Review: The Realm of Possibility

Title: The Realm of Possibility
Author: David Levithan
Format: Hardback
Pages: 210
Date(s) Read: Jan 7-8, 2016
Rating: 3

Summary: 

This is a unique collection of twenty selections of prose.  Twenty different voices.  Twenty unique perspectives.  One school. 

Review:

Okay, I'm a sucker for poetry.  It is honestly my first love.  I write it...not very good mind, but still.  This book is written in verse, twenty verses to be exact.  Unique perspective of twenty teenagers in one school.  Possibilities are no doubt endless, and the emotion that is crafted within these twenty unique pieces of verse are fantastic.  

The poems within that can be related to.  Some that played with your emotions.  Some that left a lesson behind once you finished reading them.  The perspectives are different, emphasized, and every story has a different perspective.  I could have perhaps given this book a higher rating, however, three seems a much more fitting rating.  It is a book that I enjoyed reading, and would recommend to someone if they were looking for something unique and different.  However, it is not a book that I would ultimately scream it's praises from the rooftops. 

I have four favorite poems from this particular collection and they are in no particular order: 
1. Suburban Myths
2. Gospel
3. Writing
4. The Patron Saint of Stoners

Review: After Alice

Title: After Alice
Author: Gregory Maguire
Format: E-book
Pages: 256
Date(s) Read: Jan 7-8, 2016
Rating: 3

Summary: 

Published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's beloved classic Alice in Wonderland we follow Ada, a friend of Alice's briefly mentioned in the original tale, in her own plummet down the rabbit hole.  Ada wishes to see Alice restored back to life in Oxford.  Can she do it? 

Review: 

Alright.  So, I am a HUGE fan of Gregory Maguire's Wicked series.  Hands down some of my favorite books to read and indulge in...because I might have a teensy, tiny obsession with Oz. Tiny.. Yup.  That's an acceptable word.  Said as she hides multiple copies of Wicked, her entire collection of the original classic...

Right. 

Moving on! This is After Alice, not Wicked.  

I honestly went in to this book with quite a few high expectations.  Gregory Maguire did quite well with Wicked, however, this book kinda left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth and I cannot even to this day even consider re-reading it right now...perhaps a year or so in the future, but even six months in the future is not enough.  Which is sad, because I am such a fan of Alice in Wonderland and have more than once quoted various bits of it in short stories and things that I've written.  

There was something I did enjoy about it, and that was the effect of Victorian society on a handful of memorable characters.  I am partial to Maguire's writing style, however, I am not entirely sure that it makes me want to recommend this particular book to others.  Though, I will say this, his style works well with the Victorian England setting.  

The shifting point of views in the chapters made things a bit interesting.  One point of view is young Ada, a ten-year-old girl, who is Alice's best friend.  Who, of course, escapes the house before her governess realizes it and stumbles into the famed rabbit hole that sent Alice into Wonderland.  There, Ada comes into contact with familiar characters: the Queen of Hearts, the Walrus, Humpty Dumpty and even the Cheshire cat.  She is looking for Alice, who has of course disappeared - again.  

The second pov in this story is that of Lydia, Alice's sister.  Lydia had one task - look after her sister.  Which, as we all know, she failed.  Lydia is, in her adventure, joined by a unique cast of characters: Mr. Darwin (the one and only), Mr. Winter - who is a man from America, Siam - a former slave who had been freed by Mr. Winter and manages to fall through the looking-glass in Alice's house, and Miss Armstrong - who is looking for Ada.  These chapters end up being more character study than anything else, but I honestly think that they were some of my more enjoyable interactions of the story. 

I have been slightly put off on Alice in Wonderland retellings at least for the time being.  Perhaps I will reread the original Lewis Carroll story sometime this year and then hunt for another retelling to see if the magic can be recreated.  This is not a whimsical retelling, more so it is a peering into the darker parts of what it means to be human.  At the ending, I wasn't entirely sure how to feel or what to feel...it was a mixed bag of emotions and reactions and I think that is why it took so long for the review to be done. 

Review: Hidden

Title: Hidden
Author: P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Format: Hardback
Pages: 302
Date(s) Read: Jan 9-10, 2016
Rating: 3

Summary:

Zoey has what she wanted.  Truth is out.  Neferet's evil has been exposed, and the high council is no longer on her side.  However, she's not done wreaking havoc in the vampyre world.   Tensions are at their breaking point, friendships are going to be tested.  However, can the 'nerd herd' come together to stop the spread of Darkness before it is too late?

Review:

Okay, I think my opinions of this series might be a touch on the downward slide of things.  This book, I don't know, kinda struck me as a bit dull compared to the others.  Yes, I've read them all up until this point, including all four novellas.  Yes, chances are I will read the next book when it comes out, and the subsequent ones after that...why? Because I apparently am masochistic like that.  So, let's get to a few things that give my reasoning for the three stars this book has earned from me.

