Scott Westerfeld

Ok, here's for something a little different. This posting is not about a book, but about an author. He is a little known author and I am so in love with him! I was introduced to Scott Westerfeld by the Uglies series, which I tore through like a diabetic through chocolate. This series is also the first and foremost series that I will recommend to anyone that ever asks me what a good book to read is. I am very surprised I have not done a blog on that series yet. So, let me begin with that.

The Uglies series starts with the obvious book, Uglies (this link includes an excerpt from the first book). There are three books to the series and a standalone. They go Uglies, Pretties, Specials and Extras. Here's a blurb from the author's website:

'Uglies is set in a world in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them supermodel beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny. You might think this is a good thing, but it’s not. Especially if you’re one of the Smokies, a bunch of radical teens who’ve decided they want to keep their own faces. (How anti-social of them.)'

This series is rife with intrigue, manipulation, love, friendship and adversary. It has even become a part of the diction in those that have read the series. Things are icy or bubbly.
The stories take place after a catastrophic event that kills the majority of humanity. Tally is a confused girl that just wants to do the right thing by all and become a Pretty, like everyone else. She gets caught up in a plot to lead Uglies (those before the surgery and under the age of 16) out of town to start a new society where everyone can remain the way they naturally are. In the end, she is nothing but a pawn. I won't spoil this story anymore. Just read it! I assure you it is a fascinating read.

After that, I tried the Midnighter series. These books were extremely interesting as well, but not as great as Uglies. Here's a blurb:
'THE RULES

Okay, this is how it works:

There aren't really 24 hours in the day, there are 25. Got that? The extra one is rolled up too tight to see, and it flashes past most people in an instant. "Most people" means boring, normal, daylight people. But people born exactly at the instant of midnight (all together now: "midnighters") get to walk around while the rest of you suckers are frozen.

So check your birth certificate. If you were born at the stroke of midnight, you might be one of us. By the way, this is real midnight, not lame-time-zone- or daylight-savings-time-adusted midnight. Every spot on earth has its own exact moment when the sun is right under our feet. Suffice it to say that if you were born anytime between about 11:30PM and 1:30AM, you could be a midnighter. Confused? Read here.

Also, the secret hour doesn't seem to happen everywhere. Bixby is the only place that time freezes, as far as we know. Anyone out there notice something similiar? Email me.

Oh, and one more thing . . . midnight isn't empty. There are slithers, which are sort of like snakes (except they fly, sometimes) and darklings, which are pretty much any shape they want to be--as long as it's a big and scary shape. That's one thing you'll definitely notice about midnight: being number two on the food chain is a big change from being on top.

If you do find yourself walking around in the blue time, bring something made from stainless steel, and have a thirteen-letter word in mind. Darklings hate new alloys like steel, and have this epilepsy when it comes to 13s.'

There are a group of teenagers that live in Bixby and are trying to eradicate the Darklings. Excellent series.

Then I got my hands on Peeps. This is a two book series but the second, The Last Days, is a standalone, which I haven't read yet. Here's a blurb about Peeps:

'A year ago, Cal Thompson was a college freshman more interested in meeting girls and partying than in attending biology class. Now, after a fateful encounter with a mysterious woman named Morgan, biology has become, literally, Cal's life.

Cal was infected by a parasite that has a truly horrifying effect on its host. Cal himself is a carrier, unchanged by the parasite, but he's infected the girlfriends he's had since Morgan. All three have turned into the ravening ghouls Cal calls Peeps. The rest of us know them as vampires. It's Cal's job to hunt them down before they can create more of their kind. . . .'

Filled with dark humor and many facts about various parasites, this was a wonderful read. I am an avid fan of vampire books and this had an interesting take on it. Vampires are people that are infected with a parasite that drives them to feed, seek the dark and yadda yadda. Exciting and suspenseful, this book keeps you engaged throughout. I am eager to get my hands on The Last Days!

I have also gotten my hands on, but have not read yet, Leviathan. Talk about a steam punk's wet dream!

So, look out for this author! If anything, please read the Uglies series. I promise you it is very much worth it!

Snapped by Pamela Klaffke

Let me say this first: I could not finish this book. I don't think I even got to the halfway mark. I found myself carrying it around in my bag, just in case I had nothing to do but read, and found other things to occupy myself with so I wouldn't have to read this book. After not touching it for almost a week I knew I was not going to read it again. It is to be donated to my local public library. Maybe someone there will love this book.

I bought this book because I thought it was time for a break from the Young Adult Supernaturals that I had been reading lately. Every now and then I have to distance myself. What a terrible book to chose as the break; it put me right back to my YA and I think it may be a bit till I try to break away again.

Here's the synopsis:
'Sara B. is losing her cool.

Not just in the momentary-meltdown kind of way—though there's that, too. At the helm of must-read Snap magazine, veteran style guru Sara B. has had the job—and joy—for the past fifteen years of eviscerating the city's fashion victims in her legendary DOs and DON'Ts photo spread.

