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Showing posts from 2014

Maze Runner Movie: Review and Thoughts

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Tyler and I went with some friends to see Maze Runner yesterday. Obviously, there will be spoilers below. So....the movie overall was a pretty good adaptation, but it was just that, an adaptation. The main points of the book were kept, but the details were changed a bit to cater to the people who have not read the book to save time and keep things simple. The Glade and the Maze was as described in the book and the casting was right on. Details that were not kept: Thomas and Chuck--didn't get into the relationship as much as the book Gally--not a traitor, more of a bully towards Thomas, didn't work with the Creators, blamed Thomas for everything changing (instead of Teresa) Teresa--had two vials of Griever serum with her when she came up from the Box, small part in the movie Thomas and Teresa--didn't hint at their relationship before the Maze, no mind communication The Grievers--more spider-like machines than blobs with spikes and metal arms The Griever ho

Review: Into the Still Blue

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Last book in the Under the Never Sky trilogy. This book was really good. Can't say anymore because spoilers. My rating: 9 / 10 Spoilers below. I did not think that I would be able to dislike a character as much as a certain antagonist in The Mortal Instruments series, but I have to say, Sable comes really close. If you read this book, which I hope you did since you're reading this post, you know why. All in all, the ending was really, really happy. The main characters all made it out alive, maybe somewhat emotionally damaged, but alive. Cinder, Reef, Gren, Kirra, and Hess are all dead though. (Not that I liked Kirra, but she didn't need to die.) The Outsiders, Dwellers, Horns, and Guardians are living together in Cinder, named for the boy who sacrificed himself to get through the wall of Aether. Perry killed Sable and gave up his Blood Lord title. Aria and Loran, her father, are together on the council, which governs the city. Perry and Roar are buddies again, an

Review: Through the Ever Night

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Second book in the Under the Never Sky series by Veronica Rossi. It was better than the first. My rating: 8.5 / 10 Spoilers below. The book begins with Aria going back to the Tides with Perry. Aria is planning to get Marked, only to find out part of the way through that Gray had poisoned the ink. Aria and Roar end up leaving the compound quietly to go get Liv and find out the location of Still Blue. Liv ends up dead and Sable and Hess are choosing some of their people to be evacuated to Still Blue. Perry accepts help from people that Sable sent, only to have them take Cinder to help the evacuees get through the wall of Aether that blocks Still Blue. Roar and Twig go to the Horns to get Cinder back. Aria and Perry go to Reverie to break out the people that Hess left behind. The Reverie refugees are brought back to the Tides, and it seems that there will hopefully be cooperation between the groups. Perry and Aria realize that Still Blue is located somewhere at sea and finally f

Review: Under the Never Sky

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This is going to be short because America's Got Talent is going to be on soon. I finished Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. I liked it but there were times where it felt too romance novel-y.  My rating: 7.5-8 / 10 Spoilers below. Overall, a very interesting world. A lot happened in this book. There was a lot of camping and traveling too. Aria is an Aud, someone Marked who is able to hear really well. She made a deal with Hess to find the Still Blue in exchange for Talon and Perry's safety. Perry is now the Blood Lord of the Tides after killing his brother, Vale. Perry and Aria have a thing, but there's the whole mixing blood "curse" since Perry is a Seer (enhanced sight) and a Scire (enhanced sense of smell).  Perry wants to find Still Blue so he can move his tribe there so they can be safer. We find that Vale had been selling kids to the Dwellers for their experiments and research in exchange for food, and that he had sold his own son while also

Book Review: Mortal Instruments (Dark War arc)

THIS POST CONTAINS NO SPOILERS . Something that worried me when I was looking in to reading the last three Mortal Instruments books was that everyone was saying they suck harder than a three year old does on his thumb. Of course, that should be taken with a grain of salt because something I've realized over the past year or so is that people on goodreads tend to take something as small as a mustard seed and then make it seem as huge as freaking Jupiter.  That said, I disregarded all those people and read the books over my family's traditional vacation.  Which basically means I read all three of them in a week.  Anyway, CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS seems to be the scapegoat here as it's really awkward in my opinion. It has more sidequests than a Heroes of Olympus book, and for the first good two thirds of it you have no idea where it's going. Not to mention that as some points, it seems like it's saying, "Hey, plot! Go take the back seat, it's time for can

Four: A Divergent Story Collection

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I know, I just wrote a post today. I finished Four: A Divergent Story Collection in one day. No, I don't have a problem.... This won't be a review because this book is basically a few short stories from the period of Divergent and Four's initiation told from Four's point of view. So no spoilers. It was interesting to see Four's perspective and how he thinks. The book itself seemed way too short though because I find Veronica Roth's writing to be very easy to read, so I read her books very quickly.  I shall be reading the Under the Never Sky series (I don't know the name of the series, so I shall refer to them by the title of the first book) by Veronica Rossi. ~Jasmine

