Flash Burnout: Review

Fifteen-year-old Blake has a girlfriend and a friend who’s a girl. One of them loves him; the other one needs him. When he snapped a picture of a street person for his photography homework, Blake never dreamed that the woman in the photo was his friend Marissa’s long-lost meth addicted mom. Blake’s participation in the ensuing drama opens up a world of trouble, both ...moreSynopsis: Fifteen-year-old Blake has a girlfriend and a friend who’s a girl. One of them loves him; the other one needs him. When he snapped a picture of a street person for his photography homework, Blake never dreamed that the woman in the photo was his friend Marissa’s long-lost meth addicted mom. Blake’s participation in the ensuing drama opens up a world of trouble, both for him and for Marissa. He spends the next few months trying to reconcile the conflicting roles of Boyfriend and Friend. His experiences range from the comic (surviving his dad’s birth control talk) to the tragic (a harrowing after-hours visit to the morgue).  In a tangle of life and death, love and loyalty, Blake will emerge with a more sharply defined snapshot of himself. 

 

Details: Flash Burnout by L. K. Madigan, 320 pages, 3.84 stars on Goodreads

 

My Thoughts: You know those books where the narrator has this awesome, absolutely hilarious voice? The ones where even if you laugh a lot, it's not all about the funny, because there's really a wonderfully deep and complex story beneath it? Yup, Flash Burnout was one of them. I don't think the synopsis does this story justice, so let me try to summarize a bit.

Blake is, as you no doubt have figured out, the awesome, absolutely hilarious narrator. His voice makes the book easy to read and has you flipping pages just to hear him narrate more. It's hard to make me laugh out loud when I'm reading something, but I definitely laughed several times throughout this book. His girlfriend is Shannon, and outwardly, she's the best girlfriend in the world - she's beautiful, smart, and has about a bajillion friends. Blake honestly cares about her, but it's subtly hinted (or maybe not some subtly, depends on your opinion) that he likes her more for her body.

It's not a straight-out lust scenario, either. It's just that as he narrates about her, he talks more about how hot she is than anything else. Plus, Shannon isn't quite the most perfect girlfriend in the world, either. She makes a huge fuss over the smallest, pettiest things, like not speaking to Blake when he forgot to call her. 

Then there's Marissa. At first, she and Blake are just friends-in-school, since they're the only freshmen in their Photography class, but then he takes a picture of a passed out woman. Marissa looks at it and realizes that it's her drug-addict mother. She finds her mom and brings her home, but things aren't that simple. As Blake helps her through the tough times, they become closer and closer, until one day...

You get the picture. I loved this book so much, and I would recommend it to anyone! The only thing I didn't like so much was the photography aspect - maybe it's just the books I've been reading lately (the ones I'm not going to review), but it feels like every book about healing involves either drawing or photography. There are other art forms out there! 

Plot - 3/5 (It was well-executed but lacked originality)

Characters - 3/5 (I didn't feel as a strong a connection as I wanted but they were definitely multi-dimensional)

Writing - 4/5 (Great voice! Love the perfect blend of humor and drama)

Impact - 2/5 

Inability to put it down - 3/5

Overall - 60% = B-

 

(Note: I apologize for the somewhat rushed review. I had a very, very, very long day.)

Recreate Cover Contest: The Emerald Talisman

Over at La Femme Readers, they're holding a recreate cover contest for The Emerald Talisman. This is my first time participating in a contest like this! I actually used to be pretty good with graphics and I made logos and things like that, but then I got involved with other things like... umm... WRITING. Anyway, I basically forgot anything I ever learned, so what I made is something the me-from-several-years-ago would scoff at. Yay!

This is the original cover:

Pretty, huh? Here's mine:

Less pretty and wildly disproportionate. Well, tell me what you think! :) And if you participated in this contest, leave a link to your cover!

Paper Towns: Review

Synopsis: When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.

Details: Paper Towns by John Green, 305 pages, 4.10 stars on Goodreads

My Thoughts: First off, I really hated this cover. I'm not a fan of covers with just people's faces on them because it takes more than just a seemingly-ordinary girl's face to draw me in. At least in Firelight, the girl on the cover has those awesome pupils and scales. The only thing that made me pick this up was because it was written by John Green, and I loved his other two books, Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines. I adore his writing style with the witty dialogue and narration, and so I was looking forward to reading this.


For once :P, I wasn't disappointed. Well, okay, I was disappointed on one respect. In Looking for Alaska, the protagonist was named Miles. He was a little nerdy as well as shy, sweet, and sensitive. He was in love with an unpredictable, bold, indescribable girl named Alaska, who he doesn't get. In An Abundance of Katherines, the protagonist was named Colin. He was a little nerdy as well as shy, sweet, and sensitive. He was in love with an unpredictable, bold, indescribable girl named Katherine, who he doesn't get. In Paper Towns, the protagonist was named Quentin. He was a little nerdy as well as shy, sweet, and sensitive. He was in love with an unpredictable, bold, indescribable girl named Margo, who he doesn't get.

