Saturday 31 May 2014

City of Heavenly Fire - FTM


I am coming.

Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced: Clary’s own brother. Nothing in the world can defeat him — must they journey to another world to find the chance? 
-Good-reads Synopsis 

To those who have read The Mortal Instruments series, we all know that the main Antagonists are Valentine and his son Sebastian Morgensten.  I'm sure a lot of readers have hated these characters, and so have I. Yes, Sebastian dies in this book but he didn't die as Sebastian, he died as Jonathan. His death was definitely a worthy death. It was probably one of the most beautiful death scenes that I have read, he died in the arms of his mother and sister and his last words were "I feel so light." Jonathan says that as Clary stabbed him, the heavenly fire burned all of the evil inside his veins. In this death scene, you could see real love between them, it was something that Sebastian never deserved but Jonathan did.  

So later on, Clary possesses her brothers ashes. She throws his ashes into the water and Clary says "Ave atque vale. Ave atque vale in perpetuum, frater. Hail and farewell forever, my brother." To me, that was such a memorable scene. Clary never loved Sebastian or even cared for him, but I love how she took the time to give her brother that moment. As I started to read this book, I had theories of Sebastian potentially not being evil anymore, not being the monster that he was and I'm so glad that Cassandra made that choice to give him such a memorable death. I noticed that as soon as he became Jonathan, all of the hate that I had toward Sebastian was suddenly lifted, I suddenly cared for Jonathan, I didn't want him to die. During his death, I kept having second thoughts about it being a trick, which thankfully it wasn't.

There was a total of five or six deaths in this book. The only deaths that had a really big effect on me were, Sebastian/Jonathan and Raphael. I didn't really mind Jordan's death, to be honest he wasn't a character that I really, really cared about. In the book, Maia was actually planning to break-up with Jordan because she didn't feel the love that she had before towards Jordan. I didn't really expect to care about Raphael's death. It think a large part of it was because of him almost killing Magnus. I loved that he refused because of a debt owed to Magnus before, but unfortunately it resulted to his death. The other deaths I didn't really care about, well Maureen. I was so happy when she died, she was crazy and she needed to be put down or something.

One thing that REALLY bugged me about this book is that Cassandra would do this trickery thing. She will make you think that a major character that you deeply care about is going to die, then they will be instantly cured or healed. An example of this would be Isabelle being bit/slashed by some messed up crazy demon. Everyone is panicking and at this point SO AM I! I'm like "Oh my gosh, is she going to die?! What's happening?!" Clary tries runes, which doesn't work and I'm siting there reading and thinking shes going to die. No, Simon goes up bites himself and starts pouring his blood all over Isabelle's wound. For some reason, I thought he was going to turn her into a vampire. "Oh! This is how Isabelle and Simon are going to live together forever!" is what I thought.

Speaking of Simon, I was panicking wondering how everything would resolve itself somehow. In the demon dimension, there is no way out of this realm. The only person who is able to transport them out of the dimension, is Magnus's father who is one of the nine princes of hell, Asmodeus. I hated him so much. He offered to transport Clary and her friends back to Idris for one price. Magnus's immortality and to keep him in the realm forever and have him basically rot. Simon being Simon willingly volunteers himself. Asmodeus says he will take his immortality but he will not remember anything of the shadowhunter world. I was expecting everyone to rise up and kill him but that didn't happen. During this whole process of taunting and begging, Asmodeus finally starts to remove his memories of the shadowhunter world. Everyone around him can see the memories, literally flashing before their eyes. That scene was so beautifully written. After all of the chaos is over, they're back in Alicante. Isabelle says "He's gone, he's really gone." It was so touching, and I thought that this is how this book was going to end, losing one of the most beloved characters. Thankfully, Simon starts to regain his memory of the shadowhunter world and Clary!

We are also introduced to new characters who are actually the characters in Cassandra's new series that will be released, fall 2015/2016. Emma Carastairs, is a brave twelve year old girl. Her best friend is Julian/Jules. They have such a cute relationship, and they actually discuss becoming parabati. As I read this part, I knew that in The Dark Artifices, they will start to develop feelings for each other but they will have to face the issues of the parabati bond. I could be wrong, but you can see their relationship going down that road. We all know, that the Mortal Instruments series has a long history of very complicated relationships with almost every single character.

I am trying so hard not to make this review too long. I'm pretty sure it already has. City of Heavenly Fire was a great ending to the series, it wasn't rushed. It was definitely worth the 725 pages! I could go on and on about this book but I won't. It's so sad that the series has come to an end, but hopefully city of ashes will become a movie soon enough. It left on such a happy note, and that's every readers dream to not have a sad ending. Saying goodbye to the series is so bittersweet, but we will have a new series with new amazing characters which I am so excited for. Everything about this book was so amazing! Cassandra is such an amazing author, and I wish she could continue on with the series. City of Heavenly fire has taken the spot of my favourite book, and is currently being displayed. The thing that sucks, is that I'm currently in a huge BOOK HANGOVER! 

I would rate this book a 10 out of 5 stars because it was so amazing that it goes over the five start limit! I love Cassandra's writing and I am so excited for new projects! I hope you enjoyed this review!

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Wednesday 28 May 2014

The Evolution Of Mara Dyer - FTM


First things first, I absolutely LOVED this book! It was a perfect sequel, it did not let me down. It lived up to my expectations. In this book, everyone thinks Mara is down right crazy and they're trying to get her help. Throughout the book, revelations were made. Such as Mara's grandmother, the matching lockets that belong to Noah and the other that was found in the creepy doll. Some things were left unanswered, and it was left on a strange cliffhanger.

