Jumping The Pages

It is snowy, cold and blech outside...seems to be the perfect time to curl up with my computer, a cup of coffee and write a rambling.  Today I shall ramble on about a book that caught my eye called The Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser.  I was at the bookstore looking for a completely different book, when the cover jumped out at me...and seriously with a cover like this I pretty much had to buy it.  It ended up being a bit hit or miss for me, though it did re inspire the return of my book journal...but before we get to that, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Amy and her young mother Alexis are both in the throes of heartache.  Alexis has been dumped by her married boyfriend and Amy is experiencing the teenage angst of betrayal and embarrassment by a friend via social media.  They flee from their town in Germany to the tiny Scottish isle of Stormsay and their family home called the Lennox House.  They arrive fittingly in a storm and are greeted by the stern matriarch of the family Lady Mairead, Alexis's mother and Amy's grandmother.  They are welcomed on the condition that Amy learn how to become a book jumper.  What the heck is a book jumper?  I'm glad you asked.  You see on this little tiny isle there are two families, the Lennox family and the Macalister family.  These two clans have been responsible for hundreds of years for caring for the storylines of books.  They accomplish this by lying in a circle of standing stones, laying a book over their face then voila! they are in the book.  Amy chooses The Jungle Book as her practice book, but finds that she can easily move between stories, making friends with various characters.  Amy also discovers that she can jump into her e-reader and that she does not need to be in the standing circle to do so.  She is in a class with Betsy and William, the daughter and nephew of the current Laird of the Macalister clan.  Betsy is not a fan of Amy's, feeling she is too old to be properly trained...also she is a Lennox.  Will is cordial.  The three are taught by three guy's who are kind of monk like and are all scarred by burns.  While exploring the various literary worlds, Amy discovers that idea's are being stolen, altering the storylines in all the books in the world (yeah...we will discuss this later).  Nobody believes her, until she and Will discover the body of Sherlock Holmes in the real world.  Apparently Will would pull Sherlock out of the book to talk to him.  He vanished one day and it turns out he was murdered.  Apparently the Sherlocks in the other stories agreed to help out in the dead ones book so all was well.  The three students are taken to a place deep in the library and shown a story that explains a lot.  Apparently the Lennox family used to have a castle, but after a tussel, a fire broke out and destroyed it along with a one of a kind manuscript of a story not written down anywhere else.  The three teachers turn out to be the only characters rescued from the destroyed story and now live on the Stormstay teaching the new jumpers.  Amy discovers her mother making out with Desmond, one of the rescued book guys,  and after a bunch of angst and back and forthness learns that he is her father.  Yep, I guess when you spend most of your life on an island that only houses two families and a less then a dozen other people, you fall in love with the ageless book character...and then have a kid with him.  This helps explain why Amy is such an advanced jumper as in reality she is half fictional...yeah...anyways moving on.  We continue to go back and forth, Will and Amy fall in teenage love, accusations and suspicions fly 'cause nobody actually talks to each other and finally we figure out what is going on.  The old burned manuscript that had only fragments of pages and the three men saved had one more surprise.  Somehow the princess in the story also managed to escape the destruction and has been hibernating on the island.  She is a young, spoiled petulant thing who enchanted Will to be her Knight and jump into the stories to steal ideas.  She is trying to use these ideas to restore her story.  Once we know this we are able to piece together her story...which is not a very nice one. Most of the info finally comes from Desmond, who was the original Knight in the story.  Essentially the princess, when she get's bored, enchants a man to be her Knight, sending him out to slay a monster that is ravaging her kingdom.  The sick part is that the princess has actually turned the Knight into the monster, having him commit heinous acts, then sending him out unknowing to find the monster.  The only way to stop the monster is for the Knight to kill himself...starting the cycle all over again.  Will finds a way to stop the princess, getting himself killed in the process and Amy is able to return the idea's back to their original books.  She takes Will's body into his favorite book, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell is able to bring him back to life as a story character.  Amy spends most of her time in the books, exploring them with Will and that is how the book ends.

World Building - There is a lot of different ways to look at the world building in this book.  The island of Stormsay is fairly well realized, I could probably find my way around it if I needed to, and the atmosphere of it is complete.  The rest of it however is patchy.  I never got a full sense of the family, the history or the mechanics of the book jumping.  I felt I wanted either more information, or better merging of the different pieces of this complicated world.  I unfortunately did not get the feeling of full immersion that is the hallmark of a well built world.

Story - We have the problem of too many stories to accurately judge this category.  Some of these stories are more successful then others.  The best story in my humble opinion was the one of the ruined manuscript.  Through out the book, there are fragments given to us that make it sound like a fairly typical fairy tale, to find out that it is a pretty dark and twisted story is pretty awesome.  I feel like I did with the world building that if we had more information it would have been easier for the reader to see where all the various disparate stories tied together.  For me it was a bunch of flipping back and forth and wondering if I missed something.  In general, each story line was pretty good, they just didn't completely gel to create a whole.

Character - This book had a ton of characters in it.  Some where created just for the book and some were pulled from the literary world.  I was pretty ambivalent about most of the characters, didn't really hate any of them...but didn't really fall in love with any of them either.  For the most part, most of the characters where just there to further the story without a whole lot of personality, history or motivation.  Will, Amy and Alexis where the most formed of the characters, and I liked Will the best of those three.  Amy and Alexis where your fairly typical young mom/teenager duo that seems to be popular lately, didn't hate them, didn't love them.

Editing - So this book was translated from it's native German, which is pretty cool 'cause I love getting view points that are not typically American.  That being said, the flow of the book was not my favorite.  I felt that the there were to many storylines and not enough information.  While this is mostly on the writer, I feel an editor can maybe point out to an author that maybe the reader isn't in the author's head and needs some background, or history, or consistency for the book to work.  It isn't horrible editing, but like the rest of the categories...meh

Book Jumping - Ok, here we have one of my biggest issues with this book, and a particular literary peeve in general.  For me the overall concept of the book jumping left me with a ton of questions and very few answers, in fact it inspired me to get out my book journal again so that I could write down all my questions about book jumping.  Here are just a few thoughts I had.  Who discovered it? Why only these two families?  How diluted can the blood get?  Seriously how do these two tiny families keep track of EVERY book?  What is their purpose again?  If they are the only ones who can jump...aren't they the only ones who can mess up the story? Why are the characters aware of the jumpers?  Umm...about the timelines?  How do you turn the page?  Seriously, other then the mechanism of lying down and putting the book on your face there is not much given to us about the jumping.  I hate it when an author has a concept, especially a potentially good concept and then the execution is poor.  I understand that I will never have all the info or answers I want for things like this, and I don't always need them...I just want a concept to make sense. Since the book jumping was such a huge part of the book, I don't feel like I am wrong in wanting to know how it actually works.

Books About Getting Into Books - I have not yet found a book that has successfully executed a concept where characters from the real world can get into book worlds.  I have read some great ones that deal with elements of books in the real world, or authors or things like that, but anytime I read about a character actually getting into Wonderland, or Neverland, or Pemberly...it just does not work for me.  I think it's cause for me a good book world is complete and personal to the reader.  If you asked me to draw, or describe Pemberly and then you asked my baby sis to do the same thing, I bet you would come up with two equally valid, yet very different pictures.  So when an author tries to put a character into that world it infringes on my view of the world.  As for my own personal self, I'm always torn.  If I had the opportunity would I want to jump into a literary world, or is the bigger appeal the fact that I am completely outside of it?  Ok this is getting very philosophical and may require it's own post.

