Review: This is All by Aidan Chambers

Dear Blog,
a review In Which Tesni Fangirls. 

Summary (from Goodreads): Using a pillow book as her form, nineteen-year-old Cordelia Kenn sets out to write her life for her unborn daughter. What emerges is a portrait of an extraordinary girl who writes frankly of love, sex, poetry, nature, and, most of all, of herself in the world. As she attempts to capture “all” of herself on paper, Cordelia maddens, fascinates, and ultimately seduces the reader in this tour de force from a writer who has helped redefine literature for young adults. A book not to be missed by any serious reader.

Review:  I honestly have no idea where I ought to start.  I've spent the last week entirely engrossed in This is All, and now I finished it's like all I can do is completely fangirl over it and want to re-read the whole thing over and over again.

It's like a journey in some respects, that begins when Cordelia is fifteen and ends when she's about twenty.  The book is her life, and the reader is like her shadow so it kind of becomes a part of theirs, too.
 At some points in the book it makes for very confusing reading.  Part two of the book is split so that you have to read all the left sides of the page from 200 to about 400, then go back to 200 again and read all the right pages.  Also part four of the book, which chronicles her creepy experience with Cal, a man who's obsessed with her, will cut suddenly from her talking about what's happening to her to her thoughts on other, completely irrelevant things.  It's actually very clever in that sense; On one hand you want to whizz through those parts of the book to get back to the central plot, but on the other when Cordy's experiences with Cal are so terrifying, the interludes about school, sleep etc seem almost like relief and a diversion. 

I loved Cordelia for the range of emotions she possessed, and the variety of reactions she could get from me; one minute I would be shouting "Yes!  Life feels like that!   Poetry is like that, and loneliness, and music is that satisfying. If you were real and I would totally follow you around everywhere",   The next I wanted to hug her; others she made me facepalm (the "It's...it's your period" scene *cringes* 'nuff said), others she made me want to cry.  She's intelligent but naïve, romantic but selfish, sometimes intense and others silly.  How does Aidan Chambers, a man and an adult, manage to write the thoughts of a teenage girl so powerfully and so personally?   There are some sections about periods, masturbation and the appeal of breasts; sex is quite an important topic. It's quite a mature read, certainly, and some of the topics I imagine a lot of parents wouldn't want their little darlings to be reading; but all I can say to them is  to just deal with it.  It's an entirely enlightening, frank book.

If I said I didn't like Will, that would be lying.  However, if I said I liked him, that also wouldn't be true. There were some moments when I really wanted to slap him and shriek; "But you care about Cordelia and you need her and she needs you!  The balance of the universe can only be restored if you love one another!" I hated him for his actions, or lack thereof.  Other times, however, I just wanted to steal him for myself,  and I very much envied Cordelia. That's part of the glory of the book; it portrays love in an entirely realistic way, ups and downs; Take for instance their "sex saga".  Aidan Chambers has eight hundred pages to build up a really deep emotional connection between the two of them.  It's not just lurrrve at first sight, complications ensue, they break up and Cordy learns a valid life lesson. There's way more substance to it than that.

Miss Martin.  MISS MARTIN IS JULIE FROM NOW I KNOW.    When I realised this I totally punched the air.  And she's all kinds of awesome in This is All because she has a deeper understanding of herself, and after taking on Nik she's pointing even more people in the direction of fulfillment.  And she's an English teacher, too, so she reads books, which is always a huge hit with me.
Now onto Edward and Cal *shudders*.  They're both...yeah.  I absolutely loathe them both, but then I think I was supposed to.  Note to self:  Never go out with a man in his thirties who works in sewage.  Especially not if you yourself are only seventeen.  Cordy's experience with Edward was one of the only points in the book I wanted to slap her. Why? What did she see in him?  I guess there was a lot of psychological stuff going on about it; how after she breaks up with Will and Izumi goes back to Japan, she needs to feel loved and he makes her feel sexy and mature.    As for Cal *shudders again*.  The less said about him the better.  He's creepy right from the start, and you know he cannot bode well.  More I shall not say.

