Date Finished: March 22, 2018
Page Count: 403
Genre: Realistic Fiction
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.):
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).
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.
Average Grade: 65%
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