Mikayla takes a journey in the 2017-2018 school year where she tries to read as many books as possible and records stuff about them here. Spoilers aren't censored and are numerous in quantity. Also please excuse her poor grammar.
So since
you noticed, yes this isn’t exactly what I’d call a review, it’s more of a PSA.
Let’s be honest here, it can be rather challenging to review a nonfiction book
unless you want to spend the duration of the review talking about the
formatting of the book and what you learned. Ironically I’m going to do that,
but the most, most important part of this review is going to be a PSA directed
at you, you unknown internet surfing American/post about lots of stuff I
learned from this book. Thank God this review won’t be as long as my last one (hopefully),
but you shouldn’t skip over this review because it long or because it’s a
nonfiction book. I promise you I will do my best to convince you to read this
book or not. Alright then lets hop to it!
Shin In Geun (now know as Shin Dong-hyuk) is the man of the hour and this book
is about his life. It’s about more than just his life though, it’s about the
life of those born and raised in North Korea’s worst prison camp and the
challenges people who escape from the camp face when trying to assimilate into
other societies. This is the story of current atrocities in our world that many
people are blind to or barely bat an eye at because it’s not them, there no way
this could be going on, why should we have to deal with the sheet storm called
North Korea?
Before reading this book I was one
of the people who would make jokes about North Korea watching us (the US) and I
used to think Hitler was the most inhuman person to have ever walked the planet
recently. How blind I was to the abusive thieves we have walking on our planet
at this moment. I hate to say bas things about Elie Wiesel (and yes, I have
read Night), but he got the better
end of the stick back in WW2. This is one of the mind blowing things about this
book, (and while I don’t remember when things were stated exactly) it pointed
out how all that’s going on is worse in North Korea than the Holocaust as NK’s labor
camps have existed twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps (and
still exist today, just Google map it). “So what?” You say? Here’s the part
where I get slightly biased; the Nazi camps were meant for killing, the NK ones
are meant to punish.
Despite
what you believe the afterlife is going to be like, most people will agree that
pain is not a fun experience and if torture is bad enough they’d kill themselves
rather than have to experience prolonged misery. People who got sent to the Camp
14 have to endure long hours of labor while malnourished and often beaten up
for failure and/or not meeting one’s quota. For those who went in suicide is a
highly likely possibility. There was even a part in the book where Harden talked
about how another defector once jumped down a mine shaft trying to kill himself
and was then upset when he failed. That’s super messed up. You think it isn’t
because some Jews also completed suicide? The scale of prisoners is far greater
and the fact that the guards don’t want them to die should give you some
indication that the intention isn’t mass murder, is mass labor in hell on
earth. Don’t even get me started on the social structure of the camp.
NK concentration
camps don’t throw babies into fires, don’t gas women, and don’t get rid of the
unhealthy workers immediately. Men and women are “give” to each other as
rewards to try and have children in the camp as (with Camp 14 at least) the
idea is to purify the criminals by at least three generations (the worst political
enemies and stuff go to Camp 14). These kids are raised to be informers and alert
their guards, or “teachers” as the kids grow up calling them, of anyone who
might break the rules, even their own family. To them there is no love with
family as there is no love allowed at camp. With the pressure to snitch and
keep oneself from harm, it’s probably impossible to develop strong, positive emotions
at another other than fragile trust when it isn’t even taught to them.
Speaking of taught, teaching there
is horrible. Shin describes how he once watched his six-year old classmate get
beat to death with a chalkboard pointer by the teacher. That was something
normal at school, you work or get beaten till you can’t be beat anymore. NK has
(had?) a population of about 23 million people; it can keep sending people to
those labor camps for a long time. With such a poor economy, the prisoners are practically
always working starting at their schooling years. Most of school is doing work
and not actually learning so the prisoners are usually literate and light-years
behind in schooling. Most of the people assume they’re going to die working
someday soon, it’s that bad.
To be born and raised in such a
death pit in the 21st century is shocking to say the least, but what’s
more shocking is how little the world is doing to fix the sins of the Kim
dynasty. Lots of food and medical aid is sent to the country but NK is so tense
and heavily armed that the supplies gets in unsupervised and then mostly given
to the elites or sold at cheap prices to outside markets so that the civilians
and prisoners starve. Starvation is so bad there that populations of normal pet
creatures, ex: dogs, are very low since many starving NKs scavenge and eat them
in times of famine. That’s messed up!
