Title and Setting of The City Of Ashes

I have started reading the book The City of Ashes and really enjoy it. This is the second book in the series, where The City of Bones is the first book. It’s about a girl named Clary who finds herself in the middle of a secret war going on right under the human’s noses. A group called the Clave, led by Shadowhunters is fighting against demons that Valentine, a former Shadowhunter released onto the earth.

         The title of the book has a dark meaning. Ashes are the leftover powder of something that burned. In the book, character emotions burned but later soothed. In the history of the Clave, some pretty bad things happened, and to hide the evidence, the people burned it. Every time you burn something, there is always something left, ash. There is always some evidence left and that can affect lots of people. Ash could be easily blown away, in that case secrets. In the first book Clary learns that terrible secret but now, secrets are forgotten, blown away, taken over by new ones.  

         The setting takes place in New York City. It is dull but mysterious. No Daniel! New York City isn’t dull! I’m not talking about the human world; I mean the secret world of the Shadowhunters. Their life is only about protecting the world from demons. That might be fun for the first few years, but then the dark times come; when secrets are revealed, betrayals happen, and the people you love are taken away.  The setting is dull because of the background, regular brick houses or old churches. It is also mysterious by the places hidden in those dull houses or churches. For example, a church could be a safe house or a refuge for a Shadowhunter while a brick house could be a quick-stop by armory. You don’t know what it is. Is it just a regular house, or a special Shadowhunter place? The setting is perfect for this book. It is like the ash. Ash is dull, a gray/black powder, yet mysterious. How did this piece of wood become ash?

         Right after you read the book, you feel a different way.   You may feel darkness coming over you. You may feel depressed about the horrible things that happened in this book. You could see people watching you as if you are not human. You might think: is that a church or an armory? Was that a Shadowhunter I just walked by? At the end, you somehow just realize that all of this is just a story.       

Samiha Sayef's blog review: Dreamland

                   I have just read Samiha's  post  about Dreamland (http://samihasdarkrose.blogspot.com/2011/12/dreamland-by-sarah-dessen.html) and I like it. I have also noticed that a few people posted on her wall saying that they want to read the book she is talking about. Right in the beginning, she recommends the book to teenagers who are maturing (ages between 15-18.) I think, I have never recommended a book on my posts before and now, I believe, I should do it. Samiha has a specific style in her postings that I haven’t seen in many people’s blogs. She writes a paragraph about what happens in the book and then another paragraph about her thoughts and opinions. I like how she expresses her feelings: shortly but strongly. When she learns that Rogerson caused Caitlin addiction to smoking and drugs, she immediately felt sad and started to worry for Caitlin. When she talks about abusing her, you can feel that Samiha gets even angry. Then Samiha returns to  the last brutal beating Caitlin received and how Rogerson was arrested. She is surprised that Caitlin tried to help Rogerson and was begging the police to not take him away. At the end, Samiha gives her opinion about Caitlyn and the book overall. She feels shocked and mad, just like me when I read that part. Her strong feelings about that raise my interest about the book. Although from the story I am guessing that this book is more for girls than for boys, I think I would like to read this book. I really enjoyed reading this post and I think I have learned something new as well. Definitely in my posts I should evaluate the entire book I am talking about, recommend for other readers and share my opinion for discussion.

Scorpia

I am currently reading a book Scorpia by Anthony Horowitz. The plot shows a typical protagonist – antagonist conflict, which leads to a change of the main, positive character, Alex Rider, into bad. His father is killed by an assassin and now he wants to kill his father's murderer.  To do this, he joins a worldwide terrorist group Scorpia. Ms. Rothman, who is the head of the Scorpia organization, told Alex false information about his father’s killer. That information changes him dramatically. From an innocent, smart and the non-violent boy he was, he became an angry enemy, who wants bloody revenge on the person who killed his father. The thing is that Alex never met and basically didn't know his father. It surprises me how a boy like him could change so quickly by one piece of false information. How deep are the feelings of the revenge or there is something else behind. Looking for his father’s killer, I think he wants to learn more about his father. To make sure Scorpia could trust him he behaves like he doesn't care who his father was but only about his vendetta.  At first you do not know the truth. Personal grief blinds and makes people obsessed with their mission. Is Alex going to become a gruesome terrorist? Although it is possible, I think he is just trying to find more about his father. Finding who he was may help Alex to find who he wants to be. The conflict between Alex and Scorpia, or between Alex and Ms. Rothman is at the end a conflict between justice and injustice, between good and evil. That conflict has to be resolved first in Alex’s heart. Finding revenge should not be done against the law. Braking law, even in a “good case” is a crime. I hope Alex will stay on the right side.   

