Book Review: Across the Universe

 

*SPOILER ALERT*

 Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Beth Revis' debut novel Across the Universe combines equal parts mystery, sci-fi, romance, and dystopia to weave an amazing story. The 81 chapter odyssey (to use a cliche) begins with a choice. Amy, one of the main characters and the narrator of every other chapter, must decide whether she, like her parents, will be cryogenically frozen (and along with many others travel frozen for 300 years until they reach a life-supporting planet), or if she will remain on Earth and choose to live her life as a normal girl. She chooses the former, and is therefore placed on board the ship Godspeed. But, when she is unfrozen 50 years too early, Amy must adapt to life aboard the Godspeed, befriending Elder, the future leader of the ship and the narrator of the other half of the book. But, the two quickly discover that Godspeed is not what they thought it was, and as they delve deeper into the lies the ship is built on, more and more of the "frozens" are unfrozen. But, unlike Amy, they are not lucky enough to survive, and to save the lives of the innocent, Amy and Elder must discover who, or what, is killing the frozens.

Across the Universe is one of the best books I have read. Revis' writing is superb, and her alternating narrators (Amy and Elder) help make the book interesting and quick-paced. Normally, I'm opposed to paranormal-romances (you can thank Stephenie Meyer for that), but Revis intertwines the Amy/Elder love story perfectly with the rest of the plot, so neither get old. It should be noted that this is definitely a book for a more mature audience (there's a mass mating time on the ship called "The Season" and an attempted rape), but it's still a young adult/teenage novel.

This book definitely deserves its 8 star rating, and if what I hear is correct, Revis plans on writing two more books in series to this one thus making a trilogy, so keep your eyes open for more by her.

Book Review: The Water Wars

So, as you can see, we've had a long hiatus here at ArtisticallySpeaking, but hopefully this will end it. In the time we've been gone, JP has dropped out of the project, but I'm pleased to announce the arrival of new team member Taylor. We're close friends, and hopefully with her, we'll be able to increase the output of book reviews on the site. In the following weeks, I'm going to see if I can add even more team members to ArtisticallySpeaking.

But, enough with the announcements. Today's review is for The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher (Dinner with Dad, Double Billing). As usual *SPOILER ALERT*

 

6.5 stars out of 10

In The Water Wars, Cameron Stracher creates a post-apocalyptic world where governments hoard the last remaining fresh water on earth, and the rest is desalinated from the oceans or sucked out of clouds. Borders have been redrawn and countries eliminated from the map. The citizens of the earth live off the water the government rations them and what other they can afford. When Vera, a citizen of the new Republic of Illinowa (an area that encompasses the former-day midwest of the United States), watches Kai, dump water into the dusty remains of the ground, she's astounded. But, when Kai tells her that he knows a secret source of fresh water that nobody has to pay for, Vera and her brother Will befriend the boy. When Kai disappears, kidnapped by a greedy desalination corporation bent on controlling all the water of the earth, Vera and Will must team up with water pirates, fight hypocritical environmental agencies, and venture across the North American continent to not only save Kai, but to gain fresh water for the entire world.

Stracher creates a wonderful premise in this young adult novel, but, to me, the book seemed to be lacking something. The character development was not done very well, and although each character could have been very interesting, the quickly-paced book never seemed to have time to explain why characters acted in their ways. Some information was revealed about each of the characters, but not enough to make me really understand what they were going through.

Also, the back story of the entire Water Wars was never completely explained. To my knowledge, water is a renewable resource, so what happened to the abundant flow of fresh water to cause this worldwide drought? Stracher comments on wars of the past and a time called "The Great Panic" but never explained what happened to all the drinkable water. Did pollution ruin it? Did global warming cause it to evaporate? We may never know.

Despite its flaws, The Water Wars, is a wonderfully paced novel. From the opening paragraph to the closing words, you will not want to put this book down. Stracher constantly engages the reader, but never overwhelms them, bringing you to new locations and introducing new characters throughout the entire novel. Be assured that you'll want to know what happens to Kai, Vera, and Will, and will not want to stop until you read the ending.

