Speak

Overall: 10.0/10.0

Summary: Melinda's a quiet girl. She didn't used to be, but since the start of high school she's mostly kept to herself. All of her friends want nothing to do with her since she called the cops at the big end-of-the-summer party. That was a real downer. At least for them. But Melinda would really rather not talk about her experience at all. That's okay, because no one really wants to hear about it. They're all too mad at her. Except for the new girl. But the new girl kind of talks too much for Melinda to get a word in edgewise, so that's okay, too. And Melinda's parents are too busy fighting to check in on her much. So it's easy not to say much. Her grades slip, her social life is down the toilet, but she doesn't mind. The only class she really even kind of likes is art, but that's also frustrating. Melinda just can't seem to find her voice.

Opinion: Wow, this was fantastic. I read it in one sitting, practically. (as in, I would've read it in one sitting if not for that pesky thing called the start-of-period-bell) It's not written in the normal style, but I don't quite know how to explain the tweak. It caught my attention though, and kept it. The story is great. It's told from Melinda's POV and describes her slow descent and sudden comeback. I loved this story. It was recommended to me by a couple of friends a while back and I just never quite got around to opening it up until now, and I wish I'd read it much sooner. Amazing story.

Title: Fits the story perfectly. Short and sweet. Love it.

Cover: Interesting. I didn't get it at first, but after reading the book it makes perfect sense. In my opinion not the most appealing cover, but I don't hate it, either. At the very least it's creative.

Recommendation: Read it! I was skeptical but when I finally opened it up I couldn't put it down until I was finished. Even if it's not necessarily your genre, you'll probably like it.

Fallen

Overall: 3.5/10.0

Summary: Aaron is just another high school boy living his regular life. He works at a veterinary. He's looking at colleges. He has a crush on a beautiful protugese girl. At least until he learns he's a prophesized angelic hero. Then things get kind of weird. A fallen angel named Zeke helps him to realize what he is. Despite Aaron's attempts to ignore it all Zeke and other various factors (like his step-parents dying and younger brother being kidnapped) show him there's no denying what he is. But the real question is, will he be able to fulfill his prophecy before more people he loves are hurt?

Opinion: I got bored. It started off pretty run of the mill and didn't get much better. It was the same story but told from a slightly different standpoint. The only thing that was really off the beaten track was when the Powers (bad-guy angels) got together for a chat, and it just got so DULL. I skipped most of their conversations. Aaron is a pretty forgettable character and so is the girl he's crushing on, Vilma. They're both so typical and plain, there's little to make them stand out from the rest of the crowd. Aaron is the typical hero-nice guy. He's quiet and not super popular, but he is loyal to his family (despite being an orphan) and denies his destiny until something super dramatic pushes him for it. When that happens he cuts all ties at home and disappears off to become a great hero. Gary Stu, anyone?

Title: Pretty basic. Nothing really creative about it.

Cover" Simple and a nice photo, but not great for doing much more than catching the eye of a teenage girl.

Reccommendation: Don't read it. It was boring and typical and I didn't even finish it. Halfway through I had to quit. It wasn't painful, like some books can be, but it wasn't interesting, either. It had no hook. Like, at all.

Gone

Overall : 7.5/10

Summary: "The world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot. When the end of the world begins, the skies don't go black. There's no screaming. The day starts out as it normally would with the kids going to school and the adults going to work. But by the end of the day, the city of Perdido Beach is in chaos.

It's midmorning when everyone over the age of 15 disappears. No noise or flashes of light. They're just there one minute and then gone the next. And the kids are left to their own devices. They face starvation, radiation and even death by other kids.

Sam never considered himself a hero, but with no one else he finds himself stepping up to the plate. His efforts save the hardware store and daycare center. Everyone begins to turn to him for help. Except Sam doesn't want to help. But will he really be able to turn his back when darker forces threaten the all-kids population?

