Sunday, December 12, 2010
Beastly by Alex Flinn
Where is this movie? Doesn’t it look awesome? They promised me this movie in July - and then in November. Now it’s December and I haven’t seen any sign of it, have you? So while we’re sitting around waiting for this movie to materialize, how about reading the book - which was also awesome?
I hate people who are really full of themselves; you know, good looking, rich - and unbelievably obnoxious. Which is why I wasn’t too upset when young Kyle’s life falls apart. He’s definitely someone who needs to learn a lesson. And what better way to learn a lesson than to have a “witch” place a curse on you, removing everything you ever thought was important?
Does this story sound familiar? That’s right: Beastly is a modern retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. Set in Manhattan, Beastly is full of the annoying high school characters we all know and love: the beautiful people, the nerds, and everyone in between. Kyle is, without question, the worst of the beautiful people. Sure, he has money, good looks and an equally beautiful girlfriend - but he doesn’t have any good qualities whatsoever.
One day, he messes with the wrong person, a “witch” who places a curse on Kyle, telling him that he will need to learn to “be as ugly on the outside as on the inside." How will Kyle cope with his new life? How will he get out of this mess? You’ve read the fairytale, you figure it out. Better yet, go find a copy of Beastly.
LAME FACTOR: Yeah, yeah, it’s a fairytale, but it’s not lame. I give Beastly a zero.
YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR: As you can probably guess, pre-curse Kyle isn’t too well-behaved. Once the curse takes effect, though, there’s not a lot of trouble he can get into.
BRAIN POWER: Nothing too complex here - but you are looking up the words you don’t know, aren’t you?
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Why haven’t you gotten this book yet? Oh. Right. I haven’t actually told you about it yet. Sorry, but Shiver is probably the best book I’ve read this year - and no, I don’t always say that. Stop being sarcastic.
I kept passing Shiver on a shelf at the supermarket. The cover really interested me but I was starting to feel a little lame for always choosing books because of their covers. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and on my way to the cheese aisle, I threw the book in my cart. Best grocery ever.
Shiver involves werewolves. You may love that; normally, I don’t. Werewolves, vampires. It’s getting a bit old. It’s really the main character of this book, though, that makes up for the fact that it is yet another werewolf story.
Grace Brisbane is amazing. First of all, she’s quiet. If you taught 7th grade, like I do, you’d really appreciate a quiet girl. It’s not that she’s shy or doesn’t have anything interesting to say, it’s just that she doesn’t feel the need to be yakking about nothing all the time. Next, she loves to read. Enough said. But here’s what is most awesome about Grace: as a kid, she was pulled off a tire swing in her backyard and dragged into the woods by a pack of wolves. They bit her - and she lived to talk about it. How awesome is that: bitten by a wolf? I would love to have a story like that.
Enter Sam. Do I need to explain his deal to you? In case you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, the hero of these books is generally either a vampire or a werewolf. On the menu today, a werewolf. So what do you think happens? Girl-bitten-by-wolf meets boy-part-time-werewolf (he’s only a wolf in winter, hence the “shiver” in the title). I think you can figure it out.
I couldn’t put this book down. I told lots of other people to read it and they couldn’t put it down. A few of them cursed me for keeping them from doing work because they had to keep reading. Awesome.
LAME FACTOR: Did anyone guess a zero? Correct!
YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR: Whatever happens between Grace and Sam (and I’m not telling you what that might be) is not really described in detail, so unless your parents are very sensitive, they should be OK.
BRAIN POWER: Shiver is very well-written without being overly complicated. There aren’t many big words to hurt your head.
I kept passing Shiver on a shelf at the supermarket. The cover really interested me but I was starting to feel a little lame for always choosing books because of their covers. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and on my way to the cheese aisle, I threw the book in my cart. Best grocery ever.
Shiver involves werewolves. You may love that; normally, I don’t. Werewolves, vampires. It’s getting a bit old. It’s really the main character of this book, though, that makes up for the fact that it is yet another werewolf story.
Grace Brisbane is amazing. First of all, she’s quiet. If you taught 7th grade, like I do, you’d really appreciate a quiet girl. It’s not that she’s shy or doesn’t have anything interesting to say, it’s just that she doesn’t feel the need to be yakking about nothing all the time. Next, she loves to read. Enough said. But here’s what is most awesome about Grace: as a kid, she was pulled off a tire swing in her backyard and dragged into the woods by a pack of wolves. They bit her - and she lived to talk about it. How awesome is that: bitten by a wolf? I would love to have a story like that.
Enter Sam. Do I need to explain his deal to you? In case you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, the hero of these books is generally either a vampire or a werewolf. On the menu today, a werewolf. So what do you think happens? Girl-bitten-by-wolf meets boy-part-time-werewolf (he’s only a wolf in winter, hence the “shiver” in the title). I think you can figure it out.
I couldn’t put this book down. I told lots of other people to read it and they couldn’t put it down. A few of them cursed me for keeping them from doing work because they had to keep reading. Awesome.
LAME FACTOR: Did anyone guess a zero? Correct!
YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR: Whatever happens between Grace and Sam (and I’m not telling you what that might be) is not really described in detail, so unless your parents are very sensitive, they should be OK.
BRAIN POWER: Shiver is very well-written without being overly complicated. There aren’t many big words to hurt your head.
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