Review of "Bitterblue" by Kristen Cashore

Hello again everyone! To finish my three part review, I am writing about Kristen Cashore's Bitterblue. If you read Graceling, you should already be familiar with Bitterblue, but if you haven't, I'm not telling you who she is. Sorry to go back on my previous statement, but I actually have to say a bit about Bitterblue if I'm going to be reviewing a book where she is the main character. Bitterblue is an eighteen year-old girl who longs to escape the responsibility of her life. She begins to live a secret life outside of her home every night. She meets two boys who are her age, and their sisters, and develops a strong friendship with them. However, their friendship is tested when her new friends find out who she actually is. Bitterblue lives in a dangerous time, and after a while uncovers a secret operation being carried out by some of her most trusted advisors. Most of the original cast from Graceling returns to aid the young girl, including Katsa, Po, King Ror of Lienid, and Helda, as well as others. There is a new cast of characters that are unique to Bitterblue, and some other familiar characters from elsewhere. A tunnel is found that leads to a place that only one person knew of in Graceling, and the story brings together both Graceling and Fire. For anyone who has read the other two books, Bitterblue is one of the best ways that the story could be wrapped up, and for anyone else, the story is still magical. However, the ending was disappointing, and I sincerely hope that Kristen Cashore decides to tie up some ends that were left loose. Finally, I don't remember whether or not I gave an email address last time, and if I did it may have been incorrect. Anyway, the best way to email me would be at morganwaas@yahoo.com. Leave a comment or an email with suggestions of the next book I should do. Thanks and I'll talk to you soon!
PS. I just read over this, and it looks a little confusing. Sorry about that. I would fix it but I don't want to give anything big away.

Review of "Fire" by Kristen Cashore

Hey everyone, I'm finally back! Sorry about the length of time that has passed since my last post, but dont worry because Im trying to be more consistent. Anyway, this is the second of my three part review on Kristen Cashore's books. The second in the series is Fire. Fire is centered around a woman named Fire, who is the last of the human monsters living in her area of the world, which is a land called the Dells. The Dells are across the mountains from the world seen in Graceling. The character list is almost completely new, with only one character from Graceling found in it (spoilers). The term "human monster" is used to describe a race of people that are more beautiful than normal humans, and have some sort of magical power. The smell of their blood or the sight of their hair (often much different than human hair) strongly attracts the other monsters of the valley. Like I said before, Fire is the last of these monsters. She is a skilled archer and fiddler (is that even a word?). Fire follows Fire's journey from her home to the capital, where she works closely with the king and prince of the Dells to help in a war against a neighboring kingdom. She also takes part in a more secret and sinister plan. When Fire's best friend goes missing, she gets herself accidentally captured but goes after him. When she finds out what happened, she exacts vengeance and begins to travel home. However, on the way, she loses something very important to her, but she makes it home alive. Near the end of the book, Fire finds an unexpected comradeship that changes her view on life in general. If you read Graceling after my last review and you enjoyed it, you should definitely read this, too. But don't skip this one and go straight to the last book, because Fire is well worth your time. Thank you for your patience with my inconsistencies, and I'm thinking I'll update this every two weeks to a month, unless I've already read the book, in which case it will probably be about once a week. Expect Saturdays or Sundays. Oh, and by the way, I have confirmed an e-mail address, it is morganwaasful@yahoo.com. Feel free to send me messages or any suggestions there, as well as leaving comments. Thank you all so much! I'll talk to you later. BYE!

Review of "Graceling" by Kristin Cashore

To begin, let me warn you that this is a three-part review. I've already all three books that were in Kristin Cashore's trilogy, but if I put them all into one review, it would be monstrously long, because I have a ton to say. Almost as soon as I finished "Graceling", I wanted to read the sequel. The book is set in an intriguing world, consisting of seven kingdoms. There is no religion. To me, it seems like the inhabitants of the kingdoms use the name of the kingdom as a substitute for a deity. For example, Po, the main male character, is fond of saying things like, "How in Lienid" since he is from the island kingdom of Lienid. There are 5 kingdoms that are constantly at war, and 2 that are isolated and want nothing to do with the dealings of the other kingdoms. The capital cities of each kingdom are named after the king or queen that rules it. For example, the king of Monsea is King Leck. Therefore, the capital is Leck City. The isolated kingdoms are Lienid, an island, and Monsea, which is surrounded by mountains. The others have very, well, directional, names. There is the Middluns(in the center of the five), Nander(to the north), Estill(to the east), Sunder(to the south), and Wester(to, you guessed it, the west). "Graceling" follows the adventures(and misadventures) of Lady Katsa of the Middluns. She is one of the few in the kingdoms blessed(or cursed) with a "Grace"(a special, almost supernatural, skill). People with a Grace are called "Gracelings". In "Graceling", Katsa saves a Lienid prince and ends up falling in love with another. She overthrows a king and saves a kingdom, almost getting herself and a princess killed in the process. Truly, I have so much more to say, but I can't say it without giving anything away. I'm not going to star any more reviews, because that was just stupid of me. The second review in the trilogy(ha! It's a trilogy of reviews reviewing a trilogy of books! How funny!) will be for "Fire", the second book, and will come out soon, maybe tomorrow. Whenever I have the time. Thanks for reading!!!

Review of: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Let me start this review with praise. I picked up Yann Martel's Life of Pi with high expectations. I had heard many good things about it, and if they weren't enough, I could simply look on the cover. The front proudly boasted that the book was the winner of the Man Booker Prize, and the back raved with such reviews as: "Let me tell you a secret:the name of the greatest living writer of the generation born in the sixties is Yann Martel"(L'Humanite' in France) and "Pi is Martel's triumph."(The Globe and Mail in Toronto) The book was a selection of both the Book-Of-The-Month Club and the Quality Paperback Book Club. Apparently, the story would make me believe in God.Yet I didn't make it past page 49. I gave it a chance, I really did. If I hadn't, I would have stopped reading earlier. Much earlier. Everything about it was short, from the first sentence (My suffering left me sad and gloomy) to the irresistable About The Author: Yann Martel lives in Montreal. Honestly, who wouldn't want to read it? The description(A boy, A tiger, And the vast Pacific Ocean) made me think that the book would be about a boy's journey in the Pacific Ocean in a boat, with a tiger. That sounds incredilbe, right? But no. The book is basically an autobiography, with long, tragic sections about this boy's religion, and his name, and how his father fed a goat to a tiger while he and his brother watched. All I got from it was that the boy lived in a zoo, he made himself a nickname in school, and that he was very confused about his religious self. One passage, a flashback to Martel writing the book(one would assume) described how this man had Buddha, Christ, Ganesha, the Virgin Mary, Kaaba, Shiva as Nataraja, Krishna, Lakshmi, Shakti as Parvarti, Hindu symbols, the Arabic word for God, and a Bible in his home. Chapter 16, which spans through pages 47-50, ponders what it means to be Catholic, Hindu, Christian, and Muslim. Three full pages consisting of nothing but religion. I was utterly perplexed. How can one person speak so much about religion? I didn't finish that chapter. I closed the book and thought for long moments about how I had been lied to. I did not pick it up again. My theory is if you start a book and don't like it, keep reading. If you continue disliking it, keep reading. On the third try, put it down. And that is exactly what I did.
(Here I'm going to be geeky and give it a starred rating)Life of Pi by Yann Martel: *