Dear Harry Potter:

Today for me was the end of a journey that started way back in 2001 when I first picked up a book for an English class book report called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. At that moment I was your average 6th grader and had no interest what-so-ever in reading anything, much less an 200+ page book! So for the actual book report I got through a few chapters, threw the book in my closet and looked for a summary on the, then young, inter net. A few months later though, I found out a movie about this book was coming out and I saw Dan Radcliffe as Harry and fell completely in love. So I said to myself: "Why not give this another try?" and I dug into the closet, got my book and started reading. I was done within 3 days, something I had never ever done before. I got lost in the pages of the book and the adventures of Harry, his friends and the magical wizarding world. Over the next few weeks I made my mother search around for the rest of the books, a difficult task seeing as they were sold out mostly everywhere we went. I read all the books then released (which meant up to Goblet of Fire) in less than a month. The movies followed and I quickly realized I was obsessed with this in a way I had never seen before.

For the next 10 years I've followed you, Harry Potter, faithfully. I've read every book in record time on release night/day and re-read them more times than I can count, I got mad when my mom wouldn't let a very young me attend the midnight releases for the book, and I've seen each of the films at least 3 times at the cinema, 5 being the norm. I've eagerly awaited the end, the last book, and was finally allowed to attend the midnight release, I've cried, laughed, rejoiced and suffered with you. So today July 14th, 2011, the day when the last Harry Potter movie is released I want to thank you; you Harry Potter and everything that revolves around you for making me what I am today. Thank you for teaching me how to read, for letting me discover the joy of getting lost in pages for hours at a time. Thank you for giving me a future, because without you I don't think I would've ever end up studying what is today my passion, English literature and graduating college with a BA on it just last month. Thank you for giving me a wonderful childhood full of magic. But most of all thank you for letting me meet the wonderful people I've met throughout the years through the magic of your story and with which I've made some of the best friends a person can have.

Today, I just want to say thank you and, though I'm very sad to let go of something that's been so important to me, make it clear that I will never forget you and you will always be a part of my life. This isn't the end at all, this is only the beginning and some day when I'm old and gray I'll still be waiting for my Hogwarts letter to come.

Thank you.

The Mortal Instruments Series: Part Deux

I'll be the first to admit that when I first saw there was a second series of Mortal Instruments coming that was not a sequel, I was a bit hesitant. I was quite happy with where the original series ended and I wasn't quite sure where this new part of the story would take us. I was even more hesitant when I read the series would be more focused on Simon, Clary's vampire best friend, whom I didn't really like to begin with... (please don't send me death threats girls!) However, in year and months it took for City of Fallen Angels to be released I read up on all of Cassandra's tweets and teasers about it and by the time the April 2011 release date came around, I was so anxious to read this I almost ate a few Borders employees on time when their shipment of the book was delayed for a week. I was even more surprised when I finished reading the book and had only one thing on my mind: more.

City of Fallen Angels takes place just weeks after City of Glass ended and follows our favorite gang of characters in all new adventures. Each chapter is from the point of a view of a different character, so we get quite a variety of who we're following in the book. The plot of the story isn't very strong, there's a bit of a lot of different plots thrown into the midst, but because this is the first book of an entire new series I can see why this happens. There are still many issues begun in the first book to resolve in the next two. Still, Clare does a wonderful job at somehow tying everything in and having it make sense even though we don't really know what's going on in some of the plots yet.

When it comes to characters, all our favorites are still there...and even some we thought were gone forever. What I particular enjoyed was Jace and Clary's relationship, they've matured quite a bit and are slowly but surely heading into that part of the relationship...the sexual part. Cassandra does a wonderful job at portraying this without going too far over a YA reader scene, but she doesn't take away from sensual scenes being completely hot and erotic. The scene in Jace's bedroom had me sweating bullets. Sexuality is something all teens have to deal with at some point or another and this book portrays both the awkwardness and the hotness of it all. I'm also glad we got to see much deeper into Jace's character and his insecurities. He acts so cocky most of the time that it was very surprising to see just how insecure he is of himself; his attitude is just a show off to hide everything that's going on under there. Clary having to deal with all of this was also an insight for a female character that is so strong yet so weak when it comes to Jace and their relationship. As for the other characters I was bummed that Alec and Magnus were gone for most of the book, they're my favorite couple and would have loved to see more of them but I know there's more in-store for the following books in the series. As for Simon, perhaps there really was a bit too much of him for me. This is just my humble opinion since I don't like Simon that much as a character as some of the other characters in the book, but I thought there was a bit too much of him. At times his parts in the novel dragged on for too long, I got bored. I would also have loved to see more of his relationship with Isabelle (now that is a couple I'm rooting for!) since she is one of my favorite characters and I find their relationship just adorable, hopefully there will be much more of them in the future.

