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my rating |
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| 4.18
| 2,072,276
| Aug 07, 2012
| Aug 07, 2012
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really liked it
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The first thing that caught my eye when I saw this book on the shelf was NOT the girl on the cover, but the little note on the side that says "Fans of
The first thing that caught my eye when I saw this book on the shelf was NOT the girl on the cover, but the little note on the side that says "Fans of Game of Thrones and the Hunger Games will love it!" (SIGH) FIRST OF ALL, don't let this fool you. Don't charge headfirst into your local library or local bookstore (or amazon or whatever) expecting a book you'll LOVE TO ABSOLUTE DEATH if you loved the Hunger Games and Game of Thrones. The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones had ONE SIMILARITY INDEED: The fact that there are many people competing for one particular honorary spot. So guess what this book is about. That's basically it. This book is about an assassin in a competition with other assassins to become the greatest assassin. If you wanted to compare this story with America's Next Top Model, YOU COULD. They have basically the same freakin' gist. Then again, one other similarity this book had with Game of Thrones is that it takes place in some medieval-like era that can't exactly be placed anywhere in our human history. And there are kings, knights, princesses, swords and weird names. BUT THAT'S ALL. A very good friend of mine loves Game of Thrones to death. He would LAUGH at this book. Does this book have 1. Extremely gory and especially horrific scenes? (Dude I could handle this book AND I SUCK AT HANDLING GORE. This book is nightmare-inducing free, so don't worry, my dear YA readers.) 2. Many rape scenes or sex scenes? (Nope. It is a YA after all.) (view spoiler)[Another similarity between Game of Thrones and Hunger Games is that they try to KILL EACH OTHER in order to obtain the reward. A bloodbath of horror and thrill and mystery and suspense with EACH AND EVERY DEATH ELIMINATION, EACH AND EVERY FIGHT TO THE DEATH--well. No. In this book, they don't try to kill each other THEY'RE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO KILL EACH OTHER. It's like "EXCUSE ME, KING, BUT THIS IS A COMPETITION OF ASSASSINS SO WHY WOULD YOU NOT LET THEM KILL EACH OTHER". Not that I'm complaining because I personally don't handle gore well but suppose there are fans that are looking forward to that because the cover says that fans of Game of Thrones would like this book . . . just sayin'. (hide spoiler)] This book is basically just another fantasy fiction. Not to crush your dreams of possibly having a Hunger Games Game of Thrones baby in your hands, but I'm just trying to soften the impact of the disappointment of some. NONETHELESS, THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING AND I FOR ONE AM NOT DISAPPOINTED. I loved this book, for my own guilty pleasure reasons. Sure, it had its little flaws, but so does every book. To my regular review readers, if I had read this book last year or a few years ago, this book would have gotten a million stars. This book is better than many of the books I've already reviewed that I've given 5 stars to, but I'm just reading this at a different time in my youth. This book got 4 stars and not 5 because I found some facts about each character sort of . . . questionable. Dude, there is something magical about this chick's writing. It's nothing I've seen in other books, not even Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It flows nicely and the word choice for every description and dialogue is MAGNIFIQUE (*kisses fingers like those italian chefs after they've cooked some masterpiece). The development of EVERY CHARACTER IS AMAZING. Each character was dynamic in their own way. They all had their own personalities that differed not only from each other but many other characters in many other books. I didn't see any new version of Katniss Everdeen or even Buffy Summers. I didn't see a cliche love interest remind me of Edward Cullen. They'll grow on you and you'll remember their names. And the fact that each one of them has their own interesting back story that could be written separately in novellas or Throne of Glass 0.5's. THE THERESA IS SATISFIED. [image] BUTT . . . I did read some of the other top-liked reviews of this book, and I do agree with their questions of 1. WHY is Adarlan's greatest assassin only 17? 2. WHY IS SHE TALENTED AT EVERYTHING?! 3. WHY DOES EVERYONE FALL IN LOVE WITH HER?! Maybe y'all just jealous. These are the questions one begs to ask about a strong and beautiful female lead. Of course, I didn't mind that she was so beautiful and also was an amazing assassin who is younger than me. Since Sarah Maas started writing this story in her high school years, I guess it makes sense that her character is 17. I mean I reread a lot of stories I wrote when I was 12 and was very weirdly disturbed by the intimate romance that happened between 13-year-olds in my story. As for the fact that her story was inspired by a twisted idea of Cinderella, I don't understand why a lot of reviews are like "EW GROSS CINDERELLA, GOD FORBID, THIS BOOK BELONGS IN H-E-DOUBLE-HOCKEY-STICKS OH THE BLASPHEMY" gosh guys. I thought that that was a freaking fantastic idea that Maas came up with. Cinderella running away after killing or stealing from the prince--That's a twist that I've never thought of. I'd like to see you all try to invent something like that and then create a story based on that idea. Anyway, it is kind of unlikely that an assassin would pay so much attention to their looks, and would pay more attention to books than to a very important and horrifying competition against a ton of scary assassins. She was a weirdly super powerful assassin that has the mind of a child, and it was odd. Maybe this was how she was like Buffy Summers, in a way where Buffy had to focus on killing vampires and being the slayer, and she had super powers and could kill vampires easily but a huge part of her mind focused on dating and Angel and being a cheerleader. The thing is Buffy didn't CHOOSE to be the vampire slayer and so it's understandable that she would get so distracted. Celaena had a DUTY. I guess Celaena is easy for me to make fun of. "The prince is offering the freedom that I want so badly, and I have to be his slave. HMMM . . . I should kill him and escape. I would love to *FILL IN SPACE WITH GORE OF HOW SHE WANTED TO KILL THE PRINCE AT THE BEGINNING*" and then in the middle of the book she basically is like "OH MY GOD this castle! Even though that prince has put me in a sucky situation where I have to compete to be his slave or to die or go back to prison, I want to send him a letter asking for his books as if we are friends." and THEN she's like, "OH MY GOD PRINCE DORIAN, YOU'RE ACTUALLY KIND OF SEXY." I dunno, if she wanted to plan a romance between Dorian and Celaena, Maas could have made it more mischievous because Celaena is a tricky, clever assassin that will do whatever it takes to win and Dorian knows that this girl is a CRIMINAL who has committed many wrongs against his kingdom. It could have been more lustful or . . . slow to grow. Because the romance that DID happen between the two doesn't seem realistic to what their characteristics are supposed to be. They became friends rather quickly, like two kids in a high school. They're supposed to HATE each other. So romance that occurs between two people that should HATE each other should be more hidden, more steamy, more . . . more NOT LIKE WHAT IT WAS. To be honest when I write about this sort of thing, I am usually eager and thirsty to write a really ideal romance between characters. High school Maas might have been another version of me. The whatever-is-going-on between Celaena and Chaol is more interesting to me. (I drool over how mysterious Chaol is and shake my head at how I can predict Dorian's character.) But even that romance is a little too wanting. Chaol is supposed to realize that Celaena is a criminal, and Celaena needs to realize that this captain of the guard is exactly the person who would put her in prison--SOMEWHERE SHE OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT WANT TO BE BECAUSE THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS BOOK IS SUPPOSED TO BE HER WANTING HER FREEDOM. Maas is a romantic. A hopeless one, at that. Not a bad thing, but dude . . . if she wasn't, this book might have been more . . . understandable. Anyway, in conclusion, why did this book get 4 stars? 1. I like romance. 2. It didn't have so much gore that I couldn't handle it. IT BASICALLY GOT A HIGH RATING BECAUSE SHE GOT THE ATTENTION OF HER TARGET AUDIENCE: ME. Someone who likes her formula even if her formula can be very much criticized. And because it pleased me and I know it wouldn't please EVERYONE, that is why I gave this book 4 stars. That last 5th star could have probably been found if I didn't feel like the book focused on many things besides the competition. Then again, because it didn't focus on the competition and because the romance was pretty much my guilty pleasure candy, that is why it had my liking. Maybe if it focused more on gore like the other reviews say it should (and less on Chaol/Dorian, and less on books and reading and whatever else), maybe I wouldn't have liked it as much. WHO KNOWS. I love this book. Don't know if you will though. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 23, 2016
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May 16, 2016
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May 16, 2016
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Hardcover
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| 043912042X
| 9780439120425
| 043912042X
| 4.04
| 109,867
| Oct 01, 2000
| Sep 27, 2002
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it was amazing
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None
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1
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May 18, 2015
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May 18, 2015
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May 18, 2015
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Paperback
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| 0385738773
| 9780385738774
| 0385738773
| 3.78
| 481,324
| Oct 11, 2011
| Oct 11, 2011
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it was amazing
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 22, 2015
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Jun 12, 2015
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Apr 23, 2015
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Hardcover
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| 0385737947
| 9780385737944
| 0385737947
| 4.05
| 1,619,493
| Oct 06, 2009
| Oct 06, 2009
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it was amazing
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 24, 2015
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Mar 29, 2015
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Mar 24, 2015
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Hardcover
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| 0316133973
| 9780316133975
| 0316133973
| 4.14
| 168,687
| Nov 06, 2012
| Nov 06, 2012
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it was amazing
|
UPDATE: I have now finally, after 9 months, reached my journey from page 1 to page 513. (Well. 513 of my copy is the last page, but on here, this last
UPDATE: I have now finally, after 9 months, reached my journey from page 1 to page 513. (Well. 513 of my copy is the last page, but on here, this last copy's page is 517...NO MATTER! I reached the end!) Here is kind of how I'm tempted to make this review go: Step One: I will review the book with my literary opinion and wisdom. Reveal to the people why I had rated this book 5 stars. Step Two-Twenty: I WILL THEN CRY, RANT, SCREAM, CHEER, AND QUESTION THE EVENTS OF THE BOOK THEMSELVES. Yet, if this is the way I will review the book, then it will not be a review. It will just mostly be me fangirling and ranting and just showing you my emotions AND PEOPLE BUYING BOOKS DON'T WANT MY REACTION! Reaction equals spoilers! Spoilers equals anger! Anger equals violence! Violence equals the world becoming a more terrible place! No no, I want my readers to PURCHASE THIS BOOK (well, after they read the first one, that is) AND THEN READ IT FOR THEMSELVES. So I will try to hold off my heart's emotions with the plot of this story off until the end. Hidden underneath a spoiler warning. Before that time comes, however, I will spend my time trying to convince my fellow review writers and readers to read this freaking book. First of all, this book took me a long, long, long time to read. Well, I did have to start over several of times because when you take a break from a book and you spend a long time away from it, and then you just hurry back to it, you tend to forget where you were in the book's world and you have to just redownload the synopsis back into your mind for refreshing...ONLY TO DO IT AGAIN. I believe I did this to Days of Blood and Starlight 3 times. I had to start over not only because dreadful attention-seeking schoolwork kept interrupting me, but also because it is not wise to skim. And by skim, I'm not saying that I tried to rush through the book, because I didn't! By skim, I mean when you read a book and you don't touch every single word. And yes, my mind definitely touched every single word, but it's easy to get distracted along the way sometimes. For example, if I was in school and I was reading a boring, boring passage on, lets say . . . a stats problem. So and so wanted to know how many