Reading challenge book 19: Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

Book 19 in my challenge to read one book (I haven't read before) a fortnight in 2012 is Sweetly by Jackson Pearce.

This is the first of two books I've read by Pearce, both reimaginings of classic fairytales. (Told you I was on a fairytale kick recently.)

Sweetly is a reworking of the Hansel and Gretel fairytale. Ansel and his twin sisters find themselves in the forest as young children, and are chased by a strange monster. Ansel and his sister Gretchen survive, their other sibling does not.

Fast forward 12 years and the pair are thrown out of their home by their stepmother, and decide to make their way to South Carolina. When their car breaks down they are drawn in to a little town called Live Oak, and find a home with a young sweetmaker called Sophia Kelly - standing in for the witch in the tale, but far more complex and not the true villain of the tale, or is she?

Hidden away in her little cottage at the edge of a forest, Ansel and Gretel find love, friendship and acceptance. But the forest bordering the house threatens Gretel, reminding her constantly of the twin she lost.

On a trip into the forest to conquer her demons she is chased by a monster, and rescued by the stoic Samuel. Determined not to be a victim any longer, Gretel persuades Samuel to teach her to fight the monsters.

Sweetly is a classic of the child story genre - bad things lurk in dark places to scare - with an adult twist. The relationships within, including Sophia Kelly slowly becoming a replacement for the sister Gretel lost, Ansel and Sophia Kelly's budding romance, and Ansel and Gretel's sibling bond, are well crafted and very real, full of hope and uncertainty and fear.

Pearce builds the tension to finding out what the monsters in the forest are slowly. Unfortunately, in this case, the tension is far scarier than the actual reveal, and I found myself going "that's it?" when the monsters came out of hiding. Plus, the cover of the book was scarier than the actual monsters.

What was really interesting and quite scary was Sophia Kelly, who I didn't like from the moment I met her, but who was an utterly fascinating character. Pearce shows Ansel and Gretel growing ever closer to Sophia Kelly, but always presents her with a dark edge that made me feel slightly uneasy.

Sweetly is an interesting take on the Hansel and Gretel fairytale, and while an easy read, in this case the original story of the siblings who run into a witch in a gingerbread house is far superior.

Reading challenge book 18: Virals by Kathy Reichs

Book 18 in my challenge to read one book (I haven't read before) a fortnight in 2012 is Virals by Kathy Reichs.

Reichs is the author of a series of popular novels featuring forensic expert Dr Tempe Brennan, and her work also inspired the television show Bones. I've read neither those novels nor watched Bones, so Virals, the first in a series of books aimed at young adults, was my first foray into the world of forensic science as told by Reichs.

Living on a secluded island off Charleston in South Carolina, Tory Brennan (niece to Tempe) and her friends Ben, Shelton and Hi spend their time feeling like outcasts at school and being way too clever for their own good at home. 

The group all have parents who work in or around a research facility on a neighbouring island, and on one fateful trip there, after yet another hostile encounter with lead scientist Dr Karsten, the group discover an abandoned dog tag, which leads them to human remains in a grave and the rescue of a wolfdog puppy with a serious illness, both of which will change their lives forever.

The group are thrust into the midst of trying to solve a decades-old murder, and find they can get no help from any adults. Forced to figure it out on their own, all while displaying symptoms of a mysterious illness, the group get ever deeper into danger.

Virals is a great read, fast paced enough to keep you interested and detailed enough to give you an insight into what the teenagers are doing but not enough so that you get lost in the science of it all.

The illness affecting the four main characters is believable enough, as it builds slowly over the course of the book, but the way the mystery the group are solving ends is ridiculous, with its teenage femme fatale-like villain who springs out of nowhere.

To me, Virals is a modern-day Famous Five mystery. Reichs replaces Enid Blyton two girls, two boys and a dog with one girl and four boys, and she keeps the dog. And just like in the Famous Five books, there are some handy islands around for the group to get in trouble and stumble upon a crime.

Virals is an easy read and a good introduction to the work of Reichs. I'll be checking her adult novels out in the future.

Reading challenge book 17: Beauty by Robin McKinley

Book 17 in my challenge to read one book (I haven't read before) a fortnight in 2012 is Beauty by Robin McKinley.

I've been on a bit of a fairytale kick recently, and this is one of a number of retellings of fairytales I've read.

As you might have guessed from the name, Beauty is a retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast. The usual elements are here - Beauty, the Beast, Beauty's dad, servants that talk.

