Novel Review: Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods, #1) by Melissa de la Cruz

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Hyperion

Release Date: 2006

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Schuyler Van Alen has never fit in at Duchesne,her prestigious New York City private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes to the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates. But when she turns fifteen, Schuyler's life changes dramatically. The death of a popular schoolmate haunts her in unexpected ways. And strangest of all, Jack Force, the most popular boy in school, is showing a sudden interest in her.

Once an outcast, Schuyler is thrust into Manhattan's most exclusive social circle. Its members are the powerful, the wealthy, and - as Schuyler soon discovers - the unhuman. They are Blue Bloods, an ancient group of vampires, and for centuries they've been invincible. Now something is preying on this elite group, and Schuyler wants to find out the truth. But is she the most vulnerable of them all?

The Cover:

I love the covers in this series, including this one. It shows the high-class lifestyle of the characters and the city, and hints at the supernatural. I think it's very pretty, and it made me want to pick it up.

Review:

This is kind of like Gossip Girl with vampires.

This series has a very different take on vampires and immortality. I found the idea interesting, and their vampirism qualities I liked, including their visions. The immortality I had a harder time grasping. I suppose them actually dying and being reborn makes it easier to explain their age and whatnot, but I don’t understand how that works. How are they reborn so easily, and clearly some things change, like if they decide to fall in love with someone else. How does taking their blood when they die and remaking them later work? And how do they decide when to die, since they’re unable to when teenagers? I don’t understand.

Aside from that, this was an all right book. I found Schuyler’s character okay, an average character to follow, with an interesting backstory. I liked her friendship with Oliver, and possible relationship with Jack. I think I enjoyed Bliss more, with her trying to decide who she wants to be, trying to fit in with the popular crowd, and then falling for Dylan. Mimi I did not like at all, though I could understand her side of things. 

The pace was pretty slow, and the writing more intricate. The ending was interesting, but I don’t think I’ll be picking up the next one. It was just okay.

Novel Review: The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Genre: YA Contemporary

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5

Publisher: Random House (Delacorte Press)

Spoilers?: No/Very Minor

View it here: Goodreads.

Amazon Synopsis:

The summer after junior year of high school looks bleak for Alton Richards. His girlfriend has dumped him, he has no money and no job, and his parents insist that he drive his great-uncle Lester, who is old, blind, very sick, and very rich, to his bridge club four times a week and be his cardturner. 
     But Alton's parents aren't the only ones trying to worm their way into Lester Trapp's good graces. There is Trapp's longtime housekeeper, his alluring young nurse, and the crazy Castaneda family.
     Alton soon finds himself intrigued by his uncle, by the game of bridge, and especially by the pretty and shy Toni Castaneda, as he struggles to figure out what it all means, and ultimately to figure out the meaning of his own life.

Something Special:

Quotes (there are a lot):

•  "My father doesn't trust car salesman. He also doesn't like lawyers, bankers, plumbers, electricians, politicians, or swimming-pool contractors." (Hardback, pg. 88) I also ended up putting this in the Teaser Tuesday for this book, but I just liked it, and could relate to not trusting people in certain professions.
• "I realize it's a cliche for a teenager to be embarrassed by his parents. Cliff often complained about his parents, but I always thought they were pretty cool. Was it possible, I wondered, that there was somebody, somewhere, who thought my parents were cool?" (Hardback, pg. 89) I've thought about this before, and just liked seeing it written.
• "'...the character traits we admire--kindness, generosity, honesty--all lead to failure. And the character traits we supposedly abhor--greed and selfishness and the like--are the character traits of successful people.'" (Hardback, pg. 146) This just caught my attention. I think it is, at least somewhat, true, and I don't like that.
• "He told me that the secret of success was to never spend more than you had. 'Don't use credit cards. Don't owe anyone money.' Once you go into debt, he had said, you lose your freedom." (Hardback, pg. 222) This is something that I've always thought--the part about never spending more money than you have. Not a lot of people seem to think the same thing, and that bothers me.

Review:

I was a bit surprised by this book. It wasn’t amazing, but it was pretty good, and it took me in some places that I didn’t expect.

