Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston (Review)

Date Finished: December 11, 2017

Page Count: 346

Genre: Science Fiction/Thriller

            This book is amazing, possibly the best novel I’ve read all semester along with Eliza and her Monsters by Francesca Zappia and Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige (they’re all different genres so I can’t just choose one now can I?). Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston wasn’t shoulder deep in romance-something I’ve been hoping for some time after so many romance drenched novels-rather filling its pages with tons of action packed, suspenseful moments with just the right amounts of plot mixed in. Some of the parts were so intense and vividly written that I could hear the Attack on Titan ost playing in my head. I think it’s safe to say that someone is totally experiencing something intense and amazing when there’s AoT music playing in their heads, but I digress, there were tons of other things I enjoyed about the book and I plan to touch up on all the fun that I remember (because there was a lot I liked about this book).

            The main antagonist of this book was the leader of a religious cult named George Galen who was going about illegally engineering viruses made for a certain person meant to cure a genetic disease they had. This was what had initially convinced me to check out the book, but surprisingly I had somehow missed (or perhaps forgotten seeing that I began to read it a couple weeks after I checked it out) the part about the religious cult. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against that being a trait of the main antagonist, it’s just a bit abnormal. I’ve never (or at the very least hardly ever) come across a group of antagonist who were a religious cult who was trying to do some “good” in the world, so the idea seems rather unique to me. Personally I enjoyed this choice as it seems as though in this society here we try to make things as universally appealing to people of all cultures we often try to through shade on religion, acting as if it doesn’t exist. Maybe this is a bigger issue to me rather than the whole world, but it’s as if anything oriented towards one religion was glossed over for everybody or completely ignored. Nevertheless, my feelings are slightly off topic form the book so yeah, I like the uniqueness of the religious cult as most people don’t have the guts to do something like that.

            Then you have the other big thing about the book, the main character, Frank Hartman. The first thing I thought of when reading his name was Hartmann’s Youkai Girl which made me go a little crazy inside for a second, but after thinking things over I got reminded of some medical Hartmann I read about on Wikipedia some time ago (maybe), but first misgivings aside I was biased about Frank the moment I learned what his last name was. Overall Frank was an average guy. Nothing extraordinary, nothing too boring, relatable in every way. I thought he’d remain that way, something pristine who would survive the vicious attack of the Healers, but nope, dude got stuck right in the crossfire of the conflict and received a heart transplant form Galen to become one of his living clones to spread his message/take over the world. I honestly didn’t expect him to get in such a crappy situation, and started fearing for his life once he realized what had happened, but it was a great move on the writer’s part as it added to the suspense for me and raised the stakes to a much more thrilling and enticing level. I also enjoyed the fatherly figure Frank was to Wyatt and the way his life ended up at the end of the book. _{Also, there there’s Frank and Monica, like how dare you make it seem like they have feelings for each other only to never explore it in depth. I am both impressed and upset about this.}

            Galen was the guy I love to hate, an insane villain in every way, yet so sure he was doing everything for the good of the public. Of course his work was purely selfish, meant to bring him back to life in a young body, but that totally failed and gave birth to Nick-Galen, Hal-Galen, and Dolores-Galen. Hal-Galen had to be the best villain as he had all of Galen’s intelligence but was crude and hateful towards the Healers and the other members of Galen’s supposed Counsel. Hal not reborn as Galen was the other character I loved to hate as he was so selfish and messed up the attempts of the other vessels to escape their captors and it was fitting to see him loose himself and die at the hands of a fire. A more aggressive and rude version of Galen, but a welcome touch to the lunacy the original had that brought a fresh twist to the plot.

            Other character that were notable were Monica and Wyatt, who I just couldn’t help but pity due to being held hostage and dragged into all the crazy stuff, Lichen, the speedy Healer who had some of the strongest faith that he was doing good for the world and held doubt for the reborn Galens, Peeps, who brought a younger perspective to the group and at the same time some more relaxed and comical moments, Byron, who was another vessel and actually tried to keep things together, and agent Hernandez who always seemed to appear at the right times to kick butt when she appeared in the book. There are actually far too many characters to give a shout out to for this book, so I just had to chooses the ones that stood out the most to me and mention a bit that I like a lot about their character. The entire cast was phenomenal and so realistic I could visualize them in my mind’s eye and almost even touch them. Heck, I was almost going to draw a picture for this book with some of the characters because they seemed so real to me but I just haven’t had to motivation (or the time to tell the truth) so I do apologize for that. Each member of the story contributed to the plot in such a way that it enhanced the story tenfold while keeping everything real in a surreal way that I absolutely love about the book.

            As for the plot there’s not much to say other than that I loved it. This may sound crazy, but when I graduate from college I want to become a genetic counselor so the genetic aspect was super appealing. Engineering a virus to cure genetic diseases that melts people’s faces off if they come into contact with a virus that isn’t meant for them? Curious. Having the villains being the ones administrating the cure not out of the goodness of their hearts but to convert people to their religion and join their cause? Even more curious. Having bodybuilding, pain resistant macho dudes with super strong healing abilities fight the protagonist? Aw yeah, let’s do it. Organ transplants and microchips that connect to the nerves to slowly change a person’s genetic structure into someone else’s and give them the mind of that person? This is everything I never knew I wanted. But if I had to pick out a favorite absurd ability of the people it’d have to be curing genetic diseases. Now if I were able to do that efficiently I’d be set for life and probably go down as one of the best geneticist in history. Such a wonderful dream to have for bettering humanity, but I think I’d rather take action to make such a dream reality *stares off into the sunset in a metacognitive way*.

            Overall, fabulous book, it was super suspenseful with lots of action and great characters and I was able to keep engaged the entire time I was reading it. The book might be far more interesting to read if you’re interested in genetics or health in any sort of way but I think this book can be a great read for anyone. I can’t really think of a single person who wouldn’t’ enjoy this book for the most part although, when I looked up reviews apparently the majority of people didn’t like this book because it was predictable, unless you find extreme violence, deaths and people getting their faces melted, and bodies getting hashed puke worthy. Don’t read the book if you don’t like those things because it happens quite a few times through the course of the plot. With that all said and done, go pick up a copy of the book at your library and anticipate another book review coming out in the next few days!

A Million Junes by Emily Henry (Review)

Date Finished: December 6, 2017

Page Count: 391

Genre: Fantasy/Realistic Fiction

            This book was a super magical experience for me, containing all the family drama and unexplained phenomenon of supernatural power to make me eat it up right until the end. At the climax however I became disappointed with the turn of events, so I’m gonna have to say this book was okay overall. Yeah, it’s high on my recommendation list, but I got some salt from those revelations that I want to give to you before you go to the library to pick up a copy of the book. I mean, come on Emily Henry, when you spend the better half of your book setting up the supernatural and all that’s unexplained I expect not everything to be revealed to be ordinary human feeling and experiences in such a way the it no longer feel magical. Come on. But I digress, why not start this review off by talking about the positives of the book first?

            As I previously stated before, the characters of June and Saul were lots of fun in the story, and I found them to be the highlight of the story. Their thunder got stolen however, when more was revealed about their families, the curse each family carried, and the fact that June’s father hid a ton of stuff from her. I loved the whole: family doesn’t trust the kids with their darkest secrets and the kids end up running into a ton of trouble, plot line. It reminds me a bit of, Star vs. the Forces of Evil which is an amazing ongoing show that doesn’t get the attention it deserves, but the stuff that happens in SvtFoE happens to a lesser degree in, A Million Junes. If I tried to explain why this is I’d no longer be writing a review for A Million Junes but I digress. I was super interested in seeing how the family conflict would unfold eventually and what explanation there would be for why the O’Donnells and Angerts were cursed, and it was the whole reason I was invested in the plot. Unfortunately, this is where I end the things I really enjoyed about the book and it’s time to move onto the disappointments.