Opinion: Not bad, but not the best novel I've read recently. The plot is intruiging and faces real issues and those that aren't real are incorporated in an interesting manner. There are a few things that stretch my suspensions of disbelief, however, and the different perspectives of all the characters can be a little confusing. The characters have some plot development, but it's hard to relate to them. Sam and Astrids relation, however, is fun. It's nice that Sam isn't perfect and open to making mistakes, but his heroism seems to come from nowhere. Not a bad book all things considered.

Title: I like it. Not really catchy, but not totally obvious, either.

Cover: Could be better. It was interesting enough to catch my attention, but not a real eye-popper.

Recommendation: I'd say anyone 12-15 would probably like this. I felt a bit old for it. Things that 'Astrid the Genius' said made sense to me and I thought some of the 14 year olds acted a little juvenile, but they would, if they were 14. It just made it more difficult for someone older to relate to the book than say, a 14 year old might. An interesting action-adventure-fantasy, none the less.

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This came today instead of Sunday because I finished teh book late sunday night, then forgot to post it on Monday and Tuesday. Oops. And there's nothing real to report for this week writing wise, anyway. :)

-MJ

All Work and No Play

Makes Jack a dull boy. Or in the Shining's case, a crazed psychopath. In my case, sick and tired.
All this homework has seriously been eating at my writing time. I've been getting a bit better at editing, but it's taking time. I'm trying to write/edit a little more every day. But like I said, it's slow going, especially with great books to distract me.
I've started going to the local bookstore every Friday to grab a mocha and select out my book for the week. It's really a quality way to spend the beginning of my weekend, if I do say so myself. Currently I'm working my way through Gone. I don't recall who it's by right now. It's a little young for me, but so far I've liked it. The impact on society is realistic and the characters act their age.
But more of that on Sunday.
There's remarkably little to report in way of Ebony. Actually,my writing in general has been kinda slow. Without any writing classes or events like NaNoWriMo to keep me going I've sort of ran out of steam. And I really need to work on that one piece about the Greek myth thing for V-day... bleh. Well, I AM working on a painting for the school. I guess that's sort of an explanation. (not an excuse!) Hopefully school'll calm down a little, I'll feel less sick and without that painting my time'll clear up a little bit and I can start to get back into the swing of things.
Okay, done filling up space with lots of words to say a few things.
:)
-MJ

Unwind

Overall: 9.5/10.0

Summary: Connor is your average juvenile deliquint: he gets into fights at school, he talks back to his parents and skips classes. He doesn't think much of his own behaviour until the day he finds out that he's going to be unwound. His parents, having decided Connor is too much trouble, have decided to sign the release form to have their son literally disassembled. His body parts will go to those who will use them to their full potential- something Connor never really managed.

But Connor isn't willing to put up with this. He refuses to be unwound. So he runs. Along the way he runs into another two unwinds- Risa and Lev. The three of them spend the novel running from the cops and trying to survive. They're in and out of the law's hands. They're in and out of the company of other unwinds and allies. They're in and out of each others company as they're separated at various parts of the story. But in the end, will the trio manage to keep it together, or will they find themselves being unwound?

Opinion: Wow! This was much more hooking and gripping than I had originally thought it would be. I actually bought this book a few months before I actually got around to reading it. And by 'a few' I mean like 7. But my friends are partly to blame; they kept borrowing the book from me. Now I can see why! Connor isn't the perfect hero. He messes up. A lot. Half the things that make him out to be a hero are false rumors. But that makes it all the more interesting. Connor has to fight and he doesn't always win. He's a very well developed character, as are Risa and Lev. They change and evolve as the story goes on.

There are a few undeveloped/unaddressed issues in this novel, but they're so few and so insigificant that it doesn't bother me much. It's a bit weird jumping from Lev to Risa to Connor's POV and makes it a little harder to connect with the characters, but again, not a big issue.

On the whole, this book rocks.

Title: Kind of an obvious one, but I still rather like it.