Alton, the main character, has always been pushed into sucking up to his rich uncle, even though he’s never really cared about him one way or another. But then his uncle’s usual cardturner can’t show, so Alton gets roped into doing it. You see, his uncle plays bridge several times a week, but is blind and so needs someone to play his cards for him. As Alton starts working for his uncle, he also learns to play bridge, and even grows up a bit along the way.

I liked Alton for the most part. Generally, he just seemed like an average teenage guy. He tended to mope over girls a bit too much, and let his friend push him around too much, but I guess he grows up a bit by the end. He mentions at the end that he isn’t going to let his friend push him around, but the reader didn’t actually get to see him come to the conclusion that his friend was doing it, or deciding not to let him. I feel like that part of his growing up wasn’t shown, which bothers me.

The romance was a very small part of the book, and I’m kind of glad. I wasn’t a huge fan of the girl, or the ex-girlfriend (even if we saw practically none of her), or his friend.

I liked his uncle. He was the silent, brooding type, but I liked him. His history was interesting, and I liked learning about it along with Alton.

I was kind of expecting what happened to him to happen, but not so suddenly or early in the book, and I wasn’t expecting what happened next to happen. A kind of supernatural element was added, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. It worked well and I did like parts of it, but it just bothered me a bit because the rest of the book is solidly contemporary, I guess.

We got to see Alton’s little sister several times throughout the story, and I really liked her. She was nice and a little feisty; I liked her relationship with Alton, and I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of her. We also met several people who play bridge, and I liked them enough.

There is a lot of bridge in this game. A lot. And I liked how there was a symbol to warn when a big part was going to focus on it, that was well done. Some parts are still a little confusing to me (like the betting), but I now actually have an interest in playing the game.

Overall, this was just a pretty good book to me. I liked it, but it was pretty average. Even saying that, though, I marked a lot of pages with quotes that I liked, and only included some of them above. There was another that was kind of spoiler-y so I didn't include it, and one that was about the trick to putting an egg in a milk bottle, which I'd never heard of before but thought was interesting--there wasn't one definite quote for it, though. There were a lot of small things that I liked, too: like the thing about synchronicity, and falling pianos, and how Alton messed up words at points, and the money thing and what his uncle ended up doing with his, and more that I can't think of right now. A lot of small things that made this enjoyable.

Sidenote: the cover kind of confuses me. It's not bad, and the feel of it kind of works, but I don't understand why he's at a bus station sort of place. I don't think he visits one even once throughout the whole book. So why...?

Manga Review: Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 18, by Bisco Hatori

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 18
Spoilers?: Yes.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Reads R to L (Japanese Style), for audiences rated teen. In this screwball romantic comedy, Haruhi, a poor girl at a rich kids' school, is forced to repay an $80,000 debt by working for the school's swankiest, all-male club--as a boy! There, she discovers just how wealthy the six members are and how different the rich are from everybody else...

Final Volume!

Review:

I love this series, you guys. Just thinking about it makes me happy and re-reading it gets me all excited again and, while this wasn’t quite what I thought it’d be, it was still awesome. And I seriously wonder if Hatori can do something that I don’t love. And I want her to do more and for it to get published over here so I can read it.

This was the last volume of Ouran, which makes me so sad, because that means there’s no more of these characters to come, and I’m going to miss them so much. This was a very good ending, though.

God, just looking through this volume again as I write this makes me smile all over again.

The volume starts with the love confession between Haruhi and Tamaki, which is so completely awesome. It’s hilarious and they’re yelling at each other and they kiss and it’s so cute. The best confession ever and I don’t know how it could have been any better.

Some things get worked out between Tamaki’s father and grandmother, and Haruhi goes to talk to Kosaka. Haruhi wants to do something with Tamaki but is pretty content having just confessed to him, while he is freaking out and trying to think up the perfect date. There’s some commotion about that before they go on the date, which is over the top for Haruhi, but the gang is following them to make sure nothing goes wrong. And they end up going to Haruhi’s mothers’ grave, which is sweet.

And then we find out the big news, something that I didn’t think much about because I thought Haruhi would decide she cared too much about everyone and couldn’t possibly leave them to go away to school and there would be a big cheesy moment about it: instead, Haruhi has decided to go to school in America, as paid for by the school. There’s some trouble with this and Haruhi’s father is upset about it and the host club throws a party and do a thing for everyone at school to find out that she’s actually a she (which is particularly entertaining because they all say they knew, only to later find out that they meant they thought they knew Haruhi was a girly, maybe gay, boy). There are some very good moments between everyone. during this.

