Hey-oh, read-peeps!
'Kay, so, more to discuss today. ;P
'Kay, so, more to discuss today. ;P
Good, but I wouldn't punch a child
to steal the last copy from them:
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
This
book is extremely well written and well developed. The imagery of it is
stunning, and the portrayal of its teenaged characters when it comes to that fancy
word “verisimilitude” being thrown around is spot on. That said, there was
something just a little bit lacking… a little bit… I don’t know. It gave me
that feeling where, when finished, I felt like things had gone somewhere I
hadn’t expected them to, but in an overly optimistic way. In other words, if
you’re expecting something awful to happen by the end of the book, take a deep
breath, only a few awful things happen. Is that a spoiler? Meh. Sorry. No, but
really. This book is so well written that I thought some like crazy awesome
gut-wrenching moment was going to occur at the end of the book. I don’t know if
I’m just a hard person to wrench in the gut area, but um… I didn’t feel like
I’d been emotionally bulldozed. (FYI: I like being emotionally bulldozed. I
find it refreshing.) That factor aside, this book is brilliant, along with
everything it entitles. If you’re a fan of magical powers, time traveling, and
travelling in general, this book should be right up your alley. It’s got a
timeless appeal (har de har har, that’s a joke you’ll get once you’ve started
to read it) that some books can just never seem to master. Also, judging by the
way the story ends, this book may have a sequel to follow it up. If that
intrigues you, pick it up. It’s a winner in my book. :)
I seriously wasted my time reading this.
What is wrong with me? Ashamed:
Glimmerglass by Jenna Black
Alright, so I’m not gonna
lie, I read past this book. I read the second book in the series, Shadowspell. However, I can’t even
remember if I read the third book, Sirensong,
which, readers, is frankly sad. That means this series, of all the series I’ve
read, can’t even keep me interested. Damn. I’m pretty sure I read that third
book, but jeez. Nope. Can’t remember a thing. Okay, let me give you the
rundown. Glimmerglass is the first
book in the Faeriewalker Series. It follows a girl, Dana, who is easy to get
along with, especially because you feel for her, what with her alchie mom and
absent father. She ends up traveling to meet her father after her mother
thoroughly embarrasses the crap out of her at a voice recital. Her father, a
mysterious figure, lives in a place called Avalon. In Avalon, the fey and
humans live together (AU, weird but understood). Also in Avalon, Dana finds out
she’s a Faeriewalker, which is supposed to be some crazy big deal but which I
also got pretty much nothing out of. Then Dana meets like 3659326653+ love
interests, and the plotline turns into a reverse harem. Only mangas can get
away with reverse harems, and that’s because, unless they’re awesome funny like
Ouran High School Host Club, they’re emotion porn. Just saying. Tis the truth.
Reverse harem example: Ouran, and its awesomeness.
Sparknotes version of my
feedback: don’t read this series. It turns into garbage. Am I calling reverse
harems garbage? Yes. Don’t get mad about it. I just admitted to reading one of
them, which implies I’ve read more than one. Me. Emotion porn. :O
I thought this was going to be waaaaay better,
but it's still pretty dope, I guess:
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Alright, this book is old.
I know! Leave me alone about it! ANYWAY, let me talk about it since I’ve read
it recently. Cool world. Cool way of incorporating magic into it. Sabriel is
kind of a badass, although I think I liked her cat, Mogget, more than anything.
Something about cats that can talk because they’re really demons who have been
tethered to a specific form, ideally imprisoned with collars I imagine obnoxious
bells attached to, is pretty suhweet. This book is dark. I like the darkness; I
also like that the story is about a daughter, not a son, searching for her
father rather than her mother (who’s dead anyway, but so what, props to the
author for originality). The whole necromancer thing and the bells Sabriel uses
to control the dead are my favorite aspects of the book. I also really like how
I can follow the map with the story. Usually, I don’t pay that much attention
to maps to be honest. That said, here I go being picky again, there was
something lacking. I think maybe the romance was too little then all at once
and unbelievable? Also, I don’t think there needed to be romance for this book
to work. Yes, I know the other books in this series follow the children of
Sabriel, so romance IS necessary to see how the idea of having children
occurred to her, etc., but so what. Being picky means I expect quality the
whole way through. I felt like everything else was so fleshed out it made
Sabriel’s relationship with the person she fell in love with seem incomprehensible.
I think it might have had something to do with the author being unfamiliar with
the romance genre. I dunno. Therefore, I say, “Nice job, Mr. Nix, but I think
you can do better.” And maybe he does in the later books?
