Review: Glee The Beginning by Sophia Lowell

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2010

All great performances deserve a warm-up! Enroll early at McKinley High–before New Directions was even a glimmer in Mr. Schuester’s eye. When did Rachel first decide Finn was more than just a jock? When did Puck and Quinn start their secret romance? And how did the fledgling Glee Club function without a fearless leader? Hint: It wasn’t exactly a perfect melody.

Break out the gold stars and refill the slushies: It’s time to find out what happened to all your favorite characters before the show-mance began.

From Indigo website.

God I wanted to love this book. Really. I was all set to gush about its wonderfulness and how it’s the perfect Glee fix until the second season starts next month. And then I started reading it. About ten pages in I sighed. 20 pages in I could feel my shoulders slump in defeat. 90 pages in I gave up. I couldn’t even finish it.

Out of all the books I have ever read and didn’t like, this one was the biggest disappointed by far. It was boring. And I don’t see how it can be called “The Beginning” when really it was just rehashing things fans of the show already know.

The following may be considered spoilerish unless you’ve seen the show. Then it’s no big whoop.

The following info is all discovered in the first 90 pages:

Finn and Rachel may like each other.
Puck and Quinn may like each other.
Artie and Tina may like each other.
Emma has a crush on Will.
Mercedes has a crush on Kurt.
Brittany is dumb as a post.
Santana is a bitch.

None of this is new information. At all. It’s all been major plot points of the first season. And some of the new information just didn’t mesh. Kurt convinces Rachel to join Glee, which comprises of Kurt, Mercedes, Artie and Tina. But what about dude that Sandy, the former Glee teacher was touching? And I thought Mercedes didn’t have a crush on Kurt until Quinn put the idea in her head?

As I read the first 90 pages I kept getting a sense of deja vu. Very weird. Then it hit me: some of the scenes in the book were eerily similar to scenes in the show. In fact, it was one such scene that made me decide not to finish the book.

Rachel is in Emma’s office. Emma is trying to listen to her, but then Will comes to the bulletin board outside her office. She is instantly distracted by him.

I’m sorry, but that scene was so done in the show! Remember when Emma catches Rachel trying to purge her lunch? Yeah, so did I and so will most fans.

Okay, I’m going to cut the book a bit of slack here, and put some blame on myself. See, I am such a huge Gleek that I’ve seen the first 12 episodes 5 times. Yes, 5 times. I can recite some scenes. So it only makes sense that I would notice every single little thing that may have been snatched from the show.

I’ve seen mixed reviews about Glee:The Beginning. Some people loved it, others hated it. If you’re interested in it, I’d say borrow it from a friend or library. Or stick with the show.

Review: Girl Parts by John M. Cusick

Candlewick Press, 2010

David and Charlie are opposites. David has a million friends, online and off. Charlie is a soulful outsider, off the grid completely. But neither feels close to anybody. When David’s parents present him with a hot Companion bot designed to encourage healthy bonds and treat his “dissociative disorder,” he can’t get enough of luscious redheaded Rose –and he can’t get it soon. Companions come with strict intimacy protocols, and whenever he tries anything, David gets an electric shock. Parted from the boy she was built to love, Rose turns to Charlie, who finds he can open up, knowing Rose isn’t real. With Charlie’s help, the ideal “companion” is about to become her own best friend. In a stunning and hilarious debut, John Cusick takes rollicking aim at internet culture and our craving for meaningful connection in an uberconnected world.

From Candlewick Press website.

Okay, first things first: I wanted to review this book specifically because it was touted as a “hilarious debut”. With the subject matter I was expecting laugh a minute hi-jinx wrapped up in a fluffy read. I so didn’t get that. What I got was way better.

I didn’t find Girl Parts hilarious. Hell, I didn’t even, for the most part, find it funny. At least not funny ha-ha funny. More like funny “huh isn’t that interesting” funny, which is way better than funny ha-ha funny.

Girl Parts was very funky book on teen relationships and gender roles when it comes to dating and break-ups. The whole book was a social commentary and even though I normally stay away from those books because I find them preachy, I was bowled over by the way Cusick chose to make his points.

SLIGHTLY SPOILERISH STUFF AHEAD

Okay, Rose is a Companion, which is a fancy way of saying she’s, well, a fem-bot.  She’s been programmed to like and want David. When David outwardly rejects her, Rose’s programing doesn’t understand. Her programming dictates that she goes to David, no matter what. She doesn’t understand why he doesn’t want her. She wants to call him, thinks about him constantly and searches for a way for the obsession, the hurt to stop. Sound familiar?