Very much in the style of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, Stracher's book earned a 6.5/10 stars in my opinion.

Book Review: The Book of Lost Things

No, I haven't abandoned the blog! I know we only have 3 followers as of yet, but hopefully the word spreads (especially now that I'm back on). Anyway, I've read a couple of books since the last time I posted, and reviews for them will be up shortly.

Today's review is for The Book of Lost Things by: John Connolly.
As usual *SPOILER ALERT*

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

In The Book of Lost Things, 12-year-old David, while trying to cope with the death of his mother, the new woman his father married, and his hatred for his new step-brother Georgie, accidently steps into a fantasy world filled with fairy tale characters. Drawn by wonder, and the promise that the king of this world will help him get back to his own, David travels through this fairy-tale world, guided by Roland (from Robert Browning's poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came). On his way he meets fairy tale characters we're used to (i.e. Snow White), and some that we aren't (i.e. The Goose Girl). But David realizes that not everything he knew about fairy tales is true in this world, and soon uncovers a dark plot that the king himself is involved in.

I give this book an 8 out of 10 stars. Although Connolly's prose can sometimes be boring, it overall flows very well, even imitating that of a fairy tale. Some of the fairy tales allusions can be difficult to understand, as Connolly changes them and uses some less common tales, but the version shown above (with the red cover) has an appendix devoted to explaining the references, and containing the actual tales themselves. It's not a particularly fast read, but you don't want it to be fast. Connolly stirs up emotions so well, that you truthfully never want the story to end.

On a side note, if you've never read Robert Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, I highly suggest it. It's a great poem, and serves as the inspiration to Stephen King's Dark Tower series, which are some of my favorite books.

As always, I hope this review was helpful! Happy reading!

Summer Reading List

Hello all! I know I haven't posted much lately, but I promise, the next book review (Eclipse By: Stephanie Meyer) will be up shortly. Until then I thought I'd post what I'd like to try to read this summer:
Breaking Dawn-Stephanie Meyer
The Book of Dave-Will Self
The City of Ember-Jeanne DePrau
The People of Sparks-Jeanne DePrau
The Prophet of Yonwood-Jeanne DePrau
Voices From the Stree-Phillip K. Dick
The Butt-Will Self
The Book of Lost Things-John Connolly
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime-Mark Haddon
'Salem's Lot-Stephen King
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil-John Berendt
Interview With the Vampire-Anne Rice
The Talisman-Stephen King and Peter Straub
Black House-Stephen King and Peter Straub
Eragon-Christopher Paolini
Eldest-Christopher Paolini
Brisngr-Christopher Paolini
The Keys to the Kingdom Series-Garth Nix
The Life od Pi-Yann Martel
The Phantom Tollbooth-Norton Juster
The Tale of Despereaux-Kate DiCamillo
The Schwa was Here-Neal Shusterman
The End of Mr. Y-Scarlett Thomas
Lisey's Story-Stephen King
The Giver-Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue-Lois Lowry
Messenger-Lois Lowry
A Series of Unfortunate Events-Lemony Snicket
The Chronicles of Narnia-C.S. Lewis
A Fine Dark line-Joe R. Lansdale
Gone-Michael Grant


Now, I know that this list alone looks excesive, but you also have to figure in that I didn't put the "series" books in. The Keys to the Kingdom consists of seven books, as does The Chronicles of Narnia. A Series of Unfortunate Events is comprised of thirteen. So, my list is 54 books long. I've also sorted them (on a seperate piece of paper) into what's top priority and what's not, because many of these books, I would just like to re-read.
If you've read any of these books, tell me your opinion of them int the comments below. Thanks!

Book Review: Twilight

Today, we'll be reviewing the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, a very recent, and very controversial novel. Now, by controversial, I don't mean that it is particularly offensive to a certain group of people, nor does it spark ethical arguments. Instead, it has sparked an issue about it's quality. Is it good? Is it bad? But the major controversy is how it is viewed by both genders. So here at Artistically Speaking, we've decided to do two points of view in this review. One from a girl, and one from a guy.

