THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett

This review is doubling as a school assignment

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Official Summary: Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, who's always taken orders quietly, but lately she's unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college. She's full of ambition, but without a husband, she's considered a failure. Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town...

My Summary: The Help is a beautifully written, inspirational novel that follows three different women’s point of view during the Civil Rights era. Aibileen, a house maid raising her seventeenth white baby, Minny, also a maid, that is always running into trouble with her sassy comments, and Skeeter, a twenty two white woman who dreams only to become a writer.

As a child, Skeeter was practically raised by her house maid, Constantine. Though she left during her college years and she does not know the reason behind her disappearance, Skeeter has always held more respect for the Colored people than that of her friends. One day, Skeeter asks Aibileen if she ever wished she could change things. This question eventually led to the Help, a compilation of Black house maid’s experiences working for white families. It is a risky move, but Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny are all willing to risk it in order to get their views and experiences out into the world during one of the most monumental times in all of history.

Theme: While there are a lot of obvious themes, such as racial injustice and gender roles, what I most learned from The Help was that sometimes risks need to be taken for the greater good. And on a more personal level, that people have feelings and they need to be treated as such. Aibileen and Minny were putting a lot on the line by giving Skeeter their stories - at this time in history, colored people were being beat or even killed for miniscule mistakes such as accidentally walking into a Whites Only building. They were paid less than minimum wage, accused of carrying non existent diseases, and at times, treated like they were nothing more than scum. Yet they agreed to help Skeeter because they knew it could make a difference, a difference that had to be made.

But it wasn’t only dangerous for Aibileen and Minny, but for Skeeter as well. Being white, she was mostly protected from physical harm, but not so much social. While writing Help, Skeeter lost the majority of her friends and took a major fall on the social ladder. When the end of the book was being written, she knew that she was almost in as much trouble as her colored friends in the sense of being harassed and thrown into jail. But Skeeter wanted to do something for a better future just as much as Aibileen and Minny did.

A song that I thought closely related to The Help was Fight Song by Rachel Platten. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UqfrH74wc0) because as the song says, Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny only had one match, but with it they could make an explosion. The song makes me think of looking for a better tomorrow for yourself and making it a reality, which is exactly what these three women did by committing to writing Help. It was risky, and it was nerve wracking, but they wanted to show that they still had fight left in them and they weren’t going to succumb to the Whites and their cruel, unjust treatment.

In the end, The Help was one of the most inspirational and rewarding books that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The story was complex and beautiful, as were the characters. One of the most impressive aspects of this book for me was that though there were more main characters than I am used to reading, each character was very individual and distinct. The characters kept the suspense going until the very last minute, where I barely held myself back from crying. While not everything was resolved on the outside, all characters found their internal peace, and that was what made this book for me. Something they had been so reluctant to start had turned into their greatest achievement, and the thing that revived them and made them realize, I deserve better than this. They crossed a seemingly uncrossable line that eventually led to their own personal finish line. Or, to say it better, a new, better starting line.

If you have not read The Help, I greatly encourage you to do so. I give it a rating of five stars.

Book Vs. Movie: Paper Towns

***This post will contain spoilers of the book! Do not read if you have not yet read Paper Towns and still plan to***
                

There’s really no question about who is going to win the war waged between books and movies. The books, obviously! But nonetheless, I enjoy comparing them to one another. I do it in my head all the time, so I figured I might put it on paper as well! So without further delay, Paper Towns - Book Vs. Movie!

I picked up Paper Towns only about two weeks before the movie was coming out. I LOVED it, but it was definitely something that I saw as being more popular in book format than as a movie. Not that the story wasn’t amazing, but the biggest reason that I loved it was just because I love the way that John Green writes. Paper Towns had a ton of deeper, hidden meanings that I loved to discover, and the characters were so beautifully written. I basically went to that movie just for the characters!