Fictional Father - After all of my mehness about the book...I have to admit I kind of liked the idea that Amy had a father that was a fictional character. Aside from the zillions of questions it brings forth, it also had the added advantage of me paring up literary characters and wondering what their offspring would be like.  I may have also had some literary fantasy's on which literary crush I would allow to father my fictional kids...

Overall Impression - Overall I feel pretty meh about the whole book.  It seemed to have a ton of stuff in it without really going anywhere.  There were moments of awesome and the concept was pretty cool, but the overall muddledness, lack of info and too many literary pet peeves made this book disappointing.  I feel that it had a lot of potential and if this author exports any other books over the pond, I will probably give her another chance 'cause I feel like she has good ideas.  I give this book 5 out of 10 inkpots and realize that other people enjoyed it more then I did which is also awesome.   Also the book cover is worth it just to have on my book shelf.   Happy Reading Everybody!

The Circle Of Marsh House

Hi Readers, who's ready for a rambling?  I am...and since it's my blog...let's get to it.  I am a Studio Ghibli and always enjoy the fact that several of the movies are inspired by books.  One day while looking through movies I found one I had never heard of before, and lo and behold it was based on a book called When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson.  The premise sounded interesting, and I always love discovering new books...especially older ones so both the book and movie got put in the basket and onto my book shelves.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Anna is a foster child in England who has withdrawn from everybody.  Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was very small, and her beloved grandmother died just a few short years later.  She has been taken in by a very loving couple who do their best to make her feel like their daughter.  Unfortunately between her natural reticence at getting close to anybody, and her discovery that the couple get a stipend from the government, Anna comes across as very cold.  Anna's foster mom decides to send her to her friend who lives in a sleepy little beach village.  The couple are pretty relaxed, letting Anna run around as she pleases, which suites Anna just fine.  Anna finds herself drawn to an old manor known as the Marsh House.  It is old and abandoned, yet still draws the quiet and withdrawn girl.  One day, as Anna is exploring the marsh area, she see's a girl with pale yellow hair being brushed by a maid at one of the windows of Marsh House.  This image sticks with Anna, and lo and behold one day that same girl appears in the sand dunes.  The girls name is Marnie and she makes Anna promise to keep her as her special secret friend.  As Anna is naturally quiet, this suits her just fine.  The girls have a couple of adventures and learn more about each other.  We learn that Marnie lives in the Marsh House with her nurse and two maids, all of which are borderline abusive.  They threaten Marnie with a trip to the abandon windmill if she misbehaves, which absolutely terrifies the girl.   Marnie's parents are away most of the time, leaving her all alone with the staff.  One night Marnie and Anna end up in the windmill, and get stuck.  When Anna wakes up, she is alone and very upset that Marnie would leave her.  Anna is rescued and taken back to recover as she is very sick.  As she recovers she sneaks out to try and find Marnie.  Marnie is at her window and yells down a heartfelt and tearful apology and tells Anna that she is being taken away.  Anna is understandably devastated and takes to her bed.  Anna finally decides to get back to exploring and heads to the Marsh House.  She is surprised to see a lot of activity and discovers a family with five kids has moved in for the summer.  She is drawn out of her shell and spends a lot of time with the family, finally finding a place she belongs.  One of the girls, after acting a bit weird, finally shows Anna an old diary she found in her room.  The diary belongs to Marnie and in it there are references to a special friend and a few of the events that Anna and Marnie experienced together.  They bring the diary to the mother and discover that it is over 50 years old...which puzzles Anna 'cause her hazy memories are from recent times.  Eventually they get to talk with an old family friend who grew up in the area of the Marsh House.  The whole story comes out and it turns out that Marnie was a girl who grew up with a lonely life until she got sick after a night in the windmill.  Her parents brought her back from the Marsh House, but more tragedy struck when her father died.  Marnie married her friend Edward, but he was killed in the war when their own daughter was only a couple of years old.  The daughter was sent to America to keep her safe and did not return until she was 13 years old.  At that point her relationship with her mother Marnie was strained.  The daughter ran away and had a daughter herself, who she brought back to be raised by Marnie.  The daughter and her new husband then died in a car accident leaving the child to be brought up solely by Marnie who was the only family left.  Unfortunately Marnie never got over the death of her daughter and died a few short years later...sound familiar?  That's right, Anna is Marnie's granddaughter!  Anna is very happy to finally have her family history and is able to warm up to her foster parents, who really do want her to be happy.  Anna herself becomes much happier and able to let people love her again.

World Building - The setting of this story is pretty small, a tiny little village, a marsh/beach, the house Anna stays at and the Marsh House.  That being said the world is perfectly complete.  The author was able to create not just a world, but an atmosphere that was able to transport me as a reader so completely that it was sometimes a shock when I put the book down to realize that I wasn't actually at a little English beach.  I can totally see why somebody would be inspired to make a movie after reading this, just to capture the world.

Story - The story was good.  It was a little different then I originally anticipated, as most of the blurbs tout it as a ghost story.  I feel like it is more of a circle of life type deal, with family and friends being when and where they are most needed.  The story made sense and other then a few overly convenient moments was well done.  Combined with everything else it worked well.

Character - I really liked the characters in this story.  There was a lot of introspection and growing and feeling and variety.  Each character was fully formed, each character had a story, each character stayed true to themselves, and nobody acted out of character just to further the story.  I also really liked how every single character felt well thought out was necessary for the story.

 Editing - The editing was fairly well done.  The story could have become very confusing, especially with the dream like quality that permeated the whole book, but overall the whole thing was readable and sensical.  Like I said before, other then a few small overly convenient details the book read beautifully and stayed with me.  Good editing.

Movie - The movie was made by the famous Studio Ghibli whom I love for their ability to translate atmosphere into a watchable movie, and this film was no exception.  There were a few notable exceptions from the book to film, the biggest being that it was set in Japan instead of England which was both odd and kind of cool, it was like seeing the same story in two different views.  The thing I didn't like so much is that they made Anna a bit more aggressive and almost mean, where in the book she was just withdrawn and stoic.  I also felt the movie was a wee bit rushed compared to the book.  Overall though the signature atmosphere, introspectiveness and sheer beauty were all there, just like I wanted.

Nostalgia - So one of the things that really struck me about this book was the sense of nostalgia it gave me.  This is totally a book I would have LOVED and read over and over back when I was in the 10-12ish age.  I really enjoyed reading this book now, but really wish I had been able to read it when I was younger because I can see it becoming one of my favorite.  I'm not 100% sure why I am so sure my younger self would have been so into this book.  Maybe it reminds me of the books I read when I was younger, maybe I can see myself pulling it off of the library shelf and curling up in my yard, maybe I can see myself forcing my siblings to act it out, maybe it was my affinity for imaginary friends, who knows.  Every once in a while I will get a book like this, where as much as I enjoy it as an adult, I really want to go back in time and give myself some of these books.

Ghost Story - This book was touted as a ghost story...but it really wasn't...but it kind of was.  It is really hard to really put this in any one category 'cause it really doesn't follow any rules...which I love.  The mechanism of the interaction between Marnie and Anna is never fully explained.  We know that they both had the same experiences because Anna remembers them, even if it is a bit muddled and Marnie records them in her diary, even if Anna's name is never actually mentioned.  I don't think that this pairing needs a "scientific" or "realistic" explanation.  I like to think that these two souls that were connected by blood and love found each other at their loneliest and helped each other survive.  I am good with the idea that love can transcend time and space and I'm gonna leave it at that.

