Review: HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE by J. K. Rowling

Rating: 5/5 stars

I would love to write a proper review for this book (and for every book in the series), but I don't even know what to say that hasn't already been said. It's just a downright good story.

I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when I was in seventh or eighth grade, but I didn't remember a thing about the story, and I didn't get past the second book then anyway, so I don't really count it as having read the book then. When I was a sophomore/junior in college, I decided it was time to actually read the whole series, so that's when I officially read it for the first time. And now, a few years later, I wanted to read the whole series again.

I was really in the mood for a reread of the Harry Potter series because they're the perfect books to read as it starts to get cold outside. This time around I am listening to the audiobooks narrated by Jim Dale, and I am amazed at his narration. He is very engaging to listen to, and his voices for Hagrid and Dumbledore sound exactly like they do in the movies. I really enjoyed this first one read by him, and I look forward to listening to the other six books on audio as well.

I forgot how much actually happened in this book. I've seen the movie so many times that when something happened in the book that wasn't in the movie, I was shocked that I had forgotten that. But there really is so much going on in this first book that I'm amazed it's not longer.

I love how in-depth the story is. I remember my first time reading this series a few years ago, and I was truly in awe of how well the story was concocted. Little details here and there set up the plot for the whole series, so when the book ended, I was hooked and wanting to know everything. Rowling's writing is not the best in this first book, and I can see that now that I've read all seven Harry Potter books and many more books in general, but I didn't mind at all. I just noticed that there was a lot of exposition and explanation instead of dialogue in places, especially in the beginning, but of course she had to give background and set up the whole world.

One thing I love about the Harry Potter books is that they have that classical, old magic and are set in a castle, but the story is also modern and set in today's age on earth. In my opinion, the setting of Hogwarts still being around in present-day England but just invisible to the muggles makes the story seem really relatable. Like Hogwarts could actually be there. I love when magical and fantastical elements in stories are believable, and I think that's one of the main reasons I first connected to Harry Potter as a fantasy series. It was the first fantasy series I read, now that I think about it, and it was my gateway drug into fantastical literature because that's my favorite genre now.

I know I will always treasure this series, even though I was late to the game and didn't read it when I was younger like everyone else my age did. I don't regret waiting until I was twenty-years-old to read it, but I do deeply wish that I hadn't known how the whole series ended before I started. Either way, it's still an excellent and timeless story.

Review: WHITE SAND, VOL. 1 by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 4/5 stars

I read an excerpt of White Sand in Arcanum Unbounded earlier this year and fell in love with the story. I couldn’t wait to read the full-length graphic novel adaption.

In Arcanum Unbounded, the panels were just black and white, but in this actual graphic novel, there are full-color illustrations. The art style is not my favorite—it’s rather gruff—but every image is very detailed, which I can appreciate.

At first, I thought I was going to give this book five stars—it’s a Sanderson book, after all, and I absolutely loved the beginning. But after I got into reading more of the story, I was left wanting more. Some of the details surrounding how the world is set up and how the sand magic works and how the Daysiders are different from the Darksiders seemed like it was missing to me. I would read the last panel on a page, and then the next panel on the next page started with “two days later” or “days passed” or something like that, and it felt like the dialogue was cut off mid-conversation and part of the story was missing.

I am disappointed that I feel this way because I absolutely love this world and its magic system, but I think the feeling of missing something comes with the territory of reading a graphic novel.

White Sand was originally a fairly lengthy prose novel. It’s an unpublished work of Sanderson’s, but it is the where this story comes from. If I read the actual novel, with all the descriptions and details included in the prose, plus with all of the minor side-plots and conversations that naturally get omitted from the graphic translation, I do not think I would feel like anything was missing; I think I would enjoy the novel more than the graphic novel. I will have to read it to find out, though.

I think White Sand is a very strong story nonetheless, and I look forward to reading the other volumes. (Part of me wonders if I should read the prose novel first so as not to spoil myself.) In my opinion, this story would make an amazing movie because of how the sand magic would come to life. I hope someday it (or anything by Sanderson) becomes a movie for the world to enjoy.

Review: NIGHTFALL by Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski

Rating: 2/5 stars

I decided on this audiobook because I wanted an October-themed read, and I guess this was technically one, but it wasn’t really what I was expecting and it didn’t satisfy my desire for a spooky book. It wasn’t scary at all and it had only minor suspense elements, but it does take place almost primarily during Night in the forest with strange creatures.

