The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

I had a great week at softball camp in the Okanagan, if you play – then I highly recommend it! I must have lost at least ten pounds, and I’m all warmed up for fall ball and tryouts in September. But of course, lots of softball means way less reading. So for this week I only got one book finished for you guys. I’m way behind on everything – as usual.

The constant moans and scratching of the Unconsecrated at the fence have been a part of Mary’s village life as long as she can remember. With the Guardians to protect, and the Sisters to keep peace – every body was happy with what they had, except for Mary. Growing up with stories of a different world, without the infected… of a place with ceaseless water. Mary has always been trapped – because of the rules; because of the fence; because of the endless Forest of Hands and Teeth. But when she escapes, she slowly loses hope… how can there be anywhere else that isn’t surrounded by so much death?

I’ll tell you the first thing that pissed me off about this story. About halfway through the story, Mary gets a pet dog. And this dog is with her for about one night and then the next morning when they’re in trouble this dog is protecting her and coming to her lovingly and staying by her side etc. It takes way longer than that to get a dog to know you, and to protect you and for them to get used to their new owner and surroundings! It kind of made me angry when I read that it was already so attached to her when all she did the first night she got it was sleep.

If your the type of person that likes it when characters are well rounded, and they all have really defining personalities – THEN DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. The only to virtues I could find in the characters were that Mary was ambitious/curious and Cass was weak/whiney. Other than that – all of them could have been the same person. They way they all talked, and the way that they acted were all the same. Kind of a put down for me, and probably you.

Those are the only two big things though. I didn’t really like the way it was written, and it seemed like even though you jumped right into a main event right when you started the book, it was still slow! The main events were just too far spaced away at the beginning so you were stuck thinking that the book was iffy and kind of weird. It does get better though, and the idea is brilliant. I loved the way that things were revealed, and the ending was good. Mary was sort of selfish but she finally reached her goal, and the next book doesn’t look bad! I give this one a 2.5 Check out the series on this site, http://www.carrieryan.com/

Later Cheese Graters,

MRR

The Forbidden Game by L.J. Smith

I finished this right before I’m about to head off for my week long softball camp – lucky you. AND LUCKY ME, seeing as this book was amazing (but we can get into that a bit later). I thought that I should tell you guys that I think I have a minor case of pink eye in my right eye…. I think I got it from one of the damn colored contacts that I bought – and I wore them almost all day. It pained my poor right eye to finish this book, but I got through it! For you guys. Mostly for me though. :D

If you had to choose a couple words to describe Jenny, they would probably be something along the lines of these ones: innocent, kind, and most importantly – good. When she and her friends get caught inside a seemingly harmless board game, Jenny learns that the mysterious boy who sold her it is the ruler of the shadow world – a place the exact opposite of anything good. How will she get her and her friends out alive (who have to face their worst nightmares by themselves), and also escape Julian’s obsessive idea of having her light to match his shadowy darkness?

To start off, I would just like to say that I loved this book. I’ve always loved L.J. Smith’s writing, and this just helped me love it even more. The Forbidden Game was brilliantly written, full of never ending action which you have to expect from three books in one – another thing that I love about Smith’s writing.

But the one thing that I know that I can always rely of from L.J. Smith is her wonderful villains. I don’t mean that their actually wonderful… their actually quite horrible sometimes, but come on give them a break – they’re villains! What I mean is that her villains are memorable! The people that make the main character go through hardship, are not always enjoyable to read about and the thing about villains is that you have to love them as much as you hate them. The part that made this book so amazing was the beautiful Julian. This villain did have a vulnerable side, and that was that he longed for the innocence of the main character, and in the end it brought out a part of him that made a GREAT ending.

I don’t want to turn into a fan girl on this review, but damn! Julian was the highlight of the book, and I couldn’t wait for the part where he would come up and make some more trouble or give another difficult clue. I sort of got angry that Jenny didn’t give into him, but everybody knows that never happens because authors like to piss the readers off.

I give this book a big 4.5 because despite all of awesomeness, the story ran on a bit and too many similar themes for each section.