But this retelling is full of so much more. Its basic storyline is not significantly different to any other Beauty and the Beast telling, not even the Disney version (although there's no Gaston), but it does have masses of detail and depth that make you feel like you know the characters really, really well, and it creates a fantasy world that sits alongside the real world depicted with ease.

Beauty lives with her two sisters and her father, a shipping merchant. She enjoys her life and her books, until her father's business collapses, and forces the family to move hundreds of miles away to a small village to make their living there. 

One day Beauty's father hears some of his sailors have returned, and he leaves to find out what has happened. On his way back he gets lost, ends up taking shelter in a great home owned by the Beast, and promises his daughter in return for safe passage home.

And so Beauty goes to the Beast. The world she encounters is completely different to her own, and we feel all the trepidation and amazement she feels at hearing strange voices in the house, meeting and getting to know the Beast and learning to live without her family.

McKinley weaves a magic world that leaves us wanting to find out immediately what curse has befallen the Beast and his home. However, she keeps the reader waiting and it's worth it. This is such a well-known fairytale, but McKinley manages to give it a new angle during the big reveal.

In addition, there is so much more going on in the book than just Beauty and the Beast. We empathise with Beauty's sister, Grace, who lives with a broken heart because her fiance was on one of the ships owned by Beauty's father which never returned from its last voyage. Similarly, Beauty's other sister Hope also captures our hearts, as does her steady husband Ger.

Beauty manages to capture the fantasy of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale while grounding the book in reality with detailed prose and well-fleshed out characters.
 

Glee recap/review: Glee, Actually

Swan Song recap/review

Glee, Actually was a combination of completely bonkers moments alongside stunningly touching ones, and it totally worked for me.

Five different narratives (all with the thread of love running through them) took us around the characters, before coming together on Christmas Eve. 

First up was Artie, and it was good to see him as the centre of attention for once. Watching him wheel himself down the hallway at McKinley with a massive graze on his face and bruised knuckles broke my heart, and for a moment I thought we were back in season one and some bullies had chucked him in a dumpster. Instead, Artie had injured himself falling out of his chair on the ice, leading to bitter feelings about being in a wheelchair.

Falling asleep, he went into an alternate universe where he was never in a wheelchair and Rory (hey, where have you been?) acted as his guide. With Artie no longer in a wheelchair the whole of McKinley had changed. There was no glee club, Kurt hadn't graduated because he spent so much time off school because of bullying, Finn, Puck, Mike et al were all doing the bullying, Tina still had a stutter and so on. The highlights were Will Schuester, who was a drunk and still married to Terri, who was parading around a plastic doll and pretending it was a baby (welcome back Terri, I missed your brand of crazy); and Kurt's "Who's Blaine?" when Artie asked him where Blaine was. The crash of music after that question showed us that everyone's a fan of Kurt and Blaine.

In a bid to bring everyone together Artie sang Feliz Navidad, which didn't work (no big surprise there). Heading back into the hallway at McKinley Artie spotted an empty wheelchair, which Rory told him belonged to Quinn, who died of a broken heart. While I don't quite understand this, it was enough for Artie to get back in the chair in his dream world, and wake up in the real world realising life is not so bad.

Kurt's storyline was easily the most touching and compelling, and full of so many different emotions. In New York for Christmas, he was surprised by his dad, who seemingly came to just spend time with him, but also to say he had prostate cancer. Burt having cancer came out of nowhere for me, but I thought it was perfectly handled. The telling, the reactions, the underlying expression on Kurt's face during the rest of the scenes we saw him in were all very realistic.

Burt continues to prove himself the perfect father. Turning up in New York he first brought the thing to help make Kurt's Christmas Christmassy - a real tree. And then he brought the things that make a Hummel Christmas - Kurt's mother's decorations, the traditions that father and son share like drinking hot chocolate and exchanging one present on Christmas Eve. And then, after telling Kurt that he had cancer, Burt brought out the one thing he knows will help Kurt through this time - Blaine. Is there a father on television who knows his son better that Burt knows Kurt?

Kurt and Blaine's interactions were perfectly nuanced, and it's a tribute to Chris Colfer and Darren Criss that they can say so much with their facial expressions. 

Both showed that uncertainty at seeing each other for the first time since they reconnected. On Kurt's side there was the fact that he still hasn't completely forgiven Blaine, although he is well on his way. However, Kurt is still caught in that dilemma of loving Blaine and being incredibly hurt by Blaine, and he doesn't know what to do with it. We could see it in every interaction the two had - the guilt Kurt feels for being happy to see Blaine when he's still not forgiven him, the move towards a kissing position during White Christmas (the whole song was super cute and full of feels), the cautiousness with which Kurt treated Blaine, the mix of happiness and something else that Kurt greeted Blaine's announcement about NYADA. Kurt is still working out where he and Blaine go from here.