The fact that her programing makes Rose act EXACTLY like a girl who’s been dumped was freaking brilliant, in my opinion. As I read I thought “OMG, I have felt like that before.” And really, why do girls usually feel that way when dumped? Isn’t it true that we’re in a way programmed by society and gender roles to feel that way? If he dumped me I must have done something wrong. I need to do whatever I can to get him back.

SPOILERISH STUFF OVER AND OUT

David is rich and popular and gorgeous and also a complete and utter dick. His characterization was so realistic that I felt like I was thrust back in time to high school. Because if I’m going to be honest, most high school boys are dicks from what I can remember. He only gets to know Rose so he can eventually get in her pants.

Then there’s Charlie, the sensitive loser guy. He’s not a dick, nope, he’s a nice fella. He likes Rose for who she is and isn’t trying to get laid. Well, not a whole lot anyway.

You start off thinking that Girl Parts is going to be about David and Charlie when in reality it is all about Rose. About how she slowly becomes self-aware and starts to try to make decisions herself, despite the fact that she’s a robot. She wants to change and evolve. She wants to come out from under the shadow of her programing and be her own person. The parallel between Rose and what a lot of teen girls go through was pretty cool and very well done.

Now, before you go “Oh great, a feminist man-hating robot book” that is totally not the vibe I got from Girl Parts. Yes, it’s a coming of age story about a female robot, but that doesn’t mean that it was overly feminist. Besides, feminist doesn’t always equal man-hating.

I think the best way to describe this book is Dollhouse meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with a bit of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fem-bot episode thrown in. I thought it was brilliant and amazing and a very unique read. And I loved it.

Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Canada, 2009

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

From Goodreads website.

It’s not very often that a sequel can live up to its hype. And rarely does a sequel outshine the first book. But Catching Fire manages to pull of both.  I loved The Hunger Games but I LOOOOOOOVED Catching Fire.

The action is non-stop and once again Collins holds nothing back. There’s violence. There’s killing. There’s mayhem. There’s everything that made The Hunger Games so addictive and much, much more. We get to know Katniss and Peeta better. And yes, there’s an element of romance. But for me, that was secondary to the main plot and the main theme of survival.

If you thought the Capital was evil in The Hunger Games, they pretty much quadruple their nastiness in Catching Fire. The way that they try to squelch the rebellion is so God awful it literally left me shaking and gasping for breath. You really get a true sense of how little the government cares for the people.

The last couple of chapters of Catching Fire were so face-paced and amazing that I had to slow myself down and reread a few section. And the ending! I don’t want to give anything away, but the ending made me curse that August and the release of the third and final book, Mockingjay was so far away.

Even if you were kinda meh about The Hunger Games, give Catching Fire a read. I actually liked it better.

Browse inside Catching Fire.

Thanks to by friend Sheryl for lending me Catching Fire after forcing me to read The Hunger Games. 😛

Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Canada, 2009

Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

From Scholastic Canada website.

It took me a bit to get into this one, but my gods, once I did I was addicted.   I mean, I couldn’t put it down. And once I finished it I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I pretty much immediately started the sequel, Catching Fire, because I wanted, no I NEEDED to know what happened next to Katniss.

The Hunger Games is one heck of a roller coaster. I mean, the whole book centers around 24 teens trying to kill each other, so how could it not be? I loved the fact that parts of the story gave me a bit of an adrenalin rush. The writing was tight, the characters realistic and Collins has no issues dealing out death and violence hand over fist.

But The Hunger Games isn’t only about destruction, no. There is a pretty unconventional love story at the center of the book. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, I’m not a big fan of romance in books. But like a lot of the great YA dystopia that is coming out, the romance isn’t’ overdone here and adds to the tension of the story.

I’ve read Catching Fire and will be reviewing it next week. Mockingjay, the third and final in the trilogy comes out later this summer and is perhaps one of the most anticipated YA summer releases. OMG it’s gonna be goooood!

Take a boo inside The Hunger Games.

Review: Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Scholastic Canada, 2010

Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there’s still more: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly.

 

 

From Scholastic Canada website

 

I’m pretty darn new to graphic novels. In fact, Smile is only the second one I’ve ever read. But I have a strong feeling that because of how much I loved Smile, it’s a format I’ll be reading a whole lot more of.