Here is her official site if you want to take a look at her other books, I strongly suggest the Night World series… and also her older ones like The Secret Circle and Vampire Diaries. http://www.ljanesmith.net/index.htm If you find the thing at the beginning annoying, you can just click on it and go on through. (I was clever enough figure it out.)

LATER Cheese Graters,

MRR

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Howdy! The end of summer is coming up fast – and I can’t keep up. I have too many books to finish before school starts up and I know that once that happens I’ll have little to no time to read. I really ought to get reading, but sometimes it’s hard to jump right out of a book and into the next. I sometimes need a break in between to digest the story and other things like that. Any who

“Her name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. And she was fourteen when she murdered on December, 6th 1973.” Biding her time in heaven – while watching her family struggle to keep together in their overwhelming grief. Susie longs to push against the barriers that hold her apart from earth as the lives of her killer and her loved ones unfold in front of her eyes. There is nothing but she can do except for hope, and observe… but will she ever be able to feel at peace? Not with never ending events that Susie can witness while sitting in her heaven, trying constantly to contact or become a part of earth again.

I haven’t read a book like this before, and I thought that the perspective of Susie – a girl who died and is telling her story from heaven – was a whole new way to write a novel. I can be pleased with something besides fantasy, and I thought that this story was told beautifully. The horrifying idea of getting a young girl getting raped and then murdered, should be told realistically, and all of Susie’s memories were intertwined into the story line so that you could read them smoothly and they would be registered in your memory in just the right time and place. Brilliant.

I also like how Sebold used one of the climax’s of the story as the opening line, which really pulled you in. It also got me wondering what the rest of the book was going to be filled up with if the first couple chapters hold the murder in them. But this is a book more about a family’s struggle after their daughter is murdered instead of a story about a girl who got raped and murdered. I don’t know, it’s sort of both things.

Then again, this isn’t my favorite type of story and because it’s my review I can do what I want! So in the end, I give it a 3.5/5.

There is not official website it seems… so here is a nice wiki page for you lot.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lovely_Bones I tried to look for some sort of video to entertain you, but no such luck, so GO SEE THE MOVIE.

Chow Mr Cow,

MRR

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

I don’t have much to say here right now, except that I think that this is going to be a short one. Seeing as I don’t have much to say about this book…. I don’t really know what to think of it actually. Strange strange book is what this is.

In a time full of of darkness and opium smoke – Sally Lockhart is just another young lady trying to make her way around London in the Victorian Age. Stuck with her horrid aunt, while trying to uncover the mystery of her father’s death – Sally seems to have lost all hope of discovering anything useful. But one morning, she receives a strange letter that is only the beginning of the scandal that her father had once tried to shed light on. Sally slowly strings together as people and clues fall in around her, but she can’t help but wonder… will she be able to figure it out before she meets the same fate as her father?

This was an interesting one – that’s for sure, but it was enjoyable all the same. I’m not really a big mystery fan but because this novel was short and it got to the point pretty quickly I didn’t mind it. I don’t really know what to say about it though, I mean – I liked it. Hmm, maybe what I’m trying to say is that it was good but there was just something that was missing. I liked how it didn’t go too in depth with things if you know what I mean, but the writing or the story itself didn’t make you feel any emotions, and that’s what I really try and look at to see the quality of a story. Even if one of the main characters were going to get caught, or somebody was beaten up by the bad guy… it was still hard to feel worried about them.

In a sense, the plot line was great, and of course – I loved the setting, Old England is one of my favorite settings for books. Another thing that I liked about this book was that it wasn’t childish at all, drugs played a main part in it and curse words were actually in the dialogue (I just love reading a good curse word). This series isn’t one of Pullman’s stronger ones, I mean I think that I liked The Golden Compass much more than this one, but it was still good. Which is why I will give it a well deserved 3 out of 5.

 

There are three other books in the series, so maybe it will get better. I own the second one so as soon as I get to reading that it should be up here… anyways – website as per usual. http://www.philip-pullman.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=72

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Strout

Sorry that I’ve been sort of unresponsive over the last week, but I’ve sort of been… gone. On a road trip actually! And I happened to finish exactly three books on that road trip, two of which I shall be reviewing today. I do have a bit of news as well, I’ve decided that my ‘No reviewing second books in the series’ rule is silly, and that what I meant by that certain obligation is that I don’t want to review second books on here when I read the first one before I started this little blog. So, there we go – and here I go.

