Paper Towns by John Green [Review]

A few days ago I read and finished Paper Towns by John Green, in two days.
I'm a bit of a slow reader, so that's a fantastic pace for me.
And believe me, it was an absolutely fantastic book.

[I won't spoil any major plot points here, no worries!]

I'll start with a synopsis:
Quentin Jacobson is just an average high schooler. He spends his time studying, playing video games with his friends, and pining over his neighbor and long-time crush, Margo Roth Spiegelman. He's just living his life, when one night, Margo Roth Spiegelman climbs into his bedroom window and takes him on a late-night adventure he will never forget.
Quentin thinks that everything between he and Margo would change after that night, and he was right, but not in the way he imagined. Margo has disappeared, and in doing so, left behind clues for Quentin to find. Quentin Jacobson puts his life on hold in order to find her. However, the more clues he finds, the less he knows, about the girl and her location.

I've never read any books by John Green before, and I was pleasantly surprised. I had high expectations starting out, and they were all surpassed. I took this book very literally at first, but about halfway in, I realized that there is so much more to it. It isn't about about finding Margo Roth Spiegelman; not really. It's about relationships, Walt Whitman, who people really are. With her desire to go on a journey and escape the "paper people" (a metaphor for people who live their two-dimensional meaningless lives without question), I can really relate to Margo. ...At least, I think I can. I can relate to my version of her. Because that's what this all really is; we each have our own versions of people, both people in our lives and characters. And these versions are both wrong and right, and I don't think we can ever really know someone entirely. Most of the time we're just seeing reflections of ourselves.

"When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out."
-Paper Towns, John Green

The characters in this book feel just like kids I might run into at my own high school. Liable to be normal and boring, but they always have something interesting (and sometimes very funny) to say. John Green is one of those adults who hasn't lost his grasp of the adolescent years, something I always admire in adults. His writing is interesting, captivating, sometimes profound, and very funny. Lines such as "Talking to a drunk person was like talking to an extremely happy, severely brain-damaged three-year-old," or "Did you just use Greek mythology to talk trash?" would make me burst out laughing (and then promptly text it to my boyfriend!). However, this has to be one of the best lines in the entire book:

"Radar threw his books into his locker and shut it. Then the din of conversation around us quieted just a bit as he turned his eyes toward the heavens and shouted, "IT IS NOT MY FAULT THAT MY PARENTS OWN THE WORLD'S LARGEST COLLECTION OF BLACK SANTAS."
-Paper Towns, John Green

I mean, seriously.

All in all, I'd give this book five stars. I try not to give out five stars often, but this book was so freaking good. Like I said, I read it in 2 days, and that's because instead of watching TV or going online, I'd hide up in my room for three to five hours each day, and read every chance I get in class (laugh). I'll recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading. (I already have a list of people I'm going to loan my copy to. XD) I know there must be some cons to the book, but in all honesty, I really don't see them (I've read about some things people say they don't like, but I disagree!). This has become one of my favourite books.... It just means so much to me. I feel like I can't do this novel justice through this review, so I have three words for you, dear reader:
READ THIS BOOK!

"There was no planning. No time for planning. No time for a future. But then the life spans started getting longer, and people started having more and more future. And now life has become the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future--you go to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job so you can get a nice house so you can afford to send your kids to college so they can get a good job so they can get a nice house so they can afford to send their kids to college."
— John Green (Paper Towns)

 g h o s t i e

 John Green with the cover of Paper Towns

A Certain Slant of Light

I know what you're all thinking: Two posts in one day? Whuuu?! Has she lost her rocker?!
Well, I cannot say that I haven't (lost my rocker), but I promised this review awhile ago, didn't I?

First of all: This post may contain slight spoilers for the book A Certain Slant of Light (by Laura Whitcomb).

What is this book about, you ask?
Helen is dead, but her spirit still connected to the living world. She has been haunting a series of different people for 130 years, each and every one unaware of her. She exists among the living, watching time pass her by, generations grow up and die... Unable to do a thing. Unable to cross over to heaven. Just an observer of the lives people lived. Until one day, in her host's English class, she notices a boy looking right at her...

(Enjoy that synopsis. I wrote it myself.)

I'll do my best to keep the spoilers to a minimum, so some parts may be slightly confusing, until you read the book. Which I highly, highly recommend.