On the other hand, Blaine knows exactly what he wants, even though he's nervous about how Kurt will treat him ("You are happy to see me, right?"). Every look he threw Kurt's way was full of love (all the awards for Best Puppydog expression go to Criss), but also the knowledge that he and Kurt will never go back to how they were before. Even if they get back together, it won't be the same (Blaine may not know this yet but it will be better since they'll both have grown up and be more self-aware). For the moment, Blaine's plan is to just be there for Kurt, and it's a good plan. He's determined to make himself a part of Kurt's life, although he won't force himself into the role, evidenced when he asked for Kurt's permission to apply to NYADA. I believe that Blaine just wants to be there so he can be in Kurt's life in any way he can, even if it is just friends. Still, Blaine continues to look at Kurt like he's the best thing he's ever seen, and Kurt just has to decide what to do with those looks.

While Blaine, Kurt and Burt were negotiating their own little New York Christmas, Puck was back at McKinley to persuade brother Jake to go on a road trip to LA with him to see his fabulous life. After trekking it all the way out there and singing Oh Hannukah (at least Puck remembers he's Jewish even if Rachel never does) around the Paramount lot, Jake discovered Puck wasn't living the life and persuaded him to come back to Ohio. There, the two took their mums to Breadstix and after some initial sniping the two women, thanks to their sons, realised it was the boys' father who was to blame for their woes. Cue happy extended family coming together.

In the most bonkers storyline of all, Sam and Brittany decided to get married because the Mayan calendar said the world was ending. Bieste carried out the ceremony, and Sam and Brittany decided to tell everyone what they really thought of them before they died. After December 21 passed with the world still existing, the pair discovered they weren't really married (Bieste is so cunning), but felt bereft because now they had nothing to aim for. In a great moment in a wacky storyline, Bieste made a buzzing sound and told Brittany and Sam she'd had a Google alert about the world ending in 2014, giving them two more years to continue being honest with everyone. Here's a challenge for Glee's continuity department - if the show is still going in 2014, will the writers revisit this plot?

And finally, we saw Marley and her mum, who were facing a minimalist Christmas because all their money would be going on getting Marley a therapist to help with her eating disorder (even though it was Marley's mum who put her on a diet a few episodes ago). Cue Sue, who having got Marley's mum in the staff secret Santa, decides to do something good by breaking into their house and leaving a tree and presents and cash.

As a thank you, Marley and the glee club sing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to Sue, intercut with scenes of Jake and Puck, Sam and Brittany, and Kurt and Blaine all singing the song in their little corners of Ohio/New York.

And so, it was a very, very, merry, merry Christmas for all.

Best moments
Burt for dad of the year - enough said.

Film review: The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey

Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey

As a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) books and films, I was really looking forward to The Hobbit, even though I was dismayed to discover it was being split into three films, because really, how much can you drag a children's book out?

Quite a bit, if the first film in the trilogy, An Unexpected Journey, is anything to go by.

Clocking in at just under three hours long, An Unexpected Journey is a labour of love for Peter Jackson and co, and a measure of love for its audience. Luckily, I love the LOTR films enough to sit The Hobbit out, although there were many, many points during the film where I wished I didn't.

We begin with a brief history lesson about the glory days of the dwarf kingdom of Erebor, and see it sacked by a massive dragon, its people killed or scattered - including the legendary warrior and dwarf prince Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage).

We then join The Hobbit on the day The Fellowship of the Ring starts - the day of Bilbo's birthday. Ian Holm is back as Bilbo, with Elijah Wood as Frodo, for a brief appearance before we're taken back in time to learn more about Thorin, and then brought back to Bilbo's home, a site we know so well, for the introduction of the main story (we're about 15 minutes in at this point) - Bilbo (now played as a young man by Martin Freeman) setting off on an adventure to help Gandalf (Ian McKellan), Thorin and a company of 12 other dwarves to reclaim Erebor.

And it's here the action, sort of, begins, although there have already been two major battle scenes on screen before this point. There's a long, drawn-out introduction to all the dwarves, from the fat one to the wise one to the mischievous ones to the bitter one and so on and so on. It's a good 20 minutes, at least, of banter, throwing food around and a mournful singalong before we finally get out of the shire and onto the road.