For a based-off-the-book movie, Paper Towns did not bother me too often. I loved the way that they portrayed and kept real to the characters. Quentin was Quentin, Margo was Margo, Ben was Ben... so I applaud their work there.

But without fail, there was one flaw that bothered me throughout the entire course of the movie.

I personally felt like the most dramatic parts in the book were dimmed down considerably in the movie. In the book, Quentin and his friends ditch graduation in a last minute plan to go find Margo (a plan that Angela was NOT A PART OF), and the whole thing is an intense mad dash to Anglo New York that, if they did not succeed, they would not find Margo at all and would most likely lose her forever. The stakes were higher than missing hair appointments and getting ready for Prom. And remember when Quentin almost hit the cow and got himself killed? In the book, everything slowed down, he accepted his fate, and when they spun off the road he was bawling his eyes out. In the movie, he laughed it off and acted like he had NOT ALMOST DIED. And then they get out of the car and mess around, even though as I recall, they were rushing to find Margo! Because she was going to leave!

And then my biggest problem...

They didn’t give Quentin the opportunity to get mad at Margo!

At the end of the book, after Quentin had found Margo, she had been a jerk (once again) to him. In the movie, he just took it. In the book, he defended himself. And yeah I egged him on! The girl dragged him around during the last weeks of his whole high school experience! And when he found her? She wasn’t impressed or happy at all, instead deciding to tell him that she hadn’t meant to be found at all and to go home. All of his work had been for nothing. So yes, I loved when he stood up for himself to Margo. But in the movie? He still just stared at her like a lost puppy who just needed love.

Whyyy!!! I gained a lot of respect for Quentin at that point in the book! Because he finally said to her, you walked all over me. And I’m not okay with that.

I wasn’t the only one who thought this, either. My mom actually leaned over to me and asked me, “Why doesn’t he say something to her? She’s been nothing but a brat!” I couldn’t agree more. Which is why we should stick to the book, people.

Okay. In the end, I think that the director did do a good job. Movie adaptations are hard, and it’s especially hard to satisfy readers of the book. But the best word of advice that I could give to you about this one: you probably won’t enjoy the movie unless you have read the book as well. I have yet to have a friend who liked that movie without having read the book previously.

And if you haven’t read it, I definitely recommend. It is quite possibly my favorite book by John Green.

Stay tuned for more Book Vs. Movie posts! This was a really fun idea that I hope to do it again in the future. Happy reading!

Let's Talk Covers - Anna and the French Kiss

I have never been a fan of this cover. In fact, I pushed off reading it for about a year (even though my Goodreads insisted that I would love it) because I hated the look of it so much. But after manning up and picking it up from the library, Anna became my new favorite contemporary. My opinion of the cover, however, did not change.

First… how is it significant? All we see is a girl leaning over smiling at a boy’s arm, with the Eiffel tower in the background. My biggest problems would probably be…

• That doesn’t look a lot like Anna. The way that the girl on the cover is acting is super Un- Annaish. She’s smiling all flirtatious and bubbly, but do we remember how she actually met St. Clair? Not so smooth. Also, he had a girlfriend and she respected that. She was completely cool with being friends. Not so sure what’s going on in the picture… I would accept it if he were smiling back, but he just looks disinterested.

• Some of you may think that this is a ridiculous reason and I admit that it kind of is… but HIS ARM LOOKS SO GIRLY TO ME. It just doesn’t look right! Maybe I’m the only one who feels this way. But seriously, I can’t get over it.

• It just looks too simple and photoshopped, not at all as phenomenal as the book is. It would have been better it if were a bit more sophisticated. It just doesn’t properly capture what is inside of the book. WHICH IS AMAZINGNESS.

Now, let’s talk about this new cover…

I know I may be contradicting myself - well, no, I am - when I say that I love it for it’s simplicity. After all, up above I said that it looks too simple. But this is the right kind of simple. A gorgeous paris scene tinted pink, with the cover’s writing over top? I don’t have any problems with it. It may not be my favorite possible cover for the book, but I don’t have any real complaints. It has the right amount of sophistication, but still promises a cute and fluffy book.

