The Lightning Thief

Blog Post #8 Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 

  

                    THE PREMISE

        Percy Jackson is twelve years old and he's been to and kicked out of six boarding schools. He has a mean step-father, but the best mother you could ask for. She's nice and always cares for him, she never yells at him or his needy step-father out of anger. His step-father is constantly drinking and playing poker with his stinky friends. Also he treats Percy's mom like a maid or waitress or slave.

        At his latest school, Yancy Academy, they go on a field trip to a museum. Percy sticks with his best friend, Grover who has a slight limp and uses crutches to get around. 

Some bad luck stricks when he finds out his math teacher isn't exactly human. She turns into a bird creature and he slices her in half just for her to turn to sand. Get this he doesn't even use a sword. It's a pen that just *poof* sword. Mr. Brunner their Latin teacher ignores it and no one remembers their math teacher. 

       There's this girl, Nancy Bobofit, that gets under Percy's skin and annoys the crap out of him. Percy finally has had enough of her and does some things. Nothing violent I can assure you. Then Percy gets expelled again. 

              WHAT I JUST READ

       Percy arrives at Camp Half-Blood all in one piece. He discovers he killed a Minotaur and Mr. Brunner is half horse. Big suprise right? Percy is stunned but doesn't (completely) freak out. But he is depressed because he realizes that his mom is actually gone.

                     CRITICISM

I would rate this book five stars. I love it! I haven't read this genre before but I'm glad that I tried it. Rick Riordan has great discribing  words and a fabulous plot line. Read this book if you haven't it's amazing!

       

Beautiful Creatures

BLOG POST #7 Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

                                                    

                                                                    THE PREMISE

       

       Ethan Wate is your typical American boy with a little bit of a twist. First off he loves to read (maybe it came with the genes), his mom was a librarian. Was. As in not anymore. As in she got killed in a car crash a year earlier. He lives in Gatlin, South Carolina (which is not an actual town) with his father, who rarely leaves his office, and Amma, a mom-like figure who cares for him and works at his house full-time, but she also leaves voodoo charms around the house to keep them safe. Ethan lives in a plantation home that has been there for many generations. On one sign entering Gatlin it says, "WELCOME TO GATLIN, HOME OF THE SOUTH'S MOST UNIQUE HISTORIC PLANTATION HOMES AND THE WORLD'S BEST BUTTERMILK PIE." (Garcia and Stohl 134).  Where things never  seem to change and everything and  everyone are predictable. According to Ethan and his father, "There were only two types of people in our town. "The stupid and the stuck," my father had affectionately classified our neighbors. "The ones who are bound to stay or too dumb to go. Everyone else finds a way out." (Garcia and Stohl 1).
       He has weird dreams sometimes. These dreams aren't dreams, they're nightmares. And they aren't just his imagination some of it is real. Ethan will wake up drenched or covered in dirt. More often then not these nightmares are accompanied by a girl. Though he has never seen her he knows her, he even loves her. The dreams entail her falling through a hole and him not being able to save her or her drowning and him not being able to grasp her hand. But he doesn't know her. Ethan has never seen her face before. All he knows is that mystery girl has long brown hair.
       Even weirder a song starts playing on his iPod. Except he didn't download it. Ethan doesn't know the song. And as soon as the song is over it disappears. The first time you hear the song the lyrics are,
"Sixteen moons, sixteen years
  Sixteen of your deepest fears
  Sixteen times you dreams my tears
  Falling, falling through the years..." (Garcia and Stohl 6) But throughout the book it changes again,

"Sixteen moons, sixteen years
Sound of thunder in your ears
Sixteen miles before she nears
Sisteen seeks what sixteen fears..." (Garcia and Stohl 37) And again,

