Novels #9
Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Author: Lewis Carroll
Grade: A+
Brief Summary: The classic tale of precocious Alice and her journey into her imaginary Wonderland. Alice meets iconic characters such as the Caterpillar, The Mad Hatter and March Hare, and the tyrant Queen of Hearts.
Review: I have always loved the film versions of Alice in Wonderland, particularly the Walt Disney version, and so I decided to give the books a whirl. I absolutely loved Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I love the idea behind the tale, that sometimes a little silliness is needed and you can't be serious all the time. Alice struggles with this idea in Wonderland. First of all, her size is constantly changing, and she faces an identity crisis. My favorite chapter was her conversation with the Caterpillar. She explains the Caterpillar her feelings by comparing it to his imminent change into a butterfly. I loved the imagery there, and the Caterpillar's blunt expressions to Alice about how she should know how she is were oddly comforting. Second, Alice quickly realizes that she is the most sensible person in Wonderland, and it makes her stand out. Whenever she tries to interact with the inhabitants and join in their fun, she gets frustrated and can't accept their funny ways. When she does start to get silly, as with her odd recitations of poetry, she goes completely off into the nonsensical, and the Wonderlandians find her to be very odd. I think Lewis Carroll was trying, in a roundabout way, to say that there needs to be a balance between serious and silly.
Novel #10
Title: Through the Looking-Glass
Author: Lewis Carroll
Grade: C
Brief Summary: Alice returns in the sequel to Adventure's in Wonderland. She goes through the mirror in her house to a new land, and she joins in a chess game in order to become a queen. She meets characters such as the Red and White Queen, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and the White Knight.
Review: You know that myth that Lewis Carroll was high when he wrote these stories? Well, I didn't believe it when I was reading the first story, because it just seemed to be a fantasical story from a child's imagination. This story, however, makes the myth seem totally plausible. The story reminded me of those dreams you have where you'll be doing one thing, and then suddenly you're doing something totally different, and you really need to get somewhere, but you can't because all these obstacles get in your way (for instance, in my dreams, I usually need to go to the bathroom, and I can't ever get there, and then I wake up and realize that I actually really do need to go to the bathroom.) Anyway, this story is very jumpy, and if you aren't paying close attention, you get lost and have to go reread what you just read. Where I got lost in Carroll's language from the first story, I was very very bored with his language in this tale, and I just wanted the story to end. Bottom line: it was really weird, and I don't think I'll be rereading it in the future.
 

Novel #11
Title: If I Should Die Before I Wake
Author: Han Nolan
Grade: B
Brief Summary:  Two girls are fighting for survival. Hillary is a girl from the present day. She is part of a Neo-Nazi group and she absolutely hates Jews. She gets in a  motorcycle accident and is taken to a Jewish Hospital, where in a coma, she starts to have dreams of a different life. Chana is a Jewish girl living in Poland at the onset of WWII. She and her family live in the Lodz Ghetto, and soon she is taken imprisoned and taken to Auschwitz. She has to deal with the separation from her family and the many deaths surrounding her, and tries to keep her own at bay.
Review: This was a very interesting read. I have always been fascinated by the Holocaust and the events of WWII. Even though the stories are deeply depressing, I still love reading them. I picked up this book at the bookstore because it had an interesting premise. When I first stared reading, it took me a minute to realize that Hillary was from the present day. When I read the back of the book, for some reason I though she was supposed to also be from WWII. So, it took me a while to get into the story. Once I did, I read the book in about a day. I'll be honest, Chana's story interested me more than Hillary's did. But the intertwining of their stories was very well done, especially in the ending. When I first was reading Hillary's point of view, I didn't know if I could keep reading. This girl's point of view was written with a lot of hatred, specifically to the Jewish people, and it just made me sick. But once you start to learn more about her past and her relationship with her parents, it starts to make sense where her hatred comes from, and what it is really covering up. Chana's story goes into just enough details for the Young Adult reader wanting to learn about the Holocaust. The were the familiar, gruesome, painful details that help us remember what happened, and how it can't ever happen again. Parts of this story did made me think of The Devil's Arithmetic, just because that book has a similar story, but I still enjoyed it. 

Well, it is a couple of weeks late but here are my reviews of the books I've read recently.