I could go on and on about the
terrible lives the people in the concentration camps live and the challenge
they face if they happen to escape (highly unlikely since Shin is the only
person to escape from Camp 14 so far, but other camps, yeah people might escape
those) or you could read the book. Seriously, if you’re an American talking
about NK like it’s something awful but only know about its supposed nuclear
power and not its failure to establish decent human rights for its people you
are a disgrace and a testimony to the ignorance and self-centeredness that (I feel)
plagues the country today. Shin’s life story is a remarkable one that needs to
be shared if the world ever stands a chance at helping the prisoners of NK, not
just those in camps, but those restricted by the government who live in fear of
their lives and have no dreams due to its censorship on the rest of the world
(though NK apparently teaches kids that America is a b*stard and SK is
it's b*tch). It’s highly enlightening and doesn’t gloss over anything or over
exaggerate on stuff, and he’s even honest about the lie he told for years about
never knowing anything about his mother’s plans for escape when spoiler alert: Shin
was the one who alerted the authorities of his mom and his older brother’s plan
for escape. You know they’re teaching some messed up sheet when a guy admits
that he didn’t want to seem inhuman and be a pariah so he lied about a crucial
part of his life story to the world. Take it from someone who is young
and just finished the book, this is not a boring to read and you can actually
learn a lot form it without having to sit through the (sometimes) boring format
of normal nonfiction books. Heck, I even (brace yourself) found Escape from Camp 14 to be more a hell of
a lot better than Elie Wiesel’s Night,
not that I’m hating on Night (that book was okay).
Please, I want you to be raise awareness
about the NK problem and read this book by checking it out from your local
library or buying the book from a bookstore (not from Amazon, they may have it
cheaper but you shouldn’t help them in their quest to take over the world
before Google) as it truly is a book worth keeping. While not for the faint of
heart I’d say people starting at age 13 should read this book no matter who
they are; we can’t fix a problem we don’t know about so please read the book
and realize just how bad things are in NK. Have I said you should read the book
enough times? Go read the book now! Stop reading this review and go read it
now.
This here
is a collection of stories (obviously) that I picked up from the school library
and decided to read because I finished my last book before spring break and
needed something to read first period. Believe me, I would probably have never
considered picking up this book for any other reason but of all the books on
the top of the shelf it seemed the most interesting that I could quickly get my
hands on. Let me say up front, the overall feel is a mixed result: some stories
I like, some stories I didn’t. To not jumble everything up and unjustly
criticize one story for another’s faults this is going to be review with many
reviews. At the very end I’ll even get around to reviewing all the little
comics (in one big jumble because they’re on page comics between stories) and
then summarize all my thoughts and whether or not you should read this book.
Alright, let’s get this show on the road!
Once You’re a Jedi,
You’re a Jedi All the Way by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci
This was
one of the better stories if you ask me, a romance between a Jedi and a
Klingon. Yes, I just said that. But not the real deal, just hardcore cosplayers
who happen to be cosplaying as a Jedi and a Klingon. I liked how this story was
able to flesh out Thomas (the Jedi) and Chung Ae’s (the Klingon) characters and
the convention center so well in just 15 and a half pages (more like 14 since
the last page was about half and so was the first page but what the heck, who
really cares). It was written in a really cool format where each character got
to speak in first person before switching off to the other so that was a nice
way to keep things moving along too. The only problem I had with this was that
I couldn’t understand all the Star Trek
stuff since I’m not into that stuff (I just have never seen if for myself).
Other than that, it was an excellent way to start off a book, kept the theme of
the “geek” well and was above all entertaining.
Grade: 89%
One of Us by Tracy
Lynn
It’s
forgettable, however I like it. It’s like one of the songs in my YouTube
playlist that I like and then forget about after a few years only to stumble
upon it many years later like this:
Ah, the memories of TPSP and listening to this song over and
over are coming back to me… that aside this story really is a good read like
that song is a great listen (just listen and feel the power of animeesqe
opening sound tracks! Feel it!!). I like how Montgomery wasn’t a geek herself
but was able to come to accept the geeks for who they were at the end of the
story and befriend them. Not all these stories have to have geeks as their main
characters to have the geek feel to them and still be good. One of my favorite
things was seeing the relationship between Montgomery and Ellen and Montgomery
and Mica, those were some deep stuff for 30 pages and I loved it. However,
either due to it being the second story in the book or it being so long, I
kinda forgot what this story was about when I just looked at the title for the
review. Oh well, it’s still really good.
Grade: 80%
Definitional Chaos
by Scott Westerfeld
I didn’t
quite know what to think of this one. It rubbed me the wrong way when I first
started reading it (I was also just getting used to the one shot story format
at this point) and that feeling stuck with me the whole way through. You have
the main character (whose real name I can’t remember so I’ll call him by his
old avatar’s name) Temptress Moon has to deliver some money for a ConCom to
rent a hotel to someone in Florida (I think) with his crazy ex-girlfriend Lexia
that killed his old avatar. I get it, the guy was neutral all the way and Lexia
wanted things to be fun in the game again (chaotic) so she killed him and stuff
but this was boring and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Sorry Westerfeld.
Think of it this way, I liked the concept to a degree but the execution didn’t
feel right to me and alienated me (train conversations about psychological
stuff with video games, alcohol, weapons, money, relationship tension and
insanity mixed in? No thanks, I think I’ll pass) in a similar way to this one
song I keep listening to does. I don’t want to listen to the song, but it automatically
plays after this this one song I’ve really been obsessed with and it rubs me
the wrong way. I even really like the original, it’s just the instruments and
the vocals don’t sit well with me for that song. What’s the song you ask? It’s
this (yeah, two song in one post. This may be a thing for this review. Also I
am a proud Touhou fan so deal with it world.):
Grade: 40%
I Never by
Cassandra Clare
“Oh hey,
let’s have an introvert get dragged out by her way more outgoing friend to meet
up with some people who play a game. She only goes to meet this one guy she
talks to but he turn out not to be what she expects because he’s kinda, sorta,
totally just out to have sex with the ladies and she gets sad but falls in love
with the guys brother who really wrote the letters and everything is okay!!!”
That was essentially what happened and I found it to be boring. This was one of
the many romantic stories [pretty much all of them had some romance in them
where main character has crush on someone or meets someone and they get
together (except in one story I don’t think they did)] in the collection and I
am disappointed. There was too many tropes done in noncreative ways and I
didn’t like how “one in a thousand” this story felt for me. You can remix Septette
for a Dead Princess all you want
world but some are bound to be terrible remixes. If you want a book that does:
introverted geek meets nice guy and falls in love then experiences trials but
everything turns out okay in a more creative way I recommend reading Eliza
and Her Monsters by Francis Zappia. But overall it was an okay story.
Grade: 71%
The King of Pelinesse by M. T. Anderson
Me: What even was
this story about? (I check) Oh.
This story was forgettable and bad.
At the very least romance was minimal. Let's just say it was a kid going to see
his favorite author because he had mom problems and his mother destroyed his
book collection by that author. The author was also a perv and was writing
letter to the guy’s (whose name is Jim Hucker) mom about fake affairs they had.
Lots of symbolism and metaphors when the few mentions of sex were brought up
and yeah, stuff. I don’t know if you can tell why I wasn’t real into this story
(just read past reviews like Memoirs of a Geisha by Author Golden) but
I’m going to stop typing now and move on. At least the concept was something
original, just not appealing to my tastes.
Grade: 25%
The Wrath of Dawn by Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith
It was short and okay. Perhaps it
was too short and didn’t give enough time for everything to be developed
enough. All I remember is it was about Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and
her love of the character Dawn (plus her own name was Dawn). She got roped into
going on a double date with her step sister (somehow it seems like all these
geeks experience some family screw up like divorce or mental health or brother
gets screwed when family is really touched up upon here) who absolutely despises
Dawn. She see a Buffy flick with lots of fans who boo at Dawn, makes and
inspirational speech and then gets a round of applause. This might have hit me
more if I was a fan of Buffy but since I’m not this one was only good
and not great. Had I understood it more due to being a part of the fandom and
maybe this story could have been great to me (or it could have offended me,
fandoms don’t usually sit too well with me in all my experience I’ve had with
them). It’s like (oh my God, she’s doing it again) when I end up in the Pokémon
section of the remix community of YouTube and I like the remixes, they just
aren’t as good as they might be if I was actually into the series. For example,
this is one awesome remix. If I like Pokémon it’d be one Hell of remix and not
just an awesome remix:
Grade: 84%
Quiz Bowl Antichrist by David Levithan
The main character Alec sucks! I hate
him! He made the story unbearable and an absolute punishment to read!! Worst
story in the book!!! Sorry!!