Overall Impression - I really enjoyed this book, it was different and surprising and atmospheric and stuck with me in a good way.  I will probably reread it in late spring/early summer as it feels like it should be a seasonal book, but regardless I really liked it.  I give it 8 out of 10 sand castles with gardens and recommend it to anybody who wants a story with heart or is looking for one for their kiddos with out too much of the yucky stuff.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Firebirds Rising

A while ago I did a ramble on a short story collection called Firebirds that I totally fell in love with.  Imagine my happiness when I found out that there was a...I guess you could call it a sequal?...collection called Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Sharyn November.  I loved this collection of YA targeted stories at least as much as the previous collection and am seriously having a hard time picking my favorites.  I will do my best and give you a bit of a taste of the amazing flavor that is this varied and phenomenal collection.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Huntress by Tamora Pierce - We start of the collection with one of my favorite authors who smacks us right in the face with a eerie and empowering story.  We have our loner girl who falls in with the popular crowd...who turn out to be very different from what we first think.  What starts out as an elite group of high school runners turns out to actually be a vigilante group that uses their speed and prowess to "cleanse" the area of undesirables...always an ethical conundrum.  The addition of an ancient goddess, murder, and Central Park all combine to make this a thrilling start to the collection.

Unwrapping by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - This is one of the stories in this collection that always sticks in my head long after I have read it.  This is a story of friendship between two unlikely friends, Brenna, who is shy and quiet and Nadia who is the life of the party.  This particular day happens to be Halloween and Nadia has a very special costume in mind.  Turns out Nadia is actually an alien with a bizarre flame like appearance and has befriended Brenna 'cause of her accepting nature.  After her initial shock Brenna helps her friend be herself.  I'm not sure what it is about this story, but I love it.

The Real Thing by Alison Goodman - Stories like this are one of the reasons I love a great short story collection.  In just a few pages the author has introduced me to a world and a writing style that makes me want to read more!  In this case, the story is set in a world the author has full length novels in and deals with the future and an alien race that can "link" with certain humans.  We follow our human partner as she tries to cope with some sort of social life all while contending with a partner who always wants to be in her head.  I am now scouring my book stores for books from this author.

In the House of the Seven Librarians by Ellen Klages - This is what short stories are meant to be.  In this tale we have a full story, beginning to end that creates a world, characters and story in complete perfection.  Of course that fact that this story is about a girl who grows up in an abandon library with seven librarians for guardians may also be part of its appeal.  To me this story is pure magic and one of the reasons I started reading in the first place.  I love how complete and coherent this story is, I love how magical this story feels and I love how much I love this story.

Jack o' Lantern by Patricia McKillip - Another story of pure magic.  I love this author in paticular when I want to totally escape from life and enter a world of utter fantasy.  This short story did not disappoint and had the added advantage of being a quick in between life's chaotic moments read.  The author includes art, myth, youth and imagination all combined to create a story that is also a work of art.  Sigh...so happy.

These are just a tiny sample of the awesome and amazing variety of stories in this collection.  I really enjoyed that it was a mix of Sci Fi and Fantasy.  I liked that each story was original and complete to themselves.  I liked...well I really pretty much just liked everything about it.  Usually in collections like this it is hit or miss.  I tend to like about half the stories and love just a few, but in this case I seriously enjoyed every story and fell in love with several of them.  AND the best part?!?!  There is a third collection!!!!!  Yep this is overall a trilogy of short story collections.  It is now sitting on my shelf and I am so excited to read it!  I give this collection 9 out of 10 phoenix feathers and recommend it to pretty much everybody!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Happy 100!

One of my favorite childhood authors the fabulous Beverly Cleary turns 100 today!  This author of the famed Ramona series, among other gems has lived, written and just made kids lives awesome for the last 100 years.

Seriously folks 100 years...how absolutely awesome and amazing is that.  I want to wish this classy lady many more awesome years and thank her for making my childhood an amazing experience.  Happy Birthday!

Naked Nutcracker

Soooo, I was totally gonna do this post pre-Christmas, but life has interfered so I guess it will now be a post-Christmas post to extend the holiday cheer.  The book is Winterspell by Claire Legrand and is supposed to be a take on my beloved The Nutcracker.  How did this book stack up to expectations?  Well to find out, read on, but first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Clara Stole is the older daughter of the mayor of New York City and life is not going so well.  Her vibrant, brave, wonderful mother was murdered a year ago and her father has fallen into depressed grieving state.  This has given the mob/gang Concordia even more leverage over the mayor and his affairs.  Clara is left to try and manage her family affairs, and even though her strange godfather Drosselmeyer has been teaching her to fight, and equipped her with knives, Clara cannot find the courage to use this to fend off the unwanted advances of Dr. Victor, or the threats of other members of Concordia.  At Drosselmeyer's unique toyshop, Clara spends time learning fighting skills, and talking to the strange statue of a metal man in the shop.  On Christmas Eve, Clara and her beloved little sister Felicity attempt to keep their father's stock up, help host the annual party.  The party is interrupted by strange, hybrid, giant rat like creatures.  Drosselmeyer uses his strange silver blood to bring to life his clockwork toys long enough for him to partially free the statue from its curse.  Clara discovers that her mother was killed by these creatures and is thoroughly confused and angry.

 Controlling these creatures is a fairy who then proceeds to kidnap Clara's father.  In the aftermath of the chaos, some of the people of Concordia tell Clara if she does not recover her father, they will hurt Felicity.  Clara jumps with the statue-come-to-life into a magical door and arrives in the magical land of Cane.  After some more fighting and strange occurrences, Clara finds out that the metal man is really the cursed prince of Cane, who goes by the name Nicholas.  He was cursed by a human/fairy named Anise and using her mixed blood can control all the metal.  The world of Cane has become twisted and dark, constantly being built and torn down and rebuilt.  As we wander through more chaos we learn that humans had hunted the fairies because they did not understand their magic and when a human king slept with a fairy and had a half-breed baby, that baby grew up to have untold power.  To help the humans, beings called mages (the ones with the silver blood) would bond with the current rulers to help them with their magic.  Anise, not only slaughtered the royalty, but the mages as well, she then took her revenge on all the humans that hunted fairies and has turned them all into terrified second class citizens.  More stuff happens and Clara discovers that her beloved mother was actually a mage of Cane, who escaped to our world when she was sentenced to death for trying to unite fairies and humans.  This makes Clara the only other mixed blood being and gives her, her own special powers.  Nicholas wants to use her to retake his kingdom, and totally betrays her trust.  Clara hooks up with the half fairy queen Anise and finds that she is actually very lonely and wants Clara to stay with her as a companion and partner.  More stuff and things happen and Clara along with her friends save the day and the kingdom and her father.  She goes home to make things right, and then comes back to Cane to be with Nicholas.  And that is the story of Winterspell.

I am a bit prejudice when it comes to the premise of the book as I ADORE the Nutcracker, and to be honest, no story is going to live up to the original, so there was that.  A couple of things really struck me in this book.  The biggest one being how much time we spent with Clara's skin.  She started the book horribly uncomfortable and embarrassed about her own body...which considering the era, and the creepy Dr. Victor I could understand...but then we spent about a third of the book with Clara in various states of undress, in a whole lot of compromising, and/or sensual situations.  I get that being on the cusp of womanhood means lots of exploring, and confusion, and experiencing, but seriously what it actually added to the story, or Clara's character development was in no way proportional to the amount of pages spent on it.  I feel that there was some opportunities missed considering the source material.  There were some definite references to The Nutcracker, Drosselmeyer being the biggest, but also the Prince trapped as a statue/toy, some of the scenes I think tried to tie in some of the various nutcracker dances, but it was missing some of the magic, and some of the creepy dread that the book and ballet both put across.  I also thought the book which clocked in at over 400 pages could have done with some editing and been a much sleeker, more entertaining read at around 250.

