Book 147: The Castle of Llyre

This was one of my favourites in the series. The characters are all so sassy. I feel bad for Terence, though. He feels really separate for a lot of the book, I think, really other. I really like the fact that him and Eilonwy are falling in love slowly. I think it's down right adorable.

I rate this book 8 out of 10. Llyod is nothing if not consistent.

Book 146: The Black Cauldron

As with most series, as it progresses the complexity increases. The Black Cauldron picks up where the last book left off with an even more difficult problem.


*****SPOILERS*****




So, it's been a few months since I read this book, so I can't review it without talking about specific plot points. The were trying to steal the Black Cauldron to stop the productions of the army's of the undead. It was difficult. I really forget everything about this book.






*****SPOILERS******


That being said, I do like it. I give it 8 out of 10. I just really love Lloyd Alexander's writing style.

UPDATE: DID ANYONE KNOW THAT THIS WAS MADE INTO A MOVIE BECAUSE I DIDN'T (15.06.15)

Book 145: The Woodcutter

I have a lot of feelings about this book and they're all very complicated. I really love the premise of the book, how all the fairy tales and smashed up together and get to interact with each other. I feel like it had a lot of promise.

I read this with one of my friends, and we both feel very similarly about it. We love the plot and the idea, but found the writing a little odd and the ending a little taxing. As we know, I'm not a fan of happy endings, and in my humble opinion, this ending was far too happy.  I would have liked to see the woodcutter die. What about the villains? and the magic? So many things in this book were questionable.

That being said, I still enjoyed reading it. I rate it 8 out of 10. It could be improved upon, but it was still a delightful short read.

Book 144: The Austere Academy

If I didn't know better I'd say that Nero is Olaf. What a terrible man. He annoys me. I'd also like to know where the actual principle is. 

I'm glad that the Baudelaires have found some friends. cakesniffers is the best insult I've ever read.

FUN FACT: On page 45 when the Baudelaires meet the Quagmire's, when Isadora says that she likes to write poetry Sunny replies "Sappho!" (Which means "I'd be very pleased to hear a poem of yours"). Interestingly enough, Sappho was an ancient Greek poetess, from the Island of Lesbos, often remarked upon for her many erotic poems! ~history!~  I was so excited when I found that one! I giggled so much. I think that's part of what makes Mr. Snicket's writing so brilliant.

I feel rather stupid that it's taken me so long to figure out that Beatrice is a reference to Dante. I'm so disappointed in myself, but I'm excited for the references.

The ending of this novel was so disappointing. It all looked so promising, and although I had my doubts that the Baudelaire's teacher were good people, they proved that they alone had the children's best interests at heart out of all the adults. I really hated the fact that Mr. Poe was there to give Nero candy and jewelry to that cakesniffer. That part cut me deep. I liked that Poe seemed a little more open to Olaf this time, though. Slightly. The triplet's situation grieves me deeply, though Mr. Snicket's promise that the Baudelaires will see them again gives me some hope for their situation. .

I rate this book 9 out of 10. It was far better than the last book in this series. More intrigue and more plot. I'm fairly impressed.

Book 143: The Book of Three

This is one of my favourite Young Adult Fantasy series.

The book of three is a starting point. It sets up the rest of the series. But it sets it up with humour. The whole series is a good commentary on the balance of good and evil and how we define both in our society.

Lloyd Alexander weaves a captivating epic that starts as the search for a lost pig, meeting along the way many interesting characters and cruel villains.

I rate this book 8 out of 10. It wasn't quite as good as I remember it being when I was 15, but still captivating.

Book 142: Inferno

Okay, so I know Dan Brown isn't the best author, but boy do I get drawn in to his books. After studying Dante two years ago, I really enjoyed all the illusions to him as well as all the references.

As always, I found Mr. Brown's plot predictable. I enjoyed that he made it a little more taxing this time with the amnesia. That was really a game changer.

Let's talk about the premise of the book for a minute though. I found it really interesting that he was writing on the problem of over population. In the other books that I've read there may have been some thinly veiled social commentary, but Mr. Brown left this one out in the open and voiced some very strong opinions about World Health and how they are treating the problem.


*****SPOILERS*****



As always, I am impressed with the use of pseudo science in the book. Although we are probably capable of this at this point, it is still not something that we advertise in the science community. For those of you who know me well, you would know that I am a huge fan of the television series Fringe, so naturally having this airborne, DNA altering virus was stimulating, to say the least.



*****SPOILERS*****


I rate this book 6 out of 10. No matter how interesting and stimulating I found this book, the writing lacked something to be desired and the plot was a little too predictable. Fans of Dan Brown will not be disappointed, but those of you who dislike him aught to stay away.

Book 141: Coraline

I'm still a little iffy about this book. The library has a "scarey" sticker on the spine. I don't do scarey.

I really love the cat, so far he's been the most enjoyable character. He's so sassy. He reminds me a lot of Cat in Little Bear. I think the eccentric old women in the flat downstairs are top notch too, though. While reading it, I felt really bad for the ghost children trapped in the closet by the Other Mother. I found the other father really sad though. It broke my heart a little. I also find it interesting how scared and weak cat got when he found out that he couldn't come and go as he pleased. It was so cat like.

I find that you can tell the age demographic really easily. The foreshadowing is really obvious and I feel like Gaiman simplified his writing style a lot and added way more words then I feel he might have used otherwise.

I found the climax of this novel rather disappointing. The scariest part, much to my own prediction, was in the last section either with the other-father or the Mr. Bobo in the attic. I found the bit with the hand taxing and boring. The defeat was anti-climatic. The only interesting thing to come out of it was the word from Mr. Bobo's mice.

All in all, a rather disappointing end too a mediocre book.  I rate it 5 out of 10

Book 140: The Miserable Mill

 After having done quite a bit of work in factories myself, I feel I can tell you a little about how horrible it really is. Although Mr. Snicket does a wonderful job at describing how terrible it is working with breaks that shortness linger on illegality and how tiring the work is, until you experience life on a bell similar to one you would have had in your grade school, surrounded by people who have many years on you who hate their job with more ferocity than you could imagine, you may have a hard time knowing how extremely terrible of a time the Baudelaire orphans are having at the Miserable Mill.

This was the first Series of Unfortunate Events book I ever read and I had long ago forgotten the plot, so it was in some ways quite surprising to me. I found it hard to tell who Olaf was and for much of the book oscilated between the masked foreman and the eye doctor.

I found that the fact that Sunny was sword fighting with her teeth to be a little troubling, but other than that the conclusion of this book was really awesome. I found it really intriguing the way that Klaus and Violet switched roles in this novel; where Violet did the research while Klaus was hypnotizes and Klaus invented a fishing rod to save the day.

I rate this book a healthy 8 out of 10. Not the best and not the worst.