While the main story line is all about Raina and her quest to have her teeth look normal again, having a perfect smile isn’t really what Smile is about. It’s about growing up, those awkward teen years and learning to like yourself for who you are. In other books these life lessons have appeared heavy handed, but this was not the case here. It’s been many, MANY years since I’ve been a teen but reading about Raina, her boy troubles, obnoxious friends and self consciousness brought it all back. While I never had braces or issues with my teeth I could still sympathize and groan with her for what she was going through.

And as someone who was a teen in the late 80s the references to that time period’s clothing and fads were wonderful. (Caboodle anyone?) When Raina describes what she wore on her first day of high school I actually snorted. From the scrunchie to the socks matching the sweater, she had it down to a tee.

This was a quick read for me and when I sat down to start it, I didn’t get up until I finished it. I was captivated by Raina’s voice and everything she was going through. I highly recommend Smile to kids and adults a lot. After all, most of us still feel like an awkward 13 year old inside.

Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Candlewick Press, 2009

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

From Candlewick Press website

 

This is one of those books that I kept hearing murmers about on Twitter. For a while it seemed like everyday someone was talking about The Knife of Never Letting Go. The buzz was good and the title definitely caught my attention. And when I looked it up and found out that is was not only a young adult book, but dystopia (my new fave genre) I knew I wanted to give it a read.

This was certainly a roller coaster of a ride. From the opening pages Todd is on the run, and the action and obstacles never stop. But it wasn’t all the ups and downs that caught my attention and kept me reading. Nope, it was Todd’s voice that hooked me. Very unique in tone and speech pattern, I found it captivating.

The concept of being able to hear other people’s thoughts  is unsettling enough, but when you throw in the fact that your thoughts can be heard it’s simply frightening. Ness does an excellent job of showing just how constant and jumbled a person’s thoughts can be. There were several times when a different font was used when Todd was hearing another’s thoughts, and that only added to the overwhelming feeling of contantly bombardment.

And it’s not just humans whose thoughts can be heard. Men can also hear the thoughts of animals and this was a fun element of the book that often lightened things up a bit.

As with most works of dystopia, there were a few scenes that were heartbreaking and I went back and forth between hating the author and loving him, depending on what was happening in the book. A couple of times I had a feeling I knew what was coming so I actually set the book down for a bit.

I did find somethings confusing in the beginning such as when and where the story was taking place. For me, if more would have been explained earlier on, then I wouldn’t have had as many “Huh?” moments and would have been able to enjoy the book more.

The ending was about as cliff-hangerish as you could get and totally left me shaking my fist at Ness, but in a good way.

Thanks go out to Candlewick Press for sending me a review copy.

Review: How to Make a Bird by Martine Murray

Scholastic Canada, 2010

It’s dawn, on an empty road in the countryside. Empty, except for the girl in the long, red evening gown, standing next to a bicycle, and looking back at the home she’s about to leave. Mannie’s ready to start a new life and forget the terrible things that have happened here, but there are questions that need to be answered before she can let go. Questions about her elegant but unstable mother, her brother who’s always overshadowed her, and his friend Harry Jacob, who just might be Mannie’s boyfriend . . .

And her only clue is an unfamiliar address in Melbourne, written on a scrap of paper found in her brother’s room. As she makes her journey to the city, the mystery of this vulnerable, quirky girl is revealed piece by piece in her search for a way to become whole again.

From Scholastic Canada website

Quite often as writers, we are told to “show, not tell”. Neverbefore have I found such an amazing example of this than Martine Murray’s How to Make a Bird. The mysteries that surround Mannie and her past trickle out effortlessly and without a whole lot of bells and whistles, making the reveals even more dramatic. The whole less is more thing.

And OMG the writing! So, so lyrical and pretty. Her use of language and descriptive abilities made me ache.  Even though she was quite often switching from the present to the past and then going even further into the past, there was a flow to the prose and not once was I confused.

I had a strong reaction to aspects of How to Make a Bird partly because of a few scenes in the book that seemed to mimick events in my past. And I’m not talking generic things that any fake psychic could know. I’m talking about specifics. Because of this I felt a very strong connection to Mannie and could empathize to some degree with what she was going through.

There was nothing about this book that I did not like. Sure, some of the Australian termonology threw me for a bit of a loop, but once I read the context of the word, its meaning wasn’t too hard to figure out.

