena's family is different, the women in Lena's family are cursed to have their fate chosen for them, and Lena's scared she's going to get picked for Team Bad. Ethan has been having dreams of Lena, and Lena's been having the same dreams. When Lena moves to Gatlin (the town in which the story takes place), Ethan doesn't recognize her immediately like he should because he can never remember the girl's face. But what he does remember is her scent. So when he almost runs Lena over, and gives her a ride home, he recognizes her through her smell, lemons and rosemary. The rest of the story basically goes on with these aspects mixed together-
1. Ethan finds out Lena is a Caster
2. Ethan copes with Lena being a Caster
3. Lena's weird relatives
4. The Cheerleaders from Hell
5. Information that I kept thinking was meant to fill up time, but really does turn out to be helpful in the end.
Now on to the review.
I found it really refreshing to have a YA novel almost completely narrated by a dude (I say this because there are a couple pages near the end that are narrated by Lena). The book was good, long though. I kept whining to my friend and my mom that there were a hundred pages for less than 24 hours. The book kept me thinking, but I think this was only because I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words. It was written beautifully, but I'm not sure it had the best plot to back it up. This is the opposite of the problem with the last book I reviewed, Shiver, that had a good plot with not so good writing, and you need both to make for an excellent novel. Let me just say that I think the cover is awesome, but really hard to read if you stare at it too long. Besides that, I have nothing more to say. I bid you good bye!
Taryn.
P.S. I will now embark upon the journey that is Harry Potter *crossingmyself*, may God help me look at this critically. Help.
The book is about Ethan and Lena (as Leena, I didn't figure that out until around a hundred pages in, so here it is from the start). Ethan is a normal human being, a Mortal, and Lena is a Caster, like a witch but less evil-sounding. Caster's, at their sixteenth birthday, go Dark or Light, A.K.A. they choose when they're sixteen and full of teenage hormones whether they want to spend the rest of their life on Team Good or Team Bad. But Lena's family is different, the women in Lena's family are cursed to have their fate chosen for them, and Lena's scared she's going to get picked for Team Bad. Ethan has been having dreams of Lena, and Lena's been having the same dreams. When Lena moves to Gatlin (the town in which the story takes place), Ethan doesn't recognize her immediately like he should because he can never remember the girl's face. But what he does remember is her scent. So when he almost runs Lena over, and gives her a ride home, he recognizes her through her smell, lemons and rosemary. The rest of the story basically goes on with these aspects mixed together-
1. Ethan finds out Lena is a Caster
2. Ethan copes with Lena being a Caster
3. Lena's weird relatives
4. The Cheerleaders from Hell
5. Information that I kept thinking was meant to fill up time, but really does turn out to be helpful in the end.
Now on to the review.
I found it really refreshing to have a YA novel almost completely narrated by a dude (I say this because there are a couple pages near the end that are narrated by Lena). The book was good, long though. I kept whining to my friend and my mom that there were a hundred pages for less than 24 hours. The book kept me thinking, but I think this was only because I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words. It was written beautifully, but I'm not sure it had the best plot to back it up. This is the opposite of the problem with the last book I reviewed, Shiver, that had a good plot with not so good writing, and you need both to make for an excellent novel. Let me just say that I think the cover is awesome, but really hard to read if you stare at it too long. Besides that, I have nothing more to say. I bid you good bye!
Taryn.
P.S. I will now embark upon the journey that is Harry Potter *crossingmyself*, may God help me look at this critically. Help.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Don't you hate it when you have arguments in your head? Strange thing to start off with, I know, but I really do hate it. And don't you hate it when you want to know everything but you don't so you just silently torture yourself wondering why the world doesn't know these very pressing questions (I actually took this to the point where I don't think to myself because I will drive myself crazy trying to understand why I don't understand how I think to myself!). Well anyway, I was having little arguments in my head, and then screaming at myself because I don't understand how the arguments in my head work all throughout this book. Let me get on to the synopsis to procrastinate trying to put the arguments into words a little longer.
This book is about Grace and Sam, Girl and Werewolf. Grace was attacked by a pack of werewolves when she was a kid, saved by Sam in wolf form, never turned into a wolf for some unknown reason. And you know, the werewolves don't turn into werewolves during the full moon, they turn to wolves when it gets cold (don't you love YA novels bashing ALL myths!). Grace didn't know that it was a pack of werewolves that attacked her, but when a kid at her school gets attacked by wolves, and she later sees a wolf with his eyes in the woods, she starts to expect the truth. The police start to hunt for the wolves, and Wolf!Sam gets shot. For some reason he turns into a human again, and Human!Sam goes to Grace's house and waits. When Grace returns to find Human!Sam shot and on her back porch, she instantly knows it's her wolf because of his strange yellow eyes. Grace takes Human!Sam to the hospital, where he gets stitches that are useless because werewolves heal MEGA fast. Grace takes Sam home and hides him in her room (this is achieved through Grace's parents never being home). The rest of the book (up until the climax) tells of Grace and Human!Sam's relationship and struggle to keep Human!Sam from turning into Wolf!Sam. There are many revealing points including
1. Grace and Sam love each other.
2. Grace and Sam would risk their lives to be together.
3. Grace wishes her parents would love her more.
4. Grace and Sam think each other hot.
5. Grace and Sam ..../.-/...-/./..././-..-/ (that was Morse code, if you beep Morse code, you know what I said, if you don't, well, look up the alphabet on Google.)
Anyway, I won't give away the ending, but I will tell you that I hated it, but not for the reasons you might think, like, someone dies. No, that would be too commonplace and meaningful to be worth the fit I threw in my head, it must be something trivial! The ending wasn't a solid one, (yay! they kiss!!). I swear when I get around to finishing my book, there will be a solid ending (however, there will not be a million like in Lord of the Rings).
Now for the part I've been putting off, the review. I honestly have no idea what to say, I'm torn between wanting to like so much, but that would result in giving into the majority (to quote G.H. Hardy, It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people for that), and between wanting to hate for its stereotypical-ness. So let me explain my likes and dislikes. It was well written, but it seemed like the words were forced, almost as if the author had to pick and pull at her brain to get the right words out. There was a good story line. The characters were fairly likeable, but I never got to loving Grace or Sam, or any character in the book for that matter. I didn't like them all that much, I didn't root for them like I did other characters (Harry Potter, Maggie Quinn, Sayuri (Memoirs of a Geisha), Maddie (Runemarks, which I plan to review in the future, but it will be a re-read). Other than that, it was actually an enjoyable book, but unlike some other books, I'm not sad to leave it, nor am I happy, just, unfeeling.
Good day,
Taryn
P.S. I'd like to say that I kinda took the idea for the Human!Sam and Wolf!Sam from Rosemary Clement-Moore, it's on her blog, here's the link in case you want to read it. http://readrosemary.blogspot.com/
P.P.S. Completely unrelated to post, but I found out that on the list of Rosemary Clement-Moore's favorite television shows there is Phych! That is like the best thing on television since Bewitched! (There is also The Big Bang Theory, which I love.)
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Reread of the month, Maggie Quinn: Girl VS. Evil by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Ah, leaving a series, the hardest thing to do, especially if it is an abnormally awesome series, like this one. Here is the repost of the review I posted last month. There's an edit at the end, so, if you like, you can skip the review and go on to the edit, but I would enjoy it greatly if you read the review as well.
Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore is an amusing book full of wit and Sci-Fi movie references (which I'm a sucker for). The book is about Maggie Quinn and is the first in a trilogy of books featuring her. She goes to school in Avalon High with her best friend D&D Lisa and the Jocks and the Jessicas. When some freaky stuff starts happening, she starts to rediscover and accept her clairvoyant gift. With the help of her new friend Justin, Lisa, and Brian (surprisingly one of the Jocks) they save their prom from the ancient Babylonian demon Azmael.
In Hell Week Maggie has moved to the local collage, and for a spot on the collage newspaper, tries to infiltrate Rush. For those of you who don't know, Rush is what all aspiring sorority girls must go through. Maggie gets her spot on the newspaper and writes under the pen name Phantom Pledge. She eventually discovers some weird things happening in the Sigma Alpha Xi sorority that she pledged to. This activity turns demonic quickly and during Hell Week Maggie saves the day with Lisa, Justin, and Devon (a SAXi who turned on her sorority.)
And finally, in Highway to Hell Lisa and Maggie go on spring break (again for the school newspaper for a story under "The Least Likely Spring Breakers") Their car runs over a cow in the middle of the road with strange bite marks all over it's body. Their Jeep gets broken by the cows horns and they are stuck in the nearest Middle of Nowhere town, Dulcina. And by now you probably know what happens next, freaky, weird, strange things happen. Maggie and Lisa hear a rumor from the barkeeper that the strange stuff (animal killings almost exactly like the one with the cow that the girls ran over) is because of El Chupacabra a mythical monster that kills livestock and drinks their blood (hope you don't mind if I go off track here for a little bit, but ever since I heard Blood by My Chemical Romance, every time I see the word, I get the song stuck in my head). Of course the killer can't just be some monster that can be killed, it has to be demonic. Maggie saves the day with, let me hear it, Justin and Lisa, and one new addition, Justin's childhood friend Henry.
NOTE
From this point onward, I will be referring to the books with these acronyms-
Prom Dates From Hell- PDH
Hell Week- HW
Highway to Hell- HH
I immensely enjoyed each book but I feel as though PDH was great HW was good and HH was okay. PDH used the one thing that will win my heart in excess, pop culture references. It was fun, funny, and real (if you exclude the demons, and the physic powers). I honestly think anybody would like it, the main character is likable and witty, the supporting characters keep to their personality, and there's one gigantic plot twist at the end. I didn't like HW as much because the supporting characters weren't as developed as in PDH, which one thing I really liked about the first book. Also, the pop culture refences were kept to a minimum, other than that, the book was as enjoyable as the first. HH was, again, funny and awesome, but not as good as the previous two books. HH has the same problems as HW, supporting characters weren't as developed and even the supporting main characters (as I like to call the other main characters, like in Harry Potter, Harry is the main character, Ron and Hermione are the supporting main characters) weren't like Ron and Hermione but were like, um, let's say, Hagrid in the Sorcerers Stone and Dumbldore in the Half Blood Prince. And the pop culture references were almost nonexistant. I would recommend this book to anyone for that matter, but I have one final note, there is swearing in this book (but nothing too bad confined mainly to the S-word, D-word, and H-word).
Edit-
You find, when you reread a book, you are left with a greater understanding of the book, there is no exception here. I found out that the main reason I love this book so much is because it's not like other YA novels. Let me elabortate, here is my typed impersonation of a typical YA novel-
Boring girl- Oh, my life is so boring, I'm so boring and plain, I hate my life.
Oh, look, a hot guy, I wish he were my boyfriend, but who would want to be with me, boring and plain girl with a boring and plain life.
Hot Guy- I love you boring girl
Boring girl- You can't love me, I'm boring!!! And plain!!! And you are so hot, and gorgeous and god-like!!!
Hot Guy- You're not boring or plain, and I love you!
Boring girl- I love you too, even though we have only known eachother for three days.
Hot Guy- I know!!!
Sucky author- ohmigod, I spent so much time explaining how boring this girl is and how hot this guy is I forgot to work in a plot!!! Oo, here's one!!
Hot Guy- Look, there is a plot, and this lame plot will make this book even more sucky, I must try to destroy it, causing the book to be only slightly more sucky!!
Boring Girl- Oh no! I'm alergic to plots, both sucky and good! I need someone to save me to make this book even more misogynistic and lame than it already is!!!
Hot Guy- I shall save you!
Hot Guy saves Boring Girl in a totally lame and misogynistic way that involves killing the plot with The Dagger of Lame.
Sucky Author- Look, I made a totaly awesome plot!! Now my book is finished, and I shall send it to editors so it can be published!!
Dumb editor upon reciving lame and sucky book- THIS IS A MASTERPIECE!!! I will publish it to impose upon America this awesomeness that is really suckiness, thereby making modern American literature even worse than it already is!!
See. Anyway, this book is different, but I will point out that there are bound to be similarities like-
1. The book says that Justin is a chauvanist, I disagree on that point, I think that he may not be a complete chauvanist, but definitly thinks something similar to 50's standards, women should stay at home, and the men should do the hard stuff. I'm not sayting that this is exactly how he thinks, but if you read the book you'll see that it's more like "Women should stay and do the easy stuff because men should be doing the dangerous and hard stuff." I don't think this means that he thinks that men are the superior gender, but I do think that means that he thinks that women shouldn't be risking anything for the greater good and that men should be doing that kind of stuff.
2. In the book you do get the typical admiration for the 'hotness' of the men in the novel. But I do think it's different than my impersonation of stereotypical YA novels because Maggie doesn't degrade herself or think that she's not worth Justin's love, just that she thinks he cute.
I think that's it. Just so you know, I've read this series so much slower than the previous books because I got back to school when I started the reread of the month, so I don't have as much time for reading. That and I did get grounded twice from reading. (I'd like to add that my mom did go back on the promise she made to me when I was seven, that she would never EVER stop me from reading.)
Taryn.
Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore is an amusing book full of wit and Sci-Fi movie references (which I'm a sucker for). The book is about Maggie Quinn and is the first in a trilogy of books featuring her. She goes to school in Avalon High with her best friend D&D Lisa and the Jocks and the Jessicas. When some freaky stuff starts happening, she starts to rediscover and accept her clairvoyant gift. With the help of her new friend Justin, Lisa, and Brian (surprisingly one of the Jocks) they save their prom from the ancient Babylonian demon Azmael.
In Hell Week Maggie has moved to the local collage, and for a spot on the collage newspaper, tries to infiltrate Rush. For those of you who don't know, Rush is what all aspiring sorority girls must go through. Maggie gets her spot on the newspaper and writes under the pen name Phantom Pledge. She eventually discovers some weird things happening in the Sigma Alpha Xi sorority that she pledged to. This activity turns demonic quickly and during Hell Week Maggie saves the day with Lisa, Justin, and Devon (a SAXi who turned on her sorority.)
