Daily Dose (11)

Daily Dose is hosted by Good Golly Miss Holly.

I hope your week shines like glitter! :)

IMM (12)

 In my Mailbox is hosted by Kirsti over at The Story Siren.

This week I got:

Bought:

:( I think we all know the answer here. 

Received:

The Childe by C.A. Kunz (Amazon - Goodreads)

The Screaming Stone by J.P. Osterman

Thanks to C.A. Kunz and J.P. Osterman!

Masters of the Veil by Daniel A. Cohen bookmark (Amazon - Goodreads)

Ganzfield by Kate Kaynak bookmark (Amazon - Goodreads)

Angelina's Secret by Lisa Rogers bookmark (Amazon - Goodreads)

Daimon by Jennifer L. Armentrout bookmarks (Amazon - Goodreads)

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout bookmarks (Amazon - Goodreads)

Deity Island Sticker

Thanks, Jen!

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab bookmarks (Amazon - Goodreads)

Thanks, Victoria!

She Smells the Dead by E.J. Stevens bookmark (Amazon - Goodreads)

The Chosen Historian by Randi Ertz bookmark (Amazon - Goodreads)

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon bookmark (Amazon - Goodreads)

Thanks, Cassay! 

Also, look at the epic swag pack that came along with The Childe! Amazing stuff. There are even smiley face pennies! Loookkiiieee..

:)

So, what'd you get in your mail box?

Review - Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly by Alex Flinn


Goodreads Link
Amazon Link
Overall Rating: 4 Stars

I am a beast. A beast! Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright. I am a monster. You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll, stay this way forever ruined unless I can break the spell. Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly...beastly.

     This novel was cute. It had deep undertones, but mainly, it was a light read full of cute moments. Of course, said cute moments wait to take place until the end of the novel, but the overall novel had an airy feel to it. It was after all, based on a fairy tale.
     It was a compelling book, nonetheless. I'll admit, after I bought the book, it sat on my shelf for a while because I wasn't entirely thrilled with reading from the point of view of a guy who was stuck up and pretty much a jerk. But once I opened it and finally gave it a fair chance, it wasn't that bad at all. Kyle was stuck up, but I learned that it wasn't entirely because he had that sort of thought process, but because he had been raised that way. He sincerely thought that ugly people were a nuisance because he was brought up in a world where his father had to be beautiful to support his life, and that really rubbed off on Kyle.
    Kyle's father is scum. Perhaps not on the outside, but definitely on the inside. He's just despicable. Honestly, there wasn't that big of a surprise when his dad just stopped coming to see him. It was a bit predictable.
    Kendra ended up being one of my favorite characters, despite what she did to Kyle. After a while, you can see that she knows that Kyle has changed and that she genuinely wants him to find love, because he deserves it. I liked her for that. In stories, the witch is always the bad guy who everyone hates. Not that they shouldn't hate them in that case, but in this one, I think she becomes a likable character.
    I really liked Lindy, as well. I liked that she was unique, with her red hair and her love for her father, despite the fact that he's abusive and gave her away to a stranger. She was caring and a good example of a modern Belle.
    Will and Magda made me smile, too. They were supportive and neither of them seemed to fear Kyle because of his curse, though Will was blind and you'll find out about Magda later. I even loved Pilot, who seems like an awesome dog. Just saying.
    The things that I didn't like about this book are small things that just added up. The chats were cute, but I feel like they took a bit away from the story, because I kept wanting to know about them instead of Kyle. It's not that Kyle's story wasn't interesting, just that these other stories that weren't really being expanded and it drove me crazy. I also really hated Sloane from the beginning, but that was probably an intentional part of the book. Either way.

But you guys should read this book. Don't just go watch the movie and skip reading the book if you didn't like it, because, even though I haven't seen the film, it looks as if they are very different things and I'm not sure how they really play on the same story.

Music I listened to while reading this book:
I'm not sure if I'll keep adding this to reviews, but tell me if you guys like this idea and whether or not you want me to keep doing it.

Review - Cinder and Ella by Melissa Lemon (And Interview!)

`

Cinder and Ella by Melissa Lemon

Page Number: 208 pages
Release Date: November 8th, 2011
Overall Rating: 4 1/2 Stars

"If you drink water and breathe air, then you have heard the story of Cinderella. And, if you drink water and breathe air, you have heard it...wrong."