The Other Boleyn Girl: Betrayal

History fiction is an interesting genre. You know the basic facts, but do not real people's feelings. A talented author goes much deeper than historians and tries to tell the story from another point of view. A human point. "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Philippa Gregory is filled with human emotions, expectations and feelings. These real, human feelings are just as simple as yours and mine, but they changed the history.  
Anne, Mary's sister has just betrayed her. She is trying to seduce the King into marrying her. You can imagine what Mary's feelings are. She is angered just the same as Anne was at the beginning. Her parents on the other hand are happy since their first plan was to make Anne the Queen. Mary does not give up so easily and she is trying to seduce the King as well, still hoping to become the Queen. In this book, there is not even one chapter that doesn't introduce you to a new conflict. For example, one chapter is about the rivalry between Mary and Anne, another chapter is about an unknown person, who poisoned the Cardinal. Later in the book we learned that Henry, the King, desperately needed a heir for the throne. Everyone is looking to fulfill his or her selfish needs. Just as today.
There are no easy answers at the time. People's emotions are running high again and become the reasons for their actions. The people hate Anne because she kicked out the Queen Katherine from her throne. Mary is angry at Anne and hopeful that the King will spot her again. The Boleyn family is both happy by Anne's progress but angry at Mary for just forgetting about the Boleyn family promise. What a exciting story! I love the history fiction. 

The Other Boleyn Girl

I am currently reading The Other Boleyn Girl. Although some might say it's more of a girl book, I think it is a very interesting and intriguing book. It is about two sisters who are going against each other to become the queen of England during Henry the VIII. Dazzled, the narrator and the main character Mary falls in love with him but realizes her family's scheme to make her sister Anne queen. She then goes against her family for love and take fate into her own hands. I remember them making a movie about the book but I didn't see it. I really want to though.
Emotions are running high when Mary fights against Anne to be the queen and love Henry. Mary is very scared of what will happen. She knows that her parents might exile her because she defied them. She knows the king might choose Anne instead of her but she will fight on. Anne along with the family is very disappointed and angered by Mary's betrayal. Mary's father wants to exile Mary and take her Boleyn fame but Anne wants to give her a chance. First Anne was angered but she saw the King also loved Mary as well so she played with Mary, also against her parents. Now, she is devising a plan to get rid of Queen Katherine, the Kings wife so either she or Mary could marry the king. That is just plain evil there. Wealth could lead to horrible things.  

Finished Son Of Neptune

I have finally finished The Son of Neptune. I was slightly disappointed at the end when all the characters from the whole Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus series didn't meet together. Percy just puts his arms around Hazel and Frank and says: here are my friends, from Camp Half-Blood. I think the book had more dialogue than action which is fine by me, but some of the dialogue was pointless. Many of the characters lost their family and most of the time a kid went: "how's your family? My family is rich and well."
The other kid who lost their parents is like: "Oh, my mom and dad died when i was little."
Then he replies: "Oh I'm sorry."
And they don't talk anymore. They feel like they shouldn't be friends because he doesn't have parents. I think thats one of the reasons Hazel and Frank don't have many friends, because they both lost their families. I think when they came back from the quest successful, everyone wanted to be their friends.
Another thing is that the ending. In every Percy Jackson book i've read, the demigods always prevail and coplete the quest. I want a story when the heroes fail and the next book will be about how they resolve that failure. I hope that happens in the next book in the series: Mark of Athena.   

The son of Neptune: Character emotions

I am currently reading The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan. In the book, we are introduced to two new main characters, a girl named Hazel and a boy named Frank. Hazel is a daughter of Hades which is the greek god of the underworld. She is a very troubled girl. When she was a small girl, nobody liked her. Her classmates thought her mother and herself were bewitched and jinxed. She was depressed then. She was very sad. She was only happy when she was with her only friend, a friend that she could relate to, a friend she could talk to normally, and a friend she wasn't afraid of. All of that changed when her mother moved. She lost her only friend and now had to live on her own. Her only joy was her horse. She could relate to them. Even if they were wild, she could touch them and ride the. She felt connected to them. Now, she's at a camp called Camp Jupiter because of her mother's passing. Her cabin mates also think she's weird and crazy but she knows she has a new good friend. Frank.
Frank was always weird in both the inside and out. He looked like a 5 year old who took steroids. Kids were afraid of his strength but made fun of him when they learned he was a wimp. He had many family matters. His mom was very warlike and aggressive(guess who his father is) so she went to fight in Afghanistan were she died. When his mom died, his grandma told him a lot of secrets. Frank was horrified when he learned these things. He learned his life depended on one thing, that his grandma had kept safe for years. But when he learned these things, he ran away, all the way to Camp Jupiter where he was accepted as a demigod. Now two friends live depressed and only have each other to comfort.