If you are looking for a beautifully written book with a main character that will both break your heart and make you smile, then How to Make a Bird is definitely a novel you should check out.

Thanks so much to Scholastic Canada for the review copy.

Review: The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong

Random House, 2010

Only two weeks ago, life was all too predictable. But that was before I saw my first ghost. Now along with my supernatural friends Tori, Derek, and Simon, I’m on the run from the Edison Group, which genetically altered us as part of their sinister experiment. We’re hiding in a safe house that might not be as safe as it seems. We’ll be gone soon anyway, back to rescue those we’d left behind and take out the Edison Group . . . or so we hope.

From Random House Canada website

 

Kelley Armstrong is one of my favorite authors, plain and simple. I’ve read everything she has published and never once have I been disappointed. That goes for the final installment of her YA trilogy, The Reckoning, as well.  I loved it.

This was another one day read for me, as all of Kelley’s books tend to be. Once I got into it, I simply didn’t want to put it down.  The plot, the writing, the characters – it was all perfect.

I love Chloe as a main character and I was sad that the trilogy had ended. But at the same time that’s the great thing about Kelley and her approach to her series:  she writes what the series needs, not necessarily what her audience wants. She’s taken flack for this in the past, but I think it’s great. And also one of the reasons her writing and her series never get stale.

Okay, the book. What can I say? There’s a lot of personal growth for the characters in The Reckoning and it was nice to see the four come together and work as a group. Chloe also learns more about her powers and how to use them.  Dereck, who was my least favorite character in the first two books, emerged as my favorite character.  We get a better understanding for him and some of the actions he takes.

There’s a bit of romance, but just a smidgen, which is perfect for my tastes.  The romantic stuff is very secondary to the plot, so it never felt like this was a romance disguised as a paranormal book. 

Kelley’s writing style is descriptive, yet quick and the action flows at a break neck speed.  And the scenes where Chloe does some of her necromancer stuff? Goosebumpy fun! I also loved the nods to her Women of the Otherworld series. Every time a Cabal was mentioned, or the werewolf pack, I giggled just a bit.

Browse inside The Reckoning.

Thanks muchly to Random House Canada for the review copy.

Review: Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Scholastic Canada, 2003

Left on her own when her family is lost in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by loss and by the past. Struggling to survive physicallyand emotionally in a ravaged landscape where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself, erasing the girl she’s once been. It is only through mysterious encounters that Green relearns the lessons of love and begins to heal as she tells her own story.

From Scholastic Canada website

It’s weird. This book was heavy on imagery and had lots of life lessons sprinkled throughout, which normally would have completely turned me off. But in Green Angel both of these elements worked, creating a wonderful and touching book.

I came across this book on a list of the best YA dystopia novels. Having just finished The Forest of Hands and Teeth and loving The Uglies series, I’ve been all about this genre lately. So I picked Green Angel up. And I quickly learned that even within this sub-genre there are sub-genres. This is different from any of the other dystopic YA books that I’ve read.

I loved the use of animals and nature to symbolize not only nature slowly healing after the disaster, but also to mark Green’s own personal healing. She slowly works through her pain, learning that she can go on with her life while still holding on to her past, who she was and the people that she loved and lost.

This was a different read for me, and one that I am not sure will be everybody’s cup of tea. It was a quiet book, but I really enjoyed it.

Faery Rebel: Spell Hunter by R.J. Anderson

Published by HarperCollins Canada, 2009
Reviewed by Colleen McKie

The faeries that live in the Great Oak are a shadow of their former selves. No longer possessing the ability to perform their magic, they never leave the Oak, fearful of the world around them, in particular humans.

Knife is different from the other faeries, not content to merely exist. She wants to find out where the faery magic went and why. Her quest for the truth leads Knife to disregard not only her people’s customs, but also to disobey her Queen by befriending a human.

While I love urban fantasy, this was my first book that was a bit heavier on the fantasy than the urban and I must say that I really enjoyed it. I got caught up in Knife’s quest to find out where the faery magic went and there was just enough mystery surrounding who she could trust and count on to help her and who was an enemy.

Without giving anything away, I was a wee bit disappointed in the direction that the author went with elements of the ending. I feel that she took the expected route and the story may have faired better if she had gone out on a limb, so to speak, and taken a different approach to elements of the subplot.

But with that being say, I really enjoyed Faery Rebel: Spell Hunter and I look forward to the next book in the series.

Browse inside Faery Rebel.