Review: Paper Towns

Quentin, a smart, nerdy kid with perfect attendence, has spent years loving his childhood friend from afar.  Margo Roth Spiegelman is beautiful, crazy, popular... and she shows up outside Quentin's window one midnight, dressed like a ninja and looking for trouble.  She takes him on the ride of his life - a campaign of revenge on everyone who has ever hurt her and a series of brilliant pranks he will never forget.

In the morning they say goodbye, and she disappears.  Another messed-up runaway kid, gone for good, as far as the adults are concered.  But she left a series of clues behind.  And the clues are meant for Quentin...

Entertainment: ★★★★★

Basically, I loved this book.  I read it in one sitting, refusing to put it down.  The road trip scene had me laughing so hard I was getting funny looks from the people around me.  Yeah, it was amazing.

Plot: ★★★★

I liked the pranks, I liked the clues, I liked the treasure hunt, I really liked the road trip... I liked everything until the final scene.  The final scene I loved.

Characters: ★★★★★

Margo herself is never clarified too much, and remains an enigma even after finishing the book.  However, I liked most of the side characters, and I loved Quentin and Ben.  Their characterization is quirky, even bizarre at times, but in a very good way.

Writing: ★★★★★

Green manages to pack hilarious and touching into the same novel, and does it well.  The description is perfect, I loved the characterization, and I'd say Green is easily one of the most talented writers I've ever read.

End Result: five stars.  A really excellent book.  Read it.

Review: The Iron King

When Meghan turns sixteen, she doesn't get a party or a cake.  She realizes that her little brother, Ethan, has been kidnapped by faeries and that her best friend, Robbie, is actually Puck the Shakespearian prankster.  Meghan sets out to rescue Ethan, and along the way she discovers the truth about her family, her past, her destiny... and her heart.

Entertainment: ★★

It was... okay.  I was actually really looking forward to this book, as I've read some great reviews on it, but... I don't know.  It was average at best, and for the reasons described below I just couldn't get into it.

Plot: ★

It was a bizarre combination of that movie Labyrinth and Peter Pan, and it read like some weird kind of hippie propaganda.  First of all, if you've ever seen Labyrinth (starring David Bowie, it's kind of freaky but also kind of fun) the plot is going to sound a little too familiar.  Then there's also the Peter Pan elements (handsome immortal prankster takes kind teen girl to magical world, and by the way faeries die if you don't believe in them).  Oh yeah, did I mention that the bad guy is King Machina (yes, like machine)?  Because, of course, Science Kills.  I think I actually rolled my eyes when I got to that part.

I guess I just had a hard time taking The Iron King seriously.  Even if there weren't the bizarre parallels mentioned above, and that really obnoxious Science Is Bad angle, the plot in and of itself just seemed unoriginal and immature.  Really, it took itself way too seriously.

Characters: ★★

Let me begin with some quotes.  Page 11, after surveying her lacking wardrobe, the unhappy heroine whines, "You'd think Mom could afford to buy me at least one pair of nice jeans."  Page 26, she observes, "Me, I like baggy cargo pants and sneakers."  Okay, then.  And off she goes again on page 141: "My family was poor and couldn't afford designer clothes and name brands.  Rather than bemoan the fact that I never got nice things, I flaunted my grunginess and sneered at the shallow rich girls who spent hours in the bathroom perfecting their makeup."  Um, what's wrong with this picture?

Although that was the most blantant example, Meghan contradicted herself in several other ways too.  Inconsistensy aside, she's also just not particularly likeable.  The other characters weren't much better overall.  Puck's "clever" jokes weren't actually clever or witty or funny at all, and I actually actively disliked him.  Ash, on the other hand, was just weird.  He flat-out informs Meghan that he will not have a problem killing her, and so of course she starts gushing a few chapters later about how sexy he is.  Other than the fact that he looks handsome, there's no good reason for her to like him.  But of course once she does like him, the ice prince melts and becomes both wimpy and boring.  It was a badly-arranged love triangle, and I was not emotionally invested in any of the participants.

