Tuesday 24 January 2012

I Just Read...The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
The Fault in Our StarsThe Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is probably going to be one of the hardest reviews I am ever going to write. I will likely spend hours trying to do the book even one iota of justice, but I will inevitably fail. It's not necessarily to do with my ineptitude with the English language (although it is shoddy at best), it's more that my skills at turning feelings into words suck the proverbial balls!! A book can make me feel something so profoundly and yet when I try to explain to someone how I felt, I end up regurgitating the classic response, 'it's hard to explain', whilst my head explodes with frustration. In fact someone asked me today if the book was sad. After a few moments of pondering, I came up with the immortal line, 'it's devastating, but not sad'...WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!!
And therein lies the problem. So I will do the best I can.

The strength of any contemporary novel lies in the believability of it's characters. With fantasy, you can cover up a flimsy cast with an epic and all engrossing story of dragons and quests etc. With a crime novel there's always a murder to solve. But there are stories like this one, that are just about the people, and the stuff that effects people. Real people. But if the people in these stories aren't true representations, then the whole thing falls to pieces. It's easier to empathise with extraordinary situations because they've never happened before and they are never going to happen, but when there are people out there who can tell you what these things really feel like, then it becomes harder to imagine them yourself. Luckily, John Green seems to have an uncanny ability to make observations about people, that seem so obvious when you see them written down, but are things you've never noticed before. Then there's the way he writes them. It's effortless, as this stuff just pours out of his every orifice and he just puts a piece of paper underneath to catch it all, and it becomes a story. It's kind of unfair really, the way he can make you understand something with just a few words.

I'm not going into detail about plot and whatever, I leave that for you to discover. What I will say is that it's one of those books that changes your outlook on life. Probably not forever, maybe not even for a month or a week, but I guarantee that for a least a couple of days, you look at the world a little differently.

So, yeah. I guess it's fair to say I loved it.

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Sunday 22 January 2012

I am weird!!!
A Brief Hello From Ginger













Hello



Hahahahaha, I'm HILARIOUS!!!! No really, greetings to all wayward souls that have wandered into the realms of my strange and ramblish mind!!! Lets begin with some fun facts about me...



  • Gingerbouf is not my real name.
  • I am a serial tea drinker (what self respecting Brit isn't?).
  • I read LOTS of books.
  • I do NOT know the Queen (nor would I ever want to).
  • My head explodes if I try too do Maths and
  • I never intended to write a blog as I am doubtful as to whether I will actually bother to update it.

So yeah, concerning the last point, I really had no intention of starting one of these things.  I think it's down to the simple fact that I just don't have anything of real interest to say (though I'm guessing you've figured that out for yourselves anyway!!) and I barely have enough time to fit all the things I want to do around sleeping work and sitting down, as it is. I literally just wanted an easy way to keep up with a couple of blogs that I was interested in. Then POOF, the next thing I know I've spent an entire evening scrathching my head, trying to make my page look all pretty(ish). Case and point my first blog post,
Err...I don't really do blogs. I just wanted to follow other people!!

With that in mind, I am still very much a noob at all this, so it's all going to be very basic.  In regards to the  blog header pic...thing, Scary Ginger Lady will have to do until I get round to doing making new one (just in case you're interested she is actually the main character from the book I'm almost writing).

In terms of content, I have had a couple of ideas for regular features that will I probably do for a few months then just give up on as something shiny will catch my attention. One that I REALLY want to do is a feature on book covers as, being an artist myself (ha, yeah, just about) I love dribbling over pretty book jackets, old and new. So, hopefully I can get that started soon. There are obviously going to be reviews, though I am going to cheat and just paste them from Goodreads >.< I will also shove my Youtube vids in here too and there will probably be random posts too, most about book related stuffage, but some not. The one thing about Twitter that frustrates me is the 140 character limit (which I know is the point, but still...annoying), so it will be quite nice to have a place where I can ramble on and on and on and on...



...and on and on and on...

And finally, thank you kind person, for reading. Please feel free to comment below. As I have, at this minute 0 followers, it's more than likely that I will reply.

Toodley pip!!!

Saturday 21 January 2012

I Just Read...Supernaturally by Keirsten White






SupernaturallySupernaturally by Kiersten White
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So yeah. I'm probably the only person on the planet that thinks this but...I was a smidge disppointed. But I think it's only down to how much I LOOOOVED Paranormalcy. This one just seemed to have lost all that made the first one so brilliant.

I would list Evie as one of my favourite characters of all time. She was fun, quirky, silly, daft, basically everything all those other sappy, love-sick, moronic girls from other paranormal romance books aren't. You may have noted however, I said she 'was'. Unfortunately it seems like she's been hanging around with them too much, as in Supernaturally, she pretty much becomes one of them. She now spends a lot of her time mooning about how unfair everything is, moaning about all the things she doesn't think she can have, fawning over her man etc. Her intelligence has also taken a bit of a bashing. In fact she is quite stupid. She's too busy whining to realise what's right in front her. She's just not fun any more. I used to think that if I ever met she would be an awesome person to hang out with, but now she's kind of person I would do all in my power to avoid. The worst thing is, is that there were the odd flashes of the old Evie, but they never lasted long.

All this wouldn't be too bad if there was a really gripping plot to focus on. Again, unfortunately this was sadly lacking in comparison to the first. In fact, I'm trying to recall what the book was actually about and I'm struggling. I finished it an hour ago.

All this sounds ridiculously negative. I think a lot of it stems from just a general disappointedness. Once I started realising that this wasn't going to be the same kind of book as Paranormalcy, I couldn't adapt. I couldn't shake the feeling of sadness that Supernaturally had become like one of those thousands other other dark romance books.

And I really, really wanted to love this. But I can't. I like it, it was ok, but no-where near the same level of sheer fun and brilliance of Paranormalcy. If I'm ridiculously honest, the reason it got 3 stars and not 2 was because of my love for the first book. Dammit, why?!!!!

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So I'm still very much in the testing stages of this blog. This is me seeing if I can embed a video...here we go




Ahhhh, it worked. This is my latest book review on Youtube >.<

Now, let's see if I can add a review from Goodreads...




FeverFever by Dee Shulman
My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Hmmm, where to start? What I will say is that if you are Dee Shulman, look away now. I am doing this for your own good. And apologies, this is going to be a long. I will do my best to avoid spoilers (though it be difficult as there are a lot of specific bits that I really want to moan about!!!)


I really did try to find some positives, as I don't like giving a completely negative review It's not really fair or constructive, but it was difficult. The only thing I could find, was that the author can put a sentence together well, and technically speaking, her writing is pretty, well, readable. The problem that I had then, was with what the words were saying.


So lets start with her characters. I don't think I have ever instantly disliked a character as much as I did Eva. She's just too perfect. It's never really spelt out for us, as Eva's storyline is written in first person perspective, and being so humble and self-deprecating (which gets really annoying!!!) she never says 'I'm stupidly intelligent', but when we discover she can hack into computers at the age of 8, it's kind of implied.


Then once she hits her teens, she suddenly becomes some kind of radiant goddess that boys can't seem to resist, which girls hate her for.


So far she has brains and beauty. What are we missing?...oh yes, talent. She can play guitar and sing!! There we go, the perfect package. To be fair to the author, she did try to balance Eva out by giving her family/friend issues, but by that point my dislike was so firmly cemented, I just couldn't bring myself to sympathise or care and I just wished she'd stop whining and get over it. You can't have everything.


Her family doesn't understand her, which she often reminds us of, and she has no friends because she can't let anyone know her secret super-duper brain powers. All the boys want to date her because she is so beautiful and all the girls loath her because they are riddled with jealousy!!


