Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publication Date: 5 May 2015
ISBN: 1619634449
Pages: 416
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Format: Hardcover
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon|Book Depository



When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it... or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

I went into this book with some really mixed feelings. I had high expectations because it's Sarah J. Maas and her Throne of Glass series is phenomenal! However, I had low expectations because I knew that it was intended to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling and, from my experience, retellings almost always end up badly.

I am glad to say that Sarah J. Maas definitely exceeded my expectations for this book and I don't think I can wait a year for book two. While I was reading, I often forgot about the Beauty and the Beast aspect because she did such a fantastic job of bending it and making it her own. Her world building was fantastic and all of the various types of Fae were so well depicted. She also did a fantastic job of describing Prythian, the place were the Fae reside, but I would have loved to see a map that showed all of the places that were mentioned. It would have made understanding Feyre's movements easier.

I also loved the villain, who I will refer to as V. V was such an interesting character to get to know mostly because V was actually present in the novel where as in Beauty and the Beast, the villain wasn't explored. V was extremely intense and was a villain I enjoyed disliking. V's sidekick was probably more fantastic because he was so complex. From the first time we meet him until the very end, he's... different from any other villainous sidekick I've ever seen. He's an all around confusing and multifaceted character who I loved and hated immensely.

Despite all of the greatness, there are some things that I really didn't enjoy. Most importantly, I was really not a fan of the masks which were a result of the curse (not a spoiler, remember Beauty and the Beast). I thought it was childish and vain because even with the masks all of the characters were these beautiful, god- like creatures. The masks were useless and made the characters less interesting than they could have been. I was also extremely disappointed by the instalove . Fortunately, Feyre didn't act on her instalove but the fact that it even existed was so frustrating.  In fact, Feyre as a character wasn't one of my favorites. I don't really know why but I didn't like her. Maybe it was because she was blind to see what was right in front of her but whatever it was, she was irksome. However, she didn't act on her instalove and for that I do have to give her props.

Overall, A Court of Thorns and Roses was a fantastic book. There are somethings I was pretty unhappy with but they were definitely outweighed by the things Sarah J. Maas did amazingly. I seriously cannot wait to see book 2 (which comes out May 3, 2016). I would recommend this book to anyone whose in for a little romance and great fantasy. And even if you're not a huge fan of retellings, I think you'll enjoy this one.

Senior Year Update: Weeks 5-7

So it's officially past week 6 of senior year and finally things are beginning to pick up.

Week 5 (9/6 - 9/12) was a pretty boring week. Even though I had a three day weekend, I waited until the last minute to do some of my homework. I know, shame on me. I really should have done it earlier *hangs head in shame*. And the rest of that week I was calling what felt like a million different companies in what seemed a futile attempt to get an internship. That was pretty exhausting. I learned something though. It makes sense why after a certain point people just stop looking for jobs. There's this sense of hopelessness when you call twenty different people and they say they're not hiring or they say that they'll get back to you and never do. It's extremely discouraging. I also found it somewhat rude, if someone sends in their resume it only makes sense that you'd try your level best to get back with them in less than a week. But no, so many companies you have to follow up with and continuously pester before they'll even give your paperwork to the right person. It's ridiculous and irritating.

Anyway, I didn't get an internship. And, on top of that, I had a Spanish quiz that I was freaking out about. Fortunately Sra. Robbins is a fantastic teacher and she had really prepared us; she walked us through the test, gave us study tips, and gave extremely thorough information about the test. By the time test day rolled around, I was still nervous but I felt like I was extremely prepared and I walked out of class thinking I had passed. Still not sure though, grades are coming in soon... I hope.

Week 6 (9/13 - 9/19) was significantly better. It started off a little rough, there was an Econ test on Monday and Tuesday. Tests on Monday should never be allowed. But the concepts (Supply and Demand and Changes in both, Equilibrium, Elasticity, and Price Floors and Ceilings) were easy and I did a very good job on the two parts. I also had a math quiz on Monday, which I really didn't feel like taking. And that night, I finally got an internship! It's not what I had planned on doing but it's still something that I'm okay with and I have an amazing mentor so it's all good. The only downside was having to write a proposal on my internship about my deliverable which forced me to stay up until midnight. But I have an internship now so everything is all good.

We started working on our Senior Thesis in Lit on Wednesday. And on Thursday and Friday, there was The Plague (go check out my review) test which I did not do so well on. I was actually really disappointed with my grade even though Mr. Johnson said it was a perfectly normal, expected grade. Still not happy with it and I know I've have quite a bit of improving to do in the literary writing department. But overall it felt like a productive week in Lit. Math on the other hand is still so incredibly boring. Still a lot of review going on and I am so looking forward to moving into new mathematical territory. When will that be? Who knows.