The ending.  I totally didn't see it coming.  More I shall not say because it would totally ruin everything if I gave it away. But the impact is sudden and entirely frank; one of those endings that both makes me want to burst into tears and smile at the same time.  It's also kind of like Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness in the way it ends; how when you've finished it all you can do is just stand there in an entirely shocked and/or blown away manner.

In conclusion=  Whoooah. Aidan Chambers you are amazing for being able to write that well and that convincingly, to the point where you forget that it's only a story.
In Three Words: incredible incredible incredible.
Recommended for: mature teenagers. Adults.  Everyone. 
Rating: 5.

Foreign Language Friday: Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

Dear Blog,

Be warned: this is a very, very long review. I don't actually expect anyone to get to the end of it.

Name: Notre-Dame de Paris (or The Hunchback of Notre Dame) 

Written by: Victor Hugo
First published in: French
Translated by: John Sturrock
Summary (from Goodreads):  In the vaulted Gothic towers of Notre-Dame lives Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bellringer. Mocked and shunned for his appearance, he is pitied only by Esmeralda, a beautiful gypsy dancer to whom he becomes completely devoted. Esmeralda, however, has also attracted the attention of the sinister archdeacon Claude Frollo, and when she rejects his lecherous approaches, Frollo hatches a plot to destroy her that only Quasimodo can prevent. Victor Hugo's sensational, evocative novel brings life to the medieval Paris he loved, and mourns its passing in one of the greatest historical romances of the nineteenth century.

Review: It's a tricky business being a bookworm and/or book blogger. Because you read a lot.  Well duh, I can hear you say, what else would you be blogging about if you were a book blogger?  but let me finish.  It's hard because you read a lot; and you want to talk about the books that you read, but talking about them cuts into your reading time. And seeing as you read so much, your chances of coming across awesome books are pretty high.  But then there are so many good books, you set the bar higher for books that when you've finished them make you go whoooooah holy snood* that was awesome.
Anyway.  I can safely say that Notre-Dame de Paris (or The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), is one of those Holy-Snood-This-Is-Awesome novels.

Victor Hugo is my hero for many reasons, but one being; he wrote the book in four months.  Yes, around 200,000 words in four months.  That's like doing NaNoWriMo four times over. So I look up to him for being able to pull off such a feat, and he's probably the first person I'd say if someone asked me the question, "If you could invite any authors to a dinner party, dead or living, who would you invite?" he would be on the VIP list.
In the midst of my novel-writing frenzy that was November, this was one of the few books that I actually stopped hammering away at my laptop for in order to read.  What's not to like, and what does it miss?  Nothing.

I had better warn you; it's a painfully difficult book to get in to. Practically nothing really gets going until 170 pages in or so; a lot of it being banter between various minor characters and the escapades of Gringoire, a bumbling philosopher who's nice enough at first until his comings and goings seem to get slightly irrelevant, and then you're like, "okay, thanks Gringoire, but you really should get going now."  A similar character is Jehan Frollo, brother of the infamous Dom Claude (who I'll get to later).  But Jehan was highly amusing, and his arrogance and foolishness was actually what amused me so much.  As the plot progressed he became a welcome distraction from all the darkness was occurring, until his demise.  Which was actually to me a bigger loss than any of the other characters in the multitude of those who died, because despite his flaws and however annoyed he made everyone else, he was like a sudden pause of rain in a thunderstorm.

Another, and probably the main, thing that stands in the way of actually getting to what's otherwise known as the good part are some of the descriptions.  They go on for chapters, I kid you not.  The descriptions are utterly beautiful, it's true, but after 20 pages describing the cathedral your mind starts to wonder.  Some whole chapters could easily be skipped, unless if like me you get consumed by guilt for skipping things out, especially if you're one of those people who endeavours to finish books, because that's hugely hypocritical (strangely I have no problem with giving books up if I don't enjoy them- I just dislike skipping passages out).  Perhaps I should have taken the fact that I was contemplating skipping out a few passages as a sign that I should have given up, but I didn't want to.  Especially seeing as the rest of it was so compelling. 

