The Yearling (book review)

The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, is the story of a young boy, Jody Baxter, who lives in the backwoods of Florida and must fight off panthers, bears, and wolves as he and his family struggle to make a living. The Baxters' nearest neighbors live four miles away, and they have a son nicknamed Fodder-wing. Fodder-wing harbors an intense love for all things wild, and he owns a baby raccoon, a squirrel, a possum, a bird, and a bear cub (among other things). Jody desperately yearns for a pet of his own, but his mother absolutely will not allow it. So, one lonely night, when Jody stumbles upon a young, orphaned fawn belonging to the doe his father shot, he decides to take it in. Although his mother protests at first, it is his father Penny who casts the deciding vote--to let Jody keep the fawn.

Their relationship grows into one of love and companionship. Jody cannot bear to be away from the fawn for long, and it is unhappy when parted with him. But as the fawn, dubbed Flag, slowly grows from baby to yearling, the trouble begins. Flag has a steadily growing appetite, and the Baxter crops fall prey to the ravenous deer. Jody tries everything under his power to keep Flag away from his family's food supply, but deep inside himself he knows that eventually he will have to part with Flag.

This book was okay. At the beginning I thought it was great, then in the middle it lost its flavor and I just wanted to be over with it, then at the end it perked up again. I loved the last sentence of the book, when Jody was reflecting on how in this one year he had grown from a boy to a man, and how the loss of his fawn had affected that change, "Somewhere beyond the sink-hole, past the magnolia, under the live oaks, a boy and a yearling ran side by side, and were gone forever."

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

This book was an alternate for the Chunkster Challenge (hooray, I finished another challenge!) and I used it for the Book Awards II.

The Sweet Far Thing (book review)

The Sweet, Far Thing is the third installment in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray. The book takes place in 1895, at Spence Academy for Young Ladies in England. Schoolgirl Gemma, and her friends, the spunky Felicity and the somewhat timid Ann, are struggling to return to the enchanted world they now know as the Realms. But when they finally manage to return, the girls find that things are not the same. The mythical creatures of the forest want their share of Gemma's magic--and they'll stop at nothing to get it. And the girls' friend Pippa, lost to the Realms forever, is not the same Pip that they know and love. She is becoming more and more like the evil creatures of the Winterlands each day.

Outside of the Realms, the girls are facing problems as well. Gemma's love, Kartik, plans to run away...without her. Ann's dream of being an actress is slowly slipping away, and Felicity may not receive her inheritance at all. Together, and with the help of some unlikely allies, can the girls save the Realms...and their futures?

This book was just as good as the first two, maybe even better. It was a perfect mix of humor, sadness, action, mystery, and magic. The characters were complex and realistic, and there was an eclectic mix of them. I was very sad when this book came to an end.

This book is a substitute for the Chunkster Challenge.

The Historian (book review)

This book was for the RIP III Challenge and the Chunkster Challenge.

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, is actually three stories intertwining to form a complex and fascinating novel. The first story is told from the point of view of a sixteen-year-old girl who is brought up by her father, a historian, and how, when he suddenly disappears, she sets out on a quest to find him...and find out more about the mysterious man/vampire called Vlad Dracula.

The second story is the tale of the girl's father, Paul. Orally and through letters, he tells her how, one night, he received a strange blank book with a woodcut of a dragon holding a flag with one word...Drakulya. He soon discovered that the word meant dragon, and how this related to Vlad the Impaler, the true Dracula, who had belonged to an elite organization called the Order of the Dragon, from his companion Professor Rossi. When Rossi disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Paul had evidence that led him to believe that he had actually been kidnapped by Vlad Dracula himself. Being a vampire, Dracula was still alive...and he had Rossi in his grasp. Paul was determined to get Rossi back, even if it meant facing Dracula himself. Joining him on his quest was a young Hungarian anthropologist named Helen. Together they trailed Dracula to Istanbul, Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Eventually they found Rossi, who had his own story to tell.

Rossi's story was one of love and pain. He had fallen in love with a young Hungarian girl, but had found himself separated from her during his own quest to find Dracula. Eventually Rossi had settled down, but he had never forgotten the elusive vampire, and then he found himself stolen away to Dracula's secret crypt...

Now, on one moonlit night, all the stories come together in the climax. Dracula will come face to face with those who have tried so hard to stop him. Who will triumph in the end?

There is SO MUCH MORE involved in the story than this, but I don't want to give away too much!

This book was phenomenal. It was packed full of horror, ancient lore, culture, romance...anything you'd want in a classic vampire story! Any fans of Gothic literature CAN'T miss this book!

I give this book a 5 out of 5. It was great!!!

Twilight (book review)

This book was also for the Chunkster Challenge.

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, is the story of seventeen-year-old Isabella Swan (more commonly known as Bella). She's currently living with her dad, Charlie, in a small and dreary town known as Forks. Bella is nervous about going to the high school in Forks, as she wasn't really accepted at her old school. But here she finds a ton of friends and is welcomed into the popular circle almost immediately.

However, Bella is drawn to a young boy named Edward Cullen. He and his siblings are outsiders at the school, and they are constantly given disapproving looks by their peers. But Bella ignores what everyone else thinks of them and befriends Edward. Soon she discovers a dark secret from his past--he's a vampire, and so are all of his "siblings" and "parents". Edward tells her that he and his family don't drink human blood, but when a different vampire catches Bella's scent, her very life is put at stake.

Like so many other people, I loved this book and its cliffhanger ending. I really want to know what happens next, so I'm going to buy the sequel as soon as I can! I really loved the combination of modern love story and traditional vampire story that made this book so unique!

Two more challenges

First, there's The Chunkster Challenge--2008 is being hosted by Dana. Here's my list for this challenge:

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

The Sweet, Far Thing by Gemma Doyle

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

And then, there's the Reading Full Circle Challenge, which Joy is hosting. And here's my list for that one:

The Whispering Land by Gerald Durrell

The Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper

Castles: Old Stone Poems by Lewis J. Patrick

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene