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Review: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Now, I should probably start by saying that I did read this book in Spanish; it was given to me as a gift to help me develop my skills.  Nevertheless, although I suspected that I may not have sufficiently understood the storyline at some points in the book, after reading the plot on Wikipedia it turns out that I had, in fact, gotten the general gist.

The reason for why I suspected that I may not have completely understood various aspects of the plot is because the entire story was really quite strange - cute and entertaining, but strange.

It starts with an airplane pilot telling the reader about how he used to draw pictures when he was a young boy and how no one ever understood what they were.  One day his plane crashes in a barren desert where he meets a young prince who claims to be from another planet.  The two strike up a friendship when the little prince requests that the pilot draws him a picture and the prince informs the pilot all about his past while the two struggle to survive in this new deadly landscape.  The little prince goes on to tell his new friend, and the reader, about his own planet and how he met a variety of strange individuals, on various other planets, on his way to Earth.

The story was quite odd and I really failed to see the point of it in general; apparently the story was supposed to reflect various dark aspects of society at the time that it was written although I didn’t see it myself.  Nonetheless, The Little Prince is referred to as a classic, so I suppose I can’t be too critical!  What’s more, overall, I did quite enjoy it as it was really quite endearing and it’s a perfect book for improving one’s language skills because it has been translated into dozens, if not hundreds, of languages and the language of the book is quite simple.

Therefore, despite the oddness of the story I found it relatively enjoyable and especially useful for enhancing my Spanish.  So, I have given The Little Prince...

Rating = 4 stars.

Review: Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

Plot

Nora wakes up in a graveyard not knowing why she’s there or how she got there.  She soon discovers after a stint in hospital and encountering her mother and various policemen that she has actually been missing for months.

As Nora gets to grip with her situation and reintegrates herself into day-to-day life she starts to realise that this wasn’t a normal kidnapping.  For one thing, her amnesia stretches back two months before she was kidnapped.  Secondly, her mum is dating Hank Millar – the father of her school archenemy, Marcie – who’s a particularly dislikeable and suspicious individual.  Lastly, she meets a few mysterious characters – who, she later finds out, are part of the ‘Nephilim’ species – who have various inhuman powers, including Jev, someone who she finds herself attracted to and who seems to have links to her past.

Positives

Unfortunately, the part that I enjoyed the most was the beginning because it was different; a protagonist waking up in a graveyard not knowing where she is or how she got there was quite intriguing.   I especially appreciated this unique start as Silence is the third book in a four book series so it was nice to have it mixed up a bit.

Negatives

Apart from that I had a lot of issues with this novel...

Firstly, the plotline was quite poor.  It seemed quite interesting at first but then I realised, as Nora’s amnesia cleared thanks to her best friend Vee and her growing relationship with Jev, she started to remember parts of her unmemorable past the majority of the plotline consisted of the reader basically being retold what happened in the previous two novels.  Not quite the gripping storyline I was hoping for.

Secondly, the characters were so incredibly infuriating.  To begin with, Nora was one of the most annoying protagonists I have ever encountered.  She was so illogical! I nearly cried with frustration when she was threatened by one of the Nephilim and she, ya know, fancied going back to investigate; as you do when you’re nearly attacked by a random, scary guy.

I was also totally unimpressed by Nora’s two love interests.  There was Jev, who Nora finds out is her fallen angel boyfriend from her past, who was NOT the generic charming and funny guy you usually find in these types of novels.  He was actually a little aggressive in places and quite forward; he kept telling Nora that he loved her and he would do anything for her even though he knew fair well that she couldn’t even remember who he was!  Another character was Scott – a Nephilim but also Nora’s friend – who, at first, seemed quite friendly but, like Jev, later became a little forward with Nora including a couple of sexual comments which I thought were completely unnecessary.

There was also no character development and the storyline, in general, just simply wasn’t gripping.  I found that the novelty of the whole angel/Nephilim (etc) concept had worn off and, consequently, despite some potentially exciting action scenes, I was left relatively uninterested.

Summary

I’m not sure what I was expecting really.  I enjoyed the first book, Hush Hush, but the second one, Crescendo was quite a disappointing sequel so I suppose I wasn’t surprised that I was equally, if not more, dissatisfied with Silence.  Its main downfalls were the unlikeable characters and the repetitive and dreary storyline.  However, I will give Becca Fitpatrick a bit of credit for an engaging beginning. 

Therefore... 

Rating = 2 stars

Additional points

I think the main reason for why I read this book is because I hate getting half way through a series and then stopping.  There is a fourth (and final?) book in the Hush Hush series which I will be reading simply for closure but if you’re like me and feel that you have to finish a series once you’ve started it, I wouldn’t recommend starting this one.  Sorry Becca!



If you've read this book feel free to leave your comments below.

Review: Loving Danny by Hilary Freeman

It’s a typical day for Naomi.  She is on a bus on her way home from a work placement when she meets Danny, a mysterious, handsome, young man who’s in a band and invites Naomi to one of his gigs.  The two hit it off from there.  To Naomi, Danny seems like the perfect guy until she starts to realise he’s a very troubled guy and there is a more destructive aspect of his personality that begins to reveal itself as she gets to know him more.

Erm, well, where to start.  Is it wrong to say that, in case, you can judge a book by its cover? Everything about it screamed cheesy, boring and a bit average which it sort of was.  Naomi, the protagonist, was so frustrating.  She was rude, unlikeable and so illogical!  To be honest, Danny was pretty much the same.  What I disliked about it most was that the whole thing could have been over in about 50 pages.  There was hardly any plotline development.  I can confidently say that the last two thirds of the book basically consisted of Naomi deciding that perhaps Danny wasn’t that good for her and then going back to him.  She was constantly changing her mind and questioning their relationship and from about half way I was just begging it to end.  I hate to use superlatives but I will say that it was one of my least favourite reads.  Sorry Hilary Freeman!