Let me be serious for a moment
though, I get what Levithan was going for. He wanted to have a d*** main
character who didn’t care about anyone but himself and his love interest,
Damien, and he wanted to get together with Damien even though he didn’t stand
or deserve a chance with him. He wanted Alec to show that geeks can sometimes
be horrible people because they’re lonely with all their knowledge and no one
to share it with and potatoes and have Alec learn an important less to have
some fun in his life. It still sucked though because I just despise having to
sit through all the laziness and mean thoughts Alec thinks about. I’m no saint and actually have some pretty dark thoughts go through my
head (and get translated to children’s books that I turn into my English
teacher when I really shouldn’t be doing something like that for school theater
arts has it worse though, you should see the script I’ve been writing there. I
have to make a censored version for this semester because it goes there (for
good reason of course though) and doesn’t stop going) but I don’t tell them
to people because it’s not worth it or a small shred of emotions stops me from
hurting others. I’m telling you right now, don’t walk down the stairs with me
alone (or even with other people in some cases) if we don’t have a history or a
reason to keep you around. I’ve never actually done anything outside of my
dreams but in the right place at the right time…
I was going somewhere with the
tangent but whatever, this story sucked! Alec was the Vee Crawford-Wong for me
so enough said.
Grade: -15%
The Quite Knight by Garth Nix
This may have been my favorite
story. It’s probably tied with two other stories for first but I really loved
this story. Tony was such an interesting character for a guy who hardly talked
and I loved how the story handled its third person to show what he was feeling
and fill me in on important background information. The plot was super good to.
So Tony is a LARP geek and did this all in secret from the world and his
father. One day he goes and these new comers are there with his usual group. Tony
kind likes the girl, Soraya, but is too shy and introverted to speak to her
till he discovers she goes to school with him and actually get to lend her a
hand. I found this to be a great coming out of one’s shell story and the
character of Tony was just so good. His accident (drinking bleach or something
as a kid) was tragic and effectively made me feels for him and the fact that
everyone feared him since he was so big and intimidating was a nice twist for
the guy. I’d type more about this but I’m only about halfway through the
stories and it’s kinda hard to put my feelings into words so yeah. Let’s just
say I was super good with this and wanted to listen to it over and over again
like this song (it also took something I’m not a huge fan of, romance, and
turned it into one of the few instances I really like it kind how this remix took
Bloom Nobly, Ink-Black Cherry Blossom ~ Border of Life, a theme that is
far from my favorites and made it into something I currently listen to over and
over again).
Grade: 100%
Everyone but You by Lisa Yee
Beautiful. I love this. It’s tied
with The Quite Knight and that one other story for first place. Felicity
was not the type of character I favored at first. Being preppy and popular
majorette at her previous high school Felicity had to move due to her mother
getting a divorce (see what I was talking about with those family problems?) and
then married an old rich guy whose life she saved and Felicity had to move with
her mom and brother to Hawaii with her. Seeing Felicity have to adjust to there
no longer being a band and being the unpopular girl at school was interesting
though and I guilty cared for her when she started to get picked on by all her
peers for being a light skinned preppy chick in Hawaii when everyone else was
this mellowed out surfer dude (pretty much). Seeing her focus more on her
studies and then find a way to still twirl her baton (on fire) in a tourist
attraction and even overcome her initial desire to be popular in order to find
true happiness was amazing. Character progression. It’s so amazing I could cry.
Felicity also had this adorable little brother named Carl who suffers form
brain damage and that kid just made me cry. Handicapped people are my weakness
guys. Most of the time. But I digress, I loved the edition of Carl, he made me
happy.
Grade: 100%
Secrete Identity by Kelly Link
Well this was a hot mess and a dull as
a most of my pencils right now. I really don’t know what this was other than
some 15-year-old lied about her age while playing a chess game on the internet,
accidently got a 34-year-old to fall in love with her and ask her to meet him.
The most bizarre thing is that’s what she did and she spent a weird weekend
waiting for him to show up at a hotel with a superheroes roaming around and
other stuff. This was just one big bag of chaos in the bad way for me. What the
heck was the purpose of this story Link? I’d probably know if I read it a paid
attention but it was too wacky and weird for me to care about. The only
interesting thing about it was that it was an email the main character (Billie)
wrote to the guy Paul Zell and the girl wrote it all pretty much in third
person. Other than that this was a real drag for me (and it was 36 pages long
*cries*).