Cover: I can't say much about it. I'm not a fan. Fortunately for Shushterman the book's reputation proceeded it. this book was recommended to me and therefore it didn't have to catch my eye for me to want to buy it.

Recommendation: You'd better be able to stomach some gore. There's also talk of god, abortions and other life issues. If you can get past that... definitely read this.

-MJ

Funk

In the spirit of getting back on my original blog schedule, I'm typing this up! Unfortunately there's relatively little to say. Well, I suppose that's not true. There's stuff to say, but none of it very positive or productive. I haven't done much editing to my manuscript. In fact I've barely looked at it since the end of November. I've been going against all of my own (and others) advice by waiting for the "mood" to hit me. I haven't had any motivation to write (or edit) and frankly, it's so much easier to read. Part of it is also thinking that it won't be good enough. Like if I leave it blank, the unwritten possibilities are so much better than anything I could ever come up with. Winter's kind of put me in that funk, I guess.

The whole winter thing is also related to finals which is also related to skipping my first writers circle in over a year. It was a bummer, but I knew the time was better spent studying. Plus I don't think I would've gotten much out of the meeting; I've been rather tentative to present my crappy manuscript to anyone, let alone a group of seniors who I don't really know.

Without Ebony (hello, title change #4!) ideas for other stories have begun to peek out their little fluffy muse-like little heads. There's this one bit for a Greek-myth-type romance I've been turning over for a while now. Maybe I'll pen it out and try and fix it up and send it off to somewhere. I haven't got high expectations, but I figure I might as well give it a go. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, ya know? Even if it doesn't pan out, it's an interesting idea (at least, in my head it is). I guess I'll figure it out later. V-day isn't until the 14th of Feb, anyway.

And on a side note, I didn't go to the bookstore. I really should've, I know. But I felt kind of crappy. Bad day. Bad week. Bad year, so far. In the end I just wanted to go home. I know buying a book would've made me feel better but I was so tired. Perhaps I'll visit the library tomorrow. Or maybe I can review the book that I'm re-reading now. I'll figure something out later. Yeah, okay, I say 'later' a lot, but this is the one thing I feel like I don't have to constantly bully and force and contort into exactly what its supposed to be.

That's enough of my babbling for now :)
-MJ

White Cat

Overall: 9.5/10.0

 

It’s hard to act normal after you’ve killed your best friend. But then, Cassel doesn’t exactly have very good role models. His father’s dead, his mother’s in jail, his grandfather’s a retired assassin, and his brothers work for a crime lord. And yet, Cassel doesn’t fit in with them either. This seems to be because he’s not a worker: someone who can use a certain type of magic on people they touch. For example his brother Barron is a luck worker. If he brushes someone’s skin with his hand he can choose to give them either good or bad luck. A sleep worker can alter dreams. A transformation worker can alter the shape of things. Cassel can’t even alter his bad reputation at school. He’s stuck in a rut, and it doesn’t seem as if his life is going anywhere fast. Then his life twists around on him. Even if he doesn’t realize it, Cassel is a changed person at the story’s conclusion because of his family, friends and his own choices.

Cassel is a terrier in a family of pit bulls. He is the only person who isn’t involved in the working business in any way and he resents it. Just being a worker practically stamps the person with a huge “TROUBLE” stamp, but that doesn’t matter much to Cassel. Never mind the fact that workers have a bad history, that the public generally frowns upon them, that almost every crime group is made up of workers or even that the government is constantly keeping an eye out for them. Too bad for Cassel that if his working skills haven’t shown by the age of seventeen then they’re never going to. Or maybe it’s a good thing; it means he can escape the hold of the crime family his two brothers work for. He won’t be able to end up in prison for working rich men out of their money (his mother’s M.O.). But despite his family’s black roots, Cassel pulls through when it matters. His mother’s constant proclamations of love, talks with his grandfather, and arguments with his brothers seem to make Cassel realize what matters in his life. His eyes open and his bitter outlook towards the world is altered during the story as he is caught up in a business that changes everything he knows about his family and even his own life.