"Sixteen moons, sixteen years
 Sixteen times you dream my fears,
 Sixteen will try to bind the spheres,
 Sixteen screams but just one hears..." (Garcia and Stohl 272). Sixteen Moons (the name of the song) had a creepy tone to it too.
       Along with the weird things there's a new girl in town. There are never new people in town. Especially someone related to the town shut-in Macon (Mechizedek) Ravenwood (also known as the Boo Radley of Gatlin). He is said to be very unsocial and he drives a hearse. Lena Duchannes. Mr. Ravenwood's niece. She's the one he sees in his dreams. Here's Ethan's first impression of her, "Everyone actually steeped aside when she came down the hall. Like she was a rock star.
       Or a leper.
       But all I could see was a beautiful girl in a long gray dress under a white track jacket with the word Munich sewn on it, and beat-up black Converse peeking out underneath. A girl who wore a long silver chain around her neck, with tons of stuff dangling from it-a plastic ring from a gumball machine, a safety pin, and a bunch of other junk I was too far away to see. A girl that didn't look like she belonged in Gatlin. I couldn't take my eyes off her.
       Macon Ravenwood's neice. What was wrong with me? (Garcia and Stohl 32).  Lena writes in a battered notebook and writes numbers on her hand (156 ).  
       But the weirdest the of all. One day Ethan goes over to Lena's house and they sit out in the garden. They find a locket, "I was still touching her; I was so aware of it. I could feel the rough stone beneath us, and I grabbed for the edge of it, supporting myself. Only my hand closed around something small and round, stuck tot the edge of the stone. It came off from the stone into my hand."  (Garcia and Stohl 72) they go through a vision or something along the lines of that, but they go back through time, "My hand had been curled around a battered old cameo, black and oval, with a woman's face etched in ivory and mother of pearl. The work on the face of it was intricate with detail. on the side, I noticed a small bump. "Look I think it's a locket."
       I pushed on the spring and the cameo front opened to reveal a tiny inscription. " It just says GREENBRIER. And a date." (Garcia and Stohl 75).  A couple paragraphs later they discover something that seems coincidental but couldn't be with Lena's luck, "It looked like something that had survived a lot- maybe even the fire from the vision. She turned it over in her hands. "FEBRUARY 11TH, 1865." She dropped the locket, turning pale." (Garcia and Stohl 75) Turns out Lena's birthday was on the locket and the initials ECW and GKD were engraved. At first Ethan doesn't think it's weird but when he sees ECW he knows something is up because his initials are ELW.  Multiple times the locket brings them back in time into Genevieve's mind.

                                                                         CRITICISM

           I really enjoy this book. It's something like I've never read before. This book takes you to places you've never been and makes you image things you've never thought of. I am in love with this book. It is just downright amazing Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl did a wonderful job on giving depth to characters, and their writing style is just superb. The character's seem so real. Also they give you new perspectives on things. I recommend this book for anyone really. It is in the perspective of Ethan, a guy, but does have a little romance in it.


                                                          CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

Ethan Lawson Wate- Protagonist, 16 years-old, plays basketball, he's a nice guy, he has some sort of power but nobody knows what it is

Wesley Jefferson Lincoln- A.K.A. Link, Ethan's best friend, human

Lena Duchannes- the mystery girl everyone talks about, caster (sort of like a witch)

Macon Ravenwood- Lena's uncle, unsocial but can clean up nicely for guests, and is actually somewhat nice, also a caster

Amma- Ethan's work-in nanny-type person she is a mom-like figure and helped raise Ethan, she plants voo-doo charms around the house

Ridley- Lena's cousin, a dark caster

Sarafine- Lena's ??????, dark caster, wants to either kill Lena or capture her

Ryan, Recce, Aunt Del...- Lena's caster relative's, all good

  

Iron King

BLOG POST #6 Iron King by Julie Kagawa

THE PREMISE

       Fey are mythical creatures. They are unicorns, dryads, seers, ect... They are formed from stories for example; The Big Bad Wolf, Robin Goodfellow, Oberon, Mab, Queen Tatiana, trolls, giants, cyclopses, you name it. And they die when either they get killed or nobody believes in them their per say race anymore.

        Ash is a Prince, an ice prince to be exact. He lives in the faery world, in Tir Na Nog. Also Ash lost the love of his life, Airella, a couple centuries ago to an accident which he doesn't like to talk about. 

       Meghan is a normal teen. So she thinks, but she is actually half faery and her father is the King of the the Summer Fey (plural faery). Obereon (Meghan's father) doesn't want Meghan to know about the faery world at all so he sends Puck. Puck, also Robin Goodfellow from the Midsummer's Night Dream, plays the role of Meghan's best and only friend, named Robbie Goodfell. But his job doesn't end there. He is also there to protect her. But, it's not the job that keeps him there. Puck also loves her. Meghan has a family of four. Her mother, step-father, and a four year-old half-brother Ethan. In a twist of events Ethan is kidnapped into the faery world and Robbie (also Puck) promises to take her to find him. On their way Meghan is introduced to the icy prince and falls for him. They have to talk to some Dryads and Puck gets severly injured. While as Meghan hates to leave her summer protector behind, but she advances in hopes he will get better and she can save her brother. 

WHAT I JUST READ

       Meghan has found a new species of fey. The Iron Fey the be exact. Now regular fey are per say allergic to iron. They get weak, and die fading away. You see there is no after world like heaven for the fey, they are soul less beings (but they may contain some humanity), so when they die they just cease to exist. Since Meghan is only half-fey she is immune to iron while Ash gets weaker each day they get closer to the heart of the city where Meghan believes her half-brother, Ethan is. Ash is slowly dying but he is also is learning to love again. Since fey are immortal he has been a shell of a person for centuries, since Airella died, but he is coming to love Meghan similar to the way he loved Airella. He protects her and tries to be strong but like I said before the iron is weakening him to the point where he can barely walk.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

       Meghan- Protagonist, Half-fey Half-human, Summer Princess, Oberon's (the summer king's) daughter, sixteen.

       Puck/ Robin Goodfellow/ Robbie Goodfell- Summer fey prankster, protects Meghan, from the Midsummer's Night Dream, and who knows how old he is, also gets in trouble a lot and duals Ash a ton.

       Ash- Ice prince, youngest of Mab, excellent fighter.

       Grimalkin- A know it all, talking cat... Yes, cat. I typed that right, he is a smart one, and has one big mouth. Along with his big mouth and golden orbs he's a gray cat.

      

The Upstairs Room

BLOG #5 The Upstairs Room, Johanna Reiss

The Premise

       Annie is a little girl with a little dog named Bobbie. She and her family are jewish and have to go into hiding. Her mother on the other hand is very ill and cannot go into hiding with them, frankly she doesn't even know that they are going into hiding, for she is in the hospital when they leave. Shortly thereafter she dies in the hospital.

Annie has to cut her hair short like a boy, and her sister Sini has to dye her long, black hair, red. Their sister, Rachel,  stays back for a little while to care for their mother until she dies. Later Rachel will join her sisters in the upstairs room.






Criticism
I really did not enjoy this book. It was very boring and had no action. Because seriously the only action part was where she got on the bus to go to the house she was hiding, and honestly that wasn't even biting-your-nails-and-sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat action.

I would not recommend this book to people who like action or need to still learn about the Holocaust.

Beastly

BOOK BLOG #4  Beastly by Alex Flinn

Premise

 Life is perfect for Mr. Kyle Kingbury. He was popular, he was beautiful, he had the prettiest girlfriend he had the money, he had everything. Until the day he was snotty to the wrong girl... or should I say witch. Kendra is this witch who's been watching him. 

WHAT I JUST READ

           While filling out ballots for prom king and queen, Kyle sees Kendra to him she's ugly fat gross. She has green hair and a bigger figure, not traditionally pretty. Kendra speaks up to Kyle and he doesn't like what he hears. As a prank Kyle asks Kendra to the dance. He acts all the parts getting a flower asking what color tie he should wear ect. Instead of meeting her at the dance he brings his girlfriend, Sloane Hagen, he thinks this is gonna be the perfect prank to embarass her after she told him all those things about how he only was popular because of his looks and money and power. Only when he pulls the prank on her she's not embarassed and crying like he thought. Kendra threatens him and later shows up at his house. 

