Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.8 Stars Content Rating: PG (there's just a wee bit of strong language) Seventh-grader Sierra Shepard has always been the perfect student, so when she sees that she accidentally brought her mother's lunch bag to school, including a paring knife, she immediately turns in the knife at the school office. Much to her surprise, her beloved principal places her in in-school suspension and sets a hearing for her expulsion, citing the school's ironclad no weapons policy. While there, Sierra spends time with Luke, a boy who's known as a troublemaker, and discovers that he's not the person she assumed he would be--and that the lines between good and bad aren't as clear as she once thought. (goodreads.com) Lately, I’ve been wanting to reading more middle grade books. Why? Because a lot of the time they are stand alones (which is something I appreciate more and more as my TBR list gets longer) and they don’t take a ton of brain power to dissect character motives, love triangles, complicated governments, and even more complicated magic systems. Sometimes, I just want to read a book that will tell me things without me having to invest in reading the whole series to get answers. Sometimes, I just want to be satisfied by a character doing something for no other reason than they wanted to and not because they are choosing between life and death. Sometimes, I like to go back to when I was a young warthog (cue Lion King soundtrack) and I loved reading just to be having fun with a story for no reason. So, I checked out a large stack of middle grade novels from my local library (my current place of employment, BTW) and I started in on them this morning. Another nice thing about middle grade novels is that they tend to be shorter than YA and I finished Zero Tolerance this afternoon. This isn’t the kind of book I liked to read when I was of the age of the target audience for this book. I read a few school stories, but I was far more interested in fairies, dragons, princesses who broke tradition, and charming bands of misguided prince charmings. I liked fantasy a lot, and that was mostly what I read. It’s mostly what I read now, actually, though I’ve expanded my horizons some. School stories never really held my interest as a youngster, so I honestly have no idea why I picked up this book. Once I did the summary made me curious enough to check it out, because it sounds like a good story to be told. Regardless of what I liked and did not like as a middle school kid, I enjoyed this book as a young adult-ish person. Is it my favorite read of the year? No. Is it my favorite read of the month? Actually… probably so far. I’ve been reading a lot of YA recently and this was a nice break. This story was not earth shakingly profound. It didn’t even discuss the politics behind the main problem of the book. It didn’t have long paragraphs discussing internal struggles and the possible consequences of Sierra’s actions. It just told it like it was with a brief sprinkling of discussing what was right and wrong. There was no agonizing conflict about it. What happened, happened, and they rolled with it. To someone who was looking for a book to read and take a break from thinking with, this didn’t bother me at all. As a reviewer looking back on it, okay, sure, Zero Tolerance probably should have spent a little less time worrying over middle school crushes and more time discussing zero tolerance policies in schools and whether or not Sierra should be exempt from punishment because her actions were an accident. It probably should have gotten a little bit meatier with the matter at hand. It did leave me feeling a little bit like I’d just been told someone’s memory about a thing that happened in junior high, that they bring up on occasion because it’s an interesting story. Like, when a relative tells you about a weird thing that happened when they were in school, but the story doesn’t really have a moral to it, they’re just telling you because it’s interesting and entertaining. The characters weren’t particularly memorable, if I’m being honest. I probably won’t remember Sierra Shepard as a great literary character and though Luke was interesting, I’ll probably forget why I liked his character as I move on with life. Colin was funny (though I’m not sure he was supposed to be). Celeste, Lexi, and Em were all your stereotypical protagonist friends and that was kinda meh. But they were fun characters who said fun things and behaved relatably. What more can you ask from a book than to be entertained by its characters and story? There was a bit of a love story, sorta. As much as there can be with seventh graders, I guess (I don’t know because in seventh grade the only time I left the house was for basketball practice so I am lacking in knowledge for what’s normal for seventh grade romance). I thought it was cute. It wasn’t really resolved, but I thought it was cute. It was nice that the So, why I don’t feel like I gained much from reading this book, I had fun. As far as non fantasy books go, it was pretty great. Don’t be surprised if my next few posts are about middle grade books. I’m also thinking about getting a ton of picture books and reviewing a whole bunch in one post, just because I really like picture books and they are fun and tell better jokes than YA books. And they always have a way more daring premise than YA books do. I mean, have you ever seen a Teen or Young Adult book that questioned the possibilities of having a whale in your swimming pool? I don’t think so. Picture books are looking at the real issues here. Well, I’m off to befriend everyone in detention or suspension or whatever! Ta-ta! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15927527-zero-tolerance?ac=1&from_search=true
