Book Blog: The Crimson Crown by Cinda William Chima

WHAAAAAAA IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe this; the Seven Relms series is complete. Finished. Done with. No more Raisa, no more Han. Not even Micah!

Okay, I'll try to talk about the cover. I haven't actually looked at it very much. But if you actually look at the details, it's pretty amazing. The little fire and magic in the background = fantastic. I love little details like that.

I actually thought this book was a little bland, but it might have been because I didn't read it right after I read The Gray Wolf Throne. The first 100 pages were kind of boring. At first I didn't like the whole dance/celebration thing they were doing, but the thought of Raisa and Han doing that Demon King/Hanalea dance started to grow on me. A lot. It's amazing how I went from Team Amon in the beginning to Team Han now.

I don't know what Chima did with her writing style, but I found that its easier to picture the characters. For example, Han was just a name to me in the first three books. But now I picture him as tall, handsome, and a whole handful of other descriptive words that I probably have got wrong. And Micah, I can faintly see him, but not his face. Everyone else is still a blurry mass of skin. It's funny, I never thought of how easily I can picture characters before. And that goes for any book.

What I really didn't like (it took a lot of sitting around and thinking before I finally found something I DIDN'T like about this book) was how Raisa was so easily deceived. When will she learn not to trust Micah? Jeez.

I expected more out of The Crimson Crown. It's suppose to be the "big ending". The finale. Te thing that leaves the reader in stunded silence, or in a puddle of tears, or a—you get my point. But, even though I didn't actually predict it this time, the ending wasnt a big surprise to me. It wasn't like Eona where I feel like I'm being slapped in the face with twist and turns (I think that's the only time when I would be okay being slapped in the face). I'm a little disappointed that my prediction for Queen Marianna's killer didn't come true. I thought I had that one in the bag. But, I guess I can't win them all!

Because the ending was very anticlimactic, I'm taking off a half of a star. Sorry Chima!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Book Blog: Alanna: In the Hand of the Goddess

I don't know why, but I don't feel anything after reading this book. It's like my feelings are in neutral; I don't hate, but I don't love it.

The cover is better than the first. She doesn't look AS scary as the Alanna in #1, which makes me happy ^_^

The content is alright. All the time jumps are really confusing, and the book is REALLY easy to predict. And who is Pierce's publisher? I'm reading and I find half a billion (alright, maybe not that many) typos and mistakes. That's just not right!

Yeah, so I guess you can say that this boo is pretty average. It almost makes a reviewer like me hate it because I don't have anything to say.

Rating: 3.75 Stars

Book Blog: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

REPOST FROM GOODREADS

Now, before I begin, let me start off by saying that I absolutely adore dystopian novels. I've been reading as many as I could get my hands on (which, unfortunately, hasn't been that many because, apparently, everyone else likes science fiction too). I received this book as a present recently because it "got really high praise." Overjoyed, I began reading it right away. 

But I noticed several things. Usually, when reading a good science fiction novel, (or any well-written novel), I'm immediately ensnared into the plot, constantly craving more. Delirium? Not so much. Although the book was interesting, I found the whole story line a little....shallow. It might just be me, but I think that it has something to do with the major love factor. 

Don't get me wrong; I love to read romances every once in a while. There are plenty of good ones out there. But love is one of the easiest, yet hardest topic to write about. And I felt that the story just kept going on and on without a climax. 

I plan on reading the sequel because authors tend to improve their writing style as the series goes along. Or not. We'll see.

Book Blog: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

LOTS OF SPOILERS!!!

The cover freaks me out. Her face is too big and her body is made out of flowers. What a creep-o.

Let's cut to the chase; the book was as boring as...I don't know. Stuff. I don't know what I'm talking about. Please hold while i go and get my notes.
...
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... I'm back!

First off, the book is freakin confusing! Oliver thought it would be all fine and dandy to keep switching back and forth between "now" and "then" which got me all confused. I actually had to READ the chapter title! It's too much work >.<

Um, this isn't a complaint...not really...but Lena keeps reminding me of Beautiful Creatures ^_^ But the story line is really boring :( I had a hard time paying attention to the book. I skimmed over a lot of the details.

My copy of my book has really thin pages! I don't know why I put that in my notes, but it's true. The pages are really, really thin. I was afraid I was going to rip one! And the chapters are too short. Boo. And the scenes with Julian (or whatever his name is) and Lena are awful! I mean, it just so happens that Lena wakes up to see Julian "bathing" himself and IT JUST SO HAPPENS that Julian walks in the room when Lena doesn't have her top on. Goodness. It's way too obvious that Oliver wants them to get together.

It makes me feel a little silly when I figure stuff out before the characters in the book. Like the code that was hidden in the clock? The character are looking around thinking 9 and 3 blah 3 and 9 Bleh. And I'm sitting there shouting "IT'S 0915 YOU BIG FAT DUMBOS!" And then seconds later they're all like "Oh! it's 0915!" *facepalm*

"'Hey, hey, hey!' A policeman is waving to us from up ahead, gesturing with his walkie-talkie..."

Rating: 3 Stars

Book Blog: Eona by Alison Goodman

Oh. My. God. I think I'm going to cry. This book was so fantastic.

Over 18 hours later...

Alright, everyone. I can now write a truthful review. I've learned from past experiences not to write a review immediately after finishing a book with an over-the-top ending. What will happen is that I will find all of these flaws only to forget them by the time I finish the book.

