REVIEW: Wraith's Forest

(the following review is based off a Reviewer Copy I received)


Wraith's Forest shows much promise. L.J. Leger has a budding grasp on her use of prose, parts of the story read beautifully and were extremely enjoyable. The story is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast Fairy Tale with a few minor changes. Jenna is a sixteen year old girl who is appointed with the job of harvesting fruit from a magical tree so the local Wizard can make an elixer that would help keep the balance of the valley. One of the fruits is bruised, with the weight of her failure on her shoulders, Jenna needs to venture into the forest to find a magical blade from the mysterious and dangerous Wraith.

The book's only real flaw is the execution of the story. The fruit and the elixir portion of the story feels a little bit forced. Since this idea feels slightly far-fetched it is hard to feel any connection to Jenna or the people in her village. You find yourself asking: why is the elixir important? The character of the Wizard is also a little bit sketchy bouncing between a young man and a stereotypical mustache twirling denizen.

Jenna's interaction with the Wraith is the strongest portion of the story, but it feels a little bit rushed. I expect this is just because of the length of the story (it is a novella). There is much room for more interactions between Jenna and the Wraith, and possibly more information on his backstory. He is by far the most fascinating character in the story. The ending is a little bit cliche, but cute none the less. 

All in all I did enjoy this story, it just needs a little bit of work. If the Author even chose to, this story could end up being fleshed out into an entire novel.

I look forward to reading more of Leger's work.

FILM Review: Disney's Beauty and the Beast

So today I went out to the theatres and took part in what many people label a cash grab on Disney's part. Maybe that's exactly what it was, but seeing it on the big screen was totally worth it. When Beauty and the Beast came out in 1991, I was way too young to go to the theatre and sit still through an entire movie (or so my parents decided) so when I was first introduced to the movie, it was at home on my TV Screen. I'm not exactly sure what sparked the re-release of the Disney movies back into theatres, but I'm assuming the success of The Lion King had a major effect.

Okay, so I kind of just lied there. Walt Disney, had originally wanted to re-release his films in theatres every couple of years, but this was before the beauty of home video. Sadly, Disney's plan was taken and twisted and what we have now is pure evil in the form of the Disney Vault (man I really want Aladdin on DVD).

So Beauty and the Beast. If you've been living under a rock since 1991, Beauty and the Beast is the story of a total douche-bag of a prince who has a spell cast on him to turn him into a Beast (and makes him forget his real name) and everyone in the castle is turned into talking household objects and supplies. There is hope though, if the Beast can fall in love and be loved in return, then the spell can be broken. But he only has up until his 21 birthday. This is about when Belle walks in. She's the pretty odd ball in her small French Town and wins over the audience with her "I want more" song. Her biggest problem is that she is being pursued by the "traditional hero" Gaston. She has no interest in him, at all but since she's pretty and proving to be a challenge Gaston gets his creeper on and tries to marry her. Also he abuses a book.

Belle's father takes a wrong turn and ends up at the Beast's Castle and becomes his prisoner, Belle a good daughter runs off to rescue him. When the Beast confronts her, she trades her freedom for her Father's, leaving her stuck in the castle. With Belle stuck in the castle, the movie is now set up for the usual Disney romance... you know what I'm talking about.

But wait, the Beast is a total douche. Did you forget that? The thing about Beauty and the Beast that always amazed me was that Belle doesn't actually fall madly in love with the Beast right away and give into the Stockholm Syndrome story that's waiting to happen. The Beast continues to be a jerk to Belle for a while, and rewatching it now I could believe that there was no hope for the flowers of love to blossom between them. But we all know in the end it does. The Beast saves her, and she in turn cleans his wound. The two of them begin to bond and get to know each other like normal people. Which is refreshing.

Don't get me wrong, I love this movie. I love the story (remember, hopeless romantic), I love the animation, the songs, the side characters, I love to hate Gaston. The movie is beautiful. It did lose some of its majesty in 3D though. This was a hand-drawn 2D movie (mostly) so by adapting it for 3D the movie looked flat. It was like watching paper cut outs play infront of you. There were some scenes were the 3D really did work. When Belle's Father first arrives at the castle, the castle is just made to seem that much lager by the 3D Animation, the Gargoyles look pretty damn creepy. The dance sequence with the title song was gorgeous in 3D and so was the Beast's transformation into the Prince.

The Beast as ???????? The Prince

Speaking of which, last term in one of my courses we were talking about the transformation of the Beast into a Human. When the Beast became a human, he just loses something. He's not as cool as he's been when he was a monster. I'm interested in other people's opinions on that. As a kid, I think I fell into the category where I liked the Beast more than I liked the Prince. He was cooler, he could protect Belle, he lived in a creepy castle and he looked hilarious in that blue suit that he had to squeeze himself into. When it comes to marketing the Beauty and the Beast, you don't really see the Prince. There are no posters of Belle with the Beast Prince-afied. I expect that has to do with marketing. But the bottom line is. When you watch Beauty and the Beast, you're there to see The Beast not a Prince, you're there to watch that giant water-buffalo of a creature. Just saying.

So all in all. I loved finally getting to see the movie on the large screen. I loved hearing the questions the little kids asked their parents as they watched the movie (probably) for the first time. If you love the movie, I highly recommend going to see it. Remember, you get to see the Tangled short too.

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

I love this cover... I think it's the colours

The best way I can describe Daughter of Smoke and Bone is that it's refreshing.