apples she needed to experiment on in order to see whether or not so and so found mold in every single apple from a particular store, so she needed to find the right sample size number in order for her experiment of randomly selected apples to be valid--SEE STATS IS BORING, maybe as you read that you sort of got lost in your mind and started thinking of eating apples or throwing apples at the teacher instead of doing a stats problem. And this is how my course in stats carried along last year: I had to keep rereading and rereading. But it's not that Laini Taylor's most beautiful masterpiece of writing was boring enough to make me distracted, no, I MYSELF GET DISTRACTED FROM ANYTHING. Like Game of Thrones. I think that show is so interesting and it's hard to lose focus on all the excitement that is going on, yet I found myself getting distracted and then if someone were to quiz me on what had happened in the last 5 minutes before they started to quiz me they would see that I would not be able to tell them exactly what happened--AND THAT IS NOT WHAT I WANTED TO DO WITH DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE. I wanted to suck in every single detail. And so I had to start over. Darn my terrible ability to get distracted--ooh shiny. So. Finished with Daughter of Smoke and Bone and want to see if the next installment is worth it? KNOW THAT FOR THIS BOOK, YOU SHOULDN'T SKIM THROUGH IT EITHER. This means patience. This is not the book-I-vow-to-read-in-one-day book. Unless your back doesn't give way when you sit in one place for too long trying to focus on all the ideas this lady has in her brilliant land of creativeness that I so enviously wish I had in my own mind. Second. THE WRITING IS STILL JUST AS FANTASTIC. Third. Voicing my opinion, I will say that I loved this book, Days of Blood and Starlight. Yet I will admit that I liked Daughter of Smoke and Bone more, and that I would reread Daughter of Smoke and Bone RIGHT NOW, if I had to. Fourth......... THIS LADY IS A WRITING INSPIRATION. If you're looking for a writing role model, please look into her books and her beautiful ideas. And fifth . . . the scariest thing about Laini Taylor . . . is that I don't remember quotes from her. I don't remember exactly what she says when she describes something. I ONLY REMEMBER THE VIVID IMAGE IN MY HEAD. That is all I remember. I don't remember how she describes Madrigal flying to Akiva and embracing him and kissing him before her feet touch the ground, I only remember imagining how slowly she just eased into his arms and how her wings would wrap around him too and tickle him and they would laugh and smile and hold each other tightly--I DON'T REMEMBER THE EXACT WORDS USED TO DESCRIBE THAT! I only remember what it looked like in my head. It's like her writing is so divine it itself cannot be interpreted, but the images she made are so well thought out and written that they themselves become memories in someone's mind, as if she had made a movie for us to watch . . . So when I remember events in Daughter of Smoke and Bone or Days of Blood and Starlight, I only remember the events of so and so acting in my mind physically instead of the actual words used to describe it. SHE MOLDS YOUR IMAGINATION AND YOUR MIND LIKE CLAY AND THAT IS HOW THE MEMORY OF HER BOOK STAYS IN PEOPLE'S HEARTS. And that ability is SCARY. It's like she has the power to make someone remember something and think that it was actual real, but it wasn't it was just something read in a book . . . A BOOK, NOT A MOVIE OR A REAL EVENT. So yeah. Laini Taylor. NOW. CAN I PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE . . . start my ranting on the plot. (view spoiler)[ And so, my festival of spoilers begins. OH MY GOD IN THE LAST FEW HUNDRED PAGES I WAS SO RELIEVED WHEN KAROU KILLED THIAGO, AND THEN IN THE NEXT CHAPTER OR TWO LATER HE JUST COMES BACK TO LIFE OUT OF NOWHERE AND MY HEART WAS JUST SCREAMING, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Oh my god, I love Ziri and Karou please touch him MORE. Akiva did unforgivable fo-shizzle, and I do still adore Akiva but ZIRI. ZIIIIIRIIIIIII ZIRI ZIRI ZIRI ZIRI. Oh my god I LOVED ZUZANA IN THIS BOOK SHE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE BEINGS. Oh my god--wow I just realized I started every little point with oh my god, well oh my god this book was just so good but I'm so frustrated at the same time because AKIVA WHY DID YOU MAKE SUCH A HORRIBLE MISTAKE THAT KAROU HATES YOU NOW, why? It pains me to read about his aching to be with her and her aching to be with him, but he just can't do it because . . . because of stupid--ARGH!!! (*pauses for breath) (hide spoiler)] I NEED THE THIRD BOOK. As of September 14, 2014 I NEED THIS BOOK. I NEED THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW, or I won't be able to function properly for like the next few days. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 16, 2014
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Jun 16, 2015
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Sep 14, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 0689839081
| 9780689839085
| 0689839081
| 4.06
| 32,834
| Jun 01, 2001
| Oct 01, 2002
|
liked it
|
It took me forever to review this little book, but here I am, and here it is. Finally. After 5 years. I FINALLY find this freaking book on a shelf. And It took me forever to review this little book, but here I am, and here it is. Finally. After 5 years. I FINALLY find this freaking book on a shelf. And I swear, I have searched for it by and by at the library and I COULD NEVER FIND IT! (And it frustrated the heck out of me.) Now that I finally found where Luke left off, on I go with this mysterious series. May I just say that this is the thrilling thriller for the young accelerated reader. IF YOU ARE A PARENT AND READ MY REVIEWS, I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THIS SERIES TO YOUR FELLOW-READER CHILDREN! Since the story seems to take a while to end, this will keep them entertained. A few days ago (or yesterday, I think), I read this thing on tumblr called, "What is wrong with Young People's Writing", and I HAD to read it. I myself am a young writer--NOT PROFESSIONAL OF COURSE, but in training and as a hobby. At first I was like HOW DARE THIS THING CRITICIZE YOUNG PEOPLE'S WRITING! Just because we're not adults! (I live in Vegas. I rant about things kids are not allowed to do but adults are. (*sigh)) Of course, this thing had a point. It said -Young people tend to write autobiographical characters. -They're not as careful with editing and proof reading. -They remake their favorite books-- E-T-Cetra..... I know Margaret Haddix is not an unprofessional writer, but I wanted to bring this point up for the sake of the fact that Luke......... was well thought out. Luke is a believable 12 year old. He's not that 16 year old girl that seems to know everything. He's naive. He wants friends. He's humiliated at school, he misses his parents and brothers, he depends, he looks for friends, HE ACTS HIS AGE. He's a character that is real in my head. This story--a story about children hidden because their very existence is illegal--puts Luke in a place where he's scared and he has no idea what could happen to him next with the choices he makes. WE FEEL WHAT HE FEELS WHEN WE READ ABOUT HIM. I know when he had to deal with that one guy, Scott/Jackal, and he found out that guy's "secret" (trying to avoid spoilers . . . sorry people you will just have to read the book!), he was hesitant and wondering and questioning and I was too. This was what made the book great. I felt what Luke felt. I was put into his shoes. This was like a mental TV where we're watching everything from outside the story happening before our very eyes, and it wasn't boring. NOW, why did this book get 3 stars out of 5? I would have died for this series at age 13. I loved mystery stuff, I loved series that seemed to go on forever and ever and ever. So do I recommend this for the young little fellow readers? YES, I DO. ESPECIALLY IF YOU LOVE THRILLS AND PLOTS AND TWISTS AND CLIFFHANGERS THAT MAKE YOU DEMAND THE LIBRARY. The words in these pages don't change. The eyes that read them do. That's basically my reason. But hey, even with my transition to different levels of the YA, I'm still interested! I still want to know what happens. I still get recommendations from my friends. And I'm still asking questions. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS PROVES? Even if my tastes have changed, this still tastes sweet. IF YOU'RE IN THE WORLD OF 13-YEAR-OLDS, READ THESE. If Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ could send emails and reviews back in time to 2010, I wish it would so I could demand myself to read this series. If you're 17 now, probably in love with romantic stuff or prosed stuff or thicker books or WHATEVER, you'll still like this series. Why? BECAUSE IT'LL MAKE YOU BUY MORE OF THE SERIES. I mean that's what it did for me. And I like romantic stuff and prosed stuff and thicker books and whatever. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 06, 2014
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Sep 07, 2014
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Sep 06, 2014
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Paperback
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| 0385751079
| 9780385751070
| 0385751079
| 4.16
| 911,515
| 2006
| Sep 12, 2006
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it was amazing
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And we're almost about to leave the library. My hands are fill and shaking because of all the weight and my dad is just about to step in front of me t
And we're almost about to leave the library. My hands are fill and shaking because of all the weight and my dad is just about to step in front of me to lead the way to check out when he says, "Hey. You see this book?" He takes a few steps back, looks at the book, points at it and says, "The Boy In The Striped Pajamas". This book was sitting on one of the roller wagons beside the bookshelves, as if it was abandoned, forgotten by a librarian, or simply put back but not in the right place. I noticed it, but . . . man, this thing deserved my attention. I don't know why I didn't grab it before my dad pointed it out. "This was a good movie," he said. "A good story." Without question I lifted up the book, tossed it on my already super huge pile of books, and was on my way. YES. A 5 star book that I almost lost and forgot about and totally ignored. A 5 STAR BOOK! (Despite all these reviews being 1-star reviews, I don't understand why, and won't read through them until I'm done with the review. I finished this this morning. It deserves a review RIGHT ON THE SPOT. Now why aren't we reading this in school? This has symbolism. It has the history--not to mention that it displays what happens when you don't trust a child with the entire truth and make him overly curious--so a perfect display of characterization because Bruno is indeed A NAIVE BOY. This is actually the best characterization I've ever seen. Bruno. I can tell exactly who he is, why he does the way he does, his psychological elements, THE WAY HE WOULD RESPOND TO ANY SITUATION. That's what characterization is. An author sits there, thinks about who their character is, and then the story is mainly the process of that author throwing obstacles in that character's way, and that character's characterization determines how the story flows along, what choices are made, and what happens to him next, thus making even MORE obstacles. A CIRCLE. A BOOK IS A CIRCLE. (A square actually, unless its a weird, special book--BUT ANYWAY . . .) Even his sister, his mother, his father--they're all characters with feelings. Believable things that I know would exist. Bruno acts like a little brother. Gretel is a typical older sister. The father is superior, respected--just like any typical father. Every element is there. These characters are so easy to grow onto . . . that the inevitable end does rip me to pieces, it really does. Somehow Bruno produces honesty and morals. He asks why the Jews are "Opposites" and why they're being kept away from us. He looks through the window and he sees "People". He makes friends with a Jew boy, regardless of what he looks like, regardless of whether or not they're on one side of the fence or the other. And yeah, he's naive. Yeah, he doesn't know why Jews would be hated. But honestly, disregarding what other people thought, what other people's opinions were, what other people treated the Jews as, he made a friend and ignored the Jew name. He was naive, but he had some kind of purity in what he did, said, and thought, and you know what, this brings a sort of message about the Halocaust. How these people were also honestly people--but because of other people's disputes, they're not looked at as people. Because of what society says, their views were changed. But Bruno didn't care about society in that term. He didn't see it. He only saw what he knew--that people were people. Jews were people. His family were people. Gretel was a typical teenager. And I know she was bratty at a lot of times, okay? I mean I meet lots of girls like that and I just wanna *PUNCHES COMPUTER SCREEN*. But I liked Gretel. Not because she was mean to Bruno, but because the way she acted was amusing. She had a good character, a developed, well-thought, sister character. She tried to be mature as possible, thinking twelve-thirteen was the age of teens, which meant she was becoming a lady. She found sophistication in sarcasm, in obeying her father. She really was becoming a teenager. I can see her in many girls that I knew and know. She knew more than Bruno did, this was true. Unlike Bruno, she knew what was over the fence and why. She knew who "The Fury" was, she spent time plotting the second