 There was some great stuff in the book as well.  I did enjoy that fact that Clara had to develop her own courage for her own reasons.  Even though she had all the training from Drosselmeyer, she did not know how to utilize it in her daily life and had to work at being courageous.   I also very very very much appreciate Anise and Nicholas as multi-dimensional bad and good guys.  Anise, while very cruel, is also a product of her birth and circumstances.  She is constantly trying to make the world into a place where she can be happy, to this end, her fascination with Clara as a potential equal and partner is very understandable and adds a great dimension of soul to what could easily be a cold, cruel baddie...also she has the coolest costumes.  On the flip side Nicholas is not your typical, heroic goody goody good guy.  He is the first to admit he has an extreme hate of fairies that was taught to him from a young age.  He is also able to be ruthless to the beings he feels he needs to use to regain his crown.  I think (and I love this) that in the very end, why Nicholas is "good" and Anise is "bad" is when they both had to choose, weather to continue the hate and cruelty, or to try and bring the country together, Anise could not get past the hate, while Nicholas asked for help and admitted that he had to at least try and be better.  This idea that it is decisions that make a person good or bad and not their inherent nature is a good one.  Overall there were good parts and not so good parts.  The book was a little slow, and a little long for my particular pace and I wanted more magic and less naked.  I give this book a 6 out of 10 sugar pipes.  Happy Reading Everybody!
What story do you know will never be adapted to your liking?  Do you think I'm prudish for not wanting to read 46 almost naked, almost sexy fun times scenes in a non sexy fun times book?  How do you feel about holiday stories after the 25th?

Kill The Spare

Ok folks, this has taken a while, but I am finally ready to ramble about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  I know I finished rereading it a while ago, but you know...life and such.  If you need a synopsis go to the HP Lexicon and you will get all the details.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

This is my favorite HP book, it takes us into the wizarding world as a whole, and starts the end game in a most spectacular fashion.  We also get our first glimpse of just how far the author is willing to go for her story.  Let's go through the things that struck me the most.

Quidditch World Cup - So many things to love about this part of the book.  First off, it is the wizard version of the FIFA World Cup, which is a favorite of mine, so right off the bat I'm pretty happy.  I also really liked seeing people live their everyday lives in the wizarding world.  Having Harry stay at the Weasly's as they eat, clean, play and figure out basic things like how to get to the Quidditch World Cup with a bunch of kids takes the magic from the classroom to the everyday.  We also get to see that wizards are from all over the world, each with their own culture, dress, and ways of doing things. The game itself was wonderfully written and a prime example of why I love these books so much.  It could easily get muddled or boring, describing a bunch of people flying around on brooms and hitting balls, but Ms. Rowling shows us the whole thing from Harry's perspective, which is that of a first timer, just like the readers.  I could read this opening over and over and over...oh wait I have.

Tri-Wizard Tournament - There is a ton to love about the tournament, starting with our first glimpse of other schools.  Hermione makes a point that there obviously has to be more then one school of magic out there as their are thousands of wizards and at most Hogwarts graduates apx 40 kids a year, and that is assuming that they all pass.  Seeing the different way's the students are taught, how their enviroment and culture infulence their uniforms and attitudes is pretty neat.  The challanges are pretty cool, being varied in nature and once again showing us a bunch of things we have never seen before.  Each of the contestants comes at each challange in a different way, showing us that critical thinking plays a part in most magical dealings.  I do however feel bad for the rest of the students at all three schools.  Durmstrang and Beuxbatons both left the bulk of their students behind with some substitue headmaster, while the Hogswarts students have nothing to do all year except go to the three challanges spread through out the year...and the second two were not even visible to the audiance.

Hermione and the Boys - I love love love Hermione in this book (ok I love her in all the books, but seriously she is awesome in this one).  She shows everybody that while she may be super smart and practicle, she is also a girl, with feminine feelings and the ability to clean up pretty when she wants to.  This is one of those cases that adds a sense of reality to the books.  Hermione is around Ron and Harry so much, in the role of friend, researcher, homework nag, and awesome spell caster that the fact that she is also a teenage girl is totaly lost on them.  It takes a boy ( a kind of dumb boy) who has some distance and perspective to make them realize that yes in fact Hermione is a potential love intrest...or at least somebody to ask to a dance.  I like that Hermione deals with it partially in a grown-up, roll her eyes at the idocy of boys way, and also in a frustrated, tear filled, teenage girl way.  It is good to show that even our smarty mcsmarty pants has emotions, and that they are valid and in no way make her any less of an awesome person.

Ron and Harry - Ron and Harry have always had an interesting relationship.  They are mostly inseperable, teaming up when Malfoy gets out of hand, Divination homework is due, or Hermione gets a bit high and mighty for their taste.  It has to be hard on Ron though, already being the youngest boy in a very chaotic family, and then the best friend of the kid who everything seems to happen too.  When Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire, I imagine Ron just lost it, I'm sure he was thing "of course Harry is going to be in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, why would he?  Everything happens to him, or is given to him, or is about him."  Of course Harry rarely goes searching for these things, and many times much angst and anguish accompany these "adventures", but I can see where it would be excruciating at times for Ron.  The fight in this book between the two of them is realistic and heartbreaking, and lets the reader explore some of the problems of being the percieved her and sidekick.

The Ending - So much happened in this book, but of course what most people talk about is the end.  Several BIG things happen in the last couple of chapters.  First of all the normal culmination of all the little tidbits that Ms. Rowling has sprinkled through out the book come to the awesome conclusion of Mad-Eye, Barty Crouch Jr.  and of course the return of HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED!  Second, they way that Voldemort came back was just...evil.  If we ever thought that maybe our resident Dark Lord was just misunderstood, these chapter's completely dispelled that notion.  The casual death of a young person, the brutal collecting of flesh and blood, the toying with his followers and then attempting to kill Harry (which would be a second dead kid in a short span) all show us just how bad this bad guy is.  The ending leaves us with a sense of dread and foreboding, knowing that it can only get worse.

The Film - The movie version of this book is a bit dissapointing.  I know it is mostley because the book is stuffed full to bursting with all kinds of awesomeness that just does not translate to the screen...but still.  They cut out a lot of characters, Dobby does not even make an apperance, despite his pivotal role in the second challange.  The movie feels rushed and bit like they were catering to what they thought the audiance wants, rather then what the book was doing.  The change to make the two schools all male and all female seemed odd to me as that was not in the book, skipping the whole Duddly and the Ten-Tounge Toffee bit was sad, Dobby missing is never good and...well there was just a bunch of stuff that made me go blah.  The visuals were stunning as always, and I could watch the under the lake challange several times over.  Danial Radcliff , still does a great look of wonder when encountering new magic that makes me smile every time I see it.  The interaction between the three friends is still wonderful on screen, and the kid who played Victor Krum was quit tasty.  Overall the movie was ok, but the book was much better.

I love rereading this book, there is so much to it and it gets the second half of the series off to a rousing start.  When I think of this series, this is the book that usually comes to mind.  It is the perfect mix of a school age adventure, growing up, and how events in the world will always play a role in a persons life, regardless of their age.  I give this book 9 out of ten Hungarian Horntails.

What was your favorite part of this book?  Were you dissapointed in the movie, or do you undertand that it can't be 10 hours long?  How bad do you wish you had the ability to turn certain people into ferrets?

