Narnia Withdrawls

I have this thing, and I can`t really share it with anybody. So I have turned to the Internet! I am a huge fan of The Chronicles of Narnia. I love the concept, and I love all of the stories. C.S. Lewis has written a masterpiece. It is one of my all time favourite series. I am personally a fan of both the books and the movies. I have no problems with either of them. Then what is my problem? 

Every time I read the books, or watch the movies. To be more specific, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I just get so sad. I am left teary eyed, and I will be an emotional mess. I always try to explain it to people, and they always look at me like I am crazy. I am always so sad because Aslan says that they will not be able to return to Narnia, because they have grown up. I will be always dreading the end because I will be sitting there, “BUT-BUT THEY ARE YOUR KINGS AND QUEENS OF OLD! WHY CAN`T YOU JUST GROW UP THERE AND THEN GO BACK TO YOUR WORLD WHEN YOUR OLD SO YOU CAN BE YOUNG AGAIN!“ Not to mention, all of the movies have really, really sad songs. 

Whenever I read these, I always forget that they have technically literally grew-up in Narnia. So they would have to grow-up twice... Really, even as I am writing this I am already getting really sad. I just adore this series so much, and I love the whole franchise and I am really excited for the next movie, The Magicians Nephew which is the prequel to the series. I do wish that, they would make The Last Battle as the next movie, because I love the Pevensie children and the actors are actually of age of what the characters are in the books. It would be so awesome. I think fans of the series would be excited as well.

That would be a dream come true, if The last battle became a movie! Fans of the movies and not the books could be very confused on why the children are not in the movies. Yes it would be awesome to have the prequel, but it would also be nice to have a Pevensie reunion. The voyage of the dawn treader was not a good ending for the movies, and for the Pevensie children. Fans of the movies are left sitting in their seats, only knowing that they NEVER return to Narnia. Yes that is kind of true, but there is so much more to the story, that fans might be interested in seeing. 

C.S. Lewis is such an amazing author, it is brilliant how he connected christianity to his own books. It made them so unique and brilliant and loveable. The idea of a magical world, filled with talking animals, daring adventures, kings and queens, white witches, a magestic talking lion and just magic in general is so beautiful. These books were written beautifully, they are probably the happiest sadest books that I have ever read. 

I cannot express how much I love this series. Yes I will always get sad when I watch the films, and when I read the books but I will never get tired of reading and watching this amazing series.

Half Bad: Sally Green - FTM

\

Half-Bad by Sally green is the first book to a new trilogy. It follows the character Nathan, who is half-black-witch and half white-witch. In this world, black-witches are supposed to be killed on sight. Nobody knows what to do with Nathan, they can't decide either to kill him or not to kill him. Nathan's parents are both very well known, his mom is a very honorable white-witch and his father is the most powerful, evil and most gruesome black-witch that exists. Nobody in Nathan's life really likes or cares for him in his early life, besides his half-sister Deborah, his half-brother Arron, his grandmother gran and his girlfriend Annalise. His story leading up to him eventually being held hostage, and tortured is so heartbreaking. His freedom was basically being ripped away from him almost everyday, and everyone would always call him a black-witch and that he would someday die. One of the scenes in this book that was so graphic and cruel was the scene with Annalise's brothers. The people who know of their relationship do not approve of it, especially because Annalise comes from a pure line of white-witches. So in this scene, her brothers are beating him up, and pinning him to the ground, and they grab a knife and carve BW into his back...

Most of the time in this book, Nathan is trapped in a cage being tortured and doing physical circuits. Just before he was trapped in this cage, Nathan was taken away from his family and by the time he get's out, he hasn't seen his family in at least two years. The amount of character growth that happens in this book is absolutely amazing. Nathan goes from a weak worthless whet into a strong witch.

Other reviews that I have read, all say the same thing. It's so unique. I agree with every single person who has read and reviewed it. It is incredibly unique. I feel like I've read a lot of witch books but I actually haven't, I actually think half-bad may be one of the only witch books that I have read. So in this world, witches live among humans but they don;'t know that, but before anyone becomes an actual witch, they are known as a whet. On their seventeenth birthday, there is a celebration called the giving. The giving is a ritual where your parents or your ancestors give you three gifts, make you drink their blood and help you discover your special gift, after this ritual you are officially a witch. The giving, I found was very unique. As Nathan's siblings slowly start turning seventeen and having their givings, he starts to question if he's going to receive his three gifts and become a witch. One of his only solutions to this problem is his father.

Everyone see's Nathan's father, Marcus as pure evil. He is, he murdered Nathan's siblings father and he eats the hearts of witches he wants the gift of. He fell in love with Nathan's mother and they had Nathan together, at the time Nathan's mother was actually married to her husband who we know he murdered. Everyone see's him as cruel except Nathan. He believes that his father truly cares and loves him, and wants to give him his three gifts. Often, Nathan would have fantasies about his father. This part of the story, I really loved. We don't really get to see a child who has an evil parent truly care for them, and expect them to someday come for them. 

Marcus, has visions. There are only two things that can kill him. A knife called the fairborn and his own son, Nathan. I loved Nathan's loyalty towards his father even though he was a black-witch, and had barely even knew him. I would really like to see how their relationship turns out in the future books and there are so many unanswered questions that I am sure that many people would like to read about.