great war on maps, yes, she was conscious and she knew and she paid attention. Somehow she had half of Bruno, half of her society in her head. She was naive too, in a lesser way than Bruno. But she was educated too to believe that Jews were bad. That they weren't people. "Are we Jews?" Bruno asks, and she grimaces and says, "NO! NO we most certainly are not." She calls them opposites. That's the basis of what the people thought back then, they were opposites. It was like society morphed their brains to believe that these people, even though they too have two eyes, two hands, two legs, a beating heart like any human, were different somehow. Gretel had to think--what made them different from us? Before she called them opposites. And she called them opposites because she knew the basis. They were separated, there were two sides of the fence--that's what made them opposites. I also REALLY REALLY like how in the book, they use the words "The Fury" and "Out-With" because its what Bruno thinks the words are. It expresses how naive he really is. Not only all this, but Shmuel had a good character to him too. He finally found a friend, and even though Bruno would be a little insensitive with what he said sometimes because he lacked the entire understanding, even without the narration for Shmuel's point of view, you could tell how Shmuel liked Bruno, he liked having him as a friend too, and that perhaps Shmuel went a long time away from his friends or without any just as Bruno had, and that finding Bruno was a stroke of happiness for him. And with background information that most of us know about the Halocaust, we know why Shmuel did and acted the way he did. Yearning for food, looking skinny and staving, looking sad . . . HEY. OVERALL this was the best historical book I've ever read. It touched me. I can't imagine what it'd be like to be taken away from home and separated from my father and brother. I also can't imagine what it'd be like to lose a son because I didn't trust him enough with information and I didn't tell him what was what. NOW, onto reading what 1-stars have to say because truthfully, this was a 6 star, 7 star, 8 star . . . . . . . This touched me in such a way where I wonder what I'd be thinking about instead if my dad hadn't called out this book to attention. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 12, 2014
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Jul 14, 2014
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Jul 14, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 0689840926
| 9780689840920
| 0689840926
| 3.79
| 433,015
| 1987
| Apr 01, 2000
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it was amazing
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I closed this book, I sat there, mouth open, just . . . . just thinking. Dude. WHAT A BOOK. I mean yeah it took me a little bit to finish but OH MY GOODNE I closed this book, I sat there, mouth open, just . . . . just thinking. Dude. WHAT A BOOK. I mean yeah it took me a little bit to finish but OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS! This is the dream book of mine to read in class--I mean why couldn't we read THIS in 8th grade instead of Lord of the Flies?! Both are about boys (well Hatchet is about A BOY)stranded on an island after a plane crash. BOTH includes the wilderness! But here's the difference: Lord of the Flies--chock full of symbolic nonsense and not exactly teaching us a real lesson (well actually, it taught about logic in a society and...other things I let myself forget because I SERIOUSLY HATED LORD OF THE FLIES, but really this book did not impact me...) Whereas Hatchet . . . HATCHET actually taught about a boy LEARNING HOW TO SURVIVE instead of a bunch of boys trying to kill each other or...or take over one another--JEEZ Lord of the Flies was so . . . forgettable. (*Sorry, sorry, I'm not here to rant about Lord of the Flies, I'm here for this beautiful . . . HATCHET.) 1. The words. The words. They were beautiful. Beautiful descriptions. Beautiful words used. Beautiful emotions and feelings and--dude I could see Brian trying to hunt his fish and his birds and his food--and trying to build a shelter--and TRYING TO SURVIVE! I felt Brian's emotions. It wasn't even in first person, but I FELT THEM. I FELT HIS FRUSTRATION. I felt his sadness and loss of hope, I FELT HIS DETERMINATION TO LIVE, I. Felt. It. And THAT, my fellow review readers, is what makes a book rememberable. 2. Okay, maybe we won't all get stranded on an island in our life time. But you have to admit, this was a lesson that should be taught in school. Math? Calculus? English? Lord of the Flies? HOW ABOUT WE LEARN HOW TO SURVIVE IF WE WERE EVER TRAPPED IN THE WILDERNESS?! What about we learn about how to explore a land and have adventures if we do get stranded? WHAT ABOUT WE LEARN THESE THINGS--even if we're not going to get freaking stranded on an island--TO JUST EXPERIENCE ADVENTURE IN A CLASSROOM?! This is what we should know about! Maybe we learn a sliver of it in world history or US history or biology or whatever, but seriously! How did our ancestors hunt and grow food, and find water and shelter? What can we do if we were in an emergency like this? WHAT CAN WE DO?! This book has probably opened people's minds to the possibility of getting stranded on an island. It's an adventure about a boy getting stranded and what he plans to do to fix things. 3. Dude, what amazes me is how much this book impacted me when there was hardly any dialogue between person-to-person in this book. How minus all the extra information from the author and pictures, this book is way shorter, but it still hit me. This author . . . this dude . . . he probably went on some adventures in life! He LIVED! Lived not in a city where everything is already on a silver platter but he LIVED, working for food for himself and working his butt off just to survive. He was thrown back into the stone age! I've never had to think about this stuff before but this book really brings it to my head. It woke me up to the fact that our way of living is so easy . . . But if we really were humans and we lived along with all the other animals on this world, no way is it easy. NO WAY is it easy. So Gary Paulsen not only weaves a story for Brian to change Brian's life, but he changes our lives too. Because seriously . . . I've never thought about what I'd do if I got stranded in a place in the middle of nowhere. YOU KNOW WHAT, lately I've found so many 5-star books . . . I feel like I haven't ranted about a 1 star book in forever . . . (*sigh) ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 23, 2014
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Apr 05, 2014
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Apr 05, 2014
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0062014552
| 9780062014559
| 0062014552
| 3.55
| 62,637
| Mar 04, 2014
| Mar 04, 2014
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it was amazing
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Well, I'm at the DMV patiently waiting my turn, and usually at DMVs there's always a wait. So during this wait, I totally forgot I was in a DMV and sit Well, I'm at the DMV patiently waiting my turn, and usually at DMVs there's always a wait. So during this wait, I totally forgot I was in a DMV and sitting next to strangers and I got completely absorbed in the last 30 pages of this book. IT WAS SERIOUSLY LIKE A CAR HIT ME. It was kind of like a land full of hills. It peaked up and up and up, and then it WHOOSHED back down and made everyone feel that pit in their stomach that really aches when you fall too fast because humans weren't made to fall from places, and then it'd start from the bottom and up, up, up again. Like some sort of rollercoaster or road trip down roads that were so old no one thought of blowing the the mountains to go through the trouble of making a straight road. This was NOT a straight road. But it still felt like it blew me up. Panic did make me Panic. Just words, just (*meme coming up, PLEASE don't hurt me) a stack of paper, and swiggles made this book stick to my hand for like the last few days. This was ANYTHING BUT CLICHE. Everyone was like "Game! Survival! Possible death! It must be...THE HUNGER GAMES." But no. This wasn't the hunger games at all. This is one thing I should probably talk about. There have been so many repeats I've seen of at least some things related to the Hunger Games. And why not? That book was beyond successful. But I have to agree with a lot of the commenters on my fellow reviewers' reviews. Why would Lauren Oliver, author of an amazing trilogy that seriously had my heart ripped apart and then put back together and then ripped apart just to be put back together again, be yet another rip-off artist of something like the Hunger Games? When so far, the things she's invented have been so original, wouldn't she have more tricks up her sleeve? Silly beans. BUT, lovers of the Hunger Games, if you're looking for yet another read similar, I'd say that you would STILL enjoy Panic. Because this thing still makes you not want to look away from the pages, ESPECIALLY when you're in a DMV and you need to pay attention to your number being called. (It was actually my Dad who was paying attention, but either way I would have not paid attention because this book was just so.......it was glowing.) This was a book about stupid teenagers. Yes, I say stupid teenagers. Not stupid like: "So who does Pharaoh go to when he's crying? His mummy!" Or "If you're from Africa, why are you white?" It's stupid like...like stupid teenager stuff. They'd stand in front of cars, jump off cliffs, do cartwheels on the roof of a house, for a GAME, for freaking money. A lot of stunts they did here (can't spoil yet) were very stupid. Yet that was the thrill of youngsters. This did this for different reasons. It's amazing to me how Lauren Oliver came up with a way to weave this together because I never ever read a book like this before. This is a mix of thrill, and a mix of drama--for those drama lovers who love a good romance and some good character interaction. CLEVERLY attacking 2 different fields of interests in the reading book, getting more customers to read the book, making more money, YES, this book is brilliant. To me, it read like a movie. Just like Pandemonium did. It also flowed along like a dramatic TV drama. THIS IS WHAT THE TEENAGE YEARS ARE. Full of Panic. Worrying about the future yet also not worrying enough to not do stupid stuff. Standing out like Heather tried to do. Broken hearts. Choices and friends and just drama...this was a book about teenagers that I can relate to, even though I've never done anything like play Panic. This is one of those books that has to be appreciated in ways like this. This book was written in a theme that would be uncomfortable for most authors. TEENAGERS, those little punks, those teenagers. And Oliver did it. Brilliantly. Not only that but I became attached to Heather and how she was growing through the novel, slowly getting over break-up to become stronger as a young lady. GOOD INSPIRATION for young girls! Now the ONLY THINGS I CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT...are going to spoil this book for you. You wanna know if this book is awesome? IT WAS. ITS LAUREN FREAKING OLIVER. Now its time...to D-D-D-D-D-Duel--i'm just kidding, its time... FOR THE SPOILERS. SO GET AWAY IF YOU HATE SPOILED BOOKS. So. The actions of the characters. That's all I can rant about and criticize. But these are character actions. It's like in Pretty Little Liars when Toby turned out to be a complete butt face and seriously broke Spencer's heart. (HAH! Not only are there spoilers from Panic but FROM OTHER PLACES.) Series is fantastic. Characters were not. Not that I didn't love Heather and Dodge and Nat and Bishop. (I DID however love how Heather and Dodge had their own sets of story, their own lives that didn't squish together like many double POV's that are romances. Even though I expected that at first.) But it was the stuff they did. One advice I will put here in the spoiler section, this book will get you annoyed if you really, really, really can't stand cheaters anywhere. That's really it. It doesn't count as a book flaw at all. I could rant about how I thought Nat was messed up playing around with Dodge's feelings, or how stupid side-character Matt had screwed Heather over, and freaking Bishop. But that has nothing to do with the beauty of this book. So yeah.....Panic. It got me panicked. This will come as something bland and leave as something beautiful, so seriously. Give it a start. It is worth every page, just go through it and give it a chance. Because for me, the beginning was a bored town with what I thought was some depressing moments. But it became so much more than that. WAY more. BEFORE WHEN THERESA FIRST SAW THIS BOOK (Review prologue--before all the amazingness began) Theresa: Wait . . . . . . . (*breathes) Okay . . . . okay . . . . Innocent/afraid bystander: THERESA, don't freak out! Theresa: (*points at computer screen) But-- Innocent/afraid bystander: SHH! DON'T . . . DON'T PANIC! (Pun intended, ahahahaha) Theresa: Okay, I'm calm. I won't freak out. I won't freak out. Innocent/afraid bystander: Are you sure? Theresa: YES. Innocent/afraid bystander: You're not going to freak out because the amazing Lauren Oliver has written another beautiful thing to release out onto this corrupted planet? Theresa: No . . . . Innocent/afraid bystander: And it's not going to come out until March '14 and you're stuck waiting and waiting and waiting until you feel like a wrinkly old raisin lady? Theresa: I am okay! Innocent/afraid bystander: (*sighs) Okay. The neighborhood isn't going to explode today. .............................. .............................. .............................. .............................. Theresa: *tries to grab book from computer screen* Innocent/afraid bystander: What are you doing? Theresa: I must have it. NOW. Innocent/afraid bystander: Theresa, I thought you said you were calm-- Theresa: I can't . . . I can't grab it . . . Innocent/afraid bystander: It's a computer screen-- Theresa: Why won't it let me grab it? Innocent/afraid bystander: Uh oh. *hides under covers* Theresa: WHY. WON'T. IT. LET. ME. HAVE. IT??!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!? [image] (AHEM, no computers were hurt during this review. :} DON'T WORRY!) I just . . . . (*sniff) I JUST finished Requiem . . . Now another beautiful thing stands in front of me just waiting for me to grab . . . I could just reach into my computer screen and grab it . . . but alas . . . I can not blue skadoo into the portrait . . . [image] March ze '14 awaits. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 18, 2014