Oh and, by the way, there is a HUGE cliffhanger at the end of this novel. It left me itching, claiming, wailing for more. So if you're not ready to handle that, perhaps you'd like to wait until the next book is out before giving this a shot. Not me though, I enjoy the torture.

In the end, though I was quite a bit hesitant about this reboot of the series I was very pleasantly surprised. It is a new beginning for The Mortal Instruments and I'm incredibly curious as to where this series is going and where my beloved characters will end up. I can't wait until Miss Clare give us more!

Rebooting a series isn't easy, but Miss Clare did it right. I give The Mortal Instruments Book 4: City of Fallen Angels a 4 out of 5 stars!

Post of Seriousity (yes, I know that's not an actual word)

Hello fellow YA readers! I just wanted to make a small post to let you all know that I am still alive and to say I'm sorry for not making a post in more than a month. Real life, mainly studies, has been getting in the way. But I want to make this blog a success even if it's only something for myself, so from now on I vow to at least try to make a post once a week; whether it's a review or just a comment. So don't give up and stay tuned, summer is fast approaching and with it a lot to write about!

See you around,

Laura

An Interview With YA Author Beth Revis

Recently I had the honor and pleasure of reading one of the best young adult books, if not the best, out there. It's relatively new and called Across the Universe by a young up-and-coming author named Beth Revis. This mix of sci-fi, horror and human nature is one of the most unique and disturbing things (don't worry, that's good!) I've ever read. I've never had such an inmersive reading experience as I did with this book. But enough of my ranting (I can go on and on about this book), there will be a review of it up soon where I will disscuss it detail. For now I leave all you readers out there with this short interview I was able to conduct with Beth Revis through e-mail. She is incredibly nice and completely accesible to the fans through her site http://www.bethrevis.com/. So here you have an interview to enjoy and go read Across the Universe if you already haven't!


An Invterview with Beth Revis:


ME: How did you come up with the plot for Across the Universe?
 
BR: I came up with the ending first--I had an idea for a solution to a mystery. From there, I
built the story in order to make the mystery happen.

ME: In between all these YA books set in Dystopian societies, what made you decide to pick outer space as a setting?

BR: The story dictated it. I needed some things, such as cryogenic freezing, to make the story work, so I made it a sci fi.

ME: The feeling of claustrophobia Amy feels on-board the Godspeed is incredible and asphyxiating, how did you evoke those feelings?

BR: I tried to be very empathetic and just as honest as possible. I really sought to describe every emotion as truly as possible. And I had some interesting research! For example, when I described the tubes Amy has to swallow in Chapter 1, I actually gagged myself to describe better how it felt.

ME: Amy seems like a very fragile character, how would you describe her?

BR: I tried to make her as much as a direct, up-front, and yet still as human as possible. Personally, I kind of think of her as a BAMF, just in a totally difficult, heart-wrenching situation.

ME: What has happened to Earth during the storyline? Is it still there or was there a reason for the Godspeed to launch?

BR: Nothing happened to Earth--Amy and her family are on an exploratory mission.

ME: What would you say to those who criticize the YA genre by saying its works cannot be considered true literature?

BR: I would answer them with this picture:

http://bethrevis.tumblr.com/post/2412021000/the-source-of-this-blogs-inspiration-used-with

ME: This was your first book to write and publish, and before that you were a school teacher. What made you decide to go from teaching to writing?

BR: I always wrote--I started writing while in college, and kept writing while I worked as a teacher. When I got to the point that I couldn't both write and teach in the ways I wanted to, I had to let teaching go. I loved it SO much, and I miss it, but I had to follow my dream.

ME: Finally, do you have any advice for other English majors out there?

BR: Do what you want! I was told I could never make a living writing, but even though I got a job that wasn't in writing, I kept writing. And now I'm finally making a living writing.

ME: Again, thank you very much for taking the time to answer these!