Grade: 0%
Freak the Geek
by John Green
A story about friends? Hooray, a
story about friends! I like stories about friends!
Overall, Freak the Geek was a
short sweet story about a geeky friendship between two girls and them having to
deal with being at the lowest rung of the social ladder in their peer group.
They have a little fight, make up and are proud to be who they are. A positive
message said short and sweet with enough world building and 3D to make this
story feel pretty real and be likeable. Not much to say about it, but it was
still a good story. Also is it just me or is the title a reference to Freak
the Mighty? No, okay then I’ll just move on.
Grade: 87%
The Truth About Dino Girl by Barry Iyga
I don’t want to talk about this. It
was fine but the context was just plain messed up man. Vengeance is never the
answer even though I’m somewhat of a hypocrite about that and you
shouldn’t destroy someone’s life by taking picture of their birthday suit to
show the whole world. For real, that’s low and the worst of the worst. Hurt
their physical image any other way, destroy their heart any other way, just
please don’t take picture of your enemies naked torso and start spreading the
lie that they’re a prostitutes/slut/whatever. We’re done here okay. Have a nice
remix to supplement this disappointment of a review, it’s very cathartic (for
me at least):
Grade: 49%
This is My Audition Monologue by Sara Zarr
Hello other 1st place
story!
Zarr’s unusual monologue was just
the thing to get the bad taste off my mouth. I loved how honest it was and
“notice me sempai” it felt but not in the annoying way. Honesty is one of the
best policies and seeing how Rachel uses it to tell the theater director of her
misery at not being cast ever before and being stuck backstage was wonderful.
In some ways it feels like something I’d do but at the same time there was also
the fact that Scotty died due to an accident that was partially due to Rachel’s
actions gave it this awe-inspiring essence that I could believe but never
expect to happen to me. That’s what I love most about books, they tell stories
of stuff you never get to experience in addition to telling relatable stories
that make you feel like you aren’t alone in the world with no real friends
outside of you family, and that you’re destined to end up working to death but
even then everyone will have this distanced relationship with you and your
death will be something cruel like getting shoot or dying of a heart attack or
even not dying but experiencing hell on earth for the last few miserable years
of your life and by that point your family will hate you as well and you really
won’t have a reason to live anymore so you’ll try to save the world by wiping
out mankind one person at a time. Point being, it’s a good feeling (the first
of the two) and if I had to describe the hyper happiness charge I felt at the
end it’d have to be with this:
But yeah, this is one of the must
read stories in the book and I’m not just saying that because I’m a thespian
(I’m actually quitting theater after this year because there’s too many great
classes that aren’t theater offered at my school and I don’t want my GPA to be
hurt by a regular class. Yeah, I’m one of those people), but it’s actually an
entertaining, great story.
Grade: 100%
The Stars at the Finish Line by Wendy Mass
Drum roll please.
*badu-badu-badu-badu-badu-ect.*
We have another romance guys!!
Boooo!
It’s okay though, I actually liked this one. Peter, the main character,
has had his whole life dictated by a girl named Tabitha Bell due to him having
a childhood crush on her and accidentally declaring that he wanted to be an
astronaut like her. He actually doesn’t want to be one but his competition with
Tabitha has pushed him to be the best in school and he doesn’t want it to end
because then his grades (and her, after all he still has a crush on her) might
suffer if they take it lax. I found this set up to be an interesting one and a
dream scenario for myself. I personally strive to be better than my sisters and
live up to the expectation my dad has for me, but to have someone in the same
grade same age fighting for the same thing as me would be so much more of a
motivator. It was also cute how the two went to go look at stars together and
eventually got to know each other a bit past the rivalry they had established
between them for years. It still felt slightly rushed because it’s unknown how
long Tabitha has been in love with Peter so yeah, there’s that. Still on of the
better stories of the bunch though!
