shidoburrito's Reviews (1.54k)

I am sorry to my friend here on Goodreads who recommended this to me! I truly thought this book was awful! It reminded me a lot of the only other book I gave one star to: Firelight by Stephanie Jordan. In some ways these two books were similar: the writing was juvenile and not well developed, and the main female characters were unbearably stupid and made stupid decisions. Okay, what girl decides to "take on" a group of older boys whom she knows are dangerous? She might have a chance if she shapeshifted into something cool, but no, she's dumb and eggs them on. Also, what does this writer have against Christianity? I was raised Catholic and have lapsed a bit in my ways, and I am tolerant of other views and religions and even endorse some, but this book made me taken aback. Her ex and his family are rich, quiet, bible-thumpers who send out pamphlets and are racist? Oh, and they pay no mind to their sons who hunt, buy chains, stalk girls, or are obviously doing un-Christian things. Premarital sex? The ex doesn't even bat an eye. No Christian guilt there. These characters were so stereotypical! Not just the Christian family, everyone was a stereotype with no depth. Oh, the Japanese-American kid turns into a kitsune, likes udon and reads manga. STEREOTYPE (says the girl who reads manga and loves udon...) Anyways! I like Tavian, he was alright, but no one in this book made me care about anything and the only feelings I had were slight offense at the stereotypes. Oh well, I'm doing good if this is only the second book I didn't like.

This book certainly kept me turning the pages, but it definitely doesn't have that ol' Crichton feelin'. The "science" in this science fiction was weak and unbelieveable. Richard Preston was able to keep the basic formula of "bad company lures team of innocents into dangerous new world; bad company is brought down by own technology", but the story was about as shallow as that formula. It's a great, quick read and it will gross you out with lovely details of nature's harshness, but Crichton fans will long for the days of Lost World.

Alright! Finally some answers as to why these storms created those crazy large creatures! I haven't been reading the Valdemar books in chronological order, but it really helps to read about the Mage Storms if you're getting confused at times about the crazy big animals and dangerous forests!

I decided to stray away from the usual Companion books and read this trilogy featuring more about the Hawkbrothers, their bondbirds, and my favorite of birds: owls! And then there's Darian. Hm, what to say about Darian. I suppose I like his character well enough. His whiny mood shapes up at the price of his entire village being raided and then a group of Hawkbrothers taking him in. He proves himself even more by showing the courage to help free his fellow villagers. Yet his reasoning didn't have much depth. Ah well, it was a fun read and I will definitely read the other two books. First, I decided to take a break and read the Mage Storms trilogy to try and figure out why the heck the forest is so strange, the animals so huge, and the why the Hawkbrothers do what they do. Some back story reading is needed for this book if you want the full experience!

I came upon this book as a suggestion from an NPR "What should I read next?" flow chart. I said I wanted vampires, but scary and not romantic ones. It's true that the main character Sunshine doesn't go on and on about the beauty and smoothness of "her" vampire, in fact he's even described as ugly and hulking! No, vampires are very dangerous in this strange setting of a world a lot like ours, but changed and different in many ways because of "Others" and magic-handlers. It took a while for me to get my head around this slightly-off environment. One thing that I absolutely did NOT like was the writing style. This book is told through Sunshine's POV, but it mimic's a person's train of thought a little too well. I had to read and re-read many sentences as her narrations went on tangents I couldn't connect. It got very exhausting. Also, I was reading this book for a couple weeks during work breaks, so the jumpy writing was even harder to follow. I liked it well enough, and was always wanting to pick it back up to finish it, but it's not a book I care to read again.

Oh thank goodness! I thought Dean Koontz had lost me with his terrible books of late. Thankfully, someone at work (thanks Kathy!) recommended this one to me saying it was good and pretty scary. I like a good haunting, and demonic possession always gives me the chills, and this book was well saturated in both subjects! Also, the characters were great and the suspense as good as some of his earlier books. Yup, good job Mr. Koontz, I was loosing faith in your writing, but this book proved you still had a few good books left in you!

I was so disappointed in this book! I love Van Allsburg and his illustrations, which were always accompanied with wonderful tales that I loved to read when I was little. So, when I saw this book at work I couldn't wait to start it. I ended up liking about 3 of the stories in this collection of short stories by authors I have read and also loved! I don't know what went wrong, but the stories didn't seem to be too concerned with weaving Allsburg's illustration into their story, and came out feeling empty and unfulfilled. Perhaps these great authors couldn't handle a length restriction? Who knows why this book left me feeling disappointed with the authors I really enjoy reading.

Ellen has such a harmless and happy sense of humor that reading her books (or watching her show) never fails to make me smile, laugh, and feel good about life!