            Remember when I said that I like the family conflict a couple sentences ago? I was super excited about that because I was expecting some supernatural disturbance within the family due to the hatred they had with each other causing them to become cursed, which was what I was hoping and expecting to happen. I thought Feathers (the good ghost) and Nameless (the bad ghost) was some sort of guardian and judge/avenger in the situation and either were inhuman or humans that gained spirit form/were being punished for stuff. You wanna know why those two were hanging around and stuff? It was because Feathers was a member of the O’Donnell family and Nameless a member of the Angert family that were in love and Feathers (not her real name) accidentally drowned which Nameless (his name was Abe) got blamed for it and beat up by Feather’s dad. Feathers still had attachments to the world (or people still had attachments to her, I don’t remember or care) so she could still return to the physical world as a spirit and look around. Abe/Nameless was screwed up though and when he died he couldn’t move on so went back to haunt/kill the O’Donnell’s for having been unjust.

            I was okay with this. I mean, the romance bother me slightly, but the fact that Henry killed off Feathers and left Abe/Nameless to be mentally and physically screwed after it all took guts, and she did connect that with June and Saul’s relationship so it felt well executed to me. What screwed all this up was when June went to break the curse she went to this stupid place that was the afterlife or something and meet up with Feathers. Feathers talked in riddles and explained how there wasn’t really any curse, just people who carried their hatred for the Argents and people who had shame because Abe/Nameless was ashamed of his relationship with Feathers. All June and Saul had to do to get rid of their curses was forgive their families and wash off in this magic member reliving pool. BORING. Don’t build up all this magical supernatural drama and then say, “people where upset and their upset feeling were so powerful it allowed them to avoid death and wreck shop for the people still alive, (bias paraphrasing)” that won’t work out well in anything other than anime, and it was such a disappointment and not the type of solution I wanted!! Some people may be happy with that, but I wanted something otherworldly to be the ultimate cause/soultion which didn’t happen like I wanted it to. Failure to meet my expectations has caused me to find the ending of the book forgettable compared to the beginning, and ultimately made me become dissatisfied with the overall story. Feathers (which now that I think about it was named something like Issa, maybe) and Nameless/Abe were still cool, but they were less cool once everything got explained. If somethings were still left unknown then maybe I’d care about the book more and be less salty about then ending (though I’m not “death by salt” salty). I also found June and Saul to be less interesting when they were in love, but I’m not gonna talk about that because they were too uninteresting to talk about any more than just a mention. _{I swear, they couldn’t seem to do anything without thinking about each other and it was so annoying. Don’t write characters that depend on a love interest and then act lovey-dovey romantics all the time. It’s just sickening for me to read. Then again don’t listen to the thoughts of a single reader, follow the masses to fill your wallet to the max, the economy demands it!}

Actually, Feather/Issa (left) and Nameless/Abe (right) were so interesting that I just had to draw them surrounded by Whites for the book review. Nameless/Abe is killing that poor chicken because he did that in the book and drawing Nameless/Abe squashing a chicken is much less gruesome than him killing off one of the Jacks. I just felt that he’d seem more menacing killing something which would emphasize his overall character okay?

Overall I did not like this book, but I’m not going to say you shouldn’t read it because I didn’t like it. This loosely-Romeo and Juliet-esque novel contains a bad romance (in my opinion) for those who like romance, some fantasy elements for those who like romance, and to top it all off it has an awesome sauce family problem in it that makes the whole thing worth the while but if you want some real family drama go watch Star vs. the Forces of Evil. I feel like I slightly wasted my time with this book, especially since the book I’m now reading after that is a hell of a lot better than A Million Junes. I regret to say I was deceived by the shiny, sparkly cover (it looks more sparkly in real life than the picture at the beginning of the review) and the plot summary made the book seem more interesting than it actually was. Never the less, A Million Junes was a good read but nothing worth holding onto for long (not even anger towards the book). Some may find it interesting for the things I listed above, but who knows, even more people may find it interesting since my salt is blinding me from all the good this book has to offer. Such is the way of life I guess, so look forwards to my next review which is looking to be something positive for a change (for real, it feel like the past few books I’ve been reading haven’t been all too special).

 More blog posts on A Million Junes
Characterization (it the same post as the hyperlink in the second paragraph)

Don't Hang out with Him, but Do Because It's Funny: Characterization in "A Million Junes"

            The book I’m currently reading is A Million Junes by Emily Henry, and I picked it up to see what sort of twist this seemingly modern Romeo and Juliet had in store (plus the cover is really attractive). For starts, this book isn’t very Romeo and Juliet-y, but it’s good in another way. The main character, Jack “June” O’Donnell IV, mostly called June is an eighteen-year-old girl who live in a magical house, and being a part of the O’Donnell family means she has to stay away from members of the Argent family at all costs. On day, the son of her nemesis, Saul Argent, returns to town after dropping out of college and the two end up hanging out together.

I’m not quite sure how the book ends as I’m only read through chapter 14, but so far June has been trying hard to persuade herself to obey her father’s rules and stay away from the Argents, especially since she’s falling in love with Saul. She’s also in denial at the same time about actually being in love with Saul. It’s actually kinda funny reading about her debates on weather or weather she’s developing feelings for Saul in her head (since the story is told in first person) and in her dialogue, and way more interesting than listening to Cassius sweet talk Brutus into killing Caesar. One of my favorite instances of this happening is on page 89, when June is forced to leave the movie theater after and non-double date with her best friend Hannah, Saul and his cousin Nate. She argues with Saul for a bit after having an embarrassing moment trying to convince the others for her to not go home with Saul driving her and apologies him causing Saul to respond with, “‘Sorry?’ For having a crush on you. For trying to make you take Hannah home. For starting a fight in a space-themed movie theater. ‘For biting your collarbone.’” This cracked me up and has been one of June’s best moments in the book so far. It’s a perfect example of her sarcasm and her tendency to dodge questions, which is something lots of people do (like myself). Quirks like this are the thing I love most about characters and help me to stay attached to them for long. I would have actually abandoned this book because I’m not that big on romance centered novels but Junes personality is keeping me attached to this book which is a good thing _{cause I’d hate to have another D. Gray-Man, where the characters are so flat that I no longer care how that nightmare ends}.

Then there’s Saul, whose best moments so far have been when he’s not Saul and is instead posing as Mike, June’s creative writing tutor, for he has a tendency to speak in third person when not around June’s parents. Henry’s writing is so good in these situations; I can practically hear the sarcasm in Saul-I mean Mike’s voice but at the same time the hidden truth about the little bits of Saul’s life seen in Mike’s preferences. At page 131 for example when June runs into Mike-I mean Saul, in the pizza place with her younger brothers who she’s watching at the moment. The two ask who he is due to having seen him at their house before and then question what he’s doing and why he has tattoos (something they didn’t know before) to which June tries to save him from accidentally exposing his true identity asking if he’s trying too hard. This causes Saul to reply with, “‘Mike, trying to hard?...Mikes don’t try at all Jack. Mikes pretty much just get individual pan-crust pizzas and go home to play video games in their father’s basements.’” I nearly burst out laughing when I read this as Saul’s words seemed too goofy to take seriously. I simply love the way his character is developing, with all his joking around yet sensible moments, he’s the other reason I’m gonna finish this book by next week.

The one thing I’m not too big on is the fact that June likes Saul and Saul has hinted at liking June back. Personally I don’t think they should be in a relationship, but that’s when they’re characters are at their best and this is a romance novel. I’ll just have to hope things turn out well and this doesn’t get too lovey dovey before the book ends. Or, ya know, I could stop picking romantically driven novels (but where’s the fun in that?)

Romeo’s EX •Rosaline’s Story• by Lisa Fiedler (Review)

Date Finished: November 24, 2017

Page Count: 246

Genre: Fiction

            Ahh, what a relief to be able to read a book that I actually enjoy after the terrible screw up of the unspeakable book I last read. Romeo’s EX •Rosaline’s Story• by Lisa Fiedler is probably the shortest book I checked out to read over Thanksgiving, and it proved to be a nice quick read about the retelling of Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. So, remember that lovely lady Romeo was first trying to court because of her so called beauty before Juliet? Yeah, this story has her as the protagonist. And remember Romeo’s friend that was pretty much peace, love and willing to fight to keep the peace? That’s the dude Rosaline falls in love with in this book. Before I take this any further however, you should have read the original Romeo and Juliet first as it will greatly increase how much you enjoy this tale. There are many differences from the original, stuff from a different perspective and quotes straight form the play that need some background knowledge to pick up on. If you haven’t read the original play go search it online and read it before continuing on with this review (it’ll cause a ton of things to make sense).