Grade: 93%
It’s Just a Jump to the Left by Libba Bray
I’m not 100% sure what this story
was either. It felt like it was going somewhere but then the ending was thrown
away whatever goal I thought the story was moving towards. It reminds me of a
Ray Bradbury book in some ways (at the very least it reminds me of Fahrenheit
451, that ending was garbage man). You have this girl named Agnes and her
best friend Leta who always like to go see this movie on Fridays but then one
day Leta gets into a guy and abandons her friend and her old passion leaving
Agnes to try to catch up with her friend in the hill climb called maturity. Agnes
kisses a guy, doesn’t like it, tries to go out with a guy she had a crush on
(mind you they have a four year age difference) and it fails because he likes
boobs which her teacher has and Agnes realizes she messed up. Then her brother
(who accidently got a bullet shot at him and has pretty much lost his mind) has
a super bad seizure, she goes to talk with her mom about how stuff sucks and
things are alright between them. Then Agnes goes home to find Leta has lost her
virginity, but it’s okay because they realizes how much they miss each other
and all the childish things they did and realize growing up isn’t all it’s
cracked up to be. The end. See how that ending totally undoes all the stuff
that was done in the beginning of the story. All the sex references still
bothered me here too and I felt this really wasn’t the right way to end off a
story, no matter how good it started out.
Grade: 70%
And there you have it folks! This
took way longer than I intended and it’s already later than I wanted it to be
by the time I finished this so no comic review (though the art styles were cool
and the content was pretty funny). Overall I wish there was a little less sex
in some parts, a little more character development in others and some I just
flat out didn’t like the content of. You should read this book if you’ve got a
strong passion for anything in the media and fine arts or consider yourself a
geek in some shape or form though. This may not be a 100% good book, but it’s
got a story that will most likely please nearly every geek out there. I’d also recommend
this to people who like short, on-shot stories as this book as quite a few of
them that are executed excellently. At the very least you can get the book and
read The Quite Knight, Everyone But You, and/or This is My
Audition Monologue those are the best. Peace out ya’ll, mind all the
spelling and grammar mistakes; I’m too lazy to go over those as well.
Oh my God,
more fantasy Asianesque book reviews? Heck yeah! Ancient Asian culture is super
interesting and by reading books like this I’m coping from the far away
release date of SoG, for real CN American not everyone’s going to wait for that
over here and I’ve already given up on waiting Cindy Pon in an amazing
author. Unfortunately, this is going to be another one of my shorter reviews
due to the fact that I don’t have the book on me being too lazy to renew it
from the school library (I know how to renew books okay, I just didn’t feel
like doing that) and I’m not getting it completed within the three-day
timeframe due to every teacher I have wanting to give a test or a project in
some shape or form. *coughcoughI’mlcallingyououtenglishteachercoughhack* But any
who, bear with me as we get into the review!
So thank
you Cindy Pon for giving your main character a normal sounding name this time! Ai
Ling was an awesome protagonist for a debut novel but I’m giving you a
deduction for making her kinda Mary Sueish due to the fact that she was
intelligent and broke the mold of women in Song (I’m pretty sure that’s which
one it was) dynasty China (despite the story taking place in the Kingdom of
Xia). She gets bonus points however for not ending up with love interest Chen
Young at the end, being selfish and taking Li Rong’s heart to try to
reincarnate him, and all the crap she had to go through to kill Zhong Ye +
killing him with one hell of a kiss (it’s a long story). Although I just criticized
the fact that Ai Ling is brave, let me go ahead and say it’s one of her best qualities.
With Ai Ling being okay with taking risks and going out into the wild to save
her father it leads to super interesting situations like Slaying a monster made
of corpses that kills others in order to grow (best part by the way). It leads
to some uncomfortable situations though like Ai Ling getting married to Zhong
Ye and then marriage stuff!! Yay. I was right there with Ai Ling when Zhong Ye
was getting all up in her grill and she was totally not okay with it.
Then there
was Chen Young, the love interest, the man with a sword, aaaaaaannd he wasn’t
full Xian. Apparently, parts of him seemed rather Englishman so Xia people were
really suspicious of him. I found this rather interesting to incorporate as it
meant that there was more than just the Kingdom of Xia and the immortal’s
domain/surreal places. Another really cool thing about Chen Young was the fact
that he had a love interest as a child but she was given to his older adoptive
brother. That’s right Ai Ling, you aren’t No. 1 in that boy’s heart. Deal
woman!!!!!!!!1!! Sorry, but usually the protagonist gets the girl/boy or the
boy/girl die or stabs them in the back like Lloyd and Harumi. I can’t tell
you how happy it makes me to know that Harumi didn’t give nothing for Lloyd
starting from the beginning and wants to have make him miserable by having him
killed by okay I need to stop, this is a book review and talking about SoG when
it hasn’t aired over here is depressing so it makes me happy when the protagonist
doesn’t succeed in their romantic pursuits. Oh yeah, Chen Young’s back story
was cool too.
