Ashley E

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• Rated 4 stars

“Todd lives in Prentisstown, which consists only of men. He is twelve, and the youngest resident of Prentisstown and New World. All the women on New World were killed by a germ that the native people (Spackle) released after the settlers landed on New World. The germ had a different effect on the men. Instead of killing them, it laid their thoughts bare for everyone to hear. The men can’t control their noise, as they call it, but they try their best to live with it. Prentisstown is the only civilization on New World, they are alone. At least, that’s all that Todd has been told his entire life. When he finds out that a girl has landed on New World, everything changes and Todd must run to save not only his life, but the entire planet.
The trilogy starts off kind of slow, but it picks up. By the final book in the series, I was hooked. Ness’s use of simplistic diction, and sometimes (purposefully) incorrect grammar is something to get used to, but it really helps to open Todd up and feel things from his perspective. Todd and Viola (the girl that landed on New World) are intensely likeable characters. This is one of those books that sneaks up on you, and before you know it the world and the characters have become a part of you. By the end of the final book, I was in tears. One thing I kept thinking while reading was that this would make a seriously INTENSE movie, and I’ve found out that the company that bought the rights to The Hunger Games has bought the rights to this trilogy. There is truly something for everyone in this series, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. There are so many twists and turns, that the whopping approximately 1500 pages for the entire trilogy goes by pretty fast.
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Ashley E wrote this review Sunday, March 18, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“I chose this as the first book I read in 2012. I was disappointed. For all the hype and all, it just didn’t resonate with me. I didn’t get it. Holden Caulfield, the main character, was never likable for me. Not that a main character has to be likable at all, but he just annoyed me and I didn’t care enough about the book itself. Holden was so whiny and couldn’t leave well enough alone. I understand that he was dealing with feeling alienated and misunderstood. But, why did he have to make things worse for himself? Maybe I just wasn’t an angsty enough teen, but this one didn’t click with me. It is a good representation of the time period, and I found glimpses of things I felt as a teen, but overall it fell short for me. However, it is considered one of the greatest books of the 20th century, so I suggest you read it yourself.
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Ashley E wrote this review Sunday, March 18, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“The History of Love was a book so inspiring that I needed to blog about it, even after ignoring this blog for a very long time. The characters’ voices are so poignant and relatable. Leo Gursky is an old man on the brink of death, and yet I felt like I could relate to Leo. Leo muses on his past- falling in love with his neighbor Alma and his Jewish family being killed by Nazis- whilst trying desperately to make sure people notice him before he dies. Alma is a young girl named after the girl in her parents’ favorite book. She deals with the death of her father and her mother’s subsequent depression by doing what any other teenage girl would do: try to find her mother a boyfriend. At first, the two stories don’t seem to have anything to do with each other. In fact, it’s quite confusing at points. But once you’ve reached the end, everything falls into place. And it’s the end, really, that makes this book completely worthwhile. It’s such a beautiful and heartbreaking ending, and you see how it never could have ended any other way. It brought me to tears. This was a beautiful book, which I loved and would certainly recommend.

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Ashley E wrote this review Friday, December 23, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“A chance pick up at the library led to a great YA find. Will and his twin brother Berk are the sons of Hayli, the Compassionate Director of the Dominion of the Americas. The world is barely recognizable from the world we live in. In this utopian world, people only get married when they’re old, babies are created and born in labs, as is food, and a person’s ration of pleasure stamps are used for virtual travel and sex (neither of which occurs other than virtually). As a new government intern, Will leaves the area for the first time with a girl named Leora. However, he becomes incredibly sick and stuck in Leora’s colony until he is better. He finds out some life changing things about Leora and, more importantly, himself. This book is worth it if just for the ending. It’s an enjoyable utopian fiction and I’d recommend it! Good read!

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Ashley E wrote this review Saturday, August 13, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“The book is written in Christopher’s perspective. What makes this book absolutely amazing is the fact that Christopher has Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a form of autism. While Haddon claims not to have much expertise on the area, he writes with such an amazing sense of what Christopher feels and why he feels it, that I really believe that Haddon could possibly BE Christopher himself. Christopher lives with his father, as his mother is deceased, when their next door neighbor’s dog is killed. Christopher takes it upon himself to solve the murder. Throughout the book, Christopher continually pushes himself beyond his limit and to see the way he copes with his autism and these situations is truly what makes the book memorable.