SciFi Awesomeness!

Hey guess what?  Two ramblings in a row!!!  How did you get so lucky you ask?  Mostly I have a ton of books to ramble about and I am low on ideas for other blog posts...so ramblings it is.  Today is a ramble about one of my favoritist short story collections.  My baby sis read it, called me and said get it, get it right now, and through the magic of ebooks The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows edited by Jonathan Strahan was purchased, read and loved.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

Ass-Hat Magic Spider by Scott Westerfeld - Besides being by one of my favorite authors, this story is also about the love of a hard copy book.  In the future colonists have a severely limited weight they are allowed to carry on the colony ship.  The main character goes through some extreme measures to make sure he can take at least one intact book with him.  This just goes to show you I am not the only one with a physical attachment to ones books.

Orange by Neil Gaiman - Another one of my favorite authors contributes this quirky, strange awesome story told entirely through answers.  This is the story that made my baby sis call me and I am glad she did.  The story...if you can call it that is some sort of transcript where all you get is the protagonists answers to unknown questions.  It is surprisingly readable and has a great sense of humor.  I love love love it.

Repair Kit by Stephen Baxter - This whole story is a bit of a deus ex machina in a tongue in cheek way.  The whole story hinges on a box that can repair things by pulling them from the past.  The best part is whenever the mechanic is asked to explain the way the box works, he is tells them that it is unexplainable alien technology.

Anda's Game by Cory Doctorow - Our plucky and pudgy heroine of this story shows us that anybody can choose to do the right thing.  Taking MMORPG's to a whole new level this story gives us a whole lot of social commentary (without to much preaching) in the package of an ordinary girl and her ordinary family. This story has heart and that makes this story awesome.

The Dust Assassin by Ian McDonald - The biggest appeal of this one is that it is set in India.  The author does a great job integrating the future with the culture, customs and religions of this fascinating country.  The combination of this perfect setting and a heart wrenching, yet brilliant story make this a unique and wonderful addition to this collection.

Infestation by Garth Nix - Vampires, aliens, supersoldiers, everything a fast paced story needs.  This story takes an old school baddie, vampires and turns them into supersoldiers from another planet.  In the future these supersoldiers have gotten to Earth and the government allows civilians the chance to take them out...or die trying.  A fun twist on the vampire hunter story.

Pinocchio by Walter Jon Williams - The last entry in this collection deals with a society where children are limited because of over crowding and the ability to switch bodies at will.  The story examines what happens when you are young and basically immortal.  It is also a social commentary on our celebrities, child stars, and the flash in the pan fame the Internet can bring.

This collection is varied and wonderful and re readable (which is a huge plus).  It is technically geared towards the YA crowd and I think it fits the bill perfectly.  Many of the stories are a great jumping off point for discussions of various issues that affect people now and potentially in the future.  I recommend this collection to just about everybody and give it 9 out of 10 real books!

What is your favorite short story genre?  Is social commentary in a story good or obnoxious?  What is your vision of the future? How does one write a story in only answers?

A Twist Of Grimm

Picked up a book on impulse the other day (shocking I know).  It was just to pretty not to and I figured even if the book sucked, it would at least look super cool on my shelf.  Lucky for me the book did not suck.  The book is called Grim, a collection of short stories edited by Christine Johnson. According to the blurb on the back they are supposed to be a dark twist on some of the classic fairy tales, which it accomplishes with varying degrees of success.  Here are the stories that really stood out in this collection.

Figment by Jeri Smith-Ready - This was one of my favorites, a fabulous modern twist on The Puss In Boots that keeps all the feel of the original and adds the perfect bit more.  I like the characters in this story, especially the main guy who is a fun mix of angsty musician and weird kid.  This kind of story is the type of retold fairy tale I particularly enjoy because it retains the essence of the original, but feels like a new story all at the same time.

The Brothers Piggett by Julie Kagawa - Three Little Pigs with a truly dark twist!  The story starts out fun and a bit humorous and it took me a few minutes to figure out what story it was.  Then as your reading, smiling BAM!  The wolf comes in a most unexpected form.  I would have never guessed in a million years that reading The Three Little Pigs would ever be more then a funny simple story...I was wrong.

Untethered by Sonia Gensler - If we are going off of the idea that most of these stories are rewrites of Grimm Fairytales then the closet story I could find was The Shroud to base this one off of.  I don't want to say to much about this story as it will ruin it for you, but I loved it.  The twist was actually surprising, but that was only one small part of its appeal.

Better by Shaun David Hutchison - I am still trying to decide if this story was based on Pinocchio or Frankenstein.  This story about a man trying to save his son and all the other children by experimenting on a bio cyborg goes horribly wrong when the boy and girl fall in love and use some pretty controversial techniques to keep him alive.  All of this and a scene with proverbial pitchforks makes me think the author had more then the classic fairytale in mind when he wrote this.

Light It Up by Kimberly - AWESOME twist on the Hansel and Gretel story.  It is the perfect reminder that while it may have been a children's story, it is still about a homicidal guardian and a cannabalistic baddie.  Seriously even the original story was dark and scary, and this one has even more of the elements that make this such a dark story.

I found this collection to be hit or miss in a lot of the stories.  The ones I like, I loved, the ones that didn't do for me were not worth reading again.  There were a couple instances where the story was kept almost exactly the same, which seems to negate the idea that they were supposed to have been rewritten.  The book itself is beautiful with a gorgeous cover, old school font, creepy trees, and even a bookmark!  I recommend it for anybody who likes a re-written fairy tale and does not mind some darkness, violence, or cannibalism (seriously so much cannibalism).  Definitely one you do no read to your kid before they go to bed at night :-)  I give it 7 out of 10 Brothers Grimm
How hard do you think it is to make some of these tales darker then they already are?  Do you like your tales to have a happy ending?  Do I need to quit buying books based solely on their looks?

Quirky Or Weird...Two Sides Of The Same Coin

Finished a book recommended to me by a friend the other day.  The book means a lot to her and so I read it with her in mind, I have to say she has wonderful taste in books :-) (love you little redhat).  The book is called The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, who later wrote it into a movie by the same name.  It was a lot different then what I was expecting (in a good way) and I am glad I read it.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is written as letter by the main character Charlie to an unknown correspondent.  It covers his life from the end of middle school into his second year or so of high school (apx ages 12-15ish).  He tells his unknown correspondent that he is using an alias and that he has changed the names of people because he wants to protect his anonymity and just needs somebody to listen to him.  He never gives geographical locations or addresses so the unknown correspondent can never respond back. Charlie tells us of two instances in his past that have very much affected his present, the suicide of his friend Michael, who was one of Charlies only friends.  The other is the death of his beloved aunt Helen when he was younger.  These two occurrences figure heavily into Charlies thought pattern through out the book.   As the book progresses we learn about Charlie and how he see's the world.  He is a bit odd and quirky if you understand that stuff, but comes across as weird to outsiders.  He is pretty much friendless as he starts high school, but is taken under his English teachers wing when his love of books comes to light.  His teacher gives him many books to read and encourages him to participate in life instead of just observe it.  Charlie becomes friends with Sam and Patrick, step-siblings who are seniors in high school.  Charlie is instantly smitten with Sam, but she gently sets him down.  Patrick is gay and is secretly dating the star football quarter back.  We watch as Charlie finds his place among the special group, all the while trying to figure himself out.  Several incidents happen both good and bad and Charlie learns more about himself, his friends, his family and society in general.  Through out the book Charlie battles what I can only call depressive episodes, he has a history of needing help from mental professionals and knows when he is slipping.  Near the end of the book, after most of his friends graduate, leaving him feeling alone, he has a pretty sever episode that lands him in the hospital.  Here we learn that his beloved aunt Helen had actually sexually abused him as a young boy and he has been repressing the memory ever since.  It is not clear if this is what caused the depression, or if he already had some issues and this just made it worse.  In the end his family and friends are all there for him, making him believe he can continue on.

