Jessikah
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Solid 4 stars for taking me almost all the way.
Ahh, John Green. An adorable man if you ever meet him in person. Just a really, really cute tall nerdy guy with glasses and a nice smile. He writes well also. I have to say, I do enjoy his characters... though I am sort of seeing a pattern in his books that I hope he is able to break eventually because he really does write so well.
As in every one of his previous books, Paper Towns centers around an unattainable girl... this time the enigmatic Margo Roth Spiegelman... a road trip (to find Margo this time), and a formerly unpopular guy who ends up hooking up with a popular girl (Lacey, Margo's best friend hooks up with Ben a formerly unpopular dude who couldn't find a date on a calendar).
I read this book like I was watching a movie. Childhood friends and neighbors Q (Quentin) and Margo find a dead guy at the end of a block and contemplate how he died and then why he committed suicide. Years later Margo is a queen bee. A loud girl in the popular crowd who has a trail of legends that follow her. Q is stuck with his band geek friends while Margo holds his heart from afar. Then one day she appears at his window and takes him from his planned sheltered, good boy life to commit some petty crimes and pranks on her fellow students.. then she disappears. No one knows where she went. Her parents who are assholes do not seem to care and since she's 18 not much can be done.
Q and friends follow a series of intriguing clues to discover her location (is she dead? is she alive?) and figure out why she vanished. They also experience the time of their lives as their senior year comes to a close and all their dreams come true. I mean they DO live outside of Orlando... which we know is the world of dreams, right?
While the last few weeks of senior year does tend to bring out the beast in many people... and compel so many to behave in a way they may never have before (I'm NEVER going to see these ASSHOLES again! I can do whatever I want! Which really is very accurate for so many), Margo's disappearance haunts a heart broken Quentin. And then begins the road trip.
Here in lie Spoilers.
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Honestly, the end of this story was sort of like mental coitus interuptus for me. They got to that end where they found Margo, who didn't want to be found. And Q gets to spend a night holding her, which is great and wonderful, I can believe that someone as idealistic as Q wouldn't want to add sex into the mix of his golden moment. She has it out with her fellow popular friend and makes up. Also great. But then she opts to go off with nothing but her car and her notebook and live in NYC. And then it lost me. She doesn't want to have a job or go to school.. ok, where are you going to live? You are going to end up a prostitute. When her friends remarked that Margo would say that New York City is the only place thats livable, it was a perfect example of someone who has never spent any real time in the city or knows much about it at all. What's left of her bat mitzvah money will support her for like a week. Perfect example of a teen who is book smart but has no common sense.
Further more, she was so obviously mentally imbalanced it was like the perfect recipe for her impending homelessness. In the real world I think she would have either been dead when they found her or sucked it up and went back home. The ending was very close to open ended, but I couldn't help but think Margo would be dead on the street or back home in her parents' house with a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate crying.
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4 stars
A vast improvement over the already decent first book in the series, the outer shell of "The Giver" is shed as Marten's story gains some definition. After the events in the first book, Marten discovers all is still not well in his distopia and has a difficult time trusting the allies he had met in the conclusion of the "The Sky Inside". Marten's temper and inquisitive nature leads him away from those who may help him as well as his sister and the other Wonder Babies.
With the help of Chip, his modified Dog-bot, who's handy little powers can get him clearance anywhere and get any other bot to do his will, Marten returns to his suburb to rescue his mother... he ends up confronting his father and discovering they are both in danger. While Marten and Chip are able to rescue them from assassins, and introduce them to the world outside, things still become dangerous and dire, and in the end the only thing that can ultimately save Marten and maybe the rest of the world he knows is the one thing he had hoped he would never lose.
The conclusion is appropriately heartbreaking, but what makes it bearable it that the decisions made are correct. With sacrifice comes resolution and while the loss tugs at your heart strings it really is the only way things could have gone.