Marin, Kana, and Line are from the island of Bliss, which gets 14 years of sunlight and then 14 years of Night. That concept alone was intriguing enough to get me to read the book, but it’s not really what the book’s about.

The sun is setting and it is almost Night, and the inhabitants must leave the island and travel to the desert for safety. Just as the boats are about to set sail, Line goes missing, and Marin and Kana go into the forest in search of him. It is not hard to guess that the trio gets left behind and has to survive Night on the island, presumably for fourteen years, until everyone comes back.

This book had its creepy and mysterious moments, but something was just missing. It felt like a mixture of Midwinterblood and Bird Box, and I frequently thought of both those books while reading this one.

I was mostly enjoying the story until about halfway through when I started to lose interest because everything started to turn toward paranormal elements, and it honestly felt like a cop-out to me. Like there was no way to explain certain events without introducing these inhuman creatures. And I didn’t like that. I don’t really like paranormal or supernatural stories, especially when they catch me off guard. I didn’t know this book was going to be that way prior to starting it, so I was a little disappointed when it happened.

I almost always don’t like supernatural creatures in stories because they are never explained well enough. Where did these things come from anyway? The people have lived on Bliss for fourteen years yet have never seen the creatures? We found out where they were hiding all that time, but it just seems so improbable that neither race would run into the other in all those years.

Another thing that disappointed me was that I expected the characters to not be able to see at all when it became Night on the island—it would be pitch black darkness. But there’s a moon. And they can kind of see. So that made the story a little more lackluster because it lowered the stakes for them. Have you ever run around in complete blackness, no moon or sliver of light at all? It’s terrifying. You have no idea which way anything is, no depth perception. You have to rely completely on your other senses to get you where you’re going. And I kind of thought that’s how this story would be—and it would have been cool to listen to on audio because I could lie in bed and close my eyes to imagine myself in their place. But it wasn’t like that. The characters can see and they describe things they’re seeing all the time, even if their vision is rather poor during Night.

Also, this story was told from a third-person omniscient perspective, which can make it difficult to keep track of who’s thinking what or who’s saying what at times. Because of this, I did feel a bit detached from the characters throughout the story.

Overall, Nightfall was not what I was expecting or hoping for, so it was ultimately disappointing and forgettable to me. But I don’t think it was a bad book; it just didn’t live up to my expectations. I would still encourage you to read it if it sounds interesting to you, but now you might have a better idea of the minor details that mattered to me and how they were presented in the story.

The best part of the book, in my opinion, was the song included at the end of the audiobook called “The Other Side of Me” by Celia Rose. The lyrics sounded like she wrote them based on this book, which is pretty neat.

Review: JACKED UP by Erica Sage

Rating: 3/5 stars

I was a little nervous starting this book for two reasons: 1) my favorite teacher wrote it so I obviously wanted to love it, and 2) I was worried it was going to be rather sacrilegious, in which case I knew I wouldn’t love it.

Jacked Up is about fifteen-year-old Nick, who is having trouble coping with his sister’s suicide and who is haunted by the ghost of Jack Kerouac. His parents try to help him grieve by sending him to a Christian church camp for a week. There is a box at the camp where people put their confessions and their darkest secrets. Nick slips in a secret, one he didn’t even want to write down in the first place, and later that day the box gets stolen. Worried his confession will be revealed, Nick sets out to find who stole the box and retrieve his slip of paper.

The writing is great: funny and descriptive and interesting. And the plot of Nick grieving for his sister’s death and being sent to a religious summer camp (and the messages that us readers get from Nick’s experience) was enjoyable too. But I didn’t really care for the actual camp itself.

That is my only real criticism of the book—how the church camp was portrayed and what kinds of activities happened there. I think the point was that it be outrageously absurd, but I was still really bothered by it. I was very suspicious of that camp because it seemed pretty unrealistic to me: kids dressing up as prostitutes and lepers from the Bible, kids watching a Jesus character perform magic tricks (it is deeply disrespectful to dress up and pretend to perform miracles like Jesus, by the way, and I would be so offended if I saw this at camp), kids playing with Ouija boards, kids carrying literal crosses for their sins (!?), and kids shunning Nick for liking Harry Potter because it’s “satanic.” We’ve had Harry Potter-themed events at my (somewhat conservative) church camp before, so Nick being asked to use his Harry Potter towel “wrong side out” seems overly drastic to me. In fact, the six years I went to church camp were vastly different from Nick’s experience, and it was always a positive environment for me. I think a lot of what happened at Nick’s church camp is, frankly, wrong, but I have no idea if it is a realistic portrayal of some kind of church camp out there or if it has been exaggerated for the book; I can compare only my own experiences. Regardless, I enjoyed the whole camp experience better if I looked at it as a parody on modern devout Christians and how every Christian that comments on the hypocrisy in the church and then says “I’m not judging you” is, in fact, actually a hypocrite that’s secretly judging you.