BR: Thank you for interviewing me!

Dystopias: Battle Royale vs The Hunger Games

Recently I've been getting into translations of popular Japanese novels. The first one I read was a not-so-small popular Japanese book that has very much to do with young adults and youth in general, that book is Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. It is one of the bestselling books in Japan. I'm sure everyone knows by now I have a great love of Dystopias and Battle Royale was one of the things that propelled that love, after Ayn Rand's Anthem. I originally first saw the Japanese movie version and then, upon finding out it was a novel first, quickly added it to my to-read list. However, Battle Royale is quite a hefty 500+ page book and it wasn't until this past December, before going on a trip, that I picked it up as airplane fodder. Even then, the book was a complicated one to read and I took me more than a month to finish it. Ever since I finish reading, fellow YA readers have been asking me a lot about how it compares with The Hunger Games, since Hunger Games seems to hold a lot of similarities with it. So here are my thoughts on that comparison.

First off, the plot itself is quite similar in a few points. One, both books deal with the youth of their respective Dystopian societies and the ways the governments find to control them and, by extension, control the masses. The governments in both books know that the best way to control their society is by controling the children and youths first. Why? Well, because by controlling their children they can control the adults; law of nature, the adults will do anything to protect their young. Second, both plots involve a sort of game to-the-death as the method of control. In Battle Royale the setting is very bare and not as technologically advance, even though it is set in the future. The children are sent to an island and given weapons and supplies. In Hunger Games the children also battle it out to-the-death, but in a very different and technologically advance arena where they must fight for weapons and win viewers to get food. This similarities are pretty major and what make people think that The Hunger Games is the Western descendant of Battle Royale. Though Battle Royale may have been an influence, I think these two books couldn't be more different in various other aspects.

Now to the differences. First off, we have the ages of the children. In Battle Royale we have older youths, teenagers, in Junior High while in The Hunger Games we have children of varying ages from very young, like Rue who is 12 years old, to teens. The age difference has a very defined effect on the readers, we will not react the same to 12 year old Rue's death as we will to that of an older teenager in Battle Royale. This also leads to another point of Battle Royale. The book has 42 classmates as it's main cast. That means there are 42 very different and complex names to memorize and 42 different stories to tell. Hunger Games on the other hand, has about a half of the characters that Battle Royale does. This of course causes another connection problem, we probably will not relate to as many character in Battle Royale as we will in Hunger Games because there is simply no space to be able to flesh out 42 characters completely. These two main problems are what make both books different when it comes to a connection between readers and characters, and consequently the storyline.

Finally we have the issue of violence in the books. Battle Royale contains excesive amounts of violence, gore, sexual content and explicit description of various forms of death and murder. It was even hard for me to get through some of the scenes without cringing and turning away. The Hunger Games, on the other hand contains, violence but nowhere near as explicit. Though it was critized a lot for it's violence for a YA novel, Battle Royale takes it to another extreme. I believe this is the point where both books differ the most. Some people decide to read Battle Royale because they believe it will be like Hunger Games, but the truth is Battle Royale has quite extreme content.

In conclusion we can see that, though both books share similarities when it comes to plot and concept, the truth is they are two very different book from two very different genres: one belongs to the sci-fi/horror genre while the other belongs to the YA genre. That doesn't mean, however, that either of the books is worse than the other. Heck, the first reason I picked up Hunger Games was because I had seen Battle Royale before. There is obviously some influence presence. But they are entirely different things and it would be unfair to compare them in deeper aspects. They both remain wonderful works of literature in their own rights and are amazing and intuitive reads.

Dead Highschool Kids

Hello everyone! Before starting off with today's review I want to apologize for my absence these last few months. Life called and with a student strike going on at my university and an extended semester a lot of work piled up. But I don't intend to give this blog up and since I have the next week as a short vacation before my last semester of BA starts, lets get this show on the road.

Generation Dead is a book I saw about a year ago at Barnes and Noble while on vacation in Portland, OR. In fact, my niece wanted to buy the book and my brother wouldn't let her because it didn't seem like something for her age group. I remember my reaction to the cover: "Ugh." Yes, it looked like the typical teenage goth kid novel. I wasn't interested in the slightess. Flash forward to November of 2010 and I find this book again at Borders. I had a special to get a few books, so I decided to give it a try and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised.

