Poison Study by Maria V. Synder
Category Archives: Young Adults
Page to Screen: Iron Man 3 (2013)
Iron Man 3
based on characters by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby
As much as I enjoyed Iron Man and Iron Man 2, I don’t really think of myself as an Iron Man fan. In the Marvel universe, I usually gravitate to Thor and X-Men. (How excited am I about the new all-lady team? SO EXCITED.) So I didn’t make plans to go see Iron Man 3 at midnight, as I usually do for big franchise films—I like not being the only one in the audience gasping, clapping, and cackling. Plus, it was during my last round of undergraduate finals. And yet, when the reviews started piling up, I tuned them out, in an subconscious attempt to remain unspoiled. Deep down, I wanted to see it. When an opportunity to see it on opening day came up, I took it.
Review: Vessel
Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst
I’d never heard of Sarah Beth Durst before Michael Ann Dobbs reviewed her latest novel, Vessel, for io9. While I do end up reading a lot of young adult fiction, I don’t especially pay attention to that market, electing instead to float around speculative fiction spaces and fellow omnivorous book bloggers online, so something like Drink Slay Love was way off my radar. But Dobbs’ review made me immediately add it to the spreadsheet—not so much because of glowing praise, but because of that premise. Somewhere in time, child Clare is throwing a tantrum and claiming that Durst stole her idea (from an awful fantasy manuscript squirreled away on a long-dead computer? Shut up, child Clare). I, as an adult and actual person, merely appreciate what Durst did with a concept I’ve always found intriguing.
Review: Daredevil — Volume 1
Daredevil: Volume 1 by Mark Waid, Paolo Manuel Rivera, and Marcos Martin
I was about twelve when I was exposed to the film version of Daredevil. It came out in 2003, so I must have been about thirteen. We watched it because my dad has the kind of open mind when it comes to films that a director wishes ey could buy. It didn’t make too much of an impression, beyond cementing my brother’s resemblance to Ben Affleck for the family, and that’s been my major impression of Daredevil ever since. Given my previous antipathy towards Marvel, I saw no need to correct it, but something moved me to pick up this while picking over the graphic novels at the library. I’m quite glad I did.
The Literary Horizon: Fire Bringer
Reading by Ear: The Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Unlike almost all of my childhood reading, I read The Lord of the Flies around the same age it’s commonly assigned to American schoolchildren. But I don’t ever recall reading it for school—I came across a copy that may have belonged to my brother among my parents’ haphazard library and picked it up. I don’t know how much I absorbed, without a guiding hand, but I do know that I’ve, more or less, always said “she’s got the conch!” whenever I encounter people who interrupt. I’m starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel for audiobooks of books I read before I started the book blog, so The Lord of the Flies presented itself in pretty short order after my last listen.
Review: Team Human
Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan
I remember hearing about Team Human when it came out last year on Tor.com and on io9, but it wasn’t until I saw it reviewed by Becky over at Active Voice. At first blush, it had seemed a little too on-the-nose parody of Twilight, and the cover… well, the cover sort of screams every cover design trope for young adult fiction, so it sort of hit a weird uncanny valley for me. But Becky said that it “managed to poke fun at the vampire craze (particularly Twilight) without being nasty or dismissive of the young women who love it.” That’s something that’s pretty important to me—as we’ve discussed in the past—so it finally made the leap to the reading list.
The Literary Horizon: The Twilight Gods
Review: Gollum — How We Made Movie Magic
Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic by Andy Serkis
In 2003, my friend Natalya used to come from school and read Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic every afternoon. Or so she told me when she heartily recommended this me. From 2001 to 2004, there were plenty of film tie-in books to sate budding Ringers like ourselves, ranging from simple visual companions to gorgeous art books, such as The Art of the Lord of the Rings. (Side note: Ngila Dickson should totally write an autobiography. I’d read the living daylights out of that.) With my mixed feelings towards The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I couldn’t help picking this up when I saw it at a used bookstore to revisit Middle-Earth Mark I.
Review: All-Star Superman — Volume 1
All-Star Superman: Volume 1 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely with Jamie Grant
I am beyond unexcited for Man of Steel. I’m very particular about my Clark Kent, and what’s amazing about Clark Kent is not that he is a superpowered alien from another planet, but that he is a good man, through and through. (In fact, there’s an interesting article to be written on nature versus nurture in the cases of Superman and Captain America.) So when focus is pulled from that, I just start frowning. (Using very emotional music from The Fellowship of the Ring in a trailer did nothing for it to me.) But when All-Star Superman was recommended to me, I decided to give it a shot.
