Scepter of the Ancients

 No matter how scary the name seems (The series name is Skulduggery Pleasant series), I assure you that this trilogy is more fantasy humor and action than horror.

                           

I found this in fifth grade when  I was browsing through the library. I picked up a book called The Faceless Ones and started reading it as soon as I came home. It was very interesting, but they kept on referencing to things that I hadn't read yet and I didn't understand.

So now a few years later, I remembered that name and looked it up again. I found the first book and read it, finding it catching my attention.

I read the re-print edition (the original title was Skulduggery Pleasant).

When her Uncle Gordon passed away, Stephanie inherits his strange mansion and everything in it.

At first she doesn't know what to do with it until she is attacked by two strange men demanding a black crystal and a scepter from her. Stephanie has no clue what they're talking about and tries to fight them until she is saved by a man in a tan overcoat who later appears to be a skeleton named Skulduggery Pleasant.

Long ago in a war among the magical world, the great Lord Melvolent was killed and his three generals were driven into hiding. Now one of them, Nefarian Serpine wants to get the Scepter of the Ancients and let dark magic rule the world.

Legend has it that when the world was ruled by the Faceless Ones, all the mortal sorcerers rebelled against their rulers. The Scepter of the Ancients was the Faceless Ones' most powerful weapon and it sung to them whenever someone was near. But when the sorcerers tried to steal it, the Scepter did not sing, so it was taken and hidden in the ground.

It's a race for power between Skulduggery and Nefarian and who will be the one to control the Scepter and let all the Faceless Ones rule the Earth once again?

My thoughts- (this time it contains spoilers)

It had very well-written descriptions and the action scenes were beautifully played. There wasn't too much fighting and too much laughter either.

I have to say that the conclusion was a little strange though. So the power of the Scepter eventually takes over and kills Serpine. It was just disappointing.

It may have been  more interesting if Serpine had gotten ahold of the power and fought Skulduggery and Stephanie. He seemed like a worthy opponent and it may have held a reader's attention better if they had some sort of battle instead of our hero and heroine doing nothing at all.

Although the ending wasn't very good, I found it a little hard to believe that an average teenager like Stephanie would be talking as smart as she was with Skulduggery and Tanith. I think that was a little far-fetched because they are both so much older than her (I mean by hundreds of years) and are so much wiser.

I did however like this quote- "Exactly a week ago I was an average high school student. Now I'm sitting in a yellow Bentley, trading comebacks with someone without a body."

This is a real good read for fans of fantasy and mystery because it combines both elements to create an amazing story and unforgettable characters.

Bewitching

I found this because I had just finished Beastly by Alex Flinn and really loved her style of writing. (I recommend that one too and may write an article on it) I started searching for more of her books and was lured in by this one.

Here's the cover. The person on the cover is Kendra, the witch character from Beastly.

About 600-700 years before the story starts, Kendra's backstory is revealed. She was the only one spared when her family was killed by the Black Death. Now it is up to her to save her youngest brother James who is infected from leaving her all alone in the world.

Upon trying to take him as far away from their home as possible, Kendra stumbles upon a house made from candy and tries to get help. Inside is a witch who kidnaps them and tries to bake James into a gingerbread man.

Kendra is forced to work for the witch and soon is told that she is also an enchantress. That explains why she was the only one that didn't get the plague when it broke out.

She kills the witch and sadly leaves her brother behind because she doesn't want him to know that she is a witch and that she can't bear to see him die like the rest of her family.

Now in the present, the point of view is shifted to that of Emma, a high school girl whose father has recently been remarried to her birth mother.

When her stepsister Lisette moves in, Emma's carefully crafted relationship with her dad instantly crumbles and he begins to favor Lisette over her.

At school, Lisette finds a spot with the popular group and soon Emma is jealous.

When she befriends Kendra and speaks about her problems, Kendra decides to stand back and watch how events unfold before taking any magical action.

Months go by and Emma is begging for Kendra's help again. This time things have gotten even worse.

But how will Kendra act to save Emma and also spare the desperate and cunning Lisette?

My thoughts-

This book without doubt deserves applause. It is a fairy tale retelling like many of Alex Flinn's other books, but it features many tales instead of just one.

My suspicions are that the majority of the story is told in respect to Cinderella. It seems that Emma is Cinderella and Lisette is the evil stepsister. Also, after the stepsister moves in, she is immediately favored by the father (Emma's father's unconditional love for Lisette) and also the stepmother is evil (but in this case it was Emma's real mother). I also thought that Kendra was like the fairy godmother (and actually to scare Lisette, Emma has Kendra dress up like a fairy and hang from the ceiling).

Though certain parts are told like other stories. Like Emma's romance with Warner was like The Little Mermaid (how she was so desperate to change herself because she loved him). What also brings out the aspect of the fairy tales being mixed in is that every once in a while, Kendra will break Emma's narrating and tell a fairy tale that is pertaining to that part of the story.