And look at that gradient effect! Gorgeous!

So yes, in the end I am happy with the way that this cover change turned out. Good job to the people who designed this new cover, whoever you are! I absolutely adore it!

THE EDGE OF FOREVER by Melissa E. Hurst

In 2013: Sixteen-year-old Alora is having blackouts. Each time she wakes up in a different place with no idea of how she got there. The one thing she is certain of? Someone is following her.

In 2146: Seventeen-year-old Bridger is one of a small number of people born with the ability to travel to the past. While on a routine school time trip, he sees the last person he expected—his dead father. The strangest part is that, according to the Department of Temporal Affairs, his father was never assigned to be in that time. Bridger’s even more stunned when he learns that his by-the-book father was there to break the most important rule of time travel—to prevent someone’s murder.

And that someone is named Alora.

Determined to discover why his father wanted to help a “ghost,” Bridger illegally shifts to 2013 and, along with Alora, races to solve the mystery surrounding her past and her connection to his father before the DTA finds him. If he can stop Alora’s death without altering the timeline, maybe he can save his father too.

The very first thing that I can tell you all about The Edge of Forever is that the world building was completely, absolutely AMAZING. It gave me that feeling that everybody is chasing after while they are reading a book - like you are a part of the story, that you are actually there with the character. This is the number one reason that I loved this book, but I do have two more equally respectable reasons.

Reason #2 as to why I loved this book so much was the unique (and in my opinion, better) way that Hurst wrote and handled time travel. I do not usually enjoy time travel books - it always confuses me how the characters can just dawdle around with time with basically no consequences at the end of the day. When I (kind of) watched The Lake House I was confused about how the couple could end up together at all - they are in totally different time zones. It’s confusing, it’s frustrating, and it’s totally unrealistic (aside from the fact that they are traveling through time). But in The Edge of Forever there are very specific rules about what they can and can not do in different time zones. Only time traveling specialists, who are all invisible, are allowed to travel through time, and even then it is only to observe. The travelers are not allowed to prevent something that happened in the past (such as stopping a loved one’s death) from happening again, and they can’t talk to anybody that is not from their specific time zone. These rules made it a lot easier for me to comprehend, and stopped me from dwelling on it to long and gave me time to actually pay attention to the story.

Reason #3 - there was minimal swearing, and I never felt uncomfortable reading the book. Sometimes it is hard to come across a YA book that you can completely get through without squirming even a little bit (for me, anyway), but it still had perfectly adorable romance and didn’t seem too middle grade and innocent. There is a made-up swear word that the characters use in place of the f-word, Furing, but I would take that over the original word any day.

In the end, I think that The Edge of Forever was beautifully written, and a fun read. It was a book that kept on giving, and a very rewarding book to finish! Needless to say, I am excited for the Sequel!

BREAKING NEWS!

We have landed an Interview with...

MELISSA E. HURST!!!

1. Thank you so much for spending some time for an interview Melissa! Can you tell us a little bit about your book, The Edge of Forever? It’s a young adult time travel novel that features Bridger, a teen Time Bender from 2146, who receives a message from his recently deceased father to save someone named Alora. It turns out that Alora is a teen girl living in 2013 who is destined to be murdered.

2. Where did you get your inspiration for The Edge of Forever? The original spark came when I was driving one day and heard a song on the radio, If I Die Young by The Band Perry. I was also thinking about an old time travel movie from the 1980’s, Somewhere in Time.

3. Did you have a favorite character in The Edge of Forever, or a character you took a particular liking to? I really identify with Grace. She’s super protective of Alora, and I’m the same way with my children.

