From One Book Lover

Full confession: I was intrigued by V.E. Schwab's novel  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue  — both because of  its premise and because of the rave reviews by other readers. When a fellow reader said they sobbed loudly at the neighborhood Starbucks as they finished the novel, and another said they wished they could read it again for the first time, I thought it was right up my alley. I saved The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue to read on vacation, so I could savor the experience (and sob into my coffee, if needed).  Alas, there was no sobbing — just a bit of head-scratching.  Warning: spoilers ahead. Feel free to bookmark this review for future reading, if you want to finish the book first. Okay.... If you're still here.... Let's get to it. First of all: the relationship between Addie and Luc confused me. Luc was the enemy. A sexy enemy, sure, but an enemy nonetheless. He wanted to see Adeline break, but... his actions toward her signaled more than a dark god's fa...

Ender's Game is no Bridge to Terabithia — but it's darn close. And no, that's not a compliment. Unlike Bridge , I did not wish to throw Ender's Game across the room. Instead, I wrapped my arms around myself and let the tears come. Had I read this as a child, I probably would have grown up jaded and mistrustful of all adults. However, as an adult, I thought the observances by both adults and children were cruel but brilliant. Ender is the third child living in a future dystopia in which Earth was on guard for attacks by an extraterrestrial species that were similar to insects, or "bugs." Andrew is the youngest child in a family of particularly brilliant children who were nurtured (or bred) to cultivate  the "stuff" to become brilliant bug-fighters. The eldest was too cruel, the second was too empathetic. The third, however, was perfect — and herein lies the story. Ender is the perfect child and almost the perfect fighter. All he needs i...

One can identify the intended audience for a movie or book by the gas jokes: hamster gas jokes are written for children, and a "dart" gun that emits a noxious gas (but never uses the rhyming word) was intended for a general audience. Cosmic follows the same logic.  Rather than play to the lowest common denominator, Frank Cottrell Boyce takes the game up a notch with a boy on the cusp of adulthood who tries to understand the baffling world of dads. Liam is tall for his age and has started to sprout wisps on his chin, so he often is mistaken for an adult.  Worse yet, he can pass as the father of his contemporary, Florida.  This is a nice problem for a 12-year-old to have when he wants to ride the Cosmic rollercoaster or sit in a Porche — but not as good when the car salesman tosses the conscientious pre-teen a set of keys to said luxury car.  Liam doesn't quite understand how the adult world works, but so far it has proven to work to his advantage from time t...