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Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.72 Stars Content Rating: Strong PG Parallel stories set in different times, one told in prose and one in pictures, converge as a Ella unravels the mystery of the girl next door. 1982: Mary is a lonely orphan at the Thornhill Institute for Children at the very moment that it's shutting its doors. When her few friends are all adopted or re-homed and she is left to face a volatile bully alone, her revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself. 2017: Ella has just moved to a new town where she knows no one. From her room on the top floor of her new home, she has a perfect view of the dilapidated, abandoned Thornhill Institute across the way, where she glimpses a girl in the window. Determined to befriend the girl, Ella resolves to unravel Thornhill's shadowy past. Told in alternating, interwoven plotlines—Mary's through intimate diary entries and Ella's in bold, striking art—Pam Smy's Thornhill is a haunting exploration of human connection, and a suspense-filled story. (goodreads.com) In honor of this book being halfway told by beautiful illustrations, I’ve decided to share how I came across this book and part of my reaction to it in picture form. Enjoy my fantastic art skills: After that you probably don’t even need me to give my usual kind of remarks on the book, but since Thornhill is also told with words I’d better use some too. Let me say that I have mixed feelings about this book. So if I seem a bit back and forth about whether I liked it or not it’s because I’m not sure. For one thing, I thought the story telling was very well done and the illustrations were amazing. I loved that it was a different format from your typical novel and I love the dark lack-of-color scheme. It just looks so enticing and spooky and wonderful. It is a visually appealing book and I love that. But the story, man! It was well told and I was interested all the way through. I was fully invested in the characters. And I can’t say much without spoilers, but yeesh! That ending made me made, sad, frustrated, oddly happy, and satisfied all at the same time (I had similar feelings after Avengers: Infinity War). I don’t know how that happened but I kind of like a book that leaves me reeling, you know? It makes the excitement more authentic I think. Basically, this book was about two girls with thirty-five years that separate them who both just want to fit in and have friends, but are having a hard time of it. The girl in 1982, Mary, tells her story in the form of a diary. She describes the horrors the other girls living at her girls’ home put her through and how she deals with that (not in a healthy way, I’m going to be honest). The girl in the present, Ella, has her story told through gorgeous illustrations. She is facing life without her mother and with her father absent most of the time. She just moved into a house right by Thornhill and she keeps seeing a girl on the grounds of the old school who she wants to befriend. And this was a really interesting story. This novel was meant to be spooky, I think, and I know a lot of other people who read it are complaining that it wasn’t actually that scary. Okay, but… try reading it at midnight with all the lights in the house off except your reading lamp. That’s when you get scared to look up from the book because you’re afraid of what you’ll see (or won’t see) in the shadows. At least, that’s how I read all scary things to maximize the creepiness. And it really worked for the illustrations toward the end of the book. Yikes. I will admit that it could have been a lot creepier, but I think part of it is that sometimes print isn’t the best format for a scary story. A movie of Thornhill probs would have had me cowering behind a pillow. I don’t do scary movies. The creepiness level of this book was like a mild version of Neil Gaiman, I think. It kind of reminded me of The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and Coraline a little. Anyway, it’s a really interesting book, for sure. It’s just odd. And sad. I don’t know if I recommend it or not. I would give you a warning for potential triggers for bullying and possibly suicide, so be wary of that. Otherwise, I mostly enjoyed this novel I think. Of course, you could flash beautiful covers and illustrations in my face and I’d probably say I liked nearly anything. Heck, if they made math books pretty enough I might have ended up doing something math related with my life. Eh, actually, I don’t think even books can be that persuasive. Thanks for reading my review! I hope you enjoyed it! What do you think of telling stories through illustrations? Have you read any other books told in this format, like maybe The Invention of Hugo Cabret or Wonderstruck (both by Brian Selznick)? I haven’t, but I’d be willing to try some more because I really liked it in Thornhill. Well, I am off to go make some creepy puppets and leave them around the grounds of an abandoned school. Ta-ta! Book cover source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33163379-thornhill How to begin, how to begin? Unintelligible screams of excitement? A calm overview of what I’m going to talk about today? Perhaps a combination of the two? Yeah. Let’s go with that third option…
OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS SAKES ALIVE! I happen to have some good news that I thought I might discuss on my blog. IT WILL SERIOUSLY BLOW YOUR MINDS! It involves a book series that I may or may not have gone through a lengthy obsession with. ARTEMIS FREAKING FOWL BY EOIN (pronounced Owen) FREAKING COLFER - PARDON MY FREAKING LANGUAGE. It also involves a certain someone by the name of Kenneth Branagh, who happens to be a film director (and played Gilderoy Lockheart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and he directed Thor and Cinderella and he voiced Miguel in The Road to Eldorado). THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS! THE DAY HAS FINALLY COME! WE ARE GETTING AN- Well, at least we’ve received information about an- ARTEMIS FOWL MOVIE!!!!!!!!!! (Pardon my unnecessary punctuation.) It has been about one whole decade since Mr. Eoin Colfer announced that there was to be a film for his once exceedingly (I might be exaggerating) popular book series. A decade doesn’t seem terribly long when you consider that ten years ago was 2007, but then you think that some people haven’t even been alive that long and suddenly a decade seems a lot longer. While never a hot topic in movie news, the anticipation of an Artemis Fowl movie has been a great battle of patience for the small fandom of the series. There were several occasions where a script was said to have been finished, but no cast had even been speculated at. Of course, there were lots, and lots, and lots of fan castings. The actors of all those fancastings are sadly, either too old or too famous now to be part of a film that likely will not be a giant success. I remember one casting that I thought would have been perfect, but is not really possible. The fan had Skandar Keynes (who played Edmund in The Chronicles of Narnia) as the titular character. I thought that was absolutely perfect because he fit the description incredibly well. However, Skandar Keynes is now twenty-six years old, which is twice the age and two years more than Artemis Fowl. Sooooo… that might be a wee bit hard for him to pull off. Other’s have suggested Asa Butterfield, who was indeed a perfect match for Arty’s looks, but is now twenty years of age. Anywho, I’m digressing. Recently, there was some very big news about the Artemis Fowl movie. IT ACTUALLY GOT A RELEASE DATE! Granted, the release date is a long ways off (though, not too long considering the wait we’ve had already), but at least now there is a set time that we can expect the film by. And that release date is August 19, 2019. Only about 689 days away! I should make a countdown clock… Or borrow one from this website. Do I expect the movie to even hold a candle to the greatness of the book series? No, I do not. Am I terrified that they will cast Larry the Cable Guy as Mulch? Yes, I am. Could thousands of things go wrong and make this a terrible movie? You betcha. Might the movie be canceled all together? Totally possible. Will that keep me from being excited about it? Heck no. I really should do a review of the series sometime so you can see just how much I like it, but I feel like that could go on for a really long time and potentially be filled with massive spoilers because I have not been able to talk about this series in depth with anyone since I first read it (which was probably in 2008 or around there). Okay, my younger brothers both read it and my older brother got through all the books except the last one, so I could talk to them about it, but I don’t think they enjoyed it quite as much as I did. Wait, did this post have a point? Uh… right! The movie now has a release date, hopefully it will eventually have a cast as well and maybe someday it will have a trailer! I don’t have much faith that this will be a movie that is accurate to the book, but it’s being made by Disney, so there is some hope that it will at least be entertaining. Thanks for reading my exclamations of excitement! If any more information about the movie is given I will probably post another excited post. Until then you’ll have to make do with my regular posts and reviews. Aurum est Potestas. (That is really random if you haven’t read the books… so go read the books!) Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6699003-artemis-fowl Image source: http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/movie-camera-clipart *takes a deep breath* *grins so widely it makes the Joker wince* Hi. Welcome to my blog. The place where we act like normal human beings all the time and do not almost scream in excitement in the library. Those of you who have been here before or know me in person know that I am lying right now. OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS SAKES ALIVE! I WENT TO COLLEGE AND THE COLLEGE LIBRARY HAD THE MOVIE ADAPTATION OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK, THIEF LORD! A MOVIE ADAPTATION THAT WAS, UNTIL THIS TIME, NOT AVAILABLE AT ANY LIBRARIES KNOWN TO ME. A MOVIE THAT WAS ACTUALLY FILMED PARTIALLY IN VENICE. CAN YOU TELL HOW HAPPY I AM RIGHT NOW OR DO I NEED TO SHOUT AT YOU SOME MORE?! *straightens wild hair* *attempts to dim smile* *fails* Okay, okay. I’m calm. I can discuss this like a mature person. NO I CAN’T. OH MY GOSH I WAS SO EXCITED THAT I LITERALLY SQUEALED RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LIBRARY AND I HAVE NO SHAME. IT’S THIEF LORD YOU GUYS! WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO? SIT THERE AND QUIETLY REMARK HOW PLEASANT IT WAS THAT THIS LIBRARY HAD THE MOVIE ADAPTATION OF THE BEST BOOK EVER? IF THAT’S WHAT YOU THINK I SHOULD HAVE DONE YOU DON’T KNOW ME VERY WELL. Alright, alright. I know when to turn off caps lock. Let’s get down to the actual “book vs. movie” part that the title of this post promises you. You know, before my inner fangirl breaks out again and covers this post with doodles of flowers and gondolas. Right. So. Let me just say that I was incredibly impressed by this movie. You already know how I feel about the book (I FREAKING LOVE IT TO DEATH, pardon my language), but honestly this movie can stand alongside this book proudly, unlike some other book-to-movie adaptations I know *cough* Inkheart *cough, cough* Divergent *wheeze* Percy Jackson *hacks*. Obviously the movie didn’t have the time to go into some of the great detail that the book goes into and I think they