The book follows Karou, a young woman going to art school in Prague. There is much more to her then one would guess, her blue hair isn't dyed, but actually is "naturally" blue, and the fantastical sketches in her notebook might not actually be fantastical. Oh, and she can speak a ridiculous amount of languages... more than any normal seventeen year old would have learned... and can I point out that not all of them are human.

Karou's family is made up of Chimera, creatures that appear to be animal/human hybrids. Her father figure is Brimstone, a creature known as the Wishmonger, who trades wishes for teeth (human and animal). Karou has no idea why Brimstone collects teeth, but shrugs it off as a weird hobby. Karou's world shatters when one night, the secret door to Brimstone's world is destroyed in a fiery inferno.

Laini Taylor spins a fantastic tale, creating a believable world filled to the brim with interesting mythology. She goes about this in a rather effective way giving her reader just enough of the background to make them feel like they are in a world that does exist... that has some history to it, and that drives the reader to keep reading to find out more because they truly want to learn. What we find out is that there is another world where the Angels and the Chimera have battled for as long as either side can remember. Karou has no idea about what her family comes from and what is happening in their world even though she runs errands for Brimstone.

Taylor takes the idea of magic and creates an interesting spin on how it works. From what I have seen and read there has been a movement away from the Disney-ifed concept of magic and a spike in the idea that magic will have a price. This book is no exception. The magical system in this book is clever and works in the world of the story adding to the feeling that this is one compact functioning world.

The other thing that was really done well was the portrayal of love, relationships and sex. I find that in a lot of teen literature sex tends to be portrayed in a couple of reoccurring fashions: 

1. Sex either DOES NOT exist, is never mentioned or alluded to. The culmination of the character's romantic experiences end with a kiss or an embrace. 

2. The other route teen novels tend to follow is mentioning sex just to mention sex. Sexuality becomes a shock factor. The equivalent of "Hey Mom look what I'm reading!" 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone mentions sex, and it does so rather early in the book. But it works. It's part of the character, used to add another layer to her. The same can be said for relationships. Karou has a love interest, but she NEVER drops the ball to run off and be with him. At one point she tells him that she will choose her family over him if the decision ever came down to it. I was blown away.

I loved this book and I couldn't put it down. Taylor shows herself to be a strong writer and manages to tell a story full of love and heartbreak in one of the most believable fashions that I've seen in a while. If you love your paranormal romances, your urban fantasy or your regular fantasy or maybe are just looking for an enjoyable read that breaks from tradition then I recommend this book.

AFTER THOUGHT: According to Laini Taylor's blog the movie rights to this book have been sold to Universal. I'm a little bit iffy on the idea of making this book a movie. I believe that it could be visually stunning, as long as it's not given the Twilight treatment and just pumped out to be another teen paranormal romance movie. This book is so much more, and I hope if it does become a movie it won't be simplified.

REVIEW: Falling for Hamlet

I'm just going to skip how much
this cover bothers me, okay?

Hamlet is a story of betrayal, dealing with grief, politics and madness. In the play, Shakespeare is able to hit on many themes and emotions, giving actors much to work with leading to some intense performance from talented actors. 

Then there is this book. 

Falling for Hamlet takes the story of Hamlet, sloppily butchers it and stuffs the remaining corpse with teen fiction tropes. The book is told from the perspective of Ophelia and how she is so in love with Hamlet... etc... etc... Hamlet is so hot... etc etc. The usual. The core of the story, the atmosphere and the depth has been removed and sacrificed to make the story flashy and hip. Don't get me wrong, rewrites and novelizations of Shakespearian plays can work (For example, Fool by Christopher Moore) but the author needs to take care with what they are doing and how they approach it. 

In the case of this novel, it is modernized. It takes place in Denmark probably present day. Ophelia is still the daughter of Polonius, an advisor to the King. She has been friends with Hamlet and Horatio forever. She also has dated Hamlet off and on again, recently getting back together with him at the distain of Gertrude Hamlet's Mother. 

So Ophelia? Is she likeable? Meh. Is she relatable? Not in the slightest. On many occasions it is shoved in the Reader's face that Ophelia is hot. She's so hot that she doesn't have to do anything and she will look hot. She's blond, well dressed and lives the celebrity life. But she doesn't want to celebrity life, she wants to be normal. Ophelia is madly in love with Hamlet, which we are constantly reminded of. In the play, Ophelia is a side character. She is in love with Hamlet and Hamlet loves her too, but this isn't that crucial to the story line. Ophelia's purpose is to act as a foil to Hamlet's character and to be a comparison to him and his "decent into madness". In this novel Ophelia comes off as being unbelievable. She reminded me of Bella from Twilight judging her existence on how much Hamlet loves her. Which makes me wonder... Ophelia acknowledges that she is that girl, the girl who drops her friends and her life to run after a boy, does it make it worse that she knows this, or does it make it better in some way? 

Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet in the 1996 film adaptation.
More entertaining then anything....

Then there is Hamlet, as I mentioned earlier, Hamlet is "hot". When we are first introduced to him his main characteristics are that he is hot and he is a great boyfriend. All of Hamlet's story arch becomes unbelievable as his actions are forced. 

What really got to me, was how the author tried to incorporate the soliloquies into the novel. This didn't really work. The speeches lost their power after being translated into modern english. All of the eloquence lost. This novel took the plot strands of Hamlet and stripped it down to the bare minimum (the romance, Hamlet going crazy) and simplified the characters. I understand what Michelle Ray was attempting to do here, but it wasn't effective. This novel would have been much better if it wasn't a direct adaptation, instead stood on its own with different character names and different locations (pulling a Lion King if you will). 

I highly recommend you take a look at the original play.