Showing posts with label novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label novel. Show all posts

Monday, October 1, 2012

A Clockwork Orange

A friend of mine told me that his favourite book ever was A Clockwork Orange written by Anthony Burgess, so I decided to give it a shot. I finished it a few weeks ago and I've thought about it a lot. And I still can't decide what I think about it.

It is a dystopian novel, set in future London. It follows the story of a boy, Alex, in three parts. The first part is about him and his "droogs" basically beating people up and what not. He then gets caught by the police. The second part follow his time in jail two year later. Where he finds out about a new therapy that turns felons into good people. He then goes through the extremely unethical therapy and turns "good." The third part is after he has been released into the world a changed man. He ends up running into some old "friends" and things don't go so well for him.

What I liked most about the book was the last chapter. Which, if you've seen the movie, you won't know anything about because they cut it out. But he really does change and grows up.

I really don't know what else to say, it was a very thought provoking book. It makes you think about how important ethics really are.

I would definitely recommend this book. The character of Alex is a very interesting one. Although, the language can be difficult to understand at first, the author uses a lot of slang. However, you do get the hang of it after a while.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Undead and Unwed - Mary Janice Davidson

I recently finished a fantasy/romance book by Mary Janice Davidson called Undead and Unwed. It is the first of the Queen Betsy series.

It is about a young woman who was recently attacked by a bunch of people. Month later she loses her job, and is hit by a car. Which kills her. Unfortunately, the car didn't quite get the job done. Her death just doesn't seem to want to stick. She wakes up in the morgue only to realize no matter how hard she tries, she just can't die! She has become a vampire.

The story goes on, she as sex with a few people and to be frank. I just did not find it interesting at all. I didn't realize going into it that it was supposed to be a romance. Well, I knew that there was romance in it, but I thought it would be more in the background. Needless to say, I was wrong.

Personally, I do not find this kind of book interesting. I stuck it out until the end, and now I can say, without a doubt, that I did not like it. I will most definitely not be continuing on with this series.

On the other hand, I can see how people would like this book, it does try to be funny, and succeeds some of the time, but I have higher standards than that. This book would definitely be a guilty pleasure read. Although to me there would be no pleasure, and a lot of guilt!

Suffice to say I do not recommend this book.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Stardust

Cover of Stardust by Neil Gaiman
So I have come to the conclusion that I am just never going to finish reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I tried so hard. The sad part is, I only have approximately 30-40 pages left. I just cannot get myself to read it. Especially with school starting up again, I haven't really found the time. But, any time that I find that I have a few extra minutes, or on the weekend when I'm not crazy busy, I have no interest in reading it. I look at it on my bedside table and just grimace, and I always say to myself "maybe next time." I think that it's time that I just admit that it's not going to happen. I haven't even picked it up in over two weeks!

I guess that means that I can't really give it a good review. To be fair, when I am/was reading it I enjoyed it. It just wasn't really a page turning, however, I still found it interesting.

There just wasn't enough suspense for me. I give this book a 2 out of 5.
The movie was a lot better.

I feel really bad when I start a book and don't finish it. Like I've failed, not only myself, but others, like the author or something. Like I owe it to the author. By choosing his/her book to read and not finishing it, I feel like I'm insulting them.

Well, I am very sorry Mr. Gaiman, I tried, and failed. In fact, I failed us both. But don't lose faith in me! I have a bunch of your other books sitting on my bedside table, collecting dust/waiting for Christmas break, to be read. And I will not only start them, but I will finish them. Or at least some of them, I doubt I can get through all of them in the short 2 weeks we get as break.