c16uw

Malice I could almost call a good horror. You see, horror is more then just scary, as most horror books are, but so seemingly realistic it chills you bones. Most of my friends are like “How do you get scared by a book?”. Exactly my point; you need a really, really, good book for it to be an actual horror. One reason why Malice was a good horror, is beacause it had pictures. It had words and comics! Ahhhh! EPIC!

It was so good I read it in two days (even though that is normal for me). It’s easy to get through, and so gripping it’s hard to stop. Oh, Gosh, no I’m starting to sound like the characters from the book. Ugh. I guess I should give you a summary so you know what I’m talking about.

Kady and Seth have heard of Malice, everyone has. It’s a twisting maze of a comic book, but if you say the right words and give the right things you’ll be the next one in the book. Of course it’s just a dumb story, right. Seth and Kady think, but when their friend, Luke, disappears; they are throughly spooked.

I liked the cliff-hanger-on-every-page style of Wooding. It held you on to the plot, but took you away (eek.). I also like the comic/novel way it’s written; it reminds me of a book I read when I was little called Abadazad. I also like how ever so often you hear the (almost) meaningless conversations between Kady and her cousin on IM. Those are a little hard to follow, but okay.

Date: October 2009. That means it’s already out.

Rate: Five (million) stars.

Mistwood. Yeah, a pretty good book. About someone who I still doubt is a shape-shifter. My favorite character died in the like the first few chapters. It seemed (I say sempt…stupid computer, I don’t care if it’s not a word!) a little dragging on for the first few chapters, but still, a pretty good book. Reminded me a bit of Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix (another author that I must say their entire name!), even though it wasn’t one the list of books that were like it: Graceling, Fire (Tamora Pierce) and Attolia Books (Megan Whalen Turner…wow I’m on a roll!).

Taking an unexpected twist nearer to the end, the story line was good, and the author’s style, just it didn’t stand up straight enough to be as good to the Attolia books. They were just, well…Mistwood was more magical, while Attolia Books are more battle strategy (I say history).

This was a really fast reading, cute, graphic novel, that I just wanted to keep reading. It takes place in 1942, the height of World War II. Evelyn draws comics in secret, always imagining saving people and capturing Nazi spies. When her and her new friend, Tony, uncover a secret about a plot with Nazi spies, she doesn’t know what to do… I liked the way the story was set up, how she’s afraid to live in NYC.

I like the whole feel of the time, always being one your toes, and how it’s hard to be one step ahead. To be truthful, I think the way the Nazi spies passed note was really imaginative, smart, and interesting! Also how Tony is always imagining their doorman to be a spy!

My only question! Why are Evelyn’s drawing so good throughout the book, but on the last page they turn more…like mine, but better (you should never see me draw). I’ve been reading manga (the japanese right to left read graphic novel…look it up!) that this style of drawing felt so strange to me!

Fever Crumb was an good awesome book! It’s by Philip Reeve who wrote the Mortal Engines quartet and Here Lies Arthur. It’s the prequel to the Mortal Engines quartet. I really like this authors style, the sort of dark, gloomy, but still really cool style. That style just reminds me faintly of Scott Westerfeld’s (my favorite author) Leviathan (my favorite book). I also love how Reeve uses a group of people looking down on others ideas when they themselves have some of the same, which reminds me of The Magician Guild by Trudi Canavan, another good book.

Fever Crumb is an apprentice to Dr. Crumb, she has been ever since she was left on his doorstep. When she is told to go assist Kit Solent, an archeologist, research a top-secret project. She soon uncovers a dark secret of her past, her heritage, and her entire species. She is being hunted down though, by some of the worst and most ruthless Scriven hunter, Bagman Creech. Creech also has a very loyal assistant, Charley.

The story line may sound really bad when I say it, but it’s a really good book. One thing I REALLY liked about Reeve’s style was how he made up London’s ‘gods’. I found two ‘Mad Isa’ and ‘Poskitt’. I found that Poskitt was after Kjartan Poskitt author of Murderous Math, and the discoverer of Molecular Clockwork, but I have no clue what ‘Mad Isa’ is. I’m thinking a company with the letters dropped? (if you have any ideas comment)

Comes Out: April 2010

Ages: 12+

The Percy Jackson books were definitely very good, even though I could comment on some parts; and it’s absolutely too popular for me. The movie is between both hands, I liked it, but it was soooo different. Say, in the movie the characters are way too old. What, they’re supposed to be 11? In the movie they are like 16, that’s supposed to come in the last book! They left out so much, and added stuff. So, they can’t say we needed to shorten the time, or something, because they should just leave out the made up part!

But, you know what really bugs me? So many people I know only care that they made Annabeth brunet with blue eyes and Grover is African American, opposed to Annabeth having Annabeth being blond with gray eyes! So picky about the actors, but not the story line! *Sigh*

The way they showed Hades, well that just bugged me, a thousand times! He seemed like Ares, but he wasn’t, they didn’t even have Ares! And I don’t remember Persephone being in the book, and not such a big character. That brings me to; they pronounced everyone’s names wrong. Gosh, why the Romanized way, and not the Greek way? I sort of remember the book being stinking Greek not Roman! And what is with Luke being the one who stole the lightning bolt? That gives away sooo much for the other books. I know the same director isn’t doing the next movie; or else he would have made it too hard for himself! Just I guess, pray to Athena that he/she does a better job!