could have done a better job of showing the scenery of Venice, but for a 98 minute movie it did a really wonderful job of sticking close to the original story. They threw in a few extra magic bits, which didn’t bother me exactly, but weren’t in the book. Part of what I liked so much about the book is that you don’t know for 100% sure if there is going to be magic in it or not. It’s part of the mystery and I think having magic early on in the plot ruins the mystery just a little. As far as characters go, I think they had an excellent cast, though it was very British. Jim Carter isn’t really who I pictured for Victor Getz, but I certainly enjoyed his performance. Caroline Goodall is pretty much exactly how I pictured Ida and she also performed brilliantly. Rollo Weeks fit the role of Scipio amazingly well, as did the rest of the actors for his “gang” (though I wish they’d given Hornet longer hair like in the book). I couldn’t quite get over the fact that Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who plays Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron) was Prosper - he was only sixteen in this movie but he did amazingly. And the actor for Bo, Jasper Harris, was so adorable that my heart just about melted (which is weird because the actor is now about the same age as my brother). One thing that I really enjoyed about the movie was how Scipio moved. That probably sounds weird, but hear me out. The thing about the Thief Lord is that he is made out to be this incredibly mysterious and exciting character, but he’s only a kid. I think they did a good job of showing the daring and bold side of him while still reminding us that he’s a kid by the way he moved. For example, in the beginning of the movie he was jumping from building to building in pursuit of someone. Now, they could have made him leap gracefully through the air, but instead he jumped very realistically, with a lot of effort and it didn’t actually look all that impressive - like a kid trying to do something cool. I don’t know, maybe I’m not making any sense, but I liked that aspect of the movie. There isn’t that much humor in the book that I remember (I mean, there are some funny bits, but it’s not an obviously humorous book) but there were several scenes in the movie that had me giggling. I can’t tell you most of them, unfortunately, as they are spoilers. I will say that while Esther and Max Hartlieb were mostly just despicable in the book, in the movie they were despicable and hilarious and made annoying facial expressions to boot. Truthfully, I can’t think of any other differences. I still like the book better, but I think this movie is a great way to introduce people to the book if they don’t usually read. That’s how I feel about a lot of movie adaptations, even the ones that aren’t great. I mean, the more people who read these books the better and even horrible movies might lead people to read the books. As I said, though, the movie in this situation does a lovely job of keeping up with it’s beautiful book counterpart and I wholeheartedly recommend it. No one seemed to feel one way or the other when I did a book vs. movie post for The BFG and when there is no feedback that means I do whatever I want (happens a lot, actually). And I want to do more book vs. movie things so expect more in the future. One of these days I should really start reviewing new books to keep things current, but I like the old ones so much. Oh well. It’s my blog, I shall do as I please. Thanks for reading! Ciao. Book cover source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/857639.The_Thief_Lord Movie poster source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430674/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Personal Rating: 2.8 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.41 Stars You ever open your locker and find that some joker has left something really weird inside? Seventh-grader Dorso Clayman opens his locker door to find a dead body. Thirty seconds later it disappears. It’s not the first bizarre thing that has appeared in his locker and then vanished. Something’s going on. Somebody has decided to make Dorso and his buddy Frank the target of some strange techno-practical jokes. The ultimate gamesters have hacked into the time line, and things from the past are appearing in the present. Soon, the jokes aren’t funny anymore—they’re dangerous. Dorso and Frank have got to beat the time hackers at their own game by breaking the code, before they get lost in the past themselves. (goodreads.com) I picked up this skinny little book at a booksale at one of the libraries I frequent, saw it was about time travel, and decided to give it a shot. While I was not really disappointed in the book, that could have been because I wasn’t really expecting much from it in the first place. The book itself is only 87 pages long and the text is pretty big so I already wasn’t expecting much from the plot. The characters were kind of boring, being stereotypical static young teen boys. But it was a pleasant enough way to occupy my brain during my lunch break. If you do decide to pick up this book for yourself, I would highly recommend you don’t eat anything during the first few pages. The description of the things found in Dorso’s locker are somewhat vivid. And when you are trying a dubious smelling microwave meal to begin with, it might make you lose your appetite. Just saying. Dorso and his pal, Frank, are rather dull characters. It’s one of those stories where the characters acting out the plot don’t matter as much as the plot itself. We hardly got to know any of the people in this book. Really, all we know about Frank is that he wants to try and look at naked ladies. That’s pretty much everything I know about Frank. So yeah… gross, Frank, go look at dinosaurs instead. We do