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Aug 20, 2014
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Jul 22, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 0525476881
| 9780525476887
| 0525476881
| 3.51
| 542,580
| Sep 21, 2006
| Sep 21, 2006
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it was ok
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1. A JOHN GREEN BOOK. I've heard so much of John Green. And how amazing The Fault in Our Stars is. And . . . . I've just heard that he's amazing. But my 1. A JOHN GREEN BOOK. I've heard so much of John Green. And how amazing The Fault in Our Stars is. And . . . . I've just heard that he's amazing. But my first John Green book . . . . . . I didn't finish! AND IT WAS ONLY 200 PAGES LONG!!!! Who doesn't finish a 200 page book, even if it's bad? It's seriously a one-sitting reading. ............... Well, that explains why the book is a 2. 2. Seriously. All my friends rated this one a 4 and above. A FOUR STAR AND ABOVE. All these sparkly stars . . . but . . . . . but this book . . . . this book was not all that sparkly to me. AT ALL. Imagine the mobs that are going to attack me after they see this review. They're going to be storming through my doorway. 3. Dude, IMAGINE ALL THE HATE I'M GOING TO GET. Some of my reviews, I do rant in. I post my full-hearted opinion. I'm not going to smile a phony smile (those hurt anyway! They hurt your cheekbones . . .) and type a "good review" for a book I seriously hated. And I got comments saying, "Dude, you need to reread the book and actually ENJOY it." or "You don't know the full purpose of reading. You don't KNOW how to get a book to touch your heart." And I sat at my computer screen. Looking a little like [image] Then they start sending me sparknote links (because this book was a classic book and God knows I hate those) and telling me, "Yo girlfriend, you did not read this right." or "YOU'RE JUST A LITTLE KID! You do not understand classics yet . . ." Not understand classics? NOT UNDERSTAND CLASSICS?!?!?!? I had to study classics for the solid past 5 years now. Classic after classic. I GOT HOMEWORK ON IT. Homework that I worked so, so hard for. THAT FREAKING TOOK TIME OUT OF MY LIFE. THAT FREAKING GOT ME TO BLEED INSIDE JUST TO GET AN A FOR THE QUARTER. I got an A, you freaking (*asdgiahgisangbaisjfasd). Don't be telling me I don't understand those classics. I'm just reviewing my own opinion! You like the book--GO AND GIVE IT A MILLION-STAR RATING. But you comment to me and tell me I don't know how to let a book touch my heart, I will freaking GO AAAALLL ASIAN ON YOU. (*ahem) Sorry for my irrelevant rant. But before I start this freaking The thing is, those classic books--I actually finished. This book . . . . . . . . . . UNFINISHED. And will probably remain unfinished for all time. Here's why. IT WAS BORING. I guess that's my first "opinion" that everyone's going to hate on me for. It's a freaking John Green book and I dare step up and say "It WAS FREAKING BORING!" That's like if I step up and say "HARRY POTTER WAS THE LAMEST, MOST UNCREATIVE THING I'VE EVER READ." which is not true. But which will get me mobs upon mobs of haters if I ever said that. But seriously. Colin was bland to me. Like a robot. Had no emotions. Only spoke scientific words--ONLY TALKED SCIENTIFICALLY. He said he was in love with a Katherine. IN LOVE?! Usually there are good things about every character I've ever read. USUALLY. I mean Ever of Blue Moon (Evermore #2) was an idiot. She was even worse than Colin . . . but otherwise, characters tend to have something admirable about them. Even if they're stupid. The words . . . the feeling . . . I felt myself speed reading. PENIS JOKES GET OLD FAST. Said another fellow reviewer somewhere on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, but I forgot who it was. (Sorry.) BUT IT'S TRUE. It is. Was that the only funny portion found in this book? Colin. This story follows this guy. If he's not interesting, OF COURSE THE STORY ISN'T GOING TO BE EITHER. But I honestly thought . . . . . . (*sigh) I honestly thought he was a fool. [image] There was this one scene that I remember that was seriously my favorite scene in the book because IT WAS TRUE. Katherine (the 19th) looked at him and told him, "Colin. You don't need me. YOU NEED A ROBOT THAT WILL CONSTANTLY SAY I LOVE YOU." I don't know. Maybe the book contains a lesson at the end that teaches him something. I love lessons. Maybe there was one here. But I got so bored of this book that when the due date came for me to return it, I freaking shrugged my shoulders, went "what the eff." and took it along with all my other to-returns. I even renewed the book because I thought I'd at least try and finish it but I felt like that would waste my time. Maybe he does learn what love is. I dunno. I didn't read that far. Also, Colin is UNBELIEVABLY SHALLOW. And that made me so . . . so . . . so angry. Liking a girl because she's named Katherine. Okay. Having a lady appear before you, and ONLY REALIZING THAT SHE'S ATTRACTIVE AFTER SHE SAYS HER NAME IS KATHERINE. Colin. Come here so I can knock you into orbit. Theorem? Yeah, I didn't read that far. ....... Or maybe I did, it was just all scientific. And it's summer. And I already have summer english homework. And I'm usually tired now a days. I guess the extra math lesson did not sink into my head. But it's lame to me. AND WHY? BECAUSE THERE IS NO THEOREM FOR LOVE. (But then again, there might have been some kind of REASON that Colin thought there was . . . ?) Footnote. UNNECESSARIAL. Okay. So maybe I could have read the whole book without looking at the footnotes but it made me feel like I was missing something, so I had to read through ALL OF THEM to make me feel secure. And of course they were boring. Some were necessary, like the different language translations, but the whole paragraphs . . . . . . . I tried this book. I really did. I wanted it to touch my heart, it was a freaking John Green book! But I couldn't stand the "love" portrayed in this book. A guy, always constantly needing someone to tell him they love him. Who's shallow and only goes after girls with the same name. A guy who's so unbelievably bland I could use this book to fall asleep on nights when I can't sleep . . . I do pay attention to love. I love love stories. But this one just got everything wrong. And maybe there was an interesting life lesson at the end . . . BUT THIS BOOK MADE ME UNCOMFORTABLE TO CONTINUE ON READING. So yeah. 2 stars. ..... ..... ..... .. *1.5 stars. I hate writing negative reviews. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 20, 2013
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Jul 29, 2013
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Jul 09, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 0312641893
| 9780312641894
| 0312641893
| 4.13
| 981,680
| Jan 03, 2012
| Jan 03, 2012
|
really liked it
|
BEFORE ZE BOOK IS OPENED I'm just scrolling through reviews and looking up random books and this book is just very curious to me. So many people . . . a BEFORE ZE BOOK IS OPENED I'm just scrolling through reviews and looking up random books and this book is just very curious to me. So many people . . . are saying that it's like SAILOR MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!! That's odd, yet very interesting at the same time! I looked through the blurb, and it didn't seem Sailor Moon-like at all! But everyone is like, "This reminds me so much of Sailor Moon" or "This is a Sailor Moon-like story" or "If you like Sailor Moon, you'd really like this book". You see, my dear Goodreaders, there are hardly any books that I've seen with Asian characters! And WHY NOT?! Asians are pretty awesome to read about. (And I'm not just saying that because I am, too, an Asian.) I mean I NEEEEEEED originality. You hardly find any Sailor Moon-like novels in this YA world! All I've been seeing at my local library are paranormal romances. And I used to love paranormal romances, but now that I see them EVERYWHERE, DOMINATING THE READING UNIVERSE, I guess I'm just . . . bored now. I mean it's like rice! I used to love rice! I ate it with this chicken, and soy sauce. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH it was so delicioso. And then I started to notice . . . that we were having rice . . . EVERY SINGLE DAY. 3 times a day. With every meal. No matter what meal we had! It could be Pizza Hut or McDonald's or STEAK . . . we always had a bowl of rice right next to it. I mean the path sorta goes like this: Day 1: Ooh, NEW FOOD! ES DELICIOSO! ES SABROSO! ES MUY FANTASTICA!!! Day 3: YAAAAAAY, this food, yet again! Day 10: Whoo hooo! Rice again! Day 17: Rice? Again? Day 30: . . . (*sigh) Rice . . . yet again. Day 50: Didn't we have this yesterday? Day 78: Urrrrrrrggh... Day 100: OH MY GOD. DAY 107: NO! I AM NOT EATING THIS! (*Flings bowl across the room) That's the same with paranormal romantic books. Except it only takes like a month worth of them for me to get bored. (Not 107 days. And trust me, guys. I've been through MUCH MORE than 107 days of rice, up to this day.) But yeah! This book seems really interesting now! Because . . . I've been a Sailor Moon fan ever since the 2nd grade. . . EVEN THOUGH it's super girly and cheesy at times . . . BUT I'VE BEEN DYING FOR AN ORIGINAL BOOK!!!!!!! I haven't typed a five-star review in SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!! [image] I NEEEEEEED ORIGINALITY. Sometimes I go through books, and I'm like . . . "Dude, I read a different version of this story about a week ago." And I think Sailor Moon has it's own originality in a way: ONE because it's one of those special, girl-power animes with a bunch of characters and TWO, because I've never found a YA novel like Sailor Moon in American YA novels. Speaking of Sailor Moon, I had the hugest cartoon crush on Mamoru . . . [image] GAAAAAAAAH. .... [image] [image] [image] ...This review ended up being mainly about Sailor Moon... ...more |
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1
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Jun 05, 2016
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Jun 30, 2016
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Nov 17, 2012
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0517223627
| 9780517223628
| 0517223627
| 4.03
| 394,912
| 1865
| Sep 07, 2004
|
it was ok
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DO NOT GET ME WRONG! I do not hate this book. 2 stars for "It was okay". Not fo-shizzly, not completely wonderful . . . just . . . O.K. I would like to DO NOT GET ME WRONG! I do not hate this book. 2 stars for "It was okay". Not fo-shizzly, not completely wonderful . . . just . . . O.K. I would like to firstly bring up the fact that this book...gave me money! Okay, let me explain. So I've seen the Disney cartoon, the 2010 movie, and I'm currently reading the manga Alice in the Country of Hearts. For some strange, weird reason, I'm suddenly interested in Alice in Wonderland. Nope, I have absolutely NO idea why. So I was looking around the bookshelves for the classic novels in my library (y'know, like the Shakespeare stories and John Steinbeck all those ones) and I found a copy of Alice in Wonderland. And the second I opened the book... $5 DOLLARS FELL OUT OF IT!! I was like, "FREE MONEEEEY!" So that made me WANT to check out this book. It gave me money, so that automatically gave it the right to have me give it a try. (Then again, I was looking for the book to begin with.) Even if the copy I picked out was the old version with a bent cover and bent pages and stuff. There were other copies that were in bigger print and cleaner covers but THOSE ONES didn't give me $5. Anyway, this book was . . . what's a good word for it? Strange . . . weird . . . peculiar . . . CURIOUS! This book was CURIOUS! And throughout the book, it just became "curiouser and curiouser". So here's the plot of the story, chapter by chapter. (Yes, there will be spoilers. But seriously, I don't think any spoiling of this book will truly tear your heart apart like it would with other stories. No, this story didn't contain much suspense, but just as a heads up...) THIS REVIEW WILL MOST DEFINITELY, ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, AND IRREVOCABLY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!! (Says the reviewy reviewer in ALL-CAPS and BOLDEDNESS. Don't say I didn't warn you.) This book is . . . sort of annoying in a way. I don't know if I'll be able to stand describing chapter one. Every chapter is probably in this particular structure. CHAPTER ONE 1. Yeah. Her introduction is when she's with her sister, and her sister was reading a book. Alice was very bored. 2. Which probably explained why a TALKING (let alone being worried about being late for something) RABBIT with clothes raced by caused her to get up. 3. She followed the rabbit. Why? (No idea.) The rabbit was TALKING and WEARING CLOTHES. Actually, now that you think about it, if I saw a talking rabbit, I'd probably start following it too. (I'd drag the reading sister along with me, though.) 