Book Review: Beastly

A Brief Summary: Basically a retelling of Beauty and the Beast if you couldn't tell from the name and the recent movie. Kyle/Adrian is the biggest douche bag on the planet. He gets a curse put on him for being so conceited at a school dance and is turned into a beast. Cue the entrance of an average and abused girl (Lindy) and some weird semi kidnapping/hostage situation equals romance, gardening, and love oh my. Oh yes, and all of this is set in a present day high school/Brooklyn.

If I could choose one word to describe this book, it would be "eh." It wasn't breathtakingly amazing. It wasn't so horrible it caused me physical pain to read it. It was a cute, no thinking involved book. However, like all things in life there will be things that certain readers do not like, no matter how good the book and here are a few things that I could have done without:

1. Lindy (an annoying name in itself)really grated my nerves. At first she didn't bother me but the closer I got to the end of the book the more I didn't like her. She was incredibly weak and was portrayed in a very child like way. Especially in her interactions with Kyle/Adrian. We are suppose to think that she's extremely intelligent but we never got to see it.

2. Kyle/Adrian went from having no interest in this girl to falling in love with her basically because he had no other options. We didn't even really get to see it happen. It was another one of those cases where the author just tells you what happens instead of showing it and developing it.

3. Scattered throughout the novel are some chat room images that K/A is participating in to get some support with his transformation. While, I didn't mind these snapshots, at times I found myself more interested in what was happening with SilentMaid than any of the actual characters the book was focused on. Which means, the real plot was somewhat lacking.

4. Kyle/Adrian did some really creepy things. I don't want to spoil too much but I'm just going to say a)alley watching people and b)the dress. Anyone who has read this will probably know which scenes I'm talking about.

Now, just to be fair I'll list a few things I did like:

1. The first part of the book really interested me. I liked seeing K/Andrian be a jerk and get his ass handed to him. I quite enjoyed reading his snotty nosed spoiled kid persona more than his over the top polite and weird prose that no one would ever talk like persona.

2. Something about Will's character (the blind tutor K/A's father hired) made me really like him. And I also liked the twist at the end with the maid.

3. I liked that Lindy didn't start out as drop dead gorgeous. The way I interpreted her later descriptions was that the more you fall in love with someone the more beautiful they appear to you. I know some reviewers thought this was more gorgeous girl in disguise, removal of glasses/hair tie equals=beautiful hottie a la "She's All That." I think through Adrian's own transformations and through falling in love with her he was able to see past her flaws and see the things that made her beautiful. I've seen this in my own life. I found my first boyfriend to be decently cute when I first started dating him, but the more I fell in love with him the more attractive I found him.

Overall, I would recommend this for young adults/teens that want an easy beach read. Definitely don't waste your time on it if you don't have a lot of time to read in the first place. I haven't seen the movie, but I doubt it's much better...although, at least it has some really hot eye candy for some of the movie.

Subliminal Messaging Through Teen Fiction

One of my favorite things to do is to read and I believe it's a good idea to instill a love of reading in children. Although, how to go about doing that is not something I really know how to do. But, this is not the subject of this blog. Normally, before buying a book I do some research on it on Amazon. You know, read the ratings (the 1 star ratings as well as the 5) and occasionally I'll stumble on to their forum section, either before I buy, or after when I'm about to leave a review. I always get annoyed with the parents on there complaining that "OMG, there was a kissing scene and I can just not believe the author would put that in there! I am just beside myself with rage. The author had the AUDACITY to ALLUDE to *whispers* s-e-x!! My wonderfully perfect child is only 14 and should not be exposed to that kind of nonsense!!!!RAWRRR down with books!" Despite the fact, that if they were truthful with themselves, their children are exposed to a lot worse watching tv, getting on the internet, and in general, interacting with people. 

Anyway, my point was suppose to be that I can't stand when adults freak out about what a book is teaching to their children and while I was reading today I found myself having an "adult" moment. I tend to read young adult fiction for the most part (although I do love all different kinds) and yes before you start bashing me, I know they are formulaic. Just like 95% of all books out there. I'm okay with formulaic and I'm okay with things being unrealistic. Because it's fiction. I need to stop now before I go off into another rant. 

Back to the topic at hand, I found myself thinking about the message these books sends to young girls and if they could be partially to blame for some of the problems youth find themselves in. Yes, I just died a little bit inside for even having that thought. 

In young adult books, the love interest is almost always the first boyfriend the girl has ever had and he is always her soul mate. Combined this with all the other media outlets and it gives off the impression that if a girl doesn't get a boyfriend by the time she's 16 or 17 she's weird and if she does get one then he should be the one. And if he isn't, then there is something wrong with her. I just wonder if we portrayed relationships a little bit more realistically if it would have an effect on how girls feel about themselves and what to expect out of relationships.

This doesn't mean I am now completely against teen books. I still enjoy them and I will probably encourage my children to read them if it something he/she enjoys. But, I will be sure to point out that people rarely marry their first boy/girlfriend. I had more things I wanted to talk about when I was thinking about writing this blog earlier, but they've evaporated from my mind. If they return to me, I'll edit this.

P.S. If you like the picture I used for this blog you should visit www.bookshelfporn.com Don't worry, I promise it isn't dirty...unless you get aroused looking at awesome pictures of libraries and books. It's okay if you do, no judgement here *shifty eyes*

Music from...

It has been said that I'm a little bit of a music whore. I can happily spend hours searching for new music. But, a lot of my new music I find while watching tv (One Tree Hill is actually the best for this). This week while watching Grey's Anatomy (am I the only one in love with the new ped doc and Karev?) I heard a voice and the voice sounded very familiar. And who was this person? Why, Lenka of course! Oh wait...You've never heard of Lenka? Shame on you. 

While I really enjoy me some Lenka, I would not recommend her for people that like hard rock and the like. Unless you have a very wide range of musical taste like I do (I seriously enjoy everything from classical music to rap...minus most country). I would however recommend listening to her on a lovely warm and sunny day while driving with the windows rolled down and nice cup of coffee nearby. She's kinda similar to Ingrid Michaelson if that helps you with genre. I'm glad to see her get some mainstream media coverage though. While she might not be for everyone (she has some songs I don't like), she does offer up some cute, fun music.

What songs of hers should you start with you ask? Well here are a few of, what I think, are her better songs.

• The leftover teenage angst in me loves "Anything I'm Not"
• "Trouble is a Friend" (watch the music video, it's pretty cute/cool)
• "The Show"
• "Like a Song"
• And of course her new song "Everything At Once" that was on Grey's Anatomy tonight

If you enjoy those songs I would also recommend "Geek Love" by Nerina Pallot and "The Quiz" by Hello Saferide. I'm always on the look out for new music so if anyone has any suggestions let me know! As long as it's not country. I might have to find a well for you to fall in if you offer up some of that. Although, I'm ashamed to admit I'm a sucker for Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats." It's just so damn catchy!

Word of advice: Be sure to have your google search setting on safe if you search for Lenka. Unless you enjoy looking at all kinds of "adult content". In that case, you're welcome.

Hobbits *DO* exist!

I'm suppose to studying for the massive amount of stuff I have due next week but I'm on the computer which obviously means the internet is but a click away. And click away I do. I can regret it later. But I doubt I will because I stumbled upon this little wonder:

It's a hobbit house! Not really, but it does look really cool. A guy made this house himself and it has very little impact on the environment. Although I'm not quite sure how I feel about the compost toilet. If I ever become a rich and famous school counselor (Is that even possible? No? Oh well, I can always marry for money I guess) then I will have this constructed immediately as a summer home...but with a real toilet built into a hidden tree-esq building.