This book is interesting and innovative in it's own way. It's a must-read for anyone who loves fantasy and realistic fiction.

A Mango-Shaped Space

I actually read this book over the summer and really loved it. It made my heart melt and never before had I cried so much at the end of a book. (Okay fine, a few tears were running down my face)

I found this when I went "Midnight Amazon Surfing" one night. I had entered the name of a book I really liked and looked at the "Customers Who Bought This Also Bought" section. I think A Mango-Shaped Space was the only one I was interested in.

But now I seriously curse myself for quickly reading the summary and concluding that it was about some girl with mental issues that was trying to make the world see her as normal. That couldn't be farther from the truth.

I read the original and not the reprint edition this time.

Here's what the cover looks like.

There's a quote from this book that goes with the cover too. "Everyone I knew thought we named our cat Mango because of his orange eyes. But I named him Mango because everything about him was just so orange and yellow."

Mia's brain works very differently from those of other people. She can see colors every time she hears things. She's afraid of being called abnormal so she keeps it inside. Only one member of her family knows about this and it is her best friend and pet cat Mango whom she talks to about her problems. But when her condition gets out of control, she finally tells her family. Right away she is taken to a neuroscientist that determines that she has synesthesia, a rare condition in which certain neurons are connected to the "wrong" parts of the brain.

After joining a social network for people with the same condition, she realizes that she isn't alone and that there are many people in the world just like her. Mia also discovers that she isn't strange, but in fact very special in her own way.

My thoughts-

This is really one of my favorite realistic fiction books. Probably because it just seems so real. Mia was an ordinary kid, but she had an extraordinary talent that set her apart from everyone else. Wendy Mass writes this very beautifully and you can tell every minute detail about what her characters are feeling and why.

The way the ending turned out was a surprise, but I had begun loving all the characters so much that it was terrible. Mia's love for Mango was so deep that well, when it happened I was very sad too. This book connected with me and I was obsessed with it. 

Sometimes I wish they had made a movie out of it. Now I know they shouldn't have because condensing the story into two hours would end up leaving out all the beautiful details and "less important" parts of the story.

In short, this is one of the best books I have ever read. It's probably second to Ender's Game but still it was amazing. 

Ender's Game- Ender's Saga book 1

Recently I finished Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and also saw the movie starring Harrison Ford (Colonel Graff) and Asa Butterfield (Ender and also Hugo from the Invention of Hugo Cabret)

I had actually wanted to read this when my teacher had brought to our school's book club a list of the top 200 bestselling books. We each whipped out our phones and started writing down titles of books we wanted to read. Ender's Game was one of the ones that really caught my eye.

But I soon forgot about requesting it from the library as time went on. That was until my best friend told me about it. At first I told her I'd read it, but I sort of forgot. Then she told me again and I requested it.

Here's a picture of the cover. (I read the newer edition with the prologue and credits which you can just skip over if you want)

Andrew (Ender) Wiggin is a Third, an undesired child. He spent most of his life being hated by his brother and all the other people he knew. He finally gets a chance at a new life when he is visited by Colonel Graff and Major Anderson who have come to recruit him for Battleschool. Battleschool is a place where students learn about Earth's (worst?) enemies the Formics or Buggers.

Battleschool is an area of high competition between students. The ultimate prize is to be accepted for Command School, a prestigious place where students are then trained in the art of tactical strategy before being evaluated to become commanders in the real war.

Can Ender face the competition for the highest ranking and avoid the daily threats from his peers while making his family proud?

Meanwhile on Earth, Ender's older brother and sister Peter and Valentine want to end an upcoming war between their country and Russia by posing as adults and writing on political forums. They use the code names Demosthenes and Locke so attention cannot be drawn to them.

But Valentine senses that something is wrong with the new Peter. He won't let her be a child anymore claiming that if Ender can become a soldier, why can't they become politicians?

But can Valentine seek help from the only person she trusts and still manage to please her brother?

My thoughts- (Contains Spoilers. Please read after you have read the book or seen the movie)

I thought it was a pretty well written story with loveable characters and a good plot. I can say it was a little slow at first but later on it got so interesting that I stayed up until 2 AM one night reading it. Consequence- My eyes were sore and I couldn't concentrate all day.

I have to say that I sort of enjoyed all the parts in the Giant's Den video game. When I saw that part in the movie, I was a little scared. You see, when I think up morbid things, I can deal with them but when someone else does the thinking, they tend to go a little overboard with the blood and I get disturbed. At least I wasn't scared out of my wits.

But what really scared me was the part where Ender sees the bloody Peter with the snake in his mouth at the End of the World. 

Ender is one of my most favorite book characters. He makes my heart flutter. His courage is amazing and he is a strong person despite the hurdles he's had to jump over. Never before have I seen a fictional character do what he did and come out to be such a composed person.