4. Then she followed it down a rabbit hole, which must have been like fifty miles deep. And while she was falling (very slowly, or down a very, very deep hole) she was TALKING TO HERSELF. Usually, if I fall, I don't have time to think at all. I just scream and not think and I'd just fall. (But I've never fallen down a rabbit hole, and I've never fallen from somewhere where the fall lasted more than like half a second.) SHE is falling, and she doesn't think about how painful it might be when she landed. She just thought, "Oh, this fall is taking forever!" or "I must be falling to the center of the earth!" and "I might fall off the other end of the earth and end up to the place where people walk upside down!" or "My cat will miss me very much. Siiiiigh." That's a pretty interesting idea but it's still . . . kind of weird. Then again, I'm weird too. Ahhh well. 5. THEN, when she did land, she found a very short door. THIS is where the ANNOYING redundant parts of this story begin. 6. She tried opening the door with the little key on the table and she opened it and saw a garden on the other side. She WOULD have gone through the door, if she wasn't so huge. 7. So she looked around for something that could make it possible for her to get through the door, and she found the small bottle that said "DRINK ME". 8. Then she shrank to 10 inches tall. Ohhh-kay, she was able to fit through the door now. Y'know, except for the fact that she must have closed the door and locked it because the key was sitting on the table and the door was locked. (That dummy.) Then she cried. Urgh, I dare not describe the rest of this story in this list! She basically kept growing and shrinking and growing and shrinking and growing and shrinking by eating "EAT ME" cake and drinking from a "DRINK ME" bottle. She kept forgetting to pick up the key and open the door! BAAAH. Anyway, like I said earlier, every chapter is basically in THAT structure. -Alice does things, goes to places, follows places, approaches people, and it's not stated WHY she does those things. She just GOES to them. No logic, no reasoning, nothing. She just does. (Ah, the result of such curiousness. -The characters that surround her talk to her. And they all seem the same! When she says something, it's misunderstood to them and they assume she's talking about something else. For example (the example my best friend used on this one dude for fun): DUDE: "Why are you being so racist?" BEST FRIEND: "Whaaaat? I'm not racing anyone." LIKE THAT! JUST LIKE THAT!!! The characters are all like that to Alice! Alice says one thing, they assume she says another and starts talking from then. Every character seems to do this. And it's very, very interesting indeed...no character in any of the books I read are like this. What the Cheshire Cat said to Alice was true. "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." THAT'S TRUE. ALICE is mad. Everyone else in that story is also mad. The Cheshire Cat seemed to make more sense than anyone in the story, and his part was sort of small. I think he only appeared in like two chapters. This book was crazy. Weird. STRANGELY CURIOUS, and I've NEVER read any book like this, EVER. And we all know the end, right? 'Twas all a dream . . . This book really does seem like it was all a dream. Everything seemed natural to Alice, and she didn't seem to question the talking animals and the vanishing cat and the smoking caterpillar and army of playing cards. But I guess the thing that made this story strange was WHAT WAS THE POINT?! Sure, this was all a dream. But what's Alice's point in the story, where we didn't KNOW all of this was a dream? Did she try to get home? Where was she trying to go? What was she trying to do? It was probably stated somewhere in the story, but . . . I didn't figure it out. And I still HAVEN'T figured it out. And my relationship with the characters wasn't very strong either. Sure. All the characters are mad. But why? How? What? Every character only had a small part. Alice seemed like the character I got closest to, and I didn't understand most of what she was thinking. So I guess the plot was what confused me. There is no MAIN PROBLEM that Alice was trying to solve. The conclusion was just "this was all a dream". And the reason why she was dreaming what she dreamt, or what all the characters meant to her, or even the life lesson of this story, was just all unknown to me. I HAD NO IDEA WHAT THIS BOOK WAS ABOUT. I guess it was just about a bored girl dreaming about abnormal things. What else, I have no clue. I was never good at interpreting classics anyway. BUUUUT, I'd recommend this story to fellow humans who 1. Can endure redundancy. (Shrinking, growing, shrinking, growing, shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, shrinking of my brain from reading about all this shrinking and growing.) 2. Can NOT get frustrated with the randomness of all these characters and their conversations. (Includes randomness and rambling.) 3. Doesn't need a proper plot. (No problem, no real solution to a problem, just...a girl. Surrounded by strangeness.) 4. Are extremely bored. (You have to admit...the originality of this story is pretty...interesting.) Endure all of that? Go get this book. But for me? Two stars. Or maybe two and a half. Sparkly...sparkly stars. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 06, 2012
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Jul 17, 2012
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Jul 15, 2012
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| B0DN8P5BQF
| 4.29
| 4,293,076
| Sep 21, 1937
| Aug 15, 2002
|
did not like it
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The Effects of a Book Being Assigned to an English/Reading Class 1. It is for homework. 2. Meaning that it is a FORCED read. 3. Meaning that every day, w The Effects of a Book Being Assigned to an English/Reading Class 1. It is for homework. 2. Meaning that it is a FORCED read. 3. Meaning that every day, when you go to class, you must read this book. 4. And not only must you read the book, you must also write summaries about the book (which need to include detail, correct punctuation, correct spelling, correct grammar, and the symbolic meanings that are fairly hard to figure out in order to get an A). 5. And because this book is for homework, you'd lose the will to want to read the book. When I read something I like, I don't really read it for a chore. I read it because I WANT to. This book, however...was a chore. I know, I know, I SHOULDN'T blame the book! I should blame the homework that came with it. But still, if I read this book of my own free will, I don't think I would have finished it. The truth is that the book is amazing in a factual way. I mean, it's REALLY, REALLY detailed. And the plot and imagination that was used to come with it is really creative! The only problem I have with it is that I couldn't understand most of it. I'm 15-years-old right now, but I'm still a kid who finds classics and highly detailed things with huge words very..very......tedious. And when I read this book, I was 13-years-old, a younger kid who found classics even MORE boring and tedious than she does now. It was so extremely detailed and there were so many words and most of those words were huge and unfamiliar! And I had to have HOMEWORK on reading this book, and I had to write dialectical summaries on each chapter, with everything ACCURATE and to list whatever symbolical things were mentioned. And how could I do that when I didn't even understand the book??? And I really needed an A that semester. (And I'm very happy to say that, yes, I did get an A that semester. But I had to really, really, really work my butt off to get that A.) So the homework was stressful. And I procrastinated a little. This is a review coming from a girl that likes simple stories that I can actually understand. Seriously. The idea for the plot, and the imagination used, and how detailed the thing was is very, very impressive. But it's really not for me. T_T Maybe it was the homework, but even without the homework, I probably still wouldn't understand it. SO, if you don't mind very detailed stories that take FOREVER to read (well, it took me forever to read)... If you can understand huge words or have the time to look each one up in the dictionary... And if you don't have this for homework, or you do have it for homework and you LIKE homework.... Then I suggest that this book is for you. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 2010
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May 2010
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Jul 15, 2012
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Paperback
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| 1416924981
| 9781416924982
| 1416924981
| 3.99
| 129,062
| Sep 01, 1998
| Jun 06, 2006
|
really liked it
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Okay, yeah. The books that teachers assign for homework suck. (I mean, most of the ones that I've been assigned.) Most of them are boring. They also in Okay, yeah. The books that teachers assign for homework suck. (I mean, most of the ones that I've been assigned.) Most of them are boring. They also include homework and they also come with that very strictly-graded essay that you have to write and type once you finish the book (so even when you've closed the book...THE TORTURE IS NOT OVER YET!). You have to read the freaking thing EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. And it's torture. (What do you expect from homework.) And yes, this book was assigned to us in my 7th grade reading class. And I thought it was going to be boring to read.....BUT I LOVED IT. And so did the rest of the class. This was about 3 years ago. I've been through English classes and quite a few classic homework-assigned books already. I've heard my class's opinions. "This is so boring." "There's a lot of homework for this." "I had to read over the last chapter because I didn't understand it." "When are we going to move on to another book?" I remember when my (very weird and crazy) reading teacher introduced this book to us. I probably didn't think it was all that exciting when I saw it. He said, "Oooooh, see the really creepy looking cover with that really creepy and depressed looking dude's face creeping out of a tree?" Sure, the cover was pretty creepy, but after the first few chapters, the comments that this book got were: "This is a pretty good book!" "This is interesting." "Can we read Among the Hidden today?" "Are we reading the next book?" "Is our next book going to be as good as Among the Hidden?" This is by far my FAVORITE BOOK that I've ever had to read in my English/Reading classes. I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. It made me love my homework for once. (And like any other sane child, I did not like homework at all.) I ended up going to the library and checking this book out and finishing the book a couple of weeks early before the essay we had to write was due. IT WAS JUST SO AWESOME. I haven't read this book in 3 years, but I remember it! It was about Luke (forgot his last time) who lived in a world where no family was allowed more than 2 children. And Luke was the third child. So he was hidden, and he wasn't allowed to go outside, and he couldn't do any of the things that his two older brothers did. Actually, in World Geography in 8th grade, we learned that China is a little bit like this. Except families are only allowed ONE child (because the population is so huge and there's not enough room or food for all those people). Most of the people wanted boys because when the boy grew up and got married, he'd be able to continue the family name. When GIRLS got married, they'd have to leave the family and change their name, and their family's name would forever cease to exist. So everyone wanted a son. Daughters would be given to orphanages and stuff. BUT GIRLS ARE SO MUCH MORE AWESOMER THAN GUYS. (Yeah, just a.....fun fact.) Anyway, he meets Jen, another third child that had moved into one of the new houses that were built near theirs. And Jen was teaming up with a bunch of other hidden children to fight against the government. This book includes suspense. That's just why I loved this book. SUSPENSEFUL SUSPENSE! That's what kept me reading! I didn't want to have to wait for reading class to read this book! The big spoiler is (view spoiler)[this book has a sad ending (hide spoiler)]. I never got a chance to read the second installment of this series but I really should! Anyway, if you're looking for dystopian suspense that's easy to read and is so good that you'd even be willing to have this book for Reading Class homework, I really think you should consider THIS BOOK! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 2009
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Jan 2010
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Jul 15, 2012
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Paperback
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| 0316134023
| 9780316134026
| 0316134023
| 3.99
| 379,920
| Sep 27, 2011
| Sep 27, 2011
|
it was amazing