Li Rong
reminds me of Jay. I cry every time because SoG still hasn’t aired in
America just see a connection between Li Rong and the blue ninja since they
always seem to be the one ot crack jokes to lighten the mood and can sometimes
be hopeless flirts (Jay’s not too big of a flirt though). The biggest
difference between the two is the fact that Li Rong dies (yeah, so far Jay hasn’t
died. Nya, Zane and Cole have all died but came back to life because reverse
time, rebuilt body and transformed from a ghost back into a human again respectively,
yet Jay, Kai and Lloyd have pretty much remained untouched unless you count Kai
wishing it all away in Skybound but then you’d have to say everyone who got
stuck in the sword of souls died which would include Jay so tangents are fun).
I’m surprised too. Li Rong was such a key character and while I was reluctant
to have him join Ai Ling and Chen Young six or so chapters in, he became a key
component of the team and I can’t believe Pon went and killed him like that. Granted,
it was death by that corpse monster I mentioned earlier which makes it all okay
since his death demonstrated the power of that monstrosity. I also wish to
commend Pon on her decision to kill Li Rong since most authors don’t have the
ball to kill off an important character that isn’t the main antagonist which
was why Garamdon’s death was so upsetting and now he’s coming back but not
really and where the hell is SoG CN! Give it to me now!!!!!!!! thus making
this story seem very unique.
Zhong Ye
was the main antagonist and eh, he wasn’t too much to me. At the very least he
was unique and hand quite a few idiosyncrasies to me, I just didn’t like his
personality too much. So the cuy is basically collecting souls to prolong his
life and he’s been doing that forever. This is bad because it prevents people from
being reincarnated and it’s just selfish so Ai Ling has to kill him due to her
past life volunteering to (whose name was Silver Phoenix by the way which makes
no sense. Who the heck would name their child Silver Phoenix? Me. But I’d also
give them a regular name in case they didn’t want to walk around saying their
name was Silver Phoenix) out of love for the man he was? Something like that.
So Zhong Ye actually was in love with Silver Phoenix, got Ai Ling (reincarnation)
to marry him and though they’d be together. That’s how it was so easy for Ai
Ling to kiss him to death (but there was more than just kissing going on okay,
they were soul wrestling). The whole ordeal was kinda weird but what the heck,
I read it.
The other
cool thing, which I’m pretty sure is just typical of Pon, was the word building
and all the supernatural elements. It felt so very oriental and authentic (she
did research though so that makes sense) and I’m glad Ai Ling was smart when it
came to all the mythical creatures. She’d read all about them against her
father’s wishes and then recall the information in her mind when she came
across an otherworldly friend or foe. But yeah, I like me some high fantasy so
this should have been expected and it’s almost redundant for me to continue
talking about it at this point.
But yeah! Silver Phoenix! Go read it if you like you
some high fantasy or Asian culture or are like me and enjoy a good adventure
story. I was eating this book up and had to moderate myself otherwise I’d end
up reading it instead of Night which
was required reading and far less interesting (also more depressing). This book
is also a good read if you like mild romance stories since Ai Ling doesn’t get
Chen Young! Yeee! He done runs away (not literally) before she can say “I love
you Chen Young,” to go search for his father and Ai Ling’s all “okay then.” There
is a sequel called Fury of the Phoenix
though, so the two might confess their love for each other then, but I’m
crossing my fingers hoping they don’t because there’s more to life than
romance. I don’t plan on reading the sequel since I want to read Sacrifice, the sequel to Serpentine more, but if things add up
you may see a review for Fury of the
Phoenix form me someday though it’s unlikely.
On a side
note, I must apologize for all the Ninjago garbage in this review. I’ve been
trying to not spoil myself but broke last Sunday when I was googling pictures
of one of the new characters in season 8. So now my mind is flipping out and I
can’t get over Harumi and her screwed up backstory, really good acting skills
and super cool design Plus I’m happy that Lloyd is still single, not
everyone on the main Ninja team needs to have a lover. Evil has never been so beautiful guys. So please, accept my apologies for not being 100% focused on
this review. To make it up to you just take a look at what I’ve been freaking
out over since SDCC 2017. SoG is sure to be the most beautifully animated, have
awesome character designs, a fabulous music score and a super deep and dark
plot (mostly the dark part since thing don’t get
pitch black in Ninjago. It usually gets dark as in you can still see close things
as silhouettes but season 8 seems like it’s going to be dark where you can only
see 3-5 feet in front of you and I’m going to shut up now and put the link to
the super awesome trailer).
