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The World of Ice and Fire: The Official History of Westeros and The World of A Game of Thrones
Eleanor and Park
The Sky Is Everywhere
This is a book about grief. It may be classified as contemporary romance, young adult. NOPE. This book is doubtlessly and thoroughly about mourning, about a young girl learning how to deal with the loss of the most important person in her life. Lennon and Bailey were inseparable. They shared everything, understood everything about each other, even when Lennie was this quiet bookworm, clarinet geek and Bailey was all kinds of extroverted and wild. Bailey's death turns some kind of switch inside Lennie's brain and she's suddenly very much awake, feeling everything vividly. She finds that joy and pain will forever go hand in hand without her sister next to her.
Her devastated self can't seem to find nobody to understand her sorrow. Except for Toby, Bailey's boyfriend. Being with him evokes the memory of Bails in a peaceful way, without it reaping her apart.
But life is full of surprises, and soon enough there is Joe as well. All bright and sorrow-less Joe, promising a world full of chocolate, smiles and music.
Both of them make her feel better, and both make her feel guilty.
So, you see, there is romance. That even sounds like a love triangle, but believe me not even Pitágoras would have known where to start with Lennie.
Love is actually everywhere in this book, but sadness is always two sentences away. And it works. Wonderfully in my personal opinion. Because all between the sadness and love drama, I end up smiling and even laughing at such charming and dorky characters.
(...) Gram is fixing breakfast ashes, Big is sweeping the rafters for dead moths to put under his pyramids, and I am trying not to make out with my spoon (...)
While reading and trying to control the goofy emotional imbalance, I came to the realization that this book might not be for everyone. Aside from Lennie's moral ambiguity and the tragic main theme, Jandy Nelson seems to be in the habit of turning the volume full up, writing bordering cheesy, making love all brightness and a Big Bang of colors and characters seem too fun and lovely to be true. And I don't even care. This book made me feel and sometimes that's all it takes for me to give a solid 5 stars.
That's a misconception, Lennie. The sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.
*PS: For once the blurb is trusty, I think Rainbow Rowell's fan could love this book.
*PS2: Everyone and their mother says the physical edition is beautiful, full of illustrations of Lennie's little poems. Should buy it.
Smart Girls Get What They Want
3 1/2This started lamely. Three supposedly smart young girls talking about a plan to gain fame and all the things they were missing out in high school just because they were big nerds. That didn't sound appealing at all, it even seemed like it was all a big mock to this kind of girls.
Luckily I did push me to read on, and after a couple of chapter I was all in. The characters end up being really likable and that stupid premise was replaced for an actual good one: a story about how three girls who thought they were better than everybody else end up coming out of the shell and realizing people doesn't always suck.
A fun, cute and light read.
Note to the author: This book is so much better than Anna and the French Kiss. At least Gigi has the morals Anna won't ever have!
Bold Tricks
Until the 50% mark, this book made our heroin look whiny and needy. Foolish dialogs and unrealistic scenes.The following 25% was utterly cheesy and full of forced sex scenes.
And the final 25% was kind of badass and entertaining.
75% disappointing.
 - Frank Herbert, Domingo Santos)
Saga, Volume 2
Rating: 3½ starsThis one was definitely funnier!
A flashback to Marko and Alana's starts was needed, though I didn't find it particularly captivating. But this volume did play a little bit with my emotions making me believe that The Stalk was alive and that Lying Cat was going to die.
This woman:
Yes, she's gorgeous, but look at those eyes! She's crazy!! And she's nothing like I'd pictured her.
And this man:
Awesome!
The ending to this volume was quite predictable...
Saga, Volume 1
Rating: 3.75 stars or something.Beautiful!
Fiona Staples is a genius! I particularly like how uncrowded the panels are. Simple and well colored backgrounds plus wonderfully designed characters, sure works for me!
Character creation is simply bizarre and random, from really serious, dark things to laughable characters. I prefer by far the former, like my personal favourite: The Stalk.
It's difficult to judge world building or plot being just one volume in, but it sure seems to have lots of potential. Typical story of two love birds in a taboo relationship fleeing from their own peoples trying to kill them (but not their child, hmmm...).
So, I have no alternative but to listen to Marko from Volume 2:
Will do, gorgeous Marko ♥.♥
Fly Trade, Volume 1
Not your typical superhero comic, that’s what caught my attention. In all honesty, it really is not your typical superhero comic. This one focus on dark and depressing issues like drug abuse, drug dealing and vengeance.The story follows Eddie, Francis, and Danielle, a group of teenagers who got hooked on this new drug called Fly, which gives them flying superpowers (duh) and super-strength apparently (this one was not very well explained). A couple of years later, we see a sad looking Eddie trying to begin a new life away from his crazy, fly dependent ex-wife Danielle. Unfortunately, she has found him and she will do anything to get another fix.