This is very different book on the subject of zombies (if they can even be called that, I think the undead would be a much more appropriate word) than I've ever read before. As you read the back cover and see something about a type of zombiefication brought on by fast food, it seems like a quite hilarious concept; but as you delve into the book you realize this is a very serious issue the characters in the book are facing. The plot is quite simple: dead teenagers are somehow coming back to life and no one knows why. These small community is trying to deal with a phenomenon no one understands and parents wait while their dead teenagers come back to life; something that not always occurs. The 'living impaired', as they're called, must be taught basic human functions all over again so they can once again fit in with the living; but the thing is, they won't ever fit in again. Like with the mutants in X-Men, there is a segregation. People fear the unknown and in this case it's a bunch of undead teenagers. Bullying starts occurring and an organization is started to try and make people understand these people who are only trying to fit in. Daniel Waters gives an incredibly interesting twist to the theme of every teenagers life: fitting in. In this case he give the teens reading something to think about: "You think you don't fit in at school? Try being the undead." He shows us the effect of having confidence and trying to understand others that may seem different to us.

Phoebe is our main character and she is quite charismatic. She is a girl that doesn't fit in at school, a 'goth' kid. She dresses differently and is immediately seen as a freak by her peers. With her Waters introduces the theme of not fitting in. However, she is soon forgotten as the 'freak' at school when the 'living impaired' kids start appearing. She finds herself not being the girl that doesn't fit in anymore, but rather the girl that must come to accept and understand the new outsiders, the undead. Phoebe has no particular qualities to her and I think that's what makes her so appealing and charming to the reader. She's not a Mary-Sue nor perfect by any means, she's just your typical teenager trying to fit in and suddenly she's thrust into an extraordinary situation where she must learn to be accepting of others rather than trying to be accepted.

I would like readers to not be fooled by the fact that this series is being sold as a romance. That is not true, in my opinion. The romance in the book takes a secondary role to the main theme. The real theme here is the social problems brought on by the fear of the unknown, the lack of wanting knowledge of that which we do not understand, the lack of understanding towards the different and the hardships of fitting in. All of this is of particular appeal to teenagers, but it also something that adults should look into as well.

Daniel Waters in the first YA male author I've read and I must say he has been one of the best out of all of them. He not only understands and conveys the feelings of a female character very well, but he also adds a lot of masculine touches throughout the book like retelling a football game in exquisite details, something only a male could do. I applaud him for creating such a wonderful and different YA book that, at first glance, seems like a hilarious concept but is actually a very deep one.

Generation Dead is the typical case of don't judge a book by it's cover. It's cover is quite horrible and cheesy, but perhaps that's what they were going for. But don't be fooled by it or the word Disney on the cover, under all that there is a true gem of the YA genre and one that, I fear, will remain undiscovered by readers under all the big famous books. So don't fear Generation Dead, give it a read and delve into the problems of teens and society in general.

For a unique read and different POV from a male author: I give Generation Dead (Book 1) a 5 out of 5 stars!

And I look forward to reading the next two books in this series.


Now for what's coming up in the next few weeks!

Reviews:

-Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy Book 6) by Richelle Mead
-A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Special Essay:

- Dear Mr. Potter - I write a letter to Mr. Harry Potter as a thank you for 12 amazing years.

What do you mean the main character isn't a vampire?!

After I finished the Twilight series in the autumn of 2008, I thought I would never find another vampire related YA book quite like it, or another YA vamp book I would as much. So, for a while, I swore off YA vamp books completely. A few months later I had seen the Vampire Academy book by Richelle Mead while looking around Borders, I asked some friends about it and they told me "Don't read that crappy book!", so I trusted them and kept going with other YA stuff. Not long afterwards I had nothing to read and thought "what the hell, I can always return it if I hate it". So off I went and bought Vampire Academy. I devoured the book in 3 days and went frantically back to Borders to search for book 2, Frostbite, just to learn it was sold out and I had to wait a week for another shipment to arrive. I almost died. I wish I hadn't payed attention to my friends back then, because Vampire Academy is the only YA vampire book I've read after Twilight that is genuinely amazing, and I've read a lot of YA vampire books after Twilight.

