Showcase Sunday 26. Bargain books.

Hosted by: Books, biscuits and tea.

I feel good, because I haven't requested any books from Netgalley! I'm currently trying to read all the e-ARCS I have and I want to continue reading my own TBR-pile. I couldn't resist buying these books though, because of their bargain prices.

Neal Shusterman - Unwind.

Lisa Shearin - Magic lost, trouble found.

Kristin Cashore - Graceling. 

Jim C. Hines - The stepsister scheme, part 1.

Jim C. Hines - The mermaid's madness, part 2.

Jim C. Hines - Red Hood's revenge, part 3.

Jim C. Hines - The snow queen's shadow, part 4.

Review 144. Francesca Lia Block – The rose and the beast.

Title: The rose and the beast: fairytales retold.
Author: Francesca Lia Block.
Pages: 229.
Published: August 7th 2001 (first published September 19th 2000)
Publisher: Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins Publishers
Sort: Stand-alone.

With language that is both lyrical and distinctly her own, Francesca Lia Block turns nine fairy tales inside out. Escaping the poisoned apple, Snow frees herself from possession to find the truth of love in an unexpected place. A club girl from L.A., awakening from a long sleep to the memories of her past, finally finds release from its curse. And Beauty learns that Beasts can understand more than men. Within these singular, timeless landscapes, the brutal and the magical collide, and the heroine triumphs because of the strength she finds in a pen, a paintbrush, a lover, a friend, a mother, and finally, in herself.

Rating: 

The only reason why I managed to read this book was because of the shortness of the stories. I kept hoping that one of them was good, but I was disappointed by all. The first story is by far the best one. It’s a retelling of Snow White and it’s the only one with a fairytale feeling. There is still something strange going on, because her mother’s new husband is the one who awakes her with a kiss..

The one from Beauty and the Beast wasn’t that bad either (otherwise I would have been very sad). Beauty is starting to turn into a beast and when he is starting to change into a human, she is a bit disappointed. That was a fun twist.

All the others were strange and not what I expected. There are several stories about rape, there is one with a drug addiction; not really stories you would expect in a fairytale retelling. It’s so harsh and realistic. I want magic, faeries, romance – hell, I even want instant-love. There is no fun in a retelling where Sleeping Beauty is made addicted to opium and where she is used by several men at the same time for pornographic photos. That is just wrong in my eyes and it doesn’t do justice to the real story.

Another thing that also bothered me was the fact that there are no quotation marks. It’s very confusing and I was sometimes lost in the conversations. The only positive thing I can think of is that I like the cover. It’s a shame that it doesn’t match the inside. The high ratings on Goodreads are a mystery to me.. And I don't think I will be reading anything from this author soon.

Feature & Follow (20)

Hosted by: Alison can read.

Q:Tell us about the most emotional scene you’ve ever read in a book – and how did you react?

After reading this question, I immediately thought of 3 different scenes that broke my heart.

1. The death of a character I grew to love in The Book Thief from Markus Zusak. Everybody who has read this book; I think you know who I'm talking about.
2. SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T READ HP (and if that is you, go read it!) The death of Severus Snape, my all time favorite character from Harry Potter from J.K Rowling. WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME, ROWLING? :'( And his chapters are gorgeous.

3. The ending from Tiger Lily from Jodi Lynn Anderson, especially the letter from Peter Pan to Tiger Lily. I knew how it would end, but I didn't want it to happen.

I cried on the inside and I was close in real crying, because I definitely had tears in my eyes :p I'm so weak sometimes. The next thing I did was talking about these scenes to everbody - several times. I think I drove my sister and boyfriend nuts, haha.

So, leave a link to your answer! :)

Review 143. Dan Wells – Partials.

Title: Partials.
Author: Dan Wells.
Pages: 468.
Published: February 28th 2012.
Publisher: Balzer + Bray.
Sort: Part one of ‘Partials Sequence’

The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials--engineered organic beings identical to humans--has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out. Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what's left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she's not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them--connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.

Rating:

Finally a dystopian book with a good world-building. We get a lot of background story without an information dump. The world slowly unravels in the book and I liked how believable it was. The human race is dying after the war against the Partials and the release of the RM virus. Only a part of the human race was immune and they are together on Long Island where they live with the constant treat of attack from Partials or the resistance group called The Voice.

Top 10 Tuesday (28)

This meme is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.

This weeks topic is:

Review 142. Debbie Viguié – Scarlet Moon.

Title: Scarlet moon; A retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood.”
Author: Debbie Viguié.
Pages: 176.
Published: April 6th 2004.
Publisher: Simon Pulse.
Sort: Part of the ‘Once upon a time’ series.

Ruth's grandmother lives in the forest, banished there for the "evil" that the townsfolk believed she practiced. But if studying the stars, learning about nature, and dreaming of flying is evil, then Ruth is guilty of it too. Whenever Ruth took food and supplies to her grandmother, she would sit with the old woman for hours, listening and learning. When she wasn't in the woods, Ruth was learning the trade of her father, a blacksmith, now that her brother would never return from the Crusades. Amidst those dark days, a new man enters Ruth's life. William is a noble with a hot temper and a bad name, and he makes her shiver. But the young man is prey to his heritage, a curse placed on his family ages ago, and each male of the family has strange blood running in his veins. Now Ruth must come face-to-face with his destiny at Grandma's house. 

Rating:

Oh man, this was disappointing. Red Riding Hood is a great concept, but Viguié didn’t do this tale any justice. The story has no real point; it seemed so useless. We know the identity of the wolf from the beginning (it’s already told in the blurb) and the ending is so lame!