Help me smile please? :(

I've been having a lousy week. Actually, lousy may not be the best word. It's been a sad week. Clearly the transition from spring break, the spring break of fun reading, to back-to-school essay-writing and -reading did not go well. Then I found out that a high school classmate of mine died in a boating accident in the Dominican Republic. She and I were not close, but when we did sit next to each other in classes she was always friendly, and we had good times talking in those classes. Her family is big on volunteering at the library, and I used to always see them there. Hearing that someone my age who I knew died is still... just a giant shock. Like the universe has tilted and someone decided to have an evilly funny time.

Today is my birthday but it really didn't feel like it because:

• It drizzled. Rain makes me sleepy and cranky and want to stay inside all day, but I had to go to class.
  
• I have a ten-page essay due tomorrow that is going poorly.
  
• My English professor wrote stuff on my mid-term essays that made me cry and feel like an unworthy English student, and now I'm worried I might not be accepted into my major.
  
• I am not celebrating at all. (Paper due tomorrow, remember?)
  

This is bad bad BAD because I like being happy. I remember Taylor nominating me for a blog award and saying how I simply "exude happiness" all the time, which made me smile because I absolutely love making people smile and laugh. It's one of the best things about life, the ability to say or do something that makes a person pull his or her mouth up at the corners and the light turn on in their eyes.

So! If you could kindly help me with something that makes me happy. I love quotes. I have a cute little notebook that I've kept since middle school, where I write all my favorite quotes. They're across the spectrum--funny, sad, life-changing, a small whisper of a thought. I'm constantly in search for the next quote that can make me pause life for a minute to think about it. I'll share with you one of my favorites:

"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?" - Anne of Green Gables

Oh, how I love Anne Shirley. She and her wonderfully unique quirks and quotes can pick up my mood anytime! If you would like, please do share some of your favorite quotes with me, so that I may be able to write them down for posterity in my quotes book. There won't be a reward for doing so, but when work stops taking over my life (i.e. next Tuesday) I will be really excited to get my blog rolling even more with giveaways, author interviews, and the like. Thanks, guys! :)

Review: Surrender by Sonya Hartnett

Tags: YA, alienation, suspense, dysfunctional families, small town, Australian lit, abuse

In a muggy and tired Australian country town, a delicate boy by the name of Anwell lives with his oppressive parents. At age 20, Anwell is wasting away on his deathbed, the victim of an unidentifiable disease. In the meantime, his childhood friend, the wild child arsonist Finnigan, roams with his dog, Surrender, who used to be Anwell’s. Told in flashbacks, Anwell remembers his moments with Finnigan, his psychotic control-freak parents, his crush Evangeline, Surrender, and the time he and Finnigan came up with a nickname for himself: Gabriel, the angel. So Gabriel was the good boy and Finnigan the bad.

The town of Mulyan has been rampaged by a firebug on and off for the past few years. These fires tear the town apart and alienate Gabriel’s family even more from everyone. The firebug was never caught, and suspicions and accusations abound and break down any sense of trust this small town could have. The years pass and Gabriel’s parents become more controlling and restrictive. It is only some time before Gabriel finally snaps, and when he does, what secrets do we the readers learn as a result?

Sonya Hartnett has written a beautiful yet tortuous novel. Poetic elegance flows within every sentence. Every single word has been painstakingly chosen for its significance. And from this prose foundation grows a touching and haunting story about the power of parental abuse on a vulnerable child’s mind. At some points I felt as if I could not connect completely with the characters and their frightening predicaments, since they were SO outrageously disturbing (and not outrageously funny--outrageously sad). The story also got boring at parts; after all, one of the main characters is bed-ridden throughout. Sometimes I found myself impatiently putting it down for several hours, but I always felt myself being drawn back to it, eager for more of Hartnett's words. Overall, this is a fascinating read for those who want something darker and lyrically written to consider on dark nights.

Similar Authors

Francesca Lia Block

M. T. Anderson (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing)

Geraldine McCaughrean (The White Darkness)

K. L. Going (Saint Iggy)

Writing: 5/5

Characters: 3/5

Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Cover discussion: 4 out of 5 - I like it. The vibrancy of the fire in the black background, the dog silhouette in the center. Very appropriate to what actually happens in the story, besides just being a strikingly arresting image. Frightening, in a way, like you can't take your eyes off it, even though it's mysterious and disturbing. Much like the book itself.