There was one decent character, though.  Grimalkin the cat.  Now, he was clever and interesting.  I liked him.

Writing: ★★★

Issues with the plot and characters aside, the writing wasn't actually that bad.  The description was mostly well done and pacing was nice.  I would've given Writing four stars if it weren't for the narrator's reoccuring inconsistencies.

End Result: two stars.  I was not impressed.

Wishlist Wednesday (12)

This time, I'll just let the description speak for itself.

Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.

The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.

Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.

But there is a cost.

The Keeper likes to keep things.

Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

It's a retold fairy tale - I love those.  It sounds fabulous, and it has an undeniably gorgeous cover.  It's coming out March 29th - check it out on Goodreads or Amazon!  What do you think - will you be reading Entwined?  I know I will.

Review: The Other Side of Life

Anya and Leticia are human thieves, who work returning valuable artifacts to their rightful owners; Nin is the leader of a small band of cyberpunk elves, working to subvert the social order, save the environment, and defeat a few bad guys.  Nin convinces Anya and Leticia to help him out with a job - a simple heist.  But none of them could possibly guess what they're in for...


Entertainment: ★★★


I enjoyed The Other Side of Life; I thought it was a fun, light read.


Plot: ★★★


It was fast-paced and exciting.  It did lean a little towards the cheesy at times but the adrenaline mostly made up for that.

Characters: ★★★★

I thought the characters in and of themselves were quite interesting.  I'm always a sucker for those theives-and-rogues-with-hearts-of-gold types.  I also liked how the villain actually had a reason for doing bad stuff, not just "because I'm evil like that."  However, I was a little less thrilled about the relationships between the characters.  Their interactions just didn't make sense.  This one paragraph stood out to me:


“Great!”” Nin gave her a quick hug, his heart singing the praises of the good nature she extended to him. Anya was a little taken aback to admit (to herself) that it somehow felt so right being in his arms, even if it was for a short while.


Keep in mind, this is just a few pages after they've met for the first time.  By all rights they shouldn't even be trusting each other not to stab each other in the back, much less hugging their way to a romantic happily ever after.  It was just confusing.  Relationships just cropped up out of the blue without much development, as did emotions and trust and things like that.  I think a little more exploration of inter-character interactions would've improved the book hugely.  But like I said, on their own, each character was individually pretty interesting.  So it kind of balanced out for me.


Writing: ★★


It wasn't bad, but there was just way too much tell and not nearly enough show for me, particularly in Nin and Anya's relationship.


End Result: three stars.  A decent book, but not amazingly excellent.

Review: The Host

Melanie was one of the last humans left.  She lived the life of a hunted fugitive, on the run from them.  They look like people, they act like people, they talk like people - but Melanie knows better.  They aren't people anymore.

Wanderer is something of a celebrity among her kind.  She has lived nine lives on nine different planets, each time in a different host body.  She is a parasitic life form - she combines with and takes over the body of another being in order to survive.  With her people, she has been spreading out across the galaxy, colonizing planet after planet.  Now, she has come to Earth - and Melanie's body.

But something goes wrong - Melanie doens't disappear.  Instead, Wanderer finds herself tormented with Melanie's voice and Melanie's memories of a man called Jared, another surviving human.  Before long she finds herself setting off to find him, determined to discover him and turn him in to the rest of the aliens.  What she discovers is a rebel cell in the middle of the desert... and she begins to wonder where to draw the line between Melanie's emotions and her own...

Entertainment: ★★★★★

I think a good word to use might be gripping.  Or maybe even enthralling.  I read this book until some ridiculously early hour in the morning, telling myself "Just one more chapter.  Just one more," over and over again.  I could not put it down.

Plot: ★★★

There wasn't much plot, I have to admit.  This story centered more around character interactions and introspection than action.  However, I loved the climax, I thought the ending was decent, and I thought the love triangle was well done.  Actually, I loved the love triangle.  See, Jared and Melanie are in love.  And Ian is in love with Wanderer.  Except, since Wanderer and Melanie are in the same body... there's issues.  Plus Wanderer isn't sure how to feel about anybody involved.  I thought that a) the romantic interactions were well done, and b) it was a nice creative take on the triangle (er, square?) scenario.