And then Tamaki tells her that he’s going with her, and he’s going to be living in the apartment right next to hers. And then everyone else moves into the apartments surrounding theirs. I wasn’t expecting this, and at first thought it was a bit too much, too cheesy, but after a while I’ve warmed up to the idea and just kind of love it. Particularly having Haruhi and Tamaki living right next to each other, with a door leading to the others’ place. I like the thought of them right next to each other, bickering and teasing and just so cute. Like a newly living together couple or newlyweds. Pretty much, I just love them. Also, I'd never noticed their height differences. But Tamaki is practically all legs in comparison to Haruhi, which is just adorable. They are just adorable and I love them.

After that, there a couple extras. There’s one long chapter featuring the group going to Spain because Kyoya’s father has set up his brother with some woman, and they end up helping her. This was mostly okay, although a bit entertaining a points, particularly at the end when Haruhi gets Tamaki all flustered.  Then there’s a tiny chapter starring Haruhi and Tamaki and a cuddle session which is just so adorable.

Throughout the volume, there are also several quarter or full page panels of the characters in the future, with what the author thinks might happen to them. She says that it’s not official, but I enjoyed them all nonetheless.

I’m so sad that it’s all over now; there’s no more Ouran for me to wait for or fangirl over. Although, since I do own them all, I can re-read them as many times as I want, which I’m sure will happen. While this volume, and several before it, never got a five star rating, the series as a whole gets one, in my mind. It’s one of my favorite manga, or story in general, if not the one at the top of the list, which is very high praise coming from me. But I just love this series so much, as I've stated before. And now I have to console myself because of the fact that it's all over now.

Review: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Rating (Out of 5): ~2-2.5

Publisher: (All over the place; it's a classic, everyone owns it. I borrowed the copy I read, and I don't remember what company it was from; sorry.)

Spoilers?: Yes, with warnings.

Goodreads Synopsis:

In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.

Review:

[There is some light cussing in this review.]

This is another book that I read because my brother wanted me to. Previously, he had raved to me about how good it was, and that I should read it (actually, it had become the book he would tease me about, because of how I refused to read it, without really knowing too much about it). I was over there for several weeks this summer, so I decided to read a couple of his books, and this was the last one I read before leaving. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, what I was going to think about it at all, and the beginning wasn’t even too bad. And then I read more of it, and that kind of changed things.

Now, I had a good outlook when I started this one. Albeit, before starting it, I had given The Rulesof Attraction, by the same author, a try, and that one had been a big fail*. But I was giving him another chance with this book, especially since my brother also did not like The Rules of Attraction, but loved this one.

So, here: I did not like this book. I could barely stand this book. I think loathed and hated are too strong of words for my feelings of this book, but they’re really close. Some of my feelings of hate and disgust lowered, though, I think, when I finished the book. Perhaps because there was a chapter near the ending that I liked. Perhaps because I was just so happy to be done with this terrible book that I had spent the last, like, five-ish days on.

Now, I’m just happy for it to finally be over.

If you haven’t read this book, it’s about Patrick Bateman. He works on wall street, in high society New York. Where people don’t really notice other people, where they are too stuck in their own lives and gossiping about others. They are all, every single character, too materialistic and selfish and self-centered. And just… They are all just so freakin’ despicable and there was not a single character that I liked, that I even halfway enjoyed reading about.
And, the materialistic thing? It's ridiculous how materialistic Patrick is. You can barely go more than, maybe, two pages, definitely not more than, say, ten, without there being at least a paragraph of description on what everyone is wearing. And so many brand name, high-class labels. I would suspect it were product placement if it didn't happen so often, and if it weren't just a way for Ellis to shove how stuck-up Patrick is into the readers' face.
I am just so done with this book and this author that I almost don’t even want to talk about it anymore. But that’s not what I’m doing here. I am talking about it here, just like I read this book, because I obviously hate myself.

Patrick doesn’t like people, and yet is surrounded by them all the time. He, like everyone else in this book, is somewhat serious with one person, and yet is cheating on her with someone else, all the time. (None of them seems to understand that there is such a thing as being faithful.)