And finally, in Highway to Hell Lisa and Maggie go on spring break (again for the school newspaper for a story under "The Least Likely Spring Breakers") Their car runs over a cow in the middle of the road with strange bite marks all over it's body. Their Jeep gets broken by the cows horns and they are stuck in the nearest Middle of Nowhere town, Dulcina. And by now you probably know what happens next, freaky, weird, strange things happen. Maggie and Lisa hear a rumor from the barkeeper that the strange stuff (animal killings almost exactly like the one with the cow that the girls ran over) is because of El Chupacabra a mythical monster that kills livestock and drinks their blood (hope you don't mind if I go off track here for a little bit, but ever since I heard Blood by My Chemical Romance, every time I see the word, I get the song stuck in my head). Of course the killer can't just be some monster that can be killed, it has to be demonic. Maggie saves the day with, let me hear it, Justin and Lisa, and one new addition, Justin's childhood friend Henry.
NOTE
From this point onward, I will be referring to the books with these acronyms-
Prom Dates From Hell- PDH
Hell Week- HW
Highway to Hell- HH
I immensely enjoyed each book but I feel as though PDH was great HW was good and HH was okay. PDH used the one thing that will win my heart in excess, pop culture references. It was fun, funny, and real (if you exclude the demons, and the physic powers). I honestly think anybody would like it, the main character is likable and witty, the supporting characters keep to their personality, and there's one gigantic plot twist at the end. I didn't like HW as much because the supporting characters weren't as developed as in PDH, which one thing I really liked about the first book. Also, the pop culture refences were kept to a minimum, other than that, the book was as enjoyable as the first. HH was, again, funny and awesome, but not as good as the previous two books. HH has the same problems as HW, supporting characters weren't as developed and even the supporting main characters (as I like to call the other main characters, like in Harry Potter, Harry is the main character, Ron and Hermione are the supporting main characters) weren't like Ron and Hermione but were like, um, let's say, Hagrid in the Sorcerers Stone and Dumbldore in the Half Blood Prince. And the pop culture references were almost nonexistant. I would recommend this book to anyone for that matter, but I have one final note, there is swearing in this book (but nothing too bad confined mainly to the S-word, D-word, and H-word).
Edit-
You find, when you reread a book, you are left with a greater understanding of the book, there is no exception here. I found out that the main reason I love this book so much is because it's not like other YA novels. Let me elabortate, here is my typed impersonation of a typical YA novel-
Boring girl- Oh, my life is so boring, I'm so boring and plain, I hate my life.
Oh, look, a hot guy, I wish he were my boyfriend, but who would want to be with me, boring and plain girl with a boring and plain life.
Hot Guy- I love you boring girl
Boring girl- You can't love me, I'm boring!!! And plain!!! And you are so hot, and gorgeous and god-like!!!
Hot Guy- You're not boring or plain, and I love you!
Boring girl- I love you too, even though we have only known eachother for three days.
Hot Guy- I know!!!
Sucky author- ohmigod, I spent so much time explaining how boring this girl is and how hot this guy is I forgot to work in a plot!!! Oo, here's one!!
Hot Guy- Look, there is a plot, and this lame plot will make this book even more sucky, I must try to destroy it, causing the book to be only slightly more sucky!!
Boring Girl- Oh no! I'm alergic to plots, both sucky and good! I need someone to save me to make this book even more misogynistic and lame than it already is!!!
Hot Guy- I shall save you!
Hot Guy saves Boring Girl in a totally lame and misogynistic way that involves killing the plot with The Dagger of Lame.
Sucky Author- Look, I made a totaly awesome plot!! Now my book is finished, and I shall send it to editors so it can be published!!
Dumb editor upon reciving lame and sucky book- THIS IS A MASTERPIECE!!! I will publish it to impose upon America this awesomeness that is really suckiness, thereby making modern American literature even worse than it already is!!
See. Anyway, this book is different, but I will point out that there are bound to be similarities like-
1. The book says that Justin is a chauvanist, I disagree on that point, I think that he may not be a complete chauvanist, but definitly thinks something similar to 50's standards, women should stay at home, and the men should do the hard stuff. I'm not sayting that this is exactly how he thinks, but if you read the book you'll see that it's more like "Women should stay and do the easy stuff because men should be doing the dangerous and hard stuff." I don't think this means that he thinks that men are the superior gender, but I do think that means that he thinks that women shouldn't be risking anything for the greater good and that men should be doing that kind of stuff.
2. In the book you do get the typical admiration for the 'hotness' of the men in the novel. But I do think it's different than my impersonation of stereotypical YA novels because Maggie doesn't degrade herself or think that she's not worth Justin's love, just that she thinks he cute.
I think that's it. Just so you know, I've read this series so much slower than the previous books because I got back to school when I started the reread of the month, so I don't have as much time for reading. That and I did get grounded twice from reading. (I'd like to add that my mom did go back on the promise she made to me when I was seven, that she would never EVER stop me from reading.)
Taryn.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Reread of the month.
This is the first reread of the month, each month during the last week, I will reread a book I read and reviewed during the month. This month I'll be rereading the Maggie Quinn Girl v. Evil series. There will be a repost of the review afterwards.
Taryn.
Taryn.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a futuristic sci-fi novel for young adults. It records Jenna Fox’s life after her year long coma. She has been in a terrible accident and can’t remember a thing. Her parents give her discs recording all her life before the coma in hopes that she will remember who she was. She has trouble remembering the important stuff, like if she had friends, but remembers perfectly sock shopping. Her grandmother doesn’t like her for some reason, her mom is a complete control freak and her father is barely present. She is told that they moved from Boston to California after the accident for a more personalized care. Throughout the book, she makes discoveries and advancements leading up to a great realization three-fourths in. The rest of the book says how she deals with this realization.
I really liked this book and the themes it deals with, such as medical advances and ethics, also how far a parent will go to save their child. The book was great, but not very captivating, to be honest, if it wasn’t for the eight hour long flight I’m on, it would have taken much longer to finish the book. For some reason I keep reading books that I love but creep me out, maybe I’m masochistic in a strange way because I honestly want to read the disturbing books. One more note, another thing I love about the book is at certain intervals it gives you poem sort of composition, I’ll leave with three of my favorites that I love so much I want to type them up, go to Kinko’s, have it printed and frame it so I can hang it in my room.
Taryn.
I really liked this book and the themes it deals with, such as medical advances and ethics, also how far a parent will go to save their child. The book was great, but not very captivating, to be honest, if it wasn’t for the eight hour long flight I’m on, it would have taken much longer to finish the book. For some reason I keep reading books that I love but creep me out, maybe I’m masochistic in a strange way because I honestly want to read the disturbing books. One more note, another thing I love about the book is at certain intervals it gives you poem sort of composition, I’ll leave with three of my favorites that I love so much I want to type them up, go to Kinko’s, have it printed and frame it so I can hang it in my room.
There is a place.
A place where I have no eyes, no mouth.
No words.
I can’t cry out because I have no breath. The silence is so deep I want to die.
But I can’t.
The darkness and silence go on forever.
It is not a dream.
I don’t dream.
I needed it like I needed air.
But no one could hear me.
No one could listen.
No words. No sound.
No voice.
I couldn’t event dream myself away.
Choices were made.
None of them mine
At first I wondered if it was Hell.
And then I knew it was
A bit of someone here.
A bit there.
And sometimes they don’t add up to anything whole.