This book is set in 1991, which gives it a bit of a nostalgic feel for me, and must seem odd to some of the younger people reading it today.  I think this works because it adds to the main characters feelings of isolation, when the only way to reach somebody is on a land line phone, a letter, or in person, you tend to feel much more of an absence when people you love are gone.  In this world of 24/7 connected communication I think we forget that it wasn't always like this.  Not that a person cannot feel alone today, it is just a different type of alone.  I enjoyed this book for the most part.  It had a cast of characters that I would have probably hung out with if I went to that school, which makes it very easy for me to identify with...even if I haven't been a teenager in a really long time :-)  I like that the book was about a bunch of non-conformist kids, not bad kids, not popular kids, not delinquent kids, just different kids who thought in a different way.  This book resonates with me because I was one of those different kids in school.  I am lucky and usually had a group of friends who if not as different as I was, were more then willing to go along with my weirdness, or quirkiness, or psychosis, or whatever it is you want to call it.  In this book The Rocky Horror Picture Show  (which I love, but my Hubbin hates) becomes the place/show that this group of kids can form around, which again I identify with completely, instead of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, my

friends and I all had a thing for various plays and musicals to center ourselves around.  I know that several times this book has been under fire for its portrayal of sex, alcohol and drugs, but I thought they were fairly accurately portrayed, in there use and in the consequences of doing/using all three.  I know sometimes as adults we want to pretend that only the really bad kids do any of that stuff, but the reality of it good, bad or otherwise is that way more kids use all three to varying degrees then we might think, and in some ways a book like this needs to have them in it to come across as genuine and honest.  In regards to Charlie, I sometimes felt he came across a lot younger then he his actual age.  Acting more like a 9-10 year old then a 14-15 year old boy.  Again, not sure if this was some sort of mental thing, or just his personality.  I liked that while he had issues, and he was a "wall-flower" that he did find his own brand of happiness, that he found other people who understood that listening to a certain song at a certain time can make one feel infinite.  I liked that through all of the weirdness and issues of being a teenager that he always had hope, always found a way to find like minded people.  This book could have gotten very dark, and in parts it does take a somber turn, but for the most part I felt like it was a book telling all of us weird kids that it was ok, that there are other weird people out there, and there are good times to be had.  In regards to my friend who loaned it to me, I think I was reading this through her eyes a bit as well, which in this case added in even cooler dimension as I felt like I was reading it as two people and was able to get even more out of the book then if I was just reading it through my own perspective.  I am now excited to see the movie, even though I'm not 100% sure how they are going to portray it on film, but I have heard good things about it.  I recommend this book for anybody who was the weird kid in school, who knows that being different can be hard, but not necessarily bad, or is nostalgic for walking down the school halls without a cell phone in your back pocket.  I give this book 8 out of 10 Transexuals from Transexualvania.

What book reminds you most of high school/middle school?  What kind of kid were/are you?  Am I using a lot of / today?

Firebirds

I recently have reread a collection of short stories called I got a while ago, I was looking for a particular story to show somebody and then remembered that I love most of the stories in this collection.  Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Sharyn November is full of stories that are unique, varied and perfect for reading just about anytime. It is geared towards the young adult crowd, but that does not take anything away from this collection.  Here are some of my favorites.

Cotillion by Delia Sherman - This modern day retelling of the Tam Lin story set in the Vietnam Era New York City is a perfect opener to this book.  It is both classic and new all at the same time. The story is the perfect length and the ending is what every love at first sight story should be.

The Baby in the Night Deposit Box by Megan Whalen Turner - This is one of my top ten short stories of all time.  It is original and funny and sweet and has terriffying shadow bunnies of evil.  It also features a little girl (who is not blond haired, fair skinned or rose lipped thank you very much) who in a very short story grows up to be even awesomer.  Just go read it.

Mariposa by Nancy Springer - This is the perfect story of what happens to us when we grow up...we lose our soul.  The souls in this story are represented by various objects, butterflies, birds, or in the case of our main character a sunfish.  This sweet story reminds us to go back to that time in life when you could still see the magic in everything, and how that made the world a better place.
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Max Mondrosch by Lloyd Alexander - I have to put this story in here for sheer writing skill, and the fact that I hate it so much I refuse to ever reread it.  This is a fantastically written short story, but it is heart wrenching and sad.  It makes me feel super depressed when I read it...again, not a bad thing, just a writer who knows how to get to his readers.  I will say you should read it and get back to me on what effect it may or may not have had on you.

The Fall of Ys by Meredith Ann Pierce - This is a retelling of the fabled city of Ys.  In this story the author has changed the perspective to a selfish man who wants to have absolute rule.  Instead of his daughter being a monster, she is actually the good guy.  I like this story because it always sticks in my head after I have read it.  Actually this is the story that made me hunt down this book again.

Byndley by Patricia A. McKillip - This is one of my absolute favorites in this book.  It is a truly magical fairy story.  It has everything one wants from a high fantasy tale, it has the Fair Folk, a mysterious village in the enchanted woods, a tortured soul looking for a way back, and an epic tale of love and betrayal, all told over a mug of ale...ahhh perfect.

Little Dot by Diana Wynne Jones - This story is told from the perspective of a cat and is hilarious.  A wizard becomes the unintentional owner of several cats who help him defeat a monster who is intent on eating the villagers livestock.  It is witty and sweet and one I am going to read to my nephews in the very near future.

As I look at my favorite stories I am not surprised to see that this book inspired me to pick up several of these authors books.  Patricia A. McKillip and Diana Wynne Jones are two of several authors I now read extensively thanks to this collection.  This is just one of the things I love about these kind of collections, how it introduces writing styles and authors you have never tried before, YAY ME!  Anyways everybody go pick it up (and the companion book which I will get to later) and tell me what you think.  I give this collection an 8 out of 10 firebirds.

What author(s) have you been introduced to through a short story collection?  Do you ever have to go through your short story collections to find a story you were looking for/thinking about?  Do you find it amusing when my favorite list in these collection includes almost all of the stories?

Mischief Managed

Who is ready for some more Harry Potter?  I AM!  Today we shall explore the third book in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  If you are one of the few people who have not actually read/watched the series then you can get a great summation here, along with some other really cool stuff. I will now jump right to the good stuff, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!

This is a lot of peoples favorite book in the series, and while it is not my very favoritist, I can totally understand why so many people rate it as number one.  Let us list why this book is awesome.
Series Story - For me this is the book that really let me know that the author had a long term story in mind, the first two books definitely had  bits and pieces of a larger story, but I felt that they were more focused on creating the world of Hogwarts and cementing the friendship of Harry, Ron and Hermione.  This book really started expanding the story, showing us a history that went beyond Harry and beyond Hogwarts and affected the whole wizarding world.  This was also the book that really showed how much attention one had to pay while reading, that even the most insignificant happening could come back and be super important.  This story is also where we see all three of the "kids" start to grow up and accept some responsibility outside of themselves and start showing the eventual legends they will become.