[Spoilers ahead!] Patrick, as is pointed out in the synopsis, has something wrong with him. Which is so very true. He’s going psychotic and killing people (any type of person, really, and even animals) for no reason; and, along with that, he’s a cannibal, and the ways he kills people are, yea, creative and disturbing. But honestly, the violent killings didn't even bother me so much after a point; I was just not surprised anymore. And one thing that bothered me: he’s doing it so openly! He’ll walk around with blood stains on him, he’ll threaten people, he’ll tell people to their face that he’s killing others, and no one even notices.

Which, okay, I get it. That’s a major theme of the book: that no one notices anything around them. No one pays attention to anyone but themselves. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t drive me crazy. Because, you know what? Now, at least, I would like to think that, if someone suspects something it happening, they’re going to call the police, at the very least. And there is no reason for people not to suspect something is wrong with him.

Everything about him is wrong.

But, of course, everyone loves him. He smiles while saying something disturbing and no one notices. He waves some money around and gets what he wants. All the women love him. Everyone thinks he’s innocent or nice or sweet or something the opposite of a killer. It’s so goddamn ridiculous.

God, this book fuckin’ drove me crazy.

Those are, mostly, the things that bothered me. The rating, for how much I disliked the book, is a little high. Here’s why:

The author knew what he was doing. While the way he writes, the long, drag on sentences, and long, drag on paragraphs, with characters that suck, who are doing drugs and hooking up with women and drinking for no reason, I don't particularly like, he knew how to put the book together well. Patrick, while I hated him, was a well-made character. Everything he did, all of his materialistic and psychotic instances, were well done. There was a point to most of it, symbolism and foreshadowing and all that stuff. This book was well put together, okay?

At first, the drag on way of writing kind of annoyed me, but I got used to it. And the fast moving dialogue was usually pretty easy to read, and moved along pretty fast. That doesn’t mean that I enjoyed it, though, because I really didn’t.

Saying that, though, isn’t completely true. There were a couple of chapter that I enjoyed. Not many, but a couple. I liked the one, near the end, where Patrick and a few others guys are trying to figure out what restaurant they’re going to, and end up canceling and making and then canceling reservations, and Patrick accidentally invites two women and can’t remember where he told them to go. Some chapters that I did not like, in particular, were ones that were full of information about some band or singer, with only a little input of what Patrick thought about them. I just did not care enough about Huey Lewis and the News to read eight pages about them. And when he was describing his daily routine, like how he moistens his face and all that crap. I mean, yea, I get it already: Patrick is full of himself. I got that in the first chapter, okay? You don’t have to shove it in my face so much.

[Spoiler ahead!] Oh, and the ending. This is another thing that bothered me. Nothing changed at the end, okay? Just like nothing changed at the end of The Rules of Attraction. He didn’t learn anything, nothing happened to him, he didn’t die or go to jail. He’s still going crazy and killing people. It just made it seem like there was no point, and I don’t like that. What was the freakin’ point of reading about him, about what he does, about all his double-faced crap, when there wasn’t even a good resolution? Just… what was the point?

I’ve given the book an extra star for what the author did. So, without that star, this book would be about a 1-1.5, so it’s bumped up to a 2-2.5. There’s no way I can happily, in any way, round that up to a 3, though. The book started out in a 3 range, but now, it’s not even close.

I’m done with this book now. Once this is posted, and that book is away from me, I am done. I don’t have to read it or think about it anymore. I don't even think I want to watch the movie. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to read an adult, romance-ridden, smut-filled book that I will actually enjoy, just to get the taste of this book out of my freakin’ brain.

*I aimed for fifty pages, okay? I got ten. And then I got, I think, forty. And then I just could not read any more. Its standing rating is a one, and barely even that. I’m not officially giving it a rating, because I don’t like reviewing something if I haven’t finished it, but I’m pretty sure I have given up on that book, which is something I haven’t done before. There is a very, very low chance that I will try again, or at least try to finish it, but a higher chance that I will not. I just… I didn’t like anything about it: the writing was bad, the characters sucked completely, there was almost no point to the whole thing. I even watched the movie, in an effort to motivate myself to finish the book, and I didn’t even want to finish that, okay?