But you are so busy dancing.
Delivering.
You don’t have time to notice.
And then one day you have to look.
And it’s true.
All of your pieces fill up other people’s holes.
But they don’t fill
Your own.
Taryn.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
My Bake Day, here you go Auntie Maranda
Now, for anybody reading this for book reviews (though I highly doubt it considering the only people I see on this site are my family), but if there are any anonymous, non-family readers, sorry for going off topic but I promised my aunt I would write about our bake day.
NOTE- this may be long, I seem to be almost incapable of telling a simple, to the point story, helpful if you're writing a book, not so much if you’re telling an oral story to someone.
*typewriter sounds*-
0700 Friday, March 26, 2010
I wake, it is dark and cold. My mother is rushing around the house preparing everything, she tells me to get dressed, and I do.
*typewriter sounds*
0730 Friday, March 26, 2010
My mom and I enter our transportation vehicle, it is still cold, I think Hell has frozen over, time for the cheerleaders to kiss the nerds. The sun is starting to shine, but it has little effect on the snow leftover from the blizzard two days ago.
*typewriter sounds*
0800 Friday, March 26, 2010
We reach the house in which we will be baking, I collapse onto the bed and wait. The dog comes to greet me, I reply with a simple "Hi". I fall into a half sleep. I continue to wait.
*typewriter sounds*
0830 Friday, March 26, 2010
I hear the doorbell. It is my Aunt. She enters and she and my mother converse. The baking commences. We start with yeast for rolls. We prepare the ingredients whilst the yeast rises.
*typewriter sounds*
0900 Friday, March 26,2010
we mix the dough. We then let it rise for an hour and start on the almond roca at 0945.
*typewriter sounds*
0945 Friday, March 26, 2010
We make the toffee for the Almond roca. Mother again documents the event on her iPhone. We pour the caramel into the pan and let it harden a little bit, so it is caramel toffee. We place the chocolate squares on top of the caramel toffee and let it melt, we then spread the chocolate over the entirety of the toffee and then place and press the almonds onto the top. We let it cool in the fridge and wait the remainder of the hour.
*typewriter sounds*
1000 Friday, March 26, 2010
We start rolling the bread. I apparently get the rolling down pact faster than normal. Auntie Maranda makes one pan, I make two.
*typewriter sounds*
1030 Friday, March 26, 2010
We wait for the bread to rise more. Auntie Maranda's is done first, we place it into the oven at 1045, it is done cooking at 1100.
*typewriter sounds*
1100 Friday, March 26, 2010
My bread is done rising, I receive praise for the good placing and rolling of the dough. We bake the bread, it is done at 1120.
*typewriter sounds*
1145 Friday, March 26, 2010
While Mother is eating the bread, Auntie Maranda and I break the almond roca. We then eat some of the roca.
*typewriter sounds*
1200 Friday, March 26, 2010
Bake day is over, message will self destruct in 5 seconds.
*robotic female voice*
five, four, three, two, one.
*BOOM*
NOTE- this may be long, I seem to be almost incapable of telling a simple, to the point story, helpful if you're writing a book, not so much if you’re telling an oral story to someone.
*typewriter sounds*-
0700 Friday, March 26, 2010
I wake, it is dark and cold. My mother is rushing around the house preparing everything, she tells me to get dressed, and I do.
*typewriter sounds*
0730 Friday, March 26, 2010
My mom and I enter our transportation vehicle, it is still cold, I think Hell has frozen over, time for the cheerleaders to kiss the nerds. The sun is starting to shine, but it has little effect on the snow leftover from the blizzard two days ago.
*typewriter sounds*
0800 Friday, March 26, 2010
We reach the house in which we will be baking, I collapse onto the bed and wait. The dog comes to greet me, I reply with a simple "Hi". I fall into a half sleep. I continue to wait.
*typewriter sounds*
0830 Friday, March 26, 2010
I hear the doorbell. It is my Aunt. She enters and she and my mother converse. The baking commences. We start with yeast for rolls. We prepare the ingredients whilst the yeast rises.
*typewriter sounds*
0900 Friday, March 26,2010
we mix the dough. We then let it rise for an hour and start on the almond roca at 0945.
*typewriter sounds*
0945 Friday, March 26, 2010
We make the toffee for the Almond roca. Mother again documents the event on her iPhone. We pour the caramel into the pan and let it harden a little bit, so it is caramel toffee. We place the chocolate squares on top of the caramel toffee and let it melt, we then spread the chocolate over the entirety of the toffee and then place and press the almonds onto the top. We let it cool in the fridge and wait the remainder of the hour.
*typewriter sounds*
1000 Friday, March 26, 2010
We start rolling the bread. I apparently get the rolling down pact faster than normal. Auntie Maranda makes one pan, I make two.
*typewriter sounds*
1030 Friday, March 26, 2010
We wait for the bread to rise more. Auntie Maranda's is done first, we place it into the oven at 1045, it is done cooking at 1100.
*typewriter sounds*
1100 Friday, March 26, 2010
My bread is done rising, I receive praise for the good placing and rolling of the dough. We bake the bread, it is done at 1120.
*typewriter sounds*
1145 Friday, March 26, 2010
While Mother is eating the bread, Auntie Maranda and I break the almond roca. We then eat some of the roca.
*typewriter sounds*
1200 Friday, March 26, 2010
Bake day is over, message will self destruct in 5 seconds.
*robotic female voice*
five, four, three, two, one.
*BOOM*
Friday, March 26, 2010
Sweethearts (Zarr)
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr is a captivating story of love and loss. With that first description you would probably think, "God, another stupid chick-lit", but honestly, it's not really all that chick-lit-y. It's about Jenna Vaughn, 17-year-old high school student, perfect body, perfect friends, perfect boyfriend, seemingly perfect home life. But what the rest of the world doesn't know about Jenna is she used to be the "fat kid" the one who didn't talk to anybody, who got teased. Her only friend was Cameron Quick, child abused kid that was so totally weird, everybody would be scared (I think a good parallel would be a nerdier version of Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club with a little bit less swagger). On Jenna's ninth birthday Cameron takes her over to his house to show her the birthday present he made, only to be abused by his father in front of Jenna, they escape, but terrified only to be cornered again by Cameron's father. Cameron disappears shortly after this incident, everybody tells her he's dead, and Jenna reforms herself. Now I didn't mention this before, but Jenna was never Jenna, she used to be Jennifer Harris, that was the fat kid, Fattifer to use her nickname. Now Jenna's mom's remarried and she has a loving step dad, an entire new life. But on Jenna's eighteenth birthday she finds a note in her mailbox from Cameron and her life gets turned upside down. The rest of the book tells of Jenna's realizations during her time with Cameron.
This is a really thought-provoking book that I loved but also creeped me out a little bit. I was weirded out by the fact that Jenna has completely compartmentalized her life, there's Jenna Vaughn and there's Jennifer Harris, who is almost compliantly suppressed. The term 'compartmentalization' creeps me out in this scenario for two reasons, A. (this applies to all uses of the word compartment with any additions to the root word), now, I'm not a slob but I'm not a neat-freak, so I don't agree with compartments and cabinets and frankly, the word gives me a microscopic case of the heeby-jeebies, B. The whole part of the book that says that someone can completely force themselves to change and suppress their previous selves within, gives me a MACROSCOPIC case of the heeby-jeebies. Of course the parts I loved were awesome, like the fact that the 'Ninth Birthday Case of 1998' is revealed slowly in little pieces until everything falls into place, ecelente. Another awesome thing, the perfect placement and development of supporting characters adds just the right amount of crazy. This book is a must read for anyone, it tells of human nature and puppy love (a perfect combination in my opinion).