see some of Dorso’s home life, but just in the teeniest snatches. And the other few characters that get thrown in are really boring. I think my favorite was Dorso’s little sister and she was barely in it. On a side note, for some reason my brain can't pronounce Dorso's name as Dorso, it reads it as Dorito. So if we are ever having a face to face discussion about this book forgive me if I talk about delicious chips and not a seventh grade boy. The plot was interesting enough to keep me reading. I wanted to see what was going to happen next and who was behind all of the time hacking. The ending was anticlimactic in my opinion and very convenient. Resolving itself by way of many coincidences and accidents, the ending was almost hard to follow along with. I think for a book that relied so heavily on its plot to keep the story interesting it should have had a more in depth plot. Of course, the book was only 87 pages, so maybe it did a brilliant job for such a short story. Then again, some of my “learning to read” books were shorter than this and had better characters and more riveting plots. Regardless, it wasn’t so boring that I put it down and, like I said, it wasn’t as if I was expecting much from this book to begin with, so it was… okay. Relatively. I’d recommend this book for maybe third and fourth graders, I feel like they might enjoy it more than I did. For anyone seventh grade and up, it’s kind of a long shot that you’ll like it I think. Thanks for reading this short review for this short book. I hope my next review won’t be so far in the future as this one was from my last one. I have Thursdays off now so I’m thinking I might try to post every week again. We’ll see how it goes I guess. (You know and I both know that I stink at sticking to schedules.) See you in the future my friends! Image: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2919.The_Time_Hackers Hey, two days off in a row means two posts in a row! Shocking, I know.
This is something new I’ve decided to try - books vs. their movie counterparts - and if it turns out okay then maybe I’ll do some more posts like this. I wanted to try it out because, as a book nerd, I’m generally in favor of books over movies, however there are movies that live up to the greatness of their predecessor. So, The BFG. I picked up this book when I saw there was going to be a movie coming out. I loved Matilda so I thought it was time to read another Roald Dahl book. When I got this book (from a used book sale) it was some time before the movie was set to come out. I wanted to read it before I saw the movie so I’d have an untainted perspective of the novel. Turns out I didn’t actually see the movie until December (it came out in July), but I still read the book first. So ha! I thought the book was good. It wasn’t hugely outstanding in my opinion, but it was fun and funny. It seemed like it would have been a lot of fun to read outloud, what with all of the BFG’s interesting vocabulary. I might still get to read it outloud to my siblings, which will be fun. Or maybe I’ll just record myself reading parts of it so you can hear me stumble over every word. The book was a little bit slow plotwise, but not so much so that I got bored. It just seemed to take a while to accomplish a simple goal. But I suppose it would make an excellent bedtime story because there aren’t very many startling parts that will keep you awake wondering. The film was also slow, more noticeably so, since it was a movie. It did a good job of filling in the long parts with interesting things to look at and little bits of humor, but it was still almost unbearably slow. Despite its pacing, I really liked the movie and how close it stayed to the book. There were a few instances of deviation, which I could see were mostly for cinematic effect and were understandable. I liked how everything looked. The images in the movie were all similar to the illustrations in the novel, which was nice. A few parts of the movie were the same as parts in the book, just moved somewhere else in the timeline, which was okay, but made me grumpy at first because I’d thought they’d left a part out until it appeared later. I must say that the book ending, while close to the movie ending, is way better than the movie ending. I won’t spoil anything, but I think the book found a better way of resolving the issues. I guess the movie ending was okay, but it could have been happier if they stuck to the book. Comparatively, I like the book better (surprise, surprise), but I think the movie was lovely. I’m glad that the movie came out or else my attention would never have been brought to the book and I wouldn’t know about phizzwizards, snozzcumbers, and how well giants can hear things. Good job Roald Dahl and good job Steven Spielberg. Well, did I do an okayish job at portraying the wins and loses of the movie and book? Do you think I should do more “book vs. movie” posts or was this a horrifying experience for everyone? If I do another one, I’d like to do Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but so far I’ve only seen the movie (shameful, I know). It was a really weird, but kind of awesome movie, so I’m excited to read the book. Thanks for tuning in! Until next time my beans! Book cover from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/527786.The_BFG Movie poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3691740/ Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.85 Stars In the good old days, magic was indispensable—it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain. But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic. (goodreads.com) I wasn’t even going to read this book when I checked it out from the library. You know how you just grab a ton of books sometimes, knowing you probably won’t be able to read them all, but you