When I read Looking for Alaska, I was thinking, "Wow, this is an amazing book! Miles is such a real character! Alaska is fascinating!" When I read An Abundance of Katherines, I was thinking, "Wow, this is a great book! Colin really reminds me of Miles, though, and Katherine is basically Alaska. I like Lindsey, though!" When I read Paper Towns, I was thinking, "Wow, this is a good book! But seriously, John Green, I get it. You were a little nerdy as well as shy, sweet, and sensitive when you were seventeen. You met a crazy girl. Now please, please, please write about something else."


That said, I still looooove this book. And John Green. I mean, John Green's writing. Of course. UMM LET'S CHANGE THE TOPIC NOW. LET'S TALK ABOUT ADAM GREGORY.

Oh. I'm sorry. I'll go back to the book now. Even though yeah, it's the same plot again, it didn't pain me to read it because he has the wittiness and the quirkiness and the funniness going on. And sure, the themes are repeated a bit, but they're so fascinating. For the duration of the book, John Green makes you believe in Margo, in her craziness (how many times did I say "ness" in this post? Green has that effect on me - err, John Green, not the color green), and that maybe, just maybe, Quentin will get her. 


There's so much more I want to say about this book, but it'll be full of adjectives and adverbs and all sorts of poor writing. And so I'll leave you with the rating.


Plot - 3/5
Characters - 4/5
Writing - 5/5
Impact - 2.5/5
Overall - 72.5% = B+

(Note: My new grading system is somewhat unconventional. A B+ is about four stars, which is what I gave it on Goodreads.)

In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox is a meme from the Story Siren, which is not a siren that tells stories, but an awesome blog. Or perhaps the blog owner is herself a siren that tells stories. Or maybe I'll just get on with the post.

I didn't have a particularly exciting week in terms of books. But here we go!

Won:

 Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. Someone's going to shoot me for saying this, but I didn't tear the box open in a frenzy because I'm not that into Hunger Games. I mean, I definitely like the series and I was excited to win this, but honestly, if I hadn't won it, I probably would have just waited a couple months to get it from the library or just not read it at all. WAIT PUT THAT GUN DOWN I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE. Still, I was happy to hold the book. I'm obsessed with the color blue, and this cover has, like, the MOST PERFECT SHADE EVER.



Library:

P

Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Thompson. I actually have no idea what this book is or what it's about, but it was on my Goodreads TBR list, so I got it anyway. It looks interesting, though. It seems like a romantic comedy, probably with a psych major who's always analyzing other people or whatever. She probably meets a guy who had some trauma in his life, like a dead father or something, and then she falls in love and learns you can't always use science to determine love or something. Doesn't it just seem like that? I'm too lazy to actually find the summary.

S

Skip Beat Volume 4 by Yoshiki Nakamura. I've been waiting forever for this one. I think I got Volume 3 like six hundred years ago, or something like that. I like this series - good, fun, light read! It's a little confusing at times with, like, the layout and such, because it's the first manga I've read and so sometimes I would read the boxes in random order and then try to piece together what happened. I'm getting better, though! And oh my God, I love the little girl. (I'd say her name, but seriously, I don't remember ANYONE's name except for Kyoko and Ren and Sho[taro]. It's been so long D:)

A

After School Nightmare Volume 6 by Setona Mizushiro. I love this series so much. It's great for a beginning manga-reader because all the boxes in the layout and such are nice and easy to work through. I rarely get confused in this one. Some people get put off this one because of the concept (main character has the upper body of a male and the lower body of the female) and they think it'll be somewhat repulsive, but it's NOT! I wish I could explain exactly why this is so (I sort of peeked at the Wikipedia page and got spoilers :[ ), but I'm not going to spoil it for anyone. Seriously, it is SO WORTH IT.

A

After School Nightmare Volume 7 by Setona Mizushiro. It's a miracle! I got two volumes of ASN in one week! (My library's usually really slow.) I love this volume because you learn soooo much about Sou. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I love Sou! And there's a much younger Sou on the cover! Isn't he cute? But oh my God, poor Sou. I mean, hot guys who are as sweet as they are passionate with the additional plus of a dark (and okay, fine, repulsive) past? Oh yes.




Read in library but not checked out:

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. Okay, so... this is officially one of my favorite books. I read this in about thirty-five minutes, and I was totally engrossed. I'll save the raving for the review, but let me just say this: I was sitting next to a scary lady who was bleeding on me (you read that right) and muttering under her breath about those damn liberals, and I completely forgot about her while I was reading this book.





What's in your mailbox?