P.S. I seem to be saying that everything is awesome, but don't worry, I picked up some books that people said were complete bombs. Also, if anyone has suggestions of books that sucked please tell me, I need to work on my constructive criticism.
P.P.S. WARNING, if you get easily annoyed by fictional characters that are total shitake (substitution for the S-word I picked up today), you have been warned, proceed with caution.
Taryn.
This is a really thought-provoking book that I loved but also creeped me out a little bit. I was weirded out by the fact that Jenna has completely compartmentalized her life, there's Jenna Vaughn and there's Jennifer Harris, who is almost compliantly suppressed. The term 'compartmentalization' creeps me out in this scenario for two reasons, A. (this applies to all uses of the word compartment with any additions to the root word), now, I'm not a slob but I'm not a neat-freak, so I don't agree with compartments and cabinets and frankly, the word gives me a microscopic case of the heeby-jeebies, B. The whole part of the book that says that someone can completely force themselves to change and suppress their previous selves within, gives me a MACROSCOPIC case of the heeby-jeebies. Of course the parts I loved were awesome, like the fact that the 'Ninth Birthday Case of 1998' is revealed slowly in little pieces until everything falls into place, ecelente. Another awesome thing, the perfect placement and development of supporting characters adds just the right amount of crazy. This book is a must read for anyone, it tells of human nature and puppy love (a perfect combination in my opinion).
P.S. I seem to be saying that everything is awesome, but don't worry, I picked up some books that people said were complete bombs. Also, if anyone has suggestions of books that sucked please tell me, I need to work on my constructive criticism.
P.P.S. WARNING, if you get easily annoyed by fictional characters that are total shitake (substitution for the S-word I picked up today), you have been warned, proceed with caution.
Taryn.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Maggie Quinn Girl vs. Evil series (Prom Dates from Hell, Hell Week, Highway to Hell) {Clement-Moore}
Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore is an amusing book full of wit and Sci-Fi movie references (which I'm a sucker for). The book is about Maggie Quinn and is the first in a trilogy of books featuring her. She goes to school in Avalon High with her best friend D&D Lisa and the Jocks and the Jessicas. When some freaky stuff starts happening, she starts to rediscover and accept her clairvoyant gift. With the help of her new friend Justin, Lisa, and Brian (surprisingly one of the Jocks) they save their prom from the ancient Babylonian demon Azmael.
In Hell Week Maggie has moved to the local collage and for a spot on the collage newspaper, tries to infiltrate Rush. For those of you who don't know, Rush is what all aspiring sorority girls must go through. Maggie gets her spot on the newspaper and writes under the pen name Phantom Pledge. She eventually discovers some weird things happening in the Sigma Alpha Xi sorority that she pledged to. This activity turns demonic quickly and during Hell Week Maggie saves the day with Lisa, Justin, and Devon (a SAXi who turned on her sorority.
And finally, in Highway to Hell Lisa and Maggie go on spring break (again for the school newspaper for a story under "The Least Likely Spring Breakers") Their car runs over a cow in the middle of the row with strange bite marks all over it's body. Their Jeep gets broken by the cows horns and they are stuck in the nearest Middle of Nowhere town, Dulcina. And by now you probably know what happens next, freaky, weird, strange things happen. Maggie and Lisa hear a rumor from the barkeeper that the strange stuff (animal killings almost exactly like the one with the cow that the girls ran over) is because of El Chupacabra a mythical monster that kill livestock and drinks their blood (hope you don't mind if I go off track here for a little bit, but ever since I heard Blood by My Chemical Romance, every time I see the word, I get the song stuck in my head). Of course the killing can't just be some monster that can be killed, they have to be demonic. Maggie saves the day with, let me hear it, Justin and Lisa, and one new addition, Justin's childhood friend Henry.
NOTE
From this point onward, I will be referring to the books with these acronyms-
Prom Dates From Hell- PDH
Hell Week- HW
Highway to Hell- HH
I immensely enjoyed each book but I feel as though PDH was great HW was good and HH was okay. PDH used the one thing that will win my heart in excess, pop culture references. It was fun, funny, and real (if you exclude the demons, and the physic powers). I honestly think anybody would like it, the main character is likable and witty, the supporting characters keep to their personality, and there's one gigantic plot twist at the end. I didn't like HW as much because the supporting characters weren't as developed as in PDH, which one thing I really liked about the first book. Also, the pop culture refences were kept to a minimum, other than that, the book was as enjoyable as the first. HH was, again, funny and awesome, but not as good as the previous two books. HH has the same problems as HW, supporting characters weren't as developed and even the supporting main characters (as I like to call the other main characters, like in Harry Potter, Harry is the main character, Ron and Hermione are the supporting main characters) weren't like Ron and Hermione but were like, um, let's say, Hagrid in the Sorcerers Stone and Dumbldore in the Half Blood Prince. And the pop culture references were almost not there. I would recommend this book to anyone for that matter, but I have one final note, there is swearing in this book (but nothing too bad confined mainly to the S-word, D-word, and H-word).
In Hell Week Maggie has moved to the local collage and for a spot on the collage newspaper, tries to infiltrate Rush. For those of you who don't know, Rush is what all aspiring sorority girls must go through. Maggie gets her spot on the newspaper and writes under the pen name Phantom Pledge. She eventually discovers some weird things happening in the Sigma Alpha Xi sorority that she pledged to. This activity turns demonic quickly and during Hell Week Maggie saves the day with Lisa, Justin, and Devon (a SAXi who turned on her sorority.
And finally, in Highway to Hell Lisa and Maggie go on spring break (again for the school newspaper for a story under "The Least Likely Spring Breakers") Their car runs over a cow in the middle of the row with strange bite marks all over it's body. Their Jeep gets broken by the cows horns and they are stuck in the nearest Middle of Nowhere town, Dulcina. And by now you probably know what happens next, freaky, weird, strange things happen. Maggie and Lisa hear a rumor from the barkeeper that the strange stuff (animal killings almost exactly like the one with the cow that the girls ran over) is because of El Chupacabra a mythical monster that kill livestock and drinks their blood (hope you don't mind if I go off track here for a little bit, but ever since I heard Blood by My Chemical Romance, every time I see the word, I get the song stuck in my head). Of course the killing can't just be some monster that can be killed, they have to be demonic. Maggie saves the day with, let me hear it, Justin and Lisa, and one new addition, Justin's childhood friend Henry.
