Showing posts with label Guest Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guest Review. Show all posts
Guest Review: Red Riding Hood by Jules Morra
Rummanah Aasi
  Enjoy a guest review from Jules, my dear friend and book buddy, who timely read and reviewed Red Riding Hood which is now released in theaters. Thanks Jules!

I think YA novels often get made into movies because their stories, at least until the publication of series like Harry Potter, Eragon, and Twilight, are stereotypically short in length.  They can be adapted to a screenplay with relatively little story lost in the process and come with a built-in audience, babysitting money burning a hole their pockets.  Add in a hunky lead and blow some stuff up and you’ve got a summer blockbuster.  Adaptations of Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood are making live action appearances for spring break this year. 
 
Little Red Riding Hood, however, isn’t so little anymore.  Grimm’s dark fairytale was adapted to a screenplay, titled simply Red Riding Hood, by David Leslie Johnson having been mentored by Hollywood heavy-hitter Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption; The Green Mile.)  In the book’s introduction, the movie’s director, Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) said, “The deeper we went into the world [of Red Riding Hood], the more I realized that the characters and their back stories were too complex to fit into the film, so I wanted to help create a novel to fully explore the tangled web of emotions in the village of Daggorhorn.”  Hardwicke called upon a personal friend, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright who had just graduated cum laude from Barnard College, to write the book.
Description: In a time when villages are so small that everyone knows everyone else, one girl struggles to find her own way.  Valerie is not a “good girl.”  When the local werewolf singles her out, Valerie must make an impossible choice.  With a marriage being forced upon her and a true love asking her to run away, Valerie has no one to turn to.  Her father is the town drunk, her mother wants to control her, and the other girls—they quickly turn her in as a witch.  Who will save her?  Or can Valerie save herself?
Review:  I have to admit that I saw the movie trailer first and assumed the movie was being based on a book.  I ran to the bookstore and purchased the book with a big sticker on it that said, “Now a major motion picture from the director of Twilight.”  I wanted to read the book first and then compare it with what looked like would be a better adaptation than Hardwicke had done with Twilight.  In fact, I had read and liked Flinn’s Beastly and was anxious to read this new version of a dark fairytale.
  It wasn’t until I skimmed Hardwicke’s introduction that I realized Red Riding Hood was not only NOT written first, but wasn’t even a movie-to-book story.  It was written during production. Slightly reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s’ collaboration on Space Odyssey 2001 where the screenplay and book were written simultaneously, Blakley-Cartwright’s source material wasn’t solely Johnson’s screenplay nor pouring over a finished movie.  She interviewed actors about their characters, she was there while sets were being built, and costumes were being sewn.  She participated in rehearsals and even danced across hot coals during a village festival scene. 
  The writing is surprisingly good.  Blakley-Carwright’s descriptions are vivid and the emotions she was paid to delve deeper into were present and authentic.  I feel she accomplished what Hardwicke had commissioned her to do.  With the book being tied so intimately with the movie, about half way through I became a trailer junkie.  For me there were no other faces for these characters than the actors already chosen to portray each part. 
  The book was going to be a solid four stars for me – until I reached the end. The book went Hollywood on me.  There is a bit of a bow at the end to tie things up, but it’s not a tidy bow and too many questions are left dangling from the branches of Daggerhorn.  The book then directs you to a website,  where there is a countdown widget to the movie’s release on March 11, 2011.  Then, in small print, there is an invitation to come back to the website on March 14th, after the movie has opened, to get a “bonus chapter” which will presumably tie up the rest of the loose ends.  At least it had better.
  This is an instance when I’m not sure you gain anything by reading the book first.  As far as I can tell, you’re better off waiting until after the movie comes out so at least you can get the proper ending.  Also, if you like the movie, you can enjoy the more in-depth telling.  If you don’t like the movie, you don’t need to bother with the book because being tied so closely, it’s just more of the same.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Words of Caution: There some violent scenes depicting wolf attacks and the torture of a teen, and a passionate sex scene that is interrupted before it gets very far.

