Book Review

Nov 30

Phew. The last day of November. I just uploaded my 50K+ words to NaNoWriMo and received my winner badge. And now I can get back to a regular blogging schedule.

Since I’ve been a bit awol as of late, I thought I’d give a little summary of the things you’ve missed during the writing marathon I just underwent. So here goes:

I decided on the new design for my website. It should be up and running by the end of the year. Can you guess which design I went with?
I saw the new Harry Potter Movie. Review to follow, but just as a teaser, I was pretty impressed and now I feel like I have to reread the book. More on that though.
My work started blogging. Ok, I started blogging for work, but I’m roping in some additional authors from around the archaeology lab. If you have ever wondered what a real life museum person/archaeologist does, you should check out the NMSC Archeology Blog. It will also give you some insight into what I do when I’m not writing.
I went home for the first time in 2 years and met my niece for the first time (she’s 2 in February). I also saw my almost 4 year old nephew. Not only are they super cute, but they reminded me about the little things kids find fascinating.
I’ve read a lot. Hard to believe with all the writing, I know, but this month I’ve read: Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews; The Summoning, Kelley Armstrong; The Awakening, Kelley Armstrong; & The Angel Experiment, James Patterson. I’m currently reading The Duff, Kody Keplinger and School’s Out-Forever, James Patterson. As of this afternoon I will also be adding Matched, Ally Condie to my reading list, which came out today. So I’ve been busy and am now way behind on book reviews, but before you know it, I’ll be all caught up, I promise.
And, my biggest achievement – I finished NaNoWriMo! My first draft is not finished, but I’ve made pretty good progress. And, now that NaNo is over, it means I can return to my other WIP. The away time has been good and I’m ready to dive back in and get that sucker ready to go.

It’s been a busy month and I won’t lie. I’m kind of happy to see it come to a close. How was your November? Any exciting things happen? Did you catch any good books or movies? Come up with a new idea for a book? Any big plans for December in preparation for the start of another new year?

Nov 12

I have a confession to make. I love sci-fi. This is something I do not often admit. An interest in sci-fi is not exactly the coolest thing. Despite the resurgence of Dr. Who and and the success of Avatar, sci-fi has maintained it’s stigma. So I’m sure you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon Pittacus Lore’s I am Number Four, a YA sci-fi book that has reached enough popularity to earn it movie status.

I am Number Four takes place on Earth, but revolves around an Alien from Lorien, known to his people as Number Four but known to Earthlings as John. After his planet was attacked, John fled with nine other children to Earth. A spell was placed on the Lorien children making it so that they could only be killed in order, Number 1 first, 2 second, etc. The race that destroyed their planet is hunting them, and it’s Number Four’s turn to run.

The book has all the things you would expect from a YA book – coming of age, not fitting in, struggle over a first love – but it adds the extra element of aliens, a refreshing change from vampires, werewolves, and wizards (not that there is anything wrong with those). All in all I found the book to be exciting (I read it in one sitting). The story was engaging, the unraveling of the back plot was nicely done and the characters were interesting. Some of the action scenes at the end dragged on a bit and became confusing, but all in all my only real complaint is that I have to wait until next summer for the next book in the series, The Power of Six, which, you guessed it, will no be about Number 6.

Oct 29

I decided to reread Roald Dahl’s Matilda so that I could pinpoint what it was that I loved so much about this book when I was younger. So here goes:

Matilda is a know-it-all, but she is so humble about her intelligence that you can’t help but to love her. The unjust situations she finds herself in – being called a cheat for being able to do complex arithmetic in her head, being accused of the newt in the water incident, etc. – make you instantly feel for her. Everyone feels that they have been unjustly accused at some point or another, which makes it all the more easy to relate to these situations in the book. Matilda becomes real. Life is not easy for her, despite her high level of intelligence. She has to make due with what talents she was born with.

The over-exaggerated cruelty of Miss Trunchbull makes you feel like things could be worse while also showing you that no matter how bad things get, you can always find a way to make them better. Despite how cruel and evil Miss Trunchbull is, a young child is still able to best her. If this isn’t inspiring, I don’t know what is. Of course, kids also like things that are over the top. Example: my almost 4-year-old nephew is obsessed with a picture of my cat looking at a computer box. He keeps saying that it is so silly because cats don’t like computer. And so he wants to look at it all the time because it is so silly.

Another thing I love about this book is Roald Dahl’s word choice. He uses words I would be too timid to put in a children’s book out of fear of them not understanding the words. But isn’t that part of why children read? They want to learn knew words. And a book with some big words in it makes you feel like you have accomplished something, like you are a grownup. And in the case of Matilda, big words go perfectly with her character.

If you want an example of a great children’s book or if you are looking for something easy to read that will also lift your spirits and give you hope that things always right themselves in the end, then this is the book for you.

Oct 05

I finally finished reading all the Percy Jackson books, and I’ve got to say, job well done. Although I personally did not relate to Percy Jackson, I found Rick Riordan’s use of voice captivating. Told in first person, you know who Percy Jackson is from the very beginning. The books are riddled with sarcastic and witty remarks and unexpected similes and metaphors, not to mention good ol’ fashioned imagery. Here’s a line I loved from the 5th book, The Last Olympian: “I hoped she wouldn’t get stuck. I couldn’t imagine how much Drano we’d need to un-stick a hellhound wedged halfway down a tunnel to the Underworld.” The reason Riordan’s voice is successful, though, is because he waits to throw out comments like this until you aren’t expecting them. They are not on every page. They creep up on you.

Another thing Riordan succeeds at is beginnings. He knows how to pull you in. Take another example from Book 5. Here’s the first line of the book: “The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car.” How can you not keep reading after a line like that?