NOTE
From this point onward, I will be referring to the books with these acronyms-
Prom Dates From Hell- PDH
Hell Week- HW
Highway to Hell- HH
I immensely enjoyed each book but I feel as though PDH was great HW was good and HH was okay. PDH used the one thing that will win my heart in excess, pop culture references. It was fun, funny, and real (if you exclude the demons, and the physic powers). I honestly think anybody would like it, the main character is likable and witty, the supporting characters keep to their personality, and there's one gigantic plot twist at the end. I didn't like HW as much because the supporting characters weren't as developed as in PDH, which one thing I really liked about the first book. Also, the pop culture refences were kept to a minimum, other than that, the book was as enjoyable as the first. HH was, again, funny and awesome, but not as good as the previous two books. HH has the same problems as HW, supporting characters weren't as developed and even the supporting main characters (as I like to call the other main characters, like in Harry Potter, Harry is the main character, Ron and Hermione are the supporting main characters) weren't like Ron and Hermione but were like, um, let's say, Hagrid in the Sorcerers Stone and Dumbldore in the Half Blood Prince. And the pop culture references were almost not there. I would recommend this book to anyone for that matter, but I have one final note, there is swearing in this book (but nothing too bad confined mainly to the S-word, D-word, and H-word).
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a fairy tale for adults. It is about a farm, Manor Farm, to be exact. An old pig tells the animals on Manor Farm of a song he heard when he was a small pig, Beasts of England. Hearing this song arises a spirit of rebellion in the animals on Manor Farm. The animals eventually rebel and expel Jones (owner of Manor Farm) and his employees. The animals rename the farm Animal Farm and make it a place of equality. The pigs on Animal Farm, the smartest of all animals, lead the Rebellion, come up with "The Seven Commandments of Animalism". Animal Farm works in perfect order with only one battle of the humans trying to take the farm back. This works until Snowball (one of the pigs) proposes the idea of a windmill which will do much of the animals work for them. But then, Napoleon sets hounds he has trained from birth on Snowball and drives him out of Animal Farm. Napoleon then takes over Animal Farm and slowly turns the farm back to the tyranny it used to be. But this change happens so gradually that none of the animals notice enough to change it before it is too late.
I really enjoyed this book, but honestly, some parts after Napoleon takes over Animal Farm, I honestly want to kinda punch that two-faced swine in the face (two notes on that, A, I mean swine in the insulting sense, you know, "You miserable swine!", and B, I really do mean that, I don't care if it's a book or if the PETA and the ASPCA start knocking on my door, they should knock on Napoleon's). This book was technically excellent and a great study on the effects of tyranny, rebellion and the effects thereafter. This book reminded me of an e-mail I got from a Filipino friend (a chain e-mail), about a leader or something in the Philippines who said he had humble beginnings but the e-mail showed his house and how he was using all of his power to provide an overly extravagant life for himself. Whenever I think of Napoleon and post-Snowball Animal Farm, I think of that e-mail, and I think it provides a really good parallel for the book. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a thought provoking read.
4 7/8 (1/8 taken off because I didn't like it as much as other books I've read.)
Taryn.
I really enjoyed this book, but honestly, some parts after Napoleon takes over Animal Farm, I honestly want to kinda punch that two-faced swine in the face (two notes on that, A, I mean swine in the insulting sense, you know, "You miserable swine!", and B, I really do mean that, I don't care if it's a book or if the PETA and the ASPCA start knocking on my door, they should knock on Napoleon's). This book was technically excellent and a great study on the effects of tyranny, rebellion and the effects thereafter. This book reminded me of an e-mail I got from a Filipino friend (a chain e-mail), about a leader or something in the Philippines who said he had humble beginnings but the e-mail showed his house and how he was using all of his power to provide an overly extravagant life for himself. Whenever I think of Napoleon and post-Snowball Animal Farm, I think of that e-mail, and I think it provides a really good parallel for the book. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a thought provoking read.
4 7/8 (1/8 taken off because I didn't like it as much as other books I've read.)
Taryn.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
The question is, where to start. Well, we can start by listing traits of this book, awesome, funny, indescribable (either that or I'm horrible at putting my thoughts into words). It's about Bryce and Juli, boy and girl. Juli's lived in the same house all her life and when Bryce moves in across the street a few days before second grade, she flips. This book documents their life from both sides from the start of second grade to mid-eighth (don't worry, it's not extremely detailed, as it documents the major events). Bryce starts the book with this line, which I love,
This perfectly describes their situation until eighth grade, where everything changes. Up until then, Juli Baker loved Bryce (well, as much as a kid can romantically love some other kid), and Bryce vehemently disliked Juli. She was annoying, loved climbing a huge sycamore tree, and kept chickens for fun (not only that but she dived into the chicken coop filled with chicken poop to snuggle with her chicks). Then Bryce sees something in Juli, something he's never seen in anyone else before. I won't go into details on how this came up, but I think it worked out pretty perfectly. But what totally sucks, the moment Bryce starts liking Juli, the roles get flipped, Bryce loved Juli, and Juli vehemently disliked Bryce.
I haven't described the book in detail, because there's a lot to give away. It's not like I can say "This happened which caused this to happen, which brings about the ending" and not give the ending away. So, I'll just say that this book describes junior high in such a way that makes me wish I wasn't homeschooled (but then I turn on the TV and thank my lucky stars I don't go to normal school). It's great and gives me hope, people can change, and there are other complete weirdoes out there.
I have three other comments to make on this book, mainly regarding what other people say about it. First, some people say that Juli doesn't sound like a real eighth grader, I deny that, I'm in seventh grade and Juli and I have the same tone of voice and besides the tree climbing, chicken keeping, and boy loving, we think A LOT alike too. Also, regarding the Basket Boy thing (again I won't give too much details, but Basket Boys are a tradition started by Bryce and Juli's school, that elects twenty middle school boys that girls bid on, they have lunch with the Basket Boy and can skip the second half of school), I forgot where, but I have seen something similar to the Basket Boy tradition. And finally, the ending, I thought that sucked, but it was about the only thing that sucked, it ended basically "Maybe I'll go talk to him, 'cause we never really talked". BAM. END. So, I hope there's a sequel, and if there isn't Van Draanen's got some 'splaining to do.
I give the book 4 out of 5 smily faces ☺☺☺☺ (one taken off for the ending).
Taryn.
All I've ever wanted is for Juli Baker to leave me alone, for her to back off- you know, just give me some space....... She didn't just barge into my life, she barged and shoved and wedged her way into my life.
This perfectly describes their situation until eighth grade, where everything changes. Up until then, Juli Baker loved Bryce (well, as much as a kid can romantically love some other kid), and Bryce vehemently disliked Juli. She was annoying, loved climbing a huge sycamore tree, and kept chickens for fun (not only that but she dived into the chicken coop filled with chicken poop to snuggle with her chicks). Then Bryce sees something in Juli, something he's never seen in anyone else before. I won't go into details on how this came up, but I think it worked out pretty perfectly. But what totally sucks, the moment Bryce starts liking Juli, the roles get flipped, Bryce loved Juli, and Juli vehemently disliked Bryce.
I haven't described the book in detail, because there's a lot to give away. It's not like I can say "This happened which caused this to happen, which brings about the ending" and not give the ending away. So, I'll just say that this book describes junior high in such a way that makes me wish I wasn't homeschooled (but then I turn on the TV and thank my lucky stars I don't go to normal school). It's great and gives me hope, people can change, and there are other complete weirdoes out there.