But now on the unhip edge of forty, with ambitious hipster kids reinventing the style world, Sara's being spit out like an old Polaroid picture: blurry, undeveloped and obsolete.

Fueled by alcohol, nicotine and self-loathing, Sara launches into a cringeworthy but often comic series of blowups—personal, professional and private—that culminate in an epiphany. That she, the arbiter of taste, has made her living by cutting people down…and somehow she's got to make amends.'

Sounds great, right? Kind of like The Devil Wears Prada. Wrong. At least Andrea is a girl that you can stand behind and cheer for. If that book was written in Miranda's point of view, would it still be the same? I wasn't digging it.

So, yes, I am comparing Sara to Miranda. That's basically my take on the story. Sara is almost 40 and is a very bitter, egocentric and selfish girl. She also has this disgusting habit of visualizing the most revolting and horrid things about people and sex. She makes a comparison, in great description, to a straw and some guy's penis, and she just thinks it looks like that. Blech. Those that know me know that I am not a wilting flower. I don't mind getting raunchy at times, but my perverted humor is more at a juvenile level. Sara goes into vivid details about her imaginings of several various sexual situations and they turned my stomach. But, this is why I read YA: I like the romance and not the porn.

So, this is a great concept of a book about a terrible person and I say stay away from it! Here's the link, Snapped, with a place that you can read some of it if you don't believe me.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I know, it's been awhile. Almost a year according to my page. Sorry about staying out of touch. So, I am going to come back with a review of this surprising book!

I bought this book on a whim, like 45% of the books that I own. Normally, I am let down. I picked up this book after I couldn't finish another book I picked up on a whim. I will do a review on that one too. But, back to Beautiful Creatures!

Here's the blurb:
'There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.'

The narrator in this book is Ethan, a 16 year old male from who has grown up in the very small town of Gatlin. Everyday is the same and he dreams of leaving Gatlin when he goes to college. He has lost his mother recently and is slowly losing his father as well as his father remains locked in his study, only to come out for food and a shower. Amma, the housekeeper, is the closest thing to family that Ethan has now. On the first day of his sophomore year after summer break everything changes when a new girl enters. Lena Duchannes (which rhymes with rain) changes his life forever by introducing him to love and magic.

This book was extremely surprising. It grabbed me from the get go. The first half of the book goes into him finding and getting to know Lena, along with all the mystery that surrounds her. I found the perspective being in a male view rather refreshing, though sometimes it was difficult to really get the male feel in the words. Trying to figure out all of the weird events and people that surround Lena was riveting! After the halfway point though, the theme got a bit redundant. It seemed that every conflict revolved around Lina being helpless and Ethan trying to be her rock and save her. It wasn't enough to make me put down the book but it did throw me off of the story for a little. Until the end. There is a wonderful twist and the whole thing comes together unexpectedly. A very good read, so good I had to come back to my blog again after almost a year. :)

Here's the link! Beautiful Creatures I do recommend this book. It has a charming story, lots of intrigue and great imagery.

The Haunting of Connecticut

It has been such a very long time that I watched a horror film that I actually enjoyed. Not once during this film did I sigh or roll my eyes, which is extremely rare! It did not keep me enthralled and riveted completely; I did find the gumption to text others my excitement (you know who you are) throughout the film. Even more exciting, it is based off of a true story.

Ok, so there is a family that has a older son that has cancer and rather than travel miles and hours frequently for his treatment, they purchase a house close by. Due to the seriousness of the situation it was a spur of the moment purchase without many questions. While preparing the house for occupation, they find that the house used to be a funeral parlor complete with an embalming room in the basement next to which the son decides to make his bedroom. Random events happen and the son thinks it is due to the treatments that he is seeing things as that is a known side effect. During a game of hide and seek, the kids find photos that show that the house wasn't just a funeral home, it was also a place reknowned for seances with a powerful child medium. The owner of the home dabbled in necroism to make the child's powers strongers. The child became so strong that he blew up everyone during a particular seance and cremated himself. Now the house is possessed and needs to be cleaned. I am not going to say more about the plot as the unknowns are what makes the movie fascinating.

The haunting scenes were wonderfully vivid and thought provoking. It kept me on the edge of my seat while things were going on and there were so many parts where I gave many different phrases of exclamations. I am positive that the real events were not as dramatic but bravo. I would actively watch this again at my own expense instead of haphazerdly keep it on in the background just because it was on as I do with some shows;I would even almost put this on my desert island movie list!

Loved it! Here is the IMDB info!