Later on though, she meets Ruby who becomes her first friend. But when they fall big style (not Eva's fault of course, and yes, that was sarcasm) she becomes a stereotypical jealous, teenage villain, calling Eva lots of nasty names very publically. But don't worry, Eva's not alone, and the friends she doesn't even realise she has come to her rescue in the most cheesy fashion you could imagine. Yay.


A lot of my criticisms are probably just me being a bitch though, as I find people like Eva extremely hard to relate to and empathize with. It didn't help much that was particularly believable either. It soon becomes obvious to all that she's a brain-box, gorgeous and a mean musician, but it's the fact that she's so modest about it to the point of denial, that irritates me so much! How can she not know that she's stupidly attractive, when every guy who takes one look at her instantly seems to throw themselves at her feet, or how intelligent she is by the fact she gets accepted into the Boffin Institute (actual name St. Magdalene's)? It all comes across, to me, as a bit false. Just a little self acknowledgement of her many gifts, and some simple honesty would have made me like her more.


Then there's Seth, the male lead. A gladiator. He's strong, agile, quick and has this uncanny ability to pre-empt an opponent's next move before even they do (facts that we are reminded of constantly). Basically the perfect fighter. Then there's the fact that the poor dear, has to be beautiful and ooze charm that seems to draw in the opposite sex like a magnet. It's a hard life. But like with Eva, the author has tried to balance him out with being a slave and lacking in the freedom department. I actually found that I liked him to start with, but then his love interest, Livia, appears and he becomes a bit of a simpering romantic obsessed with love and the need to be with this girl he barely knows. I'm afraid I lost all respect for him. Again, this is probably just be my own personal failings when it comes to matters of the heart, but it started to get a little cheesy.


So within a few chapters, I was already finding this book a bit of a struggle, as I wasn't really invested in the characters. But I will say, which can be viewed as the second positive, is that though I personally didn't get on with her characters, the author has admirable character building skills, as through the course of the book, you really get to know them inside and out.


You may at this point, be wondering why I continued reading. The answer is the plot, as I was interested in finding out how she was going combine the two very different story lines together. The book makes it clear that time travel is involved, but it takes a while for that particular plot point to develop as there is a lot of initial back-story to wade through. Unfortunately, I was to be disappointed as the whole thing becomes a little silly.


We are introduced to the concept of Parallon, an alternate dimension (I think) that exists outside of time...and that's about all we get. There is very little explanation as to what it is, why it's there or even where it got it's name and although there's a character in Parallon who seems like he might have the answers, he is too irritatingly evasive and vague to be of any use.


It is from this point Eva and Seth finally meet, and it all seems a bit patched together, erring on the side of random. A series of events that don't really fit together or flow, leaving the whole thing disjointed. Towards the end of the book, I waited for a climax to the plot and maybe a few answers to some of the many mysteries hinted at, as, though this seems to be the start of a series, usually there is some sort of sense closure and of wrapping up. However, as there was no real focus to the story, this was absent. Instead we got some technical jargon about the fever for which the book is named, and although high-lights the research the author must have done, was detailed to the point of being boring and I'm afraid I began to skip chunks.


Then we finish on a scene that was missing from the earlier narrative, and should have been the grand finale, in which we discover the key details of a pinnacle event that occurred previously and that links, Seth, Eva and Livia together (badly and tenuously). Yet alas, by this point, I had lost all interest and just wanted to finish the book.


So, in conclusion, not good. Characters that are hard to like and unrealistic. A plot with too many holes and (deep breath) missing explanations that leaves the whole thing feeling like lots of random ideas just thrown at each with no real effort to linking them together, and too many mysteries that are left unresolved and therefore make no sense.


A lot of this (as I always say in my reviews) is of course personal preference so I won't tell you not to read it, as you may miss out on a book that you may in fact, like.


My goodness, that's the longest review EVER. If you made it this far, I commend, congratulate and thank you. You are super.


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My God this is confusing!!!
Err...I don't really do blogs. I just wanted to follow other people!!!