   We've all heard the story of Cinderella. Girl has horrible family, girl has sad life, girl goes to ball, girl meets prince, girl and prince fall in love, clock strikes midnight, girl runs away, girl loses glass slipper, prince finds girl, happily ever after. Most of us could recite it, tell it to children, whisper it during class. We probably all know this story by heart.
   Or do we?
   Melissa Lemon challenges the fairytale, putting a new spin on a classic story. Cinderella is still there, but it's new. It's refreshing.
   In Cinder and Ella, instead of there being one girl, there's two. Cinder and Ella

    I particularly enjoyed this novel. It was interesting to hear a fresh approach to Cinderella and the book itself is just a lot of fun. There are so many little twists and turns, so you're always kept on your toes.
    Most of the characters are not based on the original version of the story. There's the very obvious difference in the main character, Cinderella, who is now two very different people. The prince in this novel is also the villain. Beatrice and Katrina are not step-sisters, just sisters who have become spoiled.
   Ella was my favorite character, but I think that's because the story followed her a bit more than everyone else. I liked Cinder, as well. And Tanner made me laugh and giggle throughout the entire book.
   In my mind, if your story has a villain, they have to be truly evil and they must be hard for the character to beat. If the villain is too easy for the main characters to beat, then the story has little drama or depth. Many novels today have issues with the villains not being difficult for the MC to conquer.
   Cinder and Ella is one of the few that do well. The prince is despicable and throughout the entire book I found myself wanting to hit him with a frying pan. That's what makes a villain. I, as a reader, should dislike them.
   Something that makes me smile, though, is that I continuously found myself reading aloud to myself. The story fits the idea of being read to someone. I find myself wishing I had a little sister to read this to before she went to bed. By that standard, I think there is very much a true fairytale element in this novel.
   The only thing that bothered me about this novel was that it was in third person. While I think it would've lost the storytelling element if it had been in first person, I'm so used to reading in it. Third person made it seem a bit awkward for me.

    Overall, I really liked this novel.

         

Thank you - Readathon Post

    Great news! The readathon was AWESOME! :)


    I might be a little biased...




    I think what surprised me the most was the generosity of other book bloggers. That was simply amazing. We added a donation box because a few people were saying that they wanted to give away stuff and we ended up with 36 items. That is insane.
    I mean, this was just a little readathon and it completely took off. It started off as a little idea planted inside Tiffany's head and it blew up. All of a sudden, we had 20 signups. 30 signups. 40 signups. 50 signups. It was the snowball effect, really. By the time our little snowball had reached the bottom of the mountain (of books we needed to read, no doubt), we had 88 signups.
    I'm not going to scoop up all of the credit here. Honestly, the readathon wasn't even my idea. Sure, I contributed little pieces of it, but the one who came up with it was Tiffany King. We decided to have it on my blog. After a couple of days, we enlisted the help of Missy, Jaime, Rachel, and Patricia. Girls, thank you. Without you guys, this wouldn't have ever been this much fun.
    And, of course, all of you lovely readers and bloggers who participated. We did this for you! Conquering your TBR pile is hard. Often enough, when I do sit down and read for hours, I feel guilty because I have other things I should be doing. I know a lot of other bloggers get that, too. I hope the readathon got rid of some of that  guilt. It got rid of some of mine. Sorta. I panicked a lot because I was afraid someone would need help with something. It turned out being fine. I'm just paranoid.
    But what really blows me away is how much we read. By the time we finished, our count was 26,661 pages read! Can you even imagine that? Crazy cool.

YA Saves

    I'm going to go ahead and warn you, this is about to get ranty. If you don't want to read my rants, then you don't have to.

    If you've been on twitter recently, you've most likely seen the YA Saves hastags or something about Wall Street Journal. If you haven't, well, you're probably not going to be happy after you read this. So, let's get started shall we?

Darkness Too Visible
Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?

WSJ: "Amy Freeman, a 46-year-old mother of three, stood recently in the young-adult section of her local Barnes & Noble, in Bethesda, Md., feeling thwarted and disheartened.
She had popped into the bookstore to pick up a welcome-home gift for her 13-year-old, who had been away. Hundreds of lurid and dramatic covers stood on the racks before her, and there was, she felt, "nothing, not a thing, that I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff." She left the store empty-handed."

Me: First of all, I'd just like to state that I am fourteen. I read YA. My parents allow me to read YA. In fact, they encourage it.
    You know why that is?
     Because, not only does it help me get a grip on real life issues, I enjoy it. And there are a lot of things I could be out there doing instead of reading. Even if I'm reading about these things - drugs, self-mutilation, suicide, rape, and so on - at least I'm not actually doing these things. I'm learning lessons through other people about why I shouldn't do them in the first place.
    And the covers. This literally makes me sigh. I'm not entirely sure what bookstore you went to or what books you were looking at, but I can tell you that nearly all of the YA genre has a girl on the dress on the cover. What did you find dark about the cover? Oh, maybe the fabric was dark.
    Besides, what ever happened to "Don't judge a book by it's cover?" I know we all do that. It's almost always what draws us to a book. But to look at a book with the color black on it and immediately think, "Oh no. That can't be suitable." I'm sorry, but that's just idiotic.
    Not to mention, the YA covers are a huge improvement from what you'd find a couple of rows over in the Adult Section. The covers that line the shelves there make me blush at just a glimpse! Your genre has half-naked men on the cover and you're going to complain about some black and some dresses? At least our books don't have "Smutty" stamped on the cover!
   And even so, if this woman didn't like what was in the YA section, then she should've got a Middle Grade book. They're written for kids still in middle school, hence the title, and are much more comical and bright.

