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.

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.)

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.