So the prologue of the book stars a month before the first scene in the play where Rosaline helps Romeo’s friend after he got beaten up since Rosaline is learning to be a healer. My first reaction is that Lisa Fiedler was trying to do something feminist in a (rewritten) Shakespeare play or something like that, but as the story progressed I saw that this didn’t get in the way of the story and allowed everything to play out well. Because of her line of work and having determined  the negative consequences of falling in love outweigh the positive, Rosaline commits herself to a life of chastity despite being very beautiful and capturing the attention of several men (three of which are seen in the book). This establishes her dislike for Romeo, so when her beloved younger cousin, Juliet, (I’m not quite sure if they’re cousins in the original but whatever) fall in love with him she feels obligated to watch out for Juliet and make sure nothing bad happens. As the story progressed, Rosaline started trying to get the attention of Mercutio due to her perceiving him to have saved her from the brawl in the begging of the book (from the thumb biting and people trying to take out both houses at once), but thank the Lord, he turns her down due to perceiving her as a temptress and she goes to Benvolio’s side (the guy who actually saved her). Of course, she’s reluctant to pursue anything more than a friendship with him which is rather refreshing compared to what seems like every young adult novel where the protagonist falls in love. It’s even better when after Romeo “dies” and Juliet dies and Rosaline brings Romeo back to life and Benvolio then choses to propose to her and she turns him down. That was super awesome even though I was kinda rooting for them to get together. It made me happy that in the end, Rosaline returns form Padua (for school) after a few years and she embraces Benvolio, so I assume their on the path of rekindling their love. To sum things up, I really enjoyed Rosaline’s character form all her important milestones. When you take a look at her interactions with other character she gets even cooler.

So first things first, Romeo is still a butt who falls in love with his eyes and gets a lot of people killed _{let’s not forget that everything is Paris’s fault however}. There isn’t much on him, but it’s nice to see that he gets denied by Rosaline and he gets to live in the end. Personally I was at first upset he survived and Juliet didn’t, but with her gone it makes Rosaline motivated to learn more and Tybalt gets some company as a dead man. Speaking of the dead, Juliet had her youth and inexperience captured near perfection by Fiedler and I felt she really stole the show whoever she was around. Again, super disappointed she died but it was for the greater good. Then there’s Tybalt, the cousin of Juliet and Rosaline and I like how his caring side was seen in addition to his hotheadedness and violent nature. He might be the best character as when he “died” after his fight with Mercutio, Rosaline was able to keep his body alive in a limbo like state even though he would till die soon eventually. He got to fly around Verona and be a ghost, watching all that was happening and gives his own commentary about the situation. No one could see him or hear him, but with him there we got to see things happen to Juliet without being told form her perspective which was tons of fun. Mercutio was still a womanizer and an airhead, the parents were still unaware of the romance between their kids, and the Prince still intervened too late. Some original characters named Viola and Sebastian made an appearance as well, and they were kids that Benvolio looked after and they had very pleasant personalities. I liked them even more when Rosaline used them to give the Montagues and Capulets another chance at raising some kids right. And last, but not least, Benvolio was madly in love with Rosaline, but he didn’t let it blind him like Romeo did. The guy was sensible and respectful and a great contrast to Romeo’s character which was much needed. Seeing that Rosaline had someone to support her and help her through the story was great and I’m happy they supposedly ended up together.

Enough about the characters, the format of the book is noteworthy too (even if my praise of it be brief). So the chapters are titled the name of whoever’s first person point of view is being shared which is convenient, and allows the story to be told form multiple perspectives. I think Rosaline’s perspective was the most frequent which makes sense with her being the main character, but there were other interesting people like Benvolio and Romeo and Tybalt and Mercutio to name a few. Tybalt was the most fun to hear form when he was a ghost as I mentioned before but everyone’s different point of view was something to look forward to, especially since Fiedler chose the right people to narrate for the right scenes. The chapters themselves were relatively short for the most part which allowed for the story to quickly progress and multiple views be shared, thus preventing Rosaline form being a glory hog. They weren’t the annoying short like in Forge but a short and sweet short which was a relief since I plan on reading the final book in Anderson’s series and I have a feeling there might be more choppy chapters coming up.

Then we have the overarching questions that each of these reviews eventually comes to. I am pleased to say this time though that I recommend this book to other people who have read Romeo and Juliet already (the original one) and want to witness the story with a happier ending or be told form different perspectives. There’s Shakespearean language in this book, but its far form as confusing as one would find in the original play and can easily be followed along by most that have come through middle school. Fiedler’s work is comparable to Marissa Meyer’s and Danielle Paige as her retelling of stories is memorable, entertaining and not a jerk to the source. For some this may not be a must read right now, or even at the top of your book list but at some point I do think you should give it a read as I love this book and think those who fit the criteria would as well.

The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong by L. Tam Holland (Review)

 

Date Finished: November 23, 2017

Page Count: 357

Genre: Realistic Fiction

 

            I am disappointed. I should have paid attention to the cover art and the fortune cookies message, “Don’t even bother” as this book is something I’d rather have not read. I really should raise my expectations for books and not be afraid to drop them when they suck. As much as I hate to be crude about L. Tam Holland’s The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong, it severely missed my expectations and I don’t recommend it to anybody simply out of spite among other reasons (mostly spite however).

            The thing I hated most about this book was Vee himself. He’s an ungrateful sophomore that wanted to get with the hottest senior girl, and lives a pitiful life not knowing who his family aside from his mom and dad. Spoiler alert, his mom grew up in Texas and got divorced before marrying his father because she didn’t want to be unhappy like her parents who have been sticking to their mirage even though they hate each other because they’re extremely religious. Also, his dad ran away from China because he wanted free speech and stuff like that, because when he was a kid the communist revolution was going on. This upsets Vee and give him identity issues so he’s an ungrateful little brat for the majority of the book. It’s not that I hate characters with identity issues and parents with problems and their own lives are focused on meaningless material desires, but when you have that going on and it’s a realistic fiction novel then I’m probably not going to enjoy myself. It reminds me of myself in some cases, but most of the time it reminds me of this one pessimistic friend I have that is a long way from perfect (then again, I guess we all are). It’s not that I can’t handle depressing subjects in books, it’s just that I need some surrealism to balance out all the realism so I don’t get too bogged down with my own problems. This book was lacking that. Aside from that I found Vee’s character to simply be boring and repulsive at times _{especially when he was having fantasies of Adele or that one time he actually had some “fun” with her,} like I find most sophomores and high scholars in general which is a bad thing. Realistic/relatable characters are nice but the negativity of Vee stood out far too much and overshadowed any redeeming qualities he had so I just despised him for the majority of the novel. I think this is one of the realistic fiction topics I have to avoid from now on.

            The actual plot was a disappointment as well, for reading the one review on the back of the book made me think this would be a funny adventure about some half Chinese kid that tricked his goofy parents into going to China to meet his relative and it was a whole bunch of craziness with a bit of likeness to the events of Summer Wars. Obviously that didn’t happen with the characters and it surely didn’t happen with the plot. The majority of the first three-fourths of the book was Vee complaining about his history teacher, Mr. Riley, and plotting to expose him as a pervert (which he wasn’t), Vee trying out for the basketball team before failing and becoming the manager of the girls’ basketball team, Vee screwing up his relationship with his Chinese-American friend Madison (they get together at the end of the book though), Vee trying to get with Adele, and Vee feeling guilty about all the lies he tells his parents. Then when Vee, his mom, dad and Madison went to China the story still didn’t really pick up and failed to be interesting. The only time where I read intensely was when there were just a few pages left and even then I skimmed much of the text due to being so bored. When Vee actually was in China it wasn’t any better as his grandpa was in a care home and had kind lost him mind. That is hardly a satisfying ending but whatever, so long is the story is over I’ll except it.