The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey is really just one long introduction to all the characters, from the ones we already know from the LOTR (Bilbo and Gandalf) to the ones we don't (the dwarves). We see them talk their way out of trouble, proving their intelligence (or lack thereof in some cases). We see them visit Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and get an insight into their relationship with others outside the dwarf world. We see them in fight after fight after fight, where we're shown their bravery and their skill. We see them talk about their pasts, and understand why they are the way they are today. By the end of the film, I felt like I could write a 300-page biography for every character (and that's not a good thing).

It may seem like An Unexpected Journey is short on action and long on exposition, but nothing could be further from the truth. By the end I'd lost count of the amount of big set piece battle scenes, plus the many other action pieces (including mountains turning into gigantic stone people and fighting each other). I could have done without a fight or two (or seven), as those earlier on the film dimmed the impact of the two major ones at the end for me.

That is perhaps why I found Bilbo's encounter with Gollum/Smeagol (Andy Serkis) scarier and more tense than the battle scene running parallel to it, where the dwarves and Gandalf fight thousands of goblins. Or perhaps the scene between Bilbo and Gollum/Smeagol was brilliant because of the acting, and because you know Bilbo's actions here turn Middle Earth on its axis later in life. Serkis is stunning as Gollum/Smeagol, even better than he was in the LOTR. He's creepier, and more tragic, and I found myself genuinely scared by what he was going to do. And Freeman as Bilbo all the way through the film is the perfect mix of scared and gung ho, but in his scenes with Gollum/Smeagol takes it to a whole new level. Their encounter made up the best scenes in the film by a mile.

It's not just Serkis and Freeman who are great. As with the LOTR, Jackson et al have brought together some great actors. Armitage brings an underlying sense of loss and anger to everything Thorin does - he's half Aragorn and half Boromir, in the most perfect way, and particularly shows that in the climax to the film. Comparisons to the LOTR are also due with characters like Kili (Aidan Turner) and Fili (Dean O'Gorman), who are The Hobbit's Merry and Pippin, and James Nesbitt as Bofur is great. The rest of the dwarves are pretty forgettable, and their fellowship is nowhere near as compelling as that in the LOTR.

The film has been shot in 3D 48-frames-per-second, which is something technical I don't really understand but is apparently meant to make everything look amazing. In reality, I think the 3D aspect didn't really bring anything substansial to the film, and wearing the glasses for three hours was a pain.  

On the flip side The Hobbit is full of beautiful shots of sweeping landscapes and all the places the gang visit. The  shots across Middle Earth take up time, and are often unnecessary to the tale - without them the film could have been at least 15 minutes shorter. They do, however, show the work of a great CGI team and the fantastic locations of New Zealand, but they're not quite as magical as they were when we saw them in LOTR.

That magic is what is missing in The Hobbit. Yes, it's a good film, but I found myself wishing it was over about an hour before it actually was, which is a pity. I can't imagine what the next two films are going to be like, but I can only hope they take more of the good aspects of The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (Freeman, Serkis, the occasional battle scenes), and not the bad aspects (the length, please, make them shorter).  

The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey largely served as a reminder that Tolkein's world can all too easily be rendered badly., so I'm off to remind myself how well it can be interpreted on film by watching the LOTR.

Glee recap/review: Swan Song

Thanksgiving recap/review

This episode of Glee may have been called Swan Song, but perhaps a more appropriate title would have Crossroads, because that's where we found ourselves.

In Lima, New Directions found itself at a crossroads. Without anything to compete for after being disqualified from sectionals, which direction would the club members take? Would they take the fork to splitting up and moving on to different things that may not be their first love but that they felt gave them purpose, or would they take the fork to staying together, enjoying glee club for what it was but not having a clear cut aim?

For Finn, the decision was easy. Even without competition he wanted the glee club to stay together, because that gave him purpose. His struggle to keep everyone involved, and his despondancy over watching those around him let go, was interesting to watch. I'm not often a fan of Finn, but in this episode I really liked him.

His first try at keeping the gang together didn't work, which I'm glad of, because it meant we saw Blaine and Tina (mostly Blaine) in the uniform of the Cheerios, and we also got some humourous moments with Unique on roller blades, Artie in a helmet no one should be wearing, and, best of all, Joe talking about the Interfaith Paintbal League, hands down one of the funniest moments of Glee, and definitely a highlight of Joe's.