If you like this book try: Beastly or A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn, Beauty by Robin McKinley, Sisters Red by Jackson Pearse, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater 
 
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Guest Review: Scrambled Eggs at Midnight
Rummanah Aasi
I'm trying to catch up on some of my reading. In the meantime, enjoy a guest review by my good friend Jules. Take it away, Jules!
*****

I recommended Scrambled Eggs at Midnight by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler for anyone who enjoyed Polly Schulman’s Enthusiasm. I felt obligated at that point to do a review of it.

Description: (From the jacket flap) Calliope, “Cal” to her friends, wants nothing more than to stay put, to stop traveling cross-country with her mother, sleeping in a tent, abandoning all belongings whenever they pull up stakes. Eliot misses the happy times he left behind when his father decided to make a business out of spreading the gospel. When Cal and Eliot meet by chance in the mountains of North Carolina, they feel an immediate connection. Against the quirky backdrops of a Christian fat camp and a Renaissance Faire, Cal struggles with her mother’s waning interest in parenting, while Eliot wrestles with his father’s misplaced faith.

Review: I entirely enjoyed Scrambled Eggs at Midnight. This YA novel starts out with a grumpy, fifteen year old girl and my first reaction was, “Oh how cliché.” She proves her case, however; she has good cause to be grumpy. Still, I was weary of where the story was going to go from there. I was smiling by the middle of the second chapter, completely sucked in by Eliot's charm. Beginning with Calliope, each chapter alternates between Calliope and Eliot's perspectives to pull us along the course of the summer they met and fell in love. The plot is simple, but its simplicity lets the writing shine. There is color, texture, aromas and physical sensations. These two teens live entirely too much inside their own heads, and they know it, but their thoughts make them very relatable. How can you not love a girl who describes the silences that arise between people with colors or a boy who is exceptionally observant? Add to that a usable recipe for barbecue sauce, cherry chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, interesting factoids, a list of odd landmarks across the United States (I have personally been to three locations on the list,) and the Ten Commandments of Weight-loss??

   The dialog is witty and clever on par with Gilmore Girls. The larger theme is of learning to ask for what you need and getting needs met. I can entirely recommend this as a great by-the-pool summer read. My single criticism is that it was over too quickly.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Words of Caution: There is none really. A pretty clean romance story. Recommended for Grades 6 and up.

If you liked this book, try:  Dream Factory by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler
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Zombies and Werewolves and Demons, Oh My!
Rummanah Aasi
  There are a few surprises that I'm working on for next week so I asked my dear friend, Leanne Ayer, to do a guest review for me. Thank you, Leanne! Enjoy her review of Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

I was excited when Rummanah asked me to pop by and write a guest review of the first book in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Chronicles of Nick series, Infinity.  I've read many of her adult books and was intrigued by the concept of a young adult series based on the adolescence of Nick Gauthier, whom we meet and come to love in the Dark-Hunter series.
     The successful Dark-Hunters series follows a group of warriors, per se, who give up their souls and pledge fealty to the Greek goddess Artemis by becoming a Dark-Hunter in exchange for one shot at avenging their deaths.  They spend their nights hunting Daimons--cursed Apollites, who are very much like vampires only they live off souls, not blood.  Many of the Dark-Hunters have squires, humans who can tend to their needs during daylight, as they will die if exposed to sunlight, and that’s where I first met Nick; he was introduced early on as squire to Kyrian. As the series progresses, we see the friendship between him and the incredibly powerful and mysterious wrangler of the Dark-Hunters, Acheron Parthenopaeus grow, and then implode.

Description: Fourteen year-old Nick Gauthier’s already messed up life suddenly takes an even stranger turn when he tries to thwart his friends’ plot to mug two innocent tourists; his so-called friends shoot him. This incident seems to be the beginning of a chain of interesting paranormal events, leading Nick to discover that in New Orleans nothing is what it seems. If being a low-income kid attending a private school on scholarship wasn't bad enough, realizing that half the school turns into wolves or bears or that the football team is hell-bent on trying to eat you really takes the cake.