Lack of showing and an abundance of telling.  Seriously!  Also, the tone at times to the writing comes off as patronizing - as if one moment the characters know what the hell is going on and can speak properly, and the next they are absolutely freaking stupid.

“It’s about time the House of Night is aware that there are prodigious forces of good working on our side against all that Darkness.”
“Prodigious means real big.” Stevie Rae translated.

Aphrodite: “Gay Boy’s all atwitter, or atitter, or whatever.  “You are no good at espionage at all.”  

Those are just two of the examples of what makes me absolutely nutty with some of this writing.

The fact that the twins begin to take different paths - and why in the bloody hell would her sister not do something about it when *spoiler* Erin started going down this darker path?  SERIOUSLY?! I mean, come on.  When someone I love is doing something stupid, or something completely out of character....I FREAKING SAY SOMETHING!!! Why? Because I care about them and for sure want to know why in the hell they are behaving in a way that is completely different from what is considered normal.

I, honestly, hate to day this now, liked Zoey at the beginning of this series.  Now, however, I want to stab her....repeatedly...until she is little more than a pile of bloody flesh.  Okay, last book she annoyed me, this book yes, she kind of (kind of) redeemed herself on this.  She has by the end of the book shown maturity, and I honestly hope that in the next book that maturity continues, without the need for it to be spelled out.  Without the need for it to be told to us instead of bashing us over the head with everything.

For the sake of my sanity, I do hope book number 11 is better.  However, I will not at this point hold my breath.

Review: Destined

Title: Destined
Author: P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Format: Hardback
Pages: 325
Date(s) Read:  Jan 3-7, 2016
Rating:  3 

Summary: 

Zoey is home, safe with her Guardian Warrior, Stark.  She is preparing to face Neferet.  Rephaim's been released from Kalona's hold and given human form.  He and Stevie Rae can be together.  Can Rephaim stay free of his father's shadow and walk the path of the Goddess?  What will happen as the forces of light and dark continue their struggle continues its focus on Tulsa's House of Night.

Review: 

Okay, so it's been a bit since I've read this book.  Even with the background I have from the Novellas, I wasn't entirely thrilled with this book.  I am, thanks to my book OCD, committed to finishing this series.  However, I do not think the books will ever receive higher than a three from me as far as rating goes.  The plot, the premise of the story was one that I enjoyed from the beginning.  However, at this point in time I am starting to think that it is getting drawn out further and further.  There is very little resolution in these stories and it is, to be honest, starting to get maddening. 

I honestly really used to like Zoey and Stevie Rae...I really did.  However, at this point in time, Zoey is getting on my damn nerves.  She's gone from something likeable to something vapid and annoying as hell.  She doesn't deal with her emotions, she doesn't deal with things.  Instead of dealing with the potential death of her mother...she wakes Stark up for SEX!  Seriously? That is the first thing you do when you have a dream with Nyx in it that tells you your mother is freaking dead! You wake your boyfriend up for sex?! Also, for one, if you wake your boyfriend up and he gets MAD AT YOU for waking him up over something like that....IT IS TIME FOR THE STUPID BOY TO GO!  Like now. 

I have more to say about this series, however, I'm not entirely sure where to start or how to make it sound less ranty than it actually is.  UGH!   I don't think that's possible.  So, I will simply leave this review as it is because otherwise I might make it longer than I intended. 

Review: The Future of Us

Title: The Future of Us
Author: Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
Format: Hardback
Pages: 356
Date(s) Read: Jan 4-5, 2016
Rating: 4

Summary:

Josh and Emma are neighbors and best friends.  Until last November...Josh did something that changed everything.  Josh ultimately ends up bringing over an AOL CD (we all know the free ones that were sent out all the time) and when they install it on Emma's computer they are automatically logged onto their Facebook pages...but Facebook doesn't exist yet!  They are looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

Review:

This is one of those books that I wasn't sure if I wanted to read or not.  I'd read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and while I liked it, I wasn't even sure I wanted to read this one because I wasn't sure I was ready for a roller coaster ride that had been present in Thirteen Reasons Why. I was honestly torn, until I'd read a few reviews and further learned a bit about the premise of the story.

1996, I was a kid, born in the early 80's and loved everything (just about) about the 90's.  This was nostalgia and wonderful things mixed in with a glimpse of the future.  I remember getting AOL discs and the NetZero ones too.  Good coasters and ended up using them in some arts and crafts projects too because why the hell not.  The same music, all of it.  I was 14 in 1996, and this was how a lot of my teen years were spent.  Seriously.

Both Emma and Josh get a small glimpse of their own futures and begin realizing that even their small conversations, choices and small decisions have impacts upon their major stuff going on.  Consequences of actions aren't something that is usually considered by people when making decisions - beyond that - to see the impact in a potential future it makes one definitely stop and think.  That is what this forces Josh and Emma to do as they begin to realize what lies ahead for them.

Definitely one that made me dust off my Dave Matthews CDs and listen to some Goo Goo Dolls and Hootie and the Blowfish.  I would absolutely recommend this book.  Josh and Emma are pretty fun characters.