Review: The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

title: The Alchemyst

written by: Michael Scott

series: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #1

genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy

page count: 375

publication date: May 20th, 2007

publisher: Delacorte Press

rating: 4/5

He holds the secret that can end the world.
The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.
The records show that he died in 1418.
But his tomb is empty.
The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects—the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.
Sometimes legends are true.
And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.

The Alchemyst was a book I was really looking forward to. I had heard amazing things about it from lots of friends, so I was sure I'd love it before I even started reading. And as always, high expectations only lead to enormous disappointment. I was expecting this would be one of my favorite books of all-time. But it surely wasn't...! I still liked it, it just didn't have that 'wow' effect on me.

The story begins with a short introduction to the normal life of Sophie and Josh Newman, just 2 ordinary twins living a normal life. But of course, as always when books start like that, there are some major changes about to take place. They find out who the owner of the book shop (Josh's boss) really is, and they discover both of them are special. They have pure aura's, one gold, the other silver. They set out on an epic adventure.

Scott's writing style was very pleasant to read. I can't really comment on the choice of vocab and all of that because I read the entire novel in Dutch. However, all events described in this book took place in only 2 days, which seems kind of incredible to me. Still, the novel was very fast-paced!

The plot of this novel was not as interesting as I expected it to be. Ever since I read the first Harry Potter novel, Nicholas Flamel  has beenone of the most interesting people in history to me, so I was hoping for a lot of Nicholas Flamel. I didn't get it, and to me that was the biggest disappointment of this entire novel. Too much of the twins. I have not many problems with the twins, I just prefer Nicholas Flamel... Still, the plot was really interesting, and this novel was a page-turner. I really liked it and think people slightly younger than I am will enjoy this one thoroughly!

I rate this book 4 stars and will recommend it to everyone who is looking for something like Harry Potter, 'cause I really feel like those two are very much alike. This novel was full of suspense and magic, two amazing things.

Love,

Mar

The Metaphysical Double Life of Eri Lane by Jocelyn Nora Moore

title: The Metaphysical Double Life of Eri Lane
written by: Jocelyn Nora Moore
genres: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
page count: 173 (ebook)
publisher: Self-Pub
publication date: March 18th, 2012

Everyone knows that fourteen-year-old Eri Lane is different. She is too intense, always tells the truth, and she somehow knows things she shouldn’t. Her confused teachers know she’s different. The means kids know. Her hardworking single mother knows. The cute, nerdy senior that she loves knows. There is just something about Eri Lane. But none of them know just how different, because absolutely none of them know that there are actually two worlds, the world of Dream and the world of Wake. Only Eri Lane and her best friend Malcolm Harris know that.

Eri and Malcolm never sleep, since they were twelve they have been among the special guardians of the boundary between the two worlds, known among themselves as the Awake. Now it’s November of their sophomore year, and Eri has been having a hard enough time trying to repair psychic leaks all night, and then navigate the ups and downs of being the black sheep of Marchland High School for the Gifted every day, (not to mention protecting Malcolm, who is openly gay, and their other best friend Ashley, who is too nice, from bullies), when a strange new creature shows up in the world of Dream, wreaking havoc and possibly even attempting to tear open the barrier between the two worlds. Now, Eri has to figure out how to stop it/him, how to save the world, and most importantly, whether or not the world is worth saving. 

The wonderful author of this novel, Jocelyn Nora Moore, provided me with a ecopy of her book in exchange for a honest review. 

The Metaphysical life of Eri Lane was a very unique book. I had quite a hard time getting into it and understanding it, but when I did it was awesome!

A book about 2 worlds always interests me, no matter if it's something like Narnia, or something like Wake and Dream. And I have no idea why, but the more fantastic world always interests me more. So that's why I prefered Dream over Wake. Wake was just so full of crazy things and still seemed real. I could easily believe that a world like Dream actually exsists.

The main characters of this book, Eri and Malcolm, both were very fun characters. They were very likeable, and they weren't boring to read about at all. However, I couldn't fully connect myself to either of them, which I really would have loved to be able to.

The plot of the novel was interesting, full of mystery and random things, but there were also some serious things discussed, although that wasn't very obvious. I really like it when a book is discussing more than you realise most of the times. Just like I love to get to know some random things when I'm not in school :)

Moore's writing style is pleasant, but not very special. There was one particular thing about it that fascinated me; there were no chapters. It was just wake-dream-wake-dream-... And I thing that was a good thing, bacause it kept it all very clear and made it easier to understand it. There weren't a lot of difficult words used, and the dialogue was kind of childish talk, which sometimes annoyed me.

Altogether I give this book 3 stars for being an extremely unique and awesome book. I didn't have high expectations of it, so when I liked it I was positively surprised :) And you should read it, too. You can read it for free @ goodreads. Check it out!

