Bookshot

Beastly, Alex Finn

A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright—a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.

You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll stay this way forever—ruined—unless I can break the spell.

Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly . . . beastly.

I liked it. Aside from Beauty & the Beast being my favourite Disney film, this book has plenty to recommend itself. The dialogue is realistic, the characters are (okay, fantastical) real through their flaws and the setting is just creepy enough to be old school, but modern enough to appeal to today's audience.

We begin in a high school and move to an abandoned building housing misfits. The Beast is physically beastly, and the beauty is beautiful on the inside. It's a clear role reversal from the Disney film. Departing from animated cutlery we have a foreign housekeeper / cook and a blind tutor / friend.

The ending seemed a little rushed, but I enjoyed the happy part of it. Best parts are the Beast's attempts to befriend the Beauty. Painful parts are her reactions to him in the initial parts.

Film: Ya'll know how I feel about books to films (well, maybe not, but you will soon), generally I try to view them as separate stories, to save myself from disappointment. So no, I haven't seen the film yet, it's on my to-watch list.

Well worth a read for all romantics or fans of Beauty & the Beast.


4stars

Today, we will.

I've been neglecting you blog. My sincere apologies for this. Every time I've attempted to get my fingers onto you, something or someone distracts me. So far as excuses go, this is an atrocious one. *hangs head in shame*

Today I will most certainly:
Catch up on reviews
Spend time with J planning the European Extravaganza (no, no name has been decided upon yet)
And head over to your sister to add a Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara post (fully intend to subject unsuspecting friends to this film. We must make a pact!)

Right, so as I await J's arrival, these are my promises, all of which will be kept!

Hopefully.

Middle of Nowhere

This song plays on repeat on my ipod, Sunshine, not by choice, entirely by fluke.

Where am I? Nowhere, everywhere and somewhere in between. Currently reading The Name of the Wind nightly before sleep, it has me hooked enough to forgo a little sleep and a lot of energy for its words so that is a good sign, I suppose.

There are three pieces of assessment with my name on them - a feature article due tomorrow worth 30%, an essay due Wednesday worth 50% and another essay due 16 June, but which I would like to submit this Friday. That last hope is largely crazy, considering I haven't yet started working on it.

Apart from knowing I'm basing it around Ed Murrow's (in)famous speech. And perhaps comparing it to the state of broadcast journalism today. Perhaps, mayhap, maybe.

For now this is all I have.

Cleverness of Capeside

There is so much happening it's hard to follow all of it and comprehend it and then respond to it.

I think the bad weather just makes us all that much less enthusiastic, happy, gladvillers, keen and more likely to want to do things. It's sad really, I've always liked a good storm but certainly not when my boats floundering around on the choppy seas.

Yep, you're right I've been watching far too much Dawson's Creek. If you have no idea what I'm on about check out this here, and perhaps things will come home.

I loved this episode, apart from J&P being together, Dawson and P finally have a chat. It's only been three seasons (weather ones) coming but tis something. And Dawson jumps on board the True Love to bring P home, so to speak. Though note, it is J shrieking at him that gets P that jump.

What I'm trying to say is, I love this show and I could probably survive life if I used this as a guide. But then the same could be said of Supernatural (hmm Dean), Buffy (ahh, Buffy) and Veronica Mars (ohh, Logan) and probably Sabrina. Lol, Sabrina.

So here is my good thought of the day and I hope ya'll find something to smile about.

"I am so clever, that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."

The Crossing, BM Radburn

This is a great debut novel. The characters are believable, the cliches are absent and to some extent inverted and the location is eerie enough to host a missing young girl and a small sliver of hope.

Meet Taylor Bridges, a park ranger whose 8 year old daughter goes missing. As a consequence his otherwise happy marriage, begins to crack and chip prompting him to take a break and move an island away to Tasmania, to the small town of Glory's Crossing.

Being under the attentions of a mining group is never fun, being the recipient of a local government dam project is even less so. Glory's Crossing is literally, slowly sinking as the local river is flooded and the dam being built. To this town of old friends and foes arrives Taylor.

Here he is on the outskirts of a community tragedy until another little girl goes missing. This little girl had enchanted Taylor with her cheeky behaviour one day prior. A chronic sleepwalker since the disappearance of his daughter, Taylor begins to worry he is the cause of these disappearances.

Needlessly, might I add. The group of characters gathered to tell this story are the novel's forte. Believable, funny at times and with the potential to be someone you know, these characters allowed me to acknowledge the many ways in which humans, as a species are really quite fragile.

It's a great mystery with enough elements of surprise to make for a engaging read. I'm looking forward to reading more from this new author.

3stars

You can find out more or download the first chapter here!

She's So Dead to Us, K. Scott

Ally had it all. The rich and loving father, the beautiful and charismatic social mother, the perfect friends, the perfect school and the perfect life.

Then she lost it all because a mistake her father made. The family was forced to leave their idyllic lifestyle and move far away to escape the hatred in her friends eyes and the coldness of their words.



