Thursday, October 15, 2015

Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer


Title: Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined
and also Twilight Special Tenth Anniversary edition

Series: Twilight saga #5

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Date Published: October 6, 2015

Pages: 752 (hardback)




Summary


Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life and Death, by Stephenie Meyer.

Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover “flip book,” this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing the deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful love story of Bella and Edward through fresh eyes.


Review


I bought this book for 2 reasons. The first is because I wanted to feel the same things I felt while reading Twilight for the first time. The second was because it was a gender-swap and I thought it would be hilarious.

What ended up happening was that since this book has 2 novels wrapped into one, I ended up reading both Twilight and Life and Death at the same time to compare. I got more emotion out of re-reading Twilight for the possibly-fourth time than I got out of reading Life and Death.

Now, I was completely wrapped up in Twilight when I first read it, up until the movie for Breaking Dawn Part 1. I was pretty done at that point. Twilight was out of my system because I had read dozens of better YA books since then. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy Twilight for many reasons--and I might name them at the end of this review--but there are many problems with it.

Life and Death just left me disappointed. The book started out exactly the same up until about chapter 8 or 9. I got bored because of the short sentences, Beau's ridiculous thought-process and because I was basically re-reading a dumber Twilight. I know, I said it was exactly the same as Twilight as it started out and it was, but with very short sentences. It was too choppy and boring.

In the beginning, Beau's thoughts were too much like Bella's, but as the book progressed, they started to progress and differ from Bella's. 
I was also having slight difficulty in puzzling together who all the characters originally were in Twilight--because there were too many names that started with "E"--but it became less confusing throughout the novel.

I found this book just as, if not more sexist than the original Twilight. I can understand why Stephenie Meyer felt the need to change some things, but she could have left others alone! Boy or girl, some of the original plot could have stayed! But I suppose Meyer thought we all didn't want to get bored and complain about how it wasn't any different from Twilight.

I feel like Stephenie took this book much too seriously when she should have written it as a joke kind of thing. Instead, she decided to shove this down our throats.

Now here are some spoilery/fun things:

When Edythe and Beau were about to leave the meadow: when Edythe wanted Beau to ride piggyback on her but he refused because she was tiny, I was laughing because it was ridiculous how she sped off to yank a boulder out of the ground to bring it back to Beau. I thought it was a funny, girl-power moment! 

I noticed something while I was reading. When Beau took the phone and Joss started talking to her, how could not hear her? Joss was telling Beau to follow her instructions while Archie was standing in the same room, and vampires are, evidently, supposed to have super hearing so how does this make sense? Same thing with the original Twilight. How could Alice not have heard it too??
There were several other plot holes but this was the one that hit me the most.

My favorite line in probably the whole book was when Joss and Beau were at the ballet studio. Joss was explaining how she'd manipulated him while Beau was wondering why she was bragging about outsmarting a "weak human." And then I busted out laughing at the next line: "Where was the glory in beating some weak human? I didn't feel the need to rub it in to every cheeseburger I conquered."

I liked how Stephenie Meyer did this big "what if Bella had left 5 minutes sooner" ordeal. It was very interesting in the beginning, then the ending became more scrambled than scrambled eggs. It was like all the Twilight books were wrapped up into one and it was just too much. Some of the information didn't even need to be there. If I was someone who hadn't read the original Twilight saga before this Twilight Reimagined, I would have been confused by all the new, overbearing information that was almost randomly thrown in there.



2.5 STARS


I would have been much happier if Stephenie Meyer had released Midnight Sun. And she had enough time to finish writing it; I don't care what she claims. She knew that the 10th anniversary of Twilight's release was coming up, and if she had enough time to think about and write Life and Death, she had enough time to finish Midnight Sun. I'm sure we all would have been happier. I'm not sure how much happier, but I'm sure it would have been better than what she ended up releasing.

Reasons why Twilight will always be kinda special to me: Stephenie Meyer's Twilight opened the door for YA fiction. The young adult genre is the most popular book genre now because Twilight blew up.
And Twilight was the first book I read and liked, and it encouraged me to read more. If it weren't for this book, I don't know if I would have gotten into reading, which would have led to me never trying out writing and falling in love with it.

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Monday, October 12, 2015

Shadowhunter News: Shadowhunters TV Show Teasers & Clips

Calling all Shadowhunters!! We have clips from the first episode of Shadowhunters!!

Okay, nice little tease. Where's the good stuff??!


This one looks really cheesy to me...


These don't look too bad.




Those were the teasers we have so far!
And guess what else! We have a release date!! The first episode is to be released January 12th, 2016 at 9/8c! I'm so excited and I hope this show lives up to the books!




