Friday, April 23, 2010

Blogging Hiatus-- Review (Betrayed-- Coraline)

Hey all. I've been on a big blogging hiatus, so sorry. I've missed posting my reviews, because I'm always stuck with the thought of the book in my mind, nobody is really wanting to listen to me rant on and on about a book they haven't read yet. Even though not many people read this blog, I still like getting my reviews out, in hope maybe somebody will read and comment.
Anywhoo. I may have been on a blogging hiatus, but not a reading hiatus. I've read three books since my last review, I believe. I only remember three. So here is my review for Coraline.
The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring....

In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.
The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.
Only it's different.
At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.
Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.
Review---
Coraline was an interesting book. I can't lie, I only read it mainly because everybody was buzzing about it so long ago, while I was searching for books to reserve at my library, that book came to mind. I'm not one to follow to crowd, so once the buzz dies down, thats when I take action.
I read this book in one day, it wasn't that hard to finish it, it after all is a short book. I however have never been a big fan of third person writing, but some authors can make it work. For instance--- Nicholas Sparks makes third person work VERY well.
In this case I thought it was okay, I liked the writing style, it kept me interested. At times I was a little creeped out, but that never stopped me from writing. The whole 'other mother' and 'other father' thing still gets me, and the small details. Remind me to watch the movie so I can get a better inlook on the smaller details.
The whole idea with the cat reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. The cat was her guide in a way through Wonderland. In this book, the cat was Coraline's guide through the 'other home'. The ending was also a bit confusing for me, but I think I understood most of it.
The author was very creative while writing this book, not all minds can think like that. I was inspired to write something while reading this book, which doesn't happen often.
My best friend is in to creepy books such as this one, her favorite author is R. L. Stine. I don't mind books like these, its good to add flavor right?
Overrall, I liked this book. I'd read it twice. (:

Until Next Book,
Justanotherauthor.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Update:: Review

Before I strat with the review on the book it has taken me forever to read, mainly because of a bunch of drama at home. I want to apologize for being MIA for like ever. My house has literally been way hectic, and my life has been crazy with drama. Don't get me wrong, I love drama as much as the next person, unless it's happening to you that is. Anyway, just wanted to say sorry. I'm off for spring break, so hopefully reading?

Broken into its components, this book promises a great mystery: a teenaged heroine with tragic buried memories beginning to resurface; a cold, windswept winter in a colorless English seaside town; a pushy, witchlike busybody mysteriously murdered; a cute guy next door; and two warmly lovable younger siblings for comic relief. Unfortunately, the author has difficulty balancing the plot, the necessary explanations of background, a mysterious tone, and her narrators character. I have a memory problem, Juliana confesses, but it takes another 58 pages of meeting new characters and having strange, weird feelings before she finally tells readers what the problem is and muses upon why she has it. The wonderfully visceral setting and intriguing cast of characters almost make up for the baffling narrator, but ultimately the link between the two simultaneous mysteries proves tenuous, and the identity of the murderer no mystery at all.

Review
(Don't read if you don't want spoilers, you've been warned. (; )
To be completely honest it took me about a few weeks to read this book, there were a couple reasons as to why. One, I couldn't get into it that much at the beginning, it caught my attention, but not like something I couldn't put down. Also as I said above there was a bunch of family drama going on around my house, and school so my life has been pretty hectic. I finally sat myself down and decided to find out how it ended. The story was about a girl named Juliana, who moves from Sunny California with her adoptive mother from since she was 5 and her younger 'siblings'. This idea didn't strike me as much, but I knew it had to get interesting for it said 'muder mystery' right? So I kept reading, I got into some of the characters I must admit. I could picture it playing as a movie in my head, but it wasn't really 'my cup of tea'. Haha, great expression right? She moved to England...Cup of tea...Yeah. Anyway. I got into the couple of Juliana and Dunken. Although I liked them better as friends for some reason, I still thought they were cute together. I seriously expected for the muderer of her mother's long time artistic buddy to be Celia Glenndenning. Her character creeped me out, as it did Juliana. She was just too-- I can't think of a word to describe her. But I would really hate for her to be my mom. Personally I couldn't find Oliver Pethering, Liza's husband, to be the killer. It just didn't make sense to me, although finding out that him and Celia had a little 'thing' going on you never know. This is a book afterall right? There are tons of surprises there. The biggest twist in the whole book, which I wasn't expecting, which is shocking because I am REALLY good at figuring out endings and surprises. It was the person you least expected it to be (not giving you details as to who it is HAH.)Which made my jaw drop, well not literally though. That does quite make the audience that is reading this book. It keeps you guessing, which I like a lot. Finding out the truth about Juliana I have to admit, I had a bunch of assumptions, but they all were thrown down to the dust. It was a sad moment for me. I actually either expected Nora--Or Ceila to be her mother. Don't as me why, just read the book ducklings. Anyway, overrall I liked this book. It's not exactly in my top ten but it was well written. I suggest it. (:

Until next book,
Justanotherauthor.

PS. New Twilight book coming out? Whose excited?! Me fur shureeee.
P.P.S. I'm going to re-read Eclipse to get a reminder of who this Bree Tanner is. So I might not be doing reviews for a while, unless I multi-task. (:
P.P.P.S. Bye!