21 / 50 words. 42% done!

New Moon

I really liked Twilight, the sequel to this book. I really did. This book, however, basically killed everything that I liked about the first book.

I cannot effectively discuss this without spoilers abound so please stop reading if you think you might read this book someday.

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OK, I warned your ass. If you are still reading, that is your own issue.

First, the positive: The only complaint I had about the first book was that it took half the book to "reveal" the vampires which was not suspenseful at all since the back of the book tells you that is what they are This book did not give away the twists so it was more fun in that respect to figure out what was going on.

Now, the negative.

Firstly off, this book glorifies suicide. Yes, you read that right. The theme in the book is, if your high school boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you or otherwise leaves  it is perfectly reasonable, romantic and right for you to kill yourself. I have a huge problem with this, esp since this book is written for high schoolers. This is a horrible message to send. I kept hoping that some character would speak out against it but over and over again it was presenting as the only romantic way to deal with a break up. Very very messed up. This weird kill yourself propaganda was the worst part about the book and it was seriously very heavy handedly presented over and over until I felt like I was being made part of a weird cult.

Second, the main characters who were likable in the first book, have both become so selfish and self-absorbed in the second book, they are beyond annoying. They only think of themselves and their precious love (which is, of course, the only true love so, you know, kill yourself if it doesn’t work out). They are willing to kill themselves or run away no matter how much it affects their family. They are also willing to do what each other doesn’t want if it doesn’t jive with what they want. By the end I was rooting for them both to die. There are half hearted mentions of how other people are affected by their actions, but they obviously don’t care.

Thirdly, the "other man" that appears in this book is a million times more likeable then her love interest. Like, epically. Her guy is a selfish melodramatic drama queen who comes off as very girly and high maintenance. The "other guy" on the other hand is actually attuned to her emotions, a nice and normal guy and loves her for real reasons instead of for a love of drama. The better this boy becomes, the more annoying it is as she pines over her original love, who has become a 1 dimensional character.

Fourthly, the main character does nothing but whine through the entire book about how she wants to be made a vampire. This was mentioned briefly in the first book but, holy cow, every page where we are not encouraging people to kill themselves, we are whining about this. Its particularly annoying because the book is told from her perspective and so she discounts any arguments against. What annoys me most is that huge things happen that would convince anyone that there is nothing good about becoming a vampire and she is all like "yay! vampire." It’s beyond unrealistic and very very irritating. The ending handles this plot point so badly its literally cringe worthy and I had to force myself to finish it and not just walk away.

Lastly, this book was very sloppy. It seemed like the whole first half of the book was basically one book and then the second half was a totally different book that she jammed into the same binding just for fun. It had no flow or pacing and I was really plodding through trying to finish this one while I flew through the first one.

So all said, after I finished the first book I was pumped for the second. After the second, it is very unlikely that I will read anymore from this author unless I am very very desperate. The second book was so sloppy, disturbing (yay! killing yourself!), and just plain annoying that I will be passing anything else from her up.

20 / 50 books. 40% done!

Twilight

I picked this book up literally by accident because I mistook the cover for another book I had been meaning to read. I decided to give it a go anyway and found it very cute.

What I liked best about it was how it took the supernatural and made it seem very ordinary (vampires playing extreme baseball for example). I zoomed through this book in 2 days and it’s around 500 pages so its a testament of how much I enjoyed it. I am not saying it is deep, its meant for high schoolers, but I still found a lot to like.

My library had the sequel handy and when I saw it on the shelf, I grabbed that as well and read it right after the first book. The sequel, however, squandered all of the good will the first book had earned. More about that in the next entry.

Pirates 3 was glorious. My whole family went to see it after watching the second movie again last night to get us pumped. We had a ball. I think the definition of a good movie is one where you laugh, cheer and cry. I don’t ask for much. Oh a scene where a monkey tries to shoot a parrot. Good times. I was having so much fun I was very hyper after the movie for several hours later. Then I listened to the Pirates 2 soundtrack three times in a row while I worked until it made me depressed that there were no more Pirates so I stopped. I might go see it again once the crowds thin out some.

That said, I now have total trilogy withdrawal. I couldn’t care less about Spiderman and Shrek, I might rent them but I don’t have any emotional attachment, but I have come to love the entire cast of Pirates. Because what was cool about pirates is that even the bit parts were the same from movie to movie so it was  fun getting to watch the same ensemble over the course of the three films. It feels more like when one of my favorite TV shows ends or Lord of the Rings. Because even if they get one or two of the actors back, they will probably never get the whole gang together again.

I have to give props to the writers, though, because they set the plot up such that if only one of the main actors agree to do a sequel, they can take the story off in at least three totally different directions. They definitely covered their bases on that and I am not usually the type to read/write fan fiction but I may need to make an exception with this because there is a lot of stuff I need to hear more about if there never is another movie.

Oh and there is supposedly a scene after the credits. We didn’t know this until after the fact so we missed it so consider yourself warned. The movie is so long I don’t know how anyone can stay for the credits and not run out of the room to the bathroom, but if you can hold it, it’s there.

One thing I do have to say is that anyone who thinks the plot is confusing must be a little . . . simple. That is what 90% of the people leaving the theatre were saying, "Why did people think the plot was confusing?" It was pretty straightforward. I mean, all the double crosses could have been hard to keep track of I suppose, but since so many reviews made mention of this, I just wanted to clarify that as an average intelligent human, its not confusing. And nearly all of the audience I saw it with agreed on this point.

This is also another movie like, with the second Pirates, where I am not convinced that the critics watched the same movie as I did. It is  long and there was one scene I thought was slow (though my family told me that was one of their favorite scenes, so there you have it) but overall I really liked it and some scenes were so awesome the time flew by. It was piratey goodness.

Oh and the theme music has been in my head since Sat. I cannot get it out. My husband and I have been running around the house, swinging imaginary swords over our heads singing it all the time. It’s like a sickness. I even sing it quietly to myself when I am all alone.

I want to be a pirate. It is very odd how you leave that movie and that is the common consensus. Everyone wants to be a pirate after that movie. But, you know, with like better hygiene.

Oh and my brother said that if your theatre has DLP you must see it in that. It’s the same price as regular but way way cooler. Our theatre doesn’t have it so we missed out, but if you can get it, it’s cool.

Oh and if you are a cheap bastard like myself, we went before noon and it was only $6. At AMC, its only $6 before noon and then $8 before 4PM and then $10 any other time. I just wanted to mention this because $6 is much less painful then $10 and there’s nothing wrong with catching a 11:45 movie on a Sat or Sunday.

As a final thought, they showed the trailer for Transformers and it gave me more joy than I thought was possible. Why? Because the Transformers are all attacking this little girl in this one part and she is totally holding a My Little Pony. Both revived toys from the 80s, both Hasbro. I am totally taking that as a shout out. I was seriously laughing so hard at that, I needed to be sedated.