Sunday, January 22, 2012

"Elsewhere" by Gabrielle Zevin


 
Reading Hammock’s Rating:
3 out of 5
Category:
Fiction
Fiction Genre:
Fantasy
Title:
Elsewhere
Author:
Gabrielle Zevin
Author Website:
ISBN-10:
0312367465
ISBN-13:
978-0312367466
Publication Date:
May, 2007
Publisher:
Square Fish
Format:
Paperback | Hardcover | Audio | Digital





Synopsis:

Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere’s museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatric practice.

Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?

This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

My review:

I have wanted to read this book for a while since many people in my grade have read and loved it.  When my library finally had it available, I immediately picked it up, expecting a fast paced story that would be hard to put down.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

One aspect of the story that I found hard to look past was the tense that Zevin decided to use.  Although I have never focused on this until now, most books I have read are written in the past tense, but Zevin made the choice to write “Elsewhere” in the present tense, which made it hard for me to concentrate on the story. 

In the first half of the novel, Zevin did a great job of showing and describing Liz’s struggle to fit into ‘Elsewhere.’  But, I felt that the bulk of the story happened quickly in the last hundred pages of the three hundred pages in this book.  I would have liked learning more about Liz’s entire afterlife and less of the over-dramatic difficulties Liz faced when she arrived.  I was disappointed with the story because it lacked in action and was overwhelmed with too many emotions. 

Despite the adulation my cohorts, I would not recommend that you pick up this novel because it has an unbalanced amount of action and drama that made the plot too complex to fit into such a short story.  

Monday, January 2, 2012

The Crystal Princess By Kimberly Norton



Reading Hammock’s Rating:
5 out of 5
Category:
Fiction
Fiction Genre:
Fantasy
Title:
The Crystal Princess
Author:
Kimberly Norton (@witchofcrystal)
Author Website:
ISBN-10:
1617395471
ISBN-13:
9781617395475
Publication Date:
February 2011
Publisher:
Tate Publishing (@TatePublishing)
Format:
Paperback | Digital




Synopsis:

Kelly lives the life of a typical teen in the suburbs of Southern California with her football star boyfriend and loyal best friend. It's her senior year, and she's looking forward to her eighteenth birthday. But her life totally changes when she's abducted by her birth family, a family she didn't even know existed. Meeting her mother and two sisters for the first time is almost too much for her to handle. Kelly learns she is a witch born from a coven of witches with special powers. She's called back to help her family fight the evil, power-hungry witch, Victoria, and the Wizard Council, who want to destroy all that Kelly's family holds dear before the Immortality Ceremony, a ceremony that will seal the girls' fate and powers for all eternity. To make things even more complicated, Kelly falls in love with an Indian named Max White Bear. But because of a longstanding tradition, their relationship is a hard sell to the chief of the Indian tribe. With the war between good and evil looming, Kelly must find the strength to harness her magical powers and summon The Crystal Princess inside her. Kimberly Norton lives in the foothills of California, with her husband and two young children. She volunteers at her children's school, and her spare time is devoted to her passion for writing.

My review:

I was very pleased to review a copy of “The Crystal Princess” by Kimberly Norton.  This story is about a typical teenage girl, Kelly, who has just started her senior year.  The day before her eighteenth birthday, Kelly’s birth family kidnap her, turning her life upside down.  It is soon revealed to Kelly that she is a witch and must learn to use her powers to fight against the evil witch, Victoria, who yearns to destroy Kelly’s entire family.

Since this is a short book, only 121 pages, Norton carefully crafted each page.  She quickly dives into the story and starts the action within the first twenty pages.  This face-paced quality is maintained throughout the story with Norton’s frequent use of dialogue.  The main character, Kelly, is a very three dimensional person, as Norton’s casual writing style brings the reader into Kelly’s thoughts.  I also loved the cover of this book, as it not only appeals to Norton’s audience of Young Adult readers but also incorporates important figures from the story, in an interesting way. 

I am looking forward to reading more great books by up-and-coming author Kimberly Norton.  I would recommend this book to everyone, especially to the readers that like fantasy and discovery novels.