            Overall, you should even bother with this book as the main character was depreciable and relatable at the same time which, if you’re like me, can bring you spirits down to the deepest parts of the abyss. It did inspire me to be grateful for the large family I’m with right now (cause it’s thanksgiving and my aunt invited my dad and uncle plus family to her house for thanksgiving) and the pride I have for my people (African Americans) buried deep down, hidden and well-guarded part of my heart. This book was a total waste aside from that and I’m only glad I finished it so I can bury it my suitcase and get ready to discard it back at the library to be hidden on the shelves for all eternity like it belongs. Don’t read it unless you like snarky teenagers who complain about their live and only realize how good they have it till they’ve bent over backwards while playing Beethoven’s Fifth symphony and doing a handstand for Satan (more or less). On a much happier note, happy Thanksgiving America and everyone else look forward to my next, much happier, book review.

Eliaz and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia (Review)

 

Date Finished: November 16, 2017

Page Count: 385

Genre: Realistic Fiction 

            Francesca Zappia is a writing genius, a true treasure of the decade, one who can speak straight to the soul. I already had a good feeling about her novel, Eliza and Her Monsters When my eyes fell upon it a couple days ago while browsing through the library and this book exceeded my expectations. From her writing style, to her characters, to the depth she put into the plot, and the additional drawings she included in the book to better understand the main character, Eliza Mirk I fell in love with this book on page one and feel that most teenagers and online artist, and maybe even the general American population, will enjoy this book as much as I have.

            Let me cut to the case here, I’m an artist, if you couldn’t tell by looking at my other review and the occasional picture I’d draw after being inspired by the story. I also post my stuff online and long story short, live in constant fear of having my identity discovered and then being hunted down by someone who hates me. Eliza has those exact same fears as me and I instantly felt a bond established and cared deeply for her character. My bond became more of an, *ahem*, idolization when I got to experience just how successful her web comic, Monstrous Sea (which should totally be a real thing) is and all the effort she puts into it and the money she gets out of it. A large part of me really wants to be Eliza because how successful she is, but then I remind myself I’m successful in my own ways and only having drawing as my hobby. _{Surprisingly enough my actual dream job is to be a genetic counselor.} But Eliza isn’t without her flaws and they’re what also make me love her character so much.

            Something all of us are probably guilty for is not spending enough time with are families or even ignoring them. This is a huge problem for Eliza as she always wants to spend her time drawing and will lock herself in her room to do so. It’s so bad her parents don’t know much about Monstrous Sea and Eliza knows practically nothing about her parents or who two brothers, Sully and Church (who being revealed to be the type of sibling who picks the others up when they’re down). Eliza also feels no need to talk to others at school unless necessary and has become some sort of taboo that everyone tries to avoid, with the exception of Wallace Warland, who approaches her due to getting the idea that she likes Monstrous Sea (though he doesn’t realizes at first that she created it due to her anonymity online). This leads to the two becoming friends and then more than friends, but when Eliza’s parents using her senior shout out thing to tell the school that she created Monstrous Sea and Wallace finds out their relationship get a little shaken up, due to Eliza lying to him and they don’t talk for a large portion of the end of the book. Eliza even gets to go to point of going to therapy and considering suicide just because she tired of everything, something I wasn’t expecting to happen when I first picked up the book. But all turns out well for her as she has the support of her friends, family fans, and Wallace and ends up overcoming her paranoia to finish Monstrous Sea. I’d love to write all about what and how I love about Eliza’s journey but we’d be here too long if I did that so let me just say you should read the book and realize just how right I am about all of this.

 

 

Super awesome character art that Francesca Zappia drew of Eliza.

            Then there’s Wallace, the most popular fan fiction writer for Monstrous Sea that just moved to school halfway through senior year. Wallace was actually a former football player at his old school but when his dad committed suicide due to unhappiness in life it hurt Wallace and he ended up quitting football and nearly stops talking too. This was another unsuspecting this about the novel I didn’t see coming when I picked up the cover, but let me just come out and say all the little things in this novel are what I love most about it and really pulled me through the book. Any who, I love the relationship Wallace and Eliza start to develop over the course of the book stating out with writing to each other on a piece of paper and then passing it to each other, to hanging out with each other, then meeting each other’s families. The relationships where the people start as friends and the build to the status of loves is the kind of relationship I like to read about, and Zappia just wrote the relationships of these two so beautifully. I also love the quite nature of Wallace that we similarly see in Eliza yet how dedicated he was to his work and could get really excited about it.

More awesome character at by Francesca Zappia, but this time it of Wallace.

            The characters were amazing here but I also love the format of the novel. Most of the story was told in the first person view point of Eliza, but occasionally we got to read the private messages between Eliza, Max and Emmy which leads to some hilarious conversations that are super relatable and fun to read. Sometimes in the middle or end (usually the end of chapters) we get a picture of something from Monstrous Sea and some text that to accompany it that goes along with the picture. Other than looking super cool, these pictures often related to what was actually happening to Eliza in the plot and helped me to understand her character more which was super cool. Other times, we get to read the post of Wallace or Eliza on the Monstrous Sea forum when continent to the plot and those were stitched together super well too. Letters, emails and the like get formatted in a couple times which were always fun to read (especially in another text than the typical text). Then there’s chapter 40 which is just a conversation between Eliza and her therapist and I love that chapter so much, as it reveals so much with its dialogue and I love how different an abnormal the formatting is. How many books can you remember reading that were completely or had at least one chapter that was just a conversation between two characters? It’s an amazing thing to experience let me tell you, and you should totally read the book for it! Favorite scene has to be Eliza think about suicide in chapter 42 by driving off Wellhouse Bridge (the same place Wallace’s dad committed suicide mind you) and Wallace drives to meet her there and talk her out of doing it. It may seem like a strange scene to have as my favorite but I love how it shows how much Wallace know Eliza when pretty much no one else does and goes to stop her from making such a big mistake. Essentially it was a punch right in the feels if you know what I mean. Toughing moments like that are amazing and you should really read the book to get what I mean.

            So to summarize, relatable characters, relatable plot, touching moments, and the overall journey of learning to interact and love others means you should read this book. Right now. Go to the public library or even better, the book store and read this book. It will not disappoint you. Unless you live under a rock or have teenaged kids. I doubt people that old will be able to understand this book as well as those who have grown up being a part of fandoms or spend a great portion of their time on the internet. Why are you still here reading this post? Go read the book and you can thank me later. I cannot stress how much I loved this book and what other people to experience Zappia’s glory as well. Who knows, maybe I’ll read her other book, Made You Up someday to. Now go get a copy of Eliza and her Monsters and read it right now!!!

 

Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson (Review)

Date Finished: November 14, 2017

Page Count: 280

Genre: Historical Fiction

            Since the last book I read was part of a trilogy (and I was simply curios about what was going to happen to Isabel after Chains), the next book that I just tackled was so obviously going to be the sequel, Forge. Another obviously historical fiction novel as Anderson love her historical fiction (I think that may be the only genre she’s written and if not it’s the genre she writes most of), and she excels so much at weaving engaging stories based on dull historical events that I happily tore through this book as quickly as possible. Sadly, the next book I’m going to read won’t be the finale of the series as my school library doesn’t have the book, so I’ll have to go to the public library or put the book on hold but, I digress. This is a blog of book reviews, not my reading status so without further ado, let me get into the review.

            For a change of pace, I’d like to talk about the format of the book rather than the characters for this review as the book’s formatting and plot made more of an impact on me than the characters this time in my opinion. So I was super hyped to continue with Isabel’s story and was happy to see that it picked up right where the previous book left off. On the first page however I realized something was dreadfully different from the last book as it wasn’t being from Isabel’s first person but Curzon’s instead. My first reaction was to burn the book and forget about the rest of the series, for I had not signed up for the narrator change that Anderson sprung on her readers nor did I think Curzon could support the story like Isabel had. Such actions would be inhuman however, so I refrained from doing such and chose to continue reading. That happened in just the prologue and the hopes I carried for change were further dashed when chapter 1 took place nine months after that and I learned Isabel had run away from Curzon to find her sister so I was most likely stuck with Curzon for the rest of the novel. I was real bitter towards Anderson after this, wanting to abandon the book, but we were reading in class and I didn’t have anything else to read so I pressed on. Thank God the chapters were super short otherwise I might not have reached chapter 4 where things stated to look up.

