The Secret Life of Bees Review

This was an exciting book for me to get my hands on. One, I was actually getting my hands on it, and two, I'd really enjoyed the movie, and had sentimental connections to it. I thought I might feel the same thing for the story if it wasn't for the way that it was written.

For anyone that might not know, The Secret Life of Bees is the story of a fourteen year old young white girl living in the south in the mid 1960s. She has an abusive father, and a mother that died when she was very young. She runs away to live with some Black women.

In the movie, they tried to make Dakota Fanning seem so sad and hurt in her life. And I felt a little sympathy for her. She has much more maturity than the character Lily. Lily annoys me so many more times than I care to admit, and a lot of it had to do with the racial stereotypes.

Rosaleen wasn't young, beautiful Jennifer Hudson; she was a middle-aged, Mammy-esque figure to Lily. This brat didn't think that Rosaleen was at all intelligent, she would speak for the grown woman, and then after meeting August Boatwright she wants the rough-around-the-edges woman to be more cultured. Yes, that is the word that the writer used. In so many ways, the girl didn't see Rosaleen as a person. I think this might have been in part the style of the story, and not that the author has so narrow a mind, because she hints at the story of Rosaleen.

Lily is a character that falls firmly in the category of dramatico. Every little detail that she hears, she rolls around until she has another reason to feel bad for herself. Now, I'm not going to lie, Lily did have some issues in her life, but she sees herself as the center of the universe. So many times in the story, I want to shake the shit out of her, or backhand her into oblivion and tell her "Your life isn't that fucking bad!" Many (at least the ones centered on in the book) of her issues stem from the fact that the one person she wants in her world, her mother, isn't with her.

The Boatwright Sisters are a group of unmarried eccentric African-American women that keep bees and live in a pink house in South Carolina. There is August, May and June. All of these women are also significantly older than their acting counterparts. At one point, there was an April. but she isn't in the book. None of them had married, and they are known for using a particular picture of a Black Madonna as their emblem. These women are not like Rosaleen; they have beautiful things, and come from money neither of them had seen. August, the eldest of the sisters, is a mystical, intelligent, deep thinking woman; there are many things that hint something mystical underneath, although the author likes to counter this by trying to make it very realistic. June Boatwright is a headstrong cellist and teacher. She doesn't like Lily from the beginning, and has an unrequited lover. May is one of twins, and a sensitive child-like woman that has issues bearing the weight of the world on her shoulders.

There are other characters, including an intelligent, handsome chocolate love interest, but the biggest part of the book is around the relationship between the women.

Now, my problems with the book comes from Lily and her style of writing. She uses many metaphors, but sometimes it can be a bit too much. Then, it's Lily's ideas around Black people. There are times that she seems oblivious to the fact that the Black characters are humans, that they experience the same type of emotions that white people can. It can make me roll my eyes; the fact that this book is written by a white woman is totally obvious in the writing. I'm not sure how to explain it, but that's how it is. She doesn't write like someone like Olivia Cole, but she's alright.

The one thing that the author really spends a lot of interesting time on is the religion that the Boatwright sisters celebrate. It's a hybrid of Catholicism, Mary worship, ancestor worship and some pagan aspects as well. Lily takes this religion into her heart, and it helps heal her. The idea of the mother of Jesus taking the place in her life that she didn't have with her mother is part of her growth into a young woman.

I would honestly recommend this book to someone that enjoys bees, Black women, your Adolescent coming-of-age stories. This is definitely one of those books that you should read before you think of purchasing it.

Some fun upcoming posts:

I'm trying to get back to writing on this blog on a regular basis. I have another book that I'm reading, something that is really raising my eyebrows, but that I'm not going to spoil just yet. There is also some fiction that I want to put up as well.

Watership Down Review

And here I go, writing ten thousand years later. But it's here. My first book review of 2014, and it's for another children's/young adult novel.

I've recently finished reading Watership Down (this website is a great resource for pictures of the real places mentioned in the book), a tale of rabbits struggling for their survival. Now, this is a book that many different people will like; if you like rabbits, you'll enjoy this, if you like adventure books, you'll like this, if you like suspense (yes, there are times where this book becomes quite the page turner), you will like this.

The plot revolves around two brother rabbits, after one has a premonition of a disaster. That's all that I can really say without revealing anything really important from the plot. I'm not a person that likes to give spoilers, so that's why this blog post is going to be rather brief. It's all about the different rabbits they encounter, the few human interactions, and the premonitions that have an incredible impact on how the rabbits view their world, and how important it is for them to push the limits to become the best rabbits possible.

Now, if you like young adult books, books like "Wind in the Willows", then this will definitely be something that you want to read. It's a lovely page turner.

This is a short ass review, because the book is very much what it is. It's amazing, and you just need to read it; if it doesn't catch you than it's probably not the book for you, and if it does, enjoy the journey.

"Fallout" By Ellen Hopkins Review!

Man, have I been on a roll with reading. It's really making me feel smarter, and it's loosening the bonds of writers block.