REMEMBER TO
CHECK OUT SILVER PHOENIX!
And forgive me for any super bad typos, I didn’t
bother to check this review for mistakes. I'll probably start checking them again when these posts are actually grades and then I won't go on crazy tangents to much have to give and apology at the end of my review.
Yes, I have
stopped to reading juvenile fiction, such shame for someone my age. Or at least
that’s what I’d say if I cared about such things. HA!
So I am
aware this is over a week late, but blame my history class and Night by Elie Wiesel! Those just ate up
my time and prevented me from doing pretty much anything I wanted to for about
a week. Since I’m still plagued by my history class and something else in my
English class (we just got a project and I made the foolish decision to make a
story book because when I really want to art things get real intense.) this review will be rather brief yet (hopefully)
still summarize all the awesome things about it and include a picture. Without
further ado, have a picture!
红色的蝴蝶~ Red Butterfly
Me being
the noob I am, was super happy to see some small artwork illustrations in the
book (and done so creatively too, with newspaper clipping form China) with
Chinese characters and be able to read them. 陈老师,
you have taught me well. I found many an instance where there were clutters of
Chinese characters and despite not being able to read them all I could read all
the important ones (as far as I’m concerned) that added an interesting aspect
to the story. Speaking of China I really loved the plot and setting of the
story.
Kara, the
main character is an eleven year old girl unofficially adopted by a
Chinese-American who was temporarily living in China. Her right hand deformed
and her “mother” always hiding form the public Kara feels something is missing
form her life and wants to find out what. This plot was an instant win for me
as I could tell it would have little to no romance for the main character (beside
a crush she has on a boy for the first part of the book) and the focus would be
family relationships which is what I really crave. Red Butterfly had so many touching moments and heart breaking ones
(really, who could have expected Kara’s “sister” to suddenly get sick and end
up causing Kara and her “mother” to be discovered?), but all the way through I
felt for Kara who was struggling to find her place in a world that favored
healthy baby boys over girls or ones with disabilities. The struggle is real
Kara and more people like you need to have their stories told (despite the fact
that you’re a fictional character). Overall it reminded me of my days in early
elementary school when I’d watch MLP: FIM
and could feel the struggles of those characters and felt an incredibly deep
connection with them to the point where they consumed my everythought. Life is
about more than romance and to find a good story that minimizes it and is able
to capture all the other special relationships in life is hard if you also want
intense fantasy action or excellent character development and I applaud
Sonnichsen for doing it so well.
Special
shout outs go to Xiao Bo, the cripple boy from the orphanage who died and the guy
form New Zealand as they both helped Kara get through her time at the orphanage
and were excellent supporting characters to me. I’d name some others but my
mother returned the book to the library without me knowing so I can’t remember
how to spell all their names and feel horrible if I were to get them wrong. But
you all were the ideal cast for this type of narrative: you were plot devices
yet more as you contributed to building Kara’s world and life that touched my
heart and moved me to writing this review even though it’s not required of me. Thumbs
up to you guys supporting cast *insert thumbs up.*
On last
thing I loved about the narrative was the writing style it featured which was
free style poetry. I know, I know, the last freestyle poetry I read I hated
but this book had an interesting format as well as an interesting
narrator. Kara’s narration was truly that of an eleven year old sealed away from
the world. It was curious, it was quite, and it was happy yet resentful as
well. I found her words easier to read since she wasn’t always cursing every
three words or swimming in the seep end of the depressing sea than any of the
characters in Perfect which simply
has to do with my preferences but also the excellent writing style of
Sonnichsen. Short, yet not choppy, fluid yet not a thousand pages of life
story.
Overall, I
think you should read Red Butterfly
no matter what age you are. It’s a heartwarming tale about a young girl from another
country (assuming my readers don’t live in China) which shows of one of the
darker aspects of it yet is full of happiness and touching moments. Kara’s storytelling
and the plot are a joy to read and so full of character, I almost wish I knew
of more books like this by A.L. Sonnichsen. Family books are certainly my coup
of tea when done right and this book was done right for me so why don’t you
consider taking a break from your depressing and bleak life to read it?
DISCLAIMER: I didn’t proof read this review very much and
sorry if it’s not the quality of my normal reviews. I have some where I need to
be in a few minutes so I don’t have time to make some elaborate stuff if I want
to get around to posting a review for this book anytime soon.