            By chapter 4, Curzon was traveling to find work or Isabel or safety (one of those three, or maybe even something else) when he accidentally wandered onto the edge of battle of Saratoga and saved the life of a pale skinned, gap-toothed private named Ebenezer Woodruff or Eben for short. Curzon was then mistaken for a freeman and guilt tripped into joining the battle and after that rejoining the army. Curzon’s time in the army was definitely a highlight in the book. The challenges he faced such as pretending to be a free man, having to put up with prejudice and unequal treatment and all the harsh condition of the winter at Valley Forge (hence the book title) seriously expanded upon the cocky, patriotic slave we saw clash with Isabel in the first book to a more determined, passionate and skillful individual. I can’t even believe it but I may like Curzon’s narration and character more than Isabel’s. The two share many aspects such as their stubbornness and desires for freedom but what I like about Curzon more is how he takes action rather than sitting back and going with the flow and the fact that he simply seemed to have more control over his personality and goals in his life (that might have been due to the stakes in his situation being higher though). Heck, I enjoyed his tone so much and getting to know experience all the “fun” Curzon and Eben and the rest of the troops had that I actually prefer Forge over Chains.

            Of course there were some downs in the book such as the roman numerals returning with little snippets of information under them, but the thing I disliked the most about the formatting of the book was the short chapters. Somehow with less pages in it, Forge managed to have far more chapters than Chains with a whopping 62 in total. Now I may not remember how many chapters in Chains, but I can guarantee you they didn’t go past fifty. Maybe there were so many chapters because Curzon’s character was accustomed to short and sweet updates on the important events in his life, or maybe Anderson was experimenting with how long she could make the chapters and still make the story fluid and well written. The only reason I was bothered by this was the fact that there were more little blurbs of information to read as the story progressed onwards as most in the third part of the book some of the chapters were four, three, two and even one-page long. No way did I read all those little blurb thingies as I wanted the story to progress smoothly between ever three to five paragraphs rather than having to take a quick break and lose the feeling of the moment sometimes. Other than that the chapters were executed fairly well and they helped emphasize the dullness of life as a solider during the winter at Valley Forge and were occasionally good at closing most of the loose ends in each chapter but leaving you with just enough to keep wanting more, or fearing for the well fare of Curzon due to his poor circumstances so that you could hardly wait to keep reading.

            As for the characters in the book, I haven’t got much to say about them. The highlights of the story were truly Curzon’s narration and the plot, though there are a few notable characters that really help with the story. Of course there was the one and only Curzon, but he would have hardly have even survived most likely if he hadn’t had saved Eben in the beginning of the book. Eben had somewhat of a naïve nature and fun-loving nature to him, but aside from Curzon he may have been my favorite character. The two would watch out for each other but were hardly above having little tiff among each other, such as weather slavery was good or not, but their close friendship and brotherly bond, not to mention Eben’s habit of calling Curzon “Master Stone Thrower” made the two my favorite together. Then Isabel returned in part three of the book, though she was previously though in parts one and two every once and a while by Curzon. I personally wasn’t too fond of her personality change here in this book as she lost her bite to a degree due to being caught after leaving Curzon, and abused by the man who found her and sold her to Bellingham (implied sexual abuse?), and further discouraged by her failed attempts to escape. While I commend Anderson for keeping the character realistic with her transformation of the character and still managing to keep somethings consistent, I prefer a hard-headed determined Isabel than maid Isabel who’s lost all hope of freedom. Also, I totally called it her and Curzon getting in a relationship which was disappointing but at the same time totally anticipated/understandable and I’m over it now. Of course the main antagonist of the book, Master Bellingham, was a great character too. I was given the impression that he was a benevolent and merciful master towards Curzon in the first book, but all that changes when he finds Curzon in part two of the book and swindles him into being his save again after promising to free Curzon for serving in the army. A character like his would normally be unlinked by me as in the case with Madame Lockton and Isabel in the previous book, but I thoroughly enjoyed his presence in the novel. Maybe it was because his was a harsher master than Madame Lockton or perhaps it was because he and Curzon’s relationship seemed less like a master taking abuse of a slave and more like those anime fights where the main character doesn’t seem strong enough to beat the guy but ends up overcoming the odds anyway (not that I watch a lot of anime). I just felt like Bellingham and Curzon fit each other perfectly as advisories and that the guy was a perfect obstacle for Curzon to overcome. The fact that he was left alive in the end however makes me think he might make a surprise appearance in the next book which peaks my interest for what happens next.

            Overall, this book was a fulfilling sequel and surpassed the first book in my opinion with Curzon’s tone and the higher stakes of this book, but at the same time it could also stand alone and capture the attention of many readers just as the first book did. If you read the first book like I did, then you should totally read this one as well for it picks up where the story was last left off and adds on the characters you love while keeping thing fresh and loveable at the same time. Even people who didn’t read the first book can just read this book only as it brushes up on some of the previous events and stems from the first book but it successfully weaves its own independent tale that doesn’t need background information from the first book to read. Anderson’s writing doesn’t disappoint and her diction makes even the most boring of history something worth reading about. I look forward to getting around to reading the finale of the series in the near future!

Review of Chains, the previous book in the series

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Review)

 

Date Finished: November 5, 2017

Page Count: 300

Genre: Historical Fiction

            The highly recommended novel, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (or is was some other historical slavery book I can’t remember the title of), was not a disappointing read for me these past couple weeks but at the same time something was a bit off. I should have expected as much from a book about slavery as the same thing happens every single time.

            See, being an African American I have suppressed my aspects of my culture and avoided it for the past 5-10 years of my life. It’s not that I don’t have pride; it’s just that I don’t wish to be associated with my people on a regular basis. The exception is if the subject of representation in academics and/or the work force comes up then I’ll gladly stand up for my people to be a good role model to follow. Another thing about my heritage is how in American history Africans used to be slaves even when they weren’t, they were considered to be unequal to white people. It always rubs me the wrong way to read/see/hear about slaves being abused, sort of like the way it hurts to apply too much pressure to an old wound or reopen one. The whole ordeal is rather messy though and I don’t know how I truly feel about the subject, so I would occasionally be yelling at Isabel to take a stand against the injustice even though I knew the most likely outcome of such a situation would be death. Despite all this, Isabel’s status as a slave was probably one of the influences that made me like and dislike the character of Isabel.

            Ahhh Isabel, first you were Isabel Finch, then Sal Lockton, and finally you went with Isabel Gardner. I already had enough trouble remembering you first name in the beginning so why did you always have to be on the edge about your last name (except at the very end). Aside from having a forgettable name, you had the sweetest little sister named Ruth that you protected ever so dearly, and who can’t help but love the loving elder sibling looking out for her seizure-prone little sibling? Your compassion and devotion to her gave you a goal that was realistic and relatable, a constant that never changed through the novel. Even when sold into the cruel establishment of the Locktons you cared not about the revolutionary war around you, but only keeping Ruth safe and regaining you freedom. Even when that wretch Madam Lockton “sold” Ruth to the West Indies into a physician’s house you tried to fight back, and were willing to take out her mistress and run away for Ruth. Even when you was branded with an, “I” for attempting to run away and tried to forget Ruth, she subconsciously yearned to go and find Ruth and finally regain her status as a free man. Everything you did was for Ruth.

            Yet, despite thinking of others, you made sure to care for yourself too. Always trying to figure out which side would free you if you joined their side, being sure to abuse you chores to do your own dirty work, putting your trust in others and giving them your time such as Curzon and Lady Seymour only to benefit yourself in the end. How I love to read about your determined strong willed nature and quick thinking for getting out of jams. It was those times your character shone the most and Anderson has my praise for executing you so well.