So what did I like about this book?
First of all, the narration. The narrator is from a time of courtesy and formality, and you can sense that in her words. There is no slang (from her, at least), no foul language (again, just in the narration. The living humans certainly have foul mouths). I would give some examples of her speech, but unfortunately, I just returned the book to the library today. :(
Second of all, of course, the romance. I love romance, I'm sorry! The only problem I had with this whole book was the sex, though. Yes, there is sex. They don't go into detail, but they say enough to slightly disturb me... But these parts are very brief, pretty much it's, "we started doing it," then it goes straight to "we're done." 'Kay? So it's really not all that bad.

When I first started this book, I was very wary. I did not think the writer was Christian or anything, and when she talked about her hell, I did get a little nervous, not sure if I should keep on reading. Then there was Jenny's family, her parents are what I would call... Actually, I'm not gonna say it, 'cuz I know it will be taken the wrong way. How about, they're really religious, won't let Jenny do anything... Her father actually measured the the hem of her skirt to her knee! Measured! Right then, when I was reading that, I couldn't tell you how grateful I was that my parents let me wear halter tops! (My point is, I was worried that they were stereotyping Christians.)

However, I continued to read, and I am so glad I did! Our narrator was dragged to a prayer meeting by Cathy, Jenny's mother (you have to read it to understand). One of the women said that they needed to pray for a man's family... He had just died, after being in a coma, and according to the woman, he was not going to heaven. The women in the meeting were all making comments like, "It's so sad." "What a pity." "Too bad." This just made Helen (the narrator) angry. "Why do you say he is not going to heaven?". (Mind you, I am just paraphrasing.) One of the women replied, condescendingly, "Well, he was in a coma." This just made Helen angrier. "Can God not speak to those who are unconscious?!" she cried out.
I was practically cheering in my seat! Oh, you go! The best part of the book, I would say! That scene just made me so excited! Those women were aggravating me, too. I hate it when people like that act like they know all. They could not talk to the man, she they just assumed that God could not either!
I must say, after that scene, all my previous worries of the book were gone. And I just fell in love with this book all the more.

There is so much more I love about this book (like the ending that was so beautiful, it actually brought tears to my eyes, as cheesy as that sounds). But I'll bring this review to a close:

Pros: The narrator's beliefs, the style of writing, and how it made me long to go back in time, 130 years ago. Actually, I'm not sure if that last one is a pro or a con. xD
Cons: The sexual scenes. That's pretty much it. :/

I would rate this book: 9.75 stars out of 10. 1) I don't like to give out tens so easily, and 2) yeah, the sexual parts made me bring it down a little. But just a bit!

I would love to go on, but now you must read it! And I hope I didn't ruin anything, if you haven't read it yet. ;_; That scene probably would be much more epic if you don't see it coming, but I warned you about spoilers!

Skinned

I remember black skies, the lightening all around me
I remember each flash as time began to burn...

I started reading 'Skinned' by Robin Wasserman the other day. I'm having issues reading it.... When I try to read this book, I start to feel nauseous... Er, first, here's the book trailer:

Yes, I know, it looks amazing. When the book came in for me at the library, I could hardly contain my excitement! I even started reading it while I was IMing a friend. ;)
But like I said, I am having problems reading it. One part is just the fact that it is so depressing. (I'm not even 50 pages in, by the way, so there won't be any spoilers.) Lia is still Lia, but she's in this mechanical body, against her will.... She cannot feel pain, not even emotional pain. As it says on pages 38-39:

"But here I was, inches from a dead body. My dead body... And I didn't feel sick. I didn't feel anything... I don't just mean on the outside... It was that, but it wasn't just that. I couldn't feel anything on the inside, either. I wasn't nauseated; I wasn't dizzy. My stomach wasn't clenched... I wasn't breathing quickly. I wasn't breathing at all... My brain --or whatever was up there-- told me I was horrified. And furious. And terrified. And disgusted. I knew I was all of those things. But I couldn't feel it. They were just words."

And besides it being depressing, I'm also having problems because it is set in a futuristic world...
No, not futuristic, it's hard because it is probably only about fifty years in the future. I could be living in a world like that. I don't know if many people know this about me, but I hate technology. Not that it doesn't suck me into it, just like everybody else, but that is another reason I hate it. People are growing dependant on iPods, cell phones, the internet... It's ridiculous. It makes me want to go back in time, about 150 years or so ago.... Reading A Certain Slant of Light has really made me long for that.... And to end this post, I will promise a review of A Certain Slant of Light soon!
(But anyways, I'm going to try to read Skinned again.)