To wrap this review up, I'm going to rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars. It was really unique and had incredible character growth. It had interesting twists, and was fantastic for a debut novel. I do encourage everybody to go and read it, it won't be a waste of your time. 

May Wrap Up! - RQK

The first book I read this month was "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by: Khaled Hosseini. I honestly didn't think I would have much interest in this book, but I found it to be amazing and very real. It is quite sad and in no way ends in a happy ending, however it is great if your looking to read a realistic story.

The second book I read this month was "Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment" by: James Patterson. I had heard about this series many times however I never thought to actually read it. When FTM and I went to the library I decided to try it out. I absolutely got hooked on this series. A review will be up later on in June.

The third, fourth fifth and sixth books I read this month are also all from James Patterson's Maximum ride series. "Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever", "Maximum Ride: Saving The World and Other Extreme Sports", "Maximum Ride: Final Warning", and "Maximum Ride: Max". As I said previously I got hooked on this series and have almost finished it.

The final book I read this month was "City of Heavenly Fire"  by: Cassandra Claire. I loved this book and I highly recommend for everyone to read this series. Though I suggest reading the Clockwork series before this as parts of this book will ruin some things in Cassandra's other series. You can read FTM's review on this HERE!

The Son of Sobek/The Staff of Serapis By: Rick Riordan (2013/2014) - RQK

SPOILER ALERT!

The Son of Sobek and The Staff of Serapis are short story cross-overs of Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles and The Hero's of Olympus series. In this first story it tells of Carter Kane meeting a mysterious boy, Percy Jackson. Their meeting was very sudden and surprising, Percy had saved Carter and asked for an explanation as to why Carter was here. However they didn't get anywhere with that as they couldn't identify each other as either a demigod or magician which resulted in much confusion and an accidental hit from Carter onto Percy resulting in a fight between them. The fight later subdued and they were able to clear up that they weren't enemies and that they needed to work together to get the monster.

I found this beginning part intriguing as I was very curious about what would happen with them finding out about the various gods and cultures that actually exist. I also found it interesting to get a glimpse of how their various powers and talents would match up when faced against each other. However I think the fact that they were able truce to save people from the monster shows that no matter where they come from in the end they have the same goal and that working together is the best and most efficient way to achieve it.

During their fight with the monster Percy and Carter both are surprised with each others talents and abilities however they manage to keep their focus on the monster and continue battling it. Using their combined abilities they were able to defeat the monster together. Afterwards they decide that it is probably in their best interest to not tell each other anything more about each other or their worlds.

I found this story to be a great cross-over and I very much hope that he creates some sort of series off of this. The Son of Sobek provides something like a teaser to what could be possible in the future for these two series, but it also provides some information and a battle to hook you on this in a more intense way then a regular teaser would. Even though this story is short it still had the excellent quality of writing that all Rick Riordan's books have. I would give this book a 5 out of 5 stars as it was a great story, and I have no complaints about it other then I wish it was its own book. I look forward to possibly reading more of this cross-over in the future.

In the second story Annabeth runs into a unique girl, Sadie Kane while face to face with a monster in a subway train. Annabeth on her way to Percy's place runs into a monster. The monster is special in more ways than Annabeth first realizes. While following the monster she sees that it is surrounded by Greek letters along with hieroglyphics, Egyptian hieroglyphs.

I expected this story to be much on its own and have no connection to The Son of Sobek, but I was wrong. This story very much connects with Rick Riordan's other stories including the previous Hero's of Olympus books as it mentions the Argo II ship. I have heard about the Egyptian and Greek gods, however I have never heard of the god Serapis which was a god that binds the Greek and Egyptian religions. I love how Rick Riordan takes real gods, and their stories and adds a modern day twist to them to create his own stories. I find it much more fascinating to learn so much about these ancient religion through his stories then just plainly studying them.

Annabeth then runs into Sadie who is fighting off what appears to be a black labrador retriever. Later Annabeth wakes up to have a confusing conversation with Sadie in which they find out that they really are from two different types of magical culture religions. They also connect The Son of Sobek story to this one by Annabeth bringing up Percy's encounter with Carter. Unlike Carter and Percy though Sadie and Annabeth liked and trusted each other quite quickly. They walk into battle only to see things flying everywhere, something, someone was building something. This someone turned out to be a god, Serapis.

I really liked this story even more then I liked The Son of Sobek. In this the Egyptian and Greek religions were much more crossed and interrelated which made it very fascinating to read. Though it is a short story much is revealed in very little time. In this story it mentions Alexander the Great and how there is a city named after him in Egypt. To my surprise this fact that I learned from reading this story came in handy in school. I realized now more then before how these stories are actually teaching me things without my knowing. I give this story a 5 out of 5 as I did for the other short story as it is fantastic and I highly recommend reading both of these short stories.

-RQK

May Wrap Up! - FTM

The First book I read this month, was The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. I absolutely loved this book! It was so creepy and fun! You can read my Review HERE

The second book I read this month was The Evolution of Mara Dyer which is the second book in this series. This book was 10x creepier and I love creepy stuff! You Can read my review HERE

The third and final book I read this month was City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare! This book was absolute perfection! I rated it a 10 out of 5 stars! You can read my Review HERE