Review: Where She Went

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This is the sequel to Gayle Forman's If I Stay. Okay, so I finished it, but again, I will not be rating this book because I feel like I can't even begin to understand the meaning in the words. All I could get was vaguely what was being referred to because as a reader, you have to try to understand Mia and Adam's relationship; (not sure about that semi-colon) what it was, is, and will be.  Some spoilers below. Alright, so on my copy, the little quote on the front from a reviewer says "A gorgeous portrayal of rejection and rekindled love." That right there spoils the book. You know from that that Adam and Mia will get back together because the preview at the end of If I Stay showed how Mia and Adam had gone their separate ways. At least pick a quote that doesn't give the book away. Although, the beauty of a book is not the ending, but the journey to get there. Basically all I could gather was that Mia was mad at Adam for "making" her stay. T

Review: Ruins

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So, I finally got my hands on a copy of Ruins, the third and I believe last book (but don't quote me on that) in the Partials Sequence by Dan Wells. I didn't have any new books for about a month and now I have a stack of books piled on my desk waiting to be read, so there will be more posts to come. Next I will be reading Where She Went, sequel to If I Stay, then the Under the Never Sky series/books and Four: A Divergent Collection. The order on the last two might change, we'll see. I thought Tyler or Amanda had done a review but I can't seem to find it.... My rating: 8.5 / 10 Well, I was planning to brush up on Partials and Fragments to refresh my memory before I read Ruins. The only problem is that I don't have my own copies of Partials and Fragments yet since I borrowed them from Tyler. There isn't a Wiki page made to summarize them and I didn't make any quick summaries on my review posts. So I basically started reading and had to try to remembe

Relative Book Length!

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HI CHILDREN. Something that's always bothered me (and I'm sure has bothered you) is when someone asks how long a book is and you have to describe how long it is... kind of... because you don't really know what to compare it to. So you're just like, "It's kinda long. But not really. The text is small/big and it has a lot/a little pages."  You explained your book's tragic case of length confusion for this reaction. Nice. That's to ambiguous for me.  Don't ask me how long Froi of the Exiles is. I'll hurt you. SO. I decided to crank some numbers and make something I've come to call 'Relative Book Length'. The idea is to have an 'at a glance' number that you could compare to another book's number and tell how much longer or shorter the book is.  A great idea, I have had. After some thinking about it and testing it, I've come to really like the idea. And just looking at the books I tested it o

STUCK. I'M STUCK.

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Yes. OKAY! I graduated. WHEE YAY YAY PARTY WHEE Moving on. I finished the Selection trilogy off last week and I'm just... glad it's over. But now I'm stuck in my reading process/progress. There's just SO MANY BOOKS TO READ. WHICH ONE SHALL I CHOOSE. I want to read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart BUT NOPE I AM WAIT-LISTED FOR IT IN THE LIBRARY SYSTEM AND I AM NOT PAYING $10 FOR THE KINDLE VERSION. Sooooo... kind of going in circles. But it shall be resolved. Of course, I have summer laziness combined with busyness so I'm in a constant struggle.   That's my story.   ISN'T THIS PICTURE BEAUTIFUL:      IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 YET SHAME ON YOU AND GO SEE IT. I will review it soon c: Love y'all! ~Amanda

Review: Mila 2.0 Renegade

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Review for the second book in the Mila 2.0 series (I'm not sure how many books there are going to be...) My rating: 8 / 10 There will be spoilers. What?!? You can't end the book by saying that Mila, who used to be more android than human, is now turning more human than android and has two hours before a bomb planted in her abdomen will explode. No.  Excellent cliffhanger but it's cruel. So, Mila. I was getting tired of the whole "I don't want to deal with these emotions anymore" thing. She's always talking about how she wants to feel more human and fit in. Then when it's too painful, she decides to allow Quinn, the leader of the Vita Obscura, to "upgrade" her and take away her emotions. Well, you're finally getting what you've always wanted. Lucas finds Mila abandoned in the desert and discovers that Mila's body is generating more human cells.  Hunter. I always thought that Hunter was just too nice all the time. So

Review: The Serpent's Shadow

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It took me a while longer to finish this book because I got distracted by YouTubers. I finally finished it this morning. I will try to find a copy of The Staff of Serapis. After that, I will be reading Mila 2.0 Renegade by Debra Driza. My rating: 7 / 10 Some spoilers below. Because I read bits and pieces at a time, I don't quite remember everything that happened. I know Carter and Zia are together at the Brooklyn House. I know Sadie and Walt/Anubis are also together at the Brooklyn House. Since the execration spell pushed Apophis away, the gods also had to distance themselves to keep the balance.  One thing I am definitely confused about is the Walt/Anubis thing. At the beginning, Walt begins to show signs of this new power, being able to like disintegrate things. Later we find out that this is a power of Anubis. And somewhere along the way, Sadie hears Walt being referred to as Set's son, but Set's only son is Anubis. So....Walt was channeling Anubis at the be

NAME THAT BOOK CHARACTER TAG

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I am not dead.

