Life After Breaking Dawn?

So I overreacted. Big deal. I saw the quote and immediately jumped to conclusions. However, I was wrong. I admit it. I never guessed, never came close to what was taking up all those 768 pages.

Well, to be fair, neither did anyone else.

All said and done, I think I was fairly okay with Breaking Dawn. It certainly wasn't the adrenaline-kicking climatix that I'd been waiting for, but neither did I toss it out the window in disgust. Yes, I didn't like how the story was moved along, how the plotline seemed to encorporate too many aspects for it too handle. I didn't like how some things were tied up, and I'd rather if some of those strings were cut. And I regretted that Stephenie Meyer didn't have the bloodthirsty authoring skills of J.K. Rowling, killing off characters and fandoms one by one. Such a pity.

However, I've already ranted about this both at school and online, so moving on.

My next challenge- for want of a better word- is finding more books to satisfy my thirst after all my pent-up hype for Breaking Dawn has been released. I've realised that I've been slightly straying away from the stories of family clashes, teenage romance and high-school blues (but don't get me wrong- I love the teenage angst) and into the realms of fantasy.

A list of books soon to be read- please comment if you find any good reads worth investigating :)

Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld
Currently reading the first in the series in Home-Ec lessons while I pretend that I have nothing to do. As a result, my shorts that I am making resemble nothing like the finished product, and I have several scars on my fingers when I tried to read while unpinning my material. Not a good idea.

The Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld
I read the first book in this series as one of many to settle my pre-bookrelease hype, and amazingly, this one I stuck with right until the very end. A wonderful, original plot- hopefully will be reading the next two in the series after the library has ordered them...

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Another one by Scott Westerfeld... I've got a lot of variety here, don't I? A strong relation to the Twilight series here- this one is about vampires- the not-oh-so traditional ones. I've read a few chapters of this, having coveted the book from an over-protective blue-haired girl, and so far, I like what I see. Watch this space.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
One I've heard much about while dealing with the Twilight world, but never really quite got around to reading. So far on the bottom of a huge waiting list...

Night Road by A.M. Jenkins
Haven't heard too much about this one- recommended by our school librarian on our book club website recently. Will be interesting investigating.

Hopefully that list will keep me going for a while. Until I get my hand on them, I'm rereading Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce- a great author for any of you in the epic fantasy genre.

Finally, because I simply can't be torn away from saying something else about Twilight, here's the full ballet scene from the upcoming movie, filmed at Comic Con:




And the design we used on our t-shirts!!!

Breaking Down for Breaking Dawn

As anyone in the literary world not living under a rock ought to know, Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final novel in Stephenie Meyer's internationally acclaimed series will be released in August within the space of a few days.

If you do not know this already, please hit yourself over with a stick, then calmly proceed to speed through this series. This is serious stuff, people.

Unfortunately Breaking Dawn is released on a Monday for me, and for the last few weeks I have been methodolically planning ways how to escape the school grounds and purchase a copy from the local bookstore (see Grace in my English class for more information- our plans were actually quite good. Plenty of wasted English time was spent wisely on this endeavour. No wonder I haven't started my review yet.)

Fortunately, due to the brilliant influence of one school librarian, and a couple of persuasive students, a bunch of thirteen girls all wearing t-shirts emblazoned with "Bite Me" will be able to be glimpsed in a bookshop at approximately 1 o'clock, possibly screaming with delight/ hyperventilating/ going crazy/ or all of the above.

The sweetest thing? We skip school, and we get extra marks for English for it. :)

I have, I admit, already gone past the point of excitement a few weeks ago. I go on to both Stephenie Meyer's website and Twilight Lexicon several times a day. I trawl through cyberspace in the doomed search of finding good fanfiction to read. My art book is filled with rough sketches of a certain golden-eyed guy. Really, I haven't been like this since the countdown to Deathly Hallows. I wrote a four page essay in the upcoming weeks on contents of JK Rowling's book- concerning paragraphs including "What On Earth Are Deathly Hallows," "People Most Likely To Be Killed Off," (although Hedwig and Dobby never crossed my mind) "Horcruxes- What and Where the Hell Are They?" (I got most of those right too.)

The major problem with Breaking Dawn is that there's still no set problem- no dilemma that will determine the overall plot. If all goes to plan, Bella will be married. Then changed into a vampire. Wonderful stuff- but certainly not enough to fill 768 pages. There's definately a trivial point that we, the readers, are missing. Who knows? Maybe Jacob and his werewolfy friend will crash the wedding a la Death Eater style. Maybe Bella will turn into Edward's lunch. Maybe even a half-vampire chicken Edward changed many years ago will come seeking revenge...

It's all purely hypothetical, all up in the air right now. Who knows what could happen?

Back to the Institution

It's a very bittersweet feeling, coming back to school after the holidays. Mostly you're just bored out of mind and brainwashed from far too many hours of staying inside, tapping away at a keyboard- you feel like you've been underwater for far too long.

So you're back at school, you catch up with your friends, hear the latest gossip, and then BAM! Back to the real world. You have assignments, projects, even that test on Friday that you forgot to study for. You can hardly carry your textbook-filled bag, and squeeze it into that tiny locker still invaded by rubbish and smells of that sandwich that the person two lockers over forgot eat for lunch in Term 1.

However, I'm not too far behind on the reading scheme. I managed with great effort to drag myself to the closest local library and borrowed the next two in the Demonata series by Darren Shaw, the first novel in James Patterson's popular Maximum Ride series as well as a battered copy of Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights is still sitting on my untidy desk, lost beneath mountains of schoolwork and half-attempted drawings, still unread. I tried, I must admit. I was able to complete the first page. Then I gave in to temptation and just flipped through the pages to find Bella and Edward's quote from Eclipse. Yes, I am sad. I realized this many, many years ago.

Maximum Ride is a different story altogether. It was recommended to me by another member of my book club (go to http://www.koobians.blogspot.com/ to find most of her insane ramblings) and the copy at the school library was stolen from under my very nose. I absolutely loved the first book, and when in town the next day, I brought the other three books in the series, believing them to be just as brilliant, if not better.

Wrong.

Five hours and forty-five dollars later, I had read through all the books and had come to the conclusion that James Patterson was a very indecisive author. He also never explains anything properly- his books grasp more on the action and the avalanche of the series, instead of fleshing out a logical and believable plot in the first place. Not exactly the best qualities that you want in an author.

I also read Chocolat in the holidays, as promised, and found it a very good and engaging read- and also a job very well done by the screenplay writers adapting it to the big screen. Another good book was the Book Thief a bestseller historical fiction on Nazi Germany that my sister bought as a part of her English homework- she misplaced it for a couple of hours.

Back to school, and I have read Blood and Chocolate after finally grasping it from the clutches of my fellow book lovers. It reads very much like Twilight- the same scenario, but with werewolves instead of vampires, and more alcohol and swearing. Nice read though.

Most importantly, in the light of upcoming release of Breaking Dawn, we have found an alternative to skipping school on Monday. We have arranged- and I kid you not- an excursion to the local bookstore exculsively for the population of the Year 9 Twilighters Fan Club. We're even making t-shirts for the occasion. We even miss out of ten minutes of class in order to catch the bus. I swear, on Monday 4th of August, around lunchtime, I will be in heaven.