*SPOILER ALERT*

David's Review:
2 out of 10 stars
Of all the well written books I've read, Twilight, definitely is not one of them, for many, many reasons. We'll start off with the first, and one of the easiest to recognize. Meyer has no real character development in the book, and even when she does, she often contradicts it. For example, take our main character, and narrator, Bella Swan.
We believe she is an intellectual character and unpopular being the new girl in town. She also convinces us that, no matter how hard she tries, she can't lie to save her life. As the book progresses she makes very unintellectual choices, such as lying to her dad when she's about to meet Edward, the vampire who wants to suck her blood, alone in the forest. Although Bella is new in town, she is suddenly popular and is invited to go shopping with her new friends. While shopping, she decides she wants to go hunting for a bookstore, alone, in a city she's never been to before, also knowing that she is clumsy. Obviously, she gets lost, and almost attacked by a group of men. Intellectual, I think not. And her lying skills, apparently very good when they help the story, easily convincing her dad, Charlie, that she broke up with Edward.
Next, up, the plot, or maybe, the fact that there is none until the book is more than halfway over. We start out the book with Bella telling us she's moving to Forks, for an unknown reason, later revealed in the story, but that's unimportant. From there, the book is pretty much boring, and plotless. She meets Edward in Biology, and he hates her. Then, his eyes change colors and he loves her. Boring things continue, etc. Then, when he tells her she can't love her, because he's really like a villian in a comic book. Meyer then proceeds to bring us to one of the many anticlimactic scenes in the book. We've all seen the commercials, where Bella and Edward are in the forest, speaking as dramatically as they can (which, if the commercials show the skill of the actors in that movie, isn't very dramatic) as Bella figures out the Edward is a vampire. No. In the book, she uses a search engine to look up monsters, finds two stories about vampires that fit Edward's character, and then is convinced that he his one, without directly questioning him.
Meyer's writing (for the first half of the book anyway) is completely horrible. Not only are we subjected to more of what Bella's wearing rather than thinking, we're also subjected to bad dialouge. And once we meet Edward, things go way downhill from there. Meyer literally creates a perfect character, and by perfect, I don't mean the best character ever. I mean, Edward is just perfect. Now you girls may not mind, but most writers and critics will agree that making somebody perfect is not a way to help a story. Yes, it may seem awesome that he can do almost anything, but with no flaw, there's nothing interesting to happen. And even though Bella has seen him and been around him for months, we still have to sit through Meyer telling us how perfect and gorgeous Edward is, everytime Bella is around him. Now, in the second half of the book Meyer's writing gets a little better, and this could be because a plot is finally introduced in the second half, (around page 360 to be exact, which is about 100 pages from the end of the book). But all-in-all I only found one paragraph throughout the entire book that was truly well written. In the book I had it was on page 232, the first full paragraph. Bella describes Phoenix to Edward, and I must admit that it is very well written.
Also, you can't say this book is an extraordinary love story, because, it's not. All the "love" is, is a very Romeo and Juliet-esque obsession. There is a large difference between an obsession and a love of somebody in my opinion. One of them is the fact that, when you're in love with somebody, you shouldn't only think about is how good they look. Bella, our narrator, uses the word perfect, or similar words, to describe Edward every time we see him! We got it the first time your friend told us he was good looking Bella, he's fantastic-looking! The problem with this "love" is that Bella never connects to Edward personally. The only reason he likes her, is her smell, which means that he wants to suck her blood. To get over this fact, he chooses to be nice to her, which ends up with her just being more obsessed with him. So all-in-all this story is not about love at all.
Overall, this book is not good at all. It is poorly written, and the plot is nonexistent most of the time. Out of ten stars I gave this book a two. Yes, I know I said it gets better toward the end, but not nearly enough to rid us of the horrible rest of the book.