Waiting on Wednesday (7) + Birthday Shoutout!

ArchEnemy by Frank Beddor

The Looking Glass Wars, Book Three

I loved reading the first two in the trilogy about an alternate Wonderland world, The Looking Glass Wars and Seeing Redd, and so I can't wait to read this book. I couldn't manage to find a synopsis (anyone? anyone?) but I DID find the cover art. Whoa! I love the bright white-blues in the background, and have always loved the font they chose. From the title, it seems as if the third book might be mostly about Arch, who has proved himself a formidable enemy at the end of Book Two.

For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to read this trilogy yet, Frank Beddor reimagines Alice's world. The story of Alice in Wonderland as told by Lewis Carroll, he claims, which made the story sound like a laughable children's tale, got everything wrong. Alice's real name is Alyss, and she's the princess of Wondertropolis. A mutiny by her evil aunt, Redd, forces Alyss to escape into the other world--our world--where everyone laughs at her imagination until even she begins to doubt herself. But the real adventure and danger only begins when Alice/Alyss must return to Wonderland and reclaim her right to the throne.

I love retellings, and this one is a particularly well written one. I suggest you read it before the third book comes out! :)

ArchEnemy comes out in hardcover from Dial on October 15, 2009.

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Also, it's fellow blogger Carol(ina)'s 17th birthday today! Happy birthday Carol! I didn't know until Laura told us, but Carol is my birthday buddy now, haha. You can't get much closer to my birthday (the 19th--oh, tomorrow!) than hers. She's currently living it up in Florida (lucky girl!), but stop by her blog (where she put up a gorgeous Waiting on Wednesday post) and wish her a good one!

Review: Ophelia by Lisa Klein

Tags: YA, historical fiction, retelling, feminism, deception, murder

Summary

Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, is practically required reading for every English student. But how much is really known about Ophelia, Hamlet’s “girl,” who goes mad and commits suicide in the original play?

Lisa Klein offers us a different perspective on the undeveloped Shakespearean character. Ophelia is a strong-willed and beautiful young woman living in the often treacherous world of court intrigue. For the most part shunned and used by her father and brother, the once tomboyish and willful Ophelia grows into a lady with wit and passion under the wings of court women such as Queen Gertrude. Yet she sometimes feels separate from the rest of the ladies when they speak of things such as love and marriage.

That is, of course, until she crosses paths with Prince Hamlet. Their attraction for one another is undeniable, and Ophelia soon finds herself spiraling downwards into love. But when, after the suspicious death of his father the king, Hamlet’s passion for Ophelia turns into a dreadful passion for revenge, Ophelia must carve out her own path, with or without her love, if she wants to live.

Review

It is refreshing to have one of Shakespeare’s usually passive female characters retold as a strong personality. Ophelia is very much a modern woman stuck in the early seventeenth century; you can find hearty doses of feminism and religious zeal in many passages throughout. Supporting characters, however, are incompletely sketched, and I never felt any real connection with Ophelia and Hamlet’s love for one another.

About half of the book focuses on what actually occurs in the play; the rest is about Ophelia’s attempt to survive away from Elsinore. Because she ends up at a convent, the second half of the book is very much focused on religion and finding peace with oneself, so much so that at times it can begin to sound preachy. Likewise, the text is supposedly “written by Ophelia,” since it’s her recalling her past, and thus I felt sometimes as if I were being held at a distance from what was going on in the story. Ophelia seemed to approach almost everything in her past at arm’s length in her “retelling,” and that, I think, unfortunately detracted from the story’s intimacy and appeal.

I wasn’t really happy with how the book dealt with sex in Medieval Europe. I expected more emotional duress—or at least a connection I could feel with those moments, sheesh!—but didn’t get it. The ending was so obviously predictable, though happy, that it was almost depressing how easily I could have guessed what was going to happen.

Overall, however, Ophelia is an interesting way to reapproach a familiar piece of literature. If you’re looking for something strongly pro-feminism with period language that sounds genuine, pick this one up. For the rest of us, we can borrow it from the library.

Similar Authors

Jennifer Donnelly (A Northern Light)

Libba Bray

Characters: 3/5

Plot: 3/5

Writing: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Cover Discussion: 1.5 out of 5 - I'm not really a fan of this. Unless you picture Ophelia as a Gwyneth Paltrow lookalike, I'm not quite sure how the model relates to her character. I like the font and title treatment, though. What about you guys?