Category: Reviews

Movie Review: Fantasia 2000

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews2 Comments

I remember very distinctly being disappointed by Fantasia as a kid.  There was so little story to it!  I had a much vaguer impression that I had liked Fantasia 2000 better, and when I noticed it streaming on Netflix, I decided to investigate.  At worst, I figured I could fast-forward any segments I didn’t like–and happily, I ended up watching everything!

fantasia2000Perhaps I wasn’t the only one who felt Fantasia lacked story, because Fantasia 2000 definitely went in that direction.  Like the first film, the concept is animation set to classical music, except this one is far more plot-driven.  The opening piece is abstract set to Beethoven, but it’s at least very pretty abstract…and then it’s stories all the way through. Continue reading “Movie Review: Fantasia 2000” →

Book Review(s): Homecoming and Dicey’s Song

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Young Adult3 Comments

I’ve rarely seen an author who explores characters’ emotions as well as Cynthia Voigt.  I keep meaning to seek out new books by her, but for now, I’m rereading my way through the Tillerman Cycle.  I’ve reviewed my favorite before, A Solitary Blue (technically #3 but largely stand-alone) and today I’m looking at 1 and 2.

Homecoming begins when Liza Tillerman leaves her children in a mall parking lot, telling the three younger ones to mind Dicey, the oldest at 13.  They wait in their car overnight, but when their mother doesn’t return, Dicey decides they must walk some sixty miles to find an aunt, the only relative they know of.

This is the most plot-focused book in the series, a kind of modern (well, 1980s) quest through New England.  Dicey must be scrappy and resourceful to keep her family safe and fed, picking up loose change or odd jobs, and camping in parks or on beaches.  Voigt brings a great deal of detail and realism to the journey, exploring how each new obstacle can be overcome.  The challenges are real–a few times they run out of money and can’t eat, there’s at least one stranger intending them harm–but this doesn’t become a traumatic story.  It’s about survival and perseverance. Continue reading “Book Review(s): Homecoming and Dicey’s Song” →

Book Review: Brian’s Winter

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, Reviews2 Comments

After I finished Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, I decided to go on to another reread of the sequel, Brian’s Winter, which in some ways reads like the second half of the story—and in other ways is unfortunately not as strong.

Paulsen decided to do something I don’t think I’ve seen another author do—he wrote a sequel based on an alternate ending of his first book! Hatchet ends with Brian’s rescue during the fall, but Paulsen decided to return to the story, imagining that the rescue didn’t occur, and tell the story of how Brian would have survived the winter.

That pretty well captures the plot—Brian learns new survival skills and adapts with the challenges of hunting and staying warm in a snowy Canadian winter. The book is interesting for what it is…but it’s not very much. The trouble, oddly, is that too much character growth happened in the first book. Brian’s adaptation to life in the wilderness is the strength of Hatchet. The sequel opens with that character growth largely complete, and there isn’t much more growth for Brian to do in this book. Continue reading “Book Review: Brian’s Winter” →

Stitching Snow by R. C. Lewis

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction1 Comment

I ran across Stitching Snow by R. C. Lewis when it was suggested at one my book club meetings (and described as “Snow White meets Star Wars”–which means I’m having a Snow White-themed week on the blog…)  This book wasn’t picked for our monthly read, but I decided to read it anyway.  Because: fairy tale retelling!  It wasn’t quite Star Wars…but it might be “Snow White meets Mockingjay,” in a good way.

Sixteen-year-old Essie has been fending for herself since she was nine years old, living in a mining colony where her closest “friends” are seven drones (droids) she built herself.  She trusts no one, spending her time fiddling with tech and earning extra money fighting cage matches at the bar (really!)  Everything changes when a small ship crashes nearby, and Essie pulls Dane out of the wreckage.  He tells her he’s on a treasure hunt–but the treasure turns out to be the missing Princess Snow, heir to the throne of the most powerful planet in the system.  Essie, of course, is really Snow, and soon she’s unwillingly drawn into interplanetary politics and conflicts.  But she has a choice–to be a pawn or to be a leader, to run away again from her father and stepmother, or to embrace the courage and compassion her mother tried to teach her. Continue reading “Stitching Snow by R. C. Lewis” →

Book Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction3 Comments

I really, really, really want to read Winter, the final book in Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles Quartet.  But it won’t be out until November.  So in the meantime, it was some consolation to read the prequel, Fairest, providing the backstory of the terrifying Lunar Queen, Levana (and, incidentally, Winter’s stepmother).

I’ve reviewed the first three books in this series (Cinder, Scarlet and Cress).  It’s a sci fi series, where a Lunar kingdom is hostile towards Earth, and fairy tales are played out in clever ways with cyborgs and satellites.  This one…is the story of Snow White’s stepmother.

Fifteen years old when the book opens, Levana is the unwanted, disregarded younger princess, always in the shadow of her cruel and shallow sister Channary. Levana dreams of attaining renown, respect…and the eye of Evret, a handsome palace guard.  But Evret is devoted to his beautiful wife, and they’re expecting a child.  This doesn’t interfere with Levana’s belief that they’re fated to be together, and she’ll use all her royal power and her ability to manipulate minds and emotions to seize what she wants–beauty, Evret, and the throne too. Continue reading “Book Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer” →