And about the plot, the relevant parts themselves- well,  it was well worth it. I would say that the plot was fast-paced, but that would be lying, so I won't.  Instead I'll say; persevere.  Get past those unneeded dialogues, those descriptions that go on for pages, and in short you have a story that's so dark, and so fascinating, and so incredible, when you've finished you're asking yourself why you had ever contemplated giving it up. It's romantic in a twisted sort of way, and both disturbed and disturbing.
Mostly because of the characters. 

Who should I start with?  Well, Quasimodo I suppose, seeing as he seems to be made out to be the protagonist.  He wasn't as central to the story as I had expected; but he was still a good character.  The only word I could really use to describe him would be...interesting.  I had a lot of misconceptions about him; so he was largely a complete surprise.  I wasn't sure what to make of him, even by the end; did I root for him (yes)? Did I pity his devotion to Esmeralda, or admire it (not sure)?  And speaking of Esmeralda, she was another surprise.  Only sixteen, so she wasn't all that different from any other teenage girl in the fact that after a while what was supposedly heartbreaking naïveté just actually seemed to be a pathetic yet inescapable form of lovesickness.  My general attitude towards her was; "Yeah, I hate that you should be the object of Frollo's desire, and I really want you to escape his lecherous clutches, but honestly?  Please get over Phoebus, and then I'd like you a lot more." 
Oh, how I hated Phoebus.  What did she see in him? In this respect Notre-Dame is no different from some contemporary teen novel.  It's like The Truth About Forever and Living Dead Girl and a baby (You're probably all, "The Truth About Forever, what the heck?"  But seriously:  Phoebus=Wes). Also that would be some messed up pregnancy, with Notre-Dame being almost 200 years older; but this is all hypothetical. 

I said I would get back to Dom Claude Frollo earlier and now I will, because I'm saving my favourite character for last.  And why is such a character my favourite? I have a thing for misunderstood, tormented villains for one.  But also, and mostly, because he has so many different dimensions.  He's the most three-dimensional, well-developed character that I've come across in months. He doesn't come into the book, properly, for over a hundred pages.  And when he does it's two chapters that basically describe his childhood and such.  He's a fascinating character from the start, and it's interesting to watch him change; how his first attraction towards Esmeralda gets bent out of shape into a terrifying obsession .  He's weak, but you fear him.  He's sinister, but you pity him.  He's tormented, but you understand him. 
Yet his demise was hugely satisfying.

So I wonder if I must seem slightly geeky for writing such a hysterically enthusiastic review about a classic that often gets overlooked because it's commonly associated with an animated film.  But, really?  I hope I've done it justice.  And Kudos if you got the end of this review.   

In three words: fascinating, incredible, loooong.
Recommended for: everyone who doesn't mind a challenge.
Rating: 5.  OF COURSE.

*Yes, I have been watching a little too much Vlogbrothers lately.

Review: The Hunger Games

Dear Blog,

I know the title of this review probably sounds pretty silly, seeing as the rest of the book blogosphere is gearing up for the release of Mockingjay this August.  Having not read the Hunger Games, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. 

Before I start: I don't like the UK cover (the one on this review).  If only because I don't like books with pictures of the characters on the front, especially if they look animated.  Like  this one does.  *shall be ordering US editions of the next two books*.

Anyway.  This will be a  relatively short review because my Russian homework summons.

Summary (from Amazon.co.uk): Katniss Everdeen is a survivor. She has to be; she's representing her District, number 12, in the 74th Hunger Games in the Capitol, the heart of Panem, a new land that rose from the ruins of a post-apocalyptic North America. To punish citizens for an early rebellion, the rulers require each district to provide one girl and one boy, 24 in all, to fight like gladiators in a futuristic arena. The event is broadcast like reality TV, and the winner returns with wealth for his or her district. With clear inspiration from Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and the Greek tale of Theseus, Collins has created a brilliantly imagined dystopia, where the Capitol is rich and the rest of the country is kept in abject poverty, where the poor battle to the death for the amusement of the rich. Impressive world-building, breathtaking action and clear philosophical concerns make this volume, the beginning of a planned trilogy, as good as The Giver and more exciting.