Courtney

Wake

My reading speed seems to have increased greatly throughout the last few days.
Either that, or I've been finding a ton of really good books lately. Last week I started Timescape, then a few days later I read over half of it (about 300 pages) in less than a day.
Last night I picked up a book I'd started a few days ago, but didn't get very far: Wake.

(Please read the description here. You have to scroll down a bit.)
If you're too lazy to follow the link, here's abridged description:

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

On the back, Cassandra Clare wrote blurb.
"A lyrical, shuddersome novel whose images linger with you long after you've turned the last page, like the most haunting of dreams."
-Cassandra Clare, New York Times bestselling author of City of Bones

When I opened the first page, my expectations weren't very high, and maybe that's why I like it so much. The style of writing isn't what I normally read, it was in present-tense. But soon enough, I was able to get past that (and the somewhat slow beginning). It starts to pick up speed when the main character has an "episode" during her job, which sucked me in. and the romance that's intertwined in there kept me reading.
And yes, Cassandra Clare's blurb was right; it is lingering in my mind, even after reading the last words over four hours ago.

The characters have the kind of depth to them that I just thrive in, even the minor characters! (Mellisa, for example.) Janie had the typical amount of personality for a main character, and Cabel had much more that I would have expected. (Ahh, Cabel. Why aren't there more guys like you?) I also loved how much the reader was able to get to know the characters by witnessing their dreams.

I give it 4.75 stars out of 5.

After I finished Wake, I started reading Wintergirls, then stopped. Went to the kitchen. Found my dry-erase marker. Wrote these quotes on my whiteboard.
The first is quite funny, while the second is beautiful in an almost haunting way.
If you can't read them, just ask in the comments and I'll translate. You can click to enlarge, by the way.
I finally found a place for my whiteboard on top of my bookshelf.

Wish me luck with Wintergirls! I hope it's as good as it looks. :3

Monster

And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads, the names of blasphemy. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, "Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
John 13:1-4

As some of you might know, I've been reading Monster by Naoki Urasawa for nearly a year (I started it August of last summer). It is so good. It is very intracatly woven; the plot starts out very simple. Doctor must save boy from bullet wound to the skull. It stays fairly simple throughout half the manga, but then more and more characters are being added to the story, to the point where it's almost confusing, but... It's not. This manga is genius.
It's a thriller, and senein, but only because of all the violence. I know that about 2/1,000 people reading this will actually read the manga, but hey, I found this series by reading a blogged review pretty much the same as this one, and I fell in love!

The only thing I can say now is just read it. Give it a try. (You can read it [here].) The summary's on that page as well. There's also an anime, but I became bored of that (started reading the manga because sometimes the story is a bit slow, and it's easier to just skim through those parts.)

My Inkheart Movie Review

I watched this movie, Inkheart, yesterday.
I actually enjoyed it, even though I was fully prepared to be disappointed.
There were a lot of points where the movie went off the track of the book, and most of these were completely unnecessary! Pretty much, the movie producers took the idea of the book, kept the plot path pretty much the same, but then rewrote everything else.
Example:
Rather than opening the movie with Meggie reading in her bedroom of their old farmhouse, storming outside, they opened it with Mo and Meggie at a bookstore, Mo looking for Inkheart.
They did this with most of the movie. I find it extremely frustrating. I would understand if they changed a scene that would be hard to film, but no! They just changed most of the movie, and in my opinion, some of the original scenes that would have been easier to film!

The Characters
I'm not going to go into how most of the characters looked nothing like I imagined them, because that's just my imagination versus many others.
But I will go into how some characters weren't anything like they were described in the book!
There are only three examples of this, and only one really good example.
1) Fahrid had long hair. In Inkspell, it stated that Fahrid had tried to grow his hair our like Dustfinger, but ended up cutting it even shorter than before.
2) Elenor was very thin. In Inkheart, a number of times they called her "fat," but that's a pretty weak argument so I'm not going to go into it any further.
3) Resa. This is what really annoyed me. In the movie she has short, blonde hair. In the book, it clearly states that she has dark hair, turned from blonde because of Capricorn's dark heart. I don't, however, remember exactly if her hair is short or long (though I always imagined it long).

I also hated how much of an idiot they made Fenoglio. "I'm sorry, I had to do this. But look, it's Basta!" He was laughing pretty much 24/7, unless I missed something! He was even laughing when he foolishly told Dustfinger about his death!
The best part of this movie, and Angel agrees, was Dustfinger.
We were both very disappointed that he only had his shirt off for about two seconds. XD (Which you can see here.)
I was also disappointed how the movie portrayed him. Yes, he was a bit selfish in the book, but he never would have just left Resa to defend for herself from Capricorn's men!
Or left Meggie and Fenoglio for death.
But Dustfinger has always been my favourite character, and I think the movie really would have sucked without him.
(I won't talk about why I love Dustinger, no worries. This post is getting long enough as it is. ;P)

Oh, yeah, and the end of the movie blowed.