The cover that I own.



If it sounds like Mean Girls in a literary form, perhaps it is. There are other things which speak for this book. In large part the kind of characters you know you've met somewhere - in high school, at the job after school or during a holiday in a country not your own.

The cruel girls, the boys who see all but do little. The mothers with concerns stemming from makeup and ending on latest fashions. It's heart breakingly true, isn't it?



A cover that is perhaps more apt for the story.



I loved the attitude Ally had, she was sad that her friends had forgotten her, were treating her like an infectious disease yet she held out hope that eventually they would see past her financial status and remember the good times they had shared.

Unfortunately, at 16 no one has that kind of mind set. But with a cute (albeit annoying) boy thrown in, some familial drama of the patriarchal order, this book has a lot to recommend itself with.

I vote, we all read it and then have a pyjama party!

4stars.

NB: part 1 of a trilogy, I only realized this when I got to the end, mighty annoying but good for people who like a little more depth to their stories without the bulky brick sized one book tales.

The Emerald Atlas, J.Stephens

Four-year old Kate, one year-old Michael and baby Emma are taken from their beds and left at an orphanage in the care of an alcoholic nun. We leap some years and meet the children when Emma is 11 years-old and a brat, Michael is 12 and most concerned with dwarfs and their ways and 15 year-old Kate is holding onto the promise she made to her mother as she was being taken, she would always look after her siblings, she would hold on until the family could be reunited.

It's a story worthy of being considered in the ranks of Harry Potter and His Dark Materials by Rowling and Pullman, respectively. There is more realist elements than perhaps in Harry Potter, the children and readers are not shielded from the harm, they thrown in and expected to deal with it.

Perhaps fans of the popular series' may not appreciate the diversion from mystery found in The Emerald Atlas, but it's a welcome change for anyone looking for something fantastical with a twist.

There are witches and dwarfs, riddle-telling wizards (no, not like Dumbledore) and evil characters who make your skin crawl. The true heroes are the children themselves and although the trilogy has been / is being written with a book for each child (Emerald Atlas is Kate's book) the other siblings get ample footage and growing room. The book introduces not just the obvious heroes but some who will surprise by the end.

Good reading for anyone aged 12 and above, or younger readers who enjoy devouring books.

5stars

Check out the official website (excerpt, trailet etc) here.
Footnote: The author was one of the writers' on popular tv show, Gossip Girl, although you wouldn't be able to tell from reading this book.

The Unwelcome Guests

I've been neglecting you, blog. Apologies.

An inexplicable thing had happened, I've fallen ill three times this year. First, over the Christmas long weekend, the usual culprits of nose blockage, coughing were joined by headaches, lethargy and severe vomiting. This last guest was particularly unwelcome, I must say. The others were somewhat more tolerable, though lethargy was pushing it a little with it's persistence.

Second, approximately two weeks past, I was visited by all the above bar the coughing; he chose to arrive post the others departure.

Third, currently, I'm entertaining all my earlier guests, minus vomit who has thankfully stayed away. I really do appreciate it, love. All other ailments please follow suit and leave.

Particularly headache, you dear, have overstayed your welcome by far.

I've been doing a lot of bus reading these past few weeks. Funnily enough, I have this feeling I haven't been updating what I've read at the speed in which they are read. Sigh. Must correct this.

Binks and I are going away, well we hope to, at the end of the year. Money is an issue. Probably The Issue, we face currently. In my hours of plotting, I've been thinking a joint blog might be a good idea, if we can get this joint blog hosted by someone like, oh, say the folks at Lonely Planet, that would be gold. Or someone who would pay us something.

If not, we revert back to Plan C, selling pieces of our kidneys.

You Against Me, Jenny Downham

Meet Mikey, whose sister has just been raped. She claims by Ellie's older brother. If Mikey's any kind of brother he'll avenge the wrong done to his sister and use any means necessary to punish those involved, right?

Except he's met Ellie and somehow, through all the problems and the anger, they begin to see each other as something more. Something more than a boy from the poor end of town or the girl who has everything going for her. There is more to both of them and that makes all the difference.

As Mikey comes to know Ellie he begins to question his sister's statement. He re-thinks events and people as he realizes she may have lied. For Ellie, Mikey becomes a sounding board who she can talk to on a level that she hasn't been able to with anyone else. She also begins to re-examine what happened that night, what she saw and what she knows.

As a reader, don't expect anything to be black and white - that's not to say that one side isn't telling the truth. But which side is something that only comes to the fore after several tension filled pages. As the characters re-think their opinions and what they know - so to will you as a reader.

You Against Me is a very powerful novel. The novel spans only a handful of months, but the impact of events that occur within this period is strong and substantial. For characters in the novel, Ellie and Mikey's story has consequences attached for how they view one another and the difference between wrong, right and in-between.

A brilliant read - highly recommended for everyone who likes their literary characters to be as 3D as possible.

5*s