I had my second soccer game of the season this weekend and we tied. The refs weren't great but my team played hard and did a really good job. After missing some time, I was proud of my ability to keep up but I know I've lost some skills from taking time off.

This past week, Week 7 (9/20-9/26), has been fairly uninteresting. I got to spend two days at home but nothing exceptionally exciting happened. Oh wait! One of my friends turned 18 on Saturday and I completely forgot it was their birthday. But in my defense, I can barely remember my family members' birthdays. I did end up saying Happy Birthday though.

All in all, it's been a pretty great few weeks. Life seems to be looking up and I'm excited.

Review: The Plague

Title: The Plague
Author: Albert Camus, Translator: Robin Buss
Publication Date: 1947
ISBN: 0141185139
Pages: 238
Genre: Absurdist Fiction, Philosophical Fiction
Format: Paperback
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon|Book Depository 



The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame and revenge, and a few, like the unheroic hero Dr Rieux, join forces to resist the terror. In part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occupation, The Plague is a compelling depiction of bravery and determination pitted against the precariousness of human existence.

This was a school assigned book and we just finished the unit on Friday. I have to say that my teacher, Mr. Johnson, perfectly described it as being "eight pages of plot." This novel more focuses on existentialist philosophy, more specifically absurdism. Absurdism is the idea that humanity's efforts to find inherent meaning will fail and are thus unnecessary or absurd. Basically, there is no reason for why things happen.  This central idea is seen especially clearly during the conversations and interactions among Dr. Rieux, Tarrou, and Father Paneloux. Towards the end of the novel this idea is heavily investigated as the plague seems to leave the town of Oran.

I really liked how the plague itself wasn't the focus of the novel and was instead a vessel to explain an idea. However, the lack of an identifiable narrator (we don't find out until the end) was frustrating sometimes. It made connecting and identifying with other characters extremely difficult and while this may have been the intent, I prefer books in which I can feel something for another character. I also found myself slightly bored throughout the novel, mainly because of the writing style. The beginning was very slow and the number of dates in the beginning was annoying to keep up with even though they served no purpose.

Overall, I found the book to be pretty good. It's not the greatest piece of literature I've ever read but for something that was meant to explore a philosophical idea, Camus did a really good job. I wouldn't recommend this book to a lot of people and it is most certainly not for people who are expecting plot or anything exceptionally gory. If you're looking for a book that explores existentialist ideas, then this is most certainly the book for you.

The Best of School

Today's post is nothing close to what I actually wanted to have today. I had intended to have my review of The Plague up by Monday but I was super busy calling around for internships, finalizing some stuff, and writing an essay about my internship (which took so much longer than I had anticipated) and yesterday, I had soccer practice and no time- thank you traffic. Thus, I have a completely different post from the intended.

My friend Shouni over at Through the Book Portal found a really cool daily writing prompts over at NaBloPoMo Writing Topics and I decided to answer one of them. Without further ado, let's hop to it!

Friday, September 11, 2015: Tell us about your best day of school ever.

I've had tons of really great days at school mostly because I preferred school to being at home. But the best day ever was in third grade with one of my favorite teachers, Ms. Jimmie Jones. She was about 70, had beautiful white hair, and was slightly wrinkly but it was obvious that age had been kind to her. Anyway, I can't remember how long we'd been in school but she had brought in this tiny cooler filled with ice and told us not to touch it. About midway through the day she had us move to the back table where she opened the cooler and inside was this tightly saran- wrapped object which she unraveled. This unwrapped thing looked like a bloody, slimy piece of bright red meat.

She gave us all scalpels and told us to put gloves on. Then we got to dissect this bright red piece of meat. It was a tough piece of meat, slightly bloody on the inside, and almost stringy. It was so awesome!! And then she told us that we had just dissected a pig's liver.

Tag: Inside & Out

Hey there! I found this tag by accident on Vicky's blog, Books, Biscuits, and Tea. The Inside & Out Tag was started by Lauren of Reads and Daydreams on YouTube.

I Inside flap/Back of the book summaries: Too much info? Or not enough (Discuss) 

I prefer to have a summary with not enough information than one that tells the whole plot. This partially comes from the fact that most times I don't read the entirety of the book summaries- don't want to be spoiled for a good book and all.

N New book: What form do you want it in? Be honest: Audiobook, E-Book, Paperback, or Hardcover?
Easily hardcover followed by paperback then e-book and lastly audiobook. I prefer a nice hardcover because there's less of a chance for a cracked spine and if anything is getting messed up, it's probably the dust jacket and not the actual. Moreover, they stand up on their own on my bookshelf and I've noticed that they smell better than paperbacks most of the time.