Review: I hear they're making this into a film. I'm not sure if that's actually true or not, it could just be a rumour.  Don't take my word for it.  If they did, I wouldn't be very happy, but that's just me being picky-the characters will look all wrong, they'll miss out chunks of the story, hideous media tie-in editions will become the norm, etc. etc.  But, well, you can see why they're making it into a film.  It would make a good film.  The Hunger Games would make a good anything.

At first I wasn't so sure if it was worth all the hype.  The first hundred pages or so weren't as exciting as I had expected them to be.  Unlike Michael Grant's Gone, (which has a similar idea: teens battling it out in an enclosed space) I don't think the action begins right on the first page.  It's interesting, giving some background to the nation of Panem, Katniss' life in District 12, her friends and family, the preparation for the Games and so on. All these things are important, so you have to  read it to get to the heart-stopping part, i.e the rest of the book. It's only when the Hunger Games of the title actually get going that the excitement begins. 

But when it does?  Wow!   You can't stop reading.  And when you do tear yourself away to attend to far more unimportant matters like eating and sleeping, you're still thinking about it. I kept having dreams about it (In one of which, I was hiding up a tree about to drop a tracker-jacker nest on the Career Tributes [rich children who spend their whole lives in training for the Hunger Games], but the nest was stuck to me and the tracker-jackers flew out and stung me to death).

The idea, you can tell, is influenced muchly from other books.  Reading the synopsis, Logan's Run, Lord of the Flies, Gone, and The Other Side of the Island spring to mind.  But reading the book itself it sounds wonderfully original, and suddenly Big Brother seems innocent, happy and tranquil.  You'll not look at such reality TV in the same way again.

Well, then, what's not to like? The characters? It's sort of hard in the first person to make all the supporting characters well-rounded and three-dimensional, but Suzanne Collins manages it.  The writing? It's written as every action-type novel should be: spare but descriptive. The pace?  Well, you need the first 100 pages or so, the ending isn't rushed nor dragged out, so that's all OK. The ending? It's not exactly a cliffhanger, alas, but it leaves much space for the next two books. Overall, good job Suzanne.  Thumbs-up all round. 

Summary: I seem to be the last blogger in the universe to have read it.  Hopefully everybody else has read it before I have, and though it's not the best book I've read,  it's essential reading for teenagers and adults alike.  Rating: 4.5

*gets Mockingjay countdown for side of blog*

*rushes to library to order Catching Fire*

Review: Struts and Frets

Dear Blog,
Sorry about the quality of the picture.  But I felt like I ought to say something about Struts and Frets by Jon Skovron, and a cover makes things interesting.  Ta-da! *points to cover*  This is Struts and Frets!  *jazz hands*.

Summary (from Goodreads): Music is in Sammy’s blood. His grandfather was a jazz musician, and Sammy’s indie rock band could be huge one day—if they don’t self-destruct first. Winning the upcoming Battle of the Bands would justify all the band’s compromises and reassure Sammy that his life’s dream could become a reality. But practices are hard to schedule when Sammy’s grandfather is sick and getting worse, his mother is too busy to help either of them, and his best friend may want to be his girlfriend.

