Book Review- Scarlet

                                                                                                                          October 7th, 2013

You choose to be the hunter or the hunted.

SPOILERS! Read at your own expense.
Book Review- Scarlet
Author: Marissa Meyer


I have finished yet another book in the Lunar Chronicles. This book is out to get you. With even more adventure than the first one gives, I like the characters much more.

Summary: The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...
Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Instead of just getting the view of Cinder, we also have Scarlet Benoit. And not just focusing on New Beijing, we go to the outskirts of Paris, France. Though in science fiction a lot has changed the surroundings.
Cinder meets a new friend, a captain with a space craft. That isn't to be quite messed with. 

I really liked this book because it has all the perfect elements. 

Wolf in this book has the actually literal wolfish features. With pointed canines and a different battling style, he has made a name for himself. (A side story: The Queen's Army can be found on Google if you search for epub.)

Scarlet's a girl on a farm. Nothing seems to go wrong for her most of the time, other than in the case of some unwilling customer paying for their farm-fresh vegetables. 

Prince Kai is even more doubtful than he used to be. To be honest with everything, I think he's even more pathetic than he was in the first book before he became emperor. Foreign affairs make life very hard; that much I have learned.

Cinder is even more of a rebel and fugitive than she was in the first book. With bad-ass tranquilizers installed into her cyborg arm, she's ready. Already haven escaped her jail cell, she escapes the prison itself. 

Queen Levana. What's to say about her that'll put her into a better light? I'm not even sure myself. Isolated and very hostile, she will not stop at ANYTHING. Yeah, that Levana in a nutshell- not literally of course. (That would be very funny.)

This book packs the action of only a few days into the needs of a full book giving extra detail to everything essential. 

Overall Rating: 9.2/10

Signed,
Ivy

Our Holiday Gift to You

Happy Whatever-You-Celebrate! Today's Christmas, and what better time to announce something about your blog than when you're avoiding people at a family Christmas party?

So, on January 1st, Ivy, Somaya, and I will begin this book award thingy where we tell you what our favorites of 2013 were, and what we're most looking forward to in 2014. On the 1st, we'll announce the nominations, and sometime during the month we'll announce the winners. It'll be just like the professionals do for movies and TV shows. I know this explanation is lame, but it'll be cool. I swear on the River Styx xD.

Do you have any suggestions for last minute-reading for me to do? Anything that came out in 2013 is fair game! Get commenting, and we'll get reading. Happy Holidays!

— Nick

Catching Fire – Movie Review

Let's talk a little about movie adaptations. Movie adaptations are hard to make. They're also very easy to mess up. It's nearly impossible to appease fans of the source material and people who have no emotional connection to the book whatsoever.

(Warning: The following rant contains excessive name-dropping of below-par movie adaptations.)

Sometimes the movie may actually be not bad, but the fact that it strayed from the book so much could anger hardcore fans. Take Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. To an outsider, it's not such a bad movie. It had a solid plot and likeable, if one-dimensional, characters. But to a hardcore fan, it was terrible. Major plot points that came back in the rest of the series were just ignored, leaving nothing to build on. Leading to why Sea of Monsters was almost as bad.

You can also have the exact opposite. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones basically copied the first half of the movie exactly from the book, dialogue and everything. This pleased many fans, including myself. But the movie critics weren't fooled. They hated the movie, and we the fans were puzzled. After thinking it over, the critics have a point. The moviemakers were so concerned with reproducing exact plot points to appease the fans that they didn't make a good movie overall. It didn't capture the dark, humorous tone of the books, and suffered because of that.

Now The Hunger Games was a rare adaptation that did not directly fall into one of these two traps. The screenplay was written by Suzanne Collins, who began her career in television writing. That helped a lot. However, it's my opinion that authors should not write the adaptations of their own books. They're always tempted to make exact copies of their books (See The Perks of Being a Wallflower). But listen: I don't want an exact copy of the book. I could just read the book and imagine a movie. I want the director to sit back, look at the book and think, "How can I make it better?" And unlike The Hunger Games's Gary Ross, Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence did that. And it worked beautifully.

Catching Fire was AMAZING. Truly a fantastic movie. It was just mind-blowingly good. "Mind-blowingly." Wasn't a word before. It is now.

Let us now have a moment of silence for the shaky-cam filming and bad CGI. You will always be remembered as what ruined the first movie. Thank you for your service…

All jokes aside, they were both gone! A ton more money was put into this movie, and you can tell. All the special effects are much better. The arena is fantastically done. It's all very well done.

The cast is also phenomenal. Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Katniss was one of the best that I've ever seen. The supporting cast is as solid as they were in the original. The major new additions were Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch, Sam Claflin as Finnick, and Jena Malone as Johanna. There was a lot of skepticism around Claflin's casting from the fans. I have no clue why (Maybe he wasn't hot enough for the fangirls? I don't know.). He was perfectly fine as Finnick, no worries there. Hoffman was solid as Plutarch as well. The real surprise here was Jena Malone. The writers increased Johanna's role a little in the movie, and Malone took it in stride. She captured Johanna's crazy, I-don't-care-what-anyone-thinks-about-me attitude perfectly.