Taken away from his family when he was young, and then sent of to a strange place with a new home and master – Nathaniel is goes through what happens to every apprentice. He is there to learn the art of magic, and all it’s principles and even if progress is slow, all is well for Nathaniel. Until one day, when a high ranked magician embarrasses and puts him to shame, fully unaware of how intelligent the boy is, Nathaniel vows to take revenge. And when his plans finally unfold, and everything seems to be justified – something goes terribly wrong, and it’s up to Nathaniel to fix it.

One very good reason why I loved this book, would be because of the cold hard reality that it shows. Usually in books when a main character is doing something that they are not supposed to be, they don’t get caught. They are too clever – and too willing to take the risk, that nothing ever comes out of it and nothing goes wrong like it so often does in real life. This novel however, took a realistic turn, a turn that I was glad to take to be honest. It was a nice change to have the main character in trouble, shamed even. Because we all know that feeling of getting caught, whether it’s stealing a cookie or something less innocent than that. The feeling of dread is displayed not once but twice in this wonderful story, and it is quite a breath of fresh air.

The writing style was nice and sharp, I loved the way that Strout described certain things. In the opening paragraph, there were some really full words that I liked. When Bartimaeus was telling his part of the story, there were even foot notes to explain things. Those footnotes were often the funny part of Bartimaeus’ side and a lot of the little comments at the bottom of the page made me laugh out loud, or at the least – smile.

This was a great book, and I can’t wait to read the other two in the series. I give this one a great big 4.5

Well, here is the pretty official website. http://www.bartimaeustrilogy.com/ Take a look there, maybe play some games…. I honestly don’t know.

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR

The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

Good thing this was a short book! But it was still very cool, and very enjoyable. I can’t believe that I didn’t get to reading this book sooner, because as you would pretty well know, it’s quite an old series and it’s for a younger age group. I have to make this one quick because today I have to weed whack and go to a birthday party. I just finished making the card actually.

In London, Diggory and Polly make use of their time exploring Diggory’s Uncle’s old house, and finding secret passage ways that lead behind all of the houses along the street. When they accidently end up inside Uncle Andrew’s secret attic room upstairs, they get into more than they bargained for. Soon enough, they are spinning in and out of many different worlds, with an evil queen in tow. When they stumble into Narnia, a world that is just being born they see things that before they would have called impossible. How will they make it back home, and will Diggory find something that will cure is ill mother?

The writing style used in this book is something different, that’s for sure. It’s in third person, but sometimes the narrator will pop in with something like, ‘But I would have never done such a thing.’ So it was really quite fun to see what they author or narrator thought about what was going on in the story. A lot of times, the narrator was giving you a clue about what was going to happen next, or telling about the next book. Lewis made certain connections very clear.

It is a children’s book, so the story is very short, and there isn’t really any thing that jabbed out at you to be super important, the story just flows along like water and everything happens to make something else happen, and it all works out kindly in the end. Another thing that I noticed about this story, is that the English is pretty old fashioned but it made me want to go around pretending that I was British. Something about how they say, ‘Oh, do come over here Polly.’ makes me happy.

I liked this story very much, and I believe that it is a very good opening to the next book, which I have already read and seen the movie numerous times. I’m going to give it a 4. Here is the closest website for C.S Lewis that I could find besides Wikipedia, it says that his step son made it, and it’s factual if I say so myself. http://cslewis.drzeus.net/ 

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR

The Eyes of a King by Catherine Banner

I’ve been camping non stop up till know, that’s why there hasn’t been much activity, but I am reading a short book next and I have many friends with many new books that they would LOVE to give me. I can’t believe that there is only one month left of sweet summer, I sure am going to miss it. Do you know what I’m not going to miss though? My Dad doing laundry….he folds weird. Anyway, let’s get started.