I have three other comments to make on this book, mainly regarding what other people say about it. First, some people say that Juli doesn't sound like a real eighth grader, I deny that, I'm in seventh grade and Juli and I have the same tone of voice and besides the tree climbing, chicken keeping, and boy loving, we think A LOT alike too. Also, regarding the Basket Boy thing (again I won't give too much details, but Basket Boys are a tradition started by Bryce and Juli's school, that elects twenty middle school boys that girls bid on, they have lunch with the Basket Boy and can skip the second half of school), I forgot where, but I have seen something similar to the Basket Boy tradition. And finally, the ending, I thought that sucked, but it was about the only thing that sucked, it ended basically "Maybe I'll go talk to him, 'cause we never really talked". BAM. END. So, I hope there's a sequel, and if there isn't Van Draanen's got some 'splaining to do.
I give the book 4 out of 5 smily faces ☺☺☺☺ (one taken off for the ending).
Taryn.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Lois Lowry's The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger (companion novels)
Here I will review each book separately (as short as I can make it, it might be a little long, though).
Here's my review of The Giver, the 1994 Newberry Medal winner.
“The Giver” by Lois Lowry is a fictional story for young adults, but do not be fooled by that description, this book will make anyone think about the meaning of happiness, sadness, and the true meaning of love. This book is hypnotic and will capture your attention immediately with its meaning and story of agony and exultation.
“The Giver” takes place in the fictional future of earth. To be more specific, the story takes place in the mysterious “Community” where perfection, precision, and monotony rule the lives of its citizens. The Community, is what is considered the perfect utopia, where any misbehavior is punished, where there are no imperfections and life is lived in blissful ignorance.
Jonas lives in The Community. Jonas is the main protagonist in the story, and on his twelfth birthday, when all the other Twelves are being assigned to the job they will hold until the day they are unable to work, Jonas gets selected. Jonas is selected to be the Receiver of Memories and starts his job the next day with fear because the Chief Elder said to him during the Ceremony of Twelve that this assignment will cause him physical pain. During his days at work , Jonas learns of pain, war, happiness, sadness, and most importantly, love.
When Jonas learns what is really happening in The Community he decides to run away, taking the newchiled, Gabriel, with him. The ending to this book is different than most, considering it has no definite end, no definite happily ever after, no written “The End”. We know nothing of the ending, but we do know that it is happy because the goals are achieved. They are achieved through trails, agony, and the survival skills learned in Cub Scouts but are, of course, not taught in a utopia.
One of the bigger messages is the message of happiness and sadness. Lowry teaches that without true pain, there is no true happiness. This says that the citizens of The Community can never be truly happy, no matter how much they think they are, because they have felt no pain in life except the trivial bruises and scratches from falling of their bicycle. This lesson is taught through the memories Jonas receives. The Giver gives Jonas good memories at first, and he enjoys them, but after The Giver gives Jonas horrid memories, he learns to really love the good ones and learns true happiness. Lowry does an exceedingly great job of communicating this message.
As you can probably tell from the preceding paragraphs, I really like this book. Lowry’s style of writing and expression of feeling makes the fantasy seem real and the characters’ reactions to things that are trivial and normal in our everyday lives seem like things from another planet. She really delves into the characters mind, and I have a feeling if I showed her an item, or a song, or a book, she could tell me exactly how any of the characters would react to it. This book is a must read for anyone who can read, I definitely recommend to everyone.
Now here's my review of Gathering Blue.
Gathering Blue is set in the same time as The Giver, but in a different place, a VERY different place. The Giver is set in a utopia, a seemingly perfect world, Gathering Blue is set in the exact opposite. If I knew the antonym for 'utopia' I would say that that is what is written all over it. Of course there is more to the book.
It's about Kira, an orphaned girl who was born with a twisted leg. Her mother defended her at birth and her grandfather was very powerful, so the villagers didn't send her to the forest to be eaten by beasts like they did with all the other children with birth defects. The village in which Kira lives in is horrid, the mothers call their children tykes and abuse them by locking them in a pen like they do animals. After Kira's mother dies, a woman in the village, Vandara, threatens to take her home and use it to build the "Kid Pen", as I named it, along with throwing her to the beasts. This conflict is brought to the leaders of the village and they decide that Vandara will get Kira's house, but Kira will live in the Council Edifice and be a Weaver recruited to restore the Singer's robe, worn only once a year at the Gathering.
Kira goes through many trials during her time restoring the robe, one of these is discovering and nurturing her Gift (to make this more familiar, it is like what Jonas had in The Giver, his 'seeing beyond'), which is weaving things that almost take on a life of their own. The boy who lives across the hall from Kira, Thomas, the Carver, has the same sort of gift, but with carving. Kira's friend, Matt, eventually comes to travel to a place to get a plant that will make blue (hence the title) and comes back with not only blue, but with Kira's father, who was thought to be dead. Kira's father tries to convince her to come back with him to Village where people with birth defects are accepted. Kira turns down his offer and stays to try and change the ways of her home.
This book was good, but I think that it was slightly plot less. If you've ever read a book that you enjoyed but when you look back on it, you wonder why you liked it, that's what Gathering Blue is like. It is technically good and shows Lowry's way with words, but does seem a little pointless. I would recommend this to someone who's looking for something to fill up some free time, but not for someone wanting to read a good, thought provoking book.
Now for the last book in the series, Messenger.
Messenger takes place in Village, the place where Kira's father (from Gathering Blue) dwells. Matt (now Matty), Kira's friend who first finds her father, lives with him. Kira's father is known as Seer throughout the book. Here we also see Jonas, Village is what Elsewhere was in The Giver, he is known a Leader in Messenger, however.
Matty is the person in Village who takes messages to various lands, he hopes, when he receives his true name, that it will be Messenger. He takes trips through Forest to carry the messages of Leader to the lands beyond Forest. He is the only one who can repeatedly go through Forest, but not for reasons such as everybody else is too old, no, it's because Forest has a mind of its own. It will give someone a Warning (usually in the form of a prickly vine growing very rapidly and stabbing someone in the leg with it), and if that person doesn't heed that Warning and returns to Forest, it will kill the person by Entanglement. Matty has never received a Warning, but when Village is about to close itself to outsiders, Seer sends Matty to get Kira, and when he returns to Forest with her, both of them get Warnings.
"Forest is thickening," Matty heard Leader say, and on the return to Village, he hears Kira say the same thing. They both get very wounded, Matty gets acid burns on his arms from the sap of vines he had to cut through, and Kira gets her feet shredded from the vine Warnings. Leader ends up going into Forest to try and save Matty and Kira, but ends up getting almost Entangled by the vines.
He communicates with Kira through their gifts and Kira tells Matty to use his gift (I did not state it here, because I didn't want to give anything away) to save them. This is where the book ends, Matty saves them.
But this ending, in my opinion is horrible, a thousand times more cryptic than The Givers ending. I'm not sure if Matty died, or was just really badly wounded, or if Village ended up closing. The book ends with something akin to, "Leader carried Matty's body away". BAM, ending. Matty is probably dead, but considering this is the end of the series, I would really like a definite ending for once, Ms. Lowry. Anyway, the book is great, but the ending kind of distracts from the excellence of the rest of the book. I would recommend this to almost everybody, except people who are easily angered by a bad ending.