5. Do you plan on doing anything else with the characters of The Edge of Forever? Yes! There will be a sequel.

6. How do you get in the zone while writing? Do you listen to music? Do you have anything you need to have nearby? I can’t listen to music while writing, but I often listen to a few songs that set the tone for a scene I’m going to write. I also like having chocolate nearby.

7. Do you have a dream cast for if The Edge of Forever if it were to become a movie? I’ve always pictured AnnaSophia Robb as Alora and Josh Hutcherson as Bridger. I also think Kim Basinger would be great as Alora’s Aunt Grace.

8. What is the best writing advice you have ever received, and the worst? Do you have any writing advice for future writers? Best writing advice: Don’t chase trends. Worst writing advice: Only write what you know. Writing advice for future writers: For years, I said I’d write a book when I had more time, and that never really happened. It was only when I started making time to write that I actually finished a book. You don’t have to spend hours each day writing. It’s amazing how much you can achieve with small blocks of time.

9. Was there a specific time in your life when you realized that you wanted to become a writer? It was during my middle school years. I had two fantastic teachers who encouraged my writing, and that made me think I could possibly become an author one day.

10. Do you have any other projects that you are working on, or can you share some ideas you have for future books? I’m currently working on The Edge of Forever’s sequel, On Through the Never.

***GREAT BIG THANKS TO SKY PONY PRESS FOR A REVIEW COPY!***

THE DARKEST LIGHT by Ashley Earley

After discovering a secret her parents have kept from her all her life, Alyssa’s life begins to unravel, and she’s thrown into a magical world she never knew existed—one that’s both frightening and intriguing to her.

While trying to discover who she really is, and who her father was, she begins to see the darkness this unknown land holds, and fears becoming part of that darkness.

Torn between this new world, and the human world, Alyssa must make the ultimate decision between the possibility of losing herself forever to become part of it, or stay behind and let the world of Föld perish.

As if her life wasn’t complicated enough, she’s falling for two guys—that live in totally different worlds. Wesley and Archer couldn’t be more different, but they both have her captivated.

A battle is coming. Will Alyssa be forced to fight against the people she loves?

Filled with action, adventure, and romance, The Darkest Light captivates from the start. As soon as you meet the protagonist, Alyssa, you fall into her life, and her world. She is fighting depression and still constantly thinking of her father, who died in a car crash, and you can’t help but feel bad for her unfortunate situation. Her mother, in an attempt to help Alyssa regain her equilibrium, brings her to Alyssa’s grandmother’s house.

Which is how Alyssa finds out about Föld.

Föld was a beautifully written world, full of elves, dragons, and other magical beings. If I could relate this to another book that I have read, I would say it resembled fablehaven in a lot of ways (which was a favorite of mine when I was younger). In Föld, Alyssa finds out all about her destiny. Being part elf, she is welcomed into Föld, but in order to be fully accepted she has to go through a choosing, where she can either be chosen by the elves that fight and strive for darkness, or the elves that fight for the light.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Darkest Light. The romance was innocent and adorable, and the action was intense and heart-pounding. I did, however, find the genre to be a little confusing and misleading.

While reading this book, I found that it more closely resembled a middle grade book. There were no swear words. The romance was almost as innocent as it could get (few kisses here and there, but none too intense or descriptive) and it was an easier read. Only until the last one hundred or so pages, where it started to become a little more Young Adult when some swear words started popping up(d-word, s-word, nothing too bad.) So I would say it’s an easier, relaxing YA book, or a Middle Grade for more mature readers who are okay with a few swear words.

The last thing that I would say about The Darkest Light is that it is a good book when you are looking to escape your current reality, but don’t want to invest yourself with something extreme of a book.

***GREAT BIG THANKS TO ASHLEY EARLEY FOR A REVIEW COPY***

SUICIDE NOTES FROM BEAUTIFUL GIRLS by Lynn Weingarten

Pitched as Gone Girl meets Thirteen Reasons Why

June barely has time to mourn the death of her best friend Delia, before Delia's ex-boyfriend convinces her Delia was murdered, and June is swept into a tangle of lies, deceit, and conspiracy.

