2012 Challenges

I am trying to read more books than ever this year, so I have joined three different reading challenges:
I am also going to read and review 12 new young adult authors!

I am also going to reread all the Harry Potter books! (which will take me about a day...)

I am, finally, also going to read 25 more books by new authors (which may coincide with my debut author challenge just a little bit...)

There You'll Find Me

I loved this book for several reasons. 1) It takes place in Ireland, so I am trying to convince my parents that I simply must do my blog adventure-ing for this novel there. 2) The main character's name is Finley, which is just kinda a cool name. 3) Finley doesn't like the whole vampire craze either, just like me. 4) Finley falls in love with a vampire actor anyways, which kinda disproves number 3, but the vampire actor doesn't really like vampires either, so I guess it is okay.
Okay, here is the synopsis: Finley's brother died, and she wants to become close to him again, so she goes to one of his favorite places in the world, Ireland. Somehow, she manages to sit next to teen heartthrob, Beckett Rush (stupid name, I know.) Even though she is cold and distant with him, he finds her attitude refreshing and decides to help her find all the places her brother went to. You can kinda guess what happened with that. Still, it was a refreshing novel that makes you want to laugh and cry, but definitely reaffirms your faith in both God and love. A must read and a 5/5 star-er.

Incarceron

It is a living, breathing prison. It is built to save humanity and create a utopia. But it failed. Only one person has survived, while the rest live out their lives in sadness. It is, Incarceron!
I know, it sounds like some commercial for some sort of bad horror film, but it was good. Finn was born inside the prison, but was convinced that he came from the outside. Claudia is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron. She is determined to escape an arranged marriage to the horrible prince, and to learn more about the supposed utopia. By chance, Claudia and Finn meet. Claudia is determined to help Finn and his friends out because she believes that he is the lost prince and her first fiance. Finn simply wants to save as many people as possible and get out of the horrible prison. But the prison has ideas of it's own, and is determined to let nobody leave.
Author Catherine Fisher wrote an engaging and creative novel (I mean, come on. How many other LIVING PRISONS have been created?) While it may have slowed down at parts (which are quite easy to skim over) it still had you excited to find out what would happen to Finn and his friends at the end.
This is where the biggest problem was in the book.
It is a series.
I am not against series at all (I mean, I am a complete and utter Potterhead) but there are some books that are simply not good for series-dom. This was one of those books that you just want to read, be done with and think, oh, that was nice. I like the way that ended, even if it was a little too perfect. What you do not want to do is have to read another 400 page novel to find out that everything ended perfectly... It wasn't that good. So, if you are up for a cliff hanger ending, read it. It still gets 4/5 stars as a stand alone book. But if we are going for books destined for major series-dom, it only gets 3/5 stars. On a good day.

The Handmaid's Tale

I am not going to spend a lot of time on this book either for one simple reason:
It sucked.
I am also not one to use language like that, but sometimes, you just have to be brutally honest.
Do not read at all costs.
Thank you.
1 star.

The Importance of Being Earnest

I am not going to write a super long review for this book, simply because it is a play that I had to read for AP Language, but I still believe that it deserves some recognition. So let me sum it up in one word: funny. I was expecting absolutely nothing good from this book, just because the author, Oscar Wilde, seemed like kind of a jerk from what we watched about him on TV, but it was surprisingly clever and funny. I'm not going to say much about the plot, because it is a 30 page book and therefore something you could quickly read while eating your cereal in the morning, plus the plot is confusing to explain, and would either make your heads spin, or give away too much of the story. However, it is deserving of 4/5 stars (one taken away because Wilde is a jerk.) I am also not going to do any adventure-ing for this book either, because I believe that reading the play in a bad English accent, watching the movie on Oscar Wilde, watching the Colin Firth-ed movie on this play, and writing an essay that is almost as long as the book, counts for more than enough adventure-ing. So cheerio and Firth on. 