           She turns him into what he truly is, Beastly. He is a monster, hairs sprouting from every pore of his body. The only way to get back to his old self is to get a kiss from someone he truly loves, and he only has two years to do it. His father thinks its a medical thing that can be fixed with procedures and money. Rob Kingsbury is far from right. Rob is Kyles father, and a news anchor who is obsessed with himself, and his job. He sends Kyle off to a mansion in Brooklyn with the maid because he's afraid that people will find out about the monstrosity of his son and fire him. It's an old house tinted windows curtains on everyone. A tall gate around the yard, and surveillance equipment every where. 

       Once Kyle settles down a bit he goes onto the internet and stumbles across a chat room for people who have transformed, or experienced unexpected changes. Kyle (BeastNYC) meets SilentMaid a mermaid who is deciding whether or not she should become human to meet the love of her life with a couple side-effects, Froggie a prince who ticked off a witch and became a frog, and finally Grizzlyguy who also ticked off a witch. They help him in this difficult time and support him.

  Kyle plants a rose garden with his tutor Will who is blind. His father hired Will because Kyle wanted a tutor, and he was blind so he couldn't see Kyle's hideousness. They become close friends. By the way Kendra gave Kyle a mirror a magic mirror and Kyle can talk to her. Kyle and Kedra have this kind of love-hate relationship where they are kind of friends but Kyle gets angry all the time at her because she can't take away the spell only he can by breaking it. Well Kyle makes a negotiation with Kendra if he can break the spell before the two years are up then Will can have his sight back and Magda (the maid) can go back to her family. She agrees. 

 Kyle can see anyone he wants with the mirror. He looks at his old friends and people from his school. One day he looks at Linda, the girl he gave a white rose to at the dance because Sloane wouldn't wear it and he didn't want it to go to waste. She had orange hair and lots of freckles pale skin too. She was petite and average looking. Linda was a scholarship student at Kyle's old school Tuttle. He kept going back and watching her. She read a lot and lived in a crumby house with a druggie as a father.

One night somebody breaks into his greenhouse/place with all of his roses. The guy is obviously a duggie. Kyle scares the guy half to death and the guy offers up his daughter. Sure enough his daughter is Linda. Kyle pretty much keeps Lindy/Linda prisoner but they become best friends.

Can their love be enough to save Kyle? Can she save him in time or will he be stuck like this forever? Find out in Beastly.

