Paper Towns by John Green

I recommend this book

Needless to say, this is not the type of book I usually read. That doesn't mean I didn't like it. True, if it weren't for me loving John's youtube channel so much I would probably have never picked this up. But hey, I still read it.

I did actually really enjoy this book. The book centers around Q, just a silly boy in love with Margo. The book starts with Margo asking Q to help her get revenge on people who've wronged her. I thought this was an interesting idea. Later, Margo runs away and Q takes it upon himself to find her. Like I said, not really the type of book I'm into, but it worked well.

I didn't really like Q being in love (more like a light obsession) with Margo, mostly because I didn't really like Margo. I didn't really like most of the characters. But sometimes not liking the characters is better. I cant really explain the thought process on that but whatever. The only character I really liked was Lacey, but she was minor and didn't come up a lot.

I liked the book mostly because it was full of philosophy, most of which I agreed with. Green does know how to kill an idea though. The mention of paper towns came up so often it became annoying. I get it. Paper = Fake. Thanks for the info.

Overall I'm not sure why I enjoyed the book as much as I did. I cant wait to read more of Green's work.

I give this book four stars

The Great Gatsby (2013) Movie VS the book

I didn't really plan on doing a review for this but seeing as how the theater was full yesterday there must still be some demand to see it. I'll tell you like it is, if you are a super mega fan of this book and you're hoping for the movie to be an exact replica you'll be disappointed. I, however, not being a super mega fan, found the movie to be really enjoyable. Dare I say that I thought it was better than the book? Yes. I do.

A major change was that Nick (played by Tobey Maguire, one of my favorite actors) was telling his story to a therapist, whom then encouraged him to write about it to get it off his chest. I really liked this change. I thought it was interesting and unique. Even though Nick was narrating he said some things that weren't in the book but worked really well for the movie. The movie was much faster paced than the book, which I also really enjoyed. Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) was exactly who you would expect him to be and not much about his character changed. Daisy (Carey Mulligan) however was not anything like Daisy from the book. She wasn't as stupid sounding, but in the end she was still a bitch.

I also really enjoyed how in the movie all the major symbols from the book were not only kept but explained. I did a whole project on this book and so I already knew the meanings of all the symbols. It was interesting to see them so obvious on the screen. I think it may have helped some people who didn't really get the book in high school to understand it now.

The one major flaw to this movie was that I half expected Tobey to turn into Spider-Man at any second so I couldn't really take him seriously at all. I guess that's more my fault than the movies, but still. I just cant picture Tobey as anybody but Peter Parker.

There were a lot of changes but overall I think it was close enough to the book. I think most true fans will be angry with adaptation. But if you read my review of The Great Gatsby from a while ago then you would know that I had mixed feelings about the book and I wasn't completely in love with it. I am, however, completely in love with this movie. I do think it was better than the book (a rare occurrence), and it's something I would really like to see again.

I give this movie four and half stars

Zombicorns by John Green

I recommend this book

So first let me explain why the picture is ridiculous. This book is downloadable for free as a PDF so That's why it's on the computer. Excuse my background, I have an unhealthy obsession with the show Revolution. And the check looks brown because of the light coming off of the computer. So yeah that explains that. Now to the review.

Oh my gosh I loved this book. This is the first John Green book I've read and it was fabulous. I watch his youtube channel all the time and I love him. But this book was supposed to be for charity and then the event ended so he made the book free. You can download the PDF here: http://effyeahnerdfighters.com/post/2835409604/didnt-get-your-chance-to-get-your-hands-on-john. I would really recommend it because it's short and free and it gives you a way to kill an hour and a half if you're waiting for something like I was.

Overall I really liked this book. I really liked all of characters. I felt like I could be the character Caroline. She often went on rants like I do so I loved her. She wasn't the main character, Mia was. And Mia was probably deeply disturbed, but I liked that. I do think that Mia had a strong male sounding tone to her and for the first few chapters I believed her to be a guy until it was revealed she wasn't. Even then I still saw her more as a Matt or something along those lines. Still, I liked her.

This book does not contain unicorns. Which I didn't really mind because (don't kill me) I don't like unicorns. Nope this book is about bad corn that turns people into zombies. Which was interesting. The plot was not that well developed but I still really liked it and I feel the end was perfect.

Green himself admits that this is not his best work. But if this isn't his best then I cant wait to read the rest of his books because this book (technically this is a novella, but whatever) was just completely perfect in my mind. It made it's way to one of my favorites. Trust me, take the hour out of your day and just read it.

I give this book five stars

My Top 7 Favorite Books

I realize haven't been posting a lot, so here's a list of my favorite books (in order).

1) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
This is my all time favorite book. I know a lot of people don't like it as much as the first one but it's my favorite out of the series. I've probably read it six or seven times. If you haven't read the hunger games tril yet (who hasn't?) then you really should. The movie looks like it's going to be terrible though so that sucks.

2) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Same as above: Just read it.

3) The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
I feel like Percy is my baby. I read this in like seventh grade and I still love it. I still remember most, if not all, of the parts, even the little ones. That's what I love in a book. You know it's good when it's something that you love and think about even four years later.

4) Reached by Ally Condie
I've reviewed this book. http://imogens-book-shelf.blogspot.com/2013/02/reached-by-ally-condie.html That basically explains it all.

5) The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Again, it's the fact that I can still remember it so well that makes it so great. I love it so much I could cry.

6) Matched by Ally Condie
Beautiful. I just love this tril as a whole. I could read this book again.

7) Zombicorns by John Green
Zombicorns is the first thing by John Green I've ever read and I just loved it so much. I love John Green, I think his videos are hilarious. This was a really quick read, like finished it in a little more than an hour quick. Overall it was just great. (review to come eventually).

So that's it. My top seven books. Check them out sometime.

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

I don't know about this book

Like Iron Man 3 this book started out decent and then ended up being a hot mess. However, unlike Iron Man 3 this actually has some redeeming qualities to it. Sorry about my Iron Man 3 references but I'm still really upset by that entire mess of a movie.

Moving past that, I found most of the book to be very well written. For the most part I found that there was a perfect balance between dialogue and description, which, in my opinion, is really hard to do. I would like to remind for all those who want to become writers that it is possible to have too much description. And that's one of the things I found that happened every now and then in this book. Nobody wants to read a story that's all dialogue, so why would anybody want to read something that's all description? I forgive it in this book though because it only happened like two or three times to the point where I wanted to blow my brains out and because when there wasn't all that description it had a really good balance.

I, however, do not forgive the fact that this book is basically the same as every other fairy/fantasy book I've ever read. A lot of times I would be reading and I would find things that reminded me of Alice In Wonderland or other things along those lines. As I've said before it's impossible to have no ideas today because everything's already been done. I feel that Kagawa lacked adding the twist that this book needed to set it apart.

Overall I don't really know how I feel about this book. I probably wont read the second unless I'm really bored and cant find anything else to read, but, lets be honest there's always something else to read. There will always be the school library (where I got this book), the real library that's only a few minutes away, bookstores (despite their dwindling numbers), and now most recently the Kindle. In a world where books are so easily to access I don't have to settle for books that are just okay.

I give this book two and half stars

Slated by Teri Terry

I recommend this book

Finally! A good book! I am really impressed. Sure, this book has it flaws, but overall I am really really really super happy with this book. 

I was interested from the first page. While most of the beginning was slow it still had this interesting quality to it. Kyla has no memories and her personality is gone. She has been slated. It's the governments way of dealing with bad kids (like terrorist/criminal bad). She is told that this is a gift, a second chance. The book starts when it's time for her to leave the hospital with her new family. For me though the book didn't really start until she meets Ben. Kyla has dreams that feel more like memories to her. But slateds aren't supposed to have memories. And the only explanation she can come up with is that she's different. 

Overall I really liked all the character. I think that characters are the most important part of a book. Yeah the plot is important. And yeah having good writing is important. But in the end if I don't care about the character than the book isn't worth reading. I do have a problem with Kyla's name though. Throughout the whole book I kept reading it as Kayla despite being fully aware that it's not her name. I felt like I could connect with most, if not all, of the characters. Ben was one of my favorites because he was just so adorable and simple minded. I just wanted to give him a hug. I liked how some of the characters started out mean and ended up being great and how some started out being great and ended up being mean. Very impressed with some of the character development. 

However I was not completely impressed with the writing. At points it was easy to tell that this was Terry's first novel, especially at the beginning. I found she used the same description words a lot. Like Scowl. I probably read that a character scowled at least thirty times. It was noticeable and a little distracting but I found it to get better as the book went on.

The book is fairly slow paced but when you get to the good parts it's worth it. It really is. The ending took my breath away. It was just so good. I'm already recommending this book to all of my friends. It's soooo good. You have to read it. I am looking forward to reading the second one. 

I give this book four and half stars

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

I do not recommend this book

I now have to use two hands to count the books I've had give up on, and this book is one of them. I don't care about Clary. I don't care about Clary's mother. I don't care about Jace and his pathetic daddy issues. I don't care about any of the characters. Honestly if you cant make me care about your characters within the first book and the first half of the second then you have no business being an author. When you're a writer your number one job is to make your readers give a shit about the characters and the plot. And that's really all I'm going to say because this book isn't worth a full review. It's not even worth the trees that got cut down to make it.

I give this book no stars

Series For May

The series that I will be making an attempt to read in may is Slated by Teri Terry. The reason why I say making an attempt is because the last string of books being as bad as they've been I'm worried about all future books.