get them anyway? This was one of the books that I grabbed thinking it sounded good, but I didn’t think I’d actually get around to reading it. Well, I did read it and I’m glad that I did because I loved it. This is one of those books that reminds me of a time when I was so obsessed with reading and fantasy that I was falling behind in school. Not the most pleasant time, but some of the most pleasant books. It was pre-high school, of course, when it didn’t matter so much if I goofed off (but I sure drove my mom crazy - sorry Mom!), and my reading time could span across a whole day. That’s when I was really into dragons and fairies and magic (I still am, I’ve just expanded into different genres now). This book reminds me of all of the crazy stories I read back then and how much fun they were. It seems like one of those novels that you read, enjoy, and then move on. It’s one of those books that is great, but you’d never say it’s one of your favorites because it just slips to the back of your mind. Jennifer Strange, our MC, is a really fun character. She is logical, but has an open enough mind to deal with magic and wizards and not be freaked out. She’s level headed and ready to take on any challenge, including kings, dragons, and business tycoons. I like that she’s brave and moral, but still struggles with her problems in relatable ways. Also, I love the fact that there weren’t a huge amount of instances of people saying “but you’re a girl!” or “a girl can’t do this”. Of course there were a few instances, but it wasn’t a huge trait of the story. The setting was amazing as well. This story takes place in our world, but if magic had been real and people know about it. No one is startled that magic exists because wizards often redo the wiring on homes and magic has always existed. Sometimes characters are surprised at certain types of magic, but no one is shocked that it exists. I love this approach to fantasy. Unless it’s set in a whole other world then magic is always alarming people, whereas, in this book, it’s just a force that exists. Like gravity. I also enjoyed that they have much of the same technology in this book that we have today as well as magic. I suppose the ending of the story was a little abrupt and there may have been too many characters crammed into the story, but for the most part I could find no flaws with this book. A few of the terms they used were confusing, but you just kind of go with it and, even if it doesn’t make sense, it’s still enjoyable. As soon as I finished this book I wanted to dash outside and run to the library to see if they have the second one. However, it is freezing out there and slushy snow is on the ground… and I’ve only got a sweater. So, maybe a little bit later, with the aid of a heated car, I will go pick up the next one. I eagerly await reading Jasper Fforde’s next novel. As eagerly as a Quarkbeast awaits a nice meal of steel. Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13316328-the-last-dragonslayer Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.83 Stars In Viking times, Norse myths predicted the end of the world, an event called Ragnarok, that only the gods can stop. When this apocalypse happens, the gods must battle the monsters--wolves the size of the sun, serpents that span the seabeds, all bent on destroying the world. The gods died a long time ago. Matt Thorsen knows every Norse myth, saga, and god as if it was family history--because it is family history. Most people in the modern-day town of Blackwell, South Dakota, in fact, are direct descendants of either Thor or Loki, including Matt's classmates Fen and Laurie Brekke. However, knowing the legends and completely believing them are two different things. When the rune readers reveal that Ragnarok is coming and kids--led by Matt--will stand in for the gods in the final battle, he can hardly believe it. Matt, Laurie, and Fen's lives will never be the same as they race to put together an unstoppable team to prevent the end of the world. (goodreads.com) First and foremost, I’d like to say that I have not actually read the Percy Jackson series, but I’m pretty sure that this book mimicked a lot of the ideas from that set of books. I don’t really have a problem with that, but a fan of Rick Riordan might not be particularly fond of the similarities. That being said, I thought this book was a decent story and the ending definitely made me want to read the next book in the trilogy. I did have some issues with this book, but overall it was a fun novel for middle grade readers. Like I said, the plot was kind of a lot like Percy Jackson, but it also reminded me a little bit of the ABC show, Once Upon a Time. Otherwise, it was fast paced, interesting, and had a lot of adventure. One thing I wasn’t fond of was the amount of times the main character, Matt, and his friends were saved by coincidences… such as a certain character figuring out they have a special power just in time to save them all from trolls. The characters even mention that they need to stop relying on luck to save them and start making a plan of action, but it still seems like there is a lot of deus ex machina. As for the characters themselves… I have a few issues with some of them at particular points. Let’s talk about the MC, Matt Thorsen. He’s a charming fellow who actually acts similarly to the Thor of mythology. I think the thing I liked most about him was the fact that he was willing to do difficult things to make sure his friends were safe. He’s even willing to risk his life to prevent Ragnarok from occurring. At some points he annoyed me, and he wasn’t exactly what you’d call a developed character, but he was likable. Fen. Fen, Fen, Fen. *sighs heavily* What are we to do with you? Fen Brekke, Loki’s representative in Ragnarok, is both one of my favorite and least favorite