            As for your co-stars, I adored little Ruth (though I might have imagined her younger than she actually is) with her empty headed nature covering up her good will and curiosity. She was such a light in the war stained, political bent plot that I was oh so sorry to see her go. Madam Lockton, the character I love to hate, you reminded me of Dorothy from the Dorothy Must Die series I’m probably going to be referencing that series for the rest of the school year out of salty fondness with your vicious and demanding personality and interactions with Isabel. I found your character most engaging when your husband gave you an order and you protested only to receive a brutal beating to be put in your place, a fine justice in my eyes that made me forgive your flaws. The most important of the bunch, Curzon, I honestly can’t tell if you two are going to develop romantic feelings for each other later on in the series, though it’d be refreshing if you don’t. He was the absolute patriot, the representative of the American army and a voice of reason for Isabel at many times. It was you who inspired her to defy her masters and run away with you. It was these faces and more (but mostly these faces) that brought life to the story along with you dear Isabel and your interaction with them made you all the better character.

            But enough about Isabel, let me tell you about Anderson’s writing style. For starters, the first thing I saw when I started reading the book was that the chapters each had the date for when the story was taking place and underneath that a quote that had something to do with the plot of the story. Sometimes I didn’t feel like reading all of the quotes (especially the long ones), but they often had some interesting information about what was actually going on during that time. For instance, in chapter 31 (or whatever XXXI means, honestly, remain numerals are such a pain to remember) much of New York caught fire and Isabel had to help Lady Seymour escape. I probably would have wondered if New York actually ever caught fire during the war if not for the quote at the beginning of the chapter from the New York Mercury Newspaper briefly describing what happened that night. It was moments like these that I was happy for Anderson having formatted her book that way.

            Anderson also was great at writing from the perspective of a slave, writing her struggle with her position and her morals, making her character convincing enough for us to follow. I especially enjoyed the metaphor of Isabel having bees in her face buzzing when she was dazed or angry, making her thoughts become scrambled and illegible at times. Isabel with a face full of bees is actually what I’d like to draw to accompany this review yet I fell rather sluggish right now and have little to no desire to actually execute such an idea which is a shame (also the final product might be a bit gross and unsuitable for a school blog). Despite the enjoyable writing, I found the amount of page breaks in a chapter to be slightly bothersome and at times a waste of pages (think of all the trees that must have been slaughtered) though they made sense since the chapters often encompassed many events in a day or multiple days.

            As for Anderson’s purpose which as I pondered upon in the previous blog post, I’d have to say that this was probably written for entertainment purposes. The story simply follows Isabel and her quest to liberate her sister and her from slavery and a couple things may be taught to the reader as they go through the story depending on how much they know about the American Revolution. Entertaining, yes but a deeper meaning about freedom, I’m far more dubious about now than before. Maybe after reading all the books in the series I’ll be able to see some overarching purpose that links the three books together that’s super impactful and evolutionary. Even if that’s not the case, this is a great quick read that keeps the reader entertained among other things.

            To conclude, this book isn’t for everyone though I can say right away that even if you don’t like historical fiction you should read this book. It doesn’t cover so much history to the point of being a history textbook written by an English teacher but rather shows you the impact it has on the life of one of the less fortunate people in America at the time. Speaking of the devil, Isabel is a headstrong determined main character that was a real treat in the book and carried much of the weight through the story. Being told form her perspective, the story wasn’t the most lighthearted of tales and we get to see her character develop after much struggling and hardships that keep the story engaging and worth reading. Anderson herself wrote the story very well, mixing passion and suffering into her words to where I want to read more of her works and have decided to read the next book in the trilogy. The good thing about this series though is that with the way it ends, it doesn’t demand that the reader continue reading on and can simply be satisfied to some who only read that book. Overall, I recommend this to the general population and find it a great pleasure to read.

More blog posts on, Chains

Message of the book

Promote the Equality! An Absurdity in the 21st Century?: Anderson's Message in "Chains"

            Since I finished Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden x days ago, I’ve decided to keep with the historical fiction and am currently reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. It’s a book about a slave in right when America was dumped England who was meant to be freed with her younger sister when their previous master died but instead got sold to a bloody Troy mistress of a husband that would be considered abusive by today’s standards. Also, it’s a trilogy (or there’s at least three books), but don’t expect me to cram all the book in three week like with the Dorothy Must Die series as I’m checking them out form the school library which gives more than two weeks to read the books. It’s still a good book so far but I’m having a couple issues, or at the very least hiccups so far.
           

            Okay reader, it may or may not surprise you, but I am an African American.

*inaudible gasps from amongst the inexistent readers. *

With that being said, I always find it slightly awkward to read books on slavery in the Americas, yet can’t help but get myself tangled up in their webs. Usually when reading said books, I can’t help but mentally cry out for the characters to break their chains and run away to freedom super slick mentioning the title there me. I almost wish I could rewrite the authors words and history to allow the slaves to fight back against the oppressive and unjust white population for enslaving them and liberate all the people. Of course, the logical me has to come out and remind myself that even though slaves were slightly stronger than some of their masters like the females they had guns pointing to their face and little support most of the time that could stand in the way of that. It’s truly a depressing thing to think about and I’m practically being torn apart by my feeling and history. However, with main characters like Isabel who desperately wants freedom for herself and her sister, it’s easy to guess that she’s probably going to get what she wants to some degree by the end of the series, and that freedom is the message of the book. But why?

Okay, so civil right happened years ago and equality is supposedly a thing in America right? What’s the point of advocating for freedom in 2010 (year the book was published) then? We’ve already achieved enlightenment and know that people are people and we’re all equal. Or are we? Is Anderson trying to say that what we perceive to be equality is an illusion and people aren’t treated as equals as when Isabel helps the rebels they still treat her as something to forget about? Is she saying that we must constantly be fighting for equality in the way the slaves help the cause to be free from England and their masters to be seen as equals? Is it that we can’t achieve equality without sacrifice seen in Isabel trying hard to please the rebels but never getting what she wants a metaphor for how America hasn’t sacrificed enough so we aren’t an equal country? What are you trying to say Anderson?

*screams of frustration into the distant abyss of the internet*

…

So I’m though it would be fitting to mention the message of the book this time around since we’re doing persuasive writing in class and because the message of the book is driving me absolutely crazy. I personally think Anderson wrote this book because she likes to write historical fiction and wanted to tell an entertain story, but had embed the message that Americans aren’t completely equal due to the circumstances we’re born in and the abilities we have such as Isabel’s little sister, Ruth, having fits (though they may be seizures) and Isabel being taught how to read by her former master giving them disadvantages and advanced respectively. I’d love to go into detail about what I mean but I’ll save that for the book review next week.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (Review)

Date Finished: October 25, 2017

Page Count: 427

Genre: Historical Fiction

            How refreshing, a novel not written by Danielle Paige or a young adult fantasy novel. It’s not that I don’t love Paige’s work, I just really need some air after that suffocating series finale, and I’m happy to say Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden was just the glass of ice cold water with a tiny umbrella and lemon slice of refreshing I was looking for. The life story of Chiyo’s, better known by her geisha name, Sayuri, life was immersive, delightful and a wonderful way to learn more about Japanese culture. Her story was so good, that on multiple occasions I had to physically separate myself from the book (with miles) so that I would spend the afternoon doing homework instead of reading. Let me take a few steps back though, there were many great elements in this story and by far the one you should know I love to highlight by now is the fabulous characters that carried the story! Just a few quick note though, I almost interchangeable use Chiyo and Sayuri to refer to the protagonist though I’m trying to only use Chiyo before she becomes a geisha. They are indeed the same person. Also much of the cultural elements are unexplained as well as things that happen in the plot as that would take way to many words and I’m sure by the third or so paragraph some of you people reading this must be bored.

Though Sayuri herself is a fictional character, her story is based on the real life of geisha from the 1920s to the 1950s and is told from her perspective as she reflects on her experience as an old woman. Having been born the year of the monkey under the element of water, many people saw Chiyo with having the potential to be very clever and resourceful. This alone is not what catches of Mr. Tanaka, the head of the fisherman company who sells her into the okiya (geisha house), but rather it’s her eyes that are described as translucent gray rather than the dark brown that’s common among Japanese people. I’d call out Golden for using the cliché of, super unique characteristic that makes the main character stand out, but this is a historical fiction novel and not a reboot of Yu-Gi-Oh!, so it’s understandable that Chiyo has some physical trait about her that makes her stand out (and at the very least, it’s not as extreme as over the top spiky hair).