Love,
Mar

white cat by Holly Black

book: White Cat

written by: Holly Black

series: Curse Workers #1

genre: young adult, fantasy, Mystery

pages: 310

publication date: January 1st, 2010

publisher: McElderry

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers—people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, all by the slightest touch of their hands. Since curse work is illegal, they’re all criminals. But not Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider—the straight kid in a crooked family—as long as you ignore one small detail: He killed his best friend, Lila. Now he is sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat. He also notices that his brothers are keeping secrets from him. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of one huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find out the truth, Cassel will have to outcon the conmen.

So, I have finished my first Holly Black book. After watching the movie 'The Spiderwick Chronicles' I wanted to read that book(s) but I just couldn't find them anywhere. Some libraries suck, especially the small Dutch ones... Anyways, I did have high expectations of this book -yeah, I know, dangerous- and was not amazed by it. Still, I liked it :)

Holly Black is a master of writing fantasy, since her fantasy becomes realistic. I hardly ever come across a great fantasy book that is also realistic, so a 1+ for that. Also, the writing style of this book was marvellous, I could read it very easily, and I just felt very comfy reading it. -call me crazy, but some writing styles can seriously make me feel uncomfortably-

Blacks characters were great, but hard to relate to. Cassel, the male main character, was special from the inside, but didn't impress me, neither did most of the other characters. Only the cat, I absolutely loved it. Cats are walking around this planet to kill people that are allergic to adorableness... 

anyways, I wasn't impressed at all with the plot. I had expected way more of it. Not that it was bad, but after seeing the movie of the Spiderwick Chronicles -and after hearing that the book was better- I was sure White Cat was going to be freaking amazing. And it was just average amazing, so I was disappointed. Probably my own fault... Whatevs. 

I rushed through this book, and finished it in about 3 hours (that's over 100 pages per hour... is that even legal?) and that's one of this indicators that I didn't find this book extremely interesting. Usually, when I truly like a book, it takes a long time to read it, because I feel like I have to read every word that's written, but with this book I didn't have that feeling.

White Cat is a great fantasy for teens, but don't expect too much from it! I guess it just wasn't my cup of tea...

I give this book 3 stars

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
written by: Laini Taylor
series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1
pagecount: 417
genre: young adult, urban fantasy
publication date: September 27th, 2011
publisher: Little Brown

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.


Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. And it did not end well.

The extremely promising first sentence of this book was absolutely worth the book. Never before had I seen a book that got so much positive attention on blogs before. I just started reading blogs, and the whole blogosphere was buzzing about this book. Everyone read it, everyone loved it. And now I have read it too. And -not so very astonishing - I fell in love with it.


The story, set in the mysterious city of Prague and in 'Elsewhere' hypnotised me. I couldn't put it down until I had finished it. I didn't eat, drink or sleep for a couple of hours, and if breathing wasn't mandate I wouldn't have. It was interesting, beautifully written, a wonderful female protagonist and a very mysterious romance. Also, there were angels and demons, need I say more?


Karou, the main characters, belongs in my list of favorite female protagonists of all time. She has a very annoying ex-boyfriend who is 'stalking' her, but she doesn't care. Ex-boyfriend Kaz 'Jackass' will do anything to win back Karou's love. But he just might go a little bit -or way- too far. Still, Kaz was not a stereotype stalker ex-boyfriend. He was acting very humorous all the time, and was acting like a friend and jackass at the same time. All the time. And that's what makes him crazy Kaz, someone I would love to meet someday, no matter if in real life or a dream. And then there was Akiva, the wonderful angel. -Akiva, will you please marry me?- I absolutely fell in love with him and his way of thinking and acting. Still, I had a hard time figuring out him. Is he the good one or the bad one? To me, he was neither black nor white. He was gray, something in between.


Karou herself is a very complicated character. She is a helper of Brimstone, a demon who collects teeth. She collects the teeth for Brimstone, but has no idea why. For the teeth, Karou gets rewarded with wishes she can use for herself. There are small, not valuable, wishes, but there also are bigger ones, that can give you a long and healthy life, or something else. Once, she had wished for blue hair, and she got it. Never has she dyed it agian. Blue hair is one of the things that totally belongs with Karou's character. Karou is a strong, independent girl, but who is she actually? Karou is about to find out the reality about herself and the world.
The plot of this book is very complicated at the beginning. But then everything starts to unravel, and you figure it all out, sentence by sentence. The closer you come to the ending of the book, the more you understand it. I didn't have a clue about the ending of this book when I was halfway, and that's amazing. I don't like it when a book is very predictable. The setting was perfect for this book, as were the character names. They fit all of them so well!


If you haven't read this book already you totally should read it sometime -very- soon!!


I give this book 5 stars!
xo Mar