Good Monday to you, SAPL patrons!
Today had been rather slow, though I've noticed that as temperatures warm up people start filing in for something reads and AC. It's nice to see some smiling faces!
The only new news we have today, is that an anonymous donor has graciously purchased a fourth computer for us! Yeah! I informed Lazerware this morning and Tony and the team are already working on the order.
Soon we will have some top of the line computers to play games...I mean work on.
In other news, I did finish a few books this weekend. I read
Beastly by Alex Flinn, a modern, teen novel remaking the classic fairytale
Beauty and the Beast, and am waiting on the movie to arrive (I love checking out materials for FREE).
I can already tell that how much the movie will differ from the book. I mean, the main character gets turned into a beast (yes, think Disney's
Beauty and the Beast) but the movie only has him covered in weird tattoos, not fur, and the other star looks nothing like her character as described by Flinn. Where is the red hair Hollywood? She's got RED hair, not black. I'm
trying to reserve judgement.
(Spoiler alerts! I'll give you the basic overview and you sort of already know the ending to this tale so...)
Kyle Kingsbury gets turned into a beast by the witch Kendra, after being a jerk to her and pretty much everyone else he comes into contact with, and has two years to break the curse by falling in love with and being loved by another person. In this case, an average looking girl who went to his old high school.
Flinn's novel was entertaining. I think all of Flinn's works are fast, enjoyable reads with the right amount of character development and romance. Yet, I kept thinking something was missing. I'm not sure what it is I'm looking for, maybe some more meat or a deeper look into the characters' transformations. As deep into character development as Flinn goes, it almost feels like they transform into better people too quickly.
There is also very little action. Flinn's novel has one action-packed scene, most of the book is sort of a gentle and modern retelling of the fairytale.
I kind of wished that the Stockholm syndrome found in
Beauty and the Beast hadn't been reflected in the work. Sure the girl is treated well, and the main character tries to be "not a guard" and have the home be "not a prison". Still felt too stockholmy for me. (Yes, I invented the word
stockholmy).
Could there have been a different way of telling the story that avoided his taking a girl, he'd been spying on months earlier, as his prisoner to get her to spend time with him and eventually fall in love?
Probably not.
Creepy aspects aside. Flinn does a remarkable job rewriting this classic fairytale into a modern day novel. I'll give it a 3.5 stars. I almost started another one of Flinn's but I figure I better get to work on the books I have checked out currently.
Like
Library Wars by Kiira Yumi. OMG, this manga series is hilarious! I'm on book 4 already and I can tell you that if the main character got any clumsier she'd be me.
I'll give you my opinions on the series after I've finished it!
Off to take my eldest to get her kindergarten physical. She's really getting too big. I told her to stop growing and she didn't think it worked that way.
Yours-in-stockholmy-books,
Sarah
Current Read:
After the End Amy Plum
Current Mood: Library Wars enthusiast
Current Location: Library and Coffee.