The plot was changed very little. You know, I might not even have any spoilers in this review… LOL, jk. Spoilers will come later. Here are the un-spoilery plot changes:

1. President Snow's granddaughter. If you've read the third book, you would know that President Snow's granddaughter is mentioned once or twice. Her appearance in Catching Fire indicates that she may have a bigger role in Mockingjay. I can't wait!!

2. Mind games. The one disadvantage of the book is that the reader only saw Katniss's perspective. The movie was able to show more of President Snow & Plutarch playing with Katniss. The mind games they play are featured much more prominently, and it ties the movie together in such a way that is amazing.

Now for those spoilers I promised…

Seriously, there are only two spoiler things I want to discuss. There were two things that they left out of the movie that I was hoping for. First, in the book, Plutarch shows Katniss his expensive watch, which is supposed to give her an idea of the fact that the arena is a clock. Of course, at that point he thought she was going to be mentoring tributes in those games, but still. It was a nice bit of foreshadowing that was left out. The second was my favorite quote from the book. You know the part where Cinna tells Katniss and Peeta to look straight ahead while they're in the chariots? Well, I was really looking forward to Katniss saying, "Finally, something I'll be good at." and IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. Ugh.

Anyway, there were only two minor things I would've included. And that's a crazily small number, considering how nitpicky I am.

Spoilers over.

I think that Francis Lawrence and crew did a fantastic job with Catching Fire. It was truly amazing, I would even say it was better than the book. And the book is one of my top 10 books ever. That's how good this movie was.

Final score: 9.8 out of 10

Mockingjay Part 1 comes out on November 21, 2014!!!!!!!

- Nick 

Book Review: Cinder

                                                              October 4th, 2013

Odd one out. People are scared of things that they are not- things that are beyond their knowledge. Are you the odd or the same?

Book Review: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer


Summary: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Cinder is the mechanic of New Beijing.  And as the summary suggests, she is a lucky girl -more like cyborg- that gets to meet the Prince.

Prince Kai faces the death of the Emperor and is the new one in its monarchy. The Lunar Queen Levana is willing to create an alliance with New Beijing if Kai is to marry her. If the Prince falls in love unlikely with our
Cinder, what's to happen?

Secrets exchange hands as the girl learns about who she really is. The story follows the tale of Cinderella. But Lihn Cinder is not your Cinderella. As much as she is a servant, she's many other things. Lunars are people from the moon. Manipulative in many minds of humans, they're scary and forbidden to escape from Luna as fugitives.

When her sister dies from the plague spreading around a lot more is to come. This story blends adventure with romance and science fiction. Everything is different in this narrative of a teenage "mutant".

In the disease-stricken metropolis (like many other stories) fans are created in a world that Marissa Meyer spins out.

I really liked this book and would read it all over again if I had been given the time.

Overall Rating: 8.7/10

Signed,

Ivy

Main Ships and Other Ships

Lately, I realized there's a trend to every book I've read, TV show or anime that I've watched.

The main ships (pairings) for everything is starting to feel too mainstream for me. Is that bad? I have no idea.

It's those more minor ships that get to me. I can be reading the first book and I'll be happily shipping the main characters. The sequel comes out and the more sidekick like character finds a love interest- I pair them more than the main characters in the first book/show.


Is it only me -are you like that too? Please be weird with me. JK-
Comment below.

Signed,
Ivy

P.S. I've read so much already. The review section needs renovation, will type up reviews later.

Quote of the Day - December 18, 2013

"There's plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it."

- Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

- Nick

Quote of the Day - December 12, 2013

"Maybe the body finds untapped reserves when it needs to; maybe the fear of dying makes it do extraordinary things."

- Itch by Simon Mayo

 Doesn't this explain every cliche ending in every sci-fi book/movie ever?

I've been reading this book on-and-off for months, and luckily a slooooooow middle gave way to a pretty good ending.

- Nick

Quote of the Day – December 7, 2013

• "When two people are at one in their inmost hearts, they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze."

 — Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

We'd like to think this is true, right? The basis of every fairy tale and teen romance: True love conquers all.

Sorry this is so late, I spent the entire day reading this book. SO GOOD!!!

By the Angel, I sound like Somaya.

 — Nick

Quote of the Day- December 6, 2013

“Ah,” said a voice from the doorway, “having your annual ‘everyone thinks Will is a lunatic’ meeting, are you? “It’s biannual,” said Jem. “And no, this is not that meeting.”

-Clockwork Prince, written by Cassandra Clare

Well, all Herondales seem to have that demeanor in them. Lunatics and crazy and uncaring. All fake I tell you. Miley Cyrus is gonna knock it down like a wrecking ball. Sorry, I've just seen to many edits on Instagram and tumblr lately.