Any who, Chiyo is taken away from her home at the age of eight along with her fifteen year old sister to be sold in Gion, the geisha district in Kyoto. Here she finds herself in the midst of a life separated from her sister that she has no choice but to accept and is immediately targeted by the head Geisha Hatsumomo, due to being possibly competition in future. This is the part where things start to get really good for me as Hatsumomo’s character is exactly like Dorothy form the Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Paige, just a bit less extreme in her torture (or more extreme if you think death is a sweet release compared to making someone’s life a living hell) and she’s not invincible. Her beautiful yet vicious nature was something for Chiyo to beware, as being the source of income for the okiya everyone tried to please her so Chiyo had no choice but to allow Hatsumomo to bully her into breaking the rules. Hatsumomo’s presence also gave me a reason to root for Chiyo as she was the underdog, and quite possibly the only one who could put an end to Hatsumomo’s tyranny. Her presence is what allowed us to see just how desperate Chiyo is to escape her fate as a geisha in training by attempting to run away only to fall and break her arm. Even after that when Chiyo was taken under the wing of renowned geisha, Mameha as her little sister we got to see patience in Sayuri when she was dealing with trouble and her water like qualities in how she would easily adapt to different situations. As a matter of fact, when Hatsumomo was tormenting Chiyo/Sayuri I found Chiyo/Sayuri’s character most enjoyable to read about.

Chiyo/Sayuri’s, kindness was another thing I enjoyed about this novel as she wasn’t afraid to make friends with the rival apprentice, Pumpkin, and she didn’t behave as Hatsumomo did to the new geisha apprentice when returning to the okiya after world war II. Perhaps this came from her clever nature, or maybe even the fact the she was so flexible that she never felt the need to push others away. I’m not saying Chiyo/Sayuri was Disney princess kind, but she was kind and honest enough to get the attention of Nobu and the Chairman to both want to be her danna. Her kindness wasn’t without it’s repercussions however, as when she tried to discourage Nobu from being her danna near the end of the novel and asked Pumpkin to discover her and the Minister (nothing important about him except he likes Sayuri and Nobu owed him a favor late in the story), Pumpkin betrayed her and brought the Chairman (the man she liked) instead. Sayuri didn’t understand the actions of her friend but Pumpkin was upset over the fact that Sayuri stole the position of the daughter of Mother back in their girlhood days’ despite them being friends. In a way this give makes Sayuri out to be naïve and at the same time over trustworthy, a flaw most appreciated and despised at the same time.

Yeah, I’m going to be honest with you, sometimes it was annoying even repulsive to listen to Chiyo/Sayuri, though it was only a few times in the beginning and a lot of times at the last few chapters. The thing that bothered me the most about her character had to be when she was around Nobu. So Nobu Toshikazu was the president of Iwamura Electric that had meet the founder and Chairman, Iwamura Ken after being in a horrific bombing of Seoul in 1910, which caused numerous burns on his body and the loss of his left arm. Since Sayuri fell in love with the Chairman as a maid years prior to meeting Nobu when he showed kindness to amidst her depression, she far less emotion ties to him compared to the Chairman. This causes her mind to often point out the negative things about Nobu like his short temper and tendency to be rude and she would ignore the fact that he shows great favoritism towards her and even would like to be her danna. Heck, like I said before, she even goes as far as having intercourse with the Minister to try to halt his attempts of trying to become her danna. What the heck man?! Nobu was so kind to you and just because some stranger showed you kindness so many years ago you’re going to try to be with him and stay true to him mostly, and deny this other guy who obviously likes you just because of that (and the fact the he’s unsightly)? How awful! Though I must admit, I originally wanted Sayuri to end up with the Chairman at first because that would have made her happy, but Nobu was the one that actually made a move (since the Chairman was backing off because he owed Nobu so much) and that made me want him to be Sayuri’s danna even though I knew it wasn’t meant to be, _{because I was an idiot and red the Wikipedia summary four months ago}! I kid you not, near the end of the book it so band due to Nobu was preparing to seal the deal, and Sayuri stated to think herself sick trying coming up with way to avoid Nobu and I couldn’t help but think,

“Godd*mn Sayuri, shut the hell up about that Chairman. He doesn’t even really love you, he just loves your beauty!!” And then she’d keep talking about the Chairman. “JESUS CHRIST WOMAN, SHUT THE HELL UP!” but the misery wouldn’t end till the book ended. She was just so freaking ungrateful about her friendship with Nobu and all the fun they had together it reminded me of my generation and how ungrateful and rude we tend to be. That enough can make my stomach hurl and I’m surprised I was so dedicated to the story to finish reading it despite those really low point. What can I say though, Memoirs of a Geisha is one fine book and I already knew how the story would end so might as well stick it through for the happy ending.

I’m not going to say I was happy the Sayuri successfully obliterated her friendship with Nobu forever and almost ended up living happily ever after with the Chairman, but it was quite a satisfying ending and by the final chapter I was back onboard the Sayuri-Chairman ship. See, at the end she was able to retire from being a geisha due to the Chairman becoming her danna rather than Nobu (which would be rather awkward around Nobu) and the two often spent some good times together. She even got to go to America a couple times with him and had an illegitimate son with him, eventually moving permantly residing in New York with said son because of inheritance issues with Iwamura Electric. Something about reading old Sayuri reflect on her life with the Chairman as her danna was very pleasant for me, and I love how she (technically Golden) wove her words together to summaries everything but still provide enough detail at the most important parts. Still upset about her selfishness though, but not so upset that I don’t plan on not forgiving her for having that happen, or letting it ruin my whole reading experience. Something else was are real enjoyment killer and slightly disturbing too.

First off, I am a virgin and have been raised to have abstinence towards the sex until I’m married, so you can imagine how awkward it felt for me when Mameha started to talk about eels wanting to find caves to explore. I thought that would be then end of it but nope, the Baron, Mameha’s danna might I add, undressed Sayuri a bit after that and Sayuri described in detail when it was like to have her striped down and how afraid she was when the Baron leaned in close. Thankfully, he didn’t lay on her then so I hoped that would be then end of that, except then Sayuri’s mizuage (deflowering ceremony) came up and she totally describe how that went too!! There were a couple more instances after that, but yeah I was holding my breath every time a scene like that came up and hoping that I wasn’t breaking the law or anything by reading such content then again, I read Push by Sapphire last year, but that experience was way more horrific *shudders*. So fair warning reader, there is intimacy in this novel and other stuff like it, but that’s to be expected when the main character is a prostitute (something I didn’t know about geishas before reading this). This can really kill the fun of the novel if you aren’t okay with that sort of thing.

 

Sayuri (center) as an apprentice in a kimono inspired from one in the movie surrounded by Mr. Tanaka (bottom left), the Minister (middle left), Nobu (top left), Dr. Crab (bottom right), the Baron (middle right), and the Chairman (top right). I went for a shōjo style due to the romantic nature of this book and apologize for any inaccuracies.

 

Any who, I overall enjoyed this book greatly. The story started out at just the right place in Chiyo’s life and had smooth transition between each phase, plus that fact the she was narrating this as an adult gave an old-timey, metacognitive feel to the story that suited it well that I enjoyed. Despite the flaws in Sayuri’s character I truly wanted her to succeed in her quest for winning the Chairman’s acknowledgement and affection. While I didn’t talk about many of the other characters in this review, some of the strongest supporting cast members were Hatsumomo and Nobu, as the savage yet venerable Hatsumomo provided an obstacle for Sayuri to overcome and helped to progress the plot along for the majority of the book, and Nobu provided a very down-to-earth perspective and seemed to be one of the few sensible yet kind characters in the book (actually remind me of myself a bit). Sayuri truly carried this story the whole way through however, her narrating being phenomenal and engaging for me and I found myself connecting with her and rooting for her happiness most of the time in the story. Heck, I even learned some stuff about Japanese culture (though some might be exaggerated by Golden) and the affect WWII had on Japan. This is why I highly recommend the book to those interested in historical fiction or those who are Japanophile or okatus/weaboos as those who are interested in one aspect of the culture might be interested in another.