Like my quirky title says, the main character of this book isn't a vampire. In fact, not even her main love interest is one. Actually, half the characters aren't vampires at all! Not what you would think when you read the title Vampire Academy is it? That's exactly what I thought when I first saw the book, that this would be a silly high school drama in a school for vampires (kind of like the manga Vampire Knight, which I love by the way). So you can imagine how shocking it was to me when I started reading and realised our heroine wasn't a vampire. In fact, this surprise was one of the main factors to me enjoying the book immensely. It was a look at the world of vampires through an outsider's eye.

Our main non-vampire character is Rose Hathaway, a lovely dhampir young lady. What are dhampirs you ask? Well, they're the children of vampires and normal humans. The dhampirs are pretty much servants to the vampires, or as they are called in the book the moroi, who in this case are more like nobles in an aristocracy than anything else. The dhampir race also protect they're specially assigned moroi, think of them as something of a secret service for the noble vampires.This is where Rose falls in. She is the child of a dhampir and a moroi and she attends St. Vladimir's Academy where she is trained to protect her best friend Lisa, a moroi. Rose is quite literally and action girl. She can fight, she speaks her mind and she has quite a teenage attitude. All this make Rose a very different heroine from the ones I've seen before, who were usually love struck bookworms or just simple girls. She could be comparable to The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen, which is why these will probably be the only two character I refer to as heroines in reviews. Rose doesn't always make the right decisions, she's starts the book off like this having run away with Lissa and being found just to realized in how much danger she has put Lissa in. Still, Lissa and Rose have a deep connection that goes far beyond just friendship and sisterhood, a dark secret I won't spoil and leave the readers to figure out. Rose is a very likable character, even though she often makes very human mistakes. That's not a bad thing though, it may be infuriating at times but it keeps her from being a Mary Sue which, in my opinion, is great.

The real gem in this books, however, is a sexy young Russian man (for lack of a more accurate description) named Dimitri. Like any other YA book, Vampire Academy has it's share of forbidden love but in this case it has nothing to do with the supernatural or even social class it's actually forbidden because, in many places around the world, it would be illegal. We're talking of course of the very forbidden relationship between Rose and her Dhampir sensei (Japanese for teacher) Dimitri. Why is this illegal you ask? Well, Rose is 17 while Dimitri is 24. Dimitri is pretty much the sexy teacher we all wished we had in high school but for Rose it becomes a reality. Their relationship in this first book of the series is very sexual, there is a lot of sexual tension and desire going on but nothing actually happens. It's delicious to read, I hadn't been this excited and on edge since I Edward and Bella's relationship. The fact that Dimitri is not your conventional young YA guy is even more intriguing. Dimitri is a man, scruffy, tall, long hair and very serious. He is by no means a teenager and perhaps that is why Rose is so attracted to him from the beginning, because she needs an actual adult in her life.

Other characters include Lissa, Rose's best friend and Moroi Princess. She is sweet and very loyal to Rose, but she also hides a dark and disturbing power. Though she seems sweet on the outside, sometimes Lissa can be downright frightening. I'm not really sure if I like her character or I don't. There is also Christian, a beautiful bad-boy moroi who plays with fire, literally. Christian is one of the more likeable non-protagonist characters in the novel. I love his playful banter and his relationship with Lissa is adorable.

One thing I really enjoy about Vampire Academy is the wonderful use of Russian folklore. I've been fascinated by Russia for many years: from the beautiful architecture, to long lost princesses and beautiful ballets. So to find a book that emphasizes on this was wonderful for me. I was intrigued by everything, specifically the use of the Russian language throughout the novel. I applaud Richelle Mead for the great amount of research it must have taken to get everything right in this first book and the following also. It also brings us back to the origins of the vampire itself in countries surrounding Russia which I found very interesting.

Vampire Academy is not a book to be fooled by. Don't fall for the "academy" part of the title like I did and think that this is a book about goth vampires going to school. There is so much to discover in this series and Vampire Academy is the starting point of a wonderful journey. Richelle Mead uses a rich and beautiful yet simple language that easily engages the reader and makes the reading experience incredibly entertaining. You will be waiting for the twists and turns and enjoying every minute of it. Mead brings a new twist to the vampire YA novel, one in which the main relationship isn't really supernatural. We have a wonderful heroine surrounded by the world of vampires, so we're seeing them from the inside in; something I've yet to find in another book.

For Mead's different and intriguing look at vampires and for her wonderful writing: I give Vampire Academy (Book 1) 4 out of 5 stars!