As a series, these books were successful for many reasons:

Percy Jackson – although I did not relate to him, his voice was witty and interesting. I wanted to keep reading to see what things would come out of his mouth next.
Mystery – I know a lot of people frown up the use of prophecy to drive a story, but Riordan does it well, and, after all, these books are a retelling of Greek mythology, whose very existence relies on prophecy. Each book contains a prophecy, and the series is held together by one overarching prophecy that we don’t hear until the end of the final book. The use of a separate prophecy for each book gives each book a mystery that is solved by the end, but, because of the main prophecy, the reader wants to come back for the next book.
The world – Riordan has created a believable world, where mythological creatures exist and the Gods live above the Empire State Building. Without a successful world, complete with an explanation for how monsters that were killed in Greek myths have returned and why humans don’t know that there are monsters, demigods, and satyrs running around, the book would not have succeeded.

All-in-all, this was a successful series that wrapped up nicely. If you are a writer for MG/YA, i highly recommend reading the series if you haven’t already.

Sep 23

I resisted reading this book for quite some time. I can’t say what it was, exactly, that made me revolt against it, but whatever it was, I am glad I got over it. While there was no central plot to this book, I found the story to be incredibly engaging. I read it in one sitting. Jeff Kinney really captured the voice of a middle school kid, including the selfish acts middle schooler perform without realizing they are selfish and the way a middle school kid sees the world. I felt like it could have been my diary from when I was in middle school, assuming I had been born a boy, of course.

I thought this was a great book and I highly recommend it, especially to writers of MG looking for a refresher course on life as a middle school kid.

For all those in the New England area, Jeff Kinney will be a presenter at the Boston Book Festival this year, October 16. The schedule of events isn’t posted yet, but it should be up sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Sep 19

Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan is an alternate history steam punk mg book, and I loved every minute of it.

Setting the Scene

The book takes place in Europe at the start of WWI. In fact, the book begins with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife, the spark that ignited the war. It then follows Alex, the fictional son of the archduke as he flees, running for his life to escape sharing the fate of his parents. Meanwhile, Deryn, a Scottish girl in England, disguises herself as a boy named Dylan in order to join the British air force.

Usually when a book is split between two main characters, following one for a couple chapters than another for the a couple more chapters, I find myself not caring much about what is going on with one of the characters. I just want to get back to the character I am relating to. In this book, though, I found both MCs to be equally engaging. I found both voices to be incredibly engaging and while I was upset when each character’s section ended, I was quickly wrapped back up in the story of the other character.

Great Use of Voice

And that brings me to the next thing I loved. The individual voices. I felt that Westerfeld was incredibly successful in creating two distinct voices. There was never a doubt in my mind as to which POV I was following. I have read a lot of literature urging authors not to split the POV, but if all authors were able to do it with the ease in which Westerfeld accomplished this, I think it would not be seen as such taboo.

My one complaint is that the book ends before the story is over, being a trilogy and all. But, for anyone thinking of picking the book up, which I highly recommend, the sequel, Behemoth, is coming out Oct. 5, so there won’t be much of a wait.

Sep 05

I’m sure by this point, everyone and their mother has written a review of The Hunger Games trilogy, now that Mockingjay has been out for a good 2 weeks and the publishers are already ordering additional printings. But I wanted to wait to give my review until the story stopped haunting my dreams, which it did, for at least a week after finishing Mockingjay. And I think that right there speaks volumes for this series.

Believability: The Key to Success

The Hunger Games trilogy was so effective because it was so believable. Not only did Suzanne Collins create a post-apocalyptic world where technology continued to advance, albeit only a small part of the society benefited from it, but she also touched on an unfortunate element of human nature – our nature for cruelty. While it is hard to cope with the idea that our society could degrade to this level, where the victors of war punish the rebels by sending their children to a horrific death, it is plausible even in today’s society to imagine this happening.

Collins portrays our cruelty most clearly through three characters: Peeta, Katniss, and Gale. Peeta is the kindest of all the characters. He doesn’t want death. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He doesn’t want to fight. He just wants everyone to learn to get along, even if it means living under the rule of a totalitarian. Of course, when Katniss’ life is in danger, even Peeta resorts to violence. Katniss, on the other hand, sees nothing wrong with making others suffer, if it will help keep her or those she loves alive. Throughout the series, however, we do see a shift in her values as the full force of the world’s cruelty is thrust upon her. It’s hard to kill someone you have come to know even if their death equals your survival, and it’s hard to keep someone alive when everything in you screams out for revenge. Finally we have Gale, who operates with little remorse. He believes that people should be punished, they should suffer. While he fights for the rebels, Gale is no better than his oppressors, a point we see laid out very clearly in the final book.

Another wonderful thing about these books was the exploration of young love. Katniss’ inability to decide rings true to the teenager in all of us. To make a decision on who to date seems so final at that age. And how many females have not been made to feel guilty for not liking someone who liked them? I think this is an element of the book that readers of all ages can relate to. But the love triangle does not exclude the male readers, who can relate to the frustrations both Gale and Peeta feel towards being played with by Katniss, regardless of how willingly or unwillingly she has played them.

My one complaint of the trilogy is that sometimes the writing became bogged down with sentence fragments, which had a tendency to distract me from the flow of the story. Told in first-person in the present tense, I can see why there were so many fragments, but my personal taste would have been to include less.

If you want to read a synopsis of the books, check out Scholastic’s Hunger Games page, or, better yet, read the books. I promise they won’t disappoint.

Page 3

November Roundup

Review of I Am Number Four

Book Review Friday: Matilda

Review of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series

Review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Review of Leviathan

Setting the Scene

Great Use of Voice

Book Review: The Hunger Games trilogy

Believability: The Key to Success