Rating = 1 star

Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Plot

Anna is a seventeen year-old who has been forced to go to an American boarding school in Paris by her parents.  Anna has to leave her mother and brother and her novelist father for a year for the world’s romantic city where she not only meets some fun, new friends but, of course, a handsome, charming and understanding French-American boy, with a British accent, called Étienne St. Clair.  Anna and Étienne strike up a friendship closer than any other she has ever had but Étienne has a girlfriend, Anna has a love interest left behind in America and she realises she has to become accustomed to her new life in Paris before she can sort out her love life.

Good points

Although it took a couple of chapters to decide whether or not I liked Anna, I eventually decided that, once I had got the measure of her she was actually a very funny and likeable protagonist.  She had a lot of wit and despite being completely in love with Étienne she tried not to take herself and their relationship too seriously when she was with him.

I also really enjoyed how the story was set in Paris; just to mix things up a bit.  Perkins describes Paris so beautifully that I just wanted to also travel to Paris and be there with the characters!

Bad points

Towards the end my tolerance with Anna did start to tail off a little bit.  Despite knowing from the very beginning that her friend Meredith is also in love with Étienne, she still pursues her relationship with him and when it all blows up in her face it was a bit of a ‘I told you so’ moment.   The whole way through she’s worried about the fact that Étienne has a girlfriend and not about the fact she’s breaking the friends’ code of conduct.

Summary

Nevertheless, I didn’t think this was enough to ruin the story.  The setting was beautiful and, all in all, I really liked the characters. Therefore...

Rating = 5 stars

Additional points

I really loved the writing so I am quite excited that the next book in the series is coming out in the UK very soon – Lola and the Boy Next Door!



If you've read this book, please post your comments below!

Childhood books – The Snowman

Everyone has those few books which they had when they were a kid which mean something to them and which they will never get rid of.  So, I thought I’d start a small feature showing you a few of my own childhood favourites.

To start, I’m going to talk about this little treasure:

There’s no doubt about it, The Snowman by Raymond Briggs is a classic.  Not only is it an adorable novel but it has also been transformed into a super famous one-off Christmas show with a gorgeous soundtrack.

The Snowman is short but this certainly doesn’t undermine the wonderfulness of the story.  It probably isn’t many of you, but for those of you who don’t know the story I’ll give a brief synopsis...

It’s Christmas time and a small boy wakes up one morning, looks out the window and gleefully discovers that there has been a heavy snowfall the previous night.  As soon as he can he dashes outside to build a snowman that, over night, comes to life and takes him on an all-night magical adventure that he’ll never forget.

The reason that I loved this book was not just because of the lovely storyline but also because of the book itself.  The book has no words but the story is still told so beautifully through lots and lots of pretty, little sketches.  And these are translated so well onto the screen that every year that I watch it I end up with happy tears!

So if you haven’t seen this book before then buy it, borrow it (whatever you like), look at the gorgeous illustrations and see if you can extract the wonderful story from it.

Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

 So, I decided to return to John Green after a bit of a break and here is where I ended up: reading the much anticipated The Fault in Our Stars.  Now, I was quite apprehensive about reading this as I wasn’t sure how I felt about cancer stories. Funny how it turned out to be not only my favourite John Green book but also one of my favourite books off all time.

So, let the review commence...

Plot

Hazel is 16 years-old and she has cancer.  She has gotten used to it, after being diagnosed a few years before, and her condition is steady but she still can’t escape the fact that things could get a lot much worse at any time.  One day at her support group she meets Augustus, an ex-cancer patient with a charming personality who is utterly unbothered about Hazel’s condition.  The two (obviously) fall in love but soon it becomes apparent that Hazel’s condition isn’t the only problem.

Good points

It was perfect.  It really was.

I was so happy because there has been so much hype about John Green and all the other books I have read of his (Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska and Will Grayson, Will Grayson) have been slightly disappointing.  But this totally turned it around.

I completely fell in love with Hazel and Augustus.  They were written so well.  Hazel’s honesty about her condition was so refreshing.  She wasn’t portrayed as either really self-pitying or ignorant about the severity of her illness.  Her personality was also so likeable; I find that it’s really rare to find a female protagonist who is so easy to read.  She was so down to earth and really witty.  Similarly, Augustus had just the perfect amount of wit and charm mixed in with real romance and logic.

As a couple they were wonderful.  There was none of the usual, ‘but what if he thinks this about me?’ or ‘what if I’m not good enough for her?’ or ‘what I’ve said the wrong thing?’ that you find in the usual teen romance novels.  They were completely honest with each other and weren’t afraid to take the micky at just the right moments.

That is what I enjoyed the most about the book.  It wasn’t just another cancer story, as I feared it might be, but the focus was all on Hazel and Augustus’ relationship.

Bad points

Ummm...

I’m struggling here...

Okay, so I did cry for about five minutes straight at a certain point in the book but I hardly see that as a bad thing.  It was only a reflection of how stunning the writing was.

Summary

I was completely blown away by the beautiful writing and was completely taken by the characters.  It was such a lovely story with a lovely message. To be honest, it was just really lovely all round!

Without a doubt...

Rating = 5 stars

Additional Points

All I can say is... OMG I can’t wait to see the film!