The Unborn

For the record, I love me some haunted horror movies (please see my bio!) The trailer for this had some great effects. We throw in the DVD, there is no introduction or character development, the movie opens while the story is all ready in progress. Within the first fifteen minutes of this film, the actress sleeps in the buff, takes a shower, has a sex scene and goes into the bathroom in her boycut underwear twice. Let's get those pesky nude/risque scenes out of the way first before we even develop a plot. Speaking of which, this plot had more holes in it than a homeless guy's whitey tighties. It all starts with her eyes starting to go from brown to blue because some kid she is babysitting hits her with a compact mirror he was making his infant sibling look at. The little boy she halucinates about is her dead great uncle who, along with his twin, her grandmother, was part of some testing done on Jews during the Holocaust. He died during it and some undead spirit takes his body so grandma has to kill him. The main girl in the story is haunted by dreams of the boy, dogs, fetuses and her mother. Her mother committed suicide while in an insane asylum. She finds her grandmother at the same asylum (?) who tells her to get some Hebrew book that she needs to get translated and an exorcism by Rabbi Gary Oldman. At first he doesn't believe her until he sees the upside down headed dog. So, he says he will help her but he has to get a Christian preacher to help out. Here's the best part and this is where you can see they TRIED to put a story into it. The preacher asks for ID and to fill out forms for the exorcisim. I swear it. Both Gary Oldman and I chuckled at that one. Now, grandma says that the spirit wants her because it likes twins after having her brother. So.. why is it going after the girl instead of grandma? She's still one of a twin and just as much so as the girl is. The spirit does kill grandma with the upside down head guy crawling up the stairs. Oh, the girl's best friend is killed by the babysitting kid with a knife but only after she hits him with her car while he was riding his big wheel. They go the exorcism (which I think is in the same asylum place which is completely empty now?) for which everyone dies except for Gary and the girl and they are free, right? No, the totally forseeable ending is she is pregnant with twins. What a twist. (Note the sarcasm)
This is what I like to call a jump film. It goes out of it's way to get you to jump. It got me twice (and I don't normally jump at films), one included a wahh! and it got an OMG in a spot too. The haunted parts in the film were GOOD! At the end... DAMMIT! It's a Michael Bay! Curses! No wonder it had no story and good effects! Fie fie fie. That was a bigger twist then the actual ending of the film.

Here's the info if you really want to see it. Just don't expect too much. My advice, fast forward to the haunted spots and then walk away. Oh, also rent this if you want to see Charles Miner (the temporary Regional Manager of Scranton Branch of The Office) get beamed with a pipe!

Holla!

Hey everyone, this is a call out to the Book Butterfly, Kim! Through her site, which is posted under my blog list, I won a free copy of Evernight by Claudia Gray! Wooooot!

Blue Moon-Second book of the Immortals-Alyson Noel

All right, this blog is actually over due. Even though the book came out on July 7th I got it last week. I forgot that I pre-ordered it! So, what a lovely surprise when it came (and I just love surprises!)

The first book in this series is called Evermore. I adored that one. This series is actually up there in my top ten of all time so far along with Harry Potter and the Ugly series.

Since I am bringing up Harry, the way that Blue Moon went reminded me of the way that the Potter books played out. There was always something that he had to get over by himself because everyone abandoned him. Poor Ever, you would think she could find some happiness now that she has come to some kind of terms with losing her family (and dog, never forget Buttercup), Drina shall bother her no more, she won't have to keep going through the incarnation cycle anymore and she can now spend eternity with dreamy and adoring Damen! That boy makes my heart patter he's so cute. Now if she can just seal the deal and do the dirty deed with him after waiting hundreds of years. Suddenly, there is a new kid that is sitting with the gang at lunch and she just gets the hebbie jebbies from him. Something just does not sit right with her even though he is going out of his way to gain her acceptance. After a couple of days of spending lunch with him he claims that he is going to do away with the high school chaste system and everyone is going to live in harmony. Though it sounds fantastic there are still some sceptisims with the idea for Ever. Imagine her surprise when it actually happens! Even her bosom buddies are over there and wait... is that Damen making out with Stacia? And is that an aura that Ever sees around him? Damen has forgotten all of his past lives and calls Ever a stalker, a freak and a spaz. Oh boy, Damen couldn't have broken my heart more. Roman is the only one that actually talks to her but she doesn't buy what he's selling. Like every heroine when their hero that has vowed undying love to her but has now turned his back on her, she has to get to the bottom of this. With the help of Ava, the helpful psychic, she figures out how to get into Summerland, where she meets two catholic school girl twins. They guide her to a hall of information where she learns that Damen is being poisoned, is slowly dying, the formula to the antidote and.. wait.. a chance to turn back time and return to her family?

Will Ever go back to before her family died, forgoe being an Immortal and forget about Damen or will she choose true love? And what is up with Roman?

This was a can not put down, must read voraciously, heart wrenching and wonderfully intriguing story. I love the duality of the charactors and how the story simply flows. It has all the ingredients for a winning story: romance, mystery, villiany, adverse events and difficult choices. When I become emotionally involved with a story, good show!

I can't wait for the next one, Shadowlands, which is projected towards the beginning of next year.

Here's the site and I so encourage everyone to pick it up.