As usual, lets start with the cover. It's beautiful, true, but is that suppose to be Eona? She rarely wears her hair down (based on the structure of society in this book), so I don't think that the drawing is particularly accurate.

The content reminded me a lot of Beautiful Darkness. In Beautiful Darkness, Lena was all crazy because she didn't know what the heck she was. And here's Eona who doesn't know what her power is... Let me be frank. She was a mess. I was very, VERY unhappy with the book. But then the ending came along. And then I was the one who was a mess.

Here's the thing; I lie foretelling events in stories. And I was pretty sure I already knew how it was all going to end.  But Goodman just HAD to throw the reader a curve ball.  I loved the ending. Very much. So much, that I decided to give the book five stars instead of three.

But, one thing.

FOR YOUR CONVINENCE

Please highlight the below text (which is in white) to view my rant ^_^

I'm mad that Ido turned out to be the rotten person everyone thought he was in Eon. It just seems like a lousy way to get rid of Eona's other love interest.

But the ending was great. If anything, read it for that.

Rating: Five Stars

Book Blog -MANGA-: i am here!

Here's the thing; I don't usually do book blogs on manga. But I have a lot to say about this one, so I'm making an exception.

So, I came upon this manga by chance. I say the cover, thought it was pretty, and bought it. What I didn't know was that it was a T Ages 13+ manga. I'm used to reading Older Teen manga; it's much more interesting to me. But I already bought this one, so why not read it?

Here's a little background:
A Sunflower in the Shade
Invisible to her classmates, Hikage Sumino is and eighth grader with no selt-esteem. Her only friends are the visitors to her Internet blog. One day, the most popular boy in the grade suddenly talks to her. Encouraged by this twist of fate, Hikqge determines to transform her life.

...I don't think I've read a manga that takes place in middle school. Until now. Not sure how I felt about that, but I read it anyway.

This manga is a stunning piece of work. The drawings (I'm not sure if I'm using the correct terminology here, but you get my meaning) are cute/pretty and BIG! It was easy to determine what was going on, unlike those manga with the epic fight scenes where there's so much ink on the page that I have NO idea what's going on. Visually, this manga is fantastic.

The story line...I'll give it a B. Middle school drama isn't really my thing. It sends a great message, but it almost seems like a fantasy. Not many of the bully situations shown actually turn out the way they did. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish it was more realistic. Not that there's anything THAT realistic about manga in the first place, but still. I would have liked a more complex story line.

There's one more thing I'd like to point out about this manga. The blog. The main character blogs!!! Even though after...three years(?) of blogging with only two followers, she hasn't given up. That's really inspirational. It kinda reminds me of myself. I'm a blogger, but I don't think anyone actually reads what I'm saying. But I'm determined to keep blogging now, especially since Hikage had to blog for a year until she got her first comment. If that's what it takes (or more) then I'll keep writing. (Oh, and I saw the link to the blog several times in the manga and its actually a real blog! I can't read it. Of course, and the last post was made several years ago, but here's the link: http://emaema.sakura.ne.jp/blog/)

Overall, I'd give it an A, especially considering that this was Ema Toyama's first manga. I wish More mangaka could draw like her!

Footnotes: Mangas, Graphic Novels, and Other Pictue Books

I've become an otaku recently, within in last half a year. It started with an anime...

I mean, what's not to love of Kaichou wa Maid-sama!? For those of you who don't know, the picture is of Misaki and Takumi (they're in love!!! Not that you can tell by that picture or anything. And sorry if I just spoiled the story for any of you). After that, I found the manga (online, I could figure out where I could buy a copy in English). And then I branched off to other mangas. I read Soul Eater, Fairy Tail (one of my favorites!), Pandora Hearts (another fav), Black Butler, Special A...I won't list all of them. There should be a widget on the side >.> with a bung of the manga that I like list on it. It's not a complete list; I don't think I included some of the manga I read online for free, but you'll get to see some of the stuff I've read. 

I'm trying to branch out even more; so far, most of the manga I've read have English names (beside Kaichou wa). But I'm afraid to read it when I don't even know what the title means! I guess I'll have to conquer that fear sometime O.o Have you guys ever noticed that I haven't been doing book blogs on any of the manga I've read? There's reasoning behind that, y'know. Manga books are way too short and it's hard for me to pick out stuff that I DON'T like about it. Plus I'm not a good critic for pictures, which is why I tend to stay away from regular, non-manga books. That and the fact that they're meant for kindergarteners. 

What really bugs me are graphic novels that are written/drawn originally in an English-speaking country. Like, I haven't seen too many of those, but I know there's a graphic novel for Maximum Ride and Beautiful Creatures. But then they're listed as a manga (or at least in my local book store)which really, REALLY bugs me. You're suppose to call them graphic novels!!! A manga reads right to left, not this left to right nonsense. I guess some people who don't know the true art of manga would be drawn to it, though. Almost all my friends (or are they O.o)think it's WEIRD to read a book BACKWARDS. C'mon, people! It's completely normal to read boos backwards. Right?... Alright, maybe not normal there life. But it's normal in Japan, so deal with it people-who-think-manga-is-weird.

Well, I'm tired of mini ranting about how manga is t appreciated. I'm done. Bye, and don't hate manga!!!