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OH. MY. GOD. I just finished rereading Daughter of Smoke and Bone and I come onto Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and look at the review I typed over a year ago and . . . WHAT OH. MY. GOD. I just finished rereading Daughter of Smoke and Bone and I come onto Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and look at the review I typed over a year ago and . . . WHAT BLAS---------- DO I FIND?! 1. 4 stars. 4 STARS?! No. No no no no no this needs 10000000 stars where is the 10000000 star button, WHERE, GOODREADS?! THERE'S ONLY 5, and I DIDN'T EVEN PUT 5 STARS, I PUT 4. What was wrong with me?! 2. What kind of review doesn't describe how Daughter of Smoke and Bone literally RIPPED OPEN MY HEART and then STITCHED IT BACK WITH STAPLES, and then RIPPED IT OPEN AGAIN?! 3. I love books. But I have NEVER . . . EVER . . . EVER EVER EVER focused on every single word in a book like I have here. EVERY SINGLE WORD COUNTED. Every. SINGLE. PIECE. I skipped nothing. Skimmed nothing. It was too beautiful to look away from, like if you go onto the very top of the highest mountains on the Pyrenees and you see this entire view of the greens and waterfalls down below and you FOCUS ON EVERY DETAIL so you can remember it because your camera isn't doing it justice at all. This was a freaking library book. I'm gonna have to RETURN THIS THING. So I wanted to remember every piece of it. 4. Cliche. Yeah, this had beautiful people. Akiva following Karou and Karou constantly thinking about Akiva's face afterwards--a lust at first sight. But this cliche factor was unbent into this . . . . . . . . . . . . this explosion of the most creative, unthinkable thing. Read below about my review. I was shocked back then too, but not as much as I am now. If I'm rereading this review to try and remember what Daughter of Smoke and Bone was like, I say, "REREAD THE BOOK AGAIN. IT IS WORTH IT." If someone asks me, "What was the book like?" I will demand that they go and read the book themselves and I will refuse to tell them anything because this makes my speech go all nuts because I'm so excited, and anything I say--"fantastic" "flawless" "amazing" "MORE WONDERFUL THEN HUMAN PLEASURES"--it's not going to do this book justice. If someone tries to tell me what's wrong with this book, I will pull the terminator on them. If someone is also reading the book I will sit there just to watch their face because I wish I saw my face as I was reading this freaking masterpiece. MASTERPIECE. MASTERPIECE!!!!!!! MASTERPIECE! THIS was a truly beautiful book. What's my review for today?: GO READ IT. Just go. Reward yourself with this! As of May 2012: 4 stars :O. .................................................................................. [image] (5 minutes later) OH OKAY. The review. Let me tell you how I freaking finished this book. I was on page 280-something, and I freaking sat in my seat and promised myself, "I WILL NOT LEAVE THIS SEAT UNTIL I'M FINISHED!" So I finished the last half of the book in one seating, and it was painful when I got up because I was sitting there for so long, but I just did NOT want to stand up and close this book! I read ALL THE WAY TO THE END. To a . . . a . . . . . . . . . (view spoiler)[cliffhanger T_T (hide spoiler)]. This book had me possessed. A forced filled itself inside me and said, "NO......NOOOOO THERESA, YOU MUUUST KEEP REEEEEADING! This book is too amaaaaazing for you to put dooooown!" THIS WAS ONE KIND OF BOOK I HAVE NEVER READ BEFORE! It's different from all them other YA's. It's just . . . . just . . . . . . . . . . it's just different. NOTE: To my fellow review readers who are thinking: "SHOULD I OR SHOULD I NOT READ THIS BOOK???? I'll just scroll upon Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see what my FAVORITE REVIEWER OF ALL TIME has to say." I say: You will NOT like this book if 1. You don't like detail. And by detail I mean DETAIL. DEEEETAIL. Description of beautiful things. Description of thoughts. Description of . . . . . *gah* it's hard to explain. But there are usually two types of readers. Readers who like DETAIL. DESCRIPTION. A character's THOUGHTS and IMAGE and ACTION. AND . . . Readers who like DIALOGUE. Where there is more speaking than flailing about, doing dramatic things that require no voice. But don't get me wrong. This isn't one of those books with detail that describes every little thing--like the Hunchback of Notredame (urgh)that literally had two chapters titled: "The Cathedral" "Bird Eye View of the Cathedral" Over TWENTY FREAKING PAGES . . . describing . . . a Cathedral. (And don't all cathedrals look the same anyway? You've seen one, you've seen 'em all! But this book isn't like that. This book has BEAUTIFUL detail that must have taken ages and ages upon ages and ages to write. I respect this beautiful lady who created this beautiful story! What the heck? WHO KNEW WRITING LIKE THIS WAS POSSIBLE??!?!?! 2. If you tend to RUSH through books. If you rush, you'll end up having to reread because you missed a bunch of important words and detail. This book is NOT FOR SPEED READING if you want to let this book's beauty INTO YOUR VERY SOUL! If you DO read this book, DON'T SPEED READ, okay? Just take it into your very . . . your very SOUL. Let it . . . set your soul on FIRE . . . . 3. THIS BOOK HAS BEAUTY IN IT. All the characters are pretty much beautiful. I guess it's not one of those stories where beauty doesn't matter. (*Sigh.) Because Karou is really pretty. Super sexy blue haired PRINCESS, she really is pretty! Akiva the hero of this fantasmic tale? He's beautiful too. Karou's ex-boyfriend. Kaz. The dude that's narcissistic and is more of a side character but still sticks in my head because all I got from the descriptions was a dude whose insides look like they exploded. (Ohohoho.) He pretty much GLIDES everywhere. Muscles throbbing. Grinning and thinking he's the most beautiful thing in the universe. Like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (who was very, very close to being a Hulk). But don't think the beauty here is shallow, NO NO NO. Because this book is about ANGELS. AND DEVILS. And let me tell you a quote that had me thinking for a long long long time. The Devil might not be a little tiny red man with horns and a pitchfork. It might not be an ugly beast or foul looking creature. He could be beautiful. You know why? Because he used to be an angel too. He used to be God's FAVORITE. So these supernatural creatures should be more than human. If it was about a human girl and a human guy who were heartstoppingly gorgeous, I'd hate it because "beautiful" is really really hard to imagine. But beautiful angels are more believable. But all in all WHY WOULD YOU DISLIKE THIS BOOK?! Created by some sort of beautiful masterpiece creator. You read this story, and then you sit back and ask: CAN I EVER WRITE SOMETHING LIKE THIS?! I'm jealous. My fellow review readers. If you like 1. ANGELS. DEVILS. A new angel story that you've been searching for after utterly (*bleeping) cliche angel stories like A Beautiful Dark (blech!!) come to THIS BOOK! This is actually the first angel book I've actually liked. :O JUST COME HERE FOR ANGELS. 2. SOMETHING DIFFERENT. How often do you find a story about a blue haired girl traveling through realms, hunting things like teeth, and wishing? With the strangest of creatures and most interesting of stories? HMM? I mean you can find 20 other versions of Twilight all over the YA world, but THIS? 3. Reading beautiful writing. OF COURSE. 4. Are you a romantic? 5. IF YOU LIKE ADVENTURE, just . . . just come here and read. This was one book I will not soon forget, my darlings. Seriously. UNFORGETTABLE. IT WILL HAUNT MY DREAMS AT NIGHT!!! ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Sep 08, 2014
not set
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Sep 14, 2014
not set
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May 06, 2012
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0142000671
| 9780142000670
| 0142000671
| 3.89
| 2,714,793
| Feb 25, 1937
| 2002
|
really liked it
|
This is how English class went this morning. Theresa: (zips hand furiously into the air) Mrs. Randall (english teacher): Yes, Theresa? Theresa: (stutters This is how English class went this morning. Theresa: (zips hand furiously into the air) Mrs. Randall (english teacher): Yes, Theresa? Theresa: (stutters because of HUUUUUGE CONFUSION) W-W-Why-- Mrs. Randall: What? Theresa: W-W-WHY THE HECK DID (view spoiler)[GEORGE KILL LENNIE (hide spoiler)] ?! Whoops, I almost spoiled it there. Anyway, yeah, this review is definitely gonna have spoilers. If you're allergic to spoilers/do not like spoilers/would rather not read spoilers/would DIE IF YOU WERE TOTALLY COMPLETELY AND ABSOLUTELY SPOILED, I suggest that you locate away from this review until you get that situation changed to a new situation that allows you to read my review. As for the rest of you, let us carry on. First of all, after I asked that, my english teacher smiled. "Well, that's because that's how the author wanted to end it." WAS JOHN STEINBECK A HIGHLY DEPRESSIVE MAN?! Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why--why--WHY?! WHY ON EARTH WOULD HE CREATE A STORY ABOUT TWO BEST FRIENDS AND HAVE IT END WITH ONE OF THEM SHOOTING THE OTHER?! Well, that was what I thought BEFORE we discussed the book. I mean seriously, maybe I read it a little too fast. (I mean this is a pretty light read.) But I didn't understand. Was this Lennie's punishment? GEORGE, YOU COULDN'T PUNISH HIM WITH SOMETHING ELSE?? Now, why did Lennie get into the situation he was in again?? (Just a mind refresher.) Curley (little violent man) had a wife (who's name we do not know). That wife (who's name we don't know) does not like to listen to Curley (when Curley told her to stay at home as if the home was a prison). Curley's wife decides to travel to the farmhouse to visit the guys and the guys try to stay away from her. Why? 1. SHE'S THEIR BOSS'S WIFE! Sure, she's "purty" (she was described ONCE in the story by one of the characters as a "looloo", which is a very strange comment, indeed) and good looking, but if they were caught with her, they'd be fired! And jobs (according to my english teacher) were rare in the time of the setting of the story, and they couldn't afford to be fired! 2. Well...she's a little "loose". You know...player...probably doesn't stick with just ONE GUY. 3. Her husband's sort of a maniac. Well, not a maniac. Just a...violent...scary...little...man. Anyway, apparently we don't know her name because she's not important to the other characters. They try to stay away from her. She can cause trouble and such. Anyway, George told Lennie to STAY AWAY FROM HER. Of course...he didn't exactly listen. So when she came close, she let him touch her hair, he started pulling her hair, she started squealing/shrieking/screeching, Lennie tried to make her be quiet, her neck snapped, and...the end of Curley's wife. When Curley finds out about this, he's all "I'M GONNA KIIIIILLLLLL HIM!!!!!" My english teacher explained this to me when I asked her the "WHY THE HECK DID GEORGE KILL LENNIE?!" question. Basically, Curley states that he's going to "shoot him in the gut". And getting shot in the gut is usually a slow, painful death. This guy wants to HURT Lennie. George kills him by shooting the back of his head. Head-shots tend to be very fast, quick, and less painful. I don't think there's any pain, actually. And when Curley was planning to kill Lennie, if Lennie got put into that situation where Curley was KILLING Lennie, Lennie would definitely be afraid. When George shot Lennie, Lennie wasn't afraid. He was happy. He didn't know what was going on. So "George shot his best friend to save him from some pretty awful suffering." Jeez. Does reading a book literally need THAT MUCH THINKING? So yeah. If my teacher didn't discuss the book, and I was writing this review, my review would definitely be a lower star-rating. I mean a guy suddenly killing his best friend?! What about your dreams of the farm, George?! Was this Lennie's punishment?! It wouldn't have made sense to me. But now that it was explained to me, the story really isn't all that bad. FOUR STARS, WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! It's kind of like the movie "How Do You Know" starring Paul --something and Reese Witherspoon (I think that's her name) and some other people. I didn't understand the movie when I first finished it. IT ENDED SO SUDDENLY. It's like "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?! IS THERE A SEQUEL?!" But then I went online and read some of the reviews and the movie summaries and after I did that, I watched the movie again. The movie was better the second time I watched it. Siiiiigh...I'm not good at understanding when I read or watch things for the first time. That's definitely not good on my part. The whole lesson of the book is actually kind of made sense in the title. "Of Mice and Men". I didn't have ANY SINGLE CLUE why the title was called "Of Mice and Men". WHAT is of mice and men? Dude, there was a mouse in the story, but it was dead and it was only mentioned in the first chapter! Well, it's found in this poem, "To a mouse". And there's a quote there that says something like "The best laid schemes of mice and men Go often awry, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy!" Well, that was what my teacher told us, anyway. I was kind of confused. I mean what schemes would mice have? Why is the word "mice" in there, anyway? Anyway, it's basically saying, "We have dreams and promises that are planned to make us happy, but things happen that we don't expect and they take away our dreams and make them impossible. That leaves us with a sucky life." It's basically saying "This is how life works." And it's true. After George killed Lennie, George's dreams VANISHED. GONE. ZIPPED AWAY INTO NOTHING. He wanted to have his own farm with Lennie. Uh, Lennie's dead. Lennie could be able to raise and tend to rabbits. He can't. Lennie's dead. He saved Lennie from suffering, but that was sort of a sacrifice on his part. But then again, Lennie would have died anyway by getting slaughtered by Curley. It's sort of a tragedy. It's a good story. MY FAVORITE CLASSIC OUT OF ALL THE CLASSICS THAT I'VE READ SO FAR! (I've read Lord of the Flies (ew) and Animal Farm (bleeeh.)) As for the profanity, it's not any F-words or anything. There's the H-word, the D-word, the B-word, the N-word...yeah, I think people will survive through that. There's lots of slang. LOTS OF DIALOGUE (which I actually kind of enjoy). It teaches a good life lesson. I just had to have it explained to me in order for me to understand. BAAAAAAAAH! This...concludes my review! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 18, 2012