Cassie's Review:
7.5 out of 10 stars
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 2 years, you know that the Twilight sensation has overrun pop culture, causing millions of teenage girls (and a few moms) to giggle, swoon, and act silly in general. Unfortunately I happen to be one of those girls, although I pride myself on being a fan before the movies swept Hollywood. But aside from the disappointing and overrated movie, how great was Twilight as a debut novel for one of the most promising authors to hit mainstream America?
Vampires have never been my thing, but Twilight was highly recommended to me, so I went in with a positive attitude and an appetite for a good sci-fi romance. I was disappointed with the first few chapters; we meet Bella Swan, who just moved to Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie Swan. Bella goes to school, Bella gets a truck, Bella meets new friends, Bella is clumsy, blah, blah. I’m not one for books that start off slow, and Twilight was one of those books. I stuck it out, though. The only interesting thing we find is the introduction of Edward and his family; they don’t socialize with anyone else and are therefore deemed snobby. Bella is intrigued by Edward, and finds herself in class with him. He acts strange, doesn’t talk, and Bella feels awkward. Big deal. A ho-hum start to a novel that’s supposed to be fantastic.
Onward the story goes. It picks up the pace, thankfully, and we’re properly introduced too Edward as a character. Bella is really curious as the relationship between the characters develops and Edward insists he’s a “bad guy”. Through an unlikely set of circumstances, Bella comes to the conclusion that Edward and his family must be vampires, and that she is in love with him.
The rest of the story unfolds, with Bella and Edward’s romance at the center, ending in a semi- climactic race against time; a good conclusion, but written in a way that didn’t really draw on any of the reader’s emotions the way I expected it to. Even with the lackluster ending, I walked away with a good feeling about the book, and I greatly anticipated the sequel.
Meyer seems to have missed a few English classes in school. The writing style was inconsistent, to say the least. It was like ice skating- you were gliding along for a while, and suddenly you hit a rough patch, stumble, get back up, and glide some more, until you hit the next rough spot. And with all his perfection, Edward just seems a little boring. Maybe it’s because I don’t like the moody, secretive type. And Bella has a way of making me roll my eyes, with her self- sacrificing ways and her inability to accept the fact that Edward can kill her with a twitch of his cold, sparkly hand. Although it’s not great style, look at the first Harry Potter books, they’re exactly the same way- Rowling wasn’t so great at structure and variety, either. I have to say, though, that Meyer has a rich vocabulary, more advanced than one would normally find in a teen novel. I learned words like chagrin, vicarious, and glut. I appreciated that Meyer wrote for no particular age group and therefore didn’t dumb down her words; about fifty percent of teen-specific novels are void of intelligent vocabulary.
You might be wondering why I gave seven and a half stars to a book that I didn’t seem to like very much- on the contrary, I greatly enjoyed reading Twilight. It was a good storyline, with interesting (if a little unrealistic) characters and moments of brilliance by Meyer (we find out why vampires don’t go out in the sun, and it’s not because they’ll burn up and die). Meyer also has a way of describing Edward in a way that makes any female wish her boyfriend or husband was undead. Who wouldn’t want someone who looked like a perfect Roman god? Yes, Twilight, with all its flaws, is unexplainably intoxicating. Stephenie Meyer started a phenomenon, sparking many other writers to follow suit with vampire novels of their own, and thereby overrunning bookshelves with the undead (an unfortunate result of Twi-mania). In short, whether you loved it or hated it, Twilight has set the standard for vampires to come, and America remains wrapped around the fictional fingers of Edward and Bella, or in some cases, Jacob. But that’s a discussion for next time.
P.S. If you’re still not willing to give Twilight a try, or you tried and aren’t crazy about it, try Meyer’s other, separate novel, The Host. It has a better developed style and story line, and has absolutely nothing to do with smitten, undead teenagers.
 
As you can see there are two very different ideas of the story, and we want to hear your opinion, so comment below!

Broken by David

Just some quick info about this story before-hand. I based this off of the the song "Broken" by Lifehouse. Originally it started out as an idea for a music video for the song, so I started writing it down and this is what it turned into.

He lay on his bed, not able to sleep. He had gone one to bed at 10:00 last night, but now it was 3:00 in the morning. He had tried reading and listening to music, but nothing could get his mind off of her. It had only been a few days since she left him, and he didn’t think he would be able to get over it.