My last post was on my last day of school. Which was at the end of April. It's the middle of June. Why haven't I been posting? No idea. But to give you an idea of what's been happening in my life, here's what I've read since I finished Damned... City of Bones Throne of Glass Fault in Our Stars Dangerous Days of Daniel X Vanquished City of Ashes And currently in progress is this book called The 5th Wave. Next is (presumably) City of Glass, followed by either BZRK: Apocalypse or Divided, or both, depending on timing/pricing. I'm considering doing a first-impressions for 5th Wave, but that'll come later if I do it. - MechEngie

The Fault in Our Stars Movie

I just got back from seeing the movie with Tyler! I don't have much to say other than: The book was (of course) better, but the movie was still excellent :) It was tender, real, rich, engrossing, and emotional. I reallllly didn't want to cry because I've been crying for the past 2 days but I did cry nonetheless...a little. Secretly. And quietly. My mom hadn't even read the book and she cried <3 So, it was good, and you should totally go see it :) BUT ONLY IF YOU READ THE BOOK FIRST!!!!!!!!!!! That is all. ~Amanda

Review: City of Heavenly Fire

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Finished the monster of a book that is 725 pages long, also known as City of Heavenly Fire. By the Angel, IT WAS AMAZING.  Throughout my entire reading of the book, I was gasping, mumbling, raging, or near tears. Only Cassandra Clare, man. My rating: 10 / 10 Below are spoilers for the entire The Mortal Instruments series and The Infernal Devices series. This is going to be quite a long post. Just a heads up. There's a lot to say. So, from the spoilers that were released before CoHF came out, we knew that six characters we knew by name were going to die. I believe the six are as follows: Jordan, Rufus, Raphael, Maureen, Sebastian/Jonathan and one more person who I can't remember although I know I counted six before I wrote this...of course, plenty of people died. I don't think the Endarkened count though, as they weren't considered Shadowhunters anymore.  *Just to clarify, when I use Sebastian, I mean the evil son of Lilith. When I use Jonathan, I mean t

Shipping Names In Real Life

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So, my boyfriend (Tyler) and I came up with a ship name for ourselves. Tymanda. Which is totally and completely epic. But the other day, we were trying to come with up a ship name for his older brother (Nathan) and his new (and first :'D ) girlfriend (Joy). *squee* After experimenting with several options we came up with a final product. ...........*drumroll*................... Joythan. *fanfare* :D I decided to text Nathan explaining our shenanigans and his and Joy's ship name. He said that his ship would fly and shine with all of the radiance of the sun and moon combined. For some reason, the ship from Peter Pan came into my head. AND LOOK WHAT I FOUND: NATHAN HAHAHA YOUR SHIP SAILS ITSELF. SO IT'LL NEVER GO DOWN AND PEOPLE CAN'T UNBOARD IT. JOYTHAN IS INVINCIBLE. *laughs for eternity* ~Amanda

Review: The Throne of Fire

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This will be a short review, my copy of City of Heavenly Fire is finally coming today and I want to prepare myself. So, review of The Throne of Fire, the second book in the Kane Chronicles. Spoilers below.  My rating: 8.5 / 10 Most importantly, when Ra was in the throne room with the other gods, he said, "Fish, cookie, weasel." We know from the previous pages, that "Weasel" refers to Walt, who has a sort of family curse that causes certain generations to die young (ex: King Tut). Now, the only possible person I could think of that might be referred to as "Fish," is Percy Jackson. I don't know who "Cookie" might be, though.  I knew from the moment it was mentioned that Desjardins was the first most powerful magician and Vladamir Menshikov was the third, that Amos was the second. And now because Desjardins is dead from execrating Apophis, Amos is the Chief Lector.  Bes. They better find a way to fix him. Walt and Sadie. Their w

Reaction: If I Stay

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Hmm....I just finished If I Stay by Gayle Forman. I finally received it in the mail today and I read it in 2 1/2 to 3 hours. It was a different kind of good. It was kind of like John Green book level good but more serious. And like John Green books, I know I did not fully understand the meanings behind the words in this book, and it is for that reason that I will not be rating this book yet. I don't even think I have the slightest grasp on the meanings, as opposed to John Green books when I somewhat understand. Some spoilery stuff below. So, I heard about this book after a Facebook page posted the movie trailer. I watched it because I recognized Chloë Grace Moretz from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies. I watched the trailer and it piqued my interest, so I asked so people over Facebook if they'd read it. One person recommended I read it, so I ordered it for like $5. Why not? Whenever I look into a book and I'm still interested in reading it, I am never let