The great country of Malonia is a mess – the government is corrupted, the people are in ruins, and the young prince who is supposed to rule is stuck in a parallel world. Leo lives with his Grandmother and his little brother Stirling in the dirtier part of the kingdom, attending military school to add to evil Lucien’s troops. When Leo finds a black book that has words that appear by themselves, he is reminded of magic and the world of England that his father once told stories about. While Leo’s life takes too many turns for the worst, will the banished Prince be able to rise again?

Sometime around the Olympics, I went to Vancouver, and I went into the three story chapters there, and I saw this special section. It was called, ‘Teens for Teens’ or something like that. It was a section of novels written by teens that were supposed to be good books, so I thought, why not? I grabbed this book and finally got to reading it around now. I wish I spent my money on something better! Banner wrote this while she was 14 years old, and it is the most confusing book that I have ever read!

There are three different views in the book that all have different kinds of font, and you can’t tell which is who and who is which and etc. Until the very last chapter, I still didn’t understand the story, and even now…. I still don’t get the point of it all! It told Leo’s sad life, then it had random passages in between of a parallel world, and then it had a commentary of Leo in present while he was writing it. Too confusing!

Even if you did find some sort of point to it, there was no real climax or leading up point, I can only recall two events that stuck out to me. When Stirling gets sick and when Anna gets kidnapped, and they are way too far away from each other, so there was too much space to fill in with crap. Leo’s life is the most boring life to read about ever, and the point of the whole novel was to tell about it! Seriously, it was basically this. He goes to school, argues with some one, runs away, comes back, goes to school, runs away, fights with somebody, goes to the graveyard, cries, runs away, sits still in his house, cries, goes to the graveyard, runs away, cries again, sits around again. HOLY CRAP. I was grumpy while I was camping because this book was pissing me off!

The idea was cool, but she was just too inexperienced to tackle such a project. Although I’m sure that there are tons of very good teen writers out there. I give this book an overall, 2. Because some parts were interesting. Banner is going to write two more books with this one, and they are the same damn story but the time of it has changed, and the view of the person is changed. Haha, anybody want to read that? No tank you. Here is a wiki on her. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Banner

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

I’ve been away at my Grandma’s house, but I have been reading – somewhat. Trust me, lots of reviews are coming….I have a pile of 20+ books that I have to read. Right now though, I need a break….something must be wrong with my eyes because I can’t help but squint all the time, because my eyes won’t focus on any words. BUT it’s not like I can’t see other things, it’s just words. Enough about that though, HERE WE GO.

Graced with killing since she was very young, Kasta has a reputation of being King Randa’s very own thug. Everywhere in the seven kingdoms, people fear the girl with one blue eye, and one green. When Kasta befriends Po, a prince from a faraway land – they set out to solve the mystery of his missing grandfather, and the reasons behind many strange things going on in Monsea.But Kasta finds herself caught in a terrifying air of lies, and deceit and she must learn to see the truth to save what is most important to her.

It wasn’t hard for me to get used to the world that Kasta lived in, and I was super grateful that the characters weren’t all talking in old English because then I would have to hurt somebody. The dialogue was a bit annoying with all of the ‘My Lord’ and ‘My Lady’ things happening, but they died down after Part 1 out of three in the book.

Everything was so pulled together, and it always kept you on your feet. At one point, I was sure that something was going to happen, and then the opposite thing took place….and I was taken aback! I usually get my predictions pretty spot on. I thought that there was going to be a super happy ending, where everything was resolved…BUT THEN, something miraculous happened that made me happy and sad at the same time, crazy isn’t it? You’ll have to read it to find out yourselves.

I don’t have much complaint about this book, I thought it was wonderfully written and brilliantly thought out! I give it a 5 out of 5!

Now, here is Cashore’s website if you want to take a look, I believe that she has two more books coming out in this series called Fire and Bitterblue.

There is a little picture for you, so you can have an idea you know – and here is her blog/webpage.

http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/2009/02/explaining-graceling-fire-bitterblue.html

Enjoy your summers everybody! I know I’ll enjoy mine, (no matter how badly I burn)

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR