Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings." - Cassius from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

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I read Paper Towns last summer and thought it was brilliant. This book was not quite as good. Not "quite" because it was better. I ordered the novel already signed by John Green, and had it signed again by when I met John and his brother Hank. Like so few things can do (Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 come to mind, as well as several Pixar animations), it seamlessly blended hilarity with tragedy.

The Fault in Our Stars tells the story of Hazel, a teenage girl with cancer. But it does not focus on the cancer; in fact, she states the appropriate number of times that she does not want people to sympathize with her, as she is not only a victim of disease, but a person as well. She meets a boy named Augustus Waters (Gus) and has a non-cliche, non-sappy romance with him (very rare nowadays), but Gus also has cancer and his days are numbered. They go to Amsterdam to meet a writer, and there is much discussion of humanity and the philosophies and such. I can't say much more without spoiling things, but I definitely recommend this to pretty much anyone.

Final grade: A

Movie Review: The Woman in Black (2012)

My three favorite genres in film and literature are, from greatest to third greatest (because I hate to say "least"), fantasy, science fiction, and horror. This film is the latter, so I had dearly hoped it would not disappoint.

But first, let me say this: The Woman in Black, so far as I know, is my first Daniel Radcliffe movie other than the Harry Potter franchise. I know he does, or at least did - I hope he still does - live theatre back in the UK, such as David Copperfield and Equus, as well as the American Broadway hit How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I saw none of these; I had not the fortune. So he's a great actor. If I haven't established that opinion already, I do it now in a frank manner. Acting aside, this movie had loads of "jump" scares. And I didn't like it.

I loved it. Even if it did have a lot of loud and startling moments, it was very creepy on both literally morbid and deeply mental levels. The plot, to put it in my own "pitch" form for brevity, is "A lawyer must travel to an old cursed house for business purposes." There's the whole not-believing-it factor, which one could call cliche; but then I'd permit one to call human main characters cliche. I think it's perfectly realistic to be skeptical in this sort of situation. The moments with the titular Woman in Black honestly chilled me to a degree only a few other things have:

• Dracula's moans of pain as Van Helsing stakes him off-screen in Dracula (1931)
• Mina (Lucy in the book, for some reason they like to trade names in movies) coming to her father as a pale vampire ("Pa-pa?") in Dracula (1979)
• Danny Glick floating outside Mark Petrie's window and tapping softly-yet-eerily to be let in (Salem's Lot [1979])
• The ending to The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• The corpse of the evil queen (The Tenth Kingdom, 2000, but the same one who poisoned Snow White; TTK is a fairy-tale spin-off, and remember, I was nine when I saw this scene, so it might or might not still horrify me)
• The greater part of everything in 1408 (2007)
• The "dead" people in The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)
• Voldemort, especially in Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)

That may look like a lot, but I've seen many, many movies (although I still have so many to see) and I really don't spook very easily. But The Woman in Black was truly a very frightening experience. If you're up for that sort of thing, go see it! It's well worth the money in my opinion. And little Harry Potter is a grown-up now.... He's older than I, true, but I still watched him grow up through the HP movies. I think being scary is harder now than in past decades. Even I am not scared by most horror flicks, even if I love them. The Shining with Jack Nicholson comes to mind: creepy, and a great movie, but it didn't send me to bed with the light on, if you get my drift. I need to finish that book, and the Mick Garris remake.... Anyhow, there's a very precise art to being scary. You have to probe the mind, I think. Something along those lines. I've seen at least a couple of non-horror movies which I found unsettling: The Silence of the Lambs; Coraline; and Inception. Arguably the first two might be considered horror, but my point is that scary is harder now. I do wonder if vampires will ever be scary again: even if (WHEN) the fad wears down, it will still have existed. Pity - as you can probably surmise, I'm a vampire geek and a Dracula nerd. The same applies to originality in any genre: there are so many writers, and even with many writing the same thing - in fact this may be part or all of the cause and/or effect - it's hard to come up with a decently original idea. Trust me, I know it!

According to the amazing Cory Doctorow and the late, great Blake Snyder, nothing is one hundred percent new. Even if it seems that way, the core of the story is one of (ten?) formulas. I don't like Stephenie Meyer's books, but I must say she seems to have hit gold (even if Bram Stoker's Dracula, 1992, had demonic romance in it). I love the Hunger Games Trilogy, but as I understand, Stephen King had already written The Running Man - I have yet to read or see that one, but it sounds similar. Now dystopias are the thing. I digress.

If you'll pardon my digressing a slight further, I must directly reprimand myself for these tangents, as I have an ACT soon and plan on taking the optional Writing portion. I seem to recall something about focus and clear sequential order of thoughts, as described in my preparation book. What an active hypocrite I might be here, even acknowledging it as I type!

The movie! It was great, but I do not recommend it for anyone who spooks easily or has medical conditions sensitive to sudden noise. If you enjoy a good spook, go for it! It's really brilliant.

Final grade: A

Meeting the Vlogbrothers

Ye deities would hope you all (or you most) know about John Green and his brother Hank Green. If not, look them up!!!

I met them on Saturday night. In person. I got a few pictures, but I have not uploaded them yet. But it was very exciting and I was called on during the "questions" bit. When I finally stepped up to meet the brothers near the end, it was amazing being so close to such legends. Sorry to sound boastful; I am merely excited. They signed a few things each for each "meeter" and my copy of John's new novel The Fault in Our Stars, as well as my copy of Hank's album Ellen Hardcastle, marked "DFtbA" (Don't Forget to be Awesome).

I actually need to be somewhere soon, but I felt this was worth a post, even if it's not quite fresh in the ol' noggin. I love you all!

DFtbA,

Lewis

Movie Review: Inception (2010)

Now for another positive!

One friend of mine often calls this the best film ever made. I don't know, but I thought it was quite amazing. I only saw it once, and that was when it came out, but I'm now in love with Christopher Nolan as a director and writer. I have yet to see any Batman film, including his ones, and this movie bent my mind in ways you couldn't imagine if you haven't seen it.

A man called Cobb (played by the legendary Leonardo DiCaprio; forgot the character's first name) is lost in a world of dreams trying to rescue his wife from limbo. Cobb and his men go deep into dreams within dreams within dreams, etc., attempting to navigate the forever-shifting labyrinth of the human mind in order to get back home to reality. It's got some pretty amazing stuff, like the ground bending upward and cars upside-down overhead (still driving), and the hotel-hallway fight scene was also spectacular. I'm literally feeling a mental loss of gravity right now thinking about it.

The music was by soundtrack emperor Hans Zimmer, who scored Pirates of the Caribbean 2, 3, and 4, Nolan's Dark Knight (Batman) franchise, The Lion King, Sherlock Holmes (2009), and so on and so forth. I enjoy the famous "Inception Horn" (not sure if Zimmer composed that sound), and I should probably buy this movie's score on iTunes soon.

I also think "Leo" is a great actor, and Dileep Rao (the scientist guy) was in three movies I've seen - Drag Me to Hell, Avatar (blue people one, not airbenders), and this. Sam Worthington was in the dreadful Terminator Salvation, Avatar as well, and the newer Clash of the Titans. My question is, Where did they go afterward? I hope to see them again sometime.

Well then, I suppose that is all.

Final grade: A

Movie Review: Super 8 (2011)

I've seen this movie twice now. It's not my first J.J. Abrams film - I think that might have been Star Trek (2009), but I think it's the best yet. Plus, Steven Spielberg is the main producer, so that ought to say something. The plot of this movie is not entirely clear until you actually see it: I don't want to give to much away. But I shall say this:

A group of middle-school students in 1979 are making a film by railroad tracks with a super 8 camera when a massive train crash occurs. In the panicked confusion, they leave the camera rolling and catch something on it. The train, shall we say, was not empty. And a bunch of scary sci-fi things happen.

Very touching movie, funny, sad, and above all, it had the feel to it of an older movie, like a classic. I really can't think of anything wrong with Super 8, but I wouldn't recommend it to young children due to some very loud and intense parts. But it was great.

Final grade: A

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

I thought I'd review this while it was fresh in my head, although I have yet to critique the first three. This is currently my favorite franchise, the first being the best, and as much as I enjoyed this one, I'd have made a few things clearer. Why would the British Navy let a former pirate join their ranks? Where did Blackbeard's powers come from? How could he have survived being beheaded but not stabbed? Even with these weaknesses, I had a lot of fun watching this film and have seen it twice already.

I thought Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides would be a prequel to the first three, but it takes place after 3. After losing the Black Pearl to Blackbeard, Barbossa and Captain Jack Sparrow team up to track down the mystical Fountain of Youth before Blackbeard or the Spanish get there first. In The Curse of the Black Pearl, there was the titular Pearl, inDead Man's Chest and At World's End there was the Flying Dutchman, and in this there wasQueen Anne's Revenge, which was a real ship just recently discovered off the coast of (I think) North Carolina. Blackbeard's ship. What I am saying is that there are several really cool ships in the franchise. Blackbeard is a great villain and I liked how they kept true to real history by having him light his beard on fire. Hans Zimmer, my favorite soundtrack musician, scored this movie quite well. I enjoyed his work on 2 and 3 as well, particularly with "The Kraken," "Davy Jones," "Hoist the Colours," And "I Don't Think Now is the Best Time."

If you like fantasy, mind-bending, swashbuckling adventure and hilarious witticisms, watch this movie. I personally don't usually see things in 3D, just because it usually is not in 3D, but says so to make extra money. 2D is fine, but I love this movie. I give it a B.

Book Review: The Stand by Stephen King

First off, Stephen King is currently my favorite author, my favorite book being'Salem's Lot, and this is not only his longest singular work (his longest work is the Dark Tower series, of which I have read the first three out of seven) - it is the longest book I have read to date. According to Yahoo! Answers, it consists of 464,218 words. Both editions I read from (one was rain-soaked and I bought an older copy) had 1,141 pages. It is an awesome epic novel and I recommend it to the epic fantasy and/or horror fan.

After a deadly plague released by a government mistake sweeps across the world and wipes out ninety-something percent of the population, those who survived take two sides: the good guys flock to 108-year-old Mother Abagail in Colorado and the bad guys run to Las Vegas to Randall Flagg, a demon or devil of some sort who appears human but can both shape-shift and project his soul into animals. He gives off an aura of extreme, cold terror to Abagail's people, and eventually a few brave men decide to journey from Boulder, Colorado, to Vegas on foot to confront the dark man, as Flagg is often called...for the ultimate stand.

I really loved this book, but the climax, shall we say, was a bit of a deus ex machina. Meaning "God of the Machine." I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that God quite literally had a hand in things, where he could have helped the entire time. That is the same problem I had with C.S. Lewis and his Narnia books, which I need to read the rest of still: God reaches in and fixes things. The movie Avatar (the James Cameron one with blue people, not The Last Airbender) did this too: "Jake! Eywa heard you!!!"

But other than that, the writing was quite good. I was never quite sure who the main character was, but I don't think there really was one: Star Wars does that too. More of an "overall epic story" thing.

Final grade: B

Florida Again

Currently I am in Florida visiting some old friends--Pam and her lot; I believe I've mentioned them before. I got up at nine-ish yesterday morning and arrived at the airport around eleven. I had not seen any of them in over two years, and there was much rejoicing. We went walking on the beach and out to eat, and I visited their two houses--both modestly sized (in a good way, of course) and full of books and such. They're really nice places, and I'll miss them in a week. But for now, I type this on their desktop Mac (is this my first time using one?), shortly before retiring. Most likely it will be a short post, but I must note that the climate is perfect for me: Not too hot or cool, but just right. It seems that a lot of people want to live in a big mansion; I do not wish for that, as a smallish one would do for me. That way I could afford a lot more other things, like books and stuff. Anyhow, we're going to this place in a bit, so I'll blog later.

Cheerio!
-Lewis

Three Library-Related Things

Ah, I keep meaning to post this, along with my review for The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, but stuff keeps happening. Sorry!

I.
Anyhow, I've been checking out a lot of library audio books as of late. I realized it is more convenient at times to check one out (for free, as opposed to bookstores) and put it on iTunes for later listening. I might have mentioned that I am still listening to Redwall, and it remains so, but I am a good way in - six or seven discs out of nine, I think. I'm liking it so far. I have the prequel, Mossflower, on here too. The only two problems I have had with the audio books have been 1) The Lovely Bones, which was missing a CD, and 2) The World According to Garp, for which Disc 2 was identified as Disc 1 on two separate copies. I guess I'll just read the bound book.

II.
You know what? I'm going to put my Poison Eaters review here after all. I'd give the book four stars out of five, and I really enjoyed all of the stories, particularly "A Reversal of Fortune," "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown," and one I'm forgetting the name of, about a wolf eating people in a castle (sorry Holly!). And of course "The Poison Eaters" was rather interesting. I try to be pickyish about what I give five stars, but this book was really good in every way. Recommend? Certainly.

III.
I went to my first Printz club yesterday, and I enjoyed it. I only wish I'd known about it years ago. I got some good recommendations, and I checked out a book called The Floating Islands, which looked good. I'll see these people in maybe four weeks (some sooner), and I look forward to it. I also met some awesome people there, such as (Nikki? Was that it? She was really cool). Hannah of course is amazing, and Olivia too, and that Rachel seems pretty cool...and lucky her mother lets her have a sword (mine is quite paranoid). And this guy named Alex seemed very friendly. Overall, aside from the not knowing why people start clapping at times, I think it will work out well.

Pensieve: The Party of the Prince

So yeah, I'm a Potter nerd. Shocking? Hardly, say I, but I do know myself pretty well. So I wasn't sure what to post, so I decided to share a memory (hence the pensieve).

When I was ten, my good friend Pam took me and her daughter and granddaughter to the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the book). I was on summer break at the time, between fourth and fifth grade. I remember scrambling for a costume, and making an attempt at a Harry one (original!), and somehow won a prize for it: an Eldest CD with chapter one read by the author, followed by and interview with him (on the CD--I've never met Paolini, though I would love to, and my Aunt Kelly has). Now you see, this was around my "start a hundred books and finish none of them" phase, which I wish had never happened. But it did, and that's that. I saw a teacher from my elementary school there, although as she married that summer, I am not sure if she was Ms. Lee or Mrs. Hargett then.

I remember going to Barnes & Noble and having fun, then to the mall food court across the street, then to a store I had never known about: Quail Ridge Books & Music (for those of you who don't know, I go there pretty much every two weeks now for a writing group). Now sadly, I had not read the series yet, but when I did (when I was twelve), I loved them. I ought to reread them nowadays.

I also went to the Deathly Hallows one, but that was two years later, and I knew some more of you people then. For now, that's most of what I remember.

I solemnly swear I am up to no good,
Danny | Lewis | Harry