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Ashley E wrote this review Saturday, August 13, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“I finally got around to reading The Phantom of the Opera and just finished it today. I last saw the 2004 film adaptation probably sometime around 2004. I hope to watch it again within the next few days. I must say I’m a bit disappointed. I remember that I liked the film, but I wasn’t too keen on the novel. Maybe some of the magic was lost in the translation from French, but the writing style left a bit to be desired. I did enjoy some of the details that made this a Gothic novel. Erik/The Phantom was much creepier in the book than I remember him being in the movie. Enough comparing the book and the movie, though. I enjoyed the premise, the plot, and the details. Had the book been written in a different style, I could have really loved it. The plot was slow at the start, which wouldn’t have been too much of a problem if there had been more detailed back story or something of the sort. Excellent story, poor execution. I would only recommend it if you’re a major fan of the movie. As a novel, it just isn’t enough for me.

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Ashley E wrote this review Saturday, August 13, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“This book made me cry. At just over 100 pages, it’s one of the best books I’ve read recently. I am officially a Steinbeck fan, though this is the first book of his I’ve read. Of Mice and Men is a tale of friendship and dreams. It’s the story of George and Lennie, two migrant ranch workers. George and Lennie travel together, going from job to job. Lennie is mentally disabled. He’s a very sweet man and has a fondness for touching soft things. George and Lennie have a dream to one day own their own little piece of land. George does his best to keep Lennie safe and quiet. Lennie is immediately an extremely likable character. The way that Steinbeck brings you into George and Lennie’s life and dreams and makes you care for them in such a short amount of time is truly amazing. I would certainly recommend this.

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Ashley E wrote this review Saturday, August 13, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is about an 80-something-year-old widow marrying a 30-something-year-old woman who wants her visa to live in England instead of Ukraine. The widow’s two daughters are wholly against this marriage and work together (after not speaking to each other since their mother’s funeral two years earlier) to save their father. It started off with some potential, but by the middle of the book I was already bored with Nadia and Vera trying to get rid of Valentina. I enjoyed the parts where Nadia and Vera’s relationship grew and changed and where Nadia learned things about their family’s past. However, Valentina and that whole plot line became way too comic for me. I wish Lewycka would’ve delved more into the family’s past. So, overall I guess it was okay. I finished it anyway. However, I wouldn’t recommend it.

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Ashley E wrote this review Saturday, August 13, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Watership Down is a book that kind of grows on you over time. This took me quite a while to read, since the beginning felt so slow to me. However, eventually I really cared about the characters, the plot, etc. Watership Down is unique in that it is a book about rabbits. Hazel and his brother Fiver decide to leave their warren (basically a city of rabbits) because Fiver has a kind of premonition-esque bad feeling. The book tells the tale of them leaving their old warren and eventually establishing a new one. What makes this book so remarkable is the way Adams took something well-known (ie:rabbits) and created an entire world. They have a mythology, a language, a hierarchy. It’s an entire culture in itself. It’s this, probably more than the plot, that makes this book a good read. Throughout the book, the characters tell stories centering around their mythology. They use their own idioms and have words in their own language for things. Adams creates an entire world, right under our noses. The characters are also a big part of what makes this book worthwhile. Bigwig, the tough, brave warrior of the group, immediately becomes likable. I also enjoyed Blackberry’s character for his wit and intelligence in comparison to the other rabbits. So, in conclusion, while it takes a while for the story to get into gear, it does eventually become worth reading. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, since it’s hard to get into. However, for the persistent readers, it’s a good read.

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Ashley E wrote this review Saturday, August 13, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“I was rather disappointed with this book. I’ve read other books by Coelho, but this one just fell short of the mark. The Devil and Miss Prym is a quick read. It’s one that makes you think, I’ll give it that. However, the plot isn’t the greatest. A stranger walks into the small town of Viscos hoping to find if people are good or evil. To do this, he hides eleven bars of gold and tells the people of the village that if they murder one person they can have it. Miss Prym, or Chantal as she is called for almost the entirety of the book, is an unwilling accomplice in all this. The book itself hopes to shed light on the same question the stranger puts to the people of Viscos. Personally, I think the philosophical part of the book comes off as rushed and kind of translucent. While I like Coelho, I didn’t really care for this book. I wouldn’t recommend it.

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Ashley E wrote this review Saturday, August 13, 2011. ( reply | permalink )