In fact, this episode of Glee had a lot of laugh out loud moments which really reminded me how funny Glee can be - from the little to camera pieces about everyone's imagined future (Blaine: "I'm performing on the bathhouse circuit") to Sam and Blaine's cute little partnership over getting Marley a juice box after she fainted, and of course Brad the pianist's genius rant/thank you to Sue for causing New Directions to disband.

Still, after all the funny came the serious bit. Because if New Directions disbanded, what was everyone going to do? Sure, they all had their own clubs, but when speaking about why they joined them, no one mentioned passion for whatever they were joining, or love, or even enthusiasm. And when they realised all those things were missing, they came back to glee.

This was one of those episodes where New Directions remembered the reason they'd originally formed in the first - for the music and by extension the friendship. It may have taken them a while, but they were all drawn back together at the end of the episode for a proper New Directions singalong, and a great one it was too.

With the snow falling and their voices blending together (please can we have more Blaine and Tina singing together?) there was a little bit of magic in the air for the club - magic I'm sure will extend to them somehow getting back into the glee club competition for regionals.

Brittany was also facing a crossroads over whether she should pursue a relationship with Sam. This has been a slightly strange storyline, firstly because Glee has taken the time to let it build, which it rarely does with any plot. Secondly, I've found it strange to see Sam so into Brittany and in this episode confessing he's always been into her, because not so long ago Sam was pursuing Mercedes like love was going out of style. It seems Glee's writers have completely erased Sam and Mercedes from their minds.

Anyway, apart from those two points, I think Sam and Brittany are very sweet. For a lot of people Santana and Brittany might be endgame, but Brittany has always presented herself as bisexual, so I have no problem with her being with Sam. Also, Brittany's speech about fandom possibly hating her for pursuing Sam after being with Santana was a genius bit from Ryan Murphy, who was clearly putting his own words into Brittany's mouth, and putting fandom in its place. 

Over in New York both Rachel and Kurt were also at a crossroads of a sort - take the path well trodden or take the path to being everything you are?
 
Rachel was being Rachel, and basically that means she was getting everything handed to her on a silver platter. Yes, she's very, very talented, but I'm bored of seeing her get everything without a struggle. No, fighting with her highly inappropriately acting dance teacher Cassandra is not the definition of struggle.

The scene where they had a dance/singing battle over All That Jazz didn't excite me. I feel like this is the sixth time we've seen them trying to outdo one another by performing something in skimpy clothing while wearing masses of eyeliner, and it's dull. Of the many, many unrealistic things about Glee that annoy me (beyond normal televisual artistic licence) one of the things that annoys me most is that Cassandra is just a highly rubbish teacher, and would get sacked for acting the way she has with Rachel, and that Rachel doesn't udnerstand that she is the pupil.

Much better was Rachel's performance at the NYADA winter showcase, although I was put out by the fact that she seems to be so loved by everyone that Carmen Tibbideaux gave her an invite to perform. Still, since we've only really seen Rachel in dance class maybe she is doing brillianrtly elsewhere.

Her performance of Being Good Isn't Good Enough was brilliant, and deserved a standing ovation, but I didn't see the need for her to do O Holy Night, her second number in a row and her third in just one episode. I also didn't like that while singing the latter we were shown clips of Finn, because we get that Rachel and Finn are broken up but still connected, but I don't really care.

Similarly, I didn't need another Rachel and Finn phonecall in my life, although thank goodness this one focused on glee club and not their tortured romance.

I think the reason I don't love Rachel is something I said above, that she seems to get everything handed to her unlike other characters, who really struggle. The biggest contrast to Rachel is Kurt, who wants similar things to her, who is equally as talented if not more, but who since episode one series one of Glee we've seen constantly fighting for success.

Brilliant then, that at last in Swan Song Kurt Hummel got a standing ovation following his performance of Being Alive, which was phenomenal, not least because Kurt said he finally understood the meaning of the song, having found love and then (sort of) lost it again.

We've seen Kurt happy and sad and everything in between, but Carmen hasn't so I completely understood when she said she'd seen no depth from Kurt before. This time, with Being Alive, Carmen saw nothing but Kurt Hummel, stripped down, raw emotions, and it was superb. As that tear fell down Kurt's face when he saw the crowd standing for him, a tear (almost) slipped down mine as well. 

Best moments
There was a lot I liked this episode, but for things I haven't mentioned there's Brody and Rachel's kiss. I'm highly in favour of Brochel, even if it's not endgame. I also liked Sue and Finn's fight in the choir room over the trophy, the song choices throughout the episode, and I liked something I haven't seen yet but hope to - Kurt's NYADA audition tape of Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.