Saturday, March 22, 2008

Peaches


Peaches

Jodi Lynn Anderson

I almost didn't finish this one. I started reading it then actually got so sick of it I had to forget it for a week or two before I could stomach picking it up again. But then it got really good. Maybe it was me, maybe the beginning just has to be gotten through. A little part of the problem was that I was very confused, with the rapid flahsbacks and no prior knowledge to support it, and then the descriptions of people without a background or a setting, my mind just didn't know where to place the people and events, it really doesn't like things floating around in ether. (And maybe it was just my speed reading getting away from me. Oftentimes it takes the reins and I fly through about 3 chapters in a beautiful whirlwind that leaves gaping holes in detail.)

After that though things were awesome. I loved the scenery, the comraderie, the melodie. The peach orchard was beautiful, the hot days relished by me reading this in a foot of snow, the coming together (however slowly) of the friends fulfilling.

But one other thing, the whole Rex issue, I never got it. How he meets Murphy and looks at her funny, his face moving weirdly like he can't put his finger on it, what is that about? Murphy might've felt something stirring too, but it wasn't mentioned in the text, so it was very confusing. Or maybe she was surpressing her feelings for her friend. And then at the end of the book he comes and talks to her, it is all 'let me be your worshipper I'm blinded by love' kind of. Eck. I don't know.

I don't know if I want to read the sequel or not. Who knows, maybe it will be even better.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Alex Rider Series


Stormbreaker • Point Blanc
by Anthony Horowitz

These books were recommended to me by a friend. I liked them okay, it was a quick read. My problem was they seemed to have a total lack of emotion for the reader. I would read a really exciting part and hardly know what was going on because I wasn't totally in the story like I can with most books. But, maybe it's just me.


The author does really know his stuff in some of the technical areas and the plots and settings are interesting. One thing I didn't like was the ending of Point Blanc where his clone lured him to the school (of all places) and wants to kill him. Ok what ever.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Jinx

Jinx
by Meg Cabot

It's lovely how Jinx gets a chance to live with her Aunt and Uncle and start over fresh in their fairy tale New York world.

If I hadn't read the Mediator series before picking up this book by Meg Cabot, I would have thought a whole different person was also writing under that name.  It is in a way like Princess Diaries and in a way like the Mediators (the witch aspect especially).

I didn't like how Jinx was shunning her witch side and how at the beginning there was only shoddy mention of the real reason (probably meant to keep the reader guessing) and the subject was turbid throughout the rest of the book.

I was glad of Zach's response after the disaster at the Winter formal, and the jumping over the rose covered wall was so marvelous.

Her cousin Torrance was scary, kind of over done/fake, same with her friends.  The talk of Iowa and her other home and family greatly irked me.  I think Meg Cabot needs to visit the state a little more.

Overall I very much liked the details, scenery, and characters, but the thought of the main character, dialogue, and especially development was lacking.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Boy Proof


Boy Proof
by Cecil Castellucci

Very interesting. Il a beaucoup des idées interessantes.

Some of the concepts mentioned by Max and Victoria are amazingly poignant.

I loved how it was set in Hollywood.  That would be a whole different world, all those things going on, all those different people.  I loved how her hero Zach/Uno was good at Trig.  I can't believe some of those people though, her guidance counselor asking her mom for an autograph?  Eugh.  I was really glad for her mom though when she got back into acting and had all those great positions and stuff.

That would have been really horrible to have everyone ignore you like that, and I can't believe they carried it out as long as they did.  Like two months I think!  But, on the other hand, she was just that horrible to them, and it might have taken something that drastic to knock some sense into her.

Another person that needed some sense knocked into them was Egg's dad.  What a jerk!  One should be able to contain one's anger once in a while.  Oh, I'm going to explode at you because you talked to me.  So there!  I hate how Egg thinks it's perfectly okay.  I understand personal space, and not disturbing people, but that is way extreme.

And I can't believe she let the Valedictorian slip away from her like that.  I guess it's a good thing, she was an over-achiever and needed to realize that there is more to life.

I don't know that 'Boy Proof' is a good title.  It is not a novel solely about how Victoria is boy proof, it is more of a story about how she doesn't need anyone else.  I would have called it 'Hailing from Planet Egg' or something like that that ties in the science fiction aspect.