Michelle did a beautiful thing with the story, it was very unexpected.... she killed Noah Shaw...in case you didn't catch that, the beautiful part was sarcasm. As we progressed in the story, I felt like you could sort of predict if Noah was going to die or not. There were little hints, but there was a major part of the story where you already know that Noah is going to die. I do personally believe that Noah isn't dead, I feel like this is going to be a somewhat of a Peeta Mellark situation. I think that Noah will come back, and is not dead but crazy and uncontrollable.

Near the end, or possibly the very end we find out that Mara, Noah, Jamie, Jude and some other people were involved in some private, secretive gene research program. Mara and the others have a special gene in them that makes them different, and the people that are part of this program are trying to convince the Mara that they are trying to help her and her friends. As a reader, you know that there is a large chance that, that isn't true. I'm really excited to where things will end up. It was definitely something that I wouldn't expect.

A unique thing about this book is that a lot of the characters somehow connect. I have only seen one other book where characters connect to the plot, and that is the fifth wave by Rick Yancey. (You can read my review HERE) or the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. I love it when authors do that because it's always so interesting to read about.

Speaking of characters, this book obviously has characters and some that really creeped me out were Phoebe and Mara's grandmother. Surprisingly Jude didn't creep me out, I just found him insane and weird. So Phoebe, Phoebe is defiantly one of a kind. Sometimes I would be reading her parts of the book at 11:00 at night, and her lines and her actions would terrify me! I would be so scared to leave my bed. Also the part where she is singing you are my sunshine. S-O-C-R-E-E-P-Y! I have a little wind-up clock that sings that particular song but I refuse to wind it up because I am terrified of Phoebe. I was very pleased with her death in the book, but it could have been less bloody.

So Mara's grandmother is a nut case. One fact that really freaked me out was her suicide, she committed suicide three days after Mara was born. I may have missed it, but that particular situation was left unanswered and I really want to find out what happens. As I read stories about her grandma, I would always picture Peter Parker's aunt from the spider man movies in her white nightgown sleep walking except with hollowed eyes.

Would I recommend this book YES! I strongly suggest to obviously read the first novel The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, you can read my review HERE

I would rate this book a solid five out of five stars! 

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Tuesday 13 May 2014

The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer - FTM


The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is about a girl named Mara. She has just found out that three of her friends have died in a building collapse. Mara is going out of her mind, and is having hallucinations that she cannot explain. This book was so original, and incredibly unique. 

I mainly picked up this book because one of my friends was obsessing over it, and to be honest I did not expect to love it as much as I did. I finished this book in about two days, and before finishing it I bought the second book (The evolution of Mara dyer) because I was hooked. 

Throughout this book, Mara would constantly have different hallucinations that didn't really make sense which made her think she was crazy. One that was so strange was when she was in the bathroom, and she thinks that her mothers earrings are at the bottom of an overflowing tub. That's not the strange part, she puts her arm inside the water and then all of the sudden it starts to burn her, so her mother finds her two hours later and Mara explained the thing about the earrings, and her mom checks her ears and they were on her ears the whole entire time. Mara also has an ability to kill people/living things just by thinking about it. Everything that happens in this book is just so creepy and it really does make you think like you are going nuts.

Let's talk about Noah! I never expected him to have his healing abilities, and being able to hear everyone's pain and feelings. I just thought he was just ordinary, but there is one point in the book where you can start to suspect that he isn't exactly as normal as you might think. His lines in this book were hilarious, and he always made me laugh. 

At the very, very end of the book we find out that JUDE IS ALIVE! This starts to make you think about everything, it just twists your mind and makes you think all of these different possibilities! It can make you start to realize things about other characters, that seemed suspicious but you never noticed it. It just makes you feel like it's a never ending story.

This probably wasn't a proper review but I literally can't put this book into words! It's difficult to explain it and also explain your thoughts and have it make sense... so all i'm going to say is..... GO READ IT! NOW!

Everything about this book was perfect! Time flies by so fast as you read it. I would rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars! I hope you enjoyed this review! 

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Wednesday 7 May 2014

Legends Of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2014)




I was lucky enough to get tickets to an advance screening (May 3rd) of the new movie 'Legends Of Oz' and it was definitely worth watching. I am a big wizard of oz fan, and this movie was really, really cute and is based  off the book, 'Dorothy of Oz'

'Legends Of Oz' is an animated film taking place right after Dorothy defeats the Wicked Witch of the West and wakes up in Kansas. Kansas is ruined by the tornado, and they have received notice that it is unsafe to live there and they must move. Dorothy, walks around Kansas seeing families moving away and is suddenly transported back to Oz to defeat the new villain The Jester. 

I really enjoyed this film, it has a few songs which are catchy. The songs were brilliant and my favourite would probably have to be Even Then. I do believe that the movie would have been just fine without the songs, I think they only put songs into the film because of the classic Wizard Of Oz movie starring Judy Garland.

I loved the fact that the movie had a whole bunch of quirky characters. They were just a whole bunch of fun.`Something that is different about this movie is that, it has more of a modern feel to it. The only times you see the modern parts are when Dorothy is in Kansas. It just bothered me considering it is supposed to take place right after she comes back from Oz.

Jester is the villain in this film. He is said to be the Wicked Witches brother who was cursed to where Jester costumes that he could never take off. He transforms people into puppets and has flying monkeys with colourful Mohawks. Jester also makes an appearance in Kansas as a fraud who is trying to kick everybody out of Kansas. That is another thing that I loved, in the original film all the characters in Oz were actual people in Kansas that Dorothy knew and it was interesting how they blended that together.

To wrap this review up, I would rate it a 4 out out of 5 stars mainly because I enjoyed it but it did have its flaws. It was an awesome movie but it wasn't mind blowing. 

I hope you enjoyed this Review and I encourage you to watch it when it is released!   

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