He didn’t want to be this emotional about it, he thought only girls cried when this kind of thing happened to them, but he couldn’t get over her. The way her dark brown hair shimmered in the sunlight. The way her eyes, the color of the ocean, captivated him every time he stared into them. He had loved her in a way he had loved no one else, but for some reason she had left him. She didn’t even say goodbye, “But neither have you,” he thought.

He blamed it on himself for her leaving, but couldn’t figure out why. The fight wasn’t her fault, and nobody could have predicted her leaving right after that. They had had good times, many, many good times before them. So why should one fight separate them like this?

He remembered when he asked her out on a first date. He remembered all the dates. All the good times they had together. Now the memories came to him in a wave of thought.

He thought of how afraid he had been to ask her out. He had walked up to her awkwardly; they had met in high school, senior year. It was the last nine weeks of school when he finally mustered up the strength to ask her on a date.

As he walked up to her his tongue seemed to swell to twice its size. As he got closer to her he forgot what he was going to say. He had planned his words yesterday, but didn’t get to see her. His chance had come and he couldn’t let it fly away from him. He reached her desk and put one hand in his pocket and the other on his desk.

“Hey Melissa,” he said, lamely.

“Hey Mark,” she responded uncomfortably.

“I was thinking...maybe you wanted to see a movie or something this weekend?”

“Umm...I guess I don’t have plans this weekend, why not?”

So that weekend they had gone to the movies together. What movie Mark could not remember, but he did remember how good she had looked. She had curled her hair, and wore a green blouse and jeans. She was wearing make-up, but not too much. Just enough to cover her blemishes. He wouldn’t have cared anyway, who didn’t have some imperfection?

After the movie he drove her home. He walked her up to the door, and before she went in she said, “That was really fun. We should do it again sometime.” He nodded back in agreement. It wasn’t a kiss, but it felt like one to his mind. She actually liked him! He didn’t think it would have worked out that way.

The memory brought a small smile to his face that faded almost instantly. If she liked him so much, and he liked her back, why did he let her leave? He should have talked to her. Tell her everything was going to be alright. Let her know that it wouldn’t happen again. But he didn’t. He was too angry to say anything after the fight.

Another memory came to his mind and rested there. Their first kiss. Where had it been? It was at the carnival, on the Ferris Wheel. The ecstasy of the moment came back to him. The pure joy and shock as her lips touched his.

She had called him earlier that day.
“Hello,” he answered.

“Hey, it’s Melissa.”

“Oh, hi.”

“Hey do you wanna go to the carnival? It’s the last day it’s in town, and I still haven’t gone.”

“Uh...sure, what time should I pick you up?”

“Five-ish I think. It closes at ten, and I’m only a few minutes away from it.”

“O.K. see ya then!”

“Bye!”

So he had gotten ready. By the time he had taken a shower, ate, and brushed his teeth it was four-thirty. He had to go, or he would be late. He said bye to his mom, who was reading the paper in the living room, and left the house.

He got to Melissa’s house at five o’clock exactly. He was starting to open his door, to get her when she came running out of her house. As she opened the door he heard her say bye to somebody, and she ran to his car.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Not much, just going to the carnival want to come along?”

She giggled, and responded, “Why not? I mean I was headed toward your car anyway.”

He smiled and opened the passenger door for her. He got in himself then drove to the carnival, following her directions.

He paid for the tickets. She was going to stop him, but it was too late. She took the ticket trying to tell him that she would pay him back, but he wouldn’t allow it.

“That’s what I do; I pay for my girlfriend to go places.”

“Fine, but I’m paying for food if we get anything.”

It was nine-thirty when he got in line for the Ferris Wheel, she had gone to get cotton candy. She came back with a cone of blue fluff.

“Are you alright with blue? I know there’s really no difference in flavor, but I like the blue better.”

“Yeah it’s fine.”

By now they were in the front of the line. They got on the ride, and a man strapped them in. Luckily for them they were the last ones to get on. The wheel spun at a speed where you could feel a soft breeze, but not fast enough to make you sick. After a couple minutes the wheel stopped its cycle. Melissa and Mark were on the very top. They were directly facing the full moon. He put his arm around her shoulders.