Being a normal student at a normal school is a farce, even if Cassel wishes it weren’t. How can someone who killed their best friend ever really be normal? Of course his classmates don’t know anything about Lila, but that doesn’t change the fact that Cassel’s brothers found him in the basement with blood on his hands, or that they had to clean up the body of their boss’s daughter without anyone (especially the police) finding out. Cassel can’t exactly remember the dirty details, but he fails to see that as important in the grand scheme of things. At least, until he finds out that it wasn’t his fault at all. With the help of his roommate Sam and Sam’s girlfriend Daneca, Cassel comes to realize that he does not in fact have Lila’s death on his hands. Suddenly he has motivation. Cassel knows that Lila’s hasn’t been killed by him. In fact isn’t even dead. Cassel is willing do anything to find her again. In doing so he uncovers an elaborate, eight yearlong conspiracy constructed by his brothers and discovers things about himself he never even dreamed could be true. While Cassel doesn’t recognize Daneca and Sam as his friends at the beginning of the story, in the end it is because of them that he manages to pull off the ultimate con and save the lives of his brothers and others.

Even though he might pretend differently, Cassel’s never been one to play by the rules. Coming from a criminal family, he can’t be a total innocent. From a young age he learned how to con. He constantly lies and forges stories to explain his actions. When he’s suspended from school for some dangerous sleep-walking he forges a doctor’s note along with papers claiming that he’s safe to attend school. With the help of Sam and Daneca he cons an adoption agency to get back a cat that he believes is Lila. He knows how to manipulate people into doing what he wants. On more than one occasion he considers conning Sam. Although he doesn’t go through with that, he does pull of one of his best cons at the end of the story when he turns on his brothers during the execution of their scheme to kill the boss of their crime family. Unlike his previous cons however, this is done for the sake of his brother’s safety. He manages to twist everything around and prevent his brothers’ treachery from killing either Zacharov, (the boss) or themselves. At the end of the story Cassel hasn’t stopped lying or conning. In fact he comes to realize that, like his mother, he receives a bittersweet joy from the acts.

By the end of the book Cassel’s beliefs and morals seem to have changed drastically. He’s still a criminal, but now he is no longer dragging his feet through life. His eyes have opened to the meaning of relationships as well as the worker world. He knows what real friends are; he protects his brothers despite the things that they’ve done to him and his abilities and life finally seem important. Rather than run away from his problems (as he considered doing at the start of the novel) he stands and fights to solve them. He becomes a stronger, more independent individual. This book is an interesting paranormal mystery that keeps the reader guessing. The answers aren’t laid out for Cassel and he is forced to struggle to find them. The story doesn’t have the typical happy ending. The only way Cassel gets the girl is through a lie, and it is because of that he knows he can’t be with her. His mother being let out of jail isn’t very good considering all of the trouble she causes. Zacharov didn’t praise Cassel’s name to the stars when he was saved and in fact is keeping a close eye on him. But the darker take on things is part of what makes the book appealing. The fact that Cassel doesn’t do everything perfectly all the time adds a risk to the story. In the end the direction of Cassel’s life is uncertain. He’s been accepted back into school and has two good friends at his side. It’s not bad for a teen whose life is immersed in crime.

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After a bit of a hiatus I've decided I had really better try and get back to updating this. I guess school and break had me a bit carried away. Finding time to read has been difficult. The only really good book I've read in like a month and a half is this one: White Cat. And if the above reads a bit like an essay for school, that's because it is. Yeah okay I'm cheap, I know. Posting an essay? Sorry guys, I just wasn't plannin' on reviewing the whole thing again. I'm hoping on visiting the bookstore/library this Wednesday and hopefully will pick up a book I can read for this next Sunday's review. :)

And yes, I know it's a Monday. Hush. Don't tell anyone.