Review:  I devoured Infinity.  It was a quick read, the action pushed along the plot, and Nick as a teenager is just as snarky, witty, and endearing as I found him to be in Kenyon’s adult series.  Although there were a few points that left me scratching my head, I have faith that Kenyon will fill in the gaps in later books.
    You really don’t need to have read the Dark-Hunter series to get a grasp of this book.Information is imparted in relatively palatable chunks so it’s not overwhelming, and I have every faith that each subsequent book will build on the incredibly rich mythology that Kenyon has created.
    So why do I love Nick so much? Nick is a wise-ass, he is smart-mouthed and sometimes his sarcasm makes me laugh out loud. I think part of the reason I like him is that he came from a rough beginning (as we are reading about in this series) so he’s tough, unrepentant, and yet he loves his Mama.  Nick was brought up to respect the women in his life, and he does in a way that kids today don’t necessarily understand.  He also has an intriguing way of seeing the world—it’s black and white, and yet in this book we’re starting to see some grey sneaking in.  I love being able to see his progression from quasi-naive teen to the man he becomes in the adult series.
   This book is engaging and drew me in right away.  It would be a great one for reluctant readers because of its fast pace—there’s really no time to get bored with this book.

Rating: 4 stars

Words of Caution:  There is mild language, violence, and adult themes (Nick's mom is an exotic dancer), and supernatural beings. This book might be best for 14 and up.


If you like this book, try: Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon (due out in May 2011)
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That’s the title, not the date
Rummanah Aasi
  Julie had such a great time doing her first review that she wanted to do another one. I didn't even have to bribe her with chocolate! Thanks again, Julie, for being my guest blogger. Enjoy her review of March!

   I’m always intrigued and not a little wary when an author attempts to take on the embellishment in some way of a beloved classic such as Little Women. I can’t begin to count the number of books published around Austen’s character of Mr. Darcy. Do an Amazon search--I dare you. Even Winnie-the-Pooh spawned a series of philosophy books. I’m not a huge fan of fan fiction either. I find most of it somewhat self-indulgent on the author’s part. March sets itself up not as a sequel or an alternative storyline, but as a companion to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, exploring the experiences of Mr. March while he was away from the girls during the Civil War.

Description: March imagines the wartime experiences of the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women.

Below is an outtake from The American Masters segment about Louisa May Alcott, where Brooks is interviewed:




Review: Little Women holds a very special place in my heart as it was the book my mother sat and read to me over the course of a week when I was eleven years old, recovering from major surgery. She patiently read, I yelled at both the characters and the author, she waited and then read some more. At the time my favorite character was Beth, but I see my life has played out much more like Jo’s even though I can identify in some way with all the girls. Clearly that is a major part of Little Women’s timeless appeal; we all see some piece of ourselves alive and coming of age in its characters. In shelving her book next to Alcott’s classic, Brooks had some really big shoes to fill and for most of the book I wasn’t entirely convinced she pulled it off. I’ve always believed, however, that every book is ultimately made or broken by its ending. March ends well.

   
    Much of the book serves as a social commentary on the issues of slavery and racism. Very often I felt preached at. That’s not entirely without base since Mr. March was a preacher, army chaplain, and teacher. He is a man of ideals and strongly held beliefs. It is completely within his character to see the world, internalize it, and then sermonize on it. (At times the audio version even makes March sound pompous. I’m not sure, however, if that should be attributed to the author or the actor’s interpretation.) In any event, the overwhelming feeling is one of helplessness to effect any change for both Captain March and the reader since he is up against such appalling and prolific inhumanity. Capt. March has every one of his dearest held beliefs challenged by the realities of war, pervasive public opinion, and even his own mortal weaknesses.

  March is very well written and dove-tails beautifully with the original. Brooks clearly did her research, even basing her characterization of Capt. March on Alcott’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott. Alcott freely admitted that Little Women was based on herself and her sisters. The last third is told from Marmee’s prospective when she leaves Concord for Washington to bring a very much changed Capt. March home again. This is where I could insert myself easily into the story. Marmee voiced the uniquely female perspective that is Alcott’s strength. This is where I was finally returned to what I loved about Alcott’s book. Given its subject matter and prose, I’m not surprised it won the 2006 Pulitzer.