“It’s so pretty up here isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he responded, he leaned closer to her. Their heads were almost touching.

Time seemed to move slowly as she turned to face him. She wrapped her arms around his body and leaned closer to him. Then with no warning, she was kissing him. A feeling of extreme joy filled his body. He didn’t think any other moment could ever make him feel like this again.

He truly began to love her then. It wasn’t like he hadn’t loved her before then, but this was a different kind of love. This wasn’t just a crush, this was a feeling of true love.

For one last moment he felt the joy inside his body then, like the smile, it faded. He still couldn’t believe what had happened. How had one small fight caused him to feel this way? How had one small fight caused her to leave him forever? He wished she would come back, but knew she wouldn’t. He had left all her stuff where it had been before the fight. He couldn’t urge himself to move it. It was like she hadn’t really gone anywhere, he just couldn’t see her.

Another memory came to him. The engagement. The feelings of the memory were almost the same as the ones from the first date.

He had been planning it for a while now, asking her to marry him. He bought the ring two weeks ago, and decided tonight was the night. They had been going out for three years exactly tonight. In anniversary of their first date, they decided to see a movie. He would do it in the lobby, right after the movie ended, he decided.

Like his first date, the movie was completely wiped out of his head. He was too nervous to actually care about the movie, even though it had been his choice. When the credits started to roll, and the lights came back on he grabbed her hand, and walked into the lobby.

“Stand right here,” he told her.

“O.K.,” she laughed, “Why?”

He got down on one knee and pulled out the ring box, “Melissa, will you marry me?”

“Omigod,” (he remembered it as one word), “yes, yes, yes. I’ll marry you.”

He could hear clapping in the background. People wolf-whistling, and cheering for the newly engaged. He paid attention to none of it; he was too happy to hear it.

This memory brought no smile or chuckle, instead he felt around on her nightstand, picking up her ring. Her one karat gold, diamond ring. He took his off his finger, he couldn’t help but still wear it. He put them together and stared. How the bond between could have been broken, he still wasn’t sure. It was unfair! They were going to get married in a month! They had moved in together. This brought another memory, moving day.
 
He asked her to move in with him the same night he had gotten engaged with her. Of course she agreed. Together, with money from work, they bought themselves an apartment. It was fairly good sized, not extremely big, and not too small. The rent was cheap and they were allowed to do any renovation they wanted, so long as it didn’t bother the neighbors.

They moved in a few weeks after the engagement. As soon as she started bringing her stuff in she said, “We’re definitely going to need to do some remodeling.”

“When we get the time and the money,” he responded.

Fortunately for them, Melissa’s parents gave them money. Enough money, in fact, to start remodeling. They had started by painting all the rooms.

Next they had bought new furniture to replace the old, cheap things they had moved in with. Then they had begun work on the bathroom. That was as far as they had gotten before she had left him.

He didn’t know if it would be possible to finish the bathroom. In fact the design had been all up to her. He was only trying to fulfill her vision of what the bathroom should look like. She wanted a light brown stone tiling, and a pedestal sink. She wanted to buy a new metal tub/shower combo.

The idea of metal brought up the crash. He didn’t want to think about the crash, but it chewed its way through all of the other memories and filled his mind with the visions. The ruins of what was left of the car. The fire burning in the front. It brought back memories of pure terror.

They were driving home.
They had been fighting earlier. Fighting about the finances.

“Honey, I just don’t think it’s a good idea to continue with the project for now, we have the wedding coming up.”

“Mark! How many times do I have to tell you, my parents are going to pay for the wedding! Don’t worry about a thing.”

“You realize how much we’ve free-loaded off of them right? Most of the renovations have been with their money, remember? Do you think it’s the best idea to ask them for more money now?”

“Mark! Watch the road! You always do that!”

“Do what?!” he almost screamed, “Just because you’re too chicken to try to make a light doesn’t mean I am!”