Characters: ★★★★

I loved Wanderer to death - a wonderful protagonist.  Ian was adorable, my favorite male lead by far.  I do wish Melanie could have been fleshed out a bit more - she liked Jared, and her brother Jamie, and other than that I know next to nothing about her.  Also, I didn't think Jared was done particularly well; I couldn't see what the appeal was as far as love interests are concerned.  But Jared and Melanie aside, I thought the rest of the cast was excellent.  This is one of those rare books where yes, the main character changes and grows and all that, but so do the side characters.  That's always nice to see.

Writng: ★★★

I got heartily sick of the phrases "I cringed," "I flinched," etc.  Wanderer seems to spend hours flinching and cringing, which got a little old.  Also, it was just a bit repetitious.  It wouldn't have been noticible in a smaller book, maybe, but when there's more than 600 pages I get a little bored with the same phrases and descriptions over and over again.

That said, the fight scenes were excellently written, and much of the emotional drama/trauma came off as fairly realistic.

End Result: four stars.  A good book, definitely worth your time.

Review: City of Glass

(Warning: a few minor & unavoidable spoilers for the previous two books below.)
This book counts towards the What's in a Name challenge.




Jace, Alec, Isabelle, Simon, and Clary have all made it to the City of Glass: Alicante, the home of the Shadowhunters.  Unfortunately, they come at the worst possible time.  Valentine is massing his forces for a final battle, a battle that the Clave refuses to acknowledge is coming.  Meanwhile Clary and Jace are struggling with their new powers - and their feelings for each other...

Entertainment: ★★★

While I enjoyed City of Glass, it just didn't appeal to me the way City of Bones did.  The plot felt a little repetitive, the "surprise" twists weren't all that surprising, and the romance has gotten progressively more awkward as the series progresses.  While City of Glass is overall fast-paced, interesting, and exciting, I liked it, but I didn't love it.

Plot: ★★★

It echoes the second book in many ways.  I saw the ending coming a few hundred pages in advance, and wasn't actually surprised by any of the twists.  Also, as I mentioned above, I was quickly losing interest in the romance side of the story.  The plot didn't wow me, and the ending was actually pretty boring for me, since I'd guessed just about everything.  However, I was willing to finish the book just for a little closure on the Alec-Magnus relationship.  Honestly that interested me much more than the actual plot. 

Characters: ★★★★

Clary, in my opinion, gets progressively more obnoxious throughout the story.  I can't even explain why she got under my skin, but she did.

That said, Jace was excellent, Isabelle and Luke and many of the side characters fairly well done, and Alec and Magnus were completely adorable.  Overall I liked most of the characters.

Writing: ★★

Maybe it's because I'm a detail-oriented nitpicker, maybe it's because I read all the books within a few days of each other, but by City of Glass I was starting to have deja vu with Clare's writing.  For example, I believe she describes battles as "Bosch paintings come to life" at least once in each book.  Also, whenever somebody gets a cut, slash, etc on their arms, the wound is described as a "glove of blood."  I swear I read that phrase at least twice in City of Glass and I know I read it in the first two books too.  Reading the same descriptions for the third or fourth time was, frankly, boring.  I still enjoyed Clare's writing, but much less than I enjoyed it the first time around in City of Bones.  My personal recommendation to readers would be to take a breather of at least a few days between books, to avoid the "wait, I thought I just read this exact same metaphor?" moments.

End Result: three stars.  A good book, but not amazingly excellent.

Sorry!

Sorry for vanishing for a few days, and not posting or answering emails or anything.  I had a little food poisoning along with some good old-fashioned dehydration.  I pretty much spent the last three days asleep in bed with a 100 degree fever.

Anyways, what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger, right?  I'm back now, and I'll be getting novapsych running again ASAP.  Thanks for being patient!