One last thing worth noting, the book was made into a movie and that’s what pops up when you Google, “Memoirs of a Geisha”. So if you’re one of those people who hate it when books are made into movies or love it when books are turned into movies that’s something to look out for. I heard that the movie was enjoyable as the book from my English teacher last year so it can’t be too much of a horrid disgrace to the source material. I myself have actually never seen the movie, but after watching the preview I have the sudden urge to spend my weekend trying to watch that rather than season 2 of Stranger Things.

The End of Oz by Danielle Paige (Reivew)

 

Date Finished: October 16, 2017

Page Count: 277

Genre: Fantasy

 

            Dorothy does not, I repeat, does NOT die in this book. At least I’m pretty sure she doesn’t. She dumps a bucket of water her head and rewrites the Oz time line or something, so everyone is happy and no one has died thanks to her vanity. Aside from whatever the hell happened, reading this book was a huge mistake. Did I mention that there should have only been three books in the series in my last review due to the series becoming tedious and losing its charm? That was the problem with this book, and it somehow managed to screwed up everything I love about the series. It got rid of all the characters, setting and elements I loved for poorer characters, crappy setting and romance everywhere (I kid you not, the basis of the plot revolve around the Nome King trying to marry Dorothy). Who cares though, this is my opinion so none of it can be true right? Well, I might be exaggerating just a teeny, tiny, microscopic bit though so allow me to go into detail on everything wrong with this book. Just be warned that everything I say from here on out should be taken with a grain of salt and I mean no disrespect to Danielle Paige. She is an awesome write who just wrote a book that only one fan got salty over or maybe more if other feel the same way as me.

            For starters, let me talk about the beginning. We have Amy Maddison and Nox on the yellow brick road escaping the attack of Galinda/Glamora and the Nome King and as it flies through the sky Amy explains everything that happened to her to Maddison. So the recaps are a regular in the series but they never cease to slightly irritate me since I jump from book to book with less than 24 hours between reading each book. Having Maddison around for the adventure seemed like it’d be an interesting thing as I had hope I’d get to experience what Oz is like from the eyes of a U.S. citizen again rather than a native or a veteran. Rather than stay in Oz though, the Yellow Brick road takes the three to the Kingdom of Ev, where the Nome King is from. Yep, his dreary, plain, flat slab of a kingdom with nothing but living nightmares that don’t really leave an impression and tons of people that we never get to meet. Good bye all my favorite characters in Oz because instead of a proper goodbye like with Pete in book three we just get a glance at you guys kicking butt against Gilinda/Glamora sometime after the trio has been hiding in Ev and even then it’s merely a glimpse. Seriously Paige, why would you do that?! None of the characters in Ev besides Bupu, Dorothy’s Muchkin maid, were interesting! Why get rid of all your glorious little children and give you readers nothing more than a glimpse of them in chapter ten!! They’re one of the best things about the series!!! Even Satan would agree that taking the plot to Ev was a sin because of how mediocre the plot is compared to the other three books!!!! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO THE FANS!!!!!

            …

            This was by far one of the worst things about this book and just about killed my enthusiasm for the series. In the past three reviews, I praised Paige for her fabulous character development and diction for describing them. She made me love them even though I knew they could die at any moment just like Indigo way back in book one. To just get up and leave them fighting what could have been the most epic battle in the series was an awful decision. The only interesting about the cast from Ev in this book was seeing the Nome King get tight with Dorothy (in some twisted, romantic way) and Lang, a former member of the Order forced to work for the Nome King, with her feelings for Merlindra, another member of the order meet in book one who had half a body of tin, and got them rejected, and Bupu because of her candid yet fearful personality and desire to help Dorothy despite the wickedness in her heart. That was all they brought to the story and though it was something, the plot was still highly uninteresting and drab. The one glimpse we do get to see of all our friends in Oz they’re kicking butt, which I think I stated before, but that scene was just a shell of the awesomeness that could have been the finale. Just picture the epicenes of the battle through Paige’s own words but even better than what we got (part of a chapter) because Amy and Nox would be there too and since it would take up the majority of the book. But nope, characters gone and their replacements just weren’t as good so the book was highly dissatisfying.

            Despite the lack of enjoyable characters, you’d think this would still be like all the other books in the series, full of action and blood pumping battle that have you on the edge of your seat, right? Wrong! The only battles are at the middle where Amy get a glimpse of what’s happening in Oz, and at the end when the Nome King realizes Amy has made it into Ev during his wedding and plans to crash it (which isn’t as much as a battle as it’s a struggle to me), and some sort of mini cat fight between Dorothy and Amy as they tried to kill each other without powers. That was it. I kept waiting for the moment to come where someone would run forward to sever a head from a body like in book two or shoot oversized sparkly lightning bolts into the heart of their opponent like in books two and three (and maybe one), but that only happened in the second battle I mentioned. Huge disappointment. I get that Paige was trying to write Amy as reasonable and able to solve her problems with her head rather than her magic, but when you build a series based on battling with Pokémon there had better be a Pokémon battle the final confrontation and not humans fighting humans!

            I will admit however, it was nice to see Amy trying to find a way to defeat Dorothy without killing her as she just couldn’t weigh that on her conscience, and it was also really cool for the story to be told from the perspective of Dorothy at times (one of the few redeeming things about this book that I seriously look forward to). She’s such a inspiring villain and it was wonderful that we got to see her open up about her thoughts and past life after becoming a power-hungry tyrant. And I’ll admit, I’m glad that Nox and Amy could be together since the changed time in Oz (still not sure how) and he chose to go to Kansas to be with her, and I actually like the cliffhanger for once since it left possibilities open for what happens next but was still a satisfying conclusion that could end the series. I actually what to know what happens next because the land of Oz was great, and after a whole book of being deprived of it I’d hate for the series to end this way.

            So the final judgment eh? I honestly didn’t see it coming out like this, but I don’t recommend this book to people who have come to love the Dorothy Must Die series as I have. The action is gone, the characters are gone, the magical land of Oz is gone (so in a sort of twisted irony, it makes the title fit really well), and it’s as if some pitiful mushroom is growing in a magnificent valley of flowers. If you want to see a much more merciful and metacognitive version of Amy, the inner thoughts of Dorothy, or more Amy and Nox romance then read this book. Who knows, you may find satisfaction where I find disappointment, though I do apologize if my review has made you bias and you can’t enjoy the book now because I haven’t. This really was a disappointing end to the series, satisfying but disappointing. If I had to describe my feeling towards this book it be getting shot by bullets made of salt ten-trillion times without dying, then being cut in half with a salt sword along my midsagittal plane and every sagittal plane possible without dying, but rather having a hundred layers of salt put in between my severed flesh and then being stitched back together with a needle and thread made of salt and finally wrapped in ten layers of salt bandages. Then when I’d think everything was over I’d learn that a thousand giant nuclear bomb of salt was headed straight for me for the finishing blow and I just sit thinking that it’s a relief to have everything end, but when my body is obliterated by all the bombs my soul ends up in salt hell for all eternity and Satan is sadly shaking his head at me saying he feels the same way (although with much more vulgar language) and then whipping me for all eternity while a waterfall of salt simultaneously drops millions upon millions of pounds of salt on me. So, yeah, I’m a little salty about the ending and everything that happened in the book. It was like it would never end and it makes me almost regret reading the series in the first place. However, you should still read Dorothy Must Die and the other two books in the series at least and either choose to heed my words or ignore them and see what you think about, The End of Oz. Change can be a good thing, this sort of abrupt change right at the end of a series it the kind of this the tears fans up and then by erasing time you’re usually just throwing salt in the wound. I honestly think Daniel Paige is a phenomenal author with some of the best diction I’ve ever read and fantastic characters to dance in her beautiful imagery, but Marissa Meyer remains the retelling queen, and the way this series has ended simply leaves the same sort of bitter taste in my mouth as D. Gray Man. I’d still read the series again after enough time has passed, with the exception of this book and highly recommend the overall series to all those who enjoy young adult fantasy or a more morbid retelling of a classic tale.