“Really Mark, really? You could have gotten us killed just then! We’re driving next to a semi, not a nice old lady! Pay attention!”

“Well, it’s kind of hard to pay attention, when all you’re doing is complaining about money, and nagging about my driving!”

“ME! You’re the one complaining about using my parents’ money! I know it’s probably not the best idea, but you’re parents are dead!”

“DON’T YOU BRING UP MY PARENTS!” this time he did scream, no, he roared.

Mark’s parents had died in a house fire five months earlier. A teenager had thought it would be funny to see what happens when you tie the fuses of twenty bottle rockets together, light it, then throw it through somebody else’s window. His mom had heard the window shatter and both of his parents went to see what was going on. The bottle rockets exploded all at once, and knocked his parents, unconscious, against the wall. The carpet burned first, then began to consume the two bodies in its way of the rest of the house. Neither of them came out of the house alive.

“Then shut up about using my parents’ money! They feel sorry for you Mark! They want to pay for our wedding! You’re like a son to them!”

“I don’t want to use their money! We can afford to have a wedding without their help Melissa! You and I both know that!”

“Mark! Watch the road! Mark! Are you paying attention to me?!”

But he was paying attention to her. Too much attention to her. Was it possible to be that pretty when you were mad? When tears were streaming down your eyes and make-up running, could you look good? For Melissa the answer was yes.

Ironically it was a nice old lady who got them into the wreck. Mark had run a red light and was about to T-Bone the women. Quickly he swerved around her, and the car started to spin. It hit a light post on the passenger’s side. Right where Melissa was sitting.

He needed to hear her voice again. She had left after the crash, but he needed to hear her voice. Even if she didn’t pick up, which he knew she wouldn’t, he would hear her voice on the machine; that’s all that mattered. He just needed to apologize. Ask her to come back, even though she wouldn’t. He picked up his phone and called Melissa’s.

Tears began to stream down his face as the blue-white light of her phone turned on. It vibrated on her night stand and as it did he began to sob, harder each time. Finally her voicemail answered.

“Hi, you’ve reached Melissa, leave your name, number, and message after the beep and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

The generic tone went off, and Mark hung up. He knew he would never see her again. He continued to sob, just thinking of her made it worse. And he had to sign funeral papers tomorrow.

Book Review: Wicked

O.K. so we didn’t mention this in the welcome (or on the sidebar), but we’ll also be doing reviews on here. It’ll be a majority of books, but there may or may not be movie reviews etc.

If you don't feel like reading the entire summary, scroll to the last paragraph to see my rating and reasons why I gave it what I did.


So, the first review will be over the book Wicked by Gregory MacGuire. This tells the story of the infamous Wicked Witch of the West from the storybook land of Oz. The first thing you need to know about this book is that it is NOT based off the book version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum; instead it is based off the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.

*SPOILER ALERT* (This won't tell you everything from the book, but enough to have the plot covered, scroll to the end if you just want my rating)
Wicked starts out with Frex and Melena, who is pregnant with the green-skinned girl at the time, at their home in Munchkinland in the east. We learn that Frex is a very religious man and ministers for the Unnamed God. He gets a letter from his brother, who’s also a minister, telling Frex about the Clock of the Time Dragon. Basically it is a puppet theater on a wagon, shaped like a clock tower. On top of this tower rests a large dragon. He tells Frex about how the puppet shows it puts on are very vulgar, and causing people public humiliation and others to believe the Clock is a prophet. Frex goes to the town nearest him when he hears the Clock is coming, but can’t convince the people not to believe it.

While he is gone Melena has her baby, Elphaba, who is green and has sharp pointy teeth. Frex comes back to see the child, but then, due to his failure with the Clock of the Time Dragon, leaves to find himself spiritually. Melena, now alone, lives at their home before meeting Turtle Heart, whom she “has relations” with. Frex comes home, and it is soon implied that he also “has relations” with Turtle Heart.