New Places - Along with expanding the story, this book also expands our places in the wizarding world beyond Hogwarts.  We get to see Hogsmede, an all wizarding villiage.  We visit the Shrieking Shack and learn it's importance in Harry's personal history.  We learn about more Azkaban, which is a wizarding prison that plays a huge role in the rest of the series and is the home to the super creepy dementors, who may be one of the most terrifying creatures ever.  It is cool to watch our world expand beyond the sheltered and enchanted castle of Hogwarts.
The Maurders Map - Along with learning the history of Padfoot, Prongs, Mooney and Wormtail, we are introduced to one of the most recognized "props" in recent book history, the Maurders Map.  It is nice to see that Harry's up to now "perfect" father had a mischievous streak to him as well.  I love that this map is passed from these four to Fred and George, and then to Harry who uses it to great advantage when combined with his invisibility cloak.
Politics - The politics in the wizarding world are very well thought out and come in to play several times in this book.  We have the underlying prejudice in certain families toward "Muggle-borns" or "Mudbloods" that still prevails.  We have Malfoy employing his wealth and influence to get the poor hippogriff Buckbeak executed, just to spite Hagrid, whom he considers beneath him.  We see Lupin get discriminated against for being a werewolf and Sirrus can never be cleared of the murder of his best friend because of the overriding prejudice.  We start to see the ugly side of this enchanted world and it adds a layer of depth and awesome.
The Movie - I really really liked the movie version of the book.  We got to see more of Hogwarts, I especially loved when Lupin and Harry were talking behind the clock face, just stunning.  I am ambivalent on the casting of Lupin and Sirrius, sometimes I think the casting is perfect, other times I want...I don't

know...more rougeish maybe?  The casting of Wormtail however I felt was dead on and perfect in every way!  There was a lot of the story that was cut out for the movie, which is understandable for time concerns, but it does lose a bit of the richness that I love in the HP books.  The movie however has its share of great moments like when the dementors first appear and everything goes dark and cold.  When the class works on banishing the boggarts and Snape appears dressed in Nevilles grandmothers clothes is priceless!  My favorite moment however is when Hermione slugs Malfoy after one too many insults, GO HERMIONE!
So ends another HP ramble and another happy day remembering an awesome book, I will now go read the next one so I can gush some more!
What do you like about this book?  Do you understand why it is so many peoples favorite?  How badly do you want a Maurders Map?  Is I Solemnly Swear I Am Up To No Good your new phrase? What is your Patronus?

Editing Humanity

I have finally finished that last book in the Divergent series, Allegiant by Veronica Roth.  All of my fellow bookies have been dying for me to finish this series so that we could talk about it.  I love all the various reactions to this book and how other people thought I would react to the book.  Some people thought I would love the ending, others thought I would hate it...in the end, as with this whole series I have mixed feelings.  As always SPOILERS, SO MANY HUGE DON'T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU WANT ANY SENSE OF SURPRISE TO THE ENDING OF THIS SERIES, SERIOUSLY SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Ok, here we go with my new and improved shortened synopsis of this book.  As before we pick up right were we left off.  The factionless are now in charge and they are hellbent on revenge for all of their suffering through out the years.  Tris gets put on trial and using her super Divergent powers is able to resist the truth serum enough to get her and her friends set free.  Tobias pretends to break up with her so his mom (the factionless leader Evelyn) will continue to trust him, but really they just sneak out for almost sexy fun time.  They, along with their friends get recruited into Allegiant, a group dedicated to following the precepts of their ancestors, which includes reinstating the factions and sending the Divergents out into the world.  Of course our intrepid band gets chosen to set out into the big bad world including Tris, Tobias, Cara, Will, Christina, Uriah and Caleb who gets rescued from certain execution by Tobias.  Off our group goes and once they are outside the fence are almost immediately picked up by some former faction members who had either dissapered or supposedly died.  They pretty quickly learn that the video they found was mostly a lie to get the Divergent to come out of the city.  They are told that back a while ago people started messing with their genes to try and eradicate the bad stuff, selfishness, violence, cowardice, untrustworthiness, and

ignorance...sound familiar.  This led to people also losing the opposite of whatever they cut out...so selfless people had no sense of self preservation, truthfulness at the cost of tact and so on so forth.  Because all good dystopia's need a war the people with damaged genes fought the people with the pure genes, causing what is called the Purity war.  This lasted long enough and caused enough damage that the government could blame all the bad stuff on the people with the damaged genes.  This led to groups of what they call Genetically Damaged or GD's being put in sealed cities and treated with serums and experiments to try and fix the genes and then get them passed down to other generations...yeah it's supposed to make sense but never does.  Anyways when people are born with fixed genes they become Divergent, come out to the real world...and yeah.  So anyways in the real world it is found by our group that the GD's are very oppressed by the GP's (Genetically Pure).  The experiments are a big reason for the prejudice as all of the countries resources are being used to fund these experiments instead of rebuilding the country.  All kinds of chaos, and yet a whole lot of nothing occurs.  Near the end they find out that the leaders of the experiment are going to use a memory serum to wipe the memories of the people left in Chicago and start again.  Tris and her gang come up with a plan to stop this, while at the same time modifying the memories of the experiment leaders for a better world where both GD's and GP's can live in peace. Tobias goes and makes peace with his mother, and comes to terms with his father, stopping a potential massacre. In the end Tris takes the most risk and dies for it...yep Tris, the heroine dies...for real...I told you spoilers.  The risk pays off and everything goes as planned.  The country looks like it is one the right track, Tobias comes to terms with Tris's death and becomes a leader and they all attempt to live happily ever after.

So...here we are...at the end of this series and I have to try and figure out how to explain my feelings on this book and the series as a whole.  Lets start with the good, shall we?  I have fallen hard for Tris, Christina and Cara.  Christina is just awesome, loud, adventurous, smart, funny and deals with life in a fairly realistic, yet healthy way. Cara is a super smart person who has had to come to terms with her own humanity and grows in leaps and bounds through out the books, especially this one.  She also proves herself to be a fantastic leader.  Tris is just awesome, I wasn't sure at the beginning, but by the end of this book, so much love.  I think this last book is where I finally picked up on what I love about her...she is not a push over.  At one point in the book Tobias pulls his stupid double standard paternal crap and Tris calls him on it so hard I just wanted to kiss her.  Another time Tobias does something really stupid, after Tris tried time and again to talk to him and in the end she pretty much broke up with him over it...in a totally mature, hey this is not cool and I am not kissing a guy who refuses to respect or listen to me.  Of course they get back together before the end, but still, I feel Tris can hold her own against him.  I also feel Tris is a good window into humanity in general, she has strong moments, weak moments, funny moments, serious moments, hard moments, and crazy moment I just really like her. Props to the author for writing a wide variety of positive females.  The other thing I liked in this book is the realistic way the author killed a couple of good characters.  I love it when an author realizes that when you have a violent book...people die.  Uriah's death was a sad, slow brain injury instead of the normal sudden violent death which is awesome because it gave the other characters time to reflect and respond in a totally different way then normal.  Tris's death was significant because, well, she was the main character and her death made sense and brought home the real cost of rebellions.  I loved it.