This stands as a solid Science Fiction read for "tweens", teens and even adults. What we have here is a new take on "The boy and his dog" which remains classic and innocent at the heart. With that driving the story we are bound to care about Marten, Chip, his sister Cassie and the world they live in. Even Marten's parents who seemed cold (his father) and lovingly naive (his mother) respectively came through as something else given the comparisons this book draws from "The Giver". In fact I believe that I mentioned the lack of the Jonas/Giver relationship making the first book less powerful when I reviewed it. I really feel that Marten's relationship with Chip made up for the emotion to give a push in the right direction.
I am slightly saddened that this series turned out to be two books instead of three, but was satisfied with the conclusion. ]]>
by Nicholas Sparks
HAHA! Soggy, soggy, soggy. ]]>
3 1/2 stars... maybe 3 3/4
A dystopian society where everything is perfect, children are taught superficial lessons in school, coldness is the norm and people watch killer game shows for fun.
This sounds familiar...
Marten and his too perfect little sister, Cassie, are products of a society where the sky is always blue, there is no rain and pain is swept under the rug until Marten's birthday when his birthday gift, a dog-bot (Chip) with special modifications opens the door to the hard truth of the suburb Marten and Cassie call home and the person they call their father.
Cassie is the product (literally) of a "line" of genetically engineered "Wonder Babies" whom are created super observant and inquisitive as their minds expand at an amazing level. The government, however, prohibits any sort of questioning.
When Jonas, I mean Marten discovers his father has given the okay for Cassie and her fellow Wonder Babies to be released, errr I mean terminated he and Chip embark on a mission beyond the confines of the suburbs he discovers the truth about the world he lives in, the world that was and the truth of his own "birth".
While this book reads like a composite of "The Giver", "The Hunger Games" and "Brave New World".... and more "The Giver", it is still a solid page turner. While lacking the emotional bond between Jonas and The Giver himself, Marten and Chip's relationship is still strong and his love for his sister comes through as believable in spite of her tendency to exhaust him.
Most of the "revelations" were predictable from page one, but I still couldn't wait to press on and get to the next chapter. I am already calling dibs on the sequel the minute it arrives on our cart.
Though this is well worn territory it has heart and will probably whet the appetite of the readers who enjoyed its predecessors.
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bookshelves: favorites, summer-reads-09
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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I've completed my goal. Still have more to post though. ]]>
bookshelves: summer-reads-09
Its not that I can say that I enjoyed this book, or even that it was eye opening so much as well written and thorough.
I left with a feeling that while I understood Eric Harris' status as a psycho path, Dylan Klepold's post-mort diagnosis as a depressive who fell in with the wrong best friend seemed a little unfinished. There had to be something other than just depression. The description of the basement tapes alone imply that.
The depiction of how the media twisted the crimes into an anti Christian massacre and that of two bullied outcasts was very well described. The truth about the Trench Coat Mafia was also nicely presented.
While I finished feeling that I knew more about what happened, I can't say I understood how this can be prevented. I remember plenty of kids in high school who seemed to fit the profile of these boys, but it seemed to be a passing teen angst/image thing. While the police should have taken Harris' antics more seriously way before he began shooting, his "I Hate" website rants though angry wouldn't have initially struck me as anything too frightening. I'm pretty sure myself and a bunch of other high school kids had at one point made a list of things we "hated", after having a bad day or a bad week. But the question is how strong was that "hate" and who really categorized a passing dislike for seething horrific murderous hatred. Hate is a word thats thrown around too lightly. Do we take every teen who claims to "hate" various random things as a possible Columbine-esque shooter? Thats hard to say.
So yes, well written and interesting, but still somewhat puzzling. I feel badly for Dylan's parents. Eric's seem like they could have taken some things more seriously other than blaming the victims of his threats and pranks. ]]>
Jessikah
read and liked
Jen's
review of Catching Fire (Hunger Games, #2):
"It was really good, not a disappointment at all. I can't wait for someone else to read it, so I can discuss it with them. And that's all I'll say, so I don't ruin it for everyone else. "
"It was really good, not a disappointment at all. I can't wait for someone else to read it, so I can discuss it with them. And that's all I'll say, so I don't ruin it for everyone else. "