Okay, so finally, I would give this movie a 7.5 out of 10, losing a lot of point due to inaccuracy.
But I would reccomend it to the next person. I quite enjoyed it.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

She never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po.

She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

This book… Is amazing.

Two weeks ago my friend (Emily) lent it to me, said that it seemed like a book I would like. She was dead on!

I’m not going to go very far into what it’s about, exactly. You can read that right up there. (Points.) ^ See? Up there ^ But this is my review of the book.

My favourite part were the characters. Give me a book with basically no plot, but as long as the characters are interesting, I will keep it dear to me! (Like the movie, Keith. Awesome movie. Not really a plot, but Keith is fascinating!)

ARGH PEOPLE KEEP TALKING AND I CAN’T WRITE!

Heehooheehooheehoo… Give me a moment.

Okay. The characters.

Po is my favourite, by far. He’s cocky, playful, strong, and very lovable. (laugh) I don’t know why all these girls want their own Edward Cullen… I’ll be waiting for my Prince Po! xD

But the characters were so believable. Sometimes I have a hard time believing that they’re not real. (;_;) (I found myself relating with Katsa -the protagonist-… A lot!)

Other than the characters, the books itself was quite exciting. Seriously, I had trouble putting it down… And keeping it down! (I don’t think my Algebra teacher was very happy with me…_)

The end of the book was so sad. (sniff)

*cough* Erm… The funniest part of the book! Whenever I think about it, I can’t help but smile (I kept laughing and laughing when I first read it). It was when Po and Katsa were riding their horses (to somewhere) and Katsa screamed his name… I will say no more than that. You just have to read the book to get it, really. (It was so funny!)

I could feel the emotions that I’m sure the characters were feeling. The delight when Katsa fought Po. The horror when she figured out someone’s secret… And the dread and anxiety when Katsa figured that there was something wrong with a certain prince (near the end).

I finished Graceling last night, and I was so sad when it ended. See, this is why I hate reading! They always end. >_< But as endings go, that was a pretty darn good one. Very emotional. Many emotions.

I convinced Holleigh to read it, so yay. ^^ Now, you! Go forth! Read!

(Oh! I just read on Kristen Cashore’s blog that the prequel (Fire) will be coming out this October… But better than that, the third book, Bitterblue (taking place a few years after Graceling) will have appearances of my favourite characters… Katsa and Po! (silent happy-scream))

(Holy crap, I wrote a lot! My apologies!)

Cinema Bizarre

Yes, I realize that I have posted about Cinema Bizarre before. But today on the bus I was once again struck by how amazing their lyrics are.

CINEMA BIZARRE.
That name sums up perfectly this five piece Berlin based band.
The individual look, the explosive shows and the glamour of the movies tied in with a sound that refuses to be pigeonholed. First and foremost there is the music: Synthpop, New Wave, Electro, Rock and Pop merges into some kind of Glamorous Pop.
But CINEMA BIZARRE is not only meant to be heard but also to be seen. Look into their universe, these guys have a passion for visuality. Addicted to fashion, inspired by the Japanese youth culture Visual Kei, the boys pull off a package full of androgynity, desire and controversy since their theme is STYLE IS WAR.

Seriously, their music is amazing. It's not something that can be told right away, you have to listen to them over and over... Then you start to begin to understand. Their music, or at least the songs I own, consist of mostly metaphors. Sometimes the entire song is a metaphor. Their lyrics are something that don't make sense... But at the same time, they do. My favourite words of theirs would be from their song 'After the Rain.'

"What happened to my eyes, incapable of seeing size..."

Another great example is the chorus of 'Angel in Disguise':

Angel in disguise -
you save my soul
But you make my heart go blind
My devils rage inside -
just can't let go
Cause it feels so right
You make my heart go blind

Their videos are amazing as well:
Lovesongs (I like his cane... :3 (I refuse to call it a pimp stick! D:))
Forever or Never
Escape to the Stars (My favourite part is Kiro staring out the window longingly...)

~*~

In other news... There is none. But I noticed that certain people are putting a Wall of Icons on their blogs... And they're awesome. So I will follow in this trend, if you do not mind!