Now we meet Galinda. This is Glinda from the movies, but with an “a” in her name (don’t ask me why). She is from a rich area in the north called Gillikin, and at the time traveling toward the center of Oz to a city called Shiz to go to college. While at Shiz she gets forced to room with Elphaba. She tries to bargain her way out of it with Madame Morrible, the Head of the girls’ college, but cannot. Elphaba and Galinda don’t particularly like each other due to their many differences and bicker.

Before I go on, I find it necessary to explain to you what exactly Animals are, and how they are different from animals. An animal is just your plain old animal. It is any living thing that is not a human or plant and has no ability to talk. An Animal (notice the capital “A”) has the ability to talk like a human, and walks on two legs (if they have legs). To show the difference between an animal and an Animal you capitalize the first letter in their name (i.e. an elephant becomes an Elephant), or when talking, emphasize the first syllable of the name.

Over the summer at Shiz, Elphaba helps a Goat, Doctor Dillamond a professor at Shiz, do research in what makes Animals different than animals. He is doing this research because the Wizard, the ruler of Oz, has started making laws about how and where Animals can travel. Think of it like racism in the age of MLK. Elphaba becomes very attached to him, having her friends steal scrolls from the library to help him with his research, and also becoming involved with Animal rights activism herself.

Flash forward a few months and Doctor Dillamond is found dead, apparently by accident, but Elphaba thinks he was murdered by somebody against Animals, like Madame Morrible. Due to some unknown cause with the Goat’s death Galinda changes her name to Glinda, and becomes a friend with Elphaba, against all other things that have happened to them.

For the next semester Elphaba’s sister Nessarose comes to Shiz, with her Nanny, who was also Elphaba and Melena’s Nanny. Nessa was born without arms and must get help to walk around. One day, Madame Morrible invites them to her office and tries to recruit them as Adepts for the Wizard, spreading his power to all corners of Oz. She wants Glinda to go to the north, Nessarose to the east, and Elphaba to the west. Elphaba refuses and walks out. As the semester progresses, she chooses to study life-sciences, and Glinda chooses to study sorcery.

Flash forward a few years now. Elphaba is in the Emerald City and has met an acquaintance from Shiz named Fiyero, from the tribal country of the Vinkus. Even though he is married he and Elphaba “have relations” and he soon gets killed by the Wizard’s troop. Elphaba then becomes a maunt (basically a monk) for the Unnamed God, even though she is against all religion.

Years later she travels to the Vinkus to try to apologize to Fiyero’s wife, Sarima. Sarima never lets her talk about Fiyero, and she doesn’t have a chance to apologize before the Wizard sends troops to kidnap Sarima, her seven sisters, and her children. Elphaba then becomes very obsessed with a book she and Sarima found called the Grimmerie.

Now comes the story of Oz you know. A twister, never before seen in Oz, carries a house that falls on Nessarose, the leader of Munchkinland (called the Wicked Witch of the East by her enemies) and Elphaba flies on her broom to go to her funeral, bringing a page of the Grimmerie to see if her father can help her decipher it. He cannot, but the Wizard is there and she brings it to him. He offers her Sarima’s daughter, Nor, who he’s enslaved in exchange for the book. She refuses, and the Wizard takes back the offer.

While in Munchkinland Elphaba meets Glinda who has reverted to her old bubbly self. She tells Elphaba about Dorothy and how she gave her the shoes Nessa was wearing. Elphaba gets angry at this because her father made the shoes, and Nessa promised that she would get the shoes when she died. She journeys back to the Vinkus alone, and soon hears word of how Dorothy was sent by the Wizard to kill her.

Through some unfortunate event Elphaba accidentally lights herself on fire and Dorothy trying to save her throws a bucket of water on her. Throughout the book MacGuire shows us how Elphaba is afraid of water, even as a child, and now we know why. This kills the Wicked Witch of the West (she has taken this name in remembrance of her sister) and ends the story.




*SPOILERS OVER*





I give this book a 5/10. It’s alright, but I don’t think it was extraordinarily good. It is very adult, and at some points excessively so. Many things remain unexplained at the end, and it leaves many gaps in character development. All in all it’s an OK book. But, if you like it, there are two more books by Gregory MacGuire in Oz; Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men.

~Good Reading
David