Raven Gregory take us constantly back and forth in time to witness how everything went to hell in the life of these three young teens, accentuating it with sometimes colorful and happy or grim and dark illustrations. As one can appreciate, the covers are beautiful, but the art in the actual comic is not uniform at all. It usually goes from very detailed and pretty to almost sloppy drawings.
Both, the kind of story and the art, were not my cup of tea. In addition, I found the story to be not as innovative and well executed as it could have beeen.
Deadpool: Reyes Suicidas, Vol. 1
I picked this up expecting lots of Deadpoolness: silly jokes, action, crazy delusions and awesome references breaking the fourth wall (well...and boobs). And that's exactly what I got!I picked this up not expecting a complex plot or development, just mindless fun. And that's also exactly what I got. Deadpool ends somehow framed for a crime he didn't commit. Some other heroes soon arrive looking to deliver their own kinds of justice: Punisher, Daredevil and awesome Spidey.
Of course, the beautiful art helps a lot!
All hail Deadpool!
Angelfall
Rating: 3 ½ stars“Angels are violent creatures.”
“So I noticed. I used to think they were all sweet and kind.”
“Why would you think that? Even in your Bible, we’re harbingers of doom, willing and able to destroy entire cities. Just because we sometimes warned one or two of you beforehand doesn’t make us altruistic.”
Angels being the bad guys, humankind's evil enemy. Not the most innovate idea ever, but it was surprisingly well done... at least the little part that we actually get to see.
Ever since the angel's attack, the world has sunk into chaos. We open up with 16 year old Penryn trying to take her family to a safe place, since their old apartment is sure to be attacked either by the many recent blooming street gangs or by night-time evil things.
Ee paints an extraordinary grim-ish picture (as grim as YA can be, of course) and, because that was not enough, gives Penryn the most depressing family she could have. Of course, this latter trait is obviously written to add to our heroin's personality.
Penryn is not the most charming character around, this cruel world where she lives in has made her selfish and uncaring for anyone but her little sister Paige (and, just sometimes, her mom). But who needs a charming lady when we have a total bad-ass! Seriously, those fighting scenes are SO well done!
Suddenly, something terrible happens and Paige and Penryn end up separated. Rescuing Paige becomes Penryn's only mission, and forcing a badly injured angel called Raffe to help seems to be the only way to succeed.
Aside from this two, the rest of the cast of character are really forgettable. Very unidimensional, appearing briefly just to fill a little into the plot. Some of them might be interesting, but I'll never know until book 2 or 3 where there might be some getting to know them.
The romance (yes, let's not be naive, of course there is romance) didn't seem quite believable. Our Penryn suffers from the very typical hormonal attack that good looking angels cause on leading ladies. Of course, as it's a first person narration, we don't really get to know what the angel is feeling for most of the time, which really works because it leads to a good heart wrenching scene at the end.
All in all, this books is a page turner. Good paced and a really light, fun read.
Storm Front
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Cue: Pretty, nervous lady enters the office looking for the private consultant who will solve the mysterious disappearance of her husband.
The Catch: Missing husband seems to had been playing with some serious magic.
Harry Dresden is the man for the job because he is the only wizard for hire in Chicago. Harry's kinda our typical hard boiled detective: the witty, chivalrous loner. However, there are some traits clearly not matching the stereotype; maybe it's some deeper sensibility in Harry, his constant struggle for money or maybe it's just the fact that he'll be always holding a staff instead of a gun. Anyhow, Harry Dresden is a trouble magnet and will get into fun and quite amusing situations, just like...
Yeahp, he's naked.
And that's about it for the outstanding part of the book. The entire cast of secondary characters fill in the typical roles of sexy ladies in distress, mobsters, distrustful cops... with the exception of that one nymphomaniac spirit included to have even another unnecessary comic relief. The world-building is probably acceptable for the first book in a really long urban fantasy series. The biggest deficiency is probably the clumsy development of the mystery; I was genuinely intrigued for about two chapter, before Butcher started throwing all the clues in my face which make it imposible to not see it all coming.
Summing up! All the stars for Harry. Far from flawless, but truly entertaining and funny read. I'll definitely keep reading ( I kinda already am) and see if this series does live up to its hype.