I liked Graceling, but I didn’t love it. I enjoyed the  idea, not the story. Let me give you a brief summery of the plot: In Katsa world, people have powers they call ‘Graces’. Katsa has a grace she despises; the grace to kill.

This seems like a good idea, right? Well, then she has this whole annoying adventure that I just don’t like! At one part in the book Katsa falls in love…for like half a second. I think her love life should have lasted longer, I liked the love part for once, but it didn’t last long. Graceling has made up kingdoms like A Conspiracy Of Kings, but sometimes, unlike A Conspiracy Of Kings, Gracelings kingdoms confuse me to bits.

The characters have depth and are well rounded, yet, overall, I just did not enjoy the book that greatly. So, if you want to read it I half say you should, half not.

Already out.

A Conspiracy Of Kings; from one of my favorite series. Okay, I call her Megan Whalen Turner, the whole name, and you can’t change it. I LOVE THIS SERIES. This is I think the last book, so if you haven’t read the first READ THEM! ps. The first is called The Thief the second The Queen of Attolia the third The King Of Attolia (there’s a pattern).

This one is about Sophos, the princey guy traveling with Gen(Eugenides) and his journey to become… I can’t tell you the rest you might not have read the book.

The first thing I noticed about Numbers was that the main character, Jem, lived in London. Okay, just putting that up. I really liked the story-line, and how things went. But… I think Jem is a little bit like Max from Maximum Ride by James Patterson, a little to full-of-themselves. That is one thing I can complain about, also I said “Woah, there are like way too many curses in here.” January 27, 2009 said by c16uw. “Thats true, I don’t know why, but they curse a lot. And drink a lot of tea.”

Jem is ‘one of those kid’; one who doesn’t go to school a lot. She can see numbers. The dates when people die. When her and her friend, Spider(my bff), go to the London Eye, everybody has the same number…

I think the book already came out. One more thing; the cover if confusing. Instead of having a B there is an eight. In the middle of the cover a blood red eye. For ages 14+

First of all; good book. A, nice, page-turner, awesome, almost sci-fi, adventure story. I like the author’s style the way she moves along the story slow, but not so slow you can already know what’s going to happen. It seems like a book when if the author did an explanation they would say, ‘the characters took over themselves’. It seemed like they did. The characters were so well rounded had real human-like attributes, like a real person.

The book is about Finn, a boy living in Incareron, a prison. To him, Incareron is really a prison, with the millions of people, trapped, some good, some…not. Finn has a legend with him, he is a cell born, bones of Incareron and blood of Incareron. Or so everyone says that; Incareron is alive. This book is also about Claudia, born in a almost medieval time. She has a different view than Finn’s on Incareron, her father being the keeper, she thinks it a wonderful place of beauty and all the good stuff. The way these two main characters meet is really amazing. Read it to find out!

I really enjoyed the book, mostly everything about it. So I would say to read it! Check c16lw’s blog for her post!

Hey. This is a live blog(that is why I’m talking in present tense) I am listening to David Macaulay talk about his sort-of new book Castle (now in color).

David used to draw all of his books in black and white, pen and ink. Someone called him though while he was eating “peanut M&Ms”(even artists eat ‘em!) and asked him if they could use a computer to incorporate color in his book, but he said no. He said he would rather redraw everything with color.

Castle. This book is about building his castle. It’s really interesting David goes through almost every step in making the castle. You can really see what is going on without looking at the text. There are different seasons that the castle is being built(it takes a long time, as I’ve learned) , Summer/Spring, and winter. David shows different parts being finished, while others may not even have been started. He shows how different things in a medieval town would work, drawbridges, fireplaces, spiral staircases, chapel, chambers (eww… and how they work), cemetery… etc. He has many bird-eye-views, I like that, It gives a lot information.

I really like seeing how things work, that is one of the reasons why I like Scott Westerfeld (see Leviathan review) and Studio Ghibli (I don’t have any review for that, but eventually I will. Google it.).   Different weapons how and why they would work(awesome). Many diagrams. I like how he really takes a lot of time drawing every brick, every ceiling shaft. He showed us the difference between the old and the new, I like the newer’s perspective. It’s funny, he gave people playing chess, while the castle in under siege.  The history in how “The English are coming, The English are coming!”.

Cathedral. Sad, but I like it. Building a new cathedral(he likes building stuff, awesome). This is about taking down an old cathedral, and building a new one. His art is really amazing. I can’t say much about this book because it’s sort-of unfinished.

“Don’t celebrate the ruin, celebrate the town.” DAVID MACAULAY.

Above, see one of the scenes from the new Castle. See how the arrows are pointing to different directions in which things move? This shows how different things work. Below, see a scene from the older book. I actually like this one better, to be truthful. I love this whole drawbridge idea altogether.