tabatha_shipley's reviews
1326 reviews

Similar to the first book in the series, which the movie followed surprisingly closely, this is a fast paced book. The topic is marketed as being depressing, but I find the adorable characters and their intelligence refreshing. I can see young readers enjoying the voice and appreciating our narrator decoding words for them during the story. I, however, was rather annoyed with the constant need to define words for me. It was a minor annoyance and didn't ruin the book for me.
I would highly recommend this tale of puzzle solving for young readers. Three stars.

"He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask..."

"There are too many of us...There are billions of us and that's too many."

I can see why this book is considered a classic. Ray Bradbury's language is nothing short of brilliant. It is mesmerizing, painting a masterpiece of a society we should fear becoming through complacency. Fifty years ago, Ray Bradbury thought up a world where people craved instant gratification so much they abandoned anything that required real complex thought, including reading. If you are like me, you will find shadows of our society in this scary version of a world.

I adored this shocking ending, the passion for literature I clearly share with Bradbury, and the idea overall. I can and will use this with preteens readers to emphasize the importance of thinking and reading. This is an amazing story. Read it with your book club and digest the deeper societal issues together, fight against the future Bradbury saw.

"...the books were on file behind their quiet eyes, the books were waiting..."

5 HUGE stars for this amazing work-of-art.

This is an excellent piece of writing that transports you to another reality, with children who are certainly exceptional...and peculiar. I enjoyed the way Mr. Riggs explained things, his movie writing background shines through. I personally found the ending to be a fantastic way to wrap up the book. You were given enough closure to feel satisfied but still left with enough questions to find book 2. The use of old photography made the story even more interesting and provided a level of enjoyment I wasn't expecting. This was a great concept!

Overall 4 stars

Whatever you think Gone Girl is about...you have no idea.

It starts out exactly like you expect from the synopsis on the back, the cover, the hype of the movie, and the chatter you've heard. Your brain, as it often does as you read, starts trying to piece the puzzle together before the characters can. You can actually feel your opinion wavering as you get deeper into the book.

This book continued to surprise me until the end. Gillian Flynn is a remarkable writer with an amazing ability to write a character's thoughts. She captivates me with her characters and surprises me continuously.

Read this one. Seriously.

This is the debut novel from the author of Gone Girl, which I previously rated 5 smiles and a wink.

Camille, the leading lady of this dark tale, has issues she slowly is forced to confront as she travels back home to write a story about missing girls in her hometown. The story is twisted, scary, and I loved it. As with Gone Girl, I was constantly impressed with the language and plot choices made by Miss. Flynn. The characters were positively real, even the twisted ones!

I did figure out the who-done-it aspect a bit early and spent some time waiting for Camille to catch up with it, but it didn't ruin the book at all! It does keep me from giving a wink to this book of twists since it kept me from being surprised.

Marissa Meyer's admits on her website (FAQ section, www.marissameyer.com) that the idea for this story was born when she entered a writing contest. What a fun way to start!

This book was purchased for me by a great little reader I had the pleasure of teaching. This science fiction book is set in the future and follows Cinder, a cyborg. I love the way Marissa brings this story to life and yet shocks me with the twists. I loved the independent and strong main character. I love the wickedly evil antagonist. I was heartbroken for some of the twists and invested in the ending of the story.

I will avidly search for the rest of this series, which promises to be further adaptations of fairy tales you thought you knew.