S Scribble while you read? Do you like to write in your books, taking notes, making comments, or do you keep your books clean clean clean? (Tell us why)

Writing in books horrifies me! I don't write in books unless they're school books or study books- books that actually should be written in. I prefer the look of clean pages, there's no real reason as to why but I think they just look nicer. However, sometimes I do make notes occasionally but that's generally reserved for required reading books in school.

I In your best voice, read for us your favorite 1st sentence from a book.
Well... I don't have a favorite opening line but I do have a really awesome first line for the second chapter. It's from The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Can I cheat? Yes? Alright then, here goes. 

"The one who called himself Mal'akh pressed the tip of the needle against his shaved head, sighing with pleasure as the sharp tool plunged in and out of his flesh."

Can't you tell there is something interesting about this man...

D Does it matter to you whether the author is male or female when you're deciding on a book? What if you're unsure of the author's gender? 
I truthfully don't really care about the author's gender when I read. I think this partially stems from my disinterest in other's gender in most other aspects of my life. Being man, women, agender, polygender, bigender, or any other gender doesn't make the author any better. 

E Ever read ahead? or have you ever read the last page way before you got there? (Do confess thy sins, foul demon!) :)
Nope! I did it once when I was really young and felt very guilty until I finished. Never again will I put myself through that intense guilt. 

&

O Organized bookshelves, or Outrageous bookshelves? 

Most definitely organized shelves. Although, my organization system doesn't make much sense. Generally my top shelf is kept for my unread books and then it's by author's last name but if the book is exceptionally short or tall it may be moved around. And sometimes things are grouped by genre, but only sometimes.

U Under oath: have you ever bought a book based on the cover (alone)? 
Well I haven't bought a ton of books in general but I have gone to the library and picked up a book strictly because I thought the cover was interesting. I can't think of any at the moment but I have done it. 

T Take it outside to read, or stay in?
I'll read anywhere. Absolutely anywhere. In the car? I'm reading. On the bus to school? I'm reading. Down school hallways (and stairs)? I'm reading, and endangering my life and the lives of many others. In class, under the table? I'm reading. Everywhere and anywhere is a great place to read. Except in the pool or places with large bodies of water... Or places for high potential of personal injury. Otherwise, read away.



I tag: Shouni from Through the Book Portal and anyone else who so desires to complete this, either in the comments or on your own blog.

Senior Year Update: Week 1-4

Before we get into the post, some information on posts. I'll post Senior Year Updates every two weeks or so on Saturday and have a regular post (bookish or otherwise) on Monday.

~~~

It's been officially four weeks into senior year and I'm having mixed feelings about it. It seems like everyone has said that senior year will be the best year of my high school career. And I'm not sure I agree with them. It's not like senior year is terrible; I'm not stressed out with APUSH notes (aka Hersch notes, courtesy of the truthfully fantastic teacher Mr. Hersch) or passing AP Chem or even being completely bored out of my mind by AP Calc AB. But I feel like senior year isn't this great thing everyone makes it out to be.

Senior year definitely has some of the best classes (and teachers) of all four years. AP Macro and AP Micro economics with Dr. Funk is incredibly fun and shockingly easy. We're working on Supply and Demand Curves and all the things that results in movements along the curve and complete shifts of the curves. Hopefully, it'll get harder but for the moment it's easy. Mr. Johnson's AP Lit class is incredible! He's hilarious, knows what he's talking about, and we're going to be reading some fantastic books (many of which I promise to review). The current book for this unit is The Plague by Albert Camus which I think I'll have a review on at the end of the unit. 

AP Spanish, with Sra. Robbins, is killing me a little but I'm in love with the language and I want to learn so much more about the culture. In a couple weeks, I think I'll be back in the swing of thinking in Spanish and it'll get easier. In Literary Magazine, which is a class that is inherently amazing, I'm editor-in-chief and we had our first fundraiser on Friday. We showed the movie Big Hero 6- you should watch it if you haven't- and we raised a ton of money which will go into producing this years edition of Infinitas. Calcus II is boring, which is making me ridiculously sad, and I'm not really a fan of the teacher. So far it's been a lot of review and we had our first test on Friday (limits, derivatives, and integration), which I think I did well on but grades will be in soon and we'll see just how well I did. Genetics with the ultra-extraordinary Dr. Kramer more than makes up for the lack of fun in Calc II. We finished our first unit on how mitosis and meiosis actually work about a week ago and we started Mendelian genetics, how genes are passed and probabilities of passing on certain traits, this week. 

However, it's not enough. I feel like I've completely missed the bar for the greatness of the final year of high school. The standard was set so high and I haven't even come close to meeting it. There's so much time spent waiting- waiting for internship placement for my SCE, waiting for college application deadlines, waiting for scholarship deadlines, waiting for something interesting to happen. It's annoying. I want something to happen, I want school to be fun again....Add that to the list of things I'm waiting for.