Here's how I stared each book-
The Giver- 4 3/4 (1/4 taken off for ending)
Gathering Blue- 3 5/8 (1 3/8 taken off for seemingly plot less-ness)
Messenger- 4 (one star taken off for ending)
Hope you enjoyed,
Taryn.
Here's my review of The Giver, the 1994 Newberry Medal winner.
“The Giver” by Lois Lowry is a fictional story for young adults, but do not be fooled by that description, this book will make anyone think about the meaning of happiness, sadness, and the true meaning of love. This book is hypnotic and will capture your attention immediately with its meaning and story of agony and exultation.
“The Giver” takes place in the fictional future of earth. To be more specific, the story takes place in the mysterious “Community” where perfection, precision, and monotony rule the lives of its citizens. The Community, is what is considered the perfect utopia, where any misbehavior is punished, where there are no imperfections and life is lived in blissful ignorance.
Jonas lives in The Community. Jonas is the main protagonist in the story, and on his twelfth birthday, when all the other Twelves are being assigned to the job they will hold until the day they are unable to work, Jonas gets selected. Jonas is selected to be the Receiver of Memories and starts his job the next day with fear because the Chief Elder said to him during the Ceremony of Twelve that this assignment will cause him physical pain. During his days at work , Jonas learns of pain, war, happiness, sadness, and most importantly, love.
When Jonas learns what is really happening in The Community he decides to run away, taking the newchiled, Gabriel, with him. The ending to this book is different than most, considering it has no definite end, no definite happily ever after, no written “The End”. We know nothing of the ending, but we do know that it is happy because the goals are achieved. They are achieved through trails, agony, and the survival skills learned in Cub Scouts but are, of course, not taught in a utopia.
One of the bigger messages is the message of happiness and sadness. Lowry teaches that without true pain, there is no true happiness. This says that the citizens of The Community can never be truly happy, no matter how much they think they are, because they have felt no pain in life except the trivial bruises and scratches from falling of their bicycle. This lesson is taught through the memories Jonas receives. The Giver gives Jonas good memories at first, and he enjoys them, but after The Giver gives Jonas horrid memories, he learns to really love the good ones and learns true happiness. Lowry does an exceedingly great job of communicating this message.
As you can probably tell from the preceding paragraphs, I really like this book. Lowry’s style of writing and expression of feeling makes the fantasy seem real and the characters’ reactions to things that are trivial and normal in our everyday lives seem like things from another planet. She really delves into the characters mind, and I have a feeling if I showed her an item, or a song, or a book, she could tell me exactly how any of the characters would react to it. This book is a must read for anyone who can read, I definitely recommend to everyone.
Now here's my review of Gathering Blue.
Gathering Blue is set in the same time as The Giver, but in a different place, a VERY different place. The Giver is set in a utopia, a seemingly perfect world, Gathering Blue is set in the exact opposite. If I knew the antonym for 'utopia' I would say that that is what is written all over it. Of course there is more to the book.
It's about Kira, an orphaned girl who was born with a twisted leg. Her mother defended her at birth and her grandfather was very powerful, so the villagers didn't send her to the forest to be eaten by beasts like they did with all the other children with birth defects. The village in which Kira lives in is horrid, the mothers call their children tykes and abuse them by locking them in a pen like they do animals. After Kira's mother dies, a woman in the village, Vandara, threatens to take her home and use it to build the "Kid Pen", as I named it, along with throwing her to the beasts. This conflict is brought to the leaders of the village and they decide that Vandara will get Kira's house, but Kira will live in the Council Edifice and be a Weaver recruited to restore the Singer's robe, worn only once a year at the Gathering.
Kira goes through many trials during her time restoring the robe, one of these is discovering and nurturing her Gift (to make this more familiar, it is like what Jonas had in The Giver, his 'seeing beyond'), which is weaving things that almost take on a life of their own. The boy who lives across the hall from Kira, Thomas, the Carver, has the same sort of gift, but with carving. Kira's friend, Matt, eventually comes to travel to a place to get a plant that will make blue (hence the title) and comes back with not only blue, but with Kira's father, who was thought to be dead. Kira's father tries to convince her to come back with him to Village where people with birth defects are accepted. Kira turns down his offer and stays to try and change the ways of her home.
This book was good, but I think that it was slightly plot less. If you've ever read a book that you enjoyed but when you look back on it, you wonder why you liked it, that's what Gathering Blue is like. It is technically good and shows Lowry's way with words, but does seem a little pointless. I would recommend this to someone who's looking for something to fill up some free time, but not for someone wanting to read a good, thought provoking book.
Now for the last book in the series, Messenger.
Messenger takes place in Village, the place where Kira's father (from Gathering Blue) dwells. Matt (now Matty), Kira's friend who first finds her father, lives with him. Kira's father is known as Seer throughout the book. Here we also see Jonas, Village is what Elsewhere was in The Giver, he is known a Leader in Messenger, however.
Matty is the person in Village who takes messages to various lands, he hopes, when he receives his true name, that it will be Messenger. He takes trips through Forest to carry the messages of Leader to the lands beyond Forest. He is the only one who can repeatedly go through Forest, but not for reasons such as everybody else is too old, no, it's because Forest has a mind of its own. It will give someone a Warning (usually in the form of a prickly vine growing very rapidly and stabbing someone in the leg with it), and if that person doesn't heed that Warning and returns to Forest, it will kill the person by Entanglement. Matty has never received a Warning, but when Village is about to close itself to outsiders, Seer sends Matty to get Kira, and when he returns to Forest with her, both of them get Warnings.
"Forest is thickening," Matty heard Leader say, and on the return to Village, he hears Kira say the same thing. They both get very wounded, Matty gets acid burns on his arms from the sap of vines he had to cut through, and Kira gets her feet shredded from the vine Warnings. Leader ends up going into Forest to try and save Matty and Kira, but ends up getting almost Entangled by the vines.
He communicates with Kira through their gifts and Kira tells Matty to use his gift (I did not state it here, because I didn't want to give anything away) to save them. This is where the book ends, Matty saves them.
But this ending, in my opinion is horrible, a thousand times more cryptic than The Givers ending. I'm not sure if Matty died, or was just really badly wounded, or if Village ended up closing. The book ends with something akin to, "Leader carried Matty's body away". BAM, ending. Matty is probably dead, but considering this is the end of the series, I would really like a definite ending for once, Ms. Lowry. Anyway, the book is great, but the ending kind of distracts from the excellence of the rest of the book. I would recommend this to almost everybody, except people who are easily angered by a bad ending.
Here's how I stared each book-
The Giver- 4 3/4 (1/4 taken off for ending)
Gathering Blue- 3 5/8 (1 3/8 taken off for seemingly plot less-ness)
Messenger- 4 (one star taken off for ending)
Hope you enjoyed,
Taryn.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Hello World!
May this post be a testimony to the first blog post I have done. This is my blog, The New Nerd. Named so because that is what my mom and her friends call me (more specifically, "The new breed of nerd"). I am a seventh grader, homeschooled, an avid reader, movie watcher, and music lover. I am a writer, and am working on a novel, although it is still in the very young stages. This is my blog about my book life, my movie life and my music life. Let's do this.
Taryn
Taryn
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