Scarlet

BOOK BLOG #3 Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

THE PREMISE

            It had been two and a half weeks since her grandmother's disappearence when she recieved the comm that the police had stopped looking for her. Scarlet couldn't believe her eyes when she had looked at her portscreen. Her grandmere hadn't even said goodbye or left a note or even packed a bag she also left her port screen. That was not like her. Ruix Tavern was where she delivered her vegetables and it was also the place she met wolf. Wolf hadnt been there before-Scarlet would know she came every day. She knew everyone except Wolf. When she get home she is startled to see her grandma's room's light on. But when she gets to the room she loses hope because it is her father who she hasn't seen in over five years. He is tearing Grandmere's room to pieces! Scarlet's father is babbling about something saying over and over "it must be here it must be here". As her father sprints to the garage Wolf shows up. Her dad is ripping apart the garage now and smashes her hover's window. Now she has to get on the maglev to find her grandma who may or may not be in Paris. While she and Wolf are on the maglev there is an outbreak of letumosis they have to jump out and save themselves. Letumosis is disease that is incurable and carried by Lunars (people who live on the moon and can use bioelectricity to make humans see or do things).
             On the other hand Cinder, a cyborg has discovered that she is Princess Selene. Princess Selene was said to be killed in a fire by Queen Levana; her aunt. Levana is obsessed with power and she felt the need to kill her niece because Selene was in line before Levana. She was only three years old. The fire explains  why she is a cyborg (BTW Scarlet is a human not a cyborg). Some special people brought her back to earth, fixed her up, and sent her off to live with some people. Though the father was the one willing to adopt her, when he went to pick her up he caught letumosis on the plane and obviously died. So she went to live with his wife Linh Adri and their two daughters Linh Peony and Linh Pearl. Adri and Pearl never liked Cinder and as you can tell she was called Linh Cinder. But Peony liked Cinder and was her friend. By the way Cinder was a reknowned mechanic in her town, Commonwealth. Anyways in this book she has to escape jail to meet Dr. Erland (who had to find her and is the one who told her that she was Princess Selene) in Africa. So cinder has to escape and when she is getting out she meets Captain Thorne. Thorne is an ex-military cadet but he prefers to be called a Captain.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED      
            Cinder has to help Thorne escape because he had stolen a government ship, and stripped its tracking devices. To be more clear Cinder needed Thorne's ship to escape and the only why she could escape was to bring him along so they could use the ship. So they escape and have to go find Michelle Benoit, Scarlet's grandmother to find out more information about herself, Princess Selene. They (Thorne and Cinder) go to Scarlet and her grandmother's farm hoping they find her there, but all they find is an empty house and an under ground cellar sort of thing that all of "Princess Selene"'s procedures went on. While they are trying to find her so is Scarlet. They somehow find each other and figure out someone has killed Scar's grandmother. The worst part is that Scarlet watched her grandmother get killed by Ran, Wolf's younger brother.After that they battle a ton of mutant wolf-lunars. All of them get on the ship and get out of earth's atmosphere.

For more, read the book Scarlet and if you are interested in the first book in the series it is called Cinder. Not to worry there are more books coming out in 2014 Cress which involves Rapunzel and in 2015 Winter which I believe has Snow White obviously not by name though.

Lenobia's Vow

Blog Post #2 Lenobia's Vow by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

The Premise

       Before Lenobia is marked, changed and becomes the Equestrian teacher at the House of Night she had a life. 

       It all started in Evreux, France in the year 1788. Lenobia is an illegitimate daughter of a rich Baron. The 16 year-old Lenobia is a human at this point and has many issues. Her half-sister Cecile is a spoiled brat. Cecile is about to be sent off to America to be married a man she doesn't know, so when Cecile gets very sick and dies Lenobia's mother wants her to take Cecile's place so that she can have a good life. At first Lenobia is confused and desperate to stay with her mother, but her mother convinces Lenobia to go. She agrees because there is an evil bishop who has his eyes on her and is skilled in Dark magic. This unscrupulous bishop is going to be sent on the ship also, which Lenobia and her mother do not know beforehand. This eight weeks are going to be long ones for her which may bring a little danger, forbidden romance, and even a couple horses.

My Reaction

       Beware this book does have a little bit of romance. Lenobia and, a slave, Martin fall in love on the ship. They meet one day when the smell of hay, horses, and the fear of being discovered by the bishop brings her down to the animals. She then meets Martin tending to his master/father's horses,and she immediately falls in love with him. For Lenobia this is heaven on earth. I thought that the way they met was really cute. Also I think that this plays a big role in their relationship. When they reach the mainland Lenobia and Martin are spilt up (at this point everyone knows that she is not Cecile). By the time that the boat is docked on shore Lenobia is coughing very hard (she is about to get marked which means you are going to become a fledgling vampire). The group notices that she is lagging behind and as they try to support her she collapses. So the nuns decide that the Bishop should bring her into the barn until they get help, fortunately the bishop didn't do anything to her, and Martin shows up and finds her.

      SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

       When Martin finds Lenobia he is not afraid instead he asks the tracker if he is the consort of a vampire (soo cute!!!) sadly he is not because Lenobia is only a fledgling. Just then the bishop enters the barn that contains Martin, Lenobia, and her tracker. Unscrupulously the bishop lights the barn on fire. Martin is still in there and cannot be saved. Lenobia and her tracker exit the barn safely though, and Lenobia then vows she will never love any other man (the title). Lenobia is left heartbroken but she keeps living for him her true love.