Here's a little GIF as a treat. Tumblr, that thing is stealing me away from my very own blog! Argh!

Signed,
Ivy

 

Quote of the Day – December 3, 2013

• "Love makes us liars."

 — Jace, City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

This quote is basically the plot of every cheesy romantic story ever, no?

 – Nick

Somaya's Book of the Month: December 2013

Summary: Elizabeth DeVille doesn't belong at a party like this - one where the gowns cost more than her Camry and cigars run higher than her grad school utility bills. Dragged out of seclusion by her best friend Suri, Elizabeth is merely playing dress-up, rubbing elbows with a crowd that banished her troubled family years ago.

Hunter West is tired. Tired of parties, tired of pretending, and tired of trying to right a wrong that haunts him every day. Bourbon heir and professional poker player by day, by night Hunter is gambling with his life in a high-stakes game of crime and blackmail. 

When Elizabeth stumbles into Hunter's den of vices, she's a light in the darkness, a flame in the void. And, just like everything he touches, Hunter mars her in a record time. To rectify the damage done, Elizabeth needs money she doesn't have, and she's come up with a foolproof way to get it.

Follow Elizabeth - code-named Scarlett - to the lush Nevada brothel where she'll auction her virginity and risk the only thing that's not for sale: her heart. The highest bidder is a familiar face, with wicked hands and the devil's mouth. And a secret so dark that it could cost her life.

Selling Scarlet is an amazing book. It is a romantic tragedy. I would definitely recommend it. You will be surprised in the end. But NO SPOILERS!! XD. This book takes you on an adventure. However, as in every great adventure, there will be tragedy, romance and victory.

Quote of the Day: December 2, 2013

“People, I have discovered, are layers and layers of secrets. You believe you know them, that you understand them, but their motives are always hidden from you, buried in their own hearts. You will never know them, but sometimes you decide to trust them.” 

― Veronica Roth, Insurgent

OMG! I cried so much reading this book. I am reading Allegiant now. This is the best series ever. LITERALLY! Can not wait for the movie

Dates to Remember – Winter 2014

These are the dates this winter that you, as a booknerd, need to know.

from December 2, 2013 to March 1, 2014

On this blog:

March 1 – You get this again for the spring!

Never – When I finish everything I want to write here! Ugh, I have so much to do.

Books:

Note that these are only the books that Ivy, Somaya, and me have an interest in; you can find a huge list here.

December 17 – Release of "The Initiate" by Veronica Roth (Divergent Novellas #2; e-book only)

December 17 – Release of "The Last Stand of the New York Institute" by multiple authors (The Bane Chronicles #8; e-book only)

January 21 – Release of "The Son" by Veronica Roth (Divergent Novellas #3; e-book only)

January 31 – Release of Invasion by Galaxy Craze (The Last Princess #2)

February 4 – Release of Cress by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles #3)

February 11 – Release of "The Traitor" by Veronica Roth (Divergent Novellas #4)

February 25 – Release of Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman (companion novel to Seraphina)

February 25 – Release of Tremor by Patrick Carman (Pulse Trilogy #2)

Movies:

December 13 – Release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

February 14 – Release of The Maze Runner

Authors' birthdays:

December 19 – Chris d'Lacey

January 1 – J.R.R. Tolkien

January 25 – Stephen Chbosky

February 22 – P.B. Kerr

Characters' birthdays:

December 6 – Rubeus Hagrid, Harry Potter

December 12 – Charlie Weasley, Harry Potter

December 17 – Hazel Levesque, The Heroes of Olympus

December 22 – Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson & the Olympians

December 31 – Tom Riddle, Harry Potter

January 9 – Severus Snape, Harry Potter

January 28 – Nico di Angelo, Percy Jackson & the Olympians

January 30 – Lilly Potter, Harry Potter

February 6 – Arthur Weasley, Harry Potter

March 1 – Ron Weasley, Harry Potter

 — Nick

Ivy's Book of the Month: December (Posted by Yeji)

Summary:
High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own -- populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.

Taking readers on a vivid journey through the loss of innocence into adulthood and beyond, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly tells a dark and compelling tale that reminds us of the enduring power of stories in our lives.

This is my all-time favorite book apart from the Guardians of Childhood series. It may not be the type of book you'd read to a little kid before bedtime, but it leaves quite the impression. This isn't your typical "fairytale-gone-dark" stories, they're the original, GRIMM stories with equally dark twists. The Book of Lost Things is a memorable book that weaves beautifully ominous stories with changes in David's life and his coming into maturity.

Ivy's Quote of the Day- December 1, 2013

“Remember when you tried to convince me to feed a poultry pie to the mallards in the park to see if you could breed a race of cannibal ducks?" 
"They ate it too," Will reminisced. "Bloodthirsty little beasts. Never trust a duck.” 

-Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs, Clockwork Angel, written by Cassandra Clare 

Well, that's that. By the Angel, it's Will Herondale who could pack more sarcasm in everything that him?

Signed,
Ivy