The very beginning of Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls seemed very promising and mysterious.  There were so many twists, turns, and leads that it was almost dizzying, and I liked trying to figure out for myself just what had happened to June’s (mostly former) best friend, Delia. If there was one good thing about this book, it would be the beginning and how put together the plot seemed to be. There were a lot of different things going on, but it all seemed to fit together and make sense, creating this beautiful mystery that just begged to be solved. But then while I loved this aspect, there were just too many things about this particular book that I did not like.

Throughout the book, June has some flashbacks of her and Delia’s past together. It was here that I found out that I really don’t like Delia. For one, she is in plenty of ways a terrible friend. But June still loves her (she acted kind of like a lost puppy for the majority of the book), because she relies on Delia for everything. Delia can sabotage June all she wants, because she knows that June will just take it and still like her. Second, she was super creepy. She thought things that just weren’t right, weren’t normal, and I know that was the point but she seemed dangerous and it caused her to be the bad friend described above. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t go any further into that.

Another thing that I didn’t like about this book was all of the swearing. Especially the f-bombs. Those were out of control. I literally felt like there was one on every page, especially where Delia was concerned. So if you have a sensitivity to language, then I definitely wouldn’t recommend this read.

Overall, I mark this down as a very dark and mature read. There is sexual content - the fade to black kind without any detail, but in every case it was too weird or wrong for it to be romantic in any way. The language was already discussed above as really strong, and I didn’t find any characters to be good role models.

I give this book 2 stars.

***GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO SIMON PULSE FOR A REVIEW COPY***

OUT OF CONTROL by Sarah Alderson

When 17 year old Liva witnesses a brutal murder she’s taken into police custody for her own protection. But when the police station is attacked and bullets start flying it becomes clear that Liva is not just a witness, she’s a target.

Together with a car thief called Jay, Liva manages to escape the massacre but now the two of them are alone in New York, trying to outrun and outwit two killers who will stop at nothing to find them.

When you live on the edge, there’s a long way to fall.

Yay, the first review of The Two Week Thriller! I know it’s late, but I will be getting plenty of reviews up in the next couple of days, now that I once again have internet. On to the review!

Out of Control stuck true to it’s title. There was a lot of things that were just... out of control! The story was unbelievable in it’s craziness - but in the end, it made sense and was definitely possible. It wasn’t too far fetched, but it was definitely chaotic (in the best way possible!)

We start out with meeting our main character Liva, who is in the police department as a witness to a murder. When a man dressed as a police officer comes in and shoots the department out, she helps Jay (who was in for car theft) escape safely. It becomes immediately clear that Liva is a good girl who has never done anybody any harm, even though the fact that she is being stalked and shot at says differently. Both Jay and Liva team up after the massacre, when they find out that it isn’t over for either of them - especially not Liva.

This book spans over a twenty four hour period, where all the while Jay and Liva must avoid detection until her father, who works with a government agency that focuses on human trafficking, to fly in from Nigeria in the morning. But the people after both of them are good at tracking, and they don’t go down without a fight.

This book was a great mixture of action and adventure, mystery, and romance. While being constantly scared for Liva and Jay and wondering what was going on, I was half of the time dwelling on their relationship. Jay was so attractive, and such a great guy - always looking for the good in people, and all he ever wanted in life is to help people out. Isn’t it enough that he is protecting Liva while blood thirsty murderers are on her tail? WHY WOULDN’T THEY LOVE EACH OTHER? Patience was key there, I’m afraid.

Overall, I don’t feel like I can say a lot more about this book. Going any further would probably be a spoiler. So all I will say is read it, because it kept me guessing and I never would have saw that ending coming. As for your final reason - Jay and Liva are worth it. They are both amazing characters, and made me want to be a better person. So go pick it up!

***GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO SIMON PULSE FOR A REVIEW COPY***