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May 02, 2012
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Apr 18, 2012
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0061139378
| 9780061139376
| 0061139378
| 4.13
| 750,755
| Jul 02, 2002
| Aug 29, 2006
|
liked it
|
I read this thing all in one sitting, from 6:25 to 7:40. THIS IS ONE REALLY FAST-PACED BOOK. Anyway, I just want to say...that this book does have the I read this thing all in one sitting, from 6:25 to 7:40. THIS IS ONE REALLY FAST-PACED BOOK. Anyway, I just want to say...that this book does have the potential to give a reader goosebumps--say, if you read this late at night in a house where you're alone, and there is absolutely no noise going on around you. I have something to confess though. You know about the movie "Coraline", right? The 3D one? Well...I watched that movie before I even learned that Coraline was a book. DUDE, THE MOVIE WAS AMAZING. AHHHHH-MAAAAAZING! AMAZING!! Terrifyingly addicting, spooky, and incredibly original! Totally gave me the creeps. ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! I've probably watched that movie tons of times. Tens or hundreds, maybe! It's so freaking addicting! I know the movie by heart! And then...I opened the book from where this amazingly amazing movie was adapted from and...well... Well, you know how you seem to have different opinions or mental images of the books and the characters if you read the book AFTER you've seen a movie adaptation? Well...that probably happened to me. First of all, the book and the movie were a little different from each other. I mean the events occurred in a different order and of course, the movie adaptation had the beloved Wybie included in it. (If you haven't seen the adaptation, you'll probably have no clue who the heck I'm talking about.) Compared to the movie, this book seemed so freakishly fast paced! I mean everything just suddenly happened! Maybe it's not fast paced--it's just fastER paced because I'm comparing it to the movie. Siiiigh. Well, to get straight to the point, the movie and the book were sort of different. The movie was missing a few things from the book. The book was missing a few things from the movie. But...but...but.........(sigh*) I have this...this inner feeling that's telling me that...the movie was better. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! (*ninjetically ducks underneath desk*) I know! I know, I know, I know, I should stick to the original book and know that the movie was DEFINITELY NOT THE ORIGINAL "CORALINE", but...but...but....THE MOVIE JUST GAVE MORE OOOOOMF! OOOOMPH!!! It gave more...."OOOOMMPAH". See, look. Isn't the lesson of the book based on how Coraline should have been content and see what good things her real parents were offering her instead of expecting more? In the book, Coraline was indeed neglected by her parents, but there was no hint that Coraline couldn't see what good things her parents are TRYING to do for her because in the book, her parents were purely neglecting the girl. And Coraline didn't really seem BOTHERED that she was neglected. She just seemed to emotionlessly shrug her shoulders and say, "Well, I tried." and then she'd just move on to something else. She didn't look like she was UPSET about her parents neglecting her. And when the other mother tries to win Coraline's affections, doesn't Coraline sort of fall for the mother's attempts at first? Doesn't she sort of give off the thought of, "WAH! This world is way better than the reality I have to live! I love it here!" She just seems sort of weirded out by the whole thing. Like throughout everything that her mother had done, she had just said, "Um, what is going on?" throughout the whole thing. Yeah, in the book, there were heartchilling moments that did give me goosebumps, like the suspense that Coraline had to go through. But the emotion that Coraline has towards everything doesn't support the lesson of the story. AND THE LESSON OF THE STORY IS LIKE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN SOMEONE'S WRITING!!!!!! The characters should be believable! Coraline is...sort of like a robot in this book. EXAMPLES...shall I list them? I'll give you two. 1. When her parents tell her not to bother them and to just leave and go bother someone else: UNDERSTANDABLE: Coraline becomes annoyed and thinks, "GAH! DO THESE PEOPLE KNOW I EXIST?! I am your child! I CRAVE YOUR ATTENTION!" ROBOT: Coraline turns away, skadoodling off somewhere else without a care. 2. Coraline goes through the evil door and meets the other mother. UNDERSTANDABLE: Coraline says or at least expresses the thought of, "Okay, who are you? Why do you have buttons for eyes? That's really weird!" ROBOT: "Well, she looks a little different. I do not take in the weirdness that this strange lady claims to be my mother and has buttons for eyes. I'll just play along, tra lala." And she doesn't seem to compare the not-so-reality beldam world to the reality world at all. It's like she doesn't dislike her reality. I'm not sure of this, but do the movie and the book both teach different lessons? BAH. Maybe the movie had created a different lesson to teach, like reweaving a story. But then...WHAT'S THE LESSON OF THE BOOK???? Anyway yeah, this is one of the few books that I've been able to read in ONE SITTING. (Well, I was actually LYING...I can't sit in one place for over an hour!) This book wasn't bad. It gave me goosebumps and can totally be classified as a thrill. But where are the life lessons? Where's the humanity in these characters? ALL OF THEM ARE LIKE ROBOTS! And, according to what I've learned in my lifetime, robots can perform activities but they have no emotions. These characters have heartbeats, don't they?! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 22, 2012
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Apr 22, 2012
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Apr 14, 2012
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0061978086
| 9780061978081
| 0061978086
| 3.58
| 3,450
| Sep 13, 2012
| Oct 02, 2012
|
liked it
|
Once I got my hands on this book, I was like [image] Yup. Right in the middle of the library. I mean COME ON. It's LAUREN OLIVER. I almost DIED over her Once I got my hands on this book, I was like [image] Yup. Right in the middle of the library. I mean COME ON. It's LAUREN OLIVER. I almost DIED over her Delirium series. HOW CAN ANY HUMAN WRITE THAT AWESOMELY?! So of course I'd be absolutely SPAZZED once I got Lauren Oliver's new book! And I was sitting back on my bed, opening this book, thinking, "Fo-shizzle. I'm GOING TO TYPE ANOTHER FREAKING 5 STAR REVIEW!!!!" And you all know how much I love typing 5 star reviews, right? With the all-caps, and the spazziness, and the craziness that MOST PEOPLE would click away from because my reviews are so weird to read and no one really reads them but I write them anyway......... (*Ahem) Anyway. This ISN'T a 5 star review, though. THE AGONY I HAVE DEEP DOWN INSIDE! (ME during a 5 star review.) [image] Look at the dream that won't happen today! As much as I LOVE LAUREN OLIVER, and I intend to proceed to stalking her over the internet, AND once I get my hands on Requiem, I'm going to clutch it against my heart and never let it go... There are very many reasons why this book is NOT a 5 star book. (Well, to me, anyway.) So, basically, through the first chapter, I was like [image] "Gaaaah! Lauren Oliver!" Through the next few chapters, I was like [image] A few pages after that, I was like [image] And then suddenly, BAM. A huge part (I can't mention what it is because I hate spoiling my fellow review readers) just exploded in my face and I was like [image] And then when I finally closed this book, I was like [image] (*siiigh) And so now, I sit at this review trying to figure out the words to describe how a an amazing Lauren Oliver got a 3 star instead of a 5 star this time. 1. This is a KID'S BOOK. Or...at least a TWEEN book aimed at younger readers, right? NO! THAT CAN'T BE!!!! You see, the way this book was written...with all these different kinds of details and such...if I was a younger kid, I wouldn't be able to understand this! The details are so pretty! It's what's expected from Lauren Oliver! But as a younger kid, I didn't appreciate details upon details upon details. (Because I was the laziest kid ever born.) I'm not saying this isn't good writing. IT MOST CERTAINLY IS! She's totally talented in describing. That's one imagination she's got! But if I was an 11-year-old Theresa, I would have probably set down this book long before reaching the back cover. Even though the plot looks like it's aimed at a kid's imagination range, the kind of structure it has makes it feel a little more complex to understand. Unless of course, kids these days aren't as lazy and attracted to dialogue like I was. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I was my younger self, expecting a fun fairy tale to dream about after I'm finished, this probably wouldn't be that book. But even as my 15-year-old self, even though I love detaily details, and this book is totally original...I can't say that this book made me smile, either. 2. CREEEEEEEPY. She was totally unique and original in this story! These creatures and the plot line are something that I can't find anywhere else (or maybe I can, I just haven't found it yet.) But you guys know how much I ADORE originality, right?? The thing is...there were SO MANY DIFFERENT CREATURES that it was hard to remember, not only was it confusing. It was a whole entire world squished into 200 pages! This book seems too short to hold them all. Scawgs, seeds of hope, river of knowledge...nocturni, moribats, snake trees, troglods, not to mention the rats and spindlers... and Above, Below, Up, Down, All Around--GAAAAH! So many things to remember in 200 pages! It made my head spin round and round. I mean trust me, amazing stories like Harry Potter had like 100 different creatures--their whole entire world that probably took ages for the author to organize and remember which creature did what. There were so many different things presented, so many things to keep track of, so many pictures to keep in your head--the thing is Harry Potter had like 7 books, and each one was at least 400 pages or more. But this is a pretty big problem, because if the reader can't remember the characters and their meanings, and the minor characters and creatures don't impact the reader in some way, it's easy to throw the reader off and confuse them and make their eyes turn into huge swirly lollipops! Especially if the reader is as big of a dummy as I am. 3. Liza. Liza is a young girl (I forgot if her age was even mentioned, but she's probably 12. 13. 14 maybe?). Her parents think she's the kind of kid with that imagination to throw at other people. (Going around, saying "SPINDLERS KIDNAPPED MY BROTHER'S SOUL! I have to go rescue him!") It's like if you're one of those video gamer nerds that are obsessed with minecraft (like about 99.999999% of my friends) and somebody asks, "Hey, do you wanna hang out today?" and you say, "No thanks. I have to build a house to protect myself from creepers and then I have to build a trench to hide from them underground so that I can survive." And the person who offered to hang out with you takes you seriously, and they don't ask you to hang out ever again. Plus, she got irritated with her mouse companion a lot. Sure, (view spoiler)[at the end, they bond and even though that mouse irritated Liza so much, she still considered her as a friend (hide spoiler)], but...the point of all that just didn't impact me much. A book should impact it's readers! Reach into their hearts and souls and give them the warm and fuzzy feeling that really awesome books give. The good thing about her is that the bond between her and her brother seems real. She was determined to save him. And it's pretty obvious throughout the book that he cares about her too. And I loved how determined she is--I love when people get determined to save something they love. It's one of the most amazing hero/heroine traits that I love to read. But I didn't have that "OH-EM-GEEZAY, I LOVE THIS CREATURE!" feeling that I usually have for good heroines. 4. The life lesson. It seems really rushed at the end, like it was squished into the last 3 pages. Don't get me wrong. There are so many beautiful, heart-wrenching, gut-clenching quotes in here that I want to keep in my soul forever and ever! But like Liza, and like the rest of the several of creatures that the readers just stumble upon and then easily forget about, this life lesson didn't touch my soul either. Overall...this didn't touch my soul. AND A 5 STAR BOOK REQUIRES SOME SOUL TOUCHING!!! This is like Kyon, for example. I love Kyon. Yet this book ended up like this: [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 05, 2013
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Jan 12, 2013
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Apr 04, 2012
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Hardcover
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| 0451526341
| 9780451526342
| B0D7LQMF4N
| 4.00
| 4,264,204
| Aug 17, 1945
| Apr 1996
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did not like it