characters. I like that his background of being passed from family member to family member actually effects how he behaves. I like that he’s willing to cooperate with people he doesn’t like for the greater good. My favorite thing about him is that he doesn’t rant and rage about the unfairness of his family situation (Marvel’s Loki could take a few notes) even though it’s totally unfair. However, I really do not like his over protectiveness of his cousin and best friend, Laurie Brekke. Oh. My. Goodness. He’s constantly saying “stay behind, Laurie”, “it’s not safe, Laurie”, “you’re just a girl, Laurie” (well, he doesn’t outright say that - though Matt almost does - but it’s implied). Some people just need a high five… in the face. I cannot stand it and if there is going to be a ton more of it in the sequel I don’t know how far I’ll be able to get. About Laurie: She isn’t very interesting. I’m really hoping she does something really unexpected and awesome at some point in the near future, because right now it seems like she’s just along for the ride. She is trying so hard to be helpful - and honestly, they wouldn’t have survived very long if it wasn’t for her - but she’s just really boring. My hope is that they’ll find out that Fen isn’t actually the representative for Loki and that Laurie is and they’re all blown away, but I’m doubtful. The characters as a whole could use a little more time in the oven. They’re good, but they’re underbaked. Perhaps the next two books will help out with that. I hope. Before I sign off, I’m just going to say that even though I saw the ending coming, it still had me shouting at the book and waving my hands around like a lunatic. I am excited to get my hands on the sequel, Odin’s Ravens. Thanks for reading! I hope that you liked it and that you’ll leave me a comment about what your thoughts were. Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11438693-loki-s-wolves?ac=1&from_search=true Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.75 Stars Ella dreams of going to the royal ball and marrying Prince Charming, just like every commoner in the kingdom of Fridesia. But after she is chosen to marry the prince (no magic involved) life with the royal family is not the happily ever after that Ella imagined. Pitiless and cold, the royals try to mold her into their vision of a princess. Ella's life becomes a meaningless schedule of protocol, which she fears she will never grasp. And Prince Charming's beautiful face hides a vacant soul. Even as her life turns to misery, stories persist that Ella's fairy godmother sent her to the ball: How else could the poor girl wear a beautiful gown, arrive in a coach, and dance in those glass slippers? But Ella got herself into the castle on her own--and that's the only way she's going to get out. (goodreads.com) After I read this I went on to Goodreads to see what other people thought (something I’m learning to do after reading the book, rather than prior to so that my opinion won’t be tainted) and I was astonished at how many people disliked this book. To be fair, there were more people who liked it, but the amount of haters was alarming. The picked at things like the voice of narration, which I liked, the characters being empty shells, which I didn’t really notice except on one of the characters, and the improbability of it all, which I assumed had been because it is under the “fiction” section. I suppose these reviewers had some good points, but I really liked this book and it’s been the first book that I’ve read in awhile that I truly enjoyed and didn’t want to pick out all of its problems. I have missed just getting lost in a book and not caring about what the people on Goodreads think or what other book bloggers say. I felt like I connected with Ella more than I have with a lot of protagonists. She is in a situation that she isn’t used to and she isn’t sure if she wants to do things her way or to follow the rules and see how things turn out. I particularly like the opening scene in which her fireplace goes out and she reluctantly gets out of bed and starts it going herself. It is relatable to me that she is reluctant. She knows that it isn’t something the other people in the palace would want her to do, and she’s comfortable under the covers, but at the same time she knows it has to be done eventually and gets to it. I admire her willingness to get things done all throughout the book and her ethics. A character who I’m not sure that I like is Jed, the tutor. He seemed kind of flat and boring. He was very cliché in much of what he did and he didn’t really go through any development. There isn’t much I can say about him without giving away spoilers, but I will say he is a very nice character even if he’s boring. A lot of people didn’t like the plot because they thought it was bland and improbable. I liked it and I was surprised by some of the twists it took. The plot was moved forward by Ella and not some magical force, which was exciting to me and interesting. She took her life into her own hands and changed it, and though a man helped change her life, it was not in the way you would expect. Over all, I don’t really understand the negative reviews this book got. I guess, maybe, teenagers didn’t like it because it’s labeled as a teen book but it doesn’t feature a lot of the romance and violence that regular teen books have in them. That’s just a guess. Personally, I thought it was a good blend of middle grade and YA books. Perhaps a good segway for kids who want to start reading teen books but are ready for the full on force of some of them. Have you ever read this book? What did you think? Are you planning to read this book? Don’t want to ever read this book? Tell me what you think in the comments below, ‘cause I’d love to hear from you. Oh no! It’s midnight (not really), I’d better run! Dang it, lost my shoe. Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1536818.Just_Ella Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.88 Stars Valkyrie: Norse Goddess. Reaper of Souls. Defender of the Weak. Not someone you want to mess with… Freya is dreading her upcoming birthday when she’ll officially have to take up her duties as a Valkyrie. She doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of the legends before her—legends including her mother and sisters. And she certainly doesn’t want anything to do with humans! Freya thinks humans are cruel, hate-filled creatures, but as she observes their world, she begins to wonder what it would be like to make friends with the girls or laugh with the boys she sees. And what would it be like to live without the fear that she could cause someone’s death with a single touch? Then when she’s sent on her first mission, she reaps the soul of a fallen soldier with unfinished business…business that sends her on an epic quest to the mortal world. Will Freya find the true meaning of being a human, or will she finally accept the legend she is destined to become? (goodreads.com) If you’ve met me you can probably guess that I love Marvel superheroes. There is rarely a day that passes when I’m not wearing an Avengers T-shirt. I’m wearing one as I write this. If you know anything about Marvel then you know that the Norse god of thunder, Thor, happens to be one of the characters in the comics, cartoons, and movies. Since I like Marvel and since I like mythology, I checked out a book about Norse mythology from my local library and read it to my siblings using my best impersonations of Marvel Thor, Loki, and Odin. It was great. Those myths are hilarious. I loved it and wished I could read some more. So when I popped into the bookstore and found a book about Valkyries I snatched it up. I do not regret this decision at all. This is a middle grade book so you’d think it’d be too young for me, a girl of blank years. Well, one thing you should know about me if you’re going to keep reading this blog is that I adore children’s books. Regardless, I think this is a good book for teenagers as well. The main characters are either in high school or a year before. It’s hinting at romance in several places, but never really initiates anything more than platonic relationships (truth be told, that’s kind of a nice change from the YA books I have been reading with tons of unnecessary love triangles). I think the next book will probably explore the friendship between our main girl Freya and her best bud Archie, but I don’t know that for sure. Speaking of Freya and Archie, let’s talk about our main characters. Freya is pretty cool in my opinion. She’s a little annoying at some parts, but I think she behaves a lot like a real fourteen (six hundred in human years) year old and sometimes fourteen year olds are irritating creatures (no offense fourteen year olds, but when you get older you will see that you do some of the silliest things - when I was fourteen I thought it was cool to have three cloth headbands wrapped around my wrist and wear a black hoody everywhere, silly me). So, while Freya sometimes gets on my nerves, for the most part she isn’t so bad. Mostly, she’s curious about the human world or has misconceptions about the human world that cause her to behave stupidly at times. Her best friend Archie is interesting. He has great potential to be an awesome character, but in this book he’s really not that exciting. His brother (who we never meet because he’s in prison) sounds like an interesting character based off of what Archie tells Freya, but Archie doesn’t have that much going for him. I’m about 80% certain that Loki is the main antagonist in this story (surprise, surprise), but there is also this odd and violent child named JP who is kinda awful. Who am I kidding? That boy is dangerously nasty. I wonder what his initials stand for (probably Jerk Person). Anywho, Loki is very mischievous in this story and in the acknowledgements in the back Kate O’Hearn says she mostly based him off Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal from the movies. Based off of the descriptions of Thor, I’d say he’s based off of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor as well. Plot wise, this book held up very nicely. It was sort of like a superhero story but also a “I want to go to the school dance” story. Personally, I liked it. The one critique I would have on the plot is that it moves really quickly. I think this is possibly because it is for younger readers than the books I’m used to and some younger folks have shorter attention spans so you have to give them the facts. As a whole, I really liked this book and I think middle grade readers and some teenagers would enjoy it as well. Can I also just say that the cover is gorgeous? Oh man, it’s so cool and I can’t get over it. The wings and the red hair and her armor and the font and - ugh! So cool. I know, as a book lover, this is an awful thing to say, but the book is worth reading just so you can stare at that awesome cover. Dude. It’s awesome. It’s even better in person. But I digress, the book has a good story and fun characters and I hope if you read it you’ll like it too. I may have to do another post all about Norse myths sometime because they are the funniest things you’ve ever read. If you’ve ever read any, which one is your favorite? Or if you haven’t read any, who is your favorite superhero (or supervillain)? What are your opinions on this book or this book review? What can I do to make my reviews more interesting for you? Let me know in the comments below (that rhymes)! Thanks for reading! Mwahahaha! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25785662-valkyrie |
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