When everything in Sammy’s life seems to be headed for major catastrophe, will his music be enough to keep him together? [close]

 

Review: I'll list various things because the inside cover of the hardcover edition lists things: (These Are The Things That Keep Sammy Awake At Night, So Read This Book If You...that sort of thing)

 

Some Reasons I Like This Book:

• It's told with the point of view of a boy.  I read little contemporary fiction, and even less with a male narrator.  I thought it was an interesting insight into the mind of the opposite sex.
• In relation to the last bullet point, Sammy's voice seemed so very realistic.  Well, to my mind.  I don't know if any boys would read this and go, "pffft!"  and laugh.  But Jon Skovron is obviously a male and most likely speaks from experience.
• Still lingering on Sammy's character (he must be good to have 3 bullet points mentioning him), he's both ordinary and unique. That balance makes him likeable and easy to relate to.  He's like any other teenage boy.  He worries about love and the future of his band and his grandfather.
• I really liked the relationship between Sammy and Jen5 (there were four other Jennifers in their class at school and all the other Jennifer-related names were taken).   All teenagers will be able to relate to and in away learn from it.
• The main reason I love Struts and Frets: This book is chock-full of music, much like If I Stay. But it's a different sort of music. Instead of being a cellist, Sammy plays in an indie-rock band and his grandfather is a jazz musician. But still, it's music, and it feels fantastically alive. Unlike some other music-related books I could mention (ahem, The Journal of Danny Chaucer by Roger Stevens). There's even a Rock and Jazz Mash-up Playlist at the back of the book, and it's fun to look the songs up on YouTube and think about how they're related to the book.

Some Things  I Didn't Like:

• I can't really think of anything...Oh, there is one thing I guess.  There's a lot of swearing in this book and it doesn't really add anything to the story. That's all :D

Summary: boy or girl, Struts and Frets is a must-read.  Read, listen, enjoy.  4/5

Foreign Language Friday: Tell Me What You See

Dear Blog,
Foreign Language Friday returns with Tell Me What You See by Zoran Drvenkar.

First published in: Germany

Original title: Sag Mir, Was du Siehst
Translated by: Chantal Wright

Summary (from the blurb): Berlin. The dead of night. Sixteen-year-old Alissa and her best friend Evelin make their secret Christmas pilgrimage to Alissa's father's grave. In the graveyard, Alissa falls through thick snow into an underground crypt. Searching for a way out, she discovers something else: out of the lid of a small coffin coils a strange black plant. Drawn closer, Alissa sees its roots embedded in a young child's heart. This chance encounter sets off a chain of nightmarish events that throw her life into turmoil. Haunted by angels, stalked by her ex-boyfriend, only with Evelin's help can Alissa reclaim her sanity and discover the truth about her frightening new gift.

Review: I rarely read such creepy books.  Apart from dystopic novels where civilisation collapses, I don't tend to read creepy books.  Well, the apocalypse isn't  creepy in the same way that this is.  I've never read any Darren Shan or anything like that.  I read the chapter of The Green Mile where Edward Delacroix gets fried when I was 11.  I may have mentioned this before.  I was intrigued by the dark world of horror fiction and that sort of put me off.  Anyway.  Though I guess Tell Me What You See isn't a horror novel, it is,  a somewhat gothic chiller. I think it ought to begin with, "it was a dark and stormy night....*cue thunder bolt* BWAHAHAHA!" And it certainly begins with the sort of situation you would expect to find in a B-movie: two girls alone at night in the dark, creeping around in a graveyard.  But Zoran Drvenkar writes it so well, you don't even stop to laugh at the slight cliche.  It's genuinely creepy!  That's just the beginning.

The story alternates points of view between several of the characters-Alissa, the main character, Evelin, her best friend, Simon, Alissa's ex-boyfriend, Robert, Alissa's stepfather, the angels, and Nina, Evelin's lover.  In general I like books that do this, but alas alack more often than not they didn't sound incredibly individual.  The only real difference in the writing from Simon's point of view and Robert's point of view, for example,  is that Simon swears much more.  Oh well.  It's not that the writing wasn't gripping-it was-and it wasn't that the characters were 2-dimensional -they weren't-, but when it was told in the first person that's all it was: the first person.
However, alternating the points of view really did give different takes on what's happening: We're worried with Evelin about Alissa's sanity, and almost sympathetic to Simon when he's talking.  But then when Alissa is talking, everything going on in her head seems so real, and all we want to do when Simon appears is scream and run away.
My favourite character has to be Evelin.  She is the most awesome best friend and, in my opinion, the true hero of the story.  A), because she is always there for Alissa, and B) because of the ending, which I won't give away.