ZOMGAHDS, luv:
Under The Never Sky by
Veronica Rossi
I really dig this series.
Sci-fi at its highest points, I’d say. Girl in named Aria lives in a dome-like
community where people never go outside, seeing as it’s breeding grounds for
Aether, which equals radiation and death. Anyway in her dome community, called Reverie, she (the majority of the time) lives in a virtual world called the Realms. In the
Realms, you can be whatever you want to be, go wherever you want to go, do
whatever you want to do. Think MMORPG, but, like, with whatever you want. They
have a saying concerning the Realms: better
than real life. Yeah, well, Aria, a fan of them herself, gets kicked out of
them and of Reverie after she causes an accident with one of Reverie’s
political leaders’ sons. Enter Peregrine, a.k.a. Perry. Outside of Aria’s dome,
people like him, people who can stand the outside world’s brutal air, are
barbarians, monsters with special powers, like heightened hearing and smell.
Aria, when she’s thrown to the elements, runs into Perry, and by chance, they
end up reluctantly allying with one another when they find they both are
heading to the same place, but for different reasons. Perry’s nephew has been
kidnapped by scientists Aria might know, seeing as she’s trying to find a way
to reach her mother, who is a scientist herself. Crazy stuff happens. Great plot. Great world
building. Great characterization. Great character development. This series has
it all—war, love, disease, a magic of sorts, technology, and oomph. Love it,
and would recommend it to any sci-fi nerd, especially if you’re into books like
Feed or even a fangirl/fanboy of
video games, salivating for the day they become virtual. 1st book in
series. 2nd book is out and just as awesome. :D
A little exasperating, but I'm still here
and will be there for the next one:
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Sci-fi. About a world in
which people are broken up by numbers. They number you based on your
upbringing/profession, much akin to a caste system. In this book, set roughly
300 years in the future, there is an established monarchy. Prince Maxon, a 1, (and
very Prince Charming, I would say, wiggling my eyebrows) arranges a competition
where girls of all numbers/castes, compete for his hand in marriage. Think The Bachelor if it included a prince
girls were competing for instead of some wealthy schmuck. Also, everything is a
little more high tension, thanks to class/number ranking disputes. Also! I
guess it’s reminiscent of The Hunger
Games, though they're competing for a change of status and their future lives
in the sense of how they’ll play out afterwards rather than dying horrible
deaths during the competition. Main character, America Singer (Awesome name,
right?), rank of not so awesome 7, is “selected” for the competition. Prior to
competing, she’s not really wanted to do so, seeing as she’s already in love
with someone else, someone with a lower rank than her, which makes him rather
undesirable because, by marrying him, her caste number will drop down. The
dude’s name is Aspen. America doesn’t care, and she’s willing to sacrifice
everything for him. That is, until he has apparently (or at least with the
evidence given) been flirting up a storm with other girls. Then she’s totally
cool with leaving her hometown and competing, because, surprise, even if she
didn’t enter the competition herself, someone else did that for her. Since “the
selection” can improve your ranking just by being publically televised in it,
even if she has to shove her broken feelings in a corner and forget about them,
she’s pretty cool about it. She gets to the castle, and makes it apparent that
she’s more interested in becoming friends with the prince and helping him find
the perfect bride, since she’s got a heart that’s been stomped on only too two
days ago. The prince tells her that he’d like an ally like her. Then things get
awkward because the reader realizes that he really likes her because she’s so
different from the other girls, maybe even sees her offering of friendship as a
challenge to win her recovering heart over. It’s even kind of working until the
guy who broke her heart from the start (Remember him? Aspen?) enters the
picture, obtaining a job as a palace guard. Writing? Not the best. Enjoyable?
Yeah, I’ll admit it was. It’s kind of like the TV show it mimics. You watch the
show, telling yourself you could be doing other things, but somehow you can’t
look away. It’s the drama of it all. It’s damn addicting. This book is similar
to that, only I’d say the drama goes a little over the top when her old fling
shows back up to compete for her affections again. I, frankly, find his
character stale and over-possessive. You had your chance, guy. You effed up.
This girl deserves a prince, and I think she should have one. Alright. Let’s
wrap this up. The love triangle can become exceedingly annoying in this, word
of warning. If you’re like me, you’re like, “Drop the guy named after a
freaking tree. Too little too late. Maxon for the win.” However, the whole
caste system thing and the relationships between the girls in the competition I
find I genuinely enjoyed. Apparently the CW is working on a show for this?
Cool? 2nd book comes out soon.
Alright. More to come soon! Thanks for reading!
(In general and in reference to my blog...)
Tootles, and till next time!
-Alex