For the last two days I've been reading "Fallout" by Ellen Hopkins. Before I even get into the review deeply, I have to say that this book is the last in her "Crank" trilogy, so do not read this until you've read the first two books. And, that this review is going to be more like me gushing about how much I love this author.

I came across Ellen Hopkins when I was reading books about drugs a few years back. I took Crank out the library because I thought it was cool that the words looked like lines of coke. I didn't know what the book was about, I didn't know what the Monster was (in NYC, the Monster is usually used as a code for HIV), I didn't know what it did to your body.

The books looks intimidating from a distance (or like an awesome challenge to someone that loves reading), but then when you begin, you see that it's written as poetry. Usually I try not to talk about plot too much, but I have to in this case. "Crank" is a fictionalized version of Hopkins' daughter's battle with crystal meth.

I really didn't know what an epidemic the usage was, but I'd seen those horror photos of people before and after meth. I didn't know that it was so widely available in so many places. I didn't know anything; this book taught me nearly all I know. This trilogy of books cover over twenty years in the lives of the character, and her children. "Fallout" is the story of her children.

The first thing I have to say, is I love Ellen Hopkins style. In this book, the three different protagonists/narrarators have three different styles of headings, three different type faces. At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks, they're not. And then her poems themselves... I hope that there is a picture I can insert here (there wasn't, but at the first link, she has some amazing samples, and an awesome summary of the story better than this review lol). Her poems aren't written straight forward. Sometimes they tumble down the page, sometimes they take shapes, forms of letters, question marks. Quite a lot of the time, there is more than one poem in the poem, and I have to urge you to read the initial poem before reading the side poem, or you might get the wrong idea. Sometimes, the poems are part of a series of poems, and the side poems are a series of poems.

Each of the main characters have their own demons that they're fighting, their own issues stemming from the Monster. It shows how meth doesn't just effect the user, it effects everyone they come in to contact with, especially their children. I think this book should be on ever middle school mandatory reading list, especially in areas where meth is an epidemic. I always knew that there was a list in the back of my head of no-no drugs, and there is a reason why meth is at the top of that list. With "Crank" I saw how the protagonist, someone that could have been one of my friends, dabbled in it, and what happened with her life. It steals everything that ones has, and it rots holes in your brain, and metaphorically speaking, in your heart.

Unlike most of my other reviews, this book is an actual hard copy of a book; I held it in my hands, I flipped pages, I had its weight with me in all the rooms of my apartment. This is a book that will make you talk to it, talk to the main characters, whether you're urging them to take another path, or cursing at them for the choices they made (I did that a lot). The characters aren't perfect people, they're young adults, like me, but they grew up so very different from me; maybe they grew up in ways like some of you. And although they're siblings, they grew up so very different from each other. Even thinking about the things they went through, it makes me feel a type of negative way.

My recommendation for someone that wants to jump in to Ellen Hopkins' books, take them out the library. You can start with "Crank" or one of other stand alone stories. But if you start with "Crank", I really suggest taking "Glass" and "Fallout" out at the same time, because you're not going to want to wait to read what happens next. These are some of the few books I thoroughly plan on owning in my private library, hard copy, and if I can, getting them signed. Ellen Hopkins' is simply one of the best young adult writers out there.

"Second Child" By John Saul Review

I mentioned there would be a lot of updates.

A few days ago, I finally took up my sister on her fantastic reviews of the book Second Child by John Saul, and bought it for my Kindle. I spent my day yesterday reading it, and I have to say, it really was a good book.

It is quite a bit different from most of the other works that I've read, because it's incredibly modern, published in 1991, and its setting is the late 80s, early 90s. My sister read it years ago when I was a youngin'; from what she describes, it's odd that it wasn't one of the many books of hers that I stole at the age and read, although I must admit the cover looks somewhat familiar to me.

Anyway, on to the review. I'm not going to get into all of the details of the plot, but it revolves mostly around two half sisters, brought together by tragedy to live together amongst the elite hoity toity in Secret Cove, Maine, at their father's summer house. But strange things that have already happened, begin to grow more frequently.

This book has one of the worst mothers that I've read, only a few steps beneath Catherine Dollenganger , as far as how she treats her daughter. It's a really awesome story, and not something that I would have read recently if I wasn't told how good it is. It crosses over quite a few different genres; it's young adult, it's horror, it's supernatural, it's a bit psychological, it's a thriller... it's a really nice page turner.

There are some cons, some times where I shook my head, talked to my Kindle about how the character was acting/responding to what was going on with her. I'm trying to figure out how characters could be so totally blinded by beauty and grace to not believe what was going on around them. I really don't want to give away anything that happens, because I'd love for you to read it yourself.

As far as the Kindle copy, it was lovely... and $7.99. Now, I'm still not sure how I feel about paying that much for it, but considering my sister told me this is a book that I would want to own, I'm not upset. If you're a fan of John Saul, then I would suggest buying it. If you're someone that's never read his work, I would suggest going to your local library and taking out a copy, and buying it if you find that it's too awesome to part with. There are already other books by the same author that my sister is suggesting for me to look at, and I have to say, I'd love to read more of his work. I might actually have to go to the library and take out some books, just like I used to do when I was younger.