Summary: Tell Me What You See is all about friendship, obsession, death, loss, Berlin, ravens, love and angels. It's one of those "what more could you want?" books (more individuality in the characters, but...). 
Rating: 4.

Review: If I Stay

Dear Blog,
Today I shall be rambling about If I Stay by Gayle Forman.  It is the most purest of awesome.

Summary (from Amazon.co.uk): Everybody has to make choices. Some might break you. For seventeen-year-old Mia, surrounded by a wonderful family, friends and a gorgeous boyfriend decisions might seem tough, but they're all about a future full of music and love, a future that's brimming with hope. But life can change in an instant. A cold February morning ...a snowy road ...and suddenly all of Mia's choices are gone. Except one. As alone as she'll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all. Gripping, heartrending and ultimately life-affirming, "If I Stay" will make you appreciate all that you have, all that you've lost - and all that might be.

Review: first things first.  This book is way too short.  I guess the short-ness is sort of fitting to the book, but it's one of those books you read reeeeeeeally sloooooowly so it doesn't end *wants sequel*.
The blurb gives away very little.  I mean, you know some sort of devastating accident happens.  But what exactly?  Maybe it's just me being thick but the blurb made me wander, "hmmm..."

It's a mix of Michael Morpurgo's Cool! (but for teenagers), because of the whole car-crash-coma theme and Elsewhere  by Gabrielle Zevin, because of the out-of-my-body-watching-my-nearest-and-dearest theme.  So I suppose it's probably similar to The Lovely Bones in that sense. But I wouldn't really know, because I've not read the book or seen the film (except the trailer).
Despite these many books I suppose you might compare If I Stay to, it feels wonderfully original.  And I think it's both better than Cool! and Elsewhere because it's longer than Cool and more happens than in Elsewhere.

The story is alive with music.  Mia, the protagonist, is a cello player, and her boyfriend Adam plays in an indie-rock band.  A reviewer on Amazon.co.uk said something along the lines of, "it was like reading a song," and I completely agree.   The writing is flowing and poetic and clear and realistic.  I felt like I too was stood with Mia, drifting around the hospital.

It's strange how in books like this one where there are flashbacks to the protagonists' old life, sometimes they can be fascinating and sometimes you can just think, "um, I just realised I don't care." .  I mean, we didn't buy If I Stay to read about  Mia's pre-accident life.  It's like the salad at the side of your plate.  Pleasant enough but not as good as your chips/meatballs/chicken/whatever that you originally wanted.  More often than not, we don't even eat the salad, save maybe the tomatoes and a few slices of cucumber. 
Before this gets too dragged down with metaphors, what I mean to say is: such talk about your past life is entertaining but not the highlight of the story.  But in If I Stay, it's just as fascinating as the main plot itself.

And the characters themselves?  Well, because of what happened to Mia's immediate family at the beginning of the book, I didn't feel like I knew them very well.  Her parents used to be punk rockers, I knew that much.  And now (or then I should say) her father wore bow ties.  But apart from that, they remained somewhat myserious.
Adam seemed like a cool-enough character.  I liked his relationship with Mia: it seemed nice without being too-good-to-be-true: not perfect because they both kept getting distracted by their music.  If ever I have a boyfriend, I should like to have the same relationship as Adam did with Mia.  Only minus the music-will-keep-us-apart element.  Anyway, enough of my daydreams.

Summary: short, but so veeeeeery good.  Probably my favourite of the books I've read while writing this blog (The Princess and the Captain doesn't  count because I first read it 3 years ago).  As good as Jinx, but I can't compare them.  Only that: they both deal with some pretty heavy issues.  So, yes.  If you haven't already, PLEASE READ IT NOW.  I think they should make it be slightly compulsory reading at school *nods*.
Rating: 5/5.