Explosion

So I have decided to just have an explosion of book reviews, since I have been reading a lot but am also contained to my home so there is a limited amount of adventure-ing aloud for me. So here it goes...
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian:
Okay, before I get down to it, I'm just going to say that this book is absolutely hilarious. Sure, a few people die, and sure it shows just how much it stinks to live on an Indian reservation. But the protagonist, Junior, takes it all in a comical light. I wasn't expecting much from a young adult book with pictures in it, but this book just shows how stuck up I can be. He was born with "water on the brain," which results in a wide variety of medical issues and the taunts of his fellow Indians. But when he grows tired of life on the rez and decides to go to the white-person school, he still endures taunting. So his life is just going great. It may sound like a weird plot, but author Sherman Alexie brings this all together into a funny and outstanding novel. I'm just gonna take a star away because there are perhaps a few too many inappropriate jokes, which is fine for some, but just not my style. So 4/5 stars and read it peeps.
Just to show what this book is like, I'm going to show a picture from the book:

YEAH!

Dear People who may not be in the know,
JK Rowling is going to release a new book. In her statement, she said:
“Although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world.” 
I find this an extremely bittersweet moment. Rowling is writing another book, but it is not another Potter book... Even if she did write another Potter book, it probably wouldn't be about Harry, which is another depressing factor. His story is done, and while we have no clue what this one will be about, there still isn't that same excitement that the last book brought to us diehard fans. Plus, as I am still underage (no care, and parents who enjoy sleeping at night), I have never had the opportunity to go to a midnight release. While I can still go to the release of this book, I probably will not be able to dress up in my wizard's robes. I feel like, while this is a fresh and exciting moment, it symbolizes that Harry's world is truly and 100%-ly over and done. Something that I have been denying for 5 years. Regardless, let us hope that Ms Rowling's book is released later this year, and it matches the same beauty that the Potter books did.
Potter on,
Alissa

Ship Breaker

Since I'm snowed in for the weekend, I fear that the adventuring will be put on a hold for a little bit. But I do have a ton of books to review, so I'll just get that out of the way first.
Ship Breaker. Umm... yeah. So this kid Nailer has kinda a stinky life having to tear through ships looking for scrap metal, and then he finds this swank girl on a ship, and is about to cut off her fingers thinking that she is dead so he could get her expensive rings and well, she wasn't dead.
Awkward.
So Nailer helps this swank girl Nita, and they go on this adventure, and then, well, that's it. That is pretty much all I can say without giving away the whole story.

So while I might be writing this in a slightly scathing and sarcastic tone, it was well written. The plot was a little slow, but it was interesting and the exciting parts where maybe too much so. It is worth the read despite the slow middle part. So, um, yeah read it. 3/5 stars and all.

Hmmm....

I'll admit that I'm kinda cheating on this one. I honestly had no idea what to do for Grimm Legacy unless I want to go to NYC and take out a flying carpet or some such thing from the library (which I DO want to do, but there are certain things preventing me from doing this, like how I don't have a car.) So I decided, they have this whole thing where they turn royalty into dolls (bizarre, I know) and when I was little I thought that I was a princess, so couldn't that count for this? Well I think it does.

I am awesome.

The Grimm Legacy

I just realized that I read this book a while ago, but never posted anything about it... Oops!
I really liked this book, mainly because I just have such a soft spot for Grimm fairytales. I don't really know why either, they are all so gory... Did you know that they cut off Cinderella's stepsister's toes? Creepy... Anyways, this book was interesting regardless. Elizabeth Rew, who feels lonely in the midst of a new step family, is ecstatic when she gets a job at a library at the New York Circulating Material Respiratory. However, instead of lending out boring ol' books, they lend out items, including items that were once owned by the Brothers Grimm. Of course, one person starts to create havoc with a Grimm item, and an adventure ensue. Polly Shulman (the author) has written an interesting and fun novel that is definately worth the read (or maybe that is just my nerdy librarian side talking who wants to now work in the Grimm item checkout). Regardless, this book gets 4/5 stars.

For the measure,  I find this line on the cover: "Borrow the magic... If you dare!" really cheesy. Just sayin.