Note: Alcott did write three sequels to Little Women with Good Wives, Little Men and later Jo’s Boys, but I wonder where she would have taken Mr. March’s story since her own attachment as a writer always seemed to be toward her female characters. Perhaps she intuitively knew that tracing Captain March’s travels and experiences would be as harsh as Brooks wrote it to be. I liked Brooks’ development of the courtship between Marmee and March, how their marriage endured the separation, and the introduction of both Hannah and Aunt March.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Words of Caution: There are graphic descriptions of the treatment of slaves and heavy philosophical questions are raised, which is why I think it is more fitting as an adult book, however; I would recommend this book for mature readers over fifteen.

If you liked this book, try: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.
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What’s in Your Beach Bag?
Rummanah Aasi
  This following post is brought to you by my very good friend, Julie Morra. I had asked Julie to guest blog for me while I catch up on some of my reading and reviews. Thanks, Julie!

    The snow is gone, my allergies are ratcheting up with the pollen count, and my internal compass is telling me to start stocking up on titles to read over the summer. Summer reading falls into a few categories. First there are the school-assigned summer reads that usually come with essays to write and questions to answer. That process always seems to take away from the joy of recreational reading. I promise you my football scholarshipped son who really enjoys a good book would not have picked The Secret Life of Bees on his own and he did not enjoy it no matter how much Oprah extolled its virtues. I think book club reads too often fall into this assigned division. The second category of books, in my mind, are those completely consuming reads that block out real life until you finish. You are oblivious to the weather, the national news, and people who love you have to remind you to eat. The Twilight series comes quickly to mind when I think of this category. The final category of books are the light and fluffy fun reads that live in your pool bag or under the seat of your car. My mother would probably classify them as a step up from magazine reading. You put them down as easily as you pick them up, but you entirely enjoy the time you spend inside them. They are the books you read when you don’t want to think, but just want to feel good while lying in the sun or waiting in the car to pick up your little brother from Tae Kwando. Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman falls into this last category.


 Description: (From the front cover flap) Julie’s best friend, Ashleigh, is an enthusiast. Julie never knows what obsession will catch Ashleigh’s fancy, but she does know she’s likely to be drawn into the madness. Ashleigh’s latest craze is Julie’s own passion, Pride and Prejudice. But Ashleigh can’t just appreciate it as a great read; she insists on emulating the novel’s nineteenth-century heroines in speech, dress, and most important of all – their quest for True Love. So Julie finds herself with Ashley, dressed in vintage frocks, sneaking into a dance at the local all-boys prep school, where they discover some likely candidates. Maybe this obsession of Ashleigh’s isn’t so bad if it leads to love—but for whom?

Review: I initially picked up this book because Jane Austen was referenced in the cover flap. I carried it around the library because the main character and I shared a first name. I took it home because it was under 200 pages. I slathered myself up with sunscreen, parked myself in a deck chair, and turned to the first chapter. There is a glut of books out there that pay homage to Jane Austen. The field is vastly narrowed if you ask that the author produce a book which is a good book on its own merits. For its brief length, Enthusiasm holds its own. Anyone who's ever had a friend like Ashleigh will feel Julie's pain. Is friendship and loyalty worth the price of embarrassment? Ashleigh’s enthusiasm is infectious and some of us need a friend like Ashleigh to make our lives more exciting, despite the embarrassment. The characters prove themselves relatable. The action is fun and there is a poem near the end that actually gave me goosebumps. That's when the story, for me, went from three stars to four. There are numerous Jane Austen references, especially from Pride & Prejudice, but to me, the story itself felt a little more like Mansfield Park or Emma where everyone's attentions and intentions are all mixed up. A working knowledge of at least one of those books, even from *gasp* a movie version, will make the book a more enjoyable read.

Rating: 4 stars


Words of Caution: Enthusiasm does fall into the teen romance genre so I would recommend it for ages 13 and up.

If you liked this book, you might also try: Scrambled Eggs at Midnight by Brad Barkley.
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