WSJ: "How dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18."


Me: You do realize that things have changed, right? Books have changed, adapted, evolved. And that's because so has the world.
    In the past, things were more conservative. Things have changed. People are shot and raped and kidnapped everyday. Girls are pregnant at much younger ages. People spew hatred and greed and opinions and beliefs that others may not share.
    When people change, so must books. All art changes with the times. Music, paintings, movies, TV, and so on. It's all changed as people have. 
     My point here is, this stuff happens. A lot. And it's important to know about.


WSJ: "If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is. There are of course exceptions, but a careless young reader—or one who seeks out depravity—will find himself surrounded by images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds."


Me: So you assume that rape doesn't happen? That teenage sex doesn't happen? That people aren't doing drugs? That teens are committing suicide or self-harming?
    I call BS.
    Surely you've heard of it. After all, YA didn't just make that stuff up.
    And don't even start to tell me about beauty. You obviously have not read more than a select few YA books and you're too stuck in your own ways to even consider the beauty that they hold. You have no idea how beautiful and life-changing a book can be.


WSJ: "Mirroring the tumultuous times, dark topics began surging on to children's bookshelves. A purported diary published anonymously in 1971, "Go Ask Alice," recounts a girl's spiral into drug addiction, rape, prostitution and a fatal overdose. A generation watched Linda Blair playing the lead in the 1975 made-for-TV movie "Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic" and went straight for Robin S. Wagner's original book. The writer Robert Cormier is generally credited with having introduced utter hopelessness to teen narratives. His 1977 novel, "I Am the Cheese," relates the delirium of a traumatized youth who witnessed his parents' murder, and it does not (to say the least) have a happy ending."


Me: Once again, these things happen! And not all stories need a happy ending. Life doesn't always have a happy ending. If it did, suicide wouldn't even happen. And suicide does happen.


WSJ: "The argument in favor of such novels is that they validate the teen experience, giving voice to tortured adolescents who would otherwise be voiceless. If a teen has been abused, the logic follows, reading about another teen in the same straits will be comforting. If a girl cuts her flesh with a razor to relieve surging feelings of self-loathing, she will find succor in reading about another girl who cuts, mops up the blood with towels and eventually learns to manage her emotional turbulence without a knife.
    Yet it is also possible—indeed, likely—that books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures. Self-destructive adolescent behaviors are observably infectious and have periods of vogue. That is not to discount the real suffering that some young people endure; it is an argument for taking care."


Me: I'm sorry. I'm just going to say it. That statement makes me sick. This entire article makes me sick! And, quite frankly, I very much want to meet the person who wrote it so I can tell her exactly where she can shove her opinion.
    I don't know a single person who would read a book about self-mutilation and think it was cool. I can't think of a soul who read a book about suicide and decided to do it because of the story they read. I can't think of one person who read about abuse or rape or prostitution and decided that it was what they wanted to do with their life.
    And you're full of crap if you say that you could.
    TV popularizes cutting and sex. They never show many consequences in them, anyways. But with books, they're all about the problems and the consequences. You're inside of the main character's head, reading all of their thought, seeing every last one of their feelings and fears. You begin to think about yourself as that person. You begin to think about how scared you would be, how upset and nervous and frightened.
    But, I swear, if I ever hear someone in public talking about how books led them to cut or have sex or do drugs, I will personally hit them in the face. I will, too. Because that's bull.


Overall:
    You know, this article states several times that we are going to be led to do thing because we read about them in a book. I would just like to state this:


    I am not a sheep. I cannot be herded into a pin and made to do something because I am told. I will not look around and see others doing something and decide that it would be okay to do.
    I have a mind. I am not stupid. I can think for myself and form coherent thoughts.

It's here...Readathon!

    Guys, I'm super excited! It's here! *happy dance*
    I'm sorry to say that I may not get to participate as much as I want to. Two days ago, my laptop charger decided to throw a hissy fit and doesn't charge my laptop anymore. But I may be able to get on my dad's computer, what I'm on now, and be able to participate fully through here. If not, I will be on Twitter, using the hashtag.
    But, even if I'm not here, feel free to use the chat. It's on the pages, at the top. Please be respectful in the chat room. No one wants to here you yell and curse at them, or anyone else for that matter.
    Also, since we're giving prizes out for the most read and the longest read, when you finish something, please leave a comment on this post. Just tell me what you finished. If the name your commenting with isn't the same thing as what you signed up with, please put the name you signed up with in your comment. If I can't figure out who you are, then I'm just going to go to the next person.
    The trivia, as of now, is going to be on twitter. That's the main way to win prizes, so unless you're going to read the longest or the most, you should participate on twitter! I promise, you aren't going to get stalked unless you tweet things like, "MY ADDRESS IS _____" or "I GO TO SCHOOL HERE! _____"
    If you're going to participate in the trivia, then make sure you follow us! It starts at Noon, PST.

    Brielle
    Tiffany
    Jaime
    Patricia
    Rachel


    I hope you guys have fun with this! I sure will. :)