Something I think a lot of people nowadays, especially Christians (and many of the characters in this book), don’t understand is that Christ loved everyone, and to be a true follower of Christ, we should also love everyone. Judging someone for this or that or deciding that someone is going to hell is wrong and that’s not our decision to make. Only God, who can see a person’s heart, mind, and desires, can truly make that judgment call.

I am glad that Nick sees all the irony and hypocrisy at the camp, and he outwardly notices it and questions it many times, which I greatly appreciated. Those kinds of problems should never go unquestioned.

I thought Nick was a great protagonist in this story. He has to make some hard decisions and we see how he changes because of his choices. And I love that he is obsessed with grammar. I want to see more characters like him in books because actually knowing how to properly use English is so underrated these days.

One of the funniest parts of Jacked Up is when the campers rewrote modern rap songs to be religious. I definitely liked “I like big Bibles and I cannot lie.” The other funniest part was that one scene with way too many donkey jokes that just kept coming. I was actually tearing up from laughter.

I liked the pages in every chapter that had the confessions on them because it gave us more perspective into each of the characters’ lives, and it helped me to sympathize with some of the more unlikeable characters. You can tell that Mrs. Sage has spent a lot of time around teens because the characters’ personalities felt authentic, and the jokes and comments they made were relevant.

I have not read On the Road by Jack Kerouac, but I’d be curious to see if there are any parallels between it and Jacked Up because both Jack and his book play huge rolls in this story.

Overall, Jacked Up is a funny book that delves into some deep topics and ultimately shares an important message about overcoming our battles and not letting the world define us. I think it would be an excellent book for the right audience. I, however, do not believe I was quite the right audience, but only because of my religious sensitivity. I still enjoyed the story though! Honestly, the longer I read the book the more I liked it. And I loved the ending. Nick overcomes issues that have been burdening him for a long time, and so do other campers, and it’s really nice to see the resolution.

“You know how they say eyes are the window to the soul and all that? For me, art is like the door out of my soul. It’s safe to come out that way.”

P.S.: Mrs. Sage, I love you, and you’ve always been my favorite and most influential teacher. I can’t wait to see what books you will write in the future. It is so awesome you were able to tell the story you wanted and get it published for all the world to read, and I’m glad I had the chance to read it.

Review: AN ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE THING by Hank Green

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I knew right from the first paragraph—the first sentence, even—that this was going to be an amazing book. The first sentence sets the tone for the whole story and establishes a very distinct voice for Hank Green, or rather, for April May, one that was so relatable and casual and honest and hilarious.

I honestly had no idea what this book was about when I started it. I only picked it up to read it for the book club at my work, and I really can’t say if I would have read it otherwise or not. I like John Green’s books, but that doesn’t mean his brother’s books are going to be anything similar. While this had both some similarities and some differences from John’s style, I am so glad I read it because I had a downright great time.

April May (that name cracks me up, but I think that’s the point) is a twenty-three-year-old fine arts grad that is just trying to survive in New York City when, one night, she walks by a massive metal statue of a Transformer in samurai armor standing on the sidewalk. She decides that she and her friend Andy need to document it for YouTube. Not expecting anything to come of the video, they go to sleep, only to wake up to sudden internet fame. April May and Andy were the first to discover a Carl, one of sixty-four metal statues that have suddenly appeared in major cities all over the world. The duo decides to embrace this newfound fame as they investigate these new marvels and what their purpose is.

At first, I thought this was a young adult book because I just assumed that Hank would write young adult books like his brother, John, does. But it’s not, really. While the plot is one I could see being in a young adult novel because of its whimsy and adventure, the characters are all graduated from college and in their early twenties. There’s also quite a bit of profanity in here, more than I normally see in young adult, so I guess this is an adult novel after all; however, I think it’s one that readers both young and old would enjoy. Like this book is a great transition into adult books if you read only YA because it still has that young adult feel. The story reads like a contemporary but it’s technically a sci-fi. I think this book would also be a good transition into the more fantastical genres for people who read mostly contemporary because it does feel mostly like a contemporary to me but still has many science fiction elements.