Novel #4
Title: Abandon
Author: Meg Cabot
Grade: B
Brief Summary: Pierce used to be a smart, driven, popular teenage girl before she died. But when she came back to life, everything changed. Her parents divorced, her best friend died, and now Pierce's mother has moved her to a little island in the Florida Keys. But moving isn't going to help Pierce escape from him, John Hayden, her personal reminder of her brush with death. A modern retelling of the Persephone and Haydes myth.
Review: Meg Cabot has always been a favorite author of mine. She is well known for writing two types of teen novels: quirky, light, romantic comedy type stories (such as The Princess Diaries series) and books that have mystical, supernatural elements but take place in the real world (The Mediator Series, 1-800-Where-R-U). This book definitely would fall under the latter category, but in an unsettling way. This book felt as though Cabot had two really good story ideas and she tried to mesh them together. The first idea is the retelling of the Persephone myth. Girl dies, King of the Underworld falls in love and holds her hostage, she escapes and he follows to protect her. That's basically the storyline, without giving anything away. So, that is a pretty cool idea, since most modern retellings these days are of fairy tales and tend to ignore the more mythical stories. The second idea is one for a great Young Adult problem novel. A girl dies but is revived and she comes back to find that her previously easy life is complicated. She has to deal with divorce, suicide, moving away from her childhood home, meeting new friends and starting a new life. I was very impressed with Meg's writing during these parts because never before have I read something of hers that was so angst driven and focused on teenage problems. It reminded me a lot of Laurie Halse Anderson and her works, and I was glad to see this shift in Meg's writing from teen romance to good, nitty gritty problem writing. The part where this story fell flat is when she tried to mesh these two ideas together. In theory, it should have worked, but in practice it didn't. I felt as though I were reading two very different stories but they were supposed to be a whole. It was unsettling, and I found that most of the time, whenever the mystical parts came in, I have completely forgotten about that part of the story and they came out of nowhere. I really hope that in her next two books (This is the first in a trilogy of books) Meg will tie it all together.

Novel #5
Title: This Lullaby
Author: Sarah Dessen
Grade: B+
Brief Summary: Remy is a skeptic when it comes to love. It isn't hard to see why when you look at her mother's previous four marriages, which includes the divorce from Remy's rock-star father. But this skepticism will be tested when she meets Dexter, a traveling musician who doesn't seem to get the message that Remy isn't interested in love. But when she starts to get to know Dexter and starts breaking all of her own rules of romance, will she become a believer, or will it just be another reason for her disbelief.
Review: Where Meg Cabot is known for her fun, light hearted teen romance books, Sarah Dessen is well known for being the best at capturing the ups and down of first love. Dessen is able to show that teenage love isn't always happy-go-lucky, but it can break your heart, and it can hurt. What I like about Sarah Dessen's books is that although the romantic storyline is always the headliner, there is always an underlying teen problem thrown in there as well. In this book, it's the issue of divorce and remarrying. Remy's mother in this book is marrying for the fifth time, and you see how it affects Remy and her brother Chris. Remy doesn't want to become like her mom, so she has become very scientific when it comes to relationships. She has rules and she knows exactly when it is the best time to get out. But this has left Remy without the ability to ever get close to anyone. The closest relationships that Remy has are with her girlfriends, and even then, she has those relationships figured out as well. She lives her life in a very organized, but cold way, as she sees that these little things will help her be in control. Enter in Dexter, the awkwardly delightful musician who at first seems like a total pain in her neck, but eventually turns out to be the one possible chance that Remy has for being in love. But because of seeing her mother's previous downfalls with love, it leaves her scared. I love how Sarah Dessen uses the underlying problem to feed into the headline problem, because she shows teens that yes, these things happen in life that we can't control, but we can't let them control our entire outlook on life. What I didn't like about this book is that it took a while to get into, and I find that with most of what I've read by Dessen. However, once you get to know the characters and you get the story, it's a fast read and is enjoyable. It'll leave you wondering what Remy will decide up until the very last moment.


It is going to be awhile before I post again, because for my next books, I'm reading a series, and I want to post them all together. But, hopefully I'll finish soon and there will be a post. Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave comments, I'd love to hear your opinions.