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Let me get this straight before we start ze review. 1. I'm used to reading young-adult books and...I had to read this for english class. I'm reviewing Let me get this straight before we start ze review. 1. I'm used to reading young-adult books and...I had to read this for english class. I'm reviewing because I read this and it counts as a book read for the 2012 reading challenge thing, AAAAAND I review every book that I've read, so here it goes. 2. For the type of WRITING--y'know, with the life lesson and the details and the symbolic idea whatevers, I'd give this book a three-star. It must have been quite a bit of work to organize all that and to get the story to symbolize the meaning of society and whatever. As for my opinion...well, I couldn't say 2-star because that would have meant it was OK. It was OK, I mean I didn't die and I found it kind of easy for me to read, but I didn't like it. WHAT THE HECK WAS THE LIFE LESSON SUPPOSED TO BE?! AND THE STORY WAS SO SHORT! EVERYTHING HAPPENED SO FAST! YEARS PASSED IN BETWEEN CHAPTERS. It only told what happened--it didn't exactly SHOOOOW what happened, you know? So get ready for some spoilers if you haven't read this book already. READY??????? 1. So they start off on the farm with the old major pig telling everyone that they should get the humans out of the way in order to live in freedom and peace and fairness and that they should treat each other as equals and not act like men. That pig dies, leaving Animal Farm to fend for itself. 2. The animals attack the farmer...Mr....Jones?? Yeah, they take over the farm from him. They put up the 7 commandments, which are basically saying that they are forbidden to do things that men do. 3. Then there's Snowball and Napoleon, and Napoleon ends up taking over the farm and becoming the leader. 4. The commandments slowly change into the PIG'S favor, and the pigs start to act like humans. 5. Years pass, lots of animals have died either from getting old or by getting killed or something, and the pigs are standing on 2 legs. THE HUMANS AREN'T SHOCKED BY THESE PIGS AT ALL?! Or is this just an imaginary world where pigs and animals can talk?? 6. The pigs and men are drinking together, and the very last thing the book says is that the animals had looked from man to pig and from pig to man and that it was impossible to say which was which. We had to read this book on our own--this wasn't the kind of book where the teacher would explain what was happening through the story, so I'm not exactly sure what's going on. SOMEONE TELL ME!!!! Anyway, the irony of the story was pretty interesting, but what does the story TEACH?? Will societies get taken over in order for freedom, but then the animals that were part of taking over for freedom simply became controlling and doing things that they had fought to stop being inflicted upon themselves, and being hypocrites??? I can't understand the book too well. The book just zipped by really fast without being able to get me to understand what's going on, so that's why I wrinkled my nose at this book. But seriously. WHAT IS THIS BOOK SUPPOSED TO TEACH?? ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 26, 2012
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Apr 10, 2012
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Mar 26, 2012
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 038039586X
| 9780380395866
| 038039586X
| 4.09
| 495,725
| Nov 1972
| Jun 1975
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liked it
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BEFORE ZE ASSIGNMENT HAS BEGUN... "I love this story!!! I would tell it to my sons when we would go on long road trips to keep them interested, and I r BEFORE ZE ASSIGNMENT HAS BEGUN... "I love this story!!! I would tell it to my sons when we would go on long road trips to keep them interested, and I read it about four or five times. PLEASE GIVE THIS BOOK A CHANCE, MY LOVELY ENGLISH HONORS CLASS!!!!!" ....is what my English teacher said. Today, we got assigned Watership Down as the novel we are reading for English class. It is apparently about... Rabbits. That's a pretty original idea. So anyway, I HAVEN'T STARTED THE BOOK YET, but apparently we will be finished with the book for english class in March. Y'know...if we don't read ahead or anything. I'm wondering if this is really a good book. I mean my english teacher is AWESOME and even though she's older than a lot of people I know, SHE'S AWESOME. But I remember my English teacher from last year (She was awesome, too!) saying "Lord of the Flies is a pretty good book." Check out my review on that, puh-lease. But anyway, I really hope/want/need this story to NOT be the boring kind of english novella that no one wants to read unless they are English teachers/old people/extremely nerdy/very bored. I WANT THIS BOOK TO BE BEAUTIFULLY AWESOME. PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! I will expect lots of complicated stuff since this IS assigned to my freshman English 1 Honors class. Siiiiiiigh... So. Tonight's english homework of reading chapter 1-4 begins... Now. -------------------------------------------- AFTER ZE BOOK HAS BEEN CLOSED... I present Watership down with....... 3 STARS! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY! (Well, it's actually about 3.5 stars. 3.6??) But I am just glad I finally finished this freaking book. We have a test on the book on Tuesday and I really don't have to worry about finishing like 20 chapters in one night like I had to do with Lord Of The Flies in the 8th grade. Anyway, ever since January, you really wouldn't believe how many times my English teacher told my class, "Please give this book a chance! It is a very very very good story!" Okay, well, I definitely gave it a chance. And I just have to say... THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I'VE EVER HAD TO READ FOR ENGLISH CLASS! It beats Lord of the Flies by like 10 miles! (Heh, I keep comparing this book to Lord of the Flies.) Anyway, it's not the BEST BOOK. I mean there were some moments while I was reading where I 1. Procrastinated (and said "Errk, I'll just wake up at 4am and read this book--I'd really rather sleep right now) 2. Skimmed through (as in "I didn't wake up at 4am to read this book, so now I'm going to sit here in English Class and read the 2 chapters assigned for homework in approximately 5 minutes!") 3. Had to reread a chapter (I didn't understand what happened because...I don't skim through books very well...) And every time we had a quiz on this book, or summary questions for a chapter, I always got a B- or lower. NO A's. Basically I didn't understand chunks of the book, I procrastinated because the book wasn't exactly attracting enough for me to say "URGH! I HAVE TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS! I'M NOT LEAVING MY SEAT UNTIL I FLIP THE LAST PAGE OVER!", and I procrastinated ENOUGH to have to skim through chapters at the VERY VERY VERY LAST MINUTE. Usually understanding, no procrastination, and not-daring to skim books qualify for 4-stars, or even 5-stars. THAT'S JUST MY OPINION! I mean the dude who sits next to me finished the book with the Epilogue around the time that we had to be reading Chapter 30. And we read like 2-3 chapters every other night. (There are 50 chapters.) So yeah, I didn't exactly CLING onto the book. It was probably because I was FORCED to read it, as in "YOU DO NOT GET AN A UNLESS YOU READ THIS BOOK AND DO GOOD ON YOUR TESTS!" If you would pick this book up on YOUR OWN by your OWN FREE WILL, I think you'd like the book better. Anyway, this book has a LOOOOOT of description! Dude, there are probably more descriptions than quotes. AND THERE ARE SO MANY FREAKING CHARACTERS! Through the book, I ended up forgetting how many rabbits were together and what rabbits did what, and what they looked like, and how they differed from one another--DUDE THERE ARE SO MANY CHARACTERS! It made my brain all dizzy. Anyway, the theme of this book is based on teamwork and trust, I think. The few other themes that you learn from this book are pretty good. THIS BOOK REALLY WASN'T BAD AT ALL!! (For a book assigned for English Class, anyway.) But this would definitely NOT be a young-adult book. You have to be able to understand the feelings of the characters AND the descriptions. It has adventure! Anyway, if you can withstand descriptions and you don't mind thinking and inferring WHY characters do WHAT things, I think you should take a peek at this book. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 26, 2012
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Mar 17, 2012
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Jan 26, 2012
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Mass Market Paperback
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Theresa �
>
Books:
the-third-person-shelf
(23)
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 4.18
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really liked it
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May 16, 2016
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May 16, 2016
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| 4.04
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it was amazing
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May 18, 2015
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May 18, 2015
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| 3.78
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it was amazing
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Jun 12, 2015
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Apr 23, 2015
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| 4.05
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it was amazing
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Mar 29, 2015
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Mar 24, 2015
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| 4.14
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it was amazing
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Jun 16, 2015
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Sep 14, 2014
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| 4.06
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liked it
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Sep 07, 2014
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Sep 06, 2014
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| 4.16
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it was amazing
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Jul 14, 2014
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Jul 14, 2014
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| 3.79
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it was amazing
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Apr 05, 2014
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Apr 05, 2014
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| 3.55
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it was amazing
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Aug 20, 2014
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Jul 22, 2013
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| 3.51
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it was ok
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Jul 29, 2013
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Jul 09, 2013
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| 4.13
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really liked it
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Jun 30, 2016
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Nov 17, 2012
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| 4.03
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it was ok
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Jul 17, 2012
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Jul 15, 2012
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| 4.29
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did not like it
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May 2010
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Jul 15, 2012
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| 3.99
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really liked it
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Jan 2010
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Jul 15, 2012
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| 3.99
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it was amazing
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Sep 14, 2014
not set
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May 06, 2012
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| 3.89
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really liked it
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May 02, 2012
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Apr 18, 2012
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| 4.13
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liked it
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Apr 22, 2012
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Apr 14, 2012
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| 3.58
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liked it
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Jan 12, 2013
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Apr 04, 2012
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| 4.00
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did not like it
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Apr 10, 2012
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Mar 26, 2012
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| 4.09
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liked it
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Mar 17, 2012
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Jan 26, 2012
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