The story was slightly unrealistic at times as far as the convenience that surrounded April: different pieces of the mystery kept falling into her lap as far as fame, money, and people go. It almost felt a little too easy at times, but I’m going to ignore this fact because of how good the overall story was.

I got the feeling that what Green was trying to communicate in his debut novel was his own thoughts and feelings about the prevalence and impact of the social internet and the importance of worldwide collaborative efforts to make a difference in our society. He brings up some very real issues in this story: how fame changes us, how money influences decisions, how hatred spreads so easily online, and how the act of people working together can accomplish something huge. I also got the impression that April May’s experience with internet fame is similar to Hank Green’s own experience, just based on how she was written; it seemed like he was trying to discreetly share some of his struggles with us in a way that will help us better understand him along with other internet-famous people. The book did feel a tiny bit preachy at times. It didn’t bother me, but I did notice it. Again, though, I’m going to ignore this because I really enjoyed the story and the message (even if it was slightly overdone).

The dreams were definitely my favorite parts of the story. [SPOILERS IN ITALICS: I love the idea of a contagious dream, one that you can control and solve clues in. Sign me up! It reminds me a lot of a full-dive virtual reality game (see: Ready Player One), which I’ve always wanted to experience. But I never even been able to have a lucid dream, so there’s probably no hope for me.]

Another piece of this book that I loved was the multimedia aspect that I think enhances any story so much, consisting of tweets, email transcripts, video transcripts, and text messages.

I think Miranda was my favorite character because of her utter nerdiness (I struggled to understand what she was saying half of the time), and I also really enjoyed Andy. I thought April May was a good lead character, but she was an anti-hero of sorts. She made lots of morally grey decisions that led me to ask lots of questions about humanity and the price of fame, etc. Sometimes I couldn’t decide if I should root for April or groan at her or sigh in disbelief at what she was doing.

[SPOILERS IN ITALICS: The only part of this book I didn’t like was the unbelievability of some of it. Not the whole space-aliens-have-invaded-earth bit, but the part where some of the Carls’ clues revolve around popular American music. I mean, these things aren’t even from our planet, and they’ve appeared in major cities across the whole globe, so why is it American music that they use as their clues? Why not a popular Spanish song or Russian song? (I’m aware the song-clues are from English and Canadian artists, but they are still songs that were popular in America, the “dominant” country of the world. I just think it would have been cool to include popular songs that the white populous of the world wouldn’t know but another huge portion of people would.) The whole book feels very American, but it was supposed to be about something happening worldwide. I think maybe that was an oversight on the part of the author.]

There were also some clues that were just too simple or convenient, and that made the story lose a bit of credibility for me. I don’t like when part of the plot seems unrealistic within the boundaries of the world. I have explained before and I’ll say it again that I like stories to be believable within their own realms. You can get as crazy as you want, but once something happens and you just chalk it up to “this is sci-fi; anything can happen” without giving sufficient explanation and background, I’ve lost interest. On top of that, this story was downright weird. I mean it was a good weird, but weird nonetheless. (In the author’s note, Hank does say he wanted to write a book about “a cascade of weirdness that just kept getting weirder,” and I’d say he succeeded.)

I would be very surprised if Hank didn’t write a sequel after that ending [SPOILERS IN ITALICS: when April finally comes back. Where was she all this time and what happened to her? Obviously, Hank Green knows the answers to these questions. Then there’s also the fact that Carl told April, “Your story just started, April May.” What is the story she has to tell? I’m a little disappointed in how vague and unresolved the ending was as far as the Carls go—we still don’t know hardly anything about them or why they chose April for their plan or what that plan is.] I don’t know if I necessarily want a sequel because I prefer standalone novels (and I thought this was a standalone), but I would still be interested in reading another story about the future of April May and Andy and, possibly, Carl.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a purely enjoyable and entertaining novel. I had such a fun time with all these characters as they tried to figure out the mystery behind the Carls. I definitely recommend checking out Hank Green’s debut, and I think he’s an author to keep an eye on in the future. I am very happy that I decided to read this book, and it ultimately brought up a lot of issues in the world today and started an important discussion about them. It’s a novel that left me thinking about its messages hours after I read the last page, and I think that’s the mark of a good book.