My Life At the Present

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Hey, guys, it's Amanda. I've been dying to read, but I'm super busy. In fact, I really shouldn't be writing this post, but I feel the urge to update the blog. I've not been busy ALL Senior year. But now we have 14 days left, not counting weekends or Memorial Day. And then after those 14 days of school, we have 4 days until we graduate, not counting that weekend. June 12th guys. That's the day I get liberated from high school. Meanwhile. I've been smashed with final projects.   That represents me hating my non-busy life and then colliding with my final projects. And I'm just like: Whoa, where did those come from. And then I realized how close the end of school was. And the due dates of the projects. And now I'm like: And my reaction at the end of all of this is: Yeah, it's not great. But I'll get through it :) ANYWAY MY READING STATUS. I will be re-reading The Selection and The Elite by K

Review: The Red Pyramid

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So, I finished The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan this afternoon. I bought this book at a Goodwill book store that's hidden in a shopping complex near my house. I wasn't sure how good this book was going to be, but I have to say that I think it lived up to the Rick Riordan standard. It was a very interesting story that kept me engaged. Although, because I am genuinely very bad with names, it was sometimes hard to follow the characters, what with the Egyptian names and all. My rating: 8-8.5 / 10 Spoiler-y stuff below... Some quick thoughts. Zia. I liked Zia a lot and I was starting to ship her and Carter. And then we find out that the Zia that was with Carter and Sadie for the entire trip was a shabti (I think that's how you spell it...). Now I'm not so sure, I mean I'm glad the real Zia is safe somewhere and that the real Zia was communicating with the shabti Zia, but was all of the stuff with her and Carter real? I guess I have to read the other two boo

GOOD MORNING FEELS

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  Hiccup and Toothless's relationship: then and now THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO MAKE ME WEEP GUYS ~Amanda 

Book Slump

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Is it wrong that I feel joy from causing the level of feels that I have by having Tyler and Amanda read the Legend trilogy?  No?  Nah. They chose this life as book nerds. And I fully expect them to do the same to me. Book buddies. So, I don't have any new books to post about yet. I'm kind of in that weird between books phase. City of Heavenly Fire, the last book in the Mortal Instruments series does not come out until the 27th. Divided, the sequel to Dualed also is released on the 27th. The sequel to Mila 2.0, Renegade, comes out on the 13th, but I won't get that from my friend for a bit.  I recently finished rereading City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls to refresh my memory before City of Heavenly Fire. Unfortunately, I seemed to have underestimated how much time I would have to read, so I finished them a bit early. I can't decide what I should reread next while I wait for new releases....I have been watching the Marvel superhero movies, but I only h

MY FEELS STILL AREN'T HEALED

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I just looked up Legend (by Marie Lu) on Tumblr.        MY FEELS WILL *NEVER* RECOVER. ~Amanda

BOOK REVIEW: REBEL BELLE BY RACHEL HAWKINS

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This book was fun, fast-paced, and full of sass!! (AND CAN WE JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO LOVE ON THIS COVER?) I found myself sucked into a totally weird story that started with a girl named Harper Jane Price not having any lip gloss on. It was amazingly original, laugh-inducing, and awww-inspiring! Meet Harper. She's the student body president, an extra-curricular queen, the Girlfriend of the Best and Most Wanted Boyfriend, Homecoming Queen, and a number of other positions many girls would envy. Did I mention she has ninja powers? Harper encounters Mr. Hall, the school's janitor, in the bathroom as she is applying "Salmon Fantasy" to her lips. Not only does she find out that he is not fat, old, ugly, but he's also stabbed and dying. Before he breathes his last, Mr. Hall places his lips over Harper's, and with one blow of air, Harper finds herself endowed with the powers of a Paladin, a sort of knight who stands to defend a noble cause...a place or a pe

Finals Day.

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HI. ALLOW ME TO SUMMARIZE MY DAY IN GIFS. WHEN I WOKE UP: WHEN I WOKE UP (AGAIN): WHEN I REALIZED I HAD A FINAL IN AN HOUR: THE FINAL: WHEN I REMEMBERED I STILL HAD ANOTHER FINAL LATER:  HOW I FELT  SIX HOURS LATER AT THE NEXT FINAL: AFTER THAT FINAL: WHEN THIS STUPID NOISE WOULDN'T STOP NOISING DURING THE FINAL: 0/10 do not recommend do not read nope nope nope nope run away now -MechEngie