Thursday, October 8, 2015

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord


Image result for the start of me and youTitle: The Start of Me and You

 Author: Emery Lord

 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

 Date Published: March 31, 2015

 Genre: Contemporary, Romance

 Pages: 384 (Hardcover)

 Age Range: 14+






                                                                           Summary:

     It's been a year since it happened--when Paige Hancock's first boyfriend died in an accident. After shutting out the world for two years, Paige is finally ready for a second chance at high school . . . and she has a plan. First: Get her old crush, Ryan Chase, to date her--the perfect way to convince everyone she's back to normal. Next: Join a club--simple, it's high school after all. But when Ryan's sweet, nerdy cousin, Max, moves to town and recruits Paige for the Quiz Bowl team (of all things!) her perfect plan is thrown for a serious loop. Will Paige be able to face her fears and finally open herself up to the life she was meant to live?


                                                                           Review:

     Was this book cliched? Yep! Predictable? Absolutely! Was it cute, heart-warming, and really nice to read? Undeniably.
     A little while ago, a little book called Open Road Summer exploded all over the place. It was immensely popular, and it also just happened to be written by Emery Lord. Confession time! I still haven't read ORS- I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I will read it, but I ended up reading this one first to see what the big deal about Emery Lord was all about. This book did not influence my decision to read ORS at all, and yes, I will still ORS.
     Now that is all out of the way, to the fun stuff! I walked into the book knowing that Max was going to end up being endgame, so I don't see why the Ryan/ Max thing was such an issue... I enjoyed Ryan's character, I liked getting to know him and I liked the flirty anxiety in the beginning, but after it dragged on for three-quarters of the book, I got a little tired of it because it meant less time being flirty and awkward with Max. Potential was wasted swooning over Ryan, because Ryan obviously had the hots for someone else.
     I thoroughly enjoyed most of the characters. Sometimes, though, I wanted to shake them for making stupid decisions. Like Paige and all of her PLANNING for pursuing Ryan, and Max making Paige go on the diving board. Paige's parents were existing, but absent. Their little twist didn't really add anything to the story for me.
     Besides those things, however, I enjoyed the book. The writing was easy, and had some really sweet lines. The characters were awesome, and I really liked the whole QuizBowl shenanigans. Ms. Pepper had me in stitches, and I wish we got some more of her in this book. I especially liked the array of best friends that we get to see.
     Besides a few things here and there The Start of Me and You was a pretty solid book- not bad at all. I will read Open Road Summer, I promise. I just have to get around to it.



                                                 

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

 Title: Lair of Dreams

 Series: The Diviners (#2)

 Author: Libba Bray

 Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

 Date Published: August 25th, 2015

 Genre: Paranormal

 Pages: 624 (Hardcover)

 Age Range: 14+






                                                                        Summary:

     After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. With her uncanny ability to read people's secrets, she's become a media darling, and earned the title "America's Sweetheart Seer." Everyone's in love with the city's newest It Girl...everyone except the other Diviners.

Piano-playing Henry Dubois and Chinatown resident Ling Chan are two Diviners struggling to keep their powers a secret--for they can walk in dreams. And while Evie is living the high life, victims of a mysterious sleeping sickness are turning up across New York City.

As Henry searches for a lost love and Ling strives to succeed in a world that shuns her, a malevolent force infects their dreams. And at the edges of it all lurks a man in a stovepipe hat who has plans that extend farther than anyone can guess....As the sickness spreads, can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld to save the city?


                                                                          Review:

     YESSSSS!!!! I finally got my hands on this book, and I freaked out! I'm incredibly pleased to report that Libba Bray can do no wrong. In this book, we meet some new people, and run into a whole slew of messy drama. This book does a stellar job of moving along the overarching theme while focusing on the singular plot of this book.
     This book was a lot less focused on Evie, and more focused on Henry and Ling's journey and development. Which was not necessarily a bad thing because I was angry with Evie for a lot of this book.  I know, I know, angry with the character who I loved so much in the last book? Yes. While Evie really ticked me off for a majority of this book, that didn't stop me from waiting on the edge of my seat for her next chapter.
     In this book, we focus a lot on the dream world, something that, I felt, was a great place to go. Last book, we had some exorcism ghost type thing goin' on, and in this book, we have some weird dream/ reality thing goin' on. It's super hard to explain, but it was really cool. I am loving the direction that we are heading. The whole twist with Mei was something that I didn't see coming, but it was terrifyingly perfect.
      I really like the new characters that we met in this installment, and I liked the characters that we got to learn more about. Henry is so perfect, but I saw the plot twist about his love life coming up. Ling got on my nerves, but I am excited to add her to our Avengers lineup. Evie needs to get her act together in the next book, or else. And I wanted more Jericho! I felt like this book was a little Sam heavy although I LOVE him. Honestly, I'm not a fan of love triangles, but this one just works for me.
     I cannot wait for the next installment! I just hope that it's another eighteen years before book 3.


                                              

October Book Challenge


Hello!!

Just wanted to let ya’ll know that I am taking part in the October Book Challenge on Instagram! Follow me at ashley_earley to see all the cool pics I will be taking this month!

Above, I have attached the list of posts that everyone will be partaking in. Join in on the fun!!! I’d love to see your pictures!

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