On to the bad.  I hate Tobias.  In this book the author had the narration go back and forth between Tris and Tobias and I hated hated hated it.  Tobias came across as a whiny petulant 14 year old girl with a bit of angry 15 year old wanna be gangster boy thrown in just to really annoy everybody. I liked nothing about him, at all, not even a little bit.  I was excited to finally find out about the whats and whys of the whole Divergent thingy, but the explanation just did not work for me...or anybody who has gotten past third grade science.  It probably seems super nit picky, and I know I drone on and and on about it every time I review a book in this series, but seriously, it goes against human nature, it goes against science and it goes against all reason and as before, it ruins the premise for me.  There was not a lot of world building outside of there was a war, stuff was destroyed now there are the haves and have nots...makes me miss the Dauntless areas.  I also hate when reveals make the first couple books irrelevant, which this book seems to do.  There seemed to be a disconnect through out this book, a kind of feeling like I should care more about certain things then I did.  There is so much more about the serums, and how they worked, and how does one tell a GD from a GP unless you are holding their genetic results in your hand, and how does the genetic damage and repair even work, and so much stuff that probably only bugs me so I will end this here.  Overall I felt about this book how I felt about the series, I enjoyed a lot of the characters, but the world building, the premise and the story just did not ring true for me.  I give this book a 5 out of 10 truth serum.

How did you feel about this book compared to the overall series?  Does the lack of any sensible science in this book bug you anywhere near as much as it does me?   Am I sick and twisted to be happy when an author actually kills off a character in a meaningful, adept, realistic way?

Carrot Juice Zombie Infection

Hi Everybody (Hi Dr. Nick), sorry a bit of Simpsons humor, couldn't help myself.  How is everybody on this fine snowy morning?  Everybody got a big cup of hot coffee?  Everybody got there big fluffy blankies? Everybody got their ax in case of a snowy zombie attack? Oh...I'm being told it wasn't actually a zombie attack this morning, just a bunch of idiots who can't drive in the snow...well zombies are way more fun so lets talk about those instead.  Undead by Kirsty McKay is a YA book about zombies read because it was handed to me by my Hubbin who said "this looks cool, you should read it and tell me what happens", so I did.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Bobby has it rough, she is a British native who was moved to the US because of her mothers job and then back to the UK for the same reason, this gives her a weird American/British combo slang accent that apparently is the basis for her having no friends.  Her concerned mother has sent her on a school skiing trip in Scotland to try and help her make some friends. This backfires and Bobby spends most of the trip being teased or ignored.  They are finally on their way back and have stopped at some little cafe in the middle of nowhere for lunch.  Bobby decides she has had enough of the teasing and stays on the bus while the others go in and eat.  Smitty a rebel without a cause is also staying on the bus as his bad boy attitude has gotten him in trouble. Their teacher goes into the cafe to get Smitty some food.  Bobby meanwhile needs to pee...bad, which we all know is one of the worst feelings in the world, she does not want to face her fellow students so she attempts to use the bus bathroom, but is informed by the bus driver that it is not usable when the bus is turned off. Bobby notes a poor guy in a giant carrot suit passing out samples of some veggie carrot juice to all of the kids and teachers.  All of a sudden the bus is hit from behind and the driver goes out to see what happened.  Meanwhile one of Bobby and Smitty's classmates, the popular Alice comes screaming out of the cafe, yelling that they are all dead and generally being incoherent.  As they look around they see the teacher that went to get Smitty food come out all slathering, hungry, and gross.  The kids barricade themselves in the bus until Smitty realizes that the driver has yet to come back.  Alice stays in the bus while Bobby and Smitty go drag him in, noting what looks like a bite mark on his arm.  Chaos ensues and the trio along with the

unconscious bus driver end up at a near by gas station where Bobby finally gets a chance to pee.  They meet up with the pale and geeky Pete who has been hiding in the bathroom, and the unsavory Gareth who is the local gas attendant.  More chaos and more zombies and the gas station ends up in flames, incinerating a good portion of the undead.  Gareth runs away with the only laptop and the kids discover that their cellphones don't work.  They head back to the cafe where the bus driver turns and more chaos.  They hunker down and do their best to barricade themselves in the cafe.  Bobby passes out from hunger, which while embarrassing is the sign for them to go find food.  being that they are in a cafe it should be pretty easy, the only problem is they don't know what it is that turned all of their classmates, teachers, and cafe workers into zombies.  Eventually they puzzle out that it was the carrot juice samples and tuck into their sandwiches.  They hood up with Lily and her 3 year old brother Cam who lost their mother to the carrot juice zombie infection.  They find a castle and break in, hunkering down for the night.  The next day as they are exploring they find what looks like cells, with a headless body in one of them and a locked tower.  The current occupants of the castle come home turn out to be not very nice, they make prisoners of the kids and continue with their plans. Lily reveals that she found the tower key and they withhold the information from their captors who are desperate to find it.  More chaos (are you sensing a theme yet) and little Cam turns into a toddler zombie who promptly turns his sister.  The rest of the crew make it up to the tower and watch the very convenient destruction of their captors.  They go through all of the papers and realize that the company responsible for this zombie menace is the same one Bobby's mom works for.  We also find out that Bobby's dad has recently died of cancer and that she has never had a good relationship with her mom.  So very conveniently Bobby's phone starts working and her mom calls to tell her where to find the antidote and how to escape and bring it to her.  Bobby and company escape and trudge across the ice, being chased by zombies to a little island.  They make Bobby's mom tell them what the heck is going on.  Apparently the zombie disease has been popping up in isolated instances all over the world and Bobby's mother's company was hired to find a cure.   Unfortunately human greed jumped into the mix and the rest of the team sold the engineered disease to some baddies who want to use it as a weapon.  The company itself was actually using the cafe and the carrot juice as a controlled test and have plans to wipe out the whole area once the test has been completed.  They try to escape, but Smitty goes through the ice and is bitten by underwater ice dwelling zombies.   Luckily Bobby uses the cure (that could save all of humanity) on Smitty and hopefully that cures him.  They flag down a school bus that is also returning from a school trip and hitch a ride.  As she drifts off to sleep, Bobby see's a carton of the zombie carrot juice...and it is empty.  The book ends with her screaming that they all need to get off the bus.

Eh, the book was ok.  It kind of felt like on of those movies on Disney or Lifetime that you don't look for, but since their on and the remote control is on the other side of the couch you may as well finish it.  I think the book was going for a snarky/comic feel, on review compared it to Shaun of the Dead (such an awesome movie), but I don't think it quite made it there.  The characters were all stock characters, slightly exaggerated, I think the author was trying to use them as satire, or parody, but she did not go far enough.  The situations were uneven and were resolved either in a cliche way or by some randomly convenient event.  The story itself was very straight forward zombie apocalypse, which sometimes worked really well, and sometimes just felt boggy.   The ending made it very clear that there was a sequel coming, so of course very little resolution was presented.  On the plus side, the author did a good job addressing things I always

wonder about in these kinds of predicaments...like having to pee, you almost never see or read about our hero's using the bathroom, but seriously when you gotta go, you gotta go.  One of the main things I teach my recruits at the fire station is that if you have to use the bathroom, especially in the middle of the night, don't wait 'cause their is nothing worse then doing CPR with a full bladder.  Things like eating, peeing, clothes getting sweaty and gross, hair and make going to heck, all of these things that we would have to deal with in real life usually get glossed over, but are addressed in this book.  I also loved that the three year old cutie was the requisite person to turn. In these situations somebody in the main group ALWAYS ends up a zombie and I love that she made it the kid. I also love that the disease was handed out as juice samples by a giant carrot.  I understand what the author was going for in this book, I think she was trying to make teenage zombie book in the vein of a parody, but the execution was not effective.  It comes across as mushy, predictable and a wee bit annoying.  Also the blurb and back of the book description are not at all an accurate representation of whats in the book, nor is the front cover.  Overall I think I may have actually liked this better as a cheesy Syfy channel movie and I give it 4 out of 10 zombie infected carrot juices.
What is the best